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Dave Does It: Mariner Training | Kentucky Life | KET

4,710 views · Published 14 October 2013 · 7:03 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: KET - Kentucky Educational Television · 2013 · Entertainment

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Kentucky Life host Dave Shuffett trains to pilot a barge on the simulators at Paducah's Maritime Education Center.

The center is part of the Seamen's Church Institute, an Episcopal Church mission that was founded in the 1800s to aid seafarers. Some of the most sophisticated computer equipment in the world is used here to train working mariners for inland waterways.

Captains and pilots build on their navigational skills in the pilothouse simulators. Before them is an image of the river on a screen 18 feet tall and 108 feet around. These simulator theaters were the first of their kind built specifically for the inland river industry.

Navigation on inland waterways like the Ohio River is often challenging. River levels can change dramatically, and high water causes strong currents.

Millions of tons of cargo are transported on the nation's rivers. Crounse Corporation, headquartered in Paducah, is one of the largest carriers of coal on the inland river system, with 35 towboats and 1,122 barges. After his training at the Maritime Center, Dave goes aboard a Crounse towboat to see if he can handle the real thing.

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