Read Online Olde London Punishments by David Brandon - Free Book Online
Authors: David Brandon
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hulks were moored on the Thames at Woolwich it was intended to be a short-term measure. They continued for a further eighty years (1776-1857); the decision to send convicts to Australia came in 1786 and continued until 1868, and over 160,000 convicts were despatched ‘Down Under’.
With regard to the hulks, the government from the start exercised a general supervision but their everyday operation was in the hands of contractors who tendered for the job, intending it to be a profitable business. It was soon discovered that far from being a cheap expedient, convict labour in the hulks was an expensive one because issues of security meant that the prisoners actually worked shorter hours than free labourers and, as is inevitable with forced labour, they did as little as they could possibly get away with. With the hulks being moored close to land and the work carried out by convicts ashore therewas always a possibility that they would make a break for freedom. Effective security was expensive. In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, his famous character Abel Magwich escapes from a hulk in the River Medway, in north Kent.
Illustration of an old hulk at Deptfford.
Some of the hulks were based close to each other on the south bank of the River Thames at Woolwich and Deptford, downstream from London. They housed only male prisoners, many of whom suffered from hernias owing to the physically demanding nature of the work they had to do. John Howard, the prison reformer, reported that of 632 prisoners admitted to one of them, Justitia, between August 1776 and March 1778, 176 (or 28 per cent) of them had died!
The hulks became full to bursting point and were notorious for their living conditions. Of all the places of confinement used in Britain, they were the probably the most demoralising. They were filthy, insanitary and overcrowded for much of the time. For example, records for the hulk Surprize, moored at Cove, near Cork, in 1834 show that there were 747 bowel infections; 1240 cases of ’the itch’; 392 of ‘the cough’; 560 of ‘feverish cold’ and 284 ‘herpetic eruptions’.
Hardened criminals lived cheek-by-jowl with bemused and terrified first-time offenders – among whom were children, some not yet in their teens. Bullying, violence and abuse were rife. In 1847 it was revealed that an elderly man had beengiven thirty-six lashes of the cat o’ nine tails for being just five minutes late for the early morning muster.
In the nineteenth century, those sentenced to transportation almost always found themselves temporarily housed in a hulk while awaiting a convict ship. A few weeks in a hulk were not an effective preparation for the hazards of a journey of several months to Australia, let alone for what might be awaiting the convicts when they got there. In some cases, prisoners supposedly awaiting transportation were ‘temporarily’ accommodated in hulks but remained in them until the expiry of their sentences.
The hulks were grim places for all concerned, and understandably those with the opportunity to do so tried to find a little light relief. In 1854 an official enquiry into incidents aboard the hulk Victoria at Portsmouth culminated in the court-martial of Lieutenant Charles Knight of the Royal Marines. It was alleged that on the night of the 17 September he brought two ‘improper’ women on board and proceeded to act ‘improperly’, plying both with large quantities of alcohol and possibly taking sexual liberties.
There were other disciplinary problems associated with the hulks. A letter from John Henry Capper, Superintendent of Hulks, dated 17 July 1832, raises the perennial issue of how to prevent the presence of hardened criminals ‘polluting’ other novice offenders. Capper writes:
The great influx of youthful offenders matured in crime, who are daily received on board the Hulks from the several Gaols in Great Britain, make it advisable that a considerable number of Convicts should be sent to
With regard to the hulks, the government from the start exercised a general supervision but their everyday operation was in the hands of contractors who tendered for the job, intending it to be a profitable business. It was soon discovered that far from being a cheap expedient, convict labour in the hulks was an expensive one because issues of security meant that the prisoners actually worked shorter hours than free labourers and, as is inevitable with forced labour, they did as little as they could possibly get away with. With the hulks being moored close to land and the work carried out by convicts ashore therewas always a possibility that they would make a break for freedom. Effective security was expensive. In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, his famous character Abel Magwich escapes from a hulk in the River Medway, in north Kent.
Illustration of an old hulk at Deptfford.
Some of the hulks were based close to each other on the south bank of the River Thames at Woolwich and Deptford, downstream from London. They housed only male prisoners, many of whom suffered from hernias owing to the physically demanding nature of the work they had to do. John Howard, the prison reformer, reported that of 632 prisoners admitted to one of them, Justitia, between August 1776 and March 1778, 176 (or 28 per cent) of them had died!
The hulks became full to bursting point and were notorious for their living conditions. Of all the places of confinement used in Britain, they were the probably the most demoralising. They were filthy, insanitary and overcrowded for much of the time. For example, records for the hulk Surprize, moored at Cove, near Cork, in 1834 show that there were 747 bowel infections; 1240 cases of ’the itch’; 392 of ‘the cough’; 560 of ‘feverish cold’ and 284 ‘herpetic eruptions’.
Hardened criminals lived cheek-by-jowl with bemused and terrified first-time offenders – among whom were children, some not yet in their teens. Bullying, violence and abuse were rife. In 1847 it was revealed that an elderly man had beengiven thirty-six lashes of the cat o’ nine tails for being just five minutes late for the early morning muster.
In the nineteenth century, those sentenced to transportation almost always found themselves temporarily housed in a hulk while awaiting a convict ship. A few weeks in a hulk were not an effective preparation for the hazards of a journey of several months to Australia, let alone for what might be awaiting the convicts when they got there. In some cases, prisoners supposedly awaiting transportation were ‘temporarily’ accommodated in hulks but remained in them until the expiry of their sentences.
The hulks were grim places for all concerned, and understandably those with the opportunity to do so tried to find a little light relief. In 1854 an official enquiry into incidents aboard the hulk Victoria at Portsmouth culminated in the court-martial of Lieutenant Charles Knight of the Royal Marines. It was alleged that on the night of the 17 September he brought two ‘improper’ women on board and proceeded to act ‘improperly’, plying both with large quantities of alcohol and possibly taking sexual liberties.
There were other disciplinary problems associated with the hulks. A letter from John Henry Capper, Superintendent of Hulks, dated 17 July 1832, raises the perennial issue of how to prevent the presence of hardened criminals ‘polluting’ other novice offenders. Capper writes:
The great influx of youthful offenders matured in crime, who are daily received on board the Hulks from the several Gaols in Great Britain, make it advisable that a considerable number of Convicts should be sent to
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