USS Tranquillity (AH-14)
_at_Guam_in_August_1945.jpg) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Class and type: | Haven-class hospital ship |
| Builder: | |
| Laid down: | 20 August 1943 as SS Marine Dolphin (MC Hull #745) |
| Launched: | 25 July 1944 |
| Commissioned: | 24 April 1945 |
| Decommissioned: | 26 July 1946 |
| Reclassified: |
|
| Struck: | 1 September 1961 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 15,400 tons |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 71 ft 6 in (21.79 m) |
| Draft: | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Propulsion: | geared turbine, single screw |
| Speed: | 17.5 knots |
| Capacity: | 802 patients |
| Complement: | 568 |
| Armament: | none |
USS Tranquillity (AH-14) was a Haven-class hospital ship in the service of the United States Navy during World War II.
Built as Marine Dolphin in 1943 by Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. under Maritime Commission contract, she was renamed Tranquillity on 22 June 1944; launched on 25 July 1944; sponsored by Miss Carol P. Meekins; acquired by the Navy from the Maritime Commission on 14 August 1944; converted into a hospital ship at New York City by the Atlantic Basin Iron Works; and commissioned on 24 April 1945, Capt. Merritt D. Mullen, USNR, in command.
With a bed capacity of 802 and a complement of 568, Tranquillity was one of the first six fully air conditioned ships in the Navy. She was equipped with 85,000 cubic feet (2,400 m3) of medical storage space, and a 100 bed field hospital.
Tranquillity got underway from Hampton Roads on 5 May 1945 for shakedown trials and assignment to the Pacific Fleet to provide hospital services, consultation, preventative medicine and casualty evacuation. Tranquility began service as a base hospital at Ulithi and was dispatched on 3 August 1945 to the Palau Islands to receive the survivors from the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) and transport them to Guam. Tranquillity was then assigned to assist the 3rd Fleet by returning 766 patients from Guam to the US. On 26 September 1945 she was assigned to Operation Magic Carpet to return troops from overseas to the US and was designated APH-114.
On 25 March 1946 Tranquillity was designated AH-14 and was decommissioned, in reserve, on 16 July 1956. She was struck from the Naval Register on 1 September 1961.
On 15 July 1974, Tranquillity was sold for scrapping to Northern Metal Co., Division of North James River Associates for $58,300.00 (PD-X-395 dated 5 June 1947) Withdrawn from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet and delivered to Northern Metals, 5 August 1974
Tranquillity received one battle star for World War II service.
References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
- Photo gallery at navsource.org