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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive
Contributed by Don Mc Grogan

USAHS Shamrock
ex
 USAT Agwileon (1942 - 1943)
 USS Comfort (I) (AH-3) (1920 - 1921)
 USS Comfort (I) (1918 - 1920)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons


Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - World War I Victory Medal (with bronze star in lieu of Transport clasp) - American Campaign Medal
Bottom Row - Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal
  • Built 1906 as SS Havana at William Cramp and Sons, Ship and Engine Building Co., Philadelphia, PA. for the New York & Cuba Mail Steamship Co., operated commercially until 1917
  • Acquired by the War Department in 1917
  • Acquired by the Navy from the War Department, 19 July 1917
  • Converted to a Hospital Ship at New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y.
  • Commissioned USS Comfort, 18 March 1918, Medical Inspector C. M. Oman, USN, in command
  • Comfort spent much of the remainder of World War I as a floating hospital at New York, in October 1918 she began the first of three voyages to bring wounded servicemen home from Europe
  • Reassigned to the Pacific in June 1919
  • Placed in ordinary at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., 11 September 1919
  • Designated (AH-3), 17 July 1920
  • Decommissioned, 5 August 1921, at Mare Island Navy Yard
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 5 August 1921
  • Sold for scrapping, 5 August 1921, to General Metal Supply Co,, W 14th St., Oakland, CA.
  • Towed by tugs Sea Lion and Relief (ID-2170), 18 May 1925, out of the Mare Island Navy Yard
  • Resold, 1 April 1925, by General Metal Supply Co.
  • Returned to commercial service in 1928, renamed SS Havana, assigned ID-4807
  • Following a grounding in 1935 the ship was renamed SS Yucatan, and after capsizing at her New York pier in 1941 she was purchased by Agwilines, Inc. and renamed SS Agwileon and returned to service as a freighter
  • Purchased by th War Shipping Administration, 10 January 1942, for $390,000.00
  • Chartered by the War Department, 27 November 1942, converted into a troopship, commissioned USAT Agwileon
  • After one voyage to Oran and Gibraltar in April-June 1943 she was modified for hospital ship employment,
  • Redesignated and renamed USAHS Shamrock in August 1943
  • USAHS Shamrock operated in the Mediterranean between September 1943 and February 1944, May and September 1944, and late 1944 and early 1945
  • Between April and September 1945 she underwent major repairs and ventilation alterations for service in the Southwest Pacific
  • No longer needed in the Pacific by the time she arrived at Los Angeles in October 1945
  • Decommissioned, in November 1945
  • Returned to the War Shipping Administration, 4 February 1946 for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA.
  • Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 30 December 1947, to Walter W. Johnson Co., (PD-X-395) for $39,351.00, withdrawn from the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, 4 February 1948
    Specifications:
    Displacement 10,102 t.(fl)
    Length 429' 10"
    Beam 50' 2"
    Draft 26'
    Speed 18.3 kts.
    Hospital Ship
    Complement 336
    Patient Capacity 602
    Troopship
    Passenger Capacity 1,350
    Cargo Capacity 146,360 cu. ft.
    Armament none
    Propulsion
    Eight Babcock and Wilcox single ended boilers
    two 4,250hp vertical triple expansion steam engines
    two propeller shafts
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		Size Image Description Source
    Pre-WWI Merchant Service
    Comfort 314k Post card image of SS Havana moored at muelle fiscal (fiscal wharf) Veracruz, Mexico, circa 1907. Tommy Trampp
    Comfort 53k SS Havana prior to World War I. Initially taken over by the US Army for wartime service as USAT Havana, she was acquired by the Navy, 19 July 1917 and converted to a hospital ship. Commissioned USS Comfort, 18 March 1918, she was laid up at the Mare Island Navy Yard in 1919, stricken on 26 May 1924 and sold on 1 April 1925. The original print is in National Archives' Record Group 19-LCM.
    US Navy photo # 100871 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 77k SS Havana in port, possibly when inspected by the Third Naval District when she was acquired for Naval service on 19 July 1917. Following conversion to a hospital ship, this former New York & Cuba Mail Steamship Co. liner was placed in commission, 18 March 1918 as USS Comfort (designated AH-3 in 1920).
    US Navy photo # 102829, from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    USS Comfort (AH-3)
    Comfort 245k USS Comfort moored pierside at Brooklyn Navy Yard, 28 June 1918.
    Photo from Western Newspaper Union, 28 June 1918. "U.S. Hospital Ship 'Comfort' to test Germany's respect for Red Cross emblem."
    National Archives identifier 45496312.    		 David Wright
    Comfort 262k USS Comfort moored pierside, date and location unknown.
    US National Archives Photo.    		 David Wright
    Comfort 120k USS Comfort crewmen carrying patient in stretcher, date and location unknown. Christian Davis
    Comfort 342k USS Comfort Ward "G" in June 1918 during the Influenza pandemic of 1918-1919.
    US Navy photo.    		 Ron Reeves
    Comfort 106k USS Comfort crewmen assembled during "General Quarters", circa 1918.
    US Navy photo # 67708, courtesy of the US Naval Library, Treasure Island, CA., 1969.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 83k USS Comfort underway with wounded soldiers on board, during their passage home from France after the end of World War I, 1 December 1918.
    US Navy photo # 67709, courtesy of the US Naval Library, Treasure Island, CA., 1969.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 238k Stretcher cases being carried aboard USS Comfort, 19 February 1919, at Bassens, Bordeaux, France.
    US Army Signal Corps photo courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Comfort 215k The 348th Infantry Band giving a concert on docks while loading the wounded on board USS Comfort, 19 February 1919, at Bassens, Bordeaux, France.
    US Army Signal Corps photo courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Comfort 217k Nurses leading blind soldiers aboard USS Comfort, 19 February 1919, at Bassens, Bordeaux, France.
    US Army Signal Corps photo courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Comfort 182k USS Comfort moored pierside, 27 February 1919, at Bassens, Bordeaux, France.
    US Army Signal Corps photo courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine.    		 Michael Rhode, Archivist / Curator, US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7) Office of Medical History
    Comfort
    09120301    		 97k USS Comfort underway, date and location unknown.
    US Navy photo    		 David Wright
    and Naval Hospital Corp School
    Comfort 83k USS Comfort at anchor, circa 1919.
    US Navy photo # 61539    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 53k USS Comfort at anchor in New York Harbor, circa 1919.
    US Navy photo # 77286, courtesy of Mrs. C.R. DeSpain, 1973. From the scrapbooks of Fred M. Butler.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 66k USS Comfort in port during World War I.
    US Navy photo # 93860, courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1982.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 60k USS Comfort in dry dock at Navy Yard New York, circa 1919.
    US Navy photo # 67704, courtesy of the US Naval Library, Treasure Island, CA., 1969.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 191k USS Comfort and USS SC-415 moored, probably at New York in 1919. Ric Hedman
    Comfort 113k USS Comfort moored inboard of US Army Transport USAT Mount Vernon at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., 2 January 1920. Note the drydock in the foreground.
    US Navy photo # 45744    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Mount Vernon 124k USS Comfort moored inboard of US Army Transport USAT Mount Vernon at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., in January 1920.
    US Navy Photo NH # 71246 from the William H. Topley Collection, courtesy of Charles M. Loring, 1970.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 97k USS Comfort underway, date and location unknown.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 61538. BUMED photo # 14-0058-002y.    		 Robert Hurst
    Comfort 128k USS Comfort moored pierside, date and location unknown. Terri Weispfenning
    Comfort 276k Decommissioned USS Comfort moored at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., circa 1920-21.
    US Navy Photo from the collections of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum.    		 Darryl Baker
    Comfort 155k Decommissioned USS Comfort (AH-3) moored alongside the decommissioned battleship USS Vermont (BB-20) at the Mare Island Reserve Fleet, in January 1924.
    US Navy Photo from the collections of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum.    		 Darryl Baker
    Post-WWI Merchant Service
    Comfort 128k SS Havana ex-USS Comfort (AH-3) in an artist's concept was submitted when the rebuilt hospital ship underwent Navy inspection in 1928 before entering service with her original owners. At that time she was assigned the identification number ID-4807.
    US National Archives, RG-19 (1925-40), QS1-(4807), Photo No. None, courtesy Shipscribe.com.    		 Mike Green
    USAT Agwileon
    Comfort 67k Halftone reproduction of a photo of USAT Agwileon taken circa April-June 1943, while the ship was in service as a US Army Transport. She became the Army Hospital Ship USAHS Shamrock in mid-1943. Copied from the book "Troopships of World War II", by Roland W. Charles.
    US Navy photo # 103120, from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    USAHS Shamrock
    Comfort
    09120332    		 15k
    Namesake
    Shamrock - is a young sprig, used as a symbol of Ireland. Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, is said to have used it as a metaphor for the Christian Holy Trinity. The name shamrock comes from Irish seamróg), which is the diminutive of the Irish word seamair and simply means "young clover".
    Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, George McFinnigan    		 Tommy Trampp
    Comfort 76k Halftone reproduction of a photo of USAHS Shamrock taken circa 1943-1945, while the ship was in service as a US Army Hospital Ship. She had previously been the US Army Transport USAT Agwileon. Copied from the book "Troopships of World War II", by Roland W. Charles.
    US Navy photo # 103120, from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 109k USAHS Shamrock in port, circa 1943-1946. A US Maritime Commission photo, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.
    US Navy photo # 103128    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 65k USAHS Shamrock in San Francisco Bay, CA., in late 1945 or early 1946.
    US Navy photo # 98758 donated by BM1 Robert G. Tippins, USN (Retired), 2003.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Comfort 142k USAHS Shamrock arriving at Port of Embarkation, Charleston, S. C., date unknown.
    US Army Signal Corps photo.    		 Tommy Trampp
    Comfort 65k USAHS Shamrock, interior view, surgical ward, date unknown.
    		 Tommy Trampp
    USS Comfort (I) (AH-3)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR. (MC) Oman, Charles Maiden, USN18 March 1918 - 9 November 1918
    02CAPT. (MC) Dunbar, Arthur Wright, USN9 November 1918 - ?
    03CDR. Webb Ulys Robert10 June 1919 - 21 June 1920
    04LCDR. (MC) Harmesch, Harry Robert, USN21 June 1920 - 5 August 1921
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    "Navy's New Hospital Ship, the Comfort, Bears Her Name in Every Way" The Sun Sunday, April, 28 1918
    AGWILEON "Troopships of World War II @copyRoland W. Charles, Published by US Army Transportation Association, Washington, D.C., April 1947
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    Last Updated 12 May 2024