“This vessel was built as a U. S. Navy hospital ship, “The Comfort,” and served in the Pacific during World War II and later served as a U. S. Army transport to bring the troops back home.
Reportedly the nurses’ lounge of the vessel had once been hit by a kamikaze in Okinawa.
When the Maine Maritime Academy Students went to sea in her as “The State of Maine,” the three padded cells in the former psycho ward of the hospital ship, were still in place. Philip Rich [Philip Clifton Rich (1941-)], who attended the Academy from 1959-1962, bunked in the former isolation ward, which held only five or six cadets, during his junior year and remembers that the plumbing fixtures of the former psycho ward had levers, not regular handles. They used the padded cells on the second deck as storages closets to supplement the cadets’ small storage lockers.” – Meredith Hutchins 01/25/12
“Steamer State of Maine, Portland, Maine,” Southwest Harbor Public Library, accessed April 20, 2024, https://swhpl.digitalarchive.us/items/show/3511.Item 6733
