While they were aboard, the Floating Hospital's staff of pediatricians, dentists, nurses, and social workers would provide healthcare services to children and health and nutrition education to their caregivers.

The Floating Hospital traces its origins to October 1866 as a series of charitable excursions first conducted by steamboat tycoon John Starin for the benefit of newsboys, war veterans, and the needy.

[1] In the summer of 1872, George F. Williams, a managing editor of the New York Times, witnessed a policeman forcing a group of newsboys in City Hall Park off the grass and onto the concrete walkways, which burned their feet.

When Williams returned to his office the next day, he wrote an appeal to the Times' readership for money to charter a boat trip for the city's newsboys and bootblacks, so that they could be turned loose on grassy shores of nearby waterways.

[5] In subsequent decades the Floating Hospital served over 5 million children and their caregivers, through their program of regular outings on their vessels (which were apparently daily, at least in warmer months).

[7] The Floating Hospital continued the basic formula of attracting families with recreational opportunities on board their vessel and providing professional medical services to them while they were aboard through the late 20th century.

By the 1970s, the hospital described itself as "basically a disease prevention and referral agency" that focused on education, though it also provided outpatient services on its vessel, both during outings in summer months and while moored at its regular berth in the South Street Seaport during the winter.

In 2002, a temporary move to Brooklyn became permanent when the Floating Hospital was barred from Pier 17 and could not find another suitable berth in New York City where their clients could safely board the ship.

[1] Finally, in 2006 it moved to its present headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, an area designated at the time by the Federal government as medically underserved.