Five British Royal Fleet Auxiliary hospital ships - La grande famille des RFA Maine

There have been five British Royal Fleet Auxiliary hospital ships named RFA Maine.

RFA Maine in Lazaretto Creek, Malta. Behind are probably the depot ships Leander (ex cruiser) and Tyne, which are dressed with German Ensigns probably in honour of the Kaiser during his visit in 1904. Mike Day Collecton.

RFA Maine. 1905-1914.

• RFA Maine (1887), Built as the cargo ship Swansea in West Hartlepool in 1887.
GRT 2816. 315 x 40 x 20 feet. Single screw triple expansion. Loaned as hospital ship for the Boer War but actually went to China for the Boxer Rebellion. At the end of the war in 1901 she was presented to the Admiralty as its first permanent hospital ship. Designated as RFA (the first) in 1905. Wrecked off Mull 1914.

• RFA Maine (1905), was purchased in 1913, and named RFA Mediator. Renamed in 1914 after the loss of the first RFA Maine, the ship was sold back to her previous owners in 1916.
4,688 tons gross (originally). Dimensions: 390x53x27 feet. Built and engined by D & W Henderson & Co Ltd in 1906 at Glasgow, for Harris & Dixon & Co Ltd as the Heliopolis, acquired by the Admiralty in 1913 for conversion at Pembroke Dock to the hospital ship Mediator. On the loss of the former ship, she was re-christened Maine. (Sigwart)
7 March 1916. Maine.(ex Heliopolis). Conversion into hospital ship not completed. Considered by some to be totally unsuitable for this conversion. Sold by auction as lying at Pembroke Dock to Harris & Dixon Ltd. Reverted to original name. Estimated that total public expenditure on this ship exceeded £120,000. (Adams/Smith).

Later names - Methven, Borden, Perseus. Scrapped Genoa 1932.

RFA Maine passing Tigne, Malta in the 1920s.

• RFA Maine (1902), was purchased in 1920 and served in the Mediterranean Fleet, on the China Station, and was based at Alexandria, Egypt, during World War II. She was decommissioned in 1947, and broken up.

RFA Maine in Korea.

• RFA Maine (1924), built 1925 as Leonardo da Vinci, was an Italian passenger ship captured at Massawa in 1941. Converted to Army Hospital Ship and renamed Empire Clyde and operated by the British Army during World War II, she was transferred to the Royal Navy in 1945. Renamed RFA Maine in 1948, she served in the Korean War and was scrapped in 1954. 

Laid down at Barclay Curle 1952. Cancelled. HMY Britannia was built instead.

• RFA Maine (1952) was ordered by the British government in 1952 and laid down on the River Clyde by Barclay, Curle & Sons. The order was later cancelled.