Seawork’s charity partner Mercy Ships is expanding its fleet with a third hospital ship, in addition to the Global Mercy and Africa Mercy, after securing financial support for the newbuild from the charitable foundation of container shipping giant MSC Group earlier this year.
The purpose-built 174.1m vessel, with 7000 square metres of hospital space spanning two decks, will have six operating rooms, a fully equipped laboratory and training facilities, as well as accommodation for 600 crew and guests. It will be constructed at China’s Guangzhou Shipyard International under a newbuild contract with shipbuilding conglomerate CSSC Holdings.
Construction work is set to kick off with steel-cutting in December 2025 followed by keel-laying and launch of the hull in the period to November 2026 that will be followed by two years of outfitting prior to scheduled delivery in March 2028, and then a year of equipping hospital facilities, according to a timeline disclosed at the conference.
Mercy Ships’ humanitarian work takes place in African countries where, according to Martin Aarflot, National Director of Mercy Ships Norway, more people are dying due to lack of surgery than from war, hunger, malaria and other diseases combined, accounting for some 46,000 deaths daily.
The charity has to date performed over 117,000 transformative surgeries while training over 54,000 medical professionals to strengthen local healthcare services, impacting the lives of almost 3 million people, since being founded in 1978.
