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55-649: USS Comfort (AH-3) was a hospital ship for the United States Navy in World War I. She was the sister ship of USS  Mercy  (AH-4) but the two ships were not of a ship class. Comfort was known as SS Havana in passenger service for the Ward Line , and as USAT Havana in United States Army service before her Navy service. Her name was restored to Havana in 1927, and she

110-728: A United States Army transport under the name USAT Tenadores . Tenadores was built in 1913 by Workman, Clark and Co. of Belfast , Northern Ireland for the United Fruit Company . After being turned over to the U.S. Army on 24 May 1917, the steamer served as Army transport USAT Tenadores . She was hurriedly outfitted for trooping duties, and at daybreak on 14 June, Tenadores — with fellow Army transport ships Saratoga , Havana , and Pastores , accompanied by cruisers Seattle , DeKalb , destroyers Wilkes , Terry , Roe , and converted yacht Corsair — set out from Ambrose Light for Brest , France , in

165-566: A bareboat charter by the United States Maritime Commission , Agwileon carried civilian technicians and advisors to Sierra Leone for the U.S. Army. In November 1942, the ship was taken over by the Army as USAT Agwileon and converted to a troopship, making one trip in that capacity. In June 1943, the ship was selected for conversion to an Army hospital ship, and was renamed USAHS Shamrock . Operating locally in

220-537: A freighter. In April 1942, the Maritime Commission took control of SS Agwileon under a bareboat charter and used her to transport civilian technicians and advisors to Freetown , Sierra Leone , for the U.S. Army. After having boiler difficulties there, the ship then proceeded back to New York via Cape Town , Brazil , Trinidad , and Cuba. The voyage was completed in October. The following month,

275-409: A heavy fog off the north coast of the Île d'Yeu . During unsuccessful efforts to refloat the ship, some 80 long tons (81 t) of supplies were removed from the stricken vessel and taken to Saint-Nazaire. On 30 December, minesweeper B. H. B. Hubbard rescued the last members of the transport's crew. On 2 January 1919, Hubbard returned to Tenadores for one last attempt to salvage the ship but

330-495: A sheet of canvas. The quality of food was very poor. In the 1690s, the surgeon aboard Siam complained that the meat was in an advanced state of putrefaction , the biscuits were weevil-ridden and bitter, and the bread was so hard that it stripped the skin off patients’ mouths. Hospital ships were also used for the treatment of wounded soldiers fighting on land. An early example of this was during an English operation to evacuate English Tangier in 1683. An account of this evacuation

385-575: A ship named Therapia , and the Roman Navy had a ship named Aesculapius , their names indicating that they may have been hospital ships. The earliest British hospital ship may have been the vessel Goodwill , which accompanied a Royal Navy squadron in the Mediterranean in 1608 and was used to house the sick sent aboard from other ships. However this experiment in medical care was short-lived, with Goodwill assigned to other tasks within

440-410: A speed of 297 knots (550 km/h, 341.8 mph). Work was 90% complete on this model, Spasatel , but Soviet military funding ceased and it was never completed. Some hospital ships, such as SS  Hope and Esperanza del Mar , belong to civilian agencies, and do not belong to a navy. Mercy Ships is an international non-governmental charity (or NGO). Hospital ships were covered under

495-402: A surgeon and four surgeon's mates. The standard issue of medical supplies was bandages, soap, needles and bedpans . Patients were offered a bed or rug to rest upon, and given a clean pair of sheets. These early hospital ships were for the care of the sick rather than the wounded, with patients quartered according to their symptoms and infectious cases quarantined from the general population behind

550-544: A year and her complement of convalescents simply left behind at the nearest port. It was not until the mid-seventeenth century that any Royal Navy vessels were formally designated as hospital ships, and then only two throughout the fleet. These were either hired merchant ships or elderly sixth rates , with the internal bulkheads removed to create more room, and additional ports cut through the deck and hull to increase internal ventilation. In addition to their sailing crew, these seventeenth century hospital ships were staffed by

605-554: The Azores . She sailed from Charleston on 9 June for repairs at Mare Island Navy Yard where she went in ordinary 11 September 1919. At Mare Island, Comfort had her boilers replaced and the electrical system was revamped, which entailed replacing all temporary wiring with permanent wiring and watertight fixtures. The crew quarters of the ship had also become infested with bedbugs from older German-style hospital bedding and remedies and eradication were performed. But Comfort had seen

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660-635: The British Red Cross supplied a steel-hulled ship, equipped with modern surgery equipment including chloroform and other anaesthetics , and carbolic acid for antisepsis . Similar vessels accompanied the 1882 British invasion of Egypt and aided American personnel during the 1898 Spanish–American War . During a smallpox outbreak in London in 1883, the Metropolitan Asylum Board (MAB) chartered and later purchased from

715-727: The Charleston Navy Yard intended for service in the Pacific . The repairs complete in September 1945, the hospital ship sailed for Los Angeles , arriving in October. With no further need for hospital ships by that time, Shamrock was taken out of service. After the possibility of refitting the ship to carry home war brides was rejected, Shamrock was turned over to the War Shipping Administration at San Francisco on 4 February 1946, and placed in

770-746: The Crimean War in the 1850s. The only military hospital available to the British forces fighting on the Crimean Peninsula was at Scutari near the Bosphorus . During the Siege of Sevastopol almost 15,000 wounded troops were transported there from the port at Balaklava by a squadron of converted hospital ships. The first ships to be equipped with genuine medical facilities were the steamships HMS Melbourne and HMS Mauritius , staffed by

825-721: The Hague Convention X of 1907 . Articles of the Hague Convention X specified the provisions for a hospital ship: According to the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea , a hospital ship violating legal restrictions must be duly warned and given a reasonable time limit to comply. If a hospital ship persists in violating restrictions, a belligerent is legally entitled to capture it or take other means to enforce compliance. A non-complying hospital ship may only be fired on under

880-732: The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) at Suisun Bay , California. On 30 December 1947, Shamrock was sold to the Walter W. Johnson Co., and on 4 February 1948 was withdrawn from the NDRF for scrapping. Hospital ship The Second Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits military attacks on hospital ships that meet specified requirements, though belligerent forces have right of inspection and may take patients, but not staff, as prisoners of war . Hospital ships possibly existed in ancient times. The Athenian Navy had

935-515: The Royal Hamadryad Seamen's Hospital . Other redundant warships were used as hospitals for convicts and prisoners of war. The Royal Navy institutionalised the use of hospital ships during the first half of the nineteenth century. Hospital ships were generally superior in their standard of service and sanitation to the medical provision available at the time for convalescent soldiers. The modern hospital ship began to emerge during

990-500: The Soviet hospital ship  Armenia in 1941, and AHS  Centaur in 1943. While any ship can be designated and marked as a hospital ship, many ships are permanently dedicated to that function. It is common for naval ships, especially large ships such as aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships to have on-board hospitals. However, they are only one small part of the vessel's overall capability, and are used primarily for

1045-695: The War Department for U.S. Army use during World War I. After her requisition by the U.S. government, Havana was turned over to the United States Army on 24 May 1917 for service as a transport ship. She was hastily outfitted for trooping duties, and at daybreak on 14 June, USAT Havana , with fellow Army transport ships Saratoga , Tenadores , and Pastores , accompanied by cruisers Seattle , DeKalb , destroyers Wilkes , Terry , Roe , and converted yacht Corsair , set out from Ambrose Light for Brest, France . They were in

1100-728: The Ward Line — as a passenger steamer on the New York to Havana route. In 1909, on the way to the Quarantine Station in New York, Havana rammed the anchored Munson Line freighter Cubana which was hidden from sight behind SS  Kronprinz Wilhelm , also at anchor. Cubana had no damage below the waterline and Havana , laden with inbound New York passengers, suffered only superficial damage. Striking firemen delayed Havana ' s departure in July 1911. The firemen were looking for an additional $ 0.15 per day for meals while

1155-488: The public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships . The entry can be found here . [REDACTED] Media related to Hospital ships at Wikimedia Commons USS Tenadores USS Tenadores was a transport ship for the United States Navy during World War I . Before the war she was known as SS Tenadores in the service of the United Fruit Company . Before her Navy service, she served as

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1210-729: The Admiralty two ships, HMS  Atlas and HMS  Endymion , and a paddle-steamer, PS  Castalia , which were moored in the Thames at Long Reach , near Dartford , and remained in service until 1903. Hospital ships were used by both sides in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.The sighting by the Japanese of the Russian hospital ship Orel , illuminated in accordance with regulations for hospital ships, led to

1265-606: The British Royal Navy had 77 such ships in service. During the Gallipoli Campaign , hospital ships were used to evacuate wounded personnel to Egypt , Malta or England. Canada operated hospital ships in both world wars. In World War I these included SS Letitia (I) and HMHS  Llandovery Castle which was deliberately sunk by a German U-boat with great loss of life, despite the hospital ship's clearly marked status. In World War II, Canada operated

1320-526: The Cuba routes attracted the attention of Cunard Line who added service from New York to Cuba with select cruises of Mauretania in 1928, a full season of cruises on Caronia in 1929, and the addition of Carmania the following season. This perceived threat to American shipping interests was met by the Ward Line by the acquisition of two new ships. The new ships, Oriente and Morro Castle , became

1375-541: The Havana route under her original name of Havana . In January 1935, Havana grounded on a reef north of The Bahamas and remained there for three months. After being refloated and repaired, she was placed back in service as SS Yucatán in June. In 1940 the ship was removed from passenger service to be converted into a freighter. After capsizing in port in 1941, the ship was again refloated and renamed SS Agwileon . Under

1430-662: The Medical Staff Corps and providing services to the British expedition to China in 1860 . The ships provided relatively spacious accommodation for the patients, and were equipped with an operating theatre. Another early hospital ship was USS  Red Rover in the 1860s, which aided the wounded soldiers of both sides during the American Civil War . During the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) ,

1485-606: The Mediterranean area from May to September. After transporting over 6,000 patients during this mission, she returned via Horta , Azores , to Charleston in late September. In October, the hospital ship put in at Jacksonville for major repairs, before embarking on a final Mediterranean tour, arriving back in Charleston in April 1945. With the war in Europe winding down by this time, Shamrock underwent ventilation improvements at

1540-553: The Mediterranean for most of her career, the ship had transported almost 18,000 patients by September 1944. The ship was converted for use in the Pacific Theatre , but not before the war ended. The ship was placed in reserve in February 1946, and was scrapped in February 1948. Havana was launched in 1906 by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia for the New York & Cuba Mail Steam Ship Co. — commonly referred to as

1595-547: The United States and were not equipped or staffed to handle large numbers of direct battle casualties. Three of the Navy hospital ships, USS  Comfort , USS  Hope , and USS  Mercy , were less elaborately equipped than other Navy hospital ships, medically staffed by Army medical personnel and similar in purpose to the Army model. The last British royal yacht , the post World War II HMY  Britannia ,

1650-416: The convoy — scattered by the alarm — reformed the next morning. The group, alerted by reports of submarine activity near Brest diverted to Saint-Nazaire and arrived on 25 June. Tenadores was taken over by the U.S. Navy on 12 April 1918 and commissioned on 17 April 1918. Tenadores served as a troop transport during the remainder of World War I. Shortly after midnight on 28 December, the ship grounded in

1705-515: The creek under quarantine to protect the country from infectious diseases including the plague . From 1821 to 1870, the Seamen's Hospital Society provided HMS Grampus , HMS Dreadnought and HMS Caledonia (later renamed Dreadnought ) as successive hospital ships moored at Deptford in London. In 1866, HMS Hamadryad was moored in Cardiff as a seamen's hospital, replaced in 1905 by

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1760-480: The decisive naval Battle of Tsushima . Orel was retained as a prize of war by the Japanese after the battle. During World War I and World War II, hospital ships were first used on a massive scale. Many passenger liners were converted for use as hospital ships. RMS  Aquitania and HMHS  Britannic were two famous examples of ships serving in this capacity. By the end of the First World War,

1815-433: The end of her Navy service; she was decommissioned 5 August 1921, and was sold at Mare Island 1 April 1925. Author and poet William Nelson Morell, in his book of poems related to Navy service during the war, was inspired to write these lines about Comfort : They never billeted a better crew That sailed out of any port Than that which carried the wounded through The war zone,—on the new "Comfort" The former liner

1870-664: The first Navy hospital ships to have female nurses aboard, with a capacity of seven, including a chief nurse. Both ships were outfitted with state-of-the-art operating rooms, X-ray labs, rest rooms, and could accommodate 500 patients each. After serving from 24 July – 5 October 1918 as a floating hospital at New York, Comfort joined the Cruiser and Transport Force of the Atlantic Fleet to return wounded men from Europe. In three voyages between 21 October 1918 and 13 March 1919, she brought home 1,183 men from France, Britain, and

1925-543: The first group of the first American troop convoy to France during World War I. Corsair was unable to maintain the 15  kn (17 mph; 28 km/h) pace and fell back, being replaced by destroyer Fanning from the second group. At 22:15 on 22 June, some 850  nmi (980 mi; 1,570 km) from its intended destination of Brest, Saratoga ' s group of the convoy was attacked by submarines . Two torpedoes passed near Havana and two torpedoes straddled DeKalb . No submarines were definitively sighted, and

1980-427: The following conditions: In all other circumstances, attacking a hospital ship is a war crime . Modern hospital ships display large Red Crosses or Red Crescents to signify their Geneva Convention protection under the laws of war . Even so, marked vessels have not been completely free from attack. Notable examples of hospital ships deliberately attacked during wartime are HMHS  Llandovery Castle in 1915,

2035-733: The hospital ship RMS  Lady Nelson and SS Letitia (II) . The first purpose-built hospital ship in the U.S. Navy was USS  Relief which was commissioned in 1921. During World War II both the United States Navy and Army operated hospital ships though with different purposes. Naval hospital ships were fully equipped hospitals designed to receive casualties direct from the battlefield and also supplied to provide logistical support to front line medical teams ashore. Army hospital ships were essentially hospital transports intended and equipped to evacuate patients from forward area Army hospitals to rear area hospitals or from those to

2090-493: The lead group of the first American troop convoy to France during World War I. Corsair was unable to maintain the 15 kn (17 mph; 28 km/h) pace and fell back, being replaced by destroyer Fanning from the second group. At 22:15 on 22 June, some 850 nmi (980 mi; 1,570 km) from its intended destination of Brest, Havana' s group of the convoy was attacked by submarines. Two torpedoes passed near Havana and two torpedoes straddled DeKalb . No submarine

2145-482: The passengers were evacuated on the steamers El Oceano and Peten . These two steamers along with United States Coast Guard Cutters Vigilant and Pandora had come to the stricken ship's rescue. The ship had run aground in a well-known shoal area and near a visible marker buoy. The captain, Alfred W. Peterson, was found guilty of an "error in judgement in navigation" by using dead reckoning instead of more precise methods of setting course. The grounding of Havana

2200-538: The prospect of seven days quarantine in Havana before the ship would be allowed to depart. However, a compromise was worked out by the United States Marine Hospital Service which allowed Havana to depart after a one-day delay. In September of the same year, another inspection gaffe resulted in government prosecution of the Ward Line. On 23 May 1917 Havana and sister ship Saratoga , another Ward Line steamer, were requisitioned by

2255-678: The reef for three months before being refloated, repaired, and renamed SS Yucatán . Yucatán remained in passenger service for the Cuba Mail Line until 1940, when she was converted to a freighter. On 29 November 1940, Yucatán sank at her pier in New York. After again being refloated and repaired, the ship was renamed Agwileon and assigned to the Cuba Mail Lines parent organization, the Atlantic, Gulf, & West Indies Steamship Lines (the "AGWI Lines"), and remained in service as

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2310-627: The ship became USAT Agwileon when it was chartered by the Army, and underwent conversion to a troopship at the Atlantic Basin Iron Works in Brooklyn . With the conversion complete, the troopship left in April 1943 for Oran and Gibraltar , returning to New York in June. After this one voyage she was selected for conversion to a hospital ship. Putting in at the Atlantic Basin Iron Works again in June,

2365-511: The ship was in port. A. G. Smith, General Manager of the Ward Line, agreed to that concession, allowing the Havana to get underway after a two-hour delay. Several times in 1912, amidst an outbreak of bubonic plague in the Caribbean, Havana operated in violation of Cuban and U.S. quarantine rules. In July 1912, the liner prepared to depart Cuba without an inspection and fumigation, but faced

2420-693: The ship was renamed USAHS Shamrock in August 1943. With the conversion complete, the new hospital ship left New York in September for Gibraltar and the Mediterranean where she operated locally, calling often at Oran, Palermo , the southern beaches of France, Bizerte , and Naples . By mid-February 1944, Shamrock had transported 11,989 patients before departing Gibraltar for Charleston (via Bermuda ), where she arrived in early March. After undergoing some repairs and alterations at Charleston, Shamrock sailed again for Gibraltar for another tour of duty in

2475-460: The ship's crew and its amphibious forces (and occasionally for relief missions). A warship with hospital facilities does not have the protected status of a hospital ship. A primary example of the varied military-based hospital services available at sea is found aboard several types of US naval ships; More examples from various other national navies include; [REDACTED] German Navy [REDACTED]   This article incorporates text from

2530-409: The top of the line, and Havana was demoted to a third tier ship in terms of luxury and spaciousness, behind Siboney and Orizaba . On 6 January 1935, Havana ran aground on Mantanilla Reef ( 27°22′N 78°41′W  /  27.367°N 78.683°W  / 27.367; -78.683 ) north of The Bahamas . Although one passenger died of " apoplexy " during the evacuation of the ship, all

2585-479: Was constructed in a way as to be convertible to a hospital ship in wartime. After her decommissioning, Peter Hennessy discovered that her actual role would have been as Queen Elizabeth II 's refuge from nuclear weapons , hiding amidst the lochs of western Scotland. A development of the Lun-class ekranoplan was planned for use as a mobile field hospital for rapid deployment to any ocean or coastal location at

2640-737: Was definitively sighted and the convoy, scattered by the alarm, reformed the next morning. The group, alerted by reports of submarine activity near Brest, diverted to Saint-Nazaire and arrived on 25 June. Havana made only the one transatlantic crossing as an Army transport and was transferred to the U.S. Navy on 17 July. The ship was outfitted at the New York Navy Yard by the John N. Robins Co. of Brooklyn, New York ; renamed Comfort on 14 March 1918; and commissioned 18 March 1918 with Medical Inspector C. M. Oman, USN , commanding. Comfort and Mercy (former Ward Line mate, Saratoga ) were

2695-411: Was in the first U.S. convoy of ships to sail for France during World War I. In her Navy career, Comfort made three transatlantic voyages, bringing home over 1,100 men from European ports. Comfort was placed in reserve in September 1919, decommissioned in 1921, and sold in April 1925. The former hospital ship was repurchased by the Ward Line in 1927, who refitted her and placed her back in service on

2750-684: Was ordered to be converted to a hospital ship to hold wounded French and Spanish prisoners of war. According to Edward Hasted in 1798, two large hospital ships (also called lazarettos ), (which were the surviving hulks of forty-four gun ships) were moored in Halstow Creek in Kent . The creek is an inlet from the River Medway and the River Thames . The crew of these vessels watched over ships coming to England, which were forced to stay in

2805-610: Was reacquired by the Ward Line in 1927 and underwent a major refit – removal of one of its stacks and modernization of its interiors – at Todd Shipyard in Seattle , returning to passenger service in the following year. Havana was placed on the New York–Cuba service, where business thrived, in part because of Prohibition in the United States . Ward Line cruises to Havana were one of the quickest and least expensive ways to what one author called "alcohol-enriched vacations". The success of

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2860-478: Was renamed SS Yucatán in 1935, and SS Agwileon in 1941. In World War II, she was known as USAT Agwileon and USAHS Shamrock in service for the United States Army. Launched in 1906, SS Havana was a passenger steamer for the Ward Line on the New York– Havana route from 1907 to 1917. Before being purchased by the Navy, the ship briefly served as United States Army transport ship USAT Havana and

2915-510: Was second of three public relations disasters that befell the Ward Line in a four-month span; the fire and sinking of Morro Castle in September 1934, and the sinking of Mohawk ( chartered to replace the grounded Havana ) on her maiden Ward Line voyage in January 1935, were the other two. After these three incidents, the "Ward Line" name was dropped in favor of the less familiar "Cuba Mail Line" moniker by July 1935. Havana remained on

2970-399: Was slowly increased, with regulations issued in 1703 requiring that each vessel also carry six landsmen to act as surgical assistants, and four washerwomen. A 1705 amendment provided for a further five male nurses , and requisitions from the era suggest the number of sheets per patient was increased from one to two pairs. On 8 December 1798, unfit for service as a warship, HMS  Victory

3025-414: Was written by Samuel Pepys , an eyewitness. One of the main concerns was the evacuation of sick soldiers "and the many families and their effects to be brought off". The hospital ships Unity and Welcome sailed for England on 18 October 1683, with 114 invalid soldiers and 104 women and children, arriving at The Downs on 14 December 1683. The number of medical personnel aboard Royal Navy hospital ships

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