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USS ''Mercy'' (ID-1305/AH-4) was a hospital ship in the United States Navy during World War I. She was the first U.S. Navy ship of that name. The ship was previously known as SS ''Saratoga'', a steamer for the Ward Line on the New York to Havana route, and considered the fastest steamship in coastal trade. Before being purchased by the Navy, the ship was briefly employed as United States Army transport ship USAT ''Saratoga'', a career that ended after a collision off Staten Island, New York.〔 In her Navy career, ''Mercy'' made four transatlantic round trips to France, bringing home almost 2,000 wounded men. After the end of World War I, the ship was based in Philadelphia, and briefly laid up there in 1924. The ship was decommissioned in 1934 and lent to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, struck in 1938, and scrapped in 1939. == SS ''Saratoga'' == ''Saratoga'' was launched in March 1907 by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, for the Ward Line of New York. The ship was placed in service later that year on the New York to Havana route where she stayed for the next ten years. She was considered by some as the fastest steamship in the coastal trade.〔 Shortly after entering service, the new liner was rammed by a three-masted schooner in stormy seas. ''Saratoga'' was steaming from Havana at when the schooner hit the port quarter and raked the side, at 01:00 on 29 October 1907. Her captain could not identify the other ship, but waited, in vain, for three hours to offer assistance. Damage to ''Saratoga'' was minor, though the schooner lost some rigging from the front of the ship.〔 In March 1911, the captain of ''Saratoga'', Cleveland Downs, faced legal difficulties regarding the way live turtles were stored aboard while being imported to market. Downs was arrested in New York on charges of cruelty to animals because the turtles had been stored upside down, with flippers lashed to one another; Miller contended that this was standard practice and asked that the charges be dropped. A later ''Saratoga'' captain also faced legal troubles, when, in June 1912, Frank L. Miller was arrested by Sheriff Julius Harburger in New York and forced to post a $500 appearance bond in a civil suit involving a former crewman. Miller’s arrest delayed the departure of the ship by two hours. On 16 March 1912, ''Saratoga'' stood by "within a few hundred yards" of the hulk of when that re-floated warship was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, allowing passengers and crew to witness the historic ship’s final disposal. On 26 October 1914 from about 19:30 to 21:00, ''Saratoga'' was steaming north off the Virginia Capes (and south of the Scotland Lightship) when passengers and crew saw flashes and heard reports from guns of "heavy calibre" that they thought were from a naval gun battle. Speculation at the time centered on a confrontation between German cruiser ''Karlsruhe''—which had been sinking British vessels in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas—and one of the Royal Navy cruisers or . A follow-up news story reported that ''Saratoga'' had chanced upon U.S. Navy gunnery practice. On 23 May 1917 ''Saratoga'' and , her Ward Line sister-ship, were requisitioned by the U.S. government. On 2 June, after returning from her last commercial round trip to Cuba, ''Saratoga'' was turned over to the United States Army for service as a transport ship.〔 During her career as a passenger liner, ''Saratoga'' carried some notable passengers between New York and Caribbean ports. Mario García Menocal sailed from Havana to New York for "personal business" after having lost the Cuban presidential election in 1908.〔 Menocal would later serve as President of Cuba from 1913 to 1921.〕 In 1913, Cipriano Castro, the former President of Venezuela (1899–1909), sailed to Havana for his health in 1913. A report in ''The New York Times'' speculated that Castro was going to meet with associates and "professional revolutionaries" in Havana in an attempt to regain power in Venezuela (which never occurred). In February 1914, Cardinal Farley, the Archbishop of New York from 1902 to 1918, sailed on ''Saratoga'' for a trip to The Bahamas. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Mercy (AH-4)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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