Early Prison Hulks

From the early 18th century Britain had transported convicts to the American colonies. This came to end with the American Revolutionary War or the American War of Independence (1775-1783) and lead to overcrowding in British gaols. As a temporary measure old merchant ships and naval vessels were converted into floating prisons, known as hulks, where the convicts could be held until an alternative destination could be found.

John Howard was appointed High Sherriff of Bedfordshire in February 1773. He initiated his duties with a close inspection of the Bedford Gaol and was far from happy with what he found. One of the many practices he found objectionable was that the prisoners acquitted of guilt had to pay a fee to the gaoler before they could be released. This resulted in some innocent people remaining in confinement indefinitely. After this visit Howard made his first travels to the gaols in neighbouring counties. Before his death in 1790 he had visited virtually every gaol in the British Isles and had brought to the attention of Parliament to the need for reform in the gaols of the country.

Between 1776 and 1788 John Howard visited the hulks at Woolwich at least seven times. He also made visits to the hulks at Plymouth and Portsmouth during the same period. It was Howard’s concerns about the running of the hulks that caused the formation of a special committee of the House of commons, chaired by Sir Charles Bunbury, to inquire into the management of the hulks within a year of their introduction.

The following observations were made by Howard following a visit to the Woolwich hulks in November 1779.

‘In my first edition I passed some concerns on the management of the convicts committed to hard labour on the Thames; and in a subsequent visit I was still more convinced of the faults I had observed. The effects of these became so alarming as to attract the attention of Parliament. A public inquiry was instituted, by which it appeared that from August 1776, when the convicts were first put on board the Justitia, to March 26, 1778, out of 632 prisoners who were received, 176 had died. It is with pleasure that I can give an account, whcih will show in a striking light the beneficial effects of this Parliamentary inquiry as to the health of the prisoners, and to the obligations the public were under to the committee appointed on this occasion, and particularly to its chairman, Sir Charles Bunbury.

At my visit, November 16, 1779, there were at Woolwich, for the reception of convicts, an old Indiaman, called the Justitia, and a frigate, the Censor. In the former were 256 and the latter, 250 ... Another called the Reception, was empty; in this, convicts were examined by the surgeon, and continued three days before they were sent either to the hulks or to the hospital ship.

The prisoners on board the Justitia looked healthy and well; the decks were clean. They had bedding; their provisions were good of the sort; and there were not any (as at my former visits) without shoes or stockings. I found the Censor, below decks, cleaner than the Justitia; yet on carefully viewing the convicts, they had not so healthy and contented an aspect as those in the other; and a much greater proportion of the ship’s company was sent to the hospital. This created in me a suspicion that something was wrong. I examined all their provisions, bedding etc., and found that they were the same as on board the Justitia. It would be highly proper that a table of their stated allowance should be hung up, and scales, weights and measures assigned them, to check the pursers who give out the provisions. In the hospital ship on the two decks (0ne of which is for recovering patients) were 25 cradles, but smaller than those in the Royal Hospitals at Haslar and Plymouth where all lie single. Of the few who were sick, I found their irons were off. The cleanliness and quietness of the hospital did honor to the conductor. It should to be wished that the patients had better nourishment, as that in many cases would be more salutary than medical prescriptions.

There were about 150 at work in the Warren in 1779; most of them clothed in a brown uniform. I observed that the situation of these unhappy people was altered for the better. Yet their bread allowance of one pound a day was too little, especially for those who worked, although they had an extra allowance of beer.

At my visit, December 27, 1782, the Censor and the Reception, were laid up here. [There] were on board the Justitia 180 convicts and in the hospital ship, 24. Of these, 116 were employed in removing ballast, planking, etc., onshore and 36 were heaving ballast in the lighters. The hospital ship was very clean; the other not dirty. Some alteration is made in the bread allowance. The mess of six men is now seven pounds. The diet table is hung in the cabin of the Justitia. I could which it were for the inspection of the convicts, and that scales and weights were provided for them. There should be to each bed in winter an additional blanket.

October 19, 1783, there were on board the Justitia 172 and in the hospital ship 22. The men in the Justitia looked well, which I doubt not was in great measure owing to their being employed, and also restrained from spirituous and other strong liquors. Of late, but few of them have died: this shows that their situation is better with respect to health; but the association of so many criminals is utterly destructive to morals.’ [1]

Below is the weekly food allowance for each mess of six men, as recorded by John Howard, and shown in The Intolerable Hulks, by Charles Campbell.

Breakfast:

Everyday; a pint of barley or rice made into three quarts of soup.

Dinner:

Sunday, six pounds of salt pork or seven pounds of beef with five quarts of beer

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, six pounds of bullocks head.

(If this is correct it would appear they received no dinner on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday)

Supper:

Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, a pint of pease and barley made into three quart of soup.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, a pint of oatmeal made in to burgoo.

(Burgoo was a thick oatmeal porridge – sometimes spelt burgou or burgoe.

The sleeping arrangements on board the Justitia were initially in the form of two tiers of beds, or bunks, which proved to be unsatisfactory, and these were replaced by low wooden platforms, six feet long and four feet wide, each accommodating two men. A single straw pad and a blanket were provided for each platform. In his testimony, before a committee of Parliament, Duncan Campbell insisted that the convicts’ bedding was frequently aired, but at the same time, said that the straw pads were nailed to the sleeping platforms to prevent them from being thrown about by the prisoners. He also boasted that he had provided the convicts with more standing up space than had been customary on convict transportation ships. When the Censor was fitted out in April 1777, hammocks were installed instead of wooden platforms. It soon became apparent that trying to sleep in a hammock whilst wearing chains, as the convicts did, was very difficult and the hammocks were replaced with the wooden platforms as on the Justitia.

Lists of convicts on board these early hulks are not as easy to find as those after 1802 when the Secretary of State for the Home Department became responsible for the running of the hulks. In his excellent book, Bound for Australia, David Hawkings mentions that lists of convicts on board prison hulks during this early period can be found at The National Archives, Kew, among Treasury Board Papers (T1) and the Privy Council Office Registers (PC2). Following up these references in PC2/137 I found a list of convicts under who had been tried at various courts throughout the country and sentenced to ‘transportation beyond the seas’ on board the Stanislaus at Woolwich, the Fortunee in Langston Harbour, and the Lion in Portsmouth Harbour.

In T1/835 there are returns of Convicts under sentence of transportation, who had been moved from sundry gaols and put on board the Prudentia and Stanislaus at Woolwich. The date covered is from 30^th September to 31 December 1799 inclusive.