Hospital ships
Significant floating infirmaries of the past 120 years such as Britannic, Maine, Uganda and Mercy were converted to provide wards and operating theatres for those injured in battle.
Often overlooked in naval histories, hospital ships have played a vital role since the middle of the 19th century while examples can be traced back to much earlier times. Some of the more interesting examples of the 20th century follow - in many cases they were conversions of passenger liners which offered the best mix of accommodation and public spaces.
Britannic
Sistership to the Olympic and ill-fated Titanic, the 48,158 gross ton Britannic incorporated many safety improvements but was not completed by Harland and Wolff in time to operate as a passenger liner for White Star before World War I broke out. Instead, she was converted into a hospital ship and entered service in December 1915 with 3,309 beds and several operating rooms.
During her brief life she carried out several voyages to the Mediterranean and back to the UK with wounded from the Gallipoli campaign. However, on 21 November 1916 while steaming at full speed in the Kea Channel to the south of Athens, and near Cape Sounion, she hit a mine. Various errors, including having all her portholes along the lower decks open to air the wards, caused excessive flooding and she sank within 55 minutes of hitting the mine. Fortunately, virtually all on board survived with just 30 fatalities. Britannic would be the largest ship lost during World War I.
UK Korean war vessel Maine
A vessel with a particular family connection for the author was the 7,525 gross ton Maine which served during the Korean War when my late uncle, who retired years later as a Surgeon Captain, served aboard her as a doctor.
With a much longer life than Britannic, Maine (the 4th UK hospital ship with this name) started out as the Italian passenger liner Leonardo da Vinci, built by Ansaldo San Giorgio in 1925. Captured in 1941, she was converted in 1942 into a 300-bed hospital ship, with the name Empire Clyde. Following wartime service, in 1948 she was renamed Maine under Royal Fleet Auxiliary management.
On 19 September 1949 the Maine sailed for the Far East from Malta GC and Lord Fraser of North Cape, then First Sea Lord, described the vessel as “one of Britain’s most useful contributions to the United Nations effort in the Korean War”. However, in 1954 she was sold for breaking in Hong Kong.
A former Italian liner, the Maine helped save numerous lives during World War II and the Koran War. (Credit: rfanostalgia.org)
Uganda
A typical hospital ship deployment occurred during the Falklands War of 1982 when the liner Uganda became a “ship taken up from trade” to serve in this role. When it was decided to send a task force to the southern Atlantic the need for a hospital ship was a problem. Britannia was ruled out because her fuel needs would have caused logistics problems. The alternative was the 16,907 gross ton Uganda. Built in 1952 by Barclay Curle & Co, Glasgow as a passenger ship for the British-India SN Co, she had been converted to an educational cruise ship in 1968. In 1982 she was in the middle of a Mediterranean cruise when war broke out. Discharging her school children in Naples and after a three-day refit sailed for the Falklands where she provided vital medical support to the task force afloat and ashore. While there, the survey vessels HMS Hecla, Hydra and Herald were converted to ambulance ships to work with her.
A recent example
United States Naval Ship (USNS) Mercy is a state-of-the-art hospital ship. Built in 1976 as the San Clemente-class oil tanker Worth by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Co, San Diego, California, she was converted in 1985 to a 1,000-bed hospital ship by the same company. A second San Clemente-class oil tanker was converted into the hospital ship Comfort at the same time. The conversions included installing a helicopter-landing deck with a flight-control facility, and each cost $208 million and took around 35 months to complete.
Unusually, for a hospital ship, the Mercy was a converted tanker. (Credit: Military.com)
Mercy’s primary mission is to provide medical and surgical services to support Marine Corps Air/Ground Task Forces deployed ashore, Army and Air Force units deployed ashore, and naval amphibious task forces and battle forces afloat. Secondarily, she provides mobile surgical hospital service for use by US Government agencies in disaster and humanitarian relief, and limited humanitarian care to these missions and to peacetime military operations.
John Barnes is a journalist and author and former editor of Marine Engineers Review.