Long Reach Hospital Ships Archives - Remote London https://www.remotelondon.com/tag/long-reach-hospital-ships/ Wild spaces & solitude on the edges of London Sun, 03 May 2020 15:23:34 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 https://www.remotelondon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Greater-London-outline-favicon.png Long Reach Hospital Ships Archives - Remote London https://www.remotelondon.com/tag/long-reach-hospital-ships/ 32 32 179982959 The Long Reach hospital ships – ghosts of the Dartford Marshes https://www.remotelondon.com/long-reach-hospital-ships-dartford-marshes/ Thu, 28 Nov 2019 18:58:48 +0000 http://www.remotelondon.com/?p=506 The Long Reach hospital ships once lay just off the Dartford Marshes. Securely moored in the River Thames, the ships formed…

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The Long Reach hospital ships once lay just off the Dartford Marshes. Securely moored in the River Thames, the ships formed a floating hospital where highly contagious smallpox patients could be treated in this remote setting.

In the late 19th century smallpox epidemics were ravaging London. With high fatality and transmission rates, it was necessary to treat patients away from the urban centre, somewhere remote. Somewhere like the Dartford Marshes.

Between 1883 and 1904 three large hospital ships were moored in an offshore line, along the Thames foreshore. Together they held 300 smallpox patients, along with the staff needed to care for the victims as best they could.

The Atlas, Endymion and Castailia off Dartford Marshes
The Atlas, Endymion and Castailia off Dartford Marshes. Image source: Welcome Collection

The move inland

With increasing demand for beds, rising maintenance costs and the constant risk of collision from other shipping, a decision was made to build a new isolation hospital inland of the hospital ships, served by a tramway.

Trams were drawn by horses and the route still partially exists, as part of Route 125 of the National Cycle Network. On Google Maps it is currently labelled at Marsh Street North.

The 'Castalia' hospital ship
The 'Castalia' hospital ship. Image source: National Maritime Museum

The hospital ships were sold for scrap when Joyce Green Hospital replaced them, and no trace of them, or the pier that once served them, exists today.

View of the River Thames showing where the Long Reach hospital ships were once moored
View of the River Thames showing where the Long Reach hospital ships were once moored.

More information

https://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/hospital-ships/hospital-ships-introduction/

Insecure but useful links

workhouses (dot) org.uk/MAB-HospitalShips/

ezitis.myzen (dot) co.uk/briefhistoryhospships.html

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