Mercy Ships' New Hospital Ship Completes Sea Trials
Maritime Activity Reports, Inc.
Global Mercy (Photo: Mercy Ships)
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 37,000.
The sea trials, designed to test the vessel during extended sailing time to ensure that all systems are fully operational and in line with strict standards and specifications, included engine performance and fuel consumption, navigation and radio equipment, emergency systems, speed tests, maneuverability, engine and thruster tests as well as safety evaluations. The vessel has a service speed of 12 knots.