The 'Defence' hulk and the 'Unite' convict hospital ship, off Woolwich

An illustration of the prison hulk Defence and the convict hospital ship Unite, moored off Woolwich, from page 93 of 'The criminal prisons of London and scenes of prison life' by Henry Mayhew and John Binny. The first prison hulk, the Justitia, came into service as the result of an act of parliament of 1776, the Justitia being used to house prisoners engaged in the hard labour of raising sand, soil and gravel from the river. Supposedly for short term use, prison hulks were still in use when Mayhew was writing in 1862 and for many years previously the wretched conditions on board these vessels had given cause for concern. Mayhew reports that he interviewed officers who could recall up to 700 convicts being held on one ship "and when, at night, these men were fastened in their dens, a single warder was left on board in charge of them! The state of morality under such circumstances may be easily conceived; indeed, crimes impossible to be mentioned were commonly perpetrated. We were assured by one of the warders, who had served under the old hulk 'regime', that he well remembers seeing the shirts of the prisoners, when hung out upon the rigging, so black with vermin that the linen positively appeared to have been sprinkled over with pepper."