"It's an amazing type of vessel," said Navy Lt. j.g. Mike Kafka, a spokesman for the hospital.

The 1,000-bed ship is 894 feet long -- equal in size to one of the largest trauma centers in the United States -- and provides all the services major hospitals provide, according to Navy officials.

The Comfort is one of the Navy's two hospital ships designed to give emergency medical care for U.S. combat forces deployed in war or other operations.

The Comfort left its home port in Baltimore Sept. 12, and arrived at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Earle, N.J., Thursday to take on crew and supplies.

National Naval Medical Center staff left Bethesda at 3:45 a.m. Friday to meet the ship in New Jersey. The Comfort arrived in New York later in the day.

The 500 people from Bethesda are doctors, nurses and staff necessary to run a hospital at sea. There will be 600 Navy medical and support personnel and 61 civilian mariners aboard.

"The people are ready to go to sea," Kafka said. "The people here are definitely ready."

The Comfort has 12 operating rooms, a medical laboratory, optometry lab, radiological services, CAT scan, pharmacy, and two oxygen-producing plants.

There are 80 intensive care beds, 20 recovery beds, 400 intermediate care beds, and 500 minimal care beds.

The ship has a helicopter pad designed to land large military helicopters. Also, it has side ports to take on patients at sea.

The Comfort went into service in 1987. The ship was deployed to the Persian Gulf War in 1990 and to the Caribbean in 1994 for Haitian migrant operations.

The National Naval Medical Center will continue to operate. Reservists, employees of the National Institutes of Health, and volunteers will be brought in to help run the hospital.

"The hospital will be fully functional," Kafka said.

Guards are checking identification of people entering the National Naval Medical Center.