On April 14, 1898 the USS Solace was the first Post Civil War hospital ship to be commissioned. The USS Solace was used continuously during the Spanish-American War to transport injured and ill military personnel from Cuba to the Eastern United States. She also served during the war by traveling to European ports, the Near East, Far East and Hawaii. After her tour of duty in Hawaii, the USS Solace spent May 1899 through July 1899 at Mare Island Naval Shipyard here in the San Francisco Bay where she received an overhaul. After her overhaul, the USS Solace was based at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and traveled back and forth until she was went out of commission in 1905.
After her overhaul in 1899, the USS Solace traveled from Mare Island Naval Shipyard in the San Francisco Bay to Hawaii, Guam, China, Japan and the Philippine Islands to transport mail, passengers and provisions back and forth. In October 1905, the USS Solace was placed out of commission and she rested at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
In June 1908, the USS Solace was recommissioned and traveled to Samoa, Mexico, the Panama Canal and Caribbean on her way to Charleston, South Carolina. She stayed in South Carolina from April through November when she joined the Atlantic Fleet.
As a part of the Atlantic Fleet, the USS Solace served as a hospital ship for the Eastern United States and she traveled up and down the coast as well as occasionally to Cuba, the Panama Canal Zone and the Caribbean. The USS Solace served in the Atlantic Fleet from 1909 until 1921.
The USS Solace was decommissioned in July 1921, and struck from the Navy List in August of 1930. She was sold to Boston Metals Co. that November for scrap.
Source: US Navy
Comments