Floating hospital the Africa Mercy has set sail for Liberia, in West Africa, where it will serve as a lifeline for thousands of sick people. Nigel Green reports on the vessel's stay at A&P's North-East shipyard.

MANAGERS and workers at A&P Tyne are used to taking on a challenge and, over the years, the ship repair company has had to diversify to survive.

But when the Hebburn, South Tyneside, yard took delivery of an order to convert a Danish ferry into a hospital ship, staff knew that, if they could not overcome a series of major technical and financial problems, it would be more than the company's reputation at stake.

Failure would mean depriving millions of the world's poorest people of vital medical treatment.

But now the men and women of A&P Tyne can look on with pride as the 16,500-tonne ship sails for Liberia, in West Africa.

Military vessels apart, the Africa Mercy is the world's largest floating hospital.

Work on the £30m project began eight years ago, when the international charity Mercy Ships bought a former rail ferry called the Dronning Ingrid.

Originally, the Cammell Laird yard, at Hebburn, won the order to convert the 152-metre long vessel.

The idea was to do the work in stages as Mercy Ships raised the funds.

But, in 2001, Cammell Laird went bust and the charity was left £1m out of pocket.

Mercy Ships vice-president Jim Paterson says: "We lost a lot of confidence from our donors. It took us time to get back on track again."

The project was rescued in 2003 when Mercy Ships raised enough money for A&P Tyne to finish the work.

A&P's group director Dave Skentelbery says: "We work on passenger ships quite a lot, but this is the first time we have taken a ship which wasn't a passenger ship and converted it into one.

"It was a difficult project to manage in that the funding of the project was not steady, so we had to plan our work around the availability of funds.

"Ideally, if we had had the money, we would have ripped out the old and put in new but, because of the limited budget, we had to find technical solutions to add new systems to the old."

A&P, which took over the Cammell Laird yard at Hebburn, faced a range of unusual challenges.

Mr Skentelbery says: "It was a unique project. There aren't that many hospital ships in the world. The hospital ships that are around the world tend to be military.

"It had to be built to a standard of class-one passenger ship regulations and meet all the regulatory requirements of an internationally-trading passenger ship.

"The ship was built as a rail ferry for short, three-hour voyages and, not only was it not built to a standard of an internationally trading passenger ship, it didn't have the cabin capacity."

Throughout the project, up to 100 men at the A&P yard, together with between 30 and 40 trained volunteers, have worked on the Africa Mercy.

The former rail deck was split in two horizontally, with a new deck being put in to accommodate 74 extra cabins.

The lower section was then converted into a 1,200sq metre hospital, with six operating rooms, 78 beds, as well as laboratories and a cat-scan.

Most of the hospital equipment was donated.

Mr Skentelbery says: "The hospital in itself was a considerable challenge. We were trying to design a ship for equipment that hadn't even been produced or donated at that stage."

"Schoolrooms have been built to educate around 50 children accompanying the 400 men and women from 40 different nationalities who make up the crew."

Because the vessel will be working in dangerous countries, it has also had CCTV systems fitted and the crew includes Ghurka security guards, who man the gangway 24 hours a day with a metal detector and other screening devices.

A&P faced an extra headache caused by work on the ship having started so long ago that legislation had changed in the meantime.

The air conditioning system also had to be upgraded to be able to reduce temperatures of 40C to 25C and humidity of 90 per cent to 50 per cent.

Fuel and water tanks had to be increased, along with the ship's sewage and waste water tanks.

The Dronning Ingrid's six B and W Alpha, V16 engines, each capable of producing 4,000 horse-power, were reduced to only four.

In addition to four 750kw diesel generators, the two engines taken off line were converted to generate the extra electricity demanded by the hospital and passengers.

The bridge also had to be upgraded, with a new global maritime distress signaling system, GPS and speedlog.

But, despite all the challenges, the project came together and Mercy Ships is delighted with the outcome.

Mr Paterson, a former chief engineer on one of the charity's vessels, worked closely with the yard. The last eight years have been particularly challenging for him.

He says: "Originally, we had negotiated a contract with Cammell Laird and we divided it into milestones, or key stages.

"When Cammell Laird went bankrupt, we lost about £1m and two years dealing with receivers and the like.

"From a technical point of view, it could have been done in 18 months if we had had the money.

"Eight years is longer than we had hoped, but it's incredible to see it finished.

"I never doubted it would happen but, over the last year or so, we had several target dates and, for one reason or another, they have been missed and to get to this point now is fantastic."

The Africa Mercy will take over from the Anastasis, an 11,700-tonne former cargo liner currently operating off the West African coast.

Meanwhile, A&P are hoping to win other major orders in the future.

The yard, which employs about 300 workers, is upgrading two seismic vessels.

Mr Skentelbery says: "The last 18 months have been very good. It's currently quietened down, but the future market looks reasonably good."

In the meantime, A&P is pleased that a particularly challenging and unusual project has been finished successfully.

Mr Skentelbery says: "I think the yard and all the sub-contractors involved have given Mercy Ships an excellent product that will serve the test of time."