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Prison ship

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The beached convict shipHMSDiscoveryatDeptford.Launched as a 10-gunsloopatRotherhithein 1789, the ship served as a convict hulk from 1818 until scrapped in February 1834.[1]
Prison shipSuccess[2]atHobart,Tasmania,Australia

Aprison ship,often more accurately described as aprisonhulk,is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention forconvicts,prisoners of warorcivilian internees.While many nations have deployed prison ships over time, the practice was most widespread in 18th- and 19th-century Britain, as the government sought to address the issues of overcrowded civilian jails on land and an influx of enemy detainees from theWar of Jenkins' Ear,theSeven Years' Warand theFrench RevolutionaryandNapoleonic Wars.

History[edit]

The terminology "hulk" comes from theRoyal Navymeaning a ship incapable of full service either through damage or from initial non-completion. In England in 1776, during the reign of King George III, due to a shortage of prison space inLondon,the concept of "prison hulks" moored in the Thames, was introduced to meet the need for prison space. The first such ship came into use on 15 July 1776 under command of Mr Duncan Campbell and was moored atBarking Creekwith prisoners doing hard labour on the shore during daylight hours.[3]

The vessels were a common form ofinternmentin Britain and elsewhere in the 18th and 19th centuries. Charles F. Campbell writes that around 40 ships of theRoyal Navywere converted for use as prison hulks.[4]Other hulks includedHMSWarrior,which became a prison ship atWoolwichin February 1840.[5]One was established atGibraltar,others atBermuda(theDromedary), atAntigua,offBrooklyninWallabout Bay,and atSheerness.Other hulks were anchored offWoolwich,Portsmouth,Chatham,Deptford,and Plymouth-Dock/Devonport.[6]HMSArgenta,originally a cargo ship with no portholes, was acquired and pressed into service inBelfast LoughNorthern Irelandto enforce theCivil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922during the period around theIrish Catholics'Bloody Sunday (1920).Private companiesowned and operated some of the British hulks holding prisoners bound forpenal transportationtoAustraliaandAmerica.

HMPWearewas used by the British as a prison ship between 1997 and 2006. It was towed across the Atlantic from the United States in 1997 to be converted into a jail. It wasberthedinPortland HarbourinDorset,England.

1848 Woodcut of theRoyal Naval Dockyard,Ireland Island, Bermuda, showing four prison hulks

Use during the American Revolutionary War[edit]

Main article:Prisoners of war in the American Revolutionary War
See also:Prison Ship Martyrs' MonumentandHMS Jersey (1736)
Interior of the British prison shipJersey

During theAmerican War of Independence,moreAmerican Patriotsdied as prisoners of war onBritish prison shipsthan died in every engagement of the war combined.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]During the war, 11,500 Americans onboard British prison ships died due to overcrowding, contaminated water, starvation, and disease on ships anchored in theEast River;the bodies of those who died were hastily buried along the shore.[16]This is now commemorated by the "Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument"inFort Greene Park,Brooklynin New York City.[16]

Christopher Vail, of Southold, who was aboard one such prison ship,HMSJerseyin 1781, later wrote:

When a man died he was carried up on the forecastle and laid there until the next morning at 8 o'clock when they were all lowered down the ship sides by a rope round them in the same manner as tho' they were beasts. There was 8 died of a day while I was there. They were carried on shore in heaps and hove out the boat on the wharf, then taken across a hand barrow, carried to the edge of the bank, where a hole was dug 1 or 2 feet deep and all hove in together.

In 1778, Robert Sheffield, ofStonington, Connecticut,escaped from one of the prison ships, and told his story in theConnecticut Gazette,printed July 10, 1778. He was one of 350 prisoners held in a compartment below the decks.

The heat was so intense that (the hot sun shining all day on deck) they were all naked, which also served well to get rid of vermin, but the sick were eaten up alive. Their sickly countenances, and ghastly looks were truly horrible; some swearing and blaspheming; others crying, praying, and wringing their hands; and stalking about like ghosts; others delirious, raving and storming,--all panting for breath; some dead, and corrupting. The air was so foul that at times a lamp could not be kept burning, because of which the bodies were not missed until they had been dead ten days.[17]

Use in Napoleonic Wars[edit]

Some British scholars[who?]have written that for prisoners of war held in hulks at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth, living conditions on board and the mortality amongst prisoners were misrepresented by the French for propaganda purposes during the Wars and by individual prisoners who wrote their memoirs afterwards and exaggerated the sufferings they had undergone. Memoirs such asLouis Garneray'sMes Pontons(translated in 2003 asThe Floating Prison), Alexandre Lardier'sHistoire des pontons et prisons d’Angleterre pendant la guerre du Consulat et de l’Empire,(1845), Lieutenant Mesonant'sCoup d’œuil rapide sur les Pontons de Chatam,(1837) the anonymousHistoire du Sergent Flavigny(1815) and others, are largely fictitious and contain lengthy plagiarised passages. Reputable and influential historians such as Francis Abell in hisPrisoners of War in Britain, 1756–1814(1914) and W. Branch Johnson in hisThe English Prison Hulks,(1970) took such memoirs at their face value and did not investigate their origins. This has resulted in the perpetuation of a myth that the hulks were a device for the extermination of prisoners and that conditions on board were intolerable. The truth appears to be much less lurid and when the death rates of prisoners are properly investigated a mortality of between 5 and 8 per cent of all prisoners, both on shore and on the hulks seems to have been normal.[18]

Use to accommodate criminal prisoners[edit]

The Fighting Temerairetugged to her last berth to be broken upbyJ. M. W. Turner(1838)

The first British use of a prison ship was the privately ownedTayloe,engaged by the Home Office in 1775 via contract with her owner, Duncan Campbell.[19]Tayloewas moored in the Thames with the intention that she be the receiving point for all inmates whose sentences of transportation to the Americas had been delayed by the American Rebellion. Prisoners began arriving from January 1776. For most, their incarceration was brief as the Home Office had also offered pardons for any transportee who joined the Army or Navy, or chose to voluntarily leave the British Isles for the duration of their sentence.[19]By December 1776 all prisoners aboardTayloehad been pardoned, enlisted or died, and the contract ceased.[19]

Thames prison fleet[edit]

While theTayloewas still in use, the British Government was simultaneously developing a longer-term plan for the use of transportees. In April and May 1776, legislation was passed to formally convert sentences of transportation to the Americas, to hard labour on the Thames for between three and ten years.[20]In July 1776,Tayloe's owner Duncan Campbell was named Overseer of Convicts on the Thames and awarded a contract for the housing of transportees and use of their labour. Campbell provided three prison ships for these purposes; the 260-tonJustitia,the 731-ton former French frigateCensorand a condemnedEast Indiaman,which he also namedJustitia.[20]Collectively, these three prison ships held 510 convicts at any one time between 1776 and 1779.

Conditions aboard these prison ships were poor, and mortality rates were high. Inmates aboard the firstJustitiaslept in groups in tiered bunks with each having an average sleeping space 5 feet 10 inches (1.8 m) long and 18 inches (46 cm) wide. Weekly rations consisted of biscuits and pea soup, accompanied once a week by half an ox cheek and twice a week by porridge, a lump of bread and cheese.[21]Many inmates were in ill health when brought from their gaols, but none of the ships had adequate quarantine facilities, and there was a continued contamination risk caused by the flow of excrement from the sick bays.[21]In October 1776 a prisoner from Maidstone Gaol broughttyphusaboard. It spread rapidly; over a seven-month period to March 1778, a total of 176 inmates died, or 28 percent of the prison ship population.[22]

Conditions thereafter improved. In April 1778 the firstJustitiawas converted into a receiving ship, where inmates were stripped of their prison clothing, washed and held in quarantine for up to four days before being transferred to the other vessels.[22]Those found to be ill were otherwise held aboard until they recovered or died. On the secondJustitiathe available sleeping space was expanded to allow for just two inmates per bunk, each having an area 6 feet (1.8 m) long and 2 feet (61 cm) wide in which to lie.[22]The weekly bread ration was lifted from 5 to 7 pounds, the supply of meat enhanced with the daily delivery of ox heads from local abattoirs, and there were occasional supplies of green vegetables.[22]The effects of these improvements were evident in the prisoner mortality rates. In 1783 89 inmates died out of 486 brought aboard (18%); and by the first three quarters of 1786 only 46 died out of 638 inmates on the ships (7%).[23]

Naval vessels[edit]

Portsmouth Harbour with Prison Hulks,Ambroise Louis Garneray

Naval vessels were also routinely used as prison ships. A typical British hulk, the formership of the lineHMSBellerophon,was decommissioned after theBattle of Waterlooand became a prison ship in October 1815.[24]Anchored offSheernessin England, and renamed HMSCaptivityon 5 October 1824, she usually held about 480 convicts in woeful conditions.[4]HMSDiscoverybecame a prison hulk in 1818[1]atDeptford.[25]Another famous prison ship wasHMSTemerairewhich served in this capacity from 1813 to 1819.

Use in Australia[edit]

Hulks were used in many of thecolonies of Australia,including New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia.

In New South Wales, hulks were also used as juvenile correctional centers.[26]In 1813 a tender document was advertised inthe Australiannewspaper for the supply of bread to prisoners aboard a prison hulk in Sydney Harbour.[27]

Between 1824 and 1837Phoenixserved as a prison hulk in Sydney Harbour. She held convicts awaiting transportation toNorfolk IslandandMoreton Bay.One source claims she was Australia's first prison hulk.[28]

Vernon(1867–1892) andSobraon(1892–1911) – the latter officially a "nautical school ship" – were anchored in Sydney Harbour. The commander of the two ships, Frederick Neitenstein (1850–1921), introduced a system of "discipline, surveillance, physical drill and a system of grading and marks. He aimed at creating a 'moral earthquake' in each new boy. Every new admission was placed in the lowest grade and, through hard work and obedience, gradually won a restricted number of privileges."[26]

Between 1880 and 1891 the hulkFitzjameswas used as a reformatory by theSouth Australian colonial governmentinLargs Bay.The ship kept about 600 prisoners at a time, even though it was designed to carry 80 or so crewmembers.[29]

Marquis of Angleseabecame Western Australia's first prison hulk following an accident in 1829.[30][31]

World War I[edit]

At the start of the war, cruise liners inPortsmouth Harbourwere used to hold detained prisoners.[32]

Russian Civil War[edit]

Main article:Death barge

Nazi Germany[edit]

Cap Arcona,a passenger liner, was converted by Nazi Germany to hold concentration camp prisoners

Nazi Germanyassembled a small fleet of ships in theBay of Lübeckto hold concentration camp prisoners. They included the passenger linersCap ArconaandDeutschland,and the vesselsThielbek,andAthen.All were destroyed on May 3, 1945 byRAFaircraft whose pilots erroneously believed them to be legitimate targets; most of the inmates were either killed by bombing or strafing, burned alive, drowned while trying to reach the shore, or killed by theSSguards.

Modern uses[edit]

Chile[edit]

Reports fromAmnesty International,theUS SenateandChilean Truth and Reconciliation CommissiondescribeEsmeralda(BE-43)as a kind of a floating prison for political prisoners of theAugusto Pinochetadministration from 1973 to 1980. It is claimed that probably over a hundred persons were kept there at times and subjected to hideous treatment,[2]among them the British priestMiguel Woodward.[33]

Philippines[edit]

In 1987, ColonelGregorio Honasan,leader of various coups d'état in the Philippines was captured and was imprisoned in a navy ship then temporarily converted to be his holding facility. However, he escaped after convincing the guards to join his cause.

United Kingdom[edit]

HMSMaidstone(pictured here in Algiers in the Second World War), a prison ship which docked atBelfastand where many internees were sent duringThe Troubles

HMSMaidstonewas used as a prison ship inNorthern Irelandin the 1970s for suspectedRepublicanparamilitariesandnon-combatantactivistsupporters. The former president of the Republican political partySinn Féin,Gerry Adams,spent time onMaidstonein 1972. He was released in order to take part in peace talks.

In 1997 theUnited Kingdom Governmentestablished a new prison ship,HMPWeare,as a temporary measure to ease prison overcrowding.Wearewas docked at the disused Royal Navy dockyard atPortland,Dorset.Wearewas closed in 2006.

The bargeBibby Stockholm,planned to houseasylum seekers,has been called a "floating prison".[34]

United States[edit]

In the United States, theVernon C. Bain Correctional Centerwas a prison barge operated by theNew York City Department of Correctionas an adjunct toRikers Island,opened in 1992. However, it was built for this purpose rather than repurposed.[35]It was the largest operational prison ship facility in the United States during its operation.[36]

In June 2008The Guardianprinted claims byReprievethat US forces are holding people arrested in theWar on Terrorismon active navy ships, including theUSSBataanandPeleliu,although this was denied by theUS Navy.[37]The United States subsequently admitted in 2011 to holding terrorist suspects on ships at sea, claiming legal authority to do so.[38]TheLibyannationalAbu Anas al-Libiwho worked a computer specialist foral-Qaedawas imprisoned in theUSSSan Antoniofor the1998 United States embassy bombings.[39]

USS San Antonioamphibious transport dock

In 2009 the US Navy converted the main deck aboard the supply shipUSNSLewis and Clarkinto abrigto hold pirates captured off the coast ofSomaliauntil they could be transferred to Kenya for prosecution. The brig was capable of holding up to twenty-six prisoners and was operated by a detachment of Marines from the26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.[40][41][42]

In literature[edit]

Charles Dickens' novelGreat Expectationsopens in 1812 with the escape of the convictAbel Magwitchfrom a hulk moored in theThames Estuary.In fact, the prison ships were largely moored offUpnorin the neighbouringRiver Medway,but Dickens used artistic licence to place them on the Thames.[43]

French artist and authorAmbroise Louis Garneraydepicted his life on a prison hulk at Portsmouth in the memoirMes Pontons.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abColledge, p. 109
  2. ^Colledge, p. 331
  3. ^The Book of Days vol. 2 p. 67 by R. Chambers
  4. ^abCampbell, Charles F. (2001).The Intolerable Hulks: British Shipboard Confinement 1776–1857(3 ed.). Fenestra Books.ISBN978-1-58736-068-8.
  5. ^Colledge, p. 375
  6. ^Brad William,The archaeological potential of colonial prison hulks: The Tasmanian case studyArchivedApril 9, 2008, at theWayback Machine
  7. ^Stiles, Henry Reed(1865).Letters from the Prisons and Prison-ships of the Revolution.Thomson Gale (reprint).ISBN978-1-4328-1222-5.
  8. ^Dring, Thomas; Greene, Albert (1986).Recollections of the Jersey Prison Ship.American Experience Series. Vol. 8. Applewood Books.ISBN978-0-918222-92-3.
  9. ^Taylor, George (1855).Martyrs To The Revolution In The British Prison-Ships In The Wallabout Bay.ISBN978-0-548-59217-5.
  10. ^Banks, James Lenox (1903).Prison ships in the Revolution: New facts in regard to their management.
  11. ^Hawkins, Christopher (1864).The adventures of Christopher Hawkins.Privately Printed.Retrieved22 July2009.
  12. ^Andros, Thomas (1833).The old Jersey captive: Or, A narrative of the captivity of Thomas Andros...on board the old Jersey prison ship at New York, 1781. In a series of letters to a friend.W. Peirce.Retrieved22 July2009.
  13. ^Lang, Patrick J. (1939).The horrors of the English prison ships, 1776 to 1783, and the barbarous treatment of the American patriots imprisoned on them.Society of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick.
  14. ^Onderdonk, Henry (June 1970).Revolutionary Incidents of Suffolk and Kings Counties; With an Account of the Battle of Long Island and the British Prisons and Prison-Ships at New York.Associated Faculty Press, Inc.ISBN978-0-8046-8075-2.
  15. ^West, Charles E. (1895).Horrors of the prison ships: Dr. West's description of the wallabout floating dungeons, how captive patriots fared.Eagle Book Printing Department.
  16. ^ab"Prison Ship Martyrs Monument".New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.Retrieved22 July2009.
  17. ^Dandridge, Danske.American Prisoners of the Revolution.Retrieved22 July2009.
  18. ^The Floating PrisonbyLouis Garneray,translated with a commentary and notes by Richard Rose, Otterquill Books, e-book, 2012. Critiques found in the commentary sections of the work.
  19. ^abcFrost 1994, p. 15
  20. ^abFrost 1994, pp. 16–17
  21. ^abFrost 1984, p. 21
  22. ^abcdFrost 1984, p. 24
  23. ^Frost 1984, p. 25
  24. ^Colledge, p. 51
  25. ^"Prison hulks on the Thames".Port Cities.Archivedfrom the original on 21 January 2020.Retrieved23 November2007.
  26. ^ab"Neitenstein, Frederick William (1850–1921)".Biography – Frederick William Neitenstein – Australian Dictionary of Biography.National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  27. ^Sydney Morning Herald 2 September 2013
  28. ^Bateson (1974), pp. 210–211.
  29. ^Sullivan, Nikki."The Hulk Fitzjames".Adelaidia – South Australian Government.Retrieved17 March2018.
  30. ^Goulding, Dot (2007).Recapturing Freedom: Issues Relating to the Release of Long-term Prisoners Into the Community.Hawkins Press. p. 14.ISBN978-1876067182.
  31. ^"Marquis of Angelsea – Maritime Archaeology Databases".museum.wa.gov.au.West Australian Museum.
  32. ^Sadden, John (1990).Keep the home fires burning The story of Portsmouth and Gosport in World War 1.Portsmouth Publishing and Printing. pp. 30–31.ISBN1-871182-04-2.
  33. ^Niegan libertad en crimen de sacerdote en la EsmeraldaArchived2011-05-27 at theWayback Machine,La Nación,3 May 2008(in Spanish)
  34. ^"What will life be like on the UK's first migrant barge?".Retrieved19 July2023.
  35. ^Wacquant, Loïc (2009)Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social InsecurityArchivedApril 15, 2009, at theWayback Machine.Durham: Duke University Press. p. 124
  36. ^Glenday, Craig (2013).Guinness Book of World Records 2014.Guinness World Records Limited. pp.133.ISBN978-1908843159.
  37. ^Campbell, Duncan; Norton-Taylor, Richard (June 2008)."US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships".The Guardian.London.Retrieved22 July2009.
  38. ^DeYoung, Karen (8 September 2011)."Brennan: Al-Qaeda offshoot in Yemen gaining strength as a powerful domestic insurgency".The Washington Post.
  39. ^"Warships are the new interrogation 'black sites'".8 October 2013.Retrieved13 June2023.
  40. ^"Crew adjusts to unique duty: Hijacker jail – Navy News, news from Iraq – Navy Times".Archived fromthe originalon 13 May 2009.Retrieved13 May2009.
  41. ^"Civilian ship repurposed to help anti-piracy effort".Stars and Stripes.Archived fromthe originalon 22 April 2009.Retrieved13 April2010.
  42. ^[1][dead link]
  43. ^Great Expectations,Penguin English Library, 1965, Notes, p. 499

Bibliography[edit]

  • Bateson, Charles (1974)The Convict Ships, 1787–1868.(Sydney).ISBN0-85174-195-9
  • Colledge, J.J. (1987).Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy From the Fifteenth Century to the Present.Annapolis, Maryland:Naval Institute Press.ISBN0-87021-652-X.
  • Frost, Alan (1984).Botany Bay Mirages: Illusions of Australia's Convict Beginnings.Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press.ISBN0522844979.

External links[edit]

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