RELIEF Hospital Ship

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Hospital Ship
Built 1896 by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works of Chester, Pennsylvania


1. SS JOHN ENGLIS (Passenger Liner)
Owned and operated by Maine Steamship Company
Purchased by U.S. Army 1898 for Spanish-American War service as Hospital Ship


2. USAHS RELIEF
Commissioned 1898
Transferred to U.S. Navy November 13 1902


3. USS RELIEF
Commissioned February 6 1908 - Decommissioned June 10 1910
Placed in service as Stationary Hospital Ship at Olongapo, P.I.
Name lost to new construction (AH-1) 1917


4. REPOSE (Hospital Ship)
Renamed REPOSE April 11 1918


5. SS REPOSE (Commercial Service)
Sold May 15 1919


6. HAI NING (Commercial Service)
Sold (Date unknown) renamed


7. MINDANAO (Commercial Service)
Sold (Date unknown) renamed


8. LANAO (Commercial Service)
Transferred to Philippine registry 1937 renamed

Bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft at Cebu, The Philippines, 2 January 1942

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Relief Hospital Ship Covers Page 1    (1938)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

USPO Machine Cancel Washington DC

1900-06-07

Incoming mail to the US Hospital Ship RELIEF.

 

Other Information

USS Relief earned the World War I Victory Medal during her Naval career.

 

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If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

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