MV Anastasis
motor ship built in 1953
MV Anastasis was a 159-metre (521 ft 8 in), 11,695 GRT hospital ship owned and operated by the humanitarian organization Mercy Ships. Formerly named Victoria, an Italian ocean liner built in 1953, the ship was purchased at scrap value of US $1 million in 1978. The ship was renovated and equipped as a fully functioning hospital ship to serve as the flagship of the Mercy Ships fleet for 29 years until being succeeded by MV Africa Mercy in 2007.
Service history
Early years and operational design
After purchase of Victoria in Italy, the ship was towed to Eleusis, Greece where Mercy Ships spent four years renovating the cruise liner into a self-contained hospital ship, with three operating rooms, a 40-bed hospital ward, a dental clinic, and hospital support services including x-ray equipment and a laboratory. The ship was renamed Anastasis, the Greek word for resurrection, and sailed out of Greece on July 7, 1982 to her port of registry in Valletta, Malta. Anastasis subsequently crossed the Atlantic Ocean and the Panama Canal to dock in Los Angeles for her first supply and fundraising trip. Her first relief effort was conducted in the port of Champerico, Guatemala, where Mercy Ships delivered food, seeds, clothing, and building materials.
Anastasis was staffed by a crew of volunteers from around the world, including surgeons, nurses, anesthesia providers, mariners, and other ancillary service providers such as cooks and housekeeping staff. Mercy Ships maintain this volunteer-based staffing model to date, as well as employing local day-workers to serve as translators and patient aides in each nation they visit.
Field service
Anastasis visited 275 ports over her lifespan, conducting 66 field assignments in 23 nations.
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This entry incorporates text from “MV Anastasis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.