• History & Specifications
• Photos
• Record of Wartime Cruises
• Information About Specific Crossings
• Units Transported

Launched under Maritime Commission contract on 24 June 1944 as Marine Hawk.

1944 -

Aquired while still under construction and placed in Navy service on 15 June for conversion to a hospital ship.

1945 -

Commissioned on 5 May 1945 as Haven (AH-12). Sailed 14 June via the Panama Canal to the Pacific Theater. Reached Pearl Harbor 6 July and brought patients on board for return to San Francisco. Returned to Hawaii on 11 August, Haven sailed to Okinawa and Nagasaki. She arrived off the destroyed Japanese city on 11 September and brought on board a group of allied ex prisoners of war, some of them suffering from the effects of the atomic blast. During the remainder of 1945 the ship was engaged in transporting patients from Guam, Saipan, and Pearl Harbor to San Francisco, arriving after her second long voyage on 31 January 1946.

1946 -

At San Francisco, Haven took on radiological equipment and scientific researchers in preparation for the forthcoming atomic tests in the Pacific, Operation "Crossroads". She sailed on 29 May for Pearl Harbor and arrived at Bikini Atoll on 12 June, operating temporarily as APH-112. The ship remained in the test area supervising the medical aspects of the experiments throughout the operation, and arrived at Kwajalein on 26 August to assist in the inspection of the test ships. Haven departed on 10 October for Pearl Harbor and the United States, and upon her arrival and decontamination was assigned once again to transport troops from the Pacific outposts to California as AH-12. This occupied her until February 1947, when she reported to San Diego.

With the outbreak of the Korean War, Haven was taken out of reserve and commissioned on 15 September. She sailed 25 September via Pearl Harbor for Inchon, Korea where the hospital ship remained off Inchon caring for casualties until 6 January 1951, when the attacking Chinese Communists forced her to move further south.

Haven returned to Pusan on 5 February to care for battle casualties, and after another voyage to Inchon remained at Pusan until she sailed for the United States arriving at San Francisco on 30 October .

She began her second tour of Korean duty on 7 January. She operated off Inchon and Pusan during the months that followed, receiving many of her patients by helicopter directly from the front lines. Haven sailed again for the United States on 16 September, where she underwent the installation of a new flight deck to facilitate helicopter evacuation of patients.

Departed San Diego on 24 January and returned to her regular station in Inchon harbor where during the next seven months she treated almost 3,000 patients. Sailed for the United States on 20 August arriving at San Francisco on 3 September where she operated off the coast of California.

She began her fourth tour of duty in Korea on 4 January and arrived at Inchon on 7 February to provide regular medical care for troops. Haven also made occasional visits to Japan; and on 1 September with Korea in a state of truce, she was ordered to French Indochina, arriving at Saigon on 9 September. There she brought French troops on board as Viet Nam was partitioned and the French army withdrawn. Haven sailed to Oran and Marseille in October to disembark the soldiers, and completing her round-the-world voyage arrived at Long Beach via the Panama Canal on 1 November.

Haven took part in fleet maneuvers and provided hospital services for sailors.

Decommissioned at Long Beach on 30 June and placed in an "In Reserve, In Service" status, and remained moored at Long Beach providing medical services to the Pacific Fleet.

On 1 March she was struck from the Navy List. Haven was returned to the Maritime Administration on 5 June.