Lloyd’s Register (LR) says it is honored to be the classification society of choice for Mercy Ships latest endeavour, a new 36,600 GRT hospital ship scheduled for completion in 2017, and to be named 'Atlantic Mercy'.
LR explain that the hospital ship will be designed by the Finnish firm Deltamarin and the vessel will be built at CSIC group’s Tianjin Xingang Shipyard in China. Stena RoRo will manage the actual project construction under the leadership of Per Westling, Managing Director.
The vessel will be certified as a passenger ship for long international voyages and will be registered under the flag of Malta with Lloyd’s Register classification. The main dimensions are 174 metres in overall length and 28.6 metres in breadth. The design service speed will be 12.0 knots. The vessel will have two hospital decks and can carry 500 persons on board when sailing; when in port, the capacity will be 950 persons. There will be a total of 641 beds in the 277 cabins. The vessel will even house a school for children of the staff.
Upon completion, Atlantic Mercy will be the world’s largest civilian hospital ship and will be assigned a class notation of + 100A1, Passenger Ship, *IWS, PC AC2, ShipRight (SDA, CM, ACS(B), SCM), ECO (IHM), + LMS, PSMRL, UMS, NAV1, Descriptive Note: Hospital Ship.
“LR Marine’s global team – spanning the Americas, Europe and Asia, is very pleased to support Mercy Ships and their partners in the design, build and through life operation of the ATLANTIC MERCY, enabling this unique organization to continue their invaluable mission and expand their reach,” stated John Hicks, VP Global Passenger Ships and Americas Business Development, Lloyd’s Register.