Early one misty morning in 1855, Henry Mayhew and John Binny stepped aboard a dilapidated ship moored on the Thames. Its large wooden hull was studded with barred portholes; instead of flags, a rudimentary washing line hung between the ship\u2019s masts. The overall impression was one of oppression and decay.<\/p>\n

The Defence<\/em> struck a curious contrast to the gleaming steamboats and sailboats streaming past: for one thing, rather than carrying passengers, it housed convicts. Formerly a naval man-of-war, it was now a prison ship, also known as a hulk.<\/p>\n

Mayhew and Binny, both journalists and social reformers, had previously toured the prisons of London. They had inspected the solitary cells at Millbank, the exercise yards in Pentonville, and the female workrooms in Brixton. But the hulk system was unlike any other prison they had encountered.<\/p>\n

The walls of this one were wooden, barely held together by rot. Led by a warder, the journalists descended into the belly of the ship. Here, each deck was divided by two rows of strong iron railings flanking a central passageway. Behind were open cells festooned with dingy hammocks, providing space for 240 men to sleep on each deck. As Mayhew and Binny looked on, a morning bell sounded and sleeping prisoners sprang into action, stowing hammocks, washing in buckets and scrubbing tables ready for breakfast.<\/p>\n

If the scene inspired both wonder and despair in these men, their reactions were nothing new. For decades, prison reformers had protested at the use of hulks. And the Defence<\/em> was not fit to be a prison, being nothing more than \u201ca rotten leaky tub\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prison hulks: in numbers<\/h4>\n
4,280 <\/strong><\/p>\n
The highest (average) total of inmates on prison hulks in England in a single year, 1842. Of those, 3,615 were transported to Van Diemen\u2019s Land (now Tasmania), Australia.<\/p>\n
216 <\/strong><\/p>\n
The number of 10- to 15-year-olds incarcerated in hulks in England in 1841. Three of these boys were under 10 years old.<\/p>\n
1 in 4 <\/strong><\/p>\n
The approximate fatality rate of prisoners on board the hulk Justitia<\/em> who died between August 1776, when it first received inmates, and March 1778. Out of a total of 632 convicts, 167 perished.<\/p>\n
60 <\/strong><\/p>\n
The total number of years that a hulk called Justitia<\/em> operated at Woolwich. The first ship with that name was moored there from 1776 to 1802; its successor of the same name was used for 34 years, from 1814 to 1848.<\/p>\n
216<\/strong><\/p>\n
The number of prisoners held on board the Defence<\/em> in 1854 who were granted a pardon, out of a total of 819.<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
When and why was the prison hulk system introduced?<\/h3>\n
Hulks were first introduced in England in 1776 as a temporary measure to ease overcrowding in prisons. The conflict today known as the American Revolutionary War<\/a> had broken out the previous year, abruptly halting the transportation of felons \u2013 men, women and children \u2013 to Britain\u2019s North American colonies. Instead, ever-increasing numbers of inmates were crammed into various types of prisons across the country.<\/p>\n
In an attempt to address the problem, parliament passed an act allowing the use of prison hulks, initially for two years. In lieu of transportation, male convicts would be sentenced to hard labour and imprisonment on disused ships on the Thames.<\/p>\n
The contract for managing the first hulks, moored at Woolwich, was given to Duncan Campbell, a West Indies merchant and transporter of convicts who was appointed the first superintendent of prison hulks in England. He adapted his own ship, the Justitia<\/em>, which had previously been used to transport convicts from London and Middlesex to Maryland and Virginia. Tearing down internal cabins, he installed bunks that allowed less than 50cm width for each man.<\/p>\n
Read more | Timeline: a history of prisons in Britain<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
The inmates reacted with horror to their new confinement. \u201cOn their first coming on board, the universal depression of spirits was astonishing,\u201d wrote Campbell, \u201c[and] they had a great dread of this punishment.\u201d That depression and dread was well founded. Within months, sickness ripped through the Justitia<\/em>. Of 632 men incarcerated on that hulk between August 1776 and 26 March 1778, 167 died \u2013 more than one in four. Their bodies were buried in unmarked graves on shore, unless collected by relatives \u2013 or illicitly passed to anatomists for dissection.<\/p>\n
In total, about 25 hulks were stationed along the Thames Estuary at Woolwich, Deptford, Chatham and Sheerness. Some operated for months, others for decades. And it wasn\u2019t long before the Justitia<\/em> and other hulks at Woolwich \u2013 including the Tayloe<\/em>, Censor<\/em>, Reception<\/em> and Stanislaus<\/em> \u2013 attracted the attention of prison reformers.<\/p>\n
After philanthropist John Howard visited the Justitia<\/em> in 1776, he reported to parliament that he could see from the sickly looks of prisoners that \u201csome mismanagement was among them\u201d. Many had no shirts, shoes or socks. They either had no bedding or shared a blanket, and they slept on wooden boards, with the healthy lying close to the sick prisoners. One convict told him that \u201che was ready to sink into the earth\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 1776, one day\u2019s rations to be shared by a \u201cmess\u201d of six convicts comprised five pounds of dry ship\u2019s biscuit, half an ox cheek and three pints of split pea soup. They drank weak beer and water filtered from the river <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
Howard discovered that the \u201cgood, wholesome brown biscuit\u201d that Campbell claimed to provide prisoners was in fact mere bags of crumbs or was \u201cmouldy and green on both sides\u201d. In 1776, one day\u2019s rations to be shared by a \u201cmess\u201d of six convicts comprised five pounds of dry ship\u2019s biscuit, half an ox cheek and three pints of split pea soup. On two days each week they ate oatmeal, five pounds of bread and two pounds of cheese. They drank weak beer and water filtered from the river.<\/p>\n
Campbell initially permitted visiting family members to bring supplementary food but eventually forbade the practice as \u201cthey conveyed saws and other instruments for their escape\u201d inside.<\/p>\n
In short, living conditions were close to unbearable. In an 1819 memoir, swindler and thief James Hardy Vaux wrote of \u201cthe horrible effects arising from the continual rattling of chains, the filth and vermin naturally produced by such a crowd of miserable inhabitants, the oaths and execrations constantly heard among them\u201d.<\/p>\n
Howard reported that convicts spoke to him in soft tones to avoid being overheard \u2013 and with good reason. Meanwhile, Vaux recalled how prisoners were beaten brutally by guards and overseers. He also claimed to have witnessed murder, suicide and robbery. \u201cIf I were to attempt a full description of the miseries endured in these ships,\u201d he wrote, \u201cI could fill a volume.\u201d<\/p>\n
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