Development
The Africa Mercy project started in March 1999. A former rail ferry named Dronning Ingrid (Queen Ingrid) was bought in Denmark for 6.5 million USD, through a donation from U.K. businesswoman Ann Gloag's Balcraig Foundation. Dronning Ingrid is the first of three identical ships built for DSB (Danish State Railways). The other ships are the Kronprins Frederik and the Prins Joachim.
The ship was fitted out at the Cammell Laird shipyard at Hebburn in Tyneside, England. The ferry's large train deck facilitated its conversion into a hospital ship. Over the next few years, the Dronning Ingrid was transformed into the largest non-governmental hospital ship in the world, at a final cost of over 62 million USD. Although Mercy Ships has now retired all its earlier ships, the Africa Mercy has greater capacity than all three of its previous ships combined.
Read more about this topic: MV Africa Mercy
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