USAT Saratoga
USS Mercy (AH-4) in port
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| History | |
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 Ward Line
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| Name: | SS Saratoga |
| Owner: | Ward Line |
| Builder: | |
| Launched: | March 1907 |
| In service: | before October 1907 |
| Fate: | Requisitioned by War Department, 23 May 1917 |
| Out of service: | 2 June 1917 |
| History | |
 United States Army
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| Name: | USAT Saratoga |
| In service: | 2 June 1917 |
| Out of service: | 27 September 1917 |
| Fate: | Sold to U.S. Navy |
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United States Navy
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| Name: | USS Mercy |
| Acquired: | 27 September 1917 |
| Renamed: | Mercy, 30 October 1917 |
| Commissioned: | 24 January 1918 |
| Decommissioned: | 23 March 1934 |
| Struck: | 20 April 1938 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap, 16 March 1939 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 9,450 tons |
| Length: | 429 ft 10 in (131.01 m) |
| Beam: | 50 ft 2 in (15.29 m) |
| Draft: | 23 ft 4 in (7.11 m) |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Capacity: | 221 patients |
| Complement: | 420 |
| Armament: | None |
USS Mercy (ID-1305/AH-4) was a hospital ship in the United States Navy during World War I. She was the first U.S. Navy ship of that name. The ship was previously known as SS Saratoga, a steamer for the Ward Line on the New York to Havana route, and considered the fastest steamship in coastal trade. Before being purchased by the Navy, the ship was briefly employed as United States Army transport ship USAT Saratoga, a career that ended after a collision off Staten Island, New York.
In her Navy career, Mercy made four transatlantic round trips to France, bringing home almost 2,000 wounded men. After the end of World War I, the ship was based in Philadelphia, and briefly laid up there in 1924. The ship was decommissioned in 1934 and lent to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, struck in 1938, and scrapped in 1939.
Saratoga was launched in March 1907 by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, for the Ward Line of New York. The ship was placed in service later that year on the New York to Havana route where she stayed for the next ten years. She was considered by some as the fastest steamship in the coastal trade.
Shortly after entering service, the new liner was rammed by a three-masted schooner in stormy seas. Saratoga was steaming from Havana at 16 knots (30 km/h) when the schooner hit the port quarter and raked the side, at 01:00 on 29 October 1907. Her captain could not identify the other ship, but waited, in vain, for three hours to offer assistance. Damage to Saratoga was minor, though the schooner lost some rigging from the front of the ship.
In March 1911, the captain of Saratoga, Cleveland Downs, faced legal difficulties regarding the way live turtles were stored aboard while being imported to market. Downs was arrested in New York on charges of cruelty to animals because the turtles had been stored upside down, with flippers lashed to one another; Miller contended that this was standard practice and asked that the charges be dropped. A later Saratoga captain also faced legal troubles, when, in June 1912, Frank L. Miller was arrested by Sheriff Julius Harburger in New York and forced to post a $500 appearance bond in a civil suit involving a former crewman. Miller’s arrest delayed the departure of the ship by two hours.
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Wikipedia