866 (PEACE ARK) Hospital Ship

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

866 (PEACE ARK) Hospital Ship

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Oct 13, 2015 7:39 pm

The hospital ship depict in the margin of this stamp is the Chinese hospital ship 866 better known as PEACE ARK.
She was built as a Type 920 hospital ship by the CSIC (Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Ltd.) for the Chinese military (PLAN).
29 August 2007 launched as PLAN 866 (PEACE ARK) if this is the official name I am not sure.
As with most of the Chinese navy vessels her details are not released official, so we have to guess but globalsecurity believes that the ship is built after the plans of the ro-ro vessel VISBY which was built before on the same yard.
As given by the GlobalSecurity.Org :
Displacement 20,000 – 23,000 tons, dim. 170 x 25x 9.30m.
Powered by two diesel engines hp?, speed?
Capacity for about 600 beds,
Can carry one or two helicopters, has a landing platform on the stern and a hangar.
22 December 2008 was she commissioned.
The Type 920 Hospital Ship is a class of hospital ship in the People's Liberation Army Navy of the Peoples' Republic of China.
920 is the type of the ship. 866 is the PLA Navy pennant number of this ship, (Dai san dao hao) is the navy name, (Peace Ark) is the name in peacetime.
History
Launched in 2007, China is one of a few nations with naval floating hospitals. The Chinese rationale for the ship was to give China a platform to provide a better means to providing quicker humanitarian response to disasters around the world, but others contend it also allows China to extend the navy's blue water capabilities. The single ship of the class has a pennant number 866. The ship is assigned to the East Sea Fleet and based out of Hubei. The ship has 500 beds, 35 ICUs, 12 operating theatres, and the capacity to accommodate 60 major surgeries a day – about as many as a large hospital in Beijing. The ship is unarmed and painted white with red crosses to conform to the Geneva Convention criteria for a civilian hospital ship; firing upon it is potentially a war crime under international law.
Operations
On September 1, 2010, the hospital ship embarked on a three-month "Harmonious Mission 2010" to the Gulf of Aden with a total of 428 officers including 100 medical workers. En-route it visited and provided medical treatment to the local people of Djibouti, Tanzania, Kenya, the Seychelles and Bangladesh.
During "Harmonious Mission 2011", PEACE ARK visited Cuba, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, the first Chinese voyage to the Caribbean.
In November 2013, the ship was deployed to Tacloban, Philippines to assist in the recovery from Typhoon Haiyan.
PEACE ARK also participated as part of the Chinese contribution to Exercise RIMPAC 2014 in addition to the United States hospital ship USNS MERCY.
2015 In service.

Sierra Leone 2015 Le6000 sg?, scott?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_920_hospital_ship
Attachments
Peace_Ark-1.jpg
2015 866 peace ark.jpg

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