A mother and her infant are among the survivors of a shipwreck off the coast of Papua New Guinea who were rescued Tuesday by sailors from the hospital ship Mercy, which is on an annual humanitarian outreach tour.

The Mercy rescued six people who were stranded for three days on a small South Pacific island after swimming ashore when their boat sank. A search and rescue effort failed to turn up more survivors.

"All patients are currently in good condition," Capt. Melanie Merrick, the head of the medical team on Mercy, said in a release.

The Mercy, alongside the joint high-speed vessel Millinocket, has been in the Asia Pacific region since June, visiting Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam to provide medical care, dental screenings, health education services and disaster relief preparation training.

It is the 10th such exercise and is being supported by countries including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Republic of South Korea, Malaysia, Canada, Timor Leste, Fiji and France.

The Mercy made headlines early in its tour when the hospital ship — or the civilian tugboat contracted by the Navy that was maneuvering it in Pearl Harbor — collided with the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, causing damage that closed the memorial for nine days while engineers fixed the iconic floating dock.

About David B. Larter

David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.

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