USS Sanctuary (AH-17)

USS Sanctuary (AH-17)

USS Sanctuary (AH-17) is a Haven-class hospital ship that served in the U.S. Navy in World War II and the Vietnam War. As of April 2010, she is still afloat with her final fate yet to be determined.(See: 1.4.1 below.)

Sanctuary was laid down as SS Marine Owl by the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Chester, Pa.; launched as Sanctuary (AH-17) on 15 August 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Alda Andrus; and delivered on 30 September 1944. Subsequently converted to a hospital ship by the Todd Shipbuilding Co., at Hoboken, N.J., whose citizens matched the cost of conversion with the purchase of war bonds, she was commissioned on 20 June 1945, Commander John M. Paulsson, USNR, in command of the ship; Captain Oscar Davis, MC, USN, in charge of the medical department.