cruise ship terminals in San Pedro and Manhattan. This will enable nearby hospitals to free up beds for coronavirus patients. On April 21st, Governor Cuomo told President Trump that Comfort was no longer needed in New York. While docked in the city, she treated 182 patients. Criticism The Mercy-class ships are large, with 1,000 beds, and can receive up to 200 patients a day. They are stable platforms suitable for performing most surgical procedures in various sea conditions. However, the main points of criticism of these ships are: They are too slow, with a maximum speed of just over 17 knots. The Mercy class ships are much larger (in terms of medical capacity) than is needed for most military operations, and they are not easily or quickly deployed or docked. Their size gives them a substantial radar signature that, combined with lack of maneuverability, makes them vulnerable to attack. In theory, this should never occur, as attacking a hospital ship is a war crime under the Hague Convention of 1907, but the ships are left vulnerable to terrorist organizations and other entities that do not follow such established warfare conventions, due to the fact that both ships are outfitted only with defensive weapons. While the ships are underway or in rough seas patients must be transported by helicopter. However, helicopter capacities are limited, as each ship has only one landing pad. Patient movement within the ship is limited. Built as oil tankers, the original oil storage bulkheads were retained, but have no doors, which means that patients must be brought up to the top deck in order to be moved from a lower compartment in one part of the ship to another. In mid-2004 Vice Admiral Michael L. Cowan, the Surgeon General and chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said that Comfort and Mercy should be retired. "They're wonderful ships, but they're dinosaurs. They were designed in the '70s, built in the '80s, and frankly, they're obsolete". See also List of United States Navy hospital ships References External links Auxiliary ship classes of the United States Navy