I was in Baltimore, MD this evening picking up freight at the Locust Point Marine terminal. Next to the office where we pick up our paperwork is this HUGE ship tied up to the pier. I'm always fascinated by ships, so when I had a chance I walked along side. I thought it looked like a hospital ship. Yup, sure enough. It says SANCTUARY USS NAVY HOSPITAL SHIP in big letters along the side.
Kind of a sad site, sitting there all by itself. No sounds of machinery. No lights. Nothing. Just a cold windy night in Baltimore. I looked up the history of the Sanctuary ... and it's even more sad than I thought. She was built right at the end of WW II. Served for a bit and then placed in reserve. She was modernized for Vietnam and served there admirably for years. Then shuffled around for years until ultimately sold for scrap. But then the EPA got involved and halted the sale. Funny, I guess about a year ago the ship broke free of it's moorings and went adrift in the Baltimore harbor !
So there she sits in limbo. Too bad she couldn't be turned into a floating museum somewhere.
Here's info on the ship at Wiki