USS Comfort (AH-3) was a hospital ship for the United States Navy in World War I. She was the sister ship of but the two ships were not of a ship class. Comfort was known as SS Havana in passenger service for the Ward Line, and as USAT Havana in United States Army service before her Navy service. Her name was restored to Havana in 1927, and she was renamed SS Yucatán in 1935, and SS Agwileon in 1941. In World War II, she was known as USAT Agwileon and USAHS Shamrock in service for the United States Army.

Launched in 1906, SS Havana was a passenger steamer for the Ward Line on the New York–Havana route from 1907 to 1917. Before being purchased by the Navy, the ship briefly served as United States Army transport ship USAT Havana and was in the first U.S. convoy of ships to sail for France during World War I. In her Navy career, Comfort made three transatlantic voyages, bringing home over 1,100 men from European ports. Comfort was placed in reserve in September 1919, decommissioned in 1921, and sold in April 1925.

The former hospital ship was repurchased by the Ward Line in 1927, who refitted her and placed her back in service on the Havana route under her original name of Havana. In January 1935, Havana grounded on a reef north of The Bahamas and remained there for three months. After being refloated and repaired, she was placed back in service as SS Yucatán in June. In 1940 the ship was removed from passenger service to be converted into a freighter. After capsizing in port in 1941, the ship was again refloated and renamed SS Agwileon.

Under a bareboat charter by the United States Maritime Commission, Agwileon carried civilian technicians and advisors to Sierra Leone for the U.S. Army. In November 1942, the ship was taken over by the Army as USAT Agwileon and converted to a troopship, making one trip in that capacity. In June 1943, the ship was selected for conversion to an Army hospital ship, and was renamed USAHS Shamrock. Operating locally in the Mediterranean for most of her career, the ship had transported almost 18,000 patients by September 1944. The ship was converted for use in the Pacific Theatre, but not before the war ended. The ship was placed in reserve in February 1946, and was scrapped in February 1948.

Ward Line, 1907–1917

Havana was launched in 1906 by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia for the New York & Cuba Mail Steam Ship Co. — commonly referred to as the Ward Line — as a passenger steamer on the New York to Havana route.

In 1909, on the way to the Quarantine Station in New York, Havana rammed the anchored Munson Line freighter Cubana which was hidden from sight behind , also at anchor. Cubana had no damage below the waterline and Havana, laden with inbound New York passengers, suffered only superficial damage.

Striking firemen delayed Havanas departure in July 1911. The firemen were looking for an additional $0.15 per day for meals while the ship was in port. A. G. Smith, General Manager of the Ward Line, agreed to that concession, allowing the Havana to get underway after a two-hour delay.

thumb|left|Ward liner SS Havana before World War I

Several times in 1912, amidst an outbreak of bubonic plague in the Caribbean, Havana operated in violation of Cuban and U.S. quarantine rules. In July 1912, the liner prepared to depart Cuba without an inspection and fumigation, but faced the prospect of seven days quarantine in Havana before the ship would be allowed to depart. However, a compromise was worked out by the United States Marine Hospital Service which allowed Havana to depart after a one-day delay. In September of the same year, another inspection gaffe resulted in government prosecution of the Ward Line.

On 23 May 1917 Havana and sister ship , another Ward Line steamer, were requisitioned by the War Department for U.S. Army use during World War I. She was hastily outfitted for trooping duties, and at daybreak on 14 June, USAT Havana, with fellow Army transport ships Saratoga, , and , accompanied by cruisers , , destroyers , , , and converted yacht , set out from Ambrose Light for Brest, France. They were in the lead group of the first American troop convoy to France during World War I. Corsair was unable to maintain the pace and fell back, being replaced by destroyer from the second group.

At 22:15 on 22 June, some from its intended destination of Brest, Havanas group of the convoy was attacked by submarines. Two torpedoes passed near Havana and two torpedoes straddled DeKalb. No submarine was definitively sighted and the convoy, scattered by the alarm, reformed the next morning. The group, alerted by reports of submarine activity near Brest, diverted to Saint-Nazaire and arrived on 25 June.

Havana made only the one transatlantic crossing as an Army transport and was transferred to the U.S. Navy on 17 July. The ship was outfitted at the New York Navy Yard by the John N. Robins Co. of Brooklyn, New York; renamed Comfort on 14 March 1918; and commissioned 18 March 1918 with Medical Inspector C. M. Oman, USN, commanding. Comfort and (former Ward Line mate, Saratoga) were the first Navy hospital ships to have female nurses aboard, with a capacity of seven, including a chief nurse. Both ships were outfitted with state-of-the-art operating rooms, X-ray labs, rest rooms, and could accommodate 500 patients each.

At Mare Island, Comfort had her boilers replaced and the electrical system was revamped, which entailed replacing all temporary wiring with permanent wiring and watertight fixtures. The crew quarters of the ship had also become infested with bedbugs from older German-style hospital bedding and remedies and eradication were performed. But Comfort had seen the end of her Navy service; she was decommissioned 5 August 1921, and was sold at Mare Island 1 April 1925.

Interwar civilian service

The former liner was reacquired by the Ward Line in 1927 and underwent a major refit – removal of one of its stacks and modernization of its interiors – at Todd Shipyard in Seattle, returning to passenger service in the following year. Havana was placed on the New York–Cuba service, where business thrived, in part because of Prohibition in the United States. Ward Line cruises to Havana were one of the quickest and least expensive ways to what one author called "alcohol-enriched vacations". The success of the Cuba routes attracted the attention of Cunard Line who added service from New York to Cuba with select cruises of in 1928, a full season of cruises on in 1929, and the addition of the following season. This perceived threat to American shipping interests was met by the Ward Line by the acquisition of two new ships. The new ships, and , became the top of the line, and Havana was demoted to a third tier ship in terms of luxury and spaciousness, behind and .) north of The Bahamas. Although one passenger died of "apoplexy" during the evacuation of the ship, all the passengers were evacuated on the steamers El Oceano and Peten. These two steamers along with United States Coast Guard Cutters and had come to the stricken ship's rescue. The ship had run aground in a well-known shoal area and near a visible marker buoy. The grounding of Havana was second of three public relations disasters that befell the Ward Line in a four-month span; the fire and sinking of in September 1934, and the sinking of (chartered to replace the grounded Havana) on her maiden Ward Line voyage in January 1935, were the other two.

Havana remained on the reef for three months before being refloated, repaired, and renamed SS Yucatán. After again being refloated and repaired, the ship was renamed Agwileon and assigned to the Cuba Mail Lines parent organization, the Atlantic, Gulf, & West Indies Steamship Lines (the "AGWI Lines"), and remained in service as a freighter.

The following month, the ship became USAT Agwileon when it was chartered by the Army, and underwent conversion to a troopship at the Atlantic Basin Iron Works in Brooklyn. With the conversion complete, the troopship left in April 1943 for Oran and Gibraltar, returning to New York in June. After this one voyage she was selected for conversion to a hospital ship.

In October, the hospital ship put in at Jacksonville for major repairs, before embarking on a final Mediterranean tour, arriving back in Charleston in April 1945. With the war in Europe winding down by this time, Shamrock underwent ventilation improvements at the Charleston Navy Yard intended for service in the Pacific. The repairs complete in September 1945, the hospital ship sailed for Los Angeles, arriving in October.

Notes

References

  • <!-- link not included because it is cited above. -->
  • Initially constructed as S.S. Havana (American Passenger Ship, 1906)
  • Converted to USS Comfort (1918-1925, later AH-3)
  • Later became USAT Agwileon (Transport, 1942-1943) then later the Army Hospital Ship Shamrock (1943-1946)
  • the Caldwell Kvaran archives