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Identification Numbered Vessel Photo Archive

Boston Floating Hospital (ID 2366)

Ambulance Boat:

  • Built in 1906 as Little Mary at the Atlantic Works, South Boston, MA to provide Boston's disadvantaged children with healthful harbor cruises and other medical services. She was operated by a
    philanthropic organization of the same name that had been founded in 1894, inspired by a similar New York City institution
  • Acquired by the Navy 7 January 1918 and commissioned USS Boston Floating Hospital (ID 2366) the same day
  • Struck from the Navy Register 2 June 1918 and returned to her owners
  • Caught fire in winter of 1927, luckily when no patients were aboard, and retired from service
  • Converted in 1933 to a Coastwise Tanker by the General Ship and Engine Works of East Boston for the Union Tankers Corp. of Boston and renamed Marshall B. Hall
  • Scrapped in 1952.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,200 t.
    1935 - 675 t.
  • Length 200'
  • Beam 47'
  • Draft 8' 3" (forward)
  • Speed 7 kts.
  • Complement 14 (1935)
  • Propulsion: Two single ended boilers, one 200hp vertical compound steam engine, one shaft (converted to diesel power in 1933).
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    SS Boston Floating Hospital
    Boston Floating Hospital 200k Boston Floating Hospital underway, on a post card published in 1908 by the Boston Floating Hospital, Incorporated, 54 Devonshire Street, Boston, Massachusetts
    Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR (Retired), 2007
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 104969-KN    		 Robert Hurst
    Boston Floating Hospital 130k A color tinted photograph of SS Boston Floating Hospital tied up at Boston, with weather screens erected around many of her deck openings, published on a postcard by The Leighton & Valentine Co., New York City, during the first two decades of the Twentieth Century
    Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR (Retired), 2007
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 104969-KN
    Boston Floating Hospital 152k A colored tinted photograph of SS Boston Floating Hospital alongside a pier, published on a postcard by Robbins Brothers, of Boston, Massachusetts, during the first two decades of the Twentieth Century
    Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR (Retired), 2007
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 105252-KN
    USS Boston Floating Hospital (ID 2366)
    Boston Floating Hospital 72k In port, probably at Boston, Massachusetts, circa early 1918. Two submarine chasers (SC) are in the icy water alongside her. Masts in the left center background are probably those of
    USS Constitution.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 95893    		 Naval Historical Center
    There is no DANFS history currently available for Boston Floating Hospital (ID 2366).
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