USS Solace (AH-5)

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USS Solace
History
United States
NameSolace
Builder
Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Newport News, Virginia
Launched11 December 1926
Acquired22 July 1940
Commissioned9 August 1941
Decommissioned27 March 1946
Stricken21 May 1946
IdentificationIMO number5018131
Honors and
awards
7 battle stars (World War II)
FateSold for commercial service, 16 April 1948, Scrapped 1981
General characteristics
TypeHospital ship
Displacement8,900 long tons (9,000 t)
Length409 ft 4 in (124.76 m)
Beam62 ft (19 m)
Draft20 ft 7 in (6.27 m)
Speed18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h)
Capacity418 patients
Complement466

The second USS Solace (AH-5) was built in 1927 as the

Brooklyn, N.Y., and was commissioned on 9 August 1941, Captain Benjamin Perlman
in command.

Service history

From July till December 1931 the ship was chartered by the Los Angeles Steamship Company to fill the gap left by the sinking of the Harvard in the Los Angeles-San Francisco-San Diego ferry route. Iroquois passed through the Panama Canal on June 22[1] and back on December 17.[2]

World War II

Solace was at Pearl Harbor during the attack of 7 December 1941. As an unarmed hospital ship, she was unable to participate in defending against the Japanese aircraft. A crew member filming from the deck of that ship, an Army medical doctor named Eric Haakenson, captured the precise moment of USS Arizona's explosion.[3] She immediately sent her motor launches with stretcher parties to the stricken and burning battleship Arizona to evacuate the wounded, and pulled men from the water which was covered in burning oil. After several trips to Arizona and West Virginia, the boat crews then assisted Oklahoma.[4] Honoring the rules of the Geneva Convention, the attacking Japanese aircraft did not hit Solace due to her white paint and red crosses. She was one of the few ships not damaged during the attack.

In March 1942, Solace was ordered to the South Pacific and proceeded to

Tonga Islands, arrived at Tongatapu on 15 April, and remained there until 4 August. On that day, she got underway and steamed, via Nouméa, New Caledonia, to New Zealand. She arrived at Auckland on the 19th and discharged her patients. From then until May 1943, Solace shuttled between New Zealand, Australia, New Caledonia, Espiritu Santo, the New Hebrides, and the Fiji Islands, caring for fleet casualties and servicemen wounded in the island campaigns under desperate circumstances. For example, on 14 January 1943, one hospital corpsman and 99 patients were transferred aboard from U.S. Advanced Hospital Base Button at Espiritu Santo with 369 patients already on board, far exceeding official patient capacity.[5]
Patients whom she could not return to duty shortly were evacuated to hospitals for more prolonged care.

From June–August, she operated as a station hospital ship at Nouméa. On 30 August, Solace sailed to Efate, New Hebrides, and performed the same duties at that port until sailing for Auckland on 3 October. On the 22nd, the hospital ship departed New Zealand and proceeded via Pearl Harbor to the west coast of the United States. She arrived at San Francisco on 9 November; disembarked her patients; and, on the 12th, sailed for the Gilberts.

Solace arrived at Abemama Island on the 24th, embarked casualties from the Tarawa campaign, sailed the same day for Hawaii, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 2 December.

On 17 December, Solace sailed from Oahu with embarked patients to be evacuated to the U.S. She arrived at San Diego on 23 December 1943.

Solace remained in San Diego until she sailed on 15 January 1944 for the

Parry Island
), she returned to Pearl Harbor on 3 March.

Solace was next ordered to Espiritu Santo and arrived there on 20 March. During the next nine weeks, she shuttled between

Kwajalein
. Solace was back at Guam from 5–15 August where she picked up 502 casualties for evacuation to Pearl Harbor.

Navy nurses aboard USS Solace in the Pacific, 1945 (BUMED)

Solace was at Pearl Harbor from 26 August – 7 September, when she left for the Marshalls. She arrived at Eniwetok on the 14th. Three days later, she was ordered to sail immediately for the

Palaus. She arrived off Peleliu
on the 22nd, anchored 2,000 yd (1,800 m) from the beach, and began loading wounded. All stretcher cases (542) were put on board Solace. She headed for Nouméa on the 25th and arrived on 4 October. The ship was back at Peleliu from 16 to 27 October tending wounded and then sailed to Manus.

Solace stood out of Seeadler Harbor on 29 October, bound for the Caroline Islands. From 1 November 1944 – 18 February 1945, she served as a station hospital ship at Ulithi, providing medical and dental care for the 3rd and 5th Fleets. She proceeded to Guam and was dispatched from there to Iwo Jima, arriving on 23 February. Solace anchored within 2,000 yards (1,800 m) of the beach, but enemy shells fell within 100 yd (91 m) of her, and she was forced to move further out. The first wounded were brought on board within 45 minutes of her arrival, and she sailed for Saipan the next day, loaded to capacity. She made three evacuation trips from Iwo Jima to base hospitals at Guam and Saipan, carrying almost 2,000 patients, by 12 March. The island was declared secure on the 15th.

Solace steamed to Ulithi and joined the invasion fleet for

Hampton Roads, Virginia
.

Decommissioning and sale

Solace was decommissioned at Norfolk on 27 March 1946, struck from the Navy List on 21 May, and returned to the War Shipping Administration on 18 July. She was sold to the Turkish Maritime Lines on 16 April 1948 and operated as SS Ankara.[6]

During the dismantling of SS Ankara, the workers who were not aware of the history of the ship, discovered a large amount of lead covering a room, which was uncommon for a cruise ship. It was the x-ray room of USS Solace. The scrapped lead was moved to the construction of

Halic, Istanbul, to build the dome of the fountain.[7]

Awards

Solace received seven battle stars for World War II service.

See also

References

  1. ^ Panama Canal Record. Vol. 24. 1930–1931.
  2. ^ Panama Canal Record. Vol. 25. 1931–1932.
  3. ^ SFR Productions (26 September 2010). "USS Arizona explosion and fire". Archived from the original on 12 December 2012 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ "Pearl Harbor Attack: USS Solace (AH-5) Action Report". Naval Historical Center. Retrieved 1 November 2009.
  5. ^ U.S. Navy Muster Rolls 1938-1949. USS Solace (AH-5) 1943 January 14. Accessed December 2019 via ancestry.com paid subscription site.
  6. ^ "ANKARA – IMO 5018131 – ShipSpotting.com – Ship Photos and Ship Tracker". shipspotting.com.
  7. ^ "HINCAL ULUÇ – Bir Hisar efsanesi.. Sunay Akın!." Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved 23 August 2018.

External links

Media related to IMO 5018131 at Wikimedia Commons