USS Relief (1896)
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USS Relief circa 1908.
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| History | |
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| Owner: | |
| Builder: | Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works |
| Yard number: | 288 |
| Completed: | December 1896 |
| Acquired: | 13 November 1902 |
| Commissioned: | 6 February 1908 |
| Decommissioned: | 10 June 1910 |
| Fate: | sold into merchant service, 15 May 1919 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Passenger, later Hospital |
| Tonnage: | 3,168 gross |
| Displacement: | 3,300 tons |
| Length: | 314 ft (96 m) |
| Beam: | 46 ft (14 m) |
| Draught: | 15 ft 10 in (4.83 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 17 ft |
| Installed power: | Triple expansion steam engines |
| Speed: | 16 knots |
| Complement: | (U.S. Navy): 74 |
| Armament: | none |
The USAHS Relief and the second USS Relief was a hospital ship in, respectively, the United States Army and the United States Navy. She was later named USS Repose.
Relief was built for the Maine Steamship Company in 1895–96 by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works of Chester, Pennsylvania as the passenger ship John Englis. A sister ship, Horatio Hall, was also constructed for the company at about the same time. The two vessels were powered by triple expansion steam engines operating at 180 lbs of steam pressure, and were capable of making 16 knots in favorable conditions. Their passenger accommodations, which included dining saloons on the upper deck, were said to be "very fine".
John Englis was completed in December 1896 and was placed on the New York–Maine route, in which she is said to have been well patronized. In 1898 however, the Spanish–American War broke out, and John Englis was purchased by the United States Army for use as a hospital ship. Renamed Relief the ship was found to have insufficient coal capacity for safe trans Pacific navigation and was confined to Philippine waters based in Manila where as of 1 January 1900 she was reported to be a "floating hospital" with 107 sick and wounded after a trip to outlying areas.
The ship was transferred to the U.S. Navy 13 November 1902. Relief remained inactive into 1908 at Mare Island Navy Yard while factions within the navy debated whether she should be commanded by a line officer or a medical officer. President Theodore Roosevelt's desire that a hospital ship accompany the Great White Fleet on its round-the-world voyage led to his endorsement of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery viewpoint. Accordingly, Relief was commissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard 6 February 1908, Surgeon Charles F. Stokes, USN, in command.
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