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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

AH-3 Comfort

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons


Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - World War I Victory Medal (with Transport clasp)
Bottom Row - American Campaign Medal - Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal
  • Built 1906 as SS Havana at William Cramp and Sons, Ship and Engine Building Co., Philadelphia, PA. for the New York & Cuba Mail Steamship Co., operated commercially until 1917
  • Acquired by the War Department in 1917
  • Acquired by the Navy from the War Department, 17 July 1917
  • Converted to a Hospital Ship at New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y.
  • Commissioned USS Comfort, 18 March 1918, Medical Inspector C. M. Oman, USN, in command
  • Comfort spent much of the remainder of World War I as a floating hospital at New York, in October 1918 she began the first of three voyages to bring wounded servicemen home from Europe
  • Reassigned to the Pacific in June 1919
  • Placed in ordinary at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., 11 September 1919
  • Designated (AH-3), 17 July 1920
  • Decommissioned, 5 August 1921, at Mare Island Navy Yard
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 5 August 1921
  • Sold for scrapping, 5 August 1921, to General Metal Supply Co,, W 14th St., Oakland, CA.
  • Towed by tugs Sea Lion and Relief, 18 May 1925, out of the Mare Island Navy Yard
  • Resold, 1 April 1925, by General Metal Supply Co.
  • Returned to commercial service in 1928, renamed SS Havana
  • Following a grounding in 1935 the ship was renamed SS Yucatan, and after capsizing at her New York pier in 1941 she was renamed SS Agwileon and returned to service as a freighter
  • Chartered by the Army in November 1942 and converted into a troopship, commissioned USAT Agwileon. After one voyage to Oran and Gibraltar in April-June 1943 she was modified for hospital ship employment, being redesignated and renamed USAHS Shamrock in August 1943
  • Shamrock operated in the Mediterranean between September 1943 and February 1944, May and September 1944, and late 1944 and early 1945
  • Between April and September 1945 she underwent major repairs and ventilation alterations for service in the Southwest Pacific
  • No longer needed in the Pacific by the time she arrived at Los Angeles in October 1945
  • Decommissioned, in November 1945
  • Returned to the War Shipping Administration in February 1946 for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA.
  • Final Disposition, sold for scrapping in February 1948
    Specifications:
    Displacement 6.391t.(lt) 10,102 t.(fl)
    Length 429' 10"
    Beam 60' 2"
    Draft 26'
    Speed 18 kts.
    Complement 318
    Armament none
    Propulsion system unknown
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    For Full Size Image    		Size Image Description Source
    Commercial Service
    Comfort 53k SS Havana prior to World War I. Initially taken over by the US Army for wartime service as USAT Havana, she was acquired by the Navy, 19 July 1917 and converted to a hospital ship. Commissioned USS Comfort, 18 March 1918, she was laid up at the Mare Island Navy Yard in 1919, stricken on 26 May 1924 and sold on 1 April 1925. The original print is in National Archives' Record Group 19-LCM.
    US Navy photo # 100871 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Comfort 77k SS Havana in port, possibly when inspected by the Third Naval District when she was acquired for Naval service on 19 July 1917. Following conversion to a hospital ship, this former New York & Cuba Mail Steamship Co. liner was placed in commission, 18 March 1918 as USS Comfort (designated AH-3 in 1920).
    US Navy photo # 102829, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    USS Comfort (AH-3)
    Comfort 106k Comfort crewmen assembled during "General Quarters", circa 1918.
    US Navy photo # 67708, courtesy of the US Naval Library, Treasure Island, CA., 1969.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Comfort 83k Comfort underway with wounded soldiers on board, during their passage home from France after the end of World War I, 1 December 1918.
    US Navy photo # 67709, courtesy of the US Naval Library, Treasure Island, CA., 1969.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Comfort 59k Comfort underway, date and place unknown.
    US Navy photo    		 Naval Hospital Corps School web site
    Comfort 83k Comfort at anchor, circa 1919.
    US Navy photo # 61539    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Comfort 53k Comfort at anchor in New York Harbor, circa 1919.
    US Navy photo # 77286, courtesy of Mrs. C.R. DeSpain, 1973. From the scrapbooks of Fred M. Butler.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Comfort 66k Comfort in port during World War I.
    US Navy photo # 93860, courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1982.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Comfort 60k Comfort in dry dock at Navy Yard New York, circa 1919.
    US Navy photo # 67704, courtesy of the US Naval Library, Treasure Island, CA., 1969.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Comfort 113k Comfort moored inboard of US Army Transport USAT Mount Vernon at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., 2 January 1920. Note the drydock in the foreground.
    US Navy photo # 45744    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Mount Vernon 124k Comfort moored inboard of US Army Transport USAT Mount Vernon at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., in January 1920.
    US Navy Photo NH # 71246 from the William H. Topley Collection, courtesy of Charles M. Loring, 1970.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    USAT Agwileon
    Comfort 67k Halftone reproduction of a photo of USAT Agwileon taken circa April-June 1943, while the ship was in service as a US Army Transport. She became the Army Hospital Ship USAHS Shamrock in mid-1943. Copied from the book "Troopships of World War II", by Roland W. Charles.
    US Navy photo # 103120, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    USAT Shamrock
    Comfort 76k Halftone reproduction of a photo of USAHS Shamrock taken circa 1943-1945, while the ship was in service as a US Army Hospital Ship. She had previously been the US Army Transport USAT Agwileon. Copied from the book "Troopships of World War II", by Roland W. Charles.
    US Navy photo # 103120, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Comfort 109k USAHS Shamrock in port, circa 1943-1946. A US Maritime Commission photo, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.
    US Navy photo # 103128    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Comfort 65k USAHS Shamrock in San Francisco Bay, CA., in late 1945 or early 1946.
    US Navy photo # 98758 donated by BM1 Robert G. Tippins, USN (Retired), 2003.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    View the Comfort (AH-3)
    DANFS History entry located at the US Naval Historical Center web site
    Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    Not Applicable to this Ship
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    No Information Available
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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    Last Updated 12 May 2006