The Voyage of the Rose City

by John Moynihan

  He is sorely missed.

  A WORD ABOUT THE SHIP

  Launched in 1976 as a supertanker in the San Clemente class, in 1987 the SS Rose City was converted to a hospital ship for the U.S. Navy, and is now called the USNS Comfort. The original cathedral-sized tanks now hold twelve fully equipped operating rooms, a one-thousand-bed hospital facility, and all necessary laboratory and technical support systems. Its primary mission is to provide flexible rapid medical and surgical care for U.S. military forces, and its secondary mission is for relief and humanitarian efforts worldwide. With a crew of sixty-seven civil service mariners, the Comfort arrived in Haiti on January 20, 2010, and the 560 medical and 110 support personnel immediately began treating earthquake victims. John McCloskey Moynihan, Ordinary Seaman, would be thrilled by the ship’s transformation and mission.