 Hospital ships have played an integral role in treating and saving lives both in peacetime and war from almost as long as there has been a Navy medicine. Starting in 1803, the Navy used the former bomb catch, USS Intrepid, for treating and transporting casualties in the Barbary Wars. During the Civil War, after capturing a former Confederate paddle steamer, the Union Navy relaunched it on the Mississippi River as the hospital ship USS Red Rover. With the commissioning of the USS Solace in 1898, a new era of hospital ship began. Each ship with the soothing names and white hulls most associate with these Navy vessels today. During every major conflict, Navy hospital ships were there to treat and support the fleet. But never before or since have hospital ships been used as extensively as they were in World War II. On December 7, 1941, the new USS Solace witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor. Within 30 minutes of the attack, the Solace began treating casualties. Later serving in the Pacific, she was one of 15 hospital ships in operation at the end of the war. During the Korean War, hospital ships were each fitted with helodecks and would receive some of the first casualties ever transported by helicopter to a hospital ship. Today, U.S. NS Comfort and the U.S. NS Mercy served to meet the mission requirement of providing a mobile, flexible, rapidly responsive medical capability afloat and to medically support deployed forces. As a secondary role, these ships have been used extensively to support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions around the world and for deployments to New York and Los Angeles as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Over time, the unique medical capabilities of hospital ships have enabled them to serve as powerful symbols of hope and resilience in times of crisis.