Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Photo # NH 98695:  U.S. Army Hospital Ship Ernest Hinds underway, circa 1944-1945

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- SHIPS of the UNITED STATES ARMY --

Ernest Hinds (U.S. Army Transport and Hospital Ship, 1941, 1942-1946).
Also served as USS Santa Teresa (ID # 3804), 1918-1919, and as USS Kent (AP-28), 1941-1942

In April 1941 the U.S. Army purchased the 5341 gross-ton passenger liner Kent, which had been built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1918 and served in 1918-1919 as USS Santa Teresa. Renamed Ernest Hinds, she was converted to a troopship at Boston, Massachusetts, and took part in maneuvers off Cape Cod before being transferred to the Navy in July 1941. After serving as USS Kent (AP-28) for eight months, she was returned to the Army in March 1941 and again became USAT Ernest Hinds.

During May 1942 - September 1943 Ernest Hinds operated as a transport, making a trip to Alaska in mid-1942 and thereafter carrying personnel and cargo between the U.S., Hawaii, and the south Pacific and within the latter region. The ship was converted to a hospital ship at San Francisco, California, between September 1943 and June 1944. She then steamed through the Panama Canal to begin service between the U.S. East Coast and the Mediterranean Sea. Ernest Hinds's hospital ship service ended in September 1945 and she was again altered to a transport. She carried Jamaican laborers between Florida and Jamaica on behalf of the War Shipping Administration until turned over to the U.S. Public Health Service in April 1946 for use as a floating isolation ward at Jacksonville, Florida. She was transferred to the Maritime Administration in April 1947 and laid up at Brunswick, Georgia. Moved to the James River, Virginia, Reserve Fleet in April 1948, the nearly forty-year-old ship was sold for scrapping in May 1957.

This page features all our views of the U.S. Army Transport and Hospital Ship Ernest Hinds.

For views of this ship while she was in U.S. Navy service, see:

  • USS Santa Teresa (ID # 3804), 1918-1919. Served as USS Kent (AP-28), 1941-1942.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 85262

    Ernest Hinds
    (U.S. Army Transport, 1942)

    Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken circa 1942-1943.
    Built in 1918, this ship previously served as USS Santa Teresa (ID # 3804) and USS Kent (AP-28). She was converted to a hospital ship in 1943-1944.

    Copied from the book "Troopships of World War II", by Roland W. Charles.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 385 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98695

    Ernest Hinds
    (U.S. Army Hospital Ship, ex-transport, 1942)

    Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken circa 1944-1945.
    Built in 1918, this ship had also served in the Navy as USS Santa Teresa (ID # 3804) and USS Kent (AP-28). She became the U.S. Army transport Ernest Hinds in 1942 and was converted to a hospital ship in 1943-1944.

    Copied from the book "Troopships of World War II", by Roland W. Charles.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 405 pixels

     


    The U.S. Army Transport Ernest Hinds appears in the background of the following view of another ship:

    Photo #: NH 89960

    SS Neva
    (Soviet Merchant Freighter, 1930)

    Docked at San Francisco, California, during World War II.
    She appears to be under repair, as her rudder is unshipped.
    The U.S. Army Transport Ernest Hinds is in the background.
    Neva was not reported in service after 1955 and was dropped from merchant ship registers.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     


    For views of this ship while she was in U.S. Navy service, see:

  • USS Santa Teresa (ID # 3804), 1918-1919. Served as USS Kent (AP-28), 1941-1942.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 31 August 2003