The disease was probably the most feared disease after the Plague was smallpox. It stuck all echelons of society – even Henry VIII’s two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. And his fourth wife, Anne of Cleeves, also contracted but survived smallpox.
In Victorian times smallpox rapidly became the greatest widespread killer in the British Isles. By the end of the 19th century, the biggest problem was isolating the smallpox sufferers to prevent the highly contagious airborne disease from spreading. Hospitals were feeling the strain. Thus the Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) decided to charter two ships to ease the pressure on the medical facilities. Floating Smallpox Hospitals became the answer.
Two Ships
The Atlas was a 91-gun battleship. Not fitted for sea, she had an uneventful career. The frigate, the Edymion, was an elderly warship that had seen action in the Mediterranean and journeyed to Australia.
Floating Hospitals
As soon as the first signs of smallpox symptoms became visible, patients saw the doctor at the wharf at Deptford Creek in Greenwich, on the River Thames. The doctor assessed the patients. The smallpox positive and acute patients got into the converted paddle boat, right away. One of the two ships moored on the Thames became their treatment centre. For 17 years, almost 20,000 people from London recieved care on-board these ships.
The concern for the spread of the disease increased. So, in 1883 the ships moved 17 miles down the river to Long Reach, near Gravesend – an isolated and desolate stretch of the Thames. Here they existed in isolation, out of sight of the city of London. A third ship, a paddle steamer called the Castalia, joined them.
Three Ships
A gangway connected the three ships. The Atlas had a chapel and housed the male patients. 150 female patients were cared for on the Castalia. The Edymion, in the middle, was the administrative centre. It housed the kitchens to prepare the food, and some of the medical staff were housed on-board. At Long Reach the ships had access to support facilities on land such as additional staff housing, laundry and storage.
At the height of the epidemic, the ships each received 30 patients a day. The numbers were made up of mostly children, who were, of course, the most vulnerable. Of these patients, about 20% did not return to their homes in London.
Moved onto Land
As pressured increased onboard the three ships, delirious patients often threw themselves overboard. Operations were moved to land-based smallpox hospitals. But the ships remained at Long Reach until 1904 when they were auctioned off for scrap. Until then, they had served as a reminder to all ships coming into London of the horrors and continued threat of smallpox.
The world embarked on a rigorous vaccination programme in the 1970s. By 1980, the World Health Organisation declared that countries no longer needed to vaccinate against smallpox.
Today, it is believed, the world is smallpox free!
