S Maria Lohmeyer News

“We got underway this morning,” mission spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. S. Maria Lohmeyer said, speaking by cell phone from the ship after Mercy left San Diego Bay. Problems surfaced Tuesday with a valve in the ship’s forward propulsion system, Lohmeyer said, just as Mercy was preparing to leave on its four-and-a-half-month deployment for this year’s “Pacific Partnership” humanitarian and civic mission. Officials expected repairs would take 48 hours. Lohmeyer said Navy officials don’t expect the delay will affect the planned missions, which will include medical, humanitarian and disaster relief projects in four countries, starting in Indonesia on May 31.

USNS Mercy's departure on S.E. A “mechanical issue” delayed the has delayed the departure of the hospital ship Mercy, which was scheduled to leave its berth here for a scheduled humanitarian mission to Southeast Asia, according to the Navy. Problems surfaced with the ship’s forward propulsion system just as Mercy was preparing to leave on its four-and-a-half-month deployment for this year’s “Pacific Partnership” humanitarian and civic mission, said mission spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. S. Maria Lohmeyer. “Engineers anticipate the repair will take approximately 48 hours,” Lohmeyer said.