Mercy Ship News

Mercy Ships is known globally for its charitable work performing medical procedures in developing countries. For the first time, the organization has a new ship, Global Mercy, recently delivered from a shipyard in China. Jim Paterson, Marine Executive Consultant, Mercy Ships takes Maritime Reporter & Engineering News inside the construction of the world’s largest civilian hospital ship.Jim Paterson already had a career and Chief Engineer’s Certificate when he joined Mercy Ships nearly 34 years ago, in search of a life change to make a difference.

Mercy Ships announced that its newly built hospital ship Global Mercy has completed sea trials leading up to delivery, equipping, maiden voyage and launch into service to sub-Saharan Africa in 2022.The first-of-its-kind 174-meter vessel, designed by Finnish naval architect Deltamarin and built at the Tianjin Xingang Shipyard in China, is the world’s largest purpose-built civilian hospital ship. It has a beam of 28.6 meters, with a design draft of 6.15 meters and gross tonnage of 37…

Maritime medical operations and public health provider VIKAND Solutions, LLC said it has appointed Russ Holmes as director of business development.Perhaps best known for providing end-to-end medical solutions to the cruise industry for its guests and crew, the company said bringing Holmes onboard positions it to further extend its medical best practices and results to the global maritime industry, including commercial shipping, private islands, the gas and oil energy sector, and the yachting market.“To this newly created role at VIKAND…

Mercy Ships' new hospital ship Global Mercy, nearing completion at the Tianjin Xingang shipyard in China, will be powered by four Wärtsilä 32 engines.When completed, the philanthropic organization's Global Mercy will be the world’s largest vessel of its kind, providing essential healthcare to patients in developing countries. Mercy Ships expects to take delivery in 2021, and the ship’s maiden voyage is planned later in the year to Africa where crew will provide vital surgical care at no cost.Wärtsilä…

Leading maritime event week Nor-Shipping has announced that Mercy Ships has been selected as its new charity partner. The global organisation, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, will receive financial support and promotion throughout Nor-Shipping’s maritime and ocean industry network, supporting its vital work helping and healing those in need. Nor-Shipping 2019, taking place across a series of venues in Lillestrøm and Oslo between 04 – 07 June 2019, will help raise funds and awareness for Mercy Ship’s state-of-the-art Africa Mercy vessel. This, together with its three predecessors, has visited close to 600 ports since the charity formed, performing over 89,000 life saving operations and assisting more than 2.5 million people.

The 35-meter-long, 900-ton outer caisson at the Port of Durban’s Prince Edward Graving Dock has now been commissioned after being refurbished at a cost of R30 million. This was the third and final phase of Transnet National Ports Authority’s (TNPA) comprehensive repair program on the structure which was deemed unsafe and in need of repair. Work involved structural repairs to the first of two steel lock gates that separate the dock into two compartments and seal off water from the harbor to enable repairs and maintenance work to be carried out on ships serviced at the facility.

Collateral hardship from the Ebola epidemic now includes a delay for Mercy Ships, which operates the world’s largest civilian hospital ship in ports on the West Coast of Africa. Already with one canceled deployment to Guinea, where Ebola first broke out last December, the Mercy Ship now waits in the water with crew and staff, pending an end-of-August decision on field service in Benin. The Mercy Ship was due to sail for the port of Cotonou, Benin, for its 10-month field service…

A volunteer surgeon from Boston saved a child’s life in an urgent and complex surgery performed onboard the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship, the 'Africa Mercy'. Dr. Mark Shrime performed the surgery to remove a 'fist sized' tumor from the throat of a four-year-old boy who was slowly suffocating. It was performed in one of the five operating rooms on the hospital ship with a team of professional medical volunteers from five countries. The surgeon had met the four-year-old boy named Emmanoel in Pointe Noir, Congo.

Mercy Ships, the charitable hospital ship foundation, is delighted to announce the leadership gift of $20 million from Laguna Beach philanthropists, Sue and Bill Gross. The funds are designated toward a new hospital ship, currently in the design phase, to join the current hospital ship, the Africa Mercy , in delivering hope and healing to the underserved poor. In honor of this generous donation, the hospital onboard the new ship will be named the Sue and Bill Gross Healing Hospital.

Professor Alpha Condé, President of Guinea, tours the 'Africa Mercy' hospital ship, docked at the Port of Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Donovan Palmer, Managing Director and International Vice-President of Mercy Ships, the Senior Management Team and over 100 Mercy Ships volunteers were present as a strong demonstration of appreciation and respect to the President and his government for enabling and supporting the Mercy Ships medical mission in Guinea. President Condé expressed his appreciation for how much he had learned about Mercy Ships on his tour.

Protocols have been signed for a Mercy Hospital Ship to dock in Congo-Brazzaville’s western port city of Pointe Noire. Meetings with the Republic of the Congo’s Ministries of Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Congo-Brazzaville’s western port city of Pointe Noire this past week culminated in the signing of agreements to confirm that a Mercy Ship will dock in this Central African nation as its next African port of call. An initial protocol was signed in the nation by HE President Denis Sassou Nguesso during a visit by Mercy Ships President/Founder Don Stephens in May 2012.

Over 4,300 people queue for mass screening hoping for an appointment card leading to life changing surgery aboard 'African Mercy'. In drizzling rain several hundred people joined the queue, and by daybreak they started to come in their thousands; this was no grand final, and no rock concert – 'The Mercy Ship' had arrived in the West African nation of Guinea. Guinea is one of the least developed countries in the world, ranking 178 out of 187 on the UN Human Development Index. According to the World Health Organization…

The Port of Conakry in Guinea welcomes the 'Africa Mercy' – the world’s largest private charitable hospital ship. Previous assignments to the West African nation took place in 1992 and 1999. For the next ten months the state-of-the-art hospital ship, with six operating theatres, will provide free specialized surgeries and training for health care workers in Guinea. In response to an invitation from the President of Guinea, the Mercy Ships program strategy is to partner with the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene and other organizations to improve the country’s health care delivery system.

Mercy Ships is a nonprofit organization operating medical relief ships that travel to the poorest countries of the world to perform medical services and community development programs. In order to serve such communities, the ships have three basic requirements: a place to dock, fresh water and telephone access. In these poor countries, it is very common to have a wired public phone system that is very old, overloaded, and not readily available at the dockside. However, GSM cellular service is generally available in the port area, so finding a way to use that cellular service has been a must for Mercy Ships. In their quest to access the GSM cellular service…

The red sun drifted over the deep blue of the tropical Pacific on the western horizon, washing the surrounding Guatemalan countryside with a pale rose light. To the east, against a backdrop of hazy green volcanoes, we watched the cruise ship at the far end of the harbor preparing to depart. From the bridge wing of the Caribbean Mercy, we watched her stately transit of bright lights through the harbor. As the captain made his turn toward the open sea, passing astern of our berth, we sounded our air horn in a prolonged salute: safe voyage, happy return. When their ship arrived that morning, the captain and his wife had paid a social call. He said he recognized our Mercy Ship, the Caribbean Mercy, as a Norwegian coastal ferry. He had sailed on one similar in his youth.

The Mercy Ship Anastasis has arrived in Monrovia, Liberia for her first ever visit to the war torn West African nation. At the urging of United Nations officials, the Liberian Government and the National Council of Churches, Mercy Ships will provide a full slate of specialized medical services as well as community development assistance over the next four months. Mercy Ships will offer desperately needed operations and medical procedures unavailable in Liberia such as tumor removals and cleft lip/palate repair. According to US AID, the Liberian civil war (1989-1996, 1999-2003) claimed the lives of more than 150,000 Liberians and further displaced approximately 850,000 others into refugee camps.

As the shipping world comes together this week to commemorate World Maritime Day and the vital role played by shipping in world trade and development, Mercy Ships highlights the contribution volunteer maritime crew have made in bringing hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor. Since 1978, hundreds of maritime volunteers have kept the fleet of Mercy Ships sailing to over 555 ports in 70 nations. More than 100 career maritime professionals serve with Mercy Ships currently. In partnership with Mercy Ships health care and administrative volunteers, more than 1.7 million people have received life-changing medical and community development services. Bosun Eric Thibodeau is one of 50 mariners serving onboard a Mercy Ship currently in West Africa.

A global charity operating a growing fleet of hospital ships will soon launch its newest Africa Mercy ship, which is expected to double the number of medical beneficiaries than it is currently serving. Slated to go active in April off the Port of London, the former Danish rail ferry will be the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship as Texas-based Mercy Ships says goodbye to two veteran ships - Anastasis and the Caribbean Mercy. Best practices from the two retiring ships were used as a base line in designing the hospital, public areas and crew accommodations on the Africa Mercy. While the former cruise liners were converted into hospital ships, the organization's newest vessel will have a purpose-built hospital, allowing for greater numbers to be cared for.

The Mercy Ship Anastasis has docked in Monrovia, Liberia. Thousands struggle to survive in this war-torn country where elections have recently taken place after 14 years of civil war. Mercy Ships had an election observer in Monrovia for the recent first round of the presidential and legislative elections. The second round is scheduled for November 8th. In Liberia there is only one physician per 50,000[1] people. Over the coming seven months, Mercy Ships will provide essential medical services free of charge to the poor. Speaking during a colorful program to welcome the hospital ship’s return to Liberia’s shores, Dr. Peter Coleman, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, welcomed the crew to a safe and peaceful Liberia.

Think of them as a floating hospital if you may - but the U.K.-based Mercy Ships is designed to be the world's answer to effective crisis response at sea. The international Christian humanitarian organization deploys ocean-going vessels as hospitals and relief and development vehicles with a goal it hopes to reach by 2005 of serving one million people. Believed to be one of the largest individual gifts given to a Christian charity in the U.K. - a donation of $6.4 million was recently granted to the organization for the purchase of another vessel for its good Samaritan fleet. This good-will gesture offered by Ann Gloag, executive director of Stagecoach Holdings plc, will go toward Mercy Ships' purchase of Dronning Ingrid -a 16,071-grt Scandlines train and car ferry.

As efforts continue around the nation to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, Mercy Ships is contributing to relief efforts by collaborating with city officials, churches and other non-governmental organizations. The Caribbean Mercy, a Mercy Ship usually serving the poor and needy in Central America and the Caribbean, was docked in Mobile, Alabama when the hurricane struck. The Mercy Ship is now serving as a command center and housing location for relief teams. Mercy Ships disaster response coordinators are collaborating with local relief agencies to ensure those who need help will receive it. A group from the Mercy Ship is canvassing neighborhoods near Mobile Bay, asking residents what their needs are and determining how to best meet those needs.