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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS Repose
ex
 USS Relief (II) (1902 - 1918)
 USAHS Relief (1898 - 1902)

1913 International Radio Call Sign:
Nan - Rush - George
 NRG
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

World War I Victory Medal
Hospital Ship:
  • Built in 1895-96 as the steel passenger liner SS John Englis by the Delaware River Ship Building Co., Chester, PA.
  • Acquired by the US Army in 1898 for Spanish-American War service as a hospital ship, commissioned USAHS Relief
  • Transferred to US Navy, 13 November 1902
  • Laid up at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA.
  • Commissioned USS Relief, 6 February 1908, at Mare Island Navy Yard, Surg. Charles F. Stokes, USN, in command
    Dr. Charles F. Stokes commanded the United States Naval Hospital at San Juan, Puerto Rico from 1906 to 1908, however, he was recalled by the Navy Department to command the United States Hospital Ship USS Relief for service with the Atlantic Fleet during the around-the-world cruise in 1908. He was the first medical officer to command a hospital ship.
  • Decommissioned, 10 June 1910, at Olongapo, P.I. and placed in service as a stationary hospital ship
  • Renamed USS Repose, 11 April 1918
  • Sold 15 May 1919, at Olongapo for merchant service as SS Repose. She subsequently served under foreign flags as SS Hai Ning and SS Mindanao until transferred to Philippine registry in 1937 and renamed SS Lanao
  • Final Disposition, sunk off Cebu in 1942
    Specifications:
    Displacement 3,300 t.
    Length 314'
    Beam 46"
    Draft 15"
    Speed 15 kts
    Complement 74
    Armament none
    Propulsion steam turbine
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		Size Image Description Source
    USAHS Relief
    Relief 129k USAHS Relief moored pierside, at the time of the Spanish-American War, 1898, location unknown.
    US Navy photo # NH 92845 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Relief 332k USAHS Relief in New York Harbor, East River, 1 July 1898, Just before sailing for Cuba.
    Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Relief 162k USAHS Relief at anchor off Cuba in 1898 while serving as a hospital ship during the Spanish-American War. Small boats such as those pictured carried wounded and sick men from the shore to Relief.
    Photo Scanned from Page 41 of the August 2010 (or "Early Summer" 2010) issue of Military Heritage magazine, ISSN 1524-8666. Photo unattributed; probably a US Army photo.    		 Robert Hurst
    Relief 224k USAHS Relief moored pierside, location unknown.
    From "Colliers History of Spanish American War", published 1898.    		 Daniel Wilmes
    Relief 110k USAHS Relief nurses while the ship was serving in Cuban waters, 1898.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo.    		 Bill Gonyo
    Relief 275k Army DR. Gray making x-ray photos on board the US Army hospital ship USAHS Relief while the ship was off the coast of Cuba in 1898. Gray was on detachment from the Army Medical Museum (aka National Museum of Health Medicine).
    Photo courtesy of the Otis Historical Archives National Museum of Health and Medicine    		 Bill Gonyo
    Relief 229k USAHS Relief Medical Officers' Stateroom.
    Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Relief 260k USAHS Relief Ward One.
    Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Relief 255k
    Relief 310k
    Relief 242k USAHS Relief Ward Three.
    Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Relief 227k
    Relief 216k USAHS Relief Ward Four.
    Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Relief 302k
    Relief 249k USAHS Relief two crew member on deck, date and location unknown.
    Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Relief 245k
    Relief 204k USAHS Relief Operating Room, while in Cuban waters.
    Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Relief 82k USAHS Relief in San Francisco Bay, CA., with 300 wounded soldiers from Manila on board, 2 August 1899. The tug Fearless, of San Francisco, is alongside her starboard quarter.
    US Navy photo # NH 44061 courtesy Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, KS.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    USS Relief
    Charleston 168k USS Relief is in the stream beyond USS Charleston (C-22) at her berth at Mare Island in December 1906. The ship moored forward of USS Charleston is the ex-Auxiliary Cruiser USS Badger renamed Lawton. Darryl Baker
    Relief 149k USS Relief circa early July, 1908 after conversion to a U.S. Navy Hospital Ship. The conversion was carried out by the Morgan Iron Works of New York under the supervision of a Naval Constructor from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
    U.S. National Archives, RG-19-A-1 Photo # 19-N-28-5-7 a US Navy Bureau cf Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives, courtesy Shipscribe.com.    		 Mike Green
    Relief 123k USS Relief moored pierside, circa 1908, location unknown.
    US Navy photo #: NH 50040, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Relief 61k USS Relief at anchor in Sydney Harbor, Australia, circa early 1900s.
    Photo from "U.S. Warships of World War One", courtesy Paul H. Silverstone.    		 Robert Hurst
    Relief 99k USS Relief anchored in the right background off Mare Island Navy Yard, circa 1908. In the center background are two Paul Jones class destroyers and moored at the pier, in the foreground, is USS Pike (Submarine # 6).
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 71580, courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1970.    		 Robert Hurst
    Relief
    09129128    		 180k USS Relief in the Dewey Drydock at Olongapo, Philippine Islands circa 1910.
    Earl H. "Pete" Ellis Collection (COLL/3246), Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division. USMC Archives, Quantico, VA. (48586181477)    		 Robert Hurst
    Relief 66k USS Relief moored pierside at Rivera Point, US Naval Station Olongapo, Philippine Islands, 13 April 1910. Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate, (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Relief 333k USS Relief coaling operations, date and location unknown.
    Courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Relief 120k Relief anchored off Olongapo Naval Station, Philippine Islands, while serving as stationary hospital ship, circa 1909-1919. Relief is no longer in commission.
    US Navy photo # NH 71580, courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1970.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Relief 114k Relief serving as a stationary hospital ship at Olongapo, Philippine Islands circa 1914-1916.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command, Photo # NH 105299, courtsey Shipscribe.com.    		 Mike Green
    USS Relief (II)/ Repose
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    Back To The Navsource Photo Archives Main Page Back To The Service Force Ship Type Index Back To The Hospital Ship (AH) Photo Index
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History
    Last Updated 24 February 2023

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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