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In 1775 the outbreak of the American Revolution halted the transportation of felons to the colonies. One year later, with gaols overflowing, the Criminal Law Act - also known as the ‘Hulks Act’- was passed. Convicts awaiting transportation were put to hard labour on the shores of the Thames and stationed on floating prisons known as hulks.
Prison hulks were decommissioned warships, stripped of their masts, rigging and sails. They were both social and restrictive spaces, and are famed for their reputation as ‘hell on water’ epitomised.
Hulks were moored up along the Thames and Medway estuaries, as well as at Portsmouth, Bermuda and Gibraltar. In these locations, the work of convicts increased the efficiency of dockyards. Yards were in a constant state of evolution and needed to keep up to date with the latest technologies, such as the advent of steam power and iron-hulled ships. Convicts provided a cheap and efficient workforce, and rather than build new barracks to house men, prison hulks could be acquired at little cost and towed from site to site.
Source: Convicts on board Prison Hulks by Carrie Crockett (University of Leicester) http://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/carchipelago/2017/10/10/a-day-in-the-lif...
Image: View near Woolwich in Kent shewing [sic] the employment of the convicts from the hulks, c. 1800 / printed for Bowles & Carver. State Library of New South Wales. FL3233506.
This project is for profiles of those that served time on board the prison hulks in the 18th and 19th Centuries. The hulks were used up until 1857.