USS Relief, a 3300-ton hospital ship, was built in 1896 at Chester, Pennsylvania, as the commercial passenger ship John Englis. In 1898 she became the U.S. Army Hospital Ship Relief and retained that name when she was transferred to the Navy in November 1902.
Relief was laid up from then until February 1908, when she was commissioned. After brief operations along the U.S. and Mexican west coasts, she accompanied the "Great White Fleet" across the Pacific until she was detached at Olongapo, Philippine Islands, in November 1908. On 18-19 November, while beginning a return voyage to the U.S., Relief was seriously damaged in a typhoon and had to return to Olongapo. Surveyed and found unseaworthy, she spent the next decade there as a stationary hospital ship and dispensary. Her name was changed to Repose in April 1918. Sold in May 1919, she subsequently had a long career as a merchant ship in the China and Philippine areas.
This page features all our views of USS Relief (1908-1919).
For additional images related to this ship, see: U.S. Army Hospital Ship Relief.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
For additional images related to this ship, see: U.S. Army Hospital Ship Relief.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
23 January 2000
Photo caption corrected 7 September 2003