A ward on the 'Atlas' (1881)
The smallpox epidemic which began in 1881 placed great strain on hospital beds. To create more bed space, the Metropolitan Asylums Board chartered two old wooden warships from the Admiralty - the 'Atlas', a 91 gun man-of-war built in 1860, but never fitted out for use at sea, and the 'Endymion', a 50 gun frigate would be used for administration and storeroom. These were converted at a cost of £11 000.
The ships were sited off Deptford Creek in Greenwich. The first patients were admitted onbard the 120 bed Atlas in July 1881, by the end of the epidemic in August 1882, almost 1000 patients had been treated onboard the ship, of whom 120 had died.
