FTV Onloading The T.S.Kennedy

The TS Kennedy is a very large ship, 540 ft to be exact. The 600 cadets and 150 officers and crew all need to eat. 3 times a day for 52 days. This requires large amounts of food and food preparation products.

During the alongside period we will be loading everything from potatoes to flour. The food shows up on pallets which are large wooden shipping tools used to transport goods using a forklift. The pallets are loaded off the truck and on to the pier.

The cadets are all briefed and go over all safety procedures for loading the vessel from the pier and some even have knowledge of crane operation signals. Once on the pier, the cadets under the leadership of the 1st class men work like a colony of ants to load the ship with the food for the voyage. The ship is loaded both fore (the front of the ship) and Aft (the back of the ship). 

  

Fortunately for the cadets there is a winch located on the stern and a crane located on the bow area used for loading the food! 

The food once below deck is stored in one of two places, dry storage or the refrigeration storage. The By the time that all of the food is brought on board, all of these shelves will be filled.

 

From there the food is brought up to the galley daily for preparation of the meals. The Academy's mess hall staff from the dormitories accompany us on the 6 week cruise. The servers, the butcher, the cooks, the managers and even the famous Baker will be working long hours to make sure that the cadets and crew have plenty to eat after a long days work.

Maritime Machines

Countless machines are used in the design, construction and operation of boats. Simple machines are used individually or in combinations to make a boat work: levers aim a cannon, pulleys lift up cargo, and a windlass can haul heavy loads. Traveling by water is so efficient in part because of the many ways sailors use machines to make their work easier.  Click here to learn more

We challenge you to design and build a crane and see how heavy a load it can lift.

Here is an engineering activity where you can construct a function to automate the Pointer/Power Pulley to move a toy truck up a ramp. 

Learn more about the history of using pulleys in this PowerPoint presentation, or watch this video, then try this activity.