Other organizations have used ship-based operations that are not completely unlike what we are proposing. There are two that are most noteworthy.

Project USS Hope used a WWII naval hospital ship about 550 ft. long and 8000 tons with a steam powered turbine reduction propulsion. This ship required a minimum of 100 people to crew and was astronomical to maintain and overhaul. They have not used the ship for a couple of decades, and have changed to land based sites to operate their missions.

Mercy Ships is a contemporary organization that uses retired cruse ships to perform humanitarian missions. Again, they require incredible funds per mile to operate and staggering manning requirements. This overhead of lightly built large ships has mandated the lay-up of at least one of the ships while a second is in overhaul. Mercy Ships has offset the operational costs by moving only a few times a year and typically staying in port for around 3 months at a time.

While we intend to cast no negative reflection on either of these organizations, we are focused on a different segment of operations. While being ship-based, we have chosen a specific class of ship that allows us to operate safely and in full US Coast Guard compliance with a crew of four licensed staff and six volunteer staff members. In addition to the smaller crew, ours is are Diesel-electric propelled ship, eliminating the tremendously high cost of operating and maintaining a steam propulsion system. Read more about our ship here.