NCJ Number
152917
Date Published
1994
Length
268 pages
Annotation
This study examines reasons for and the practice of imprisoning offenders on ships in Great Britain from 1776 through 1857.
Abstract
The poverty of England during the 18th Century resulted in rampant crime. For almost a century, the British government had relied on a policy of shipping hundreds of convicted criminals each year to her North American colonies. The practice continued until 1776, when the colonies refused to receive British convicts. This book provides an account of Great Britain's approach to solving the problem by the conversion of old merchantmen and deactivated naval vessels into prisons. These floating dungeons became known, late in the 18th Century, as "the hulks." Use of the hulks was to have been a temporary measure, but the old ships at anchor in the waters of southern England continued to be used as places of confinement for 80 years. Criminals feared confinement on the hulks, since it involved inhumane conditions for months and even years by prisoners destined for eventual transport to Australia. Chapter notes and a 75-item bibliography