Last week, Portland got a gigantic visitor: the USNS Mercy, a 138 million-pound floating military hospital, painted white and marked with giant red crosses, each about the size of a helicopter landing pad.
At 894 feet long, the ship would still be 348 feet longer than Portland’s tallest building, the 546-foot Wells Fargo Center, if the tower were laid on its side. Despite its size, the behemoth slipped quietly up the Columbia River from Astoria into Portland, drawing curious looks along the way.
Built to deliver humanitarian aid at sea and at ports around the world, Mercy is one of the Navy’s most recognizable vessels. Originally designed to be an oil tanker in the 1970s, it has 1,000 beds, 12 operating rooms and can treat up to 300 surgical patients a day. The vessel also offers digital radiology, laboratory, pharmacy, optometry, dental and physical therapy services…