SS ''Hope'' was a

hospital ship A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating healthcare, medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the military forces (mostly navy, navies) of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or ...

operated by

Project HOPE Project Hope (希望工程; ''Xiwang gongcheng'') is a Chinese public service project organized by the China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) and the Communist Youth League (CYL) Central Committee. Started in 1989, it aims to bring schools i ...

. This vessel was originally a

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

hospital ship, . ''Consolation'' was donated to Project Hope in 1958, and under its new name served from 1960 until 1974, when she was retired. ''Hope'' was not replaced, and the emphasis of Project HOPE switched entirely to land-based operations. The project was founded by William B. Walsh.

List of voyages

While in charitable service from 1960 to 1974, this ship voyaged around the world: *Voyage 1, to Indonesia and South Vietnam, September 1960 – September 1961 *Voyage 2, to Peru, May 1962 – March 1963 *Voyage 3, to Ecuador, November 1963 – September 1964 *Voyage 4, to Guinea, September 1964 – September 1965 *Voyage 5, to Nicaragua, January 1966 – November 1966 *Voyage 6, to Colombia, February 1967 – December 1967 *Voyage 7, to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), February 1968 – March 1969 *Voyage 8, to Tunisia, August 1969 – August 1970 *Voyage 9, to the West Indies, January 1971 – November 1971 *Voyages 10 and 11, to Brazil, February 1972 – March 1974

Features

One special piece of equipment was a machine called the ''Iron Cow''. Using distilled seawater, combined with

milk solids Powdered milk, also called milk powder, dried milk, or dry milk, is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and do ...

and

butterfat Butterfat or milkfat is the fatty portion of milk. Milk and cream are often sold according to the amount of butterfat they contain. Composition Butterfat is mainly composed of triglycerides. Each triglyceride contains three fatty acids. Butt ...

, it was capable of turning out 1,000 gallons of milk daily. This 15,000-ton ship had a pharmacy, three operating rooms, a radiology department, an isolation ward, and closed-circuit television for viewing operations. The medical crew typically consisted of 150 nurses and 100 doctors, who taught American practices in various medical specialties, to colleagues around the world.

List of voyages

Features

See also

References

Further reading