Hospital Ships by A vi Heiligman

Forgotten Her es

Hospital Ships

By Avi Heiligman

One of the most talked about topics in the media during the COVID-19 pandemic is the overcrowding of hospitals and the mil itary responding by constructing field hospitals. In addition to field hospitals, the navy sent out two hospital ships, one to New York and the other to Los Angeles. Since ancient times, ships have been used to remove the wound ed off the battlefield and to help them recover. For over 200 years, the American Navy has used a variety of ships in several capacities to care for the sick and wounded.

The first American ship designated to care for the wounded was the USS Intrepid used off the Tripoli Coast in 1804 during the Barbary Wars. How ever, she wasn’t in action for long because she was still a ship with offensive capabilities. The commodore ordered the Intrepid to send a party to burn a frigate that had fallen into enemy hands, and later she was used as a “fire ship” (a ship deliberately set on fire and steered into the enemy fleet) and destroyed.

The navy itself remained small until the Civil War when its numbers swelled to the tens of thousands. Many ships were constructed or bought and converted for military use. At least three of them were used by the Union Navy as hospital ships. The USS Home was a steamship constructed in 1862 and used a rest ship for soldiers. She was sent to Charleston to participate in the blockade where she was used as a hospital ship with a surgical team on board.

The USS Ben Morgan was a schoo ner that had been launched in 1826. She was bought by the Union Navy and was fitted out as a hospital ship and sent to Hampton Roads, Virginia. During the Battle of Hampton Roads, she took on wounded from the iconic naval battle.

The USS Red Rover saw the most action out of all the hospital ships during the Civil War. The ship was a side-wheeled steamer that was built two years before the war and started the conflict as a barracks ship in the Confederate Navy. During a bombard ment near New Madrid, Missouri, in the Mississippi River, the Red Rover was damaged and was abandoned. The ship was captured, repaired, and fitted out as a hospital ship for use by the Army’s Western Flotilla. In addi tion to the 47 sailors on the ship, there were over 30 people on board that were assigned medical duties with all of the nurses on board being female including several African-American women. These nurses are considered the pioneers of the Navy Nurse Corps that was created five decades later. The ship received her patients in June 1862, and within a week had well over 100 wounded sailors including some burn victims from the USS Mound City that had exploded in battle. For the rest of the war, she supported the fleet and cared for the wounded and sick while supplying other ships with ice, meat, medical supplies, and other provisions. After the war, the ship was decommissioned and sold. All told, the Red Rover cared for some 2,400 wounded and sick sailors and soldiers throughout her years of service.

The next two hospital ships to enter the U.S. Navy were both named Relief. The USS Relief (1896) was a private ly-built passenger ship that was bought by the military upon their entry into the Spanish-American War in 1898. She was used as a floating hospital and could care for than 100 wounded men at a time. In 1908, she crossed

the Pacific Ocean while accompany ing the Great White Fleet on part of its around-the-world expedition. The Relief was damaged by a typhoon in November 1908 and remained in the Philippines through World War I. In order to allow another hospital ship to be name the Relief, this particular ship was renamed the USS Repose in 1918.

The next four hospital ships in the navy were used during World War I. The USS Relief (AH-1) was the only hospital ship designed for that purpose and the USS Solace (AH-2) had seen action during the Spanish American War. Ironically, both the USS Comfort (AH-3) and the USS Mercy (AH-4) were sent to New York to care of over flow patients during the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918.

Seven ships in the American mili tary were named Relief with the name only being used for hospital ships. The last ship to bear the name Relief was a lightship launched in 1950 and is now a museum ship. The sixth ship with the name Relief had the hull number AH-1 and was commissioned after the end of World War I hostilities. She remained in the service during the interwar pe riod and served in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. During World War II she was sent to evacuate patients off of the Solomon Islands and then was sent to the battle zones in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands before heading back to Hawaii with over 600 patients. She remained in heavy use for the rest of the war treating wounded soldiers, sailors, and marines and received five

battle stars for her service.

Many ships and barges were used during World War II. Under the 1907 Hague Convention, hospital vessels could not be fired upon if they were clearly marked as a hospital ship and could not be used for any military pur pose. Fifteen ships were in use by the navy during World War II with several more barges and smaller vessels that took care of sick and wounded service members. These ships cared for thou sands of patients worldwide and were used through the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

In addition to the Navy’s hospital ships, several ships and boats were un der the auspices of the U.S. Army and were tasked with hospital duties. The first of these was the USHAS Acadia, which was used as an ambulance ship in the Mediterranean Theater of War. The USHAS Seminole was also active off the coast of North Africa and cared for over 10,000 patients in just over five months.

During the D-Day assault on Nor mandy, France, on June 6, 1944, no hospital ships were present as LSTs (Landing Ship-Tank) were outfitted to take care of the wounded and to get them off the beaches as quickly as possible.

After World War II, only two hos pital ships were commissioned in the U.S. Navy. The USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) and the USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) be gan their service in the mid-1980s and are still in use today. Their capabilities and tasks change with each mission but they do have limits. Both were de signed as oil tankers, and the design is not the most efficient for a hospital. In any case, they have been deployed worldwide with their only warzone deployment being Operation Desert Shield.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

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