A dormitory ship is a vessel which provides as its primary function floating living quarters. Such craft serve as conventional land-based dormitories in all respects except that the living quarters are aboard a floating vessel, most often moored in place near its host facility. It may be seaworthy or not. Dormitory ships, regardless of their original design or function, may serve as temporary or permanent housing for refugees, accommodation for academic institutions, and off-shore oil drilling operations. When a vessel is used by the military for dedicated housing, as at shipyards, naval bases, and afloat abroad, it is known as a

barracks ship A barracks ship or barracks barge or berthing barge, or in civilian use accommodation vessel or accommodation ship, is a ship or a non-self-propelled barge containing a superstructure of a type suitable for use as a temporary barracks for sai ...

. An analogue to both is the

prison ship A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nation ...

, which provides a floating space for incarceration, possibly referred to as a

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

in the military. A vessel that contains living quarters as ancillary support to its primary function — such as providing hands-on maritime training at sea — is more appropriately categorized as a

training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house classr ...

. In 2016 what had once been the world's largest

cruiseferry A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship and a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while oth ...

, ''Ocean Gala'', was chosen by the Swedish migration bureau to become temporary housing for some 1,800 of that nation's estimated 160,000 refugees which had arrived in Sweden in just the prior year seeking asylum there.What Was World’s Largest Cruise Liner Faces Unglamorous End As Floating Immigrant Hulk City
/ref> This proposal did not come to fruition.

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File:GTS Finnjet Louisiana-cropped.jpg, GTS ''Finnjet'' served as housing for the students, faculty, and staff of the

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

Health Sciences Center during relief efforts after

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

in 2006 File:USS Long Island (CVE-1) in San Francisco Bay, California (USA), on 10 June 1944 (80-G-236393).jpg,

USS Long Island (CVE-1) USS ''Long Island'' (CVE-1) (originally AVG-1 and then ACV-1) was lead ship of Long Island-class escort carrier, her class and the first escort carrier of the United States Navy. She was also the second ship to be named after Long Island, New Yo ...

was the U.S. Navy's first

escort carrier The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft ...

, and served as both an immigration center in the 1940s and student

hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared b ...

in the 1970s File:Constitutionasbarracksship.jpg, USS ''Constitution'', today revered as "Old Ironsides", languished dismasted and boarded over as a

at the Charleston navy yard in Boston c. 1905 File:HMS Gannet (1878) in 1914.jpg, HMS ''President'' (ex-''Gannet'') as the dormitory to Training Ship ''Mercury'', moored in the river

Hamble Hamble may refer to: * The River Hamble in Hampshire, England * Hamble aerodrome on the banks of the River Hamble. ** Hamble-Warsash Ferry, a ferry service on the River Hamble * Hamble-le-Rice, a village on the river Hamble, close to the city of Sou ...

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