1 September 2011,
USA: The former hospital ship USS Sanctuary
(AH-17) arrived at Brownsville in Texas for scrapping on 1 September. She was
the last of six Haven class vessels to remain in service.
Originally named SS Marine
Owl, she was launched as a cargo ship on 15 August 1944 by Sun Ship Building
& Dry Dock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania. She was acquired by the US Navy
one month later and converted to a hospital ship by Todd Shipyards at Hoboken,
New Jersey.
She commissioned on 20 June
1945 and set sail for the Pacific. She arrived at Pearl Harbor four days after
the Japanese surrender. She was used to treat and repatriate Allied prisoners
of war that had been held in Japan. She continued in this role until February
1946 when she was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet. She decommissioned in
August 1946 to join the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
She recommissioned from Reserve
in November 1966 to serve in Vietnam and at one time (in March 1970) was the
only hospital ship stationed there. She left Vietnam in April 1971.
She was then converted to a
dependent’s support ship and recommissioned on 18 November 1972. She became the
first US Navy ship to have a mixed-sex crew (although previously female nurses
had been assigned to hospital ships and transports) when she sailed on a
goodwill cruise to South America, setting a precedent to later hospital ships
in providing medical treatment for persons from impoverished nations.
She decommissioned finally on
28 March 1975 to be laid up in Maritime Administration Reserve in Philadelphia.
She was stricken on 16
February 1989 when she was sold to the Life International Group for $10. She
was towed to Baltimore for conversion to a rehabilitation and training facility
for drug addicts. However legal and regulation difficulties prevented the
vessel fulfilling that purpose and the vessel was left idle for several years.
During a storm in February 2007, the vessel sprung her mooring lines and
proceeded on an unmanned tour of Baltimore harbor. Project Life (the successor
to Life International) was sued by the Maryland Port Authority for towing and
berthing fees which Project Life could not pay. The Sanctuary was subsequently
seized by the Maryland Port Authority and auctioned off, to cover the claimed
costs, and sold to Potomac Navigation for $50,000 who intended to convert her
to a floating hotel and tow her to Greece. However objections to this were
raised due to concerns over the presence of PCBs and the vessel never left her
mooring at Locust Point, Baltimore.
The vessel displaced 15,400
tons full load and before conversion to a dependent’s support ship had a
maximum capacity of 760 beds.
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