USNS Comfort

[chengkp75]

16 minutes ago, AL3XCruise said:

 

The Navy states Mercy Class vessels displace 69,360 tons.  I'm sure that is less than when they were operating with a full load as tankers.

 

There are several articles from when Voyager was introduced claiming a displacement of around 68,000 tons, though I can't comment on their accuracy.  I've also seen 54K and 64K, but 68K is the most commonly cited number.  Regardless of the exact number, it certainly shows that the relationship between displacement and GT varies dramatically with different ship designs.

Not only between ship types, but the higher the GT figure, the more it varies from the actual volume of the ship, it is not a linear relationship.

 

As an example, the Seawise Giant, the largest ship by deadweight tonnage ever, had a displacement of 82k tons when light, and 646k when loaded.  That is a deadweight of 560k tonnes, or about the weight (displacement) of 5 Oasis class ships.  Her GT was only 260k, so while only slightly larger than Oasis in GT, she could lift 5 Oasis.

[AL3XCruise]

3 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Not only between ship types, but the higher the GT figure, the more it varies from the actual volume of the ship, it is not a linear relationship.

 

I actually made up a spreadsheet a while back to compare GT of cruise ships using the logarithmic function as I was curious how much impact it had.  While the difference between the logarithmic and conventional measure are relatively small in percentage terms, 5% or 10% makes a big difference on a 200,000GT ship.

 

Of course, the most important numbers regarding the Comfort right now are the 1,000 hospital beds and 1,000+  medical professionals and mariners who are keeping her running.

[Johnny_B]

8 hours ago, spookwife said:

the actual interior of COMFORT and MERCY is  quite open.  the lifts are wide enough to accommodate a gurney and entire support staff, the stairs  are wide and shallow, even compared to a cruise ship.   the only 'cramped' areas are actually the crew berthing, and even compared to  a Cruiser or destroyer, are quite spacious and comfy.  

 

I'll ask Mr spook to provide pictures of  COMFORT as he was deployed on her back in 2015.  

Let's see what I have....

 

This is one of the examination rooms attached to an ambulatory post-op ward

 

Wardroom (Officer's Mess)

 

Partial view of a 6-man Officer stateroom (there are two more racks just off the left edge of the photo

 

COMFORT and her sister MERCY will fit through the Panama Canal (barely)

 

Yes, she'll fit (see above pic)

 

I've always liked this shot I took of her...

Edited March 31, 2020 by Johnny_B

[voyager70]

@Johnny_B awesome pics.  Thanks for sharing.

 

[John Reid]

My first "cruise." Fourteen months (1969-1970) on the USS Repose, the Angel of the Orient. We sailed from DaNang to the DMZ taking on wounded and ill. The USS Sanctuary sailed the same waters. Hospital ships did and do incredible work. To my Repose shipmates - Restitutor Vitae - our motto.

[Judyrem]

2 hours ago, John Reid said:

My first "cruise." Fourteen months (1969-1970) on the USS Repose, the Angel of the Orient. We sailed from DaNang to the DMZ taking on wounded and ill. The USS Sanctuary sailed the same waters. Hospital ships did and do incredible work. To my Repose shipmates - Restitutor Vitae - our motto.

It's so ironic that retired Navy son in law said he had "cruised" enough in the Navy and will never go on a cruise ship.  My daughter said they had bars and fun stuff but he is adamant about not cruising.  He likes me taking his daughter 😉on my cruise and was quite fascinated as we walked around with the phone showing him our room on Facetime.

[zekekelso]

Love those Navy pictures. I’m sure people here would love to see any more you have. But where is the pool? The hot tubs? The lido deck? The speciality restaurants 😀

[shellunderwater]

1 hour ago, zekekelso said:

Love those Navy pictures. I’m sure people here would love to see any more you have. But where is the pool? The hot tubs? The lido deck? The speciality restaurants 😀

Most importantly, where is the Diamond Lounge?

[NavyCruiser]

2 hours ago, zekekelso said:

Love those Navy pictures. I’m sure people here would love to see any more you have. But where is the pool? The hot tubs? The lido deck? The speciality restaurants 😀

 

We create our own pool after ballast down: 

 

Don't have hot tubs, but do have hot steam rooms:

 

Our Lido deck:

 

Our specialty restaurant:

 

Our diamond lounge, as good as it gets...

[chengkp75]

12 hours ago, Johnny_B said:

Let's see what I have...

 

COMFORT and her sister MERCY will fit through the Panama Canal (barely)

 

 

The San Clemente's were "Panamax", meaning they had a 106' beam and the lock is 110' wide, so there is 2' either side.

[jcl410]

Here's the Comfort's tonnage information from the Coast Guard's Port State Information Exchange website:

 

19058 - Convention (Subpart B), Net Ton 35958 - Regulatory (Subpart C or D), Net Ton 44578 - Dead Weight, Ton 69360 - Displacement, Ton 63527 - Convention (Subpart B), Gross Ton 54367 - Regulatory (Subpart C or D), Gross Ton   and no, I don't know the difference between convention and regulatory tonnage. 🙂   Aloha,   John

[chengkp75]

46 minutes ago, jcl410 said:

Here's the Comfort's tonnage information from the Coast Guard's Port State Information Exchange website:

 

19058 - Convention (Subpart B), Net Ton 35958 - Regulatory (Subpart C or D), Net Ton 44578 - Dead Weight, Ton 69360 - Displacement, Ton 63527 - Convention (Subpart B), Gross Ton 54367 - Regulatory (Subpart C or D), Gross Ton   and no, I don't know the difference between convention and regulatory tonnage. 🙂   Aloha,   John

"Regulatory" tonnage is no longer used, since about the 80's, as this refers to "Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT)", which is no longer used anywhere but the US today.  "Convention" tonnage refers to the International Convention on Tonnage, which defined the rules and calculations for determining "Gross Tonnage (GT)", which is a unitless figure that is calculated from the ship's volume.

 

And, I would suspect that at least 60% of that deadweight tonnage (the amount of liquids and cargo the ship can "lift", is permanent ballast.

 

And, for those wondering at the "USNS" designator, that indicates that the vessel is a US government vessel, but manned by "Civmars" or civilian mariners, not US Navy personnel (though the medical staff is Navy).

Edited April 1, 2020 by chengkp75

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for the pictures.

[F27TW]

Thats a magnificent ship .. shame for all those geniuses crowing along the seafront to see it . . these are the fools that are gonna keep this virus around for a lot longer than necessary.   Sad we have so much stupidity in our population.

[NavyCruiser]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

And, for those wondering at the "USNS" designator, that indicates that the vessel is a US government vessel, but manned by "Civmars" or civilian mariners, not US Navy personnel (though the medical staff is Navy).

 

United States Naval Ship (USNS) is the prefix designation given to non-commissioned ships that are property of the United States Navy (USN).   United States Naval Ships are unarmed auxiliary support vessels owned by the U.S. Navy.  Wikipedia.

 

http://www.navalorder.org/articles/2016/8/28/an-overview-of-hospital-ships

 

"Today, the Navy operates two dedicated hospital ships, the USNS Mercy (T-AH-19). and the USNS Comfort (T-AH-20). Both ships were converted from San Clemente-class supertankers. Mercy was on line in 1986 and Comfort launched in 1987. They are huge, equivalent to the height of a 10-story building and the length of three football fields. Both serve as 70,000-metric-ton symbols of how much America cares as a nation and as a people. If a tanker can be transformed into a symbol of hope, consider how the Mercy and Comfort transform the health-care professionals aboard.

CREW AND FACILITIES

When not in use, these ships operate with a skeleton crew. But in as little as five days, each can be converted into a 250-, 500- or 1,000-bed mobile hospital with a crew of 1,200 Navy physicians, nurses, corpsmen, technicians and support staff. These are some of the most highly trained medical personnel in the world – working together as only a Navy crew can – with the skills to handle primary, trauma, pediatric, and orthopedic care. Each ship has 12 operating rooms, with specialized trauma centers and post care-unit beds included.

It is amazing what can be accomplished medically on these ships, both for military personnel and civilians. No wonder these two ships have become a symbol of hope around the globe whenever disaster strikes."

[chengkp75]

You are more correct than I was about the USNS designation, but as I noted, every USNS vessel is manned by "Civmars" in the Deck and Engine departments, employed by the Military Sealift Command.  MSC ships that are owned by the Navy get the USNS designation, and have a Navy hull number, while ships chartered to MSC continue to carry their "SS" or "MV" designation and do not have hull numbers.

[gatour]

17 hours ago, Judyrem said:

It's so ironic that retired Navy son in law said he had "cruised" enough in the Navy and will never go on a cruise ship.  My daughter said they had bars and fun stuff but he is adamant about not cruising.  He likes me taking his daughter 😉on my cruise and was quite fascinated as we walked around with the phone showing him our room on Facetime.

My BIL is also like that.  We couldn't even get him and my sister to go on my parents 50th wedding anniversary cruise a few years back.  Living in a Navy town I have ran into into navy people who feel the same way.  But I also I have run into others that love cruising.

 

Johny_b thanks for the photograhs.  chengkp79 and Navycruiser thanks for the information.

[Judyrem]

2 minutes ago, gatour said:

My BIL is also like that.  We couldn't even get him and my sister to go on my parents 50th wedding anniversary cruise a few years back.  Living in a Navy town I have ran into into navy people who feel the same way.  But I also I have run into others that love cruising.

 

Johny_b thanks for the photograhs.  chengkp79 and Navycruiser thanks for the information.

They live in the Norfolk area, big Navy town also.  I like it there. 

[zonacruiser25]

NAVY strong!  These ships are a blessing wherever they serve!  America at its finest

[Milwaukee Eight]

Who here, especially the sailors, thinks one of the Hospital Ships should have been sent to the aid of the USS Roosevelt?  Isn’t that what they were made for?  

[chengkp75]

10 hours ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Who here, especially the sailors, thinks one of the Hospital Ships should have been sent to the aid of the USS Roosevelt?  Isn’t that what they were made for?  

Well, the Mercy can make only 17 knots, and the outbreak on the Roosevelt started last week, so taking 13 days to reach Guam, the Mercy would only possibly be getting there now.  Secondly, I'm not sure Mercy is set up for infectious quarantine effectively, and she is mostly designed to perform her medical services while docked or anchored, not running at sea.

[Milwaukee Eight]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Well, the Mercy can make only 17 knots, and the outbreak on the Roosevelt started last week, so taking 13 days to reach Guam, the Mercy would only possibly be getting there now.  Secondly, I'm not sure Mercy is set up for infectious quarantine effectively, and she is mostly designed to perform her medical services while docked or anchored, not running at sea.

Couldn’t they meet like halfway?  Isn’t her purpose to aid the military? 

[d9704011]

1 minute ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Couldn’t they meet like halfway?  Isn’t her purpose to aid the military? 

Setting aside all the transit time which is kind of moot at this juncture, the idea of deploying the USN hospital ships was to relieve shore-side hospitals of patients without COVID-19 so that patients with the disease can be more satisfactorily treated.

 

I don’t know about the United States but one of the core mandates of Canada’s military is ‘aid to the civil power’.

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Well, the Mercy can make only 17 knots, and the outbreak on the Roosevelt started last week, so taking 13 days to reach Guam, the Mercy would only possibly be getting there now.  Secondly, I'm not sure Mercy is set up for infectious quarantine effectively, and she is mostly designed to perform her medical services while docked or anchored, not running at sea.

 

Roosevelt is docked in Guam. Seems like getting there now would be perfect

[EscapeFromConnecticut]

The Comfort looks like an extraordinary resource.

Unfortunately during this crisis, it sits in NY harbor as little more than an ongoing photo op:

 

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-usns-comfort.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage