Support Our Troops founder Bob Williams said a benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous bought the ship at a government auction and donated it to his charity. The vessel currently is moored in a private shipyard in Green Cove Springs, south of Jacksonville, but the plan is to sail it to Tampa sometime next month, where it will be outfitted with new lines and hoses and whatever else is needed.

The ship is relatively new, Williams said.

“It’s a 163-foot research ship that had all of 200 days at sea,” he said. It’s powered by a pair of diesel engines, he said, “that have 98 percent of their life left in them.”

The $3 million ship will be used to kick off a venture that will make needed money for the charity, he said. After its stay in Tampa, the vessel, newly named King, will sail to Haiti, where it will be used as a floating hotel and headquarters for retired and disabled U.S. sailors who will teach Haitians how to paint ships.