SUNY Maritime College - Eight Bells Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

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1 , P '1' Q 'W 1 Yi 7 1 EMPIRE STA TE II 1946 1956 On Dec. 9, 1944 the l-lydrus CAKA 285 was commissioned. She was designed and equip- ped as an auxiliary combat cargo assault ves- sei. l-lydrus had a turbo-electric twin screw drive, a cruising range of 10,000 miles and a top speed of 18 knots. She was 426 feet long and displaced 6000 to 8000 tons. Her war service included duty with the Pacific 5th Fleet at Guadalcanal, Okinawa and l-lawaii. She served as a troop carrier to China. After her war service she was returned to the east coast for decommissioning. On March 26, 1946 the l-lydrus was turned over by the Navy to the War Shipping Adminis- tration who in turn turned over the l-lydrus to the N.Y.S. Maritime Academy -where she was renamed T. S. Empire State. As the Empire State it made its first post war foreign training cruise in 1946 followed by summer cruises until 1956. ...-

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EMPIRE STA TE III 1956-1960 The USS. Mercy was launched on March 25, 1943 and con- verted to a modern hospital ship. She was 416 feet in length, 60 feet beam with a designed speed of 15.3 knots. The Mercy was manned by Navy personnel and staffed by US. Army medical personnel. She participated in Leyte, Philip- pine lslands landings Oct. 22 to Dec. 16, 1944 and in the assault and occupation ot Okinawa, April 19-May 17, 1945. The Mercy served as a hospital ship until May 17, 1946 when she was decommissioned and turned over to the US. Army where she served with the Army Transport Service until Feb. 1950 when she was laid up by the Maritime Administration in its reserve fleet in the James River. On May 23, 1956 Marad turned the vessel over to the Maritime College as a training vessel and renamed Empire State lll and as such was used for summer training cruises until 1960.