including
Woolwich & Districts
|
The Hulks
at Woolwich
The terrible
fate that many of the prisoners suffered whilst confined in
the stinking prison hulks that were moored at Woolwich and near
the Plumstead Marshes and Arsenal on the River Thames is graphically
and meticulously told in the following excerpt from Victorian
London - Publications - Social Investigation/Journalism - The
Criminal Prisons of London and Scenes of London Life (The Great
World of London), by Henry Mayhew and John Binny, 1862 - The
Convict Prisons of London - The Hulks at Woolwich
THE
HULKS AT WOOLWICH,
Half an hour's journey along the North Kent Railway, past the
rising meadows near Blackheath, and the bright toy villas, planted
in the centre of the greenest conceivable lawns, which make
the neighbourhood of Charlton - then through a long dark tunnel
- will deposit the traveller within five minutes' walk of the
Dockyard gates of Woolwich.
The sign of the public-house, "THE WARRIOR,"
which shows a gaudy front close to the station, suggests at
once the proximity of the hulks. The lazy men, in cotton-velvet-fronted
waistcoats, leaning against the door-posts; strong musters of
very dingy children; remarkably low shops, exhibiting all kinds
of goods at wonderfully cheap prices; and street after street
of little houses, where the wives of the regularly employed
dock labourers advertise the nature of their industry in their
parlour windows-indicate the neighbourhood of a great industrial
establishment.
Turning from the entrance of the Dockyard
- opposite which is a flourishing public-house, rejoicing in
the suggestive sign of "THE OLD SHEER HULK," which
probably reminds some of its customers of peculiarly "good
old times" - and keeping the high, dark walls of the yard
on the left, the way lies past little shops and beer establishments
on the right, towards the arsenal. From the elevated churchyard,
crowded with graves, the sharp outlines of which are rounded
by the waving of the uncut grass, the first view of the river,
with the flat Essex marshes beyond, is obtained. Here, immediately
opposite the yard, rises the bulky form of the great "WARRIOR"
hulk, which, the authorities declare, can hardly hold together.
Painted black and white, and with her naked and puny-looking
spars degraded to the rank of clothes-props for the convicts,
she stands in curious contrast to the light steamers that dance
by her, and to the little sloops laden with war stores, and
bound for Sheerness or Portsmouth, that glide like summer flies
upon the surface of the stream, almost under her stern.
From the churchyard, veering to the right
along the busy little High Street, the way lies past a long
line of shop windows, displaying capacious tea-pots, flanked
by wondrously variegated tea-cups, and offering tempting advantages
to the lovers of "a comfortable tea." A dead wall
still further suggests the neighbourhood of the hulks; for there
the posting-bill of the Woolwich theatre offers to the aspiring
youth of the locality the lessons of "THE CHAIN OF CRIME;
or, The Inn on Hounslow Heath!" Then, before the
arsenal gates, which are protected by three or four stern policemen,
a broad avenue is seen at noon, marked by a double row of women,
standing with their arms a-kimbo, and with baskets of the freshest
and reddest-looking radishes upon the ground before them, waiting
for the coming of the labourers, who are about to leave the
arsenal for dinner.
As we pass through the arsenal gate, noticing
a long gun pointed right through the portal, we are asked where
we are going.
"To the 'DEFENCE' Hulk," we answer.
Forthwith we are ushered into one of the
lodges at the side of the gate, where our name, address, and
profession are inscribed in a police book. We are then told
to pass on to the water's edge, where we shall find a policeman
who will hail the hulk. Through groves of tumbled wheels and
masses of timber, past great square buildings, from the roofs
of which white feathers of steam, graceful as the "marabout,"
dart into the clear air, and through the doors of which the
glow of fires and the dusky figures of men are seen, we go forward
to the flag-staff near the water's edge, and close to the bright
little arsenal pier, with its red lamps, and that long iron
tube under it, through which the shells are sent to the sloops
moored alongside. A heavy mist lies upon the marshes on the
opposite bank of the river; yet, in the distance, to the right
of the "DEFENCE", Barking Church is visible.
The "DEFENCE" and "UNITÉ",
moored head to head, with the bulky hammock-houses reared upon
their decks, their barred port-holes, and their rows of convicts'
linen swinging from between the stunted poles which now serve
them as masts, have a sombre look. From this point we can just
see, nearly a mile farther down the river, the heavy form of
the "WARRIOR" moored close alongside the Dockyard,
with the little, ugly "SULPHUR" (the washing-ship)
lying in the offing.
Meantime, the policeman, placing himself
in a prominent position upon the pier, has hailed the officer
in the gangway of the "DEFENCE;" and in a few minutes
afterwards a long "gig," pulled by four convicts,
in their brown dresses and glazed hats, parts from the hulk;
and showing in the stem the stiff, dark form of an officer,
steering directly for the landing- place, upon which we are
standing.
As the boat touches the shore, one of the
convicts places a little mat upon the cushioned seats, upon
which we tread as we jump into the craft, telling the officer
that we hear an order for the governor. With wonderful precision
the convict boatmen obey the orders of the officer, and point
the boat's bows back again to the gangway of the hulk.
In a few minutes we are aboard; and, as we
pass up the gangway steps, we hear one officer repeat to the
other - "For the governor!" And then a warder, with
a bright bunch of keys attached by a chain to his waist, conducts
us to the governor's drawing-room - a pretty apartment, where,
from the stern-windows of the hulk, there is a very picturesque
view of the river.
The
History of the Hulks.
The idea of converting old ships into prisons arose when, on
the breaking out of the American War of Independence, the transportation
of our convicts to our transatlantic possessions became an impossibility.
For the moment a good was effected, for the crowded prisons
were relieved; but from the time when the pressure upon the
prisons ceased, down to the present, when the hulks may be said
to be doomed, all writers on penology have agreed in condemning
the use of old ships for the purposes of penal discipline.
If, however, we follow the wording of the
19th Geo. III., cap. 74, in which the use of ships for prisons
is referred to, we shall perceive that an idea of turning convict
labour to account, for cleansing the Thames and other navigable
rivers, had probably directed the attention of government to
the possibility of arranging ships for their crowds of convicts.*
[*
The section of the act referred to runs thus:-
"And, for the more severe and effectual
punishment of atrocious and daring offenders, be it further
enacted That, from and after the First Day of July, one thousand
seven hundred and seventy-nine, where any Male Person . . .
shall be lawfully convicted of Grand Larceny, or any other Crime,
except Petty Larceny, for which he shall be liable by Law to
be transported to any Parts beyond the Seas, it shall and may
be lawful for the Court . . . to order and adjudge that such
Person . . . shall be punished by being kept on Board Ships
or Vessels properly accommodated for the Security, Employment,
and Health of the Persons to be confined therein, and by being
employed in Hard Labour in the raising Sand, Soil, and Gravel
from, and cleansing, the River Thames, or any other River Navigable
for Ships of Burthen," &c., &c.]
The
"JUSTITIA," an old Indiaman, and the "CENSOR,"
a frigate, were the first floating prisons established in England.
This system, though condemned by such men as Howard and Sir
William Blackstone,* [*London Prisons, by Hepworth Dixon,
page 124.] was not only persevered in, but extended; till, on
the 1st of January, 1841, there were 3,552 convicts on board
the various hulks in England.*
[*
In 1841, the gross number of convicts received on board the
hulks in England during the year was 3,625, and these were natives
of the following countries, in the following proportion:-
3,108 were born in England.
80 were born in Wales
229 were born in Scotland
180 were born in Ireland
13 were born in British Colonies
15 were born in Foreign States
Their
occupations had been as follows:-
304 had been Agriculturists.
1,176 had been Mechanics and persons instructed in manufactures.
1,986 had been Labourers and persons not instructed in manufactures
82 had been Domestic servants.
69 had been Clerks, shopmen, and persons employed confidentially.
8 had been Superior class, or men of education.
As
regards the religion of these same 3,625 convicts, the subjoined
are the statistics:-
2,934 belong to the Established Church
269 belong to the Roman Catholic ditto
167 belonged to the Scotch ditto.
245 were Dissenters
9 were Jews.
1 were of "another denomination."
Concerning
their prison "antecedents"-
1,451 were first-offence men
487 had been in prison before
1625 had been convicted before
10 had been in penitentiary
52 had been transported before
Their
ages were as follows
3 were under 10 years old
213 were from 10 to 15 years old
958 were from 15 to 20 years old
1612 were from 20 to 30 years old
839 were above 30 years old
Lastly:-
1,103 were married
2,522 were single.]
In
1854 the numbers so confined had been reduced to 1298.
Some idea of the sanitary condition of these
establishments, even so recently as 1841, may be gathered from
the report of Mr. Peter Bossy, surgeon of the "WARRIOR"
hulk, off Woolwich, which shows that in that year, among 638
convicts on board, there were no less than 400 cases of admission
to the hospital, and 38 deaths! At this period there were no
less than 11 ships (including those stationed at Bermuda, and
the "Euryalus," for juvenile convicts) used by the
British government for the purposes of penal discipline - if
discipline the then state of things could possibly be called.
There are still officers in the Woolwich
hulks who remember a time when the "Justitia" (a second
"Justitia," brought from Chatham in 1829) contained
no less than 700 convicts; and when, at night, these men were
fastened in their dens - a single warder being left on board
ship, in charge of them! The state of morality under such circumstances
may be easily conceived - crimes impossible to be mentioned
being commonly perpetrated.*
[*
Even so late as 1849, we find the "Unité",
hospital ship at Woolwich, described in the following terms
.- "In the hospital ship, the 'Unité,' the great
majority of the patients were infested with vermin; and their
persons, in many instances, particularly their feet, begrimed
with dirt. No regular supply of body-linen had been issued;
so much so, that many men had been five weeks without a change;
and all record had been lost of the time when the blankets had
been washed; and the number of sheets was so insufficient, that
the expedient had been resorted to of only a single sheet at
a time, to save appearances. Neither towels nor combs were provided
for the prisoners' use, and the unwholesome odour from the imperfect
and neglected state of the water-closets was almost insupportable.
On the admission of new cases into the hospital, patients were
directed to leave their beds and go into hammocks, and the new
cases were turned into the vacated beds, without changing the
sheets.]
Indeed
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; and that when the cholera broke
out on board the convict vessels for the first time, the chaplain
refused to bury the dead until there were several corpses aboard,
so that the coffins were taken to the marshes by half a dozen
at a time, and there interred at a given signal from the clergyman;
his reverence remaining behind on the poop of the vessel, afraid
to accompany the bodies, reading the burial-service at the distance
of a mile from the grave, and letting fall a handkerchief, when
he came to "ashes to ashes and dust to dust," as a
sign that they were to lower the bodies.
It was impossible that a state of things
so scandalous could last; and the successive reports of the
directors of convict prisons are evidence of the anxiety with
which they urged upon the government the reform - if not the
abandonment of the hulk system altogether; for, to the disadvantages
inseparable from the conduct of prison discipline on board ship,
the governors of hulks were forced to add the rottenness of
the vessels intrusted to them. They were expected to govern
five hundred convicts in a ship, the same as in a convenient
building, and to keep them healthy - in a rotten leaky tub!
The completion of the Portsmouth Convict
Prison, in 1852, at length effected an important reduction in
the hulk establishments. The "YORK" was given over
to the Admiralty to be broken up. In 1851 the "DEFENCE"
had been moved to Woolwich to replace two unserviceable hulks,
and the "WARRIOR", which lies off Woolwich Dockyard,
and is still called the model hulk, had been reported as unsound.
It will be seen, by the accompanying extract from the directors'
report for 1852, that they again drew attention to the "WARRIOR";
while in their last report (1854) they have, once more, ventured
into a few details.
"The 'WARRIOR,'" say they, "is
patched up as well as her unsoundness will permit, but there
is no knowing how soon she may become quite unfit for further
use, and it will be advisable to take the earliest opportunity
that offers of transferring the prisoners to some more suitable
place of confinement, as any serious repairs would be quite
thrown away on so decayed a hulk, if indeed they would be practicable."
To this remonstrance of the directors the governor added his
own, in these emphatic words- "It is well known that the
hulk is in a most dilapidated condition, and scarcely able to
hold together. Recent repairs, supporting the lower deck, &c.,
have rendered her safe from any immediate danger; but the remedy
is merely temporary. She is rotten and unsound from stem to
stern."
Still the "WARRIOR" remains, in
spite of such remonstrances as these, with canvas drawn over
her leakages, to keep the damp from the wards, moored off the
Woolwich dockyard, with 436 convicts between her crumbling ribs.
Before passing from this brief history of
the hulks, to paint their actual condition, the labour performed
by their inmates, and the regulations under which they are conducted,
we will quote a paragraph from the general remarks of the directors,
addressed to the government at the beginning of last year on
this subject:- "Our opinion on the disadvantages of the
hulks, as places of confinement for prisoners, has been so strongly
expressed in previous annual reports, that we feel it unnecessary
here to say more than that we consider these disadvantages radical
and irremediable, and to urge the necessity of adopting every
opportunity that may offer of substituting for them prisons
on shore, constructed, as at Portland and Portsmouth, with sleeping
cells for all the prisoners. Now that the transportation of
criminals can only be carried on to a small extent, it appears
of very great importance that every defect in connection with
their imprisonment which might lessen the prospect of its being
effectual as a punishment, and also as a means of their reformation,
should be got rid of as speedily as possible, and of such
defects we know none at all approaching in magnitude to the
association of the convicts in the prison hulks."
It should be remembered, let us add, by the
opponents of the ticket-of-leave system, that although it is
from these condemned hulks, where the men are herded together
and arc pretty well free to plot and plan as they please, that
they are turned upon society, nevertheless, according to the
directors' report just quoted, of five hundred and forty-four
convicts discharged in 1854 from the Woolwich hulks only, and
one hundred and six discharged before that period - in all six
hundred and fifty convicts - there have been but six received
back with licenses revoked for misconduct.
As we have already remarked, however, the
hulks are doomed. At the present time the "WARRIOR",
lying off Woolwich Dockyard; the little "SULPHUR,"
a floating wash-tub for the convicts, lying opposite the "WARRIOR;"
the "DEFENCE," lying off Woolwich Arsenal; and the
"UNITÉ," made fast to the "DEFENCE,"
and used as the hulk hospital (together with the "STIRLING
CASTLE," the invalid depot, and the "BRITON"
convict hospital at Portsmouth), are the only "floating
prisons" in England - though, by the by, the "WARRIOR,"
floats only once a fortnight.*
[*
STATEMENT OF THE NUMBER OF PRISONERS RECEIVED ON BOARD THE CONVICT
ESTABLISHMENTS AT WOOLWICH, AND ALSO OF THE DISPOSAL OF SUCH
PRISONERS, BETWEEN THE 1st JANUARY, 1854, AND DECEMBER, 1854.
-
Number
on board |
"Warrior." |
"Defence." |
Total |
Remaining
on board January 1st, 1854 |
421 |
521 |
942 |
Admitted
during the year |
273 |
298 |
571 |
Total |
694 |
819 |
1513 |
How
disposed of |
|
|
|
Discharged
to Colonies |
25 |
29 |
54 |
Sent
to other Prisons |
21 |
22 |
43 |
Pardoned |
190 |
216 |
406 |
Sent
to Lunatic Asylums |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Invalided
to "Stirling Castle" |
5 |
8 |
13 |
Escaped |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Died |
11 |
16 |
27* |
Total |
253 |
293 |
546 |
Remaining
December 31, 1854 |
441 |
526 |
967 |
Grand
Total |
694 |
819 |
1513 |
Average
daily number of prisoners |
436 |
515 |
951 |
*
1,270, J. S., on the 20th July, drowned accidentally in canal.
1,240, J. M., on the 20th June, died suddenly from apoplexy
on board the "Defence."
The expense to the country of the hulk establishment (including
the "STIRLING CASTLE" and "BRITON" at Portsmouth),
in 1854, the date of the last returns, was £43,545 0s.
7d. Of this sum the cost of management (including the salaries,
rations, and uniforms of officers) was nearly £14,000,
and that of victualling and clothing the prisoners about £20,000;
while the remainder was made up principally of gratuities to
convicts (about £3,000), clothing, and travelling expenses
of liberated prisoners (upwards of £1,500), medicine,
and medical comforts for the sick (£1,860 odd), fuel and
light (£l,500), &c.
The hulk System, condemned, as we have already
observed, from the date of its origin to the present time, has
been the despair of all penal reformers. Originally adopted
as a makeshift under pressing circumstances, these old men-of-war
have remained during nearly half a century the receptacles
of the worst class of prisoners from all the jails of the United
Kingdom a striking instance of the inertness of government,
as well as of its utter callousness as to the fate or reformation
of the criminal.
Convicts who have undergone the reformatory
discipline of Millbank and Pentonville, are at the hulks suddenly
brought into contact with offenders who have undergone no reformatory
discipline whatever. All the care which has been taken at Pentonville
and at Millbank to prevent the men talking together, and associating
with one another, is thrown away, since the first freedom granted
to the convict undergoing penal servitude is given when he reaches
the hulks, and finds himself in a "mess," where he
will probably meet with one old companion in crime at
least. The authorities declare that in these messes only "rational"
conversation is permitted, but it is very clear that forty or
fifty men cannot be crammed into one side of a ship's deck,
put together upon works, and swung elbow to elbow in hammocks
at night without finding ample opportunity for free conversation.
Whatever good is effected, therefore, by
the systems of Millbank and Pentonville is effectually destroyed
at Woolwich. The reformed convict from Pentonville is at the
hulk establishments cast among companions from whom the separate
system sought to wean him, while he is put to labour of the
hardest and least interesting character. He was, perhaps, a
shoemaker, or a tailor, or weaver at Pentonville; at Woolwich,
however, he has to lay aside the craft that he has only just
learnt, and is set to scrape the rust from shells, or else stack
timber. Here he is not only thrown amongst brutal companions,
whom it was before considered perdition to allow him to associate
with, and even to see, but put to do the lowest description
of labour - in some instances at the muzzle of a guard's carbine
- and impressed with the idea that it is the very repulsiveness
of this labour which is his punishment, so that it is strange,
indeed, if the lessons of Pentonville have not been utterly
erased from his memory, granting that the imposed dumbness of
the " silent system," or the physical and mental depression
induced by the separate system, to have worked some permanent
salutary effect on his heart. /P>
Convict
Labour and Discipline at Woolwich.
"The hulk system was continued,'' says Mr. Dixon, "notwithstanding
its disastrous consequences soon became patent to all the world;
and it still flourishes - if that which only stagnates, debases,
and corrupts, can be said to flourish - though condemned by
every impartial person who is at all competent to give an opinion
on the matter, and this because the labour of the convicts is
found useful and valuable to the government - a very good reason
for still employing convict labour upon useful public works,
but no reason at all for continuing the hulks in their present
wretched condition.''
As we have already remarked, this labour
is of the description called "hard;" that is to say,
it is the exercise of irksome brute force, rather than the application
of self-gratifying skill; still those persons who are familiar
with the working of a dockyard or an arsenal, know that this
"hard'' work is valuable in both establishments; for in
the general report of the directors on time results of 1854,
under the head of "Earnings and Expenses," we find
that the labour of the convicts confined in the hulks alone
was valued at £19,736 5s. 9d. These earnings,
however, it should be observed, were exclusive of the estimated
value of the labour of the convicts employed as cooks, bakers,
washers, shoemakers, tailors, and others engaged in work merely
for prison purposes.
The directors tell us that the kind of work
performed by the convicts is chiefly labourers' work, such as
loading and unloading vessels, moving timber and other materials,
and stores, cleaning out ships, &c., at the dockyard; whilst
at the royal arsenal the prisoners are employed at jobs of a
similar description, with the addition of cleaning guns and
shot, and excavating ground for the engineer department - 329
prisoners, out of a daily average of 515 on board the "DEFENCE,"
having been so employed. "The only artificer's work,"
add the directors, "that the convicts have had an opportunity
of performing has been, to a very small extent, in executing
repairs and other jobs for the service of the hulks in which
they have been confined."*
[*
RETURN OF EMPLOYMENT OF PRISONERS IN THE "DEFENCE"
HULK FOR THE WEEK ENDING 16TH DECEMBER, 1854
-
General
Occupation |
Average
Daily No. employed |
General
Occupation |
Average
Daily No. employed |
Description
of Work |
Average
Daily No. employed |
Description
of Work |
Average
Daily No. employed |
ORDNANCE
(A) Working Parties (as detailed in col. 3) |
329 |
SICK
(C) and unfit for labour (as detailed in col. 4) |
22 |
(A)
ORDNANCE WORKING PARTIES |
|
(B)
PRISON WORK |
|
PRISON
WORK (B) (as detailed in col. 4) |
63 |
SCHOOL |
60 |
Removing
and stacking timber |
114 |
Boarders
cleaning ship generally, and attending on sick at
hospital |
42 |
Carpenters |
4 |
SEPARATE
FOR PUNISHMENT (or other reasons) |
3 |
Discharging
mud |
14 |
Boatmen |
10 |
Smith |
1 |
|
85 |
Shipping
and unshipping stores |
40 |
Whitewashers |
2 |
Tinker
|
1 |
Average
Daily number |
515 |
Cleaning
out sheds |
10 |
Bed-pickers |
2 |
Painter |
1 |
|
|
Cleaning
shot and shell |
27 |
Net-maker |
1 |
Sawyer |
1 |
|
|
Carting
sundries |
14 |
|
|
Cooper |
1 |
|
|
Digging
gravel |
8 |
(C)
SICK |
16 |
Ropemakers |
2 |
|
|
Odd
jobs not measurable |
1 |
Sick
at Hospital |
6 |
Bookbinder |
1 |
|
|
Making
and repairing grummetts and wads |
24 |
Ditto,
complaining |
22 |
Shoemakers |
4 |
|
|
Repairing
butt and roads |
36 |
|
|
Tailors |
6 |
|
|
Assisting
tradesmen |
27 |
|
|
Washers |
12 |
|
|
Cleaning
out drains |
14 |
|
|
Cooks
|
4 |
|
|
Total |
329 |
|
|
|
101 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
As regards
the industry of the prisoners, the directors say "the men
generally have worked willingly and with good effect,
considering the disadvantage inseparable from their being occasionally
mixed with, or in the neighbourhood of; numbers of free labourers
and others - a circumstance which requires, for the sake of
security, considerable restraint to be placed on their freedom
of action. Punishments for idleness, though always inflicted
where the offence is proved, have been by no moans of frequent
occurrence." ** [** Report of the Directors of the Convict
Prisons on the Discipline and Management of the Hulk Establishment,
1854]
The "willingness" here spoken of,
however, is of a very negative kind, and might be better described
as resignation, or a desire to escape punishment. Nevertheless
it should in fairness be added, that the governor of the "WARRIOR"
hulk reported to the directors of convict prisons in 1854, that
"the valise of the convicts' labour might be favourably
compared with that of an equal number of free workmen."
***
Value of Labour at the Hulks. - -Let us turn now to the
value set upon the labour of the prisoners at the hulks by the
directors of convict prisons.
The report for 1854 returns the value of
convict dockyard labour at 2s. 5½d. and a fraction
daily, per man; while arsenal convict labour, according to the
same authority, is worth 2s. 4d. per diem; that of the
convict carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, plumbers, and coopers
is valued at 2s. 6d. a day, and that of shoemakers, tailors,
washers, and cooks at 1s. 6d., whilst the general prison labour,
working of boats, &c., is set down at only 1s. 3d. a
day.
Now, by this scale we find that the following
were the earnings of the convicts at Woolwich, "as calculated
according to reasonable wages, for the different descriptions
of work performed, per day of 10 hours," during the year
1854:-
Name
of Hulk |
Average
daily no. of prisoners |
Number
and Value of Day's Labour performed |
|
By
Inferior Workmen |
By
Superior Workmen |
No.
of Days 10 hrs each |
Estimated
Value |
No.
of Days, 10 hrs. each |
Estimated
Value |
Total
estimated Value |
Annual
Average per Head. |
"Defence" |
515 |
96018 |
£10,067
6s. 9d. |
2899,,9 |
£342
2s. 7d. |
£10,309
9s. 4d. |
20
4 3 |
"Warrior" |
436 |
68655,,2 |
£8453
15s. 5d. |
11691,,3 |
£873
1s. 0d. |
£9326
16s. 5d. |
21
7 10 |
Total |
951 |
164673,,2 |
£18521
2s. 2d. |
14581,,2 |
£1215
3s. 7d. |
£19736
5s. 9d. |
20
15 0¾ |
Here, then,
we perceive that 951 convicts on board the two Woolwich hulks
performed altogether very nearly 180,00 days' labour in the
course of the year, and earned collectively, in round numbers,
£20,000 or almost 20 guineas per head.*
[*The
subjoined is a more detailed account of the quantity and the
kind of work done by the convicts in the dockyard and arsenal
at Woolwich:-
STATEMENT
OF THE VALUE OF LABOUR PERFORMED IN THE ROYAL DOCKYARD, WOOLWICH,
BY CONVICTS, IN THE YEAR 1854
Removing
and stacking, &c., cubic timber, 2,825,073 cubic feet at
12s. per 1,000 . . . £1,965 0s 10½d
Removing and stacking superficial timber, 1,726,555 superficial
feet, at 4s. 6d. per 1,000 feet . . . £388 9s 5¾d
Removing iron, ballast, stores, &c. 23,916 tons, at 6d.
per ton . . . £597 18s. 0d.
Weighing and stacking ditto, 25,654 tons, at 4d. per ton . .
. £427 11s. 4d.
Removing coals, 46,406 tons, at 7d. per ton . . . £1353
10s, 2d.
Weighing and stacking ditto, 33,586 tons, at 5d. per ton . .
. £699 14s. 2d.
Carting sundries, 3,362 loads, at 6d. per load . . . £84
1s. 0d.
Spinning and balling oakum, 228cwt. at 2s. per cwt. . . . £22
16s. 0d.
Cutting up old rope. 193 tons, at 2s. per ton . . . £19
6s. 0d.
Picking oakum 119lbs., at 5 ½d. per lb. £2 14s.
6½d.
Removing, stacking, and weighing old rope, &c. 1932 tons,
at 6d. per ton . . . £48 6s. 0d.
Odd jobs not measurable:- Assisting shipwrights and riggers,
cleaning out sawmills, steamers, docks, and yard, testing chain
cables, &c. docking and undocking vessels, cutting up old
iron, staging , pitch scraping, cross-cutting timber, removing
boats, &c. &c., 266,948 hours, at 10 hours per day,
equal to 26,694 days 8 hours, at 2s. 4d. per day . . .
£3414 7s. 10¼
Total value of dockyard labour £8453 15s. 5d.
STATEMENT
OF THE VALUE OF LABOUR PERFORMED FOR THE ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT,
ROYAL ARSENAL, BY THE CONVICTS, DURING THE YEAR END 31st DECEMBER,
1854
Removing
and stacking timber, 2,222,350 cubic feet, at 12s. per 1,000
feet . . . £1333 8s. 3d.
Ditto Ditto 6,095,636 superficial
feet, at 4s. 6d. per 1,000 feet £1371 10s. 4d.
Making mortar, 329 cube yards at 11d. per yard . . . £15
1s. 7d.
Breaking stones, 3,525 bushels, at 5d. per bushel . . . £73
8s. 9d.
Facing stones, 839 superficial feet at 5d. per foot . . . £17
9s. 7d.
Weeding, 59,787 superficial yards, at 1s. 6d. per 100 yards
. . . £44 16s. 9d.
Raising and removing mud, 13,070 tons, at 5½d. per ton
. . . £299 10s. 5d.
Removing and shipping stores, &c., 53,037 tons at 6d. per
ton, £1325 18s. 6d.
Cleaning shot and shell, 247,370 No., 1s. per 24 shot . . .
£515 7s. 1d.
Carting sundries, 44,550 loads at 6d. per load . . . £1113
15s. 0d.
Digging and removing gravel, 8,547 cube yards, at 5d. per yard
. . £178 1s. 3d.
Making concrete, 96 cube yards, at 1s. per yard £4 16s.
0d.
Odd jobs not measurable:- Cleaning saw mills, sheds, drains,
tanks and cadets' barracks, making and repairing grummetts,
wads, &c. repairing butt and roads, assisting tradesmen,
filling hollow shot, whitewashing, cutting sods, mowing, making
and stacking hay, spreading mud, clearing away now, &c.&c.,
19,550 days at 2s. 4d. per day . . . . £2280 16d. 8d.
Total value of arsenal labour £8574 0s. 2d.
N.B. The
totals above given, thought incorrect, are copied literally
from the Directors' Report.]
***
Convicts Gratuities - The gratuities which the convicts,
labouring on the public works or in the hulks, are entitled
to, are divided into "conduct gratuities" and "industry
gratuities," both of which vary according to the class
to which the convict belongs. Each prisoner is entitled to
his conduct gratuity irrespective of his gratuity for industry,
whilst his industry gratuities are measured by the zeal with
which he labours. The conduct gratuities, as arranged in the
books of the governor of the "DEFENCE," stand thus:-
CONDUCT GRATUITIES.
1st Class Prisoners
(receive) . - . . 9d. Weekly.
2nd Class Prisoners
,, ,, . . . . 6d. ,,
3rd Class Prisoners
,, ,, . . . . 4d. ,,
The industry gratuities, or sums placed
to the credit of the convicts according to the amount of work
done, vary from 3d. for a "good" quantity
of labour performed, to 6d. for a "very good" quantity.*
[*
The subjoined is extracted from the governor's books:-
1. }
INDUSTRY GRATUITIES
2. } as per authorised scale
3. }
V.G. (very good). If the number of the V.G.s
is under one-third of the total number of weeks that the prisoner
has been in the prison, he may receive 4d. for every V.G.; if
over one-third and under two thirds of the total number, he
may receive 5d.; if over two-thirds, he may receive 6d. for
every V.G.
G. (good). The prisoner may receive 3d. for
every G. (unless the whole of the gratuities become forfeited
by misconduct)
O. Nil.
V.B. (very bad)
P. (punishment)
B. (bad)
I. (infirmary). Nil. The infirmary cases
are liable for special considerations with reference to class
and conduct but not for extra gratuity.
I.A. (infirmary accident). Discretionary
- being governed by the circumstances; but, as a rule, a gratuity
is allowed according to the prisoner's previous conduct and
industry.
L. (light labour). According to class (as
above), but no extra gratuity.
The above scale does not apply where a special
scale is authorised for invalids.]
We took the trouble to inspect the books of the "DEFENCE,"
and can testify to the marvellous neatness and accuracy with
which they are kept. When a prisoner is reported to the governor,
the latter can tell, by a glance at the character-book, the
conduct of the former during every week he has spent at the
hulk. At the expiration of the convict's term the character-book
is summed up, the advantages resulting from the prisoner's class
and industry are added together, and he has a bill made ·out
of the sum due to him, in the following form, which we copied
from the governor's book:-
J.C. Class
I.
|
CONDUCT |
|
|
|
|
90
weeks V.G., at 9d. per week |
£3
|
7 |
6 |
13
weeks G., at 6d. per week |
0 |
6 |
6 |
1
week (infirmary accident) 6d. |
0 |
0 |
6 |
INDUSTRY |
|
|
|
99
weeks V.G., at 6d. per week |
2 |
9 |
6 |
4
weeks, G., at 3d. per week |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1
week infirmary, 3d. per week |
0 |
0 |
3 |
53
weeks (ticket-of-leave class, at 6d. per week** |
1 |
6 |
6 |
|
7 |
11 |
9 |
Had
in private cash |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Total |
7 |
12 |
1 |
[**
This payment of 6d. per week was the compensation made
to prisoners who, after the suspension of transportation
for short terms, remained in the hulks during the passing
of the ticket-of-leave bill. The weekly allowance was
paid to them from the date at which they would have obtained
tickets had they proceeded to Australia, till they were
set free from the hulks. Thus J. C. was a prisoner 53
weeks longer than he would have been confined had he been
sent to the colonies.]
This
man received on leaving five shillings in cash, £3
15s. in a Post-office order, payable at his declared destination.
Thus a balance of £3 12s. ld. in his favour remained
in the governor's hands, to which he would become entitled
when a letter, of which he was furnished with a printed
form on leaving the hulks, was received from him, signed
by the clergyman, or some other responsible person in
his neighbourhood, as a proof that he was leading an honest
life.*
[*
MEMORANDUM TO BE GIVEN TO A PRISONER ON DISCHARGE, IN
CASE ANY BALANCE OF GRATUITY
"In the event of your conduct being satisfactory
when at liberty, and that you faithfully perform the conditions
printed at the back of the License, your claim to the
balance of your Gratuity will be admitted on your returning
this paper to me at the expiration of three months from
your release, backed by the certificate of the Magistrate
or Clergyman of the Parish, or other competent and known
authority, that you are earning your livelihood by honest
means, and have proved yourself deserving of the clemency
which has been extended to you by her Majesty.
"The following particulars must
be carefully stated in returning this paper:-
Christian
and Surname at length and Prisoner Number __________
Your Occupation or Calling, or in what manner you are
earning your livelihood __________
The name of the Post-Office at which the order should
be made payable __________
______________________ Prison
______________________ Governor
______________ 185_ ]
The rule is, that if a prisoner's account when he is discharged
be under £8, he may receive half on leaving, and
the balance two months subsequently; whereas, if his balance
exceeds £8 and be under £12, he must wait
three months for the balance. In addition to the money
due to him, every prisoner discharged from the hulks is
provided with a new suit of clothes and a change of linen.
The gross sum paid in gratuities to
the convicts at the hulks amounted to upwards of £2,950
in the course of the year 1854, while the cost of the
clothes and travelling expenses for the prisoners, on
obtaining their liberation, was £1,650 odd.
***
Badges, &c.-A distinctive portion of the discipline
carried on at Woolwich consists in the badges worn by
the prisoners on the left arm, and the rings worn on the
right. These badges arc made of black leather, with an
edge of red cloth, with white and black letters and figures
upon it. We advanced towards some convicts who were hauling
up linen to the mast to dry, and who wore both rings and
badges. The first badge we examined was marked thus |
|
7
V.G.
8 |
|
The
7 meant that the prisoner had been sentenced to seven
years' transportation; the 8 that he had been in the
hulk that number of months, and the V. G., that his conduct
had been very good all the time he had been there.
Another man wore a badge marked thus:- |
|
4
G.
6
8 |
|
This
denoted that the prisoner was suffering four years'
penal servitude ; that his conduct had been good during
six months; and that he had been on board the hulk
eight months.
These badges are collected once in
every month, and conveyed to the governor's office. The
character-book, as filled up from the weekly reports of
the warders, is gone over in each ease, and, at the same
time, if the prisoner have behaved badly, his badge is
altered, and he loses some of the advantages of his previous
good conduct.*
[*
"The badges which are given as a record to the prisoner
of his actual position with reference to character, have
proved to be a great encouragement; and that they are
prized is evidenced by the efforts made to obtain them,
and to regain them by good conduct in such cases as they
may have been forfeited.
"The Governor of Portland Prison
observes:-
"'The system of wearing conduct-badges
on the dress, by which the monthly progress of each convict
towards the attainment of his ticket-of-leave is publicly
marked, works very satisfactorily, as is evinced by the
anxiety of even the ill-conducted prisoners to regain
a lost good-conduct mark, an the efforts to keep subsequently
clear of the misconduct book.'
"As a means of promoting good
conduct, a system of classification has also been adopted,
the object of which will be best understood from the rules
established with reference to it, which are as follows:-
"'The prisoners shall be divided
into three classes, to be called the first, second, and
third classes. The classification shall depend, in the
first instance, on the report of character arid general
conduct since conviction that nosy be received with a
prisoner; and subsequently, on his actual conduct, industry,
and observed character under the discipline of the establishment.
"' 6. Prisoners in either the
first or second classes shall be liable to removal to
a lower class for misconduct. The prisoners in the different
classes shall be distinguished by badges, indicating the
particular class to which each prisoner may belong.
"'7. Prisoners who habitually
misconduct themselves will be liable to be sent back to
separate confinement, or to be removed to some penal establishment
under more severe discipline.
"'8. The object of the classification
is not only to encourage regularity of conduct and a submission
to discipline in the prison, by the distinctions that
will be maintained in the different classes, but to produce
on the mind of the prisoners a practical and habitual
conviction of the effect which their own good conduct
and industry will have on their welfare and future prospects.
"'9. Such distinctions shall be
made between the classes, and such privileges granted,
as shall promote the object of giving encouragement to
those whose good conduct may deserve it, provided such
distinctions do not interfere with discipline nor with
the execution of a proper amount of labour on public works.'"
- Report on the Discipline and Construction of Portland
Prison, and its connection with the System of Convict
Discipline now in operation, by Lieut.-Col. Jebb,
C.B., 1850.]
Three
months' good report in the character-book constitutes
a V. G., or very good, and advances the wearer
three months towards the second stage of penal servitude.
Accordingly the man's class is not marked upon his badge.
But the first man whose badge we noticed
upon his left arm, had also upon his right arm a blue
and two red rings. The blue ring denotes the second stage
of penal servitude, and the red rings that he is a first-class
convict. One red ring upon the right arm makes a second-class
convict; and the third-class prisoner is known by the
absence of all rings from his arm. By this system we are
assured that it is almost impossible that a prisoner can
be unjustly dealt with.
A
Day on Board the "Defence" Hulk.
The cold, gray light of early morning gave to everything
its most chilly aspect, when at five AM. we stepped aboard
the "DEFENCE," the old 74-gun ship, with the
determination of spending an entire day with her 500 and
odd inmates. lint before we describe the various duties
by which every day in a convict-ship is marked, let us
here acknowledge how much we owe to the courtesy and to
the lucid explanations of the governor, Mr. S. Byrne.
As we run up the gangway of the silent hull, and survey
the broad decks, and massive "galleys," and
hammock-houses, in the misty light, the only sounds heard
are the gurgling of the tide streaming past the sides
of the black-looking vessel, and the pacing of the solitary
warder-guard - the silence and the stillness of the scene
in no way realizing the preconceived idea of a convict
hulk. Yet as we pass to the ship's galley, at the fore-part
of the vessel, and see the copper sheathing glistening
on the floor round the cook's flue, with the large black
boiler above it, and the sparkling yellow fire shining
through the broad bars, the sight reminds us that there
are hundreds of mouths to feed below. The cook sharply
rakes the burning coals; and the copper frets, and spurts,
and steams, with its unquiet boiling volume of the reddish-
brown cocoa.
This cook is the first convict with
whom we have come in contact: he is preparing the breakfasts
of his fellow-prisoners, who are still sleeping under
the hatches. Close at hand is the bread-room, piled with
baskets and boxes; while opposite is the officers' galley,
with another stove, standing on its plate of glistening
copper sheathing. Above, on the forecastle, are the hammock-houses-divided
off into large, black, deep cupboards-bulging over the
gunwale of the ship. Then we pass the drying-houses for
linen (used in wet weather), and the little cabins at
the gunwale waist, where the mechanic-convicts employed
on board ply their respective handicrafts. Glancing over-head,
we observe the shirts and stockings of the prisoners below
dangling from the scanty rigging between the masts, and
fluttering in the wind - as we had remarked them from
the shore in broad daylight on another occasion.
We are now near the top deck hatchway
by the forecastle; it is still barred and padlocked. Here
the bayonet of the sentry on duty, glistening in the light,
attracts our attention. Then we notice the heavy bright
bell, swung in front of the hatchway. All is quiet yet.
We can hear the water splashing amid the boats at the
broad gangway, or along the shelving sides of the ship,
under her barred port-holes. The warder who accompanies
us, ourselves, and the sentry are still the only people
on the spacious decks of the old seventy-four. The poop,
given up to the governor's rooms, and to those of his
deputy and officers, is railed round; while a series of
chimney funnels, projecting here and there, break the
regularity of the outline.
The warder proceeds to open the hatchways;
and we descend, in company with him, the top deck, in
order to see the men in their hammocks, before rising
for their day's duties.
***
The "Turning-out" of the convicts - On reaching
the top deck we found it divided, by strong iron rails
(very like those in the zoological gardens, which protect
visitors from the fury of the wild beasts) from one end
to the other, into two long cages as it were, with a passage
between them. In this passage a warder was pacing to and
fro, commanding a view of the men, who were slung up in
hammocks, fastened in two rows, in each cage or compartment
of the ship. There was also a little transverse passage
at the end of each ward, that allowed the officer on duty
to take a side view of the sleepers, and to cast the light
of his bull's-eye under the hammocks, to assure himself
that the men were quiet in their beds.
The glimmering little lanterns attached
to the railings, so that the warder on duty could trim
them without entering the wards, were still alight. The
glazed hats of the men hung up overhead, reflecting the
pale beams; and the men themselves were still snoring
in their dingy hammocks.
In these two compartments or wards
were 105 convicts, parted off into sections, ID 1, D 2,
and A 1 and A 2. (See plan, p. 211.) And a curious
sight it was to look upon the great sleeping mass of beings
within them! The hammocks were slung so close to one another
that they formed a perfect floor of beds on either side
of the vessel, seeming like rows of canvas-boats. But
one or two of the prisoners turned on their sides as we
passed along the deck, and we could not help speculating,
as we went, upon the nature of the felon-dreams of those
we heard snoring and half-moaning about us. How many,
thought we, are with their friends once more, enjoying
an ideal liberty - how many are enacting or planning some
brutal robbery! - how many suffering, in imagination,
the last penalty of their crimes! - how many weeping on
their mother's breast, and promising to abandon their
evil courses for ever! - and to how many was sleep an
utter blank - a blessed annihilation for a while to their
life-long miseries!
The convicts here arranged were first-class
men - there being manifest advantages in the top deck
over the middle and lower ones, as shown by Mr. Bossy,
in his report on the "WARRIOR" hulk, in 1841*.
[*
"A STATEMENT of the Number of Prisoners sent to the
Hospital, from the 1st of October, 1840, to the 10th May,
1841, inclusive; showing the Deck to which they belonged,
and the mortality from each: - |
|
Docks |
Daily
average number of men |
Total
Number sent to the Hospital |
Rate
per Cent. |
Total
Number of Deaths |
Rate
per Cent. |
|
Top |
132 |
48 |
36 |
5 |
3.7 |
Middle |
192 |
134 |
70 |
15 |
7.8 |
Lower |
284 |
172 |
60½ |
12 |
4.2 |
Total |
608 |
354 |
58 |
32 |
5.2 |
"The smaller proportion of illness among the prisoners
on the upper deck is readily explained by their exemption
from depressing causes.
"According to the present system
of classification, all prisoners newly arrived who are
still smarting under the pain of disgrace and separation
from their homes, and have not yet recovered from the
anxiety, severe discipline, and spare diet endured in
jail; all whose transportation is for a long term of years
or for life, and all whose character and conduct are bad,
remain the tenants of the lower deck; but if the prisoner's
sentence be short, and his character and conduct good,
he may in three months be raised to the middle deck, and
in twelve months to the upper deck, where if he once arrives,
there is a strong expectation he will not leave the country;
he feels he has the confidence of the officers; and a
cheerful hope of regaining his home sustains and restores
a healthy rigour to body and mind.
"If a long-sentenced prisoner
is the subject of scrofula, of ulcer, of scurvy, of general
infirmity, or of any cause unfitting him for the voyage,
he will become by good conduct an inmate of the middle
deck, and will remain there for several years ; so that
we gradually acquire an accumulation of invalids on this
deck, and this is one reason of the frequent deaths of
its inhabitants.
"The upper deck is much drier,
being farther removed from the surface of the river; and,
being more fully exposed to the sun, is hotter than the
rest. The large size of its ports also affords better
ventilation." - Medical Report, by P. Bossy, surgeon
to "The Warrior, for 1841.]
We
followed the warder towards the stern of the ship; and,
at the extremity of this deck, WC crossed a grating, and
reached the hatchway leading to the middle deck.
The middle deck was arranged on the
same plan as that of the top one; excepting that the passage
between the swinging hammocks was wider. Here 129 men
were sleeping in the divisions or wards called E 1, E
2; B1, B 2. (See plan, p. 211.) Here, too, the
officer was parading between the wards or cages, and splashing
about chloride of lime that stood in buckets between the
wards. It was still very dark; and the groaning, coughing,
and yawning of the sleeping and waking prisoners, had
anything but a cheerful effect on the mind. The air was
close and unpleasant, but not remarkably so, considering
that it had been exhausted by the breath of so many men
since nine o clock on the previous night, when they turned
in.
We had still another deck to visit;
so we followed our warder and descended the hatchway to
the lower decks, which was higher, and had a broader passage
than the two upper ones through which we had just passed.
This deck was arranged to accommodate only 240 men; but,
at the time of our visit, it contained only a 190 sleepers,
arranged in sections thus,

F
1, F 2, and F 3, on one side, and C 1, C 2, and C 3 on
the other. (See plan, p. 211.) This spacious deck
stretches right under the fore-part of the poop, the barred
port-holes admitting but little light; still the air is
fresher than in the decks above, which receive the ascending
heat from the 190 sleepers; for, by means of broad openings
in the stern and bows of the ship, a constant stream of
fresh air is carried through the vessel. Altogether there
were, at the time of our visit, 424 convicts stowed between
the decks.
The men seem to be comfortably covered,
having two blankets and a rug each. The tables used for
meals are unshipped, and lean against the bars of the
passage; the men's boots are under their hammocks, and
their clothes lie upon the benches.
Having passed through this gloomy scene
we reach a narrow white-washed passage, at the head of
the lower deck, and entering by a side door, we come to
the solitary cells. We follow the bull's-eye carried by
the warder. Presently he stops, and placing his lantern
against a ride opening in the bulkhead, throws its light
upon a man in one of the cells within, who is sentenced
to "forty-eight hours." Having inspected the
sleeper, who is lying huddled in his brown rug upon the
ground, for there are no hammocks allowed in this cell,
he darkens the place once more and proceeds to the second.
In solitary cell No.2, the man is sleeping
in his hammock, and the scuttle is not darkened. As the
light from the bull's-eye falls upon his face, the prisoner
blinks his eyes, and calls, "All right!" as
he rolls in his bed.
We now pass on to a cell in the bows of the ship. Here
the hammock hides the man's face

PLANS
OF THE DECKS OF THE "DEFENCE" HULK.
(The
letters and figures A 1, A 2, D I, D 2, &c. refer
to the several wards on the different decks; G indicates
the Schoolmaster, H Chief Warder, I Clerk, K Steward,
L L L L Deputy Governor, M Chaplain, N N Principal Warder,
O O Warders' Mess-room.)
from
our view, so we advance across immense white-washed timbers
or "knees," that stand up as solid as milestones,
and so on to the opposite coil in the bows. This one is
empty; but the next contains a prisoner who is in for
three days, on bread and water, for refusing to work in
the boats. We then return to the lower deck, through a
door at the opposite side to that at which we entered
the solitary cell-passage. There are five such cells in
all - two on either side, and one in the bows.
As we re-entered the lower deck, we
found the lamp-man (a convict), in a gray Scotch cap,
blowing out the lamps. He, together with the cooks' and
officers' servants, are let out a little before the general
call-time; their services being necessary before the prisoners
are the roused at half-past five o'clock, and the day's
business begins.*
*
We here publish a table citing the distribution of time
on board the hulk, extracted from the Report of the Directors
of Convict Prisons. This table, however, can give no definite
idea of the work really per-formed, nor of the regularity
with which five hundred men are made to conform to certain
hours, in the minutest particular.
THE
DAILY DISTRIBUTION OF TIME ON BOARD THE "DEFENCE"
HULK |
|
Occupation |
In
Summer (longest day) |
In
Winter (shortest day) |
|
|
(In
intermediate seasons, the hours vary according to light) |
|
AM |
AM |
Hrs |
Mins |
AM |
AM |
Hrs |
Mins |
Prisoners
rise, wash, and roll up hammocks |
5.30 |
6.0 |
=0 |
30 |
5.30 |
6.0 |
0 |
30 |
Breakfast
(officers and servants) |
6.0 |
6.30 |
=0 |
30 |
6.0 |
6.30 |
0 |
30 |
Cleaning
classes |
6.30 |
7.15 |
=0 |
45 |
6.30 |
7.15 |
0 |
45 |
In
readiness to turn out to work (preparing the boats, &c.) |
7.15 |
7.30 |
=0 |
15 |
7.15 |
7.30 |
0 |
15 |
Labour,
including landing and marching to and from working ground |
7.30 |
12
noon |
=4 |
30 |
7.30 |
12
noon |
4 |
30 |
Dinner
for officers and prisoners |
12
noon |
1
PM |
=1 |
0 |
12
noon |
1
PM |
1 |
0 |
Labour,
including mustering and marching to and from working ground |
1
PM |
5.30 |
=4 |
30 |
1
PM |
4.0 |
3 |
0 |
Prisoners
are mustered, wash, and prepare for supper |
5.30 |
6.0 |
=0 |
30 |
4.0 |
4.45 |
0 |
45 |
Supper,
washing-up, &c. |
6.0 |
6.45 |
=0 |
45 |
4.45 |
5.30 |
0 |
45 |
Evening
prayers, school, and those not at school repairing clothing,
&c., mustered intermediately |
6.45 |
8.30 |
=1 |
45 |
5.30 |
7.30 |
2 |
0 |
Sling
hammocks |
8.30 |
9.0 |
=0 |
30 |
7.30 |
8.0 |
0 |
30 |
All
in bed |
9.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
from 5.30AM to 8.0PM |
15 |
30 |
Total
from 5.30AM to 8.0PM |
14 |
30 |
ABSTRACT
OF THE ABOVE |
Meals |
2 |
15 |
|
2 |
15 |
Labour,
including mustering, and moving to and from |
9 |
0 |
|
7 |
30 |
In-door
occupation, evening instruction, &c. &c. |
4 |
15 |
|
4 |
45 |
In
Summer |
15 |
30 |
In
Winter |
14 |
30 |
The deep-toned bell against the forecastle now sounded
three bells. The men had been expecting the unwelcome
sound; for, a few minutes before, as we traversed the
lower deck to examine the air-passages and ventilators,
we saw heads popped up here and there from the dingy hammocks
to have a peep at us as we passed. The usual hour for
rising was evidently at hand. The effect of the bell,
however, was astonishing. In a minute scores and scores
of men tumbled out of their beds, and were wriggling and
stretching themselves in their blue shirts.
"All up! Turn out, men!"
cries the officer; and the convicts are in their trousers
in an inconceivably short time.
"Let
us go to the top deck, and we shall see how the hammocks
are lashed," suggests our warder; and on ascending
to the upper decks we find many of the men already dressed,
and with their hammocks lashed up like huge sausages.
Presently the gates were opened, and
the men turned out one after another, carrying their bolster-like
beds on their shoulders.
"Now men, go on there! steady-steady
!" exclaims the officer. "Come on, men! Come
on, the rest of you!" he shouts as we reach the forecastle.
The men appear in single file, some carrying one hammock
and others two. Those who carry two have, in addition
to their own bed, that of a fellow-prisoner, who remains
below to forward other work. Some of the men are fully
dressed in their brown striped convict's suit; while others
are in their blue shirt sleeves. The officers continue
shouting to the men, and hastening their movements. "Come
on with that hammock! Come on now!"
Long lines of men, with their hammocks
upon their shoulders, wind along the decks. The sides
of the black hammock-houses are open, discovering lettered
compartments, as A 1, A 2, B 1, &c.; and the warders
on duty go into the houses, and see the hammocks stowed,
as the prisoners deliver them, under their proper letters,
varying the work by directions, as "Shove that a
bit forward there. Now then, stow away there, my lads
- stow away! Do you belong here? How came you so late
?"
"Any more C 1? Is that the last
of C 1? Now then, come on, lads ! Move up !"
"We get the whole ship up and
stowed in half an hour," said our warder. "The
hell went at half-past five, and you'll see, sir, we'll
have all the hammocks up by six."
Still the brown line of men moved forward
to the hammock-houses, each hammock bearing the prisoner's
registered number stitched upon it, and with the word
"DEFENCE" printed on the canvas.
The prisoners continue to pour out
as we descend again between the decks, and find that many
have got the tables shipped against the bars, and the
benches ranged beside them. Now some of the men are washing
in buckets, placed ready over night; and others arranging
their hair by the reflection of the window-pane; and others,
again, scrubbing the tables ready for breakfast. Everything
and everybody seem to be undergoing a cleansing process
more or less searching.
We next proceeded once more to the
deck below, following our guide. The scene was a busy
one. Some of the prisoners were still combing their hair;
others were washing the deck boards, which were shining
under the plentiful supply of water; others, again, were
covering the white deal tables (which are scrubbed also
every morning) with painted canvas table-cloths; then
there were groups of men, down on one knee, brushing their
boots, while the messmen were busy at the preparations
for breakfast. The tables, ranged in a row along the wards,
accommodate eight prisoners each. Each man takes his turn
as messman, while the service of the ward is divided.
All the breakfast things are in block-tin,
and they glisten as though they had never been used. Some
of the men have polished theirs over-night, and tied them
up in handkerchiefs, to give themselves a little extra
time in the morning. "Where's your plates? Where's
your plates?" cry the messmen. For water, one prisoner
at a time is let out of each ward, and as soon as he returns
another is allowed to go on deck.
The various processes, collectively
called getting-up, may now be said to he complete, and
the prisoners are all fairly padlocked in their wards,
under the eye of a single warder. After six o'clock in
the morning, however, there are two officers upon the
lower deck till nine o'clock in the evening, when the
men turn in. The costume of the prisoners, as we now see
them completely dressed, is the same as that worn at Pentonville,
viz., rusty brown, with red stripes upon it.
The chief warder enters and inquires
whether all are up. "All up!" is the answer,
as the men give the military salute. " There you
see, sir," said our attendant, as four bells (six
o'clock) rang, "all the hammocks are on deck, and
the men are locked up, as I said they would be."
The first business of the morning being
over, the men break into groups or read. Many a one, to
our astonishment, took his Bible and began reading it
with no little earnestness. Here an altercation ensued
between two prisoners about the tins, which one of them
was still cleaning. This was promptly suppressed by a
cry of "Halloa! What are you about there, losing
your temper?"
At this time, too, the doctor's mate
appeared, carrying a wooden tray covered with physic bottles
and boxes of salve, and followed by an officer holding
a paper containing the "invalid list." This
officer checks the distribution of the medicine.
***
Officers' Duties.-The ship now begins to wear an animated
appearance; for at six o'clock the officers, chief warders,
and cooks come on board, all those we had seen previously
having been on duty throughout the night. The officers
at the hulk are arranged into divisions, the first mustering
20 men, and the second 19 men. In answer to our inquiries
on this subject, our attendant said-
"There's
twenty in first division, and nineteen in second division,
and, in addition to these, the chief warder and two principal
warders. Twenty officers sleep on board one night, nineteen
the next. To the first division there is one principal
and the deputy-governor, while the second division is
commanded by the chief warder, and one of the principal
warders. Well, the first division came on duty yesterday
at seven A.M., and will go off duty about six o'clock
to-night. It's a very long stretch. The officers came
on duty at half-past six this morning, and will remain
on duty till six o'clock this evening. They will be on
their legs all the time. They will not have more than
twenty to twenty-five minutes to get their dinner. It's
not only one day, but every day the same thing. They're
on their legs all day long, for they are not allowed to
sit down. The first night-watch comes on at eight P.M.,
and remains on duty till half-past ten. The second watch
comes on, and remains till one. Then he is relieved by
the third watch, who remains till half-past three-the
fourth watch doing duty till six o'clock. Now the watch
that's just relieved will have a quarter of an hour to
wash and shave, for the officers muster at a quarter-past
six. So you see there's not much time lost. The breakfast
is served down at half-past six. This occupies till a
quarter to seven. From a quarter to seven till a quarter
past, the warders are at liberty; hut during this time
they must breakfast, clean themselves, brush their buttons
and the crowns upon their collars, and be on deck to parade
at the quarter-past seven. Then they turn to the labour.
They're just going to muster the prisoners. Perhaps you'll
like to see them."
*** Muster and Breakfast, Diet &c -
We went down once more between decks. The muster of
the prisoners had just commenced. Two officers were occupied
in the wards. The prisoners were all ranged behind the
tables - "Silence! keep silence there!" shouted
an officer; and then, while one officer called the names
of the prisoners, the other marked down the absentees
upon a slate. As each name was called, the man owning
it responded, "Yessir," accompanying his reply
with a military salute. The replies of "Yessir,"
in every variety of voice, ran along the wards.
This ceremony over, the registering
officers retired, and the warder on duty padlocked the
men in once more. We then went to see the muster of the
absentees - as the cooks, bakers, and the like - which
was carried on in the same way as with the prisoners in
the wards, only each absentee, as he cried, "Yessir,"
and saluted, passed out, to return to the duty from which
he had been for the moment withdrawn.
"There you see, now," said
our attendant, "every man in the ship has answered
to his name.
"All correct, sir!" said
the registering warder to the chief.
"Now, then, A ward!" was
shouted down the hatchway.
"This is A ward, sir," said
our attendant, "coming up for breakfast."
Instantly four of the convicts appeared,
following one another. "That's for A ward."
"B ward!" was next shouted down. "Now,
then, B ward here!" And in this way the messmen of
the various wards were summoned from their decks, to fetch
the breakfasts of their comrades, the messmen of each
deck appearing at different hatchways; for it may be here
observed that there is a separate hatchway for each floor
of the vessel.
The messmen were now seen moving along
in file towards the ship's galley, and presently they
re-appeared, each man carrying a large beer-can full of
cocoa, the bread being taken down in baskets, and served
out by the officers at the ward-doors.
At half-past six the doctor comes on
board, when an officer goes round shouting in the wards,
"Any men to see the doctor?" Six men appear
in answer, and are formed in line near the galley-door.
They are ushered one by one into the little surgery, and
here, if the ease is considered at all serious, a trap-door
is opened, and they are passed at once down into a little
separate room underneath, prepared with "bath and
other convenience."

Nine-tenths of the calls for medical
assistance, however, are dismissed as frivolous, such
call being looked upon with great suspicion, as generally
evincing a desire to avoid a day's labour in the arsenal.
While remarking the six applicants
for medical assistance, we also noticed four men drawn
up in a line at the end of the main deck, attended by
an officer. These were "reported" men, about
to answer for some infraction of prison rules.
We now followed the chief warder below,
to see the men at breakfast. "Are the messes all
right ?" he called out as he reached the wards.
"Keep silence there! keep silence!"
shouted the officer on duty.
The men were all ranged at their tables
with a tin can full of cocoa before them, and a piece
of dry bread beside them, the messmen having just poured
out the cocoa from the huge tin vessel in which he received
it from the cooks; and the men then proceed to eat their
breakfast in silence, the munching of the dry bread by
the hundreds of jaws being the only sound heard.*
[*
The following is the Scale of Diet on board the "DEFENCE"
hulk.
BREAKFAST
(PER MAN).
12
Ounces of Bread.
1 Pint of Cocoa.
DINNER
(PER MAN).
6
Ounces of Meat.
1 Pound of Potatoes.
9 Ounces of Bread.
SUPPER
1 Pint of Gruel.
6 Ounces of Bread.
SOUP
DAYS :-Wednesdays, Mondays, and Fridays, when the dinner
stands thus -1 pint of soup, 5 ounces of meat, 1 pound
of potatoes, and 9 ounces of bread.
The bread, potatoes, &c., are served
by contract.
GRUEL
DIET.
1
pint of gruel and 9 ounces of bread for breakfast, dinner,
and supper - served when men are on the sick list, in
the hulk.
PUNISHMENT
DIET.
1
pound of bread per day, and water.]
After this we returned to where the reported prisoners
were drawn up, facing the governor's house, upon the quarter-deck.
They were called into the office one by one; and as the
second man was called, the first re-appeared, and was
marched off between two officers to a solitary cell.
"This is my report for yesterday;
I give one in every morning," said the officer attending
us, as he went to hand the document in, together with
a "cell report," stating the number of prisoners
under punishment, the days they had done, &c.
Next our attention was directed to
the convict boatmen, who were preparing to take the ship's
messenger ashore.
"They have already been on shore
this morning," continued our persevering informant,
to bring off the cook and chief warder. "That's the
hospital cutter, sir," and our friend pointed to
a little boat, rowed by two prisoners in their brown suits,
and carrying three or four warders in the stern.
"Now, sir, our boat's just going
aboard the 'Uneet' (for such is the general pronunciation
of the French name). "Here is our sick report, sir,
for the day," he continued, showing us the document.
"It is delivered in every morning. There are only
two men on it now. One, you see, requires light labour,
and the other 'low diet.'"
At this moment a dashing little boat,
with her stern seats cushioned, and rowed by four men,
pulling long oars, appeared at the gangway.
"This is the gig, sir, to take
the doctor away."
The officers now begin to exhibit great
activity, while the men below are cleaning their tables
and tins - having finished their morning's meal.
"That boat won't be back in time
unless she's hailed," said one officer, looking towards
the shore. " It only wants a few minutes to seven,
now."
Another boat now pulled towards
the ship, rowed by men wearing guernseys, marked "DEFENCE,"
and glazed hats that had numbers stamped upon them.
"Be as quick as you can, Matthews,"
shouted one of the officers "it's only five minutes.
Look sharp."
The boat, as directed, went off to
the long brown boats, and brought them alongside the gangway,
to take the prisoners off to their "hard labour"
in the arsenal.
"They're going to take the officers
first," said our attendant. "The second division's
just coming on duty now, sir." And glancing to the
shore, by the side of the bright little arsenal pier,
we could perceive a dark group of officers, standing near
the landing steps - carrying bundles in handkerchiefs
- their glazed caps and bright buttons sparkling in the
sunlight as they moved about. "The boats are rather
hehindhand, for the prisoners should be all in them at
the first stroke of seven."
Nine bells (seven o'clock) sounded,
as we went once more below, and found that the men had
just finished cleaning their tin mugs, and were gathering
up the bits of chalk into bags, and arranging these same
mugs on top of the inverted plates, round their tables
ready for dinner. Some, too, were washing the tables again,
to get beforehand with their work; while others were covering
their bright tin plates and mugs with the coarse table
cloths, to keep the dirt from them; and others, again,
were reading their Bibles, or lounging lazily about.
"They know to a minute the time
they have, sir; and the officers are as severely taught
to obey the progress of the clock, for if they are not
at the landing steps at seven precisely, the boat pushes
off without them, and will not return to fetch them."
The boat that had gone to bring the
warders aboard was soon on its way back to the ship, crowded
with the glazed caps and dark uniforms of the officers,
relieved by the fresh white guernseys of the convict rowers.
Seven o'clock is the hour for the officers'
parade upon the quarter-deck; the object being to see
that they are all sober and fit for duty. The parade over,
the guard appears on deck. It consists of four men, armed
with carbines, and with their cartouche boxes slung behind
them by a broad black belt. This guard stands near the
gangway; the men having their carbines loaded, and held
ready to fire, while the prisoners pass to the boats.
Looking overboard, we now perceive
the convict boatmen, in their guernseys and glazed hats,
bringing the two long-boats to their proper position opposite
the gangway, ready for the debarcation of the prisoners
on their way to their work at the arsenal.
At a quarter-past seven the officers
for duty ashore are called over by the chief warder, in
the presence of the deputy-governor, while a principal
cheeks them. Twelve extra guards, composed chiefly of
soldiers from the Crimea, and some wearing clasps upon
their warder's uniform (an uniform, by the way, exactly
resembling that of the Pentonville officers), now file
down the steps, to be ready to receive the prisoners,
who begin to appear above the hatchways, marching in single
file towards the gangway, with a heavy and rapid tread;
and it is an exciting sight to see the never-ending line
of convicts stream across the deck, and down the gangway,
the steps rattling, as they descend one after another
into the capacious boat, amid the cries of the officer
at the ship's side- "Come, look sharp there, men!
Look sharp!"
***
Debarcation of Prisoners for Work in the Arsenal -
The rowers hold their oars raised in the air, as the
brown line of men flows rapidly into the cutter below,
some seat themselves in the stem, but the large majority
stand in a dense mass in the bottom of the long low craft,
dotted here and there by the dark dress of the officers
planted in the midst of them. In fine weather no less
than 110 convicts are landed in each of these boats or
cutters.
It is pretty to watch these long boats
glide slowly to the pier, their dense human freight painted
brown on the stream. And scarcely has one boat landed
its felon crew, before another is filled, and making for
the arsenal pier and the shore. (See engraving.) Nor
is it less picturesque to see the prisoners clamber up
to the parade ground; fall in line there with military
precision; separate according to the chief officer's directions
into working parties (each working party being in charge
of a warder); and move off to the scene of their day's
labour, in long brown strings. This is a very curious
scene, and one that it will be impossible to witness some
few years hence.
A third or surplus small cutter puts
off with the few remaining prisoners, and more guards.
These guards, we observe, wear cutlasses; such cutlasses
being carried as a special protection, for the officers
wearing them have charge of working parties employed beyond
the bounds of the arsenal; as, for instance, upon a mortar
battery in the marshes. The men are now off to work. Those
prisoners who remain in the ship are in the deck cabins,
plying their handicraft for the use of the hulk.
We now left the hulk in the deputy-governor's
gig, in company with that officer, who acted himself as
steersman.
"Now then, shove off! Altogether!
Lay on your oars! Sharp as you can!" were the brisk
orders; and as we neared the shore, the directions to
the men ran, "Hold water, all of you! Pull all! Hard
a-starboard! Port, there! Ship oars!"
The men obeyed these nautical directions
with admirable precision, and soon landed us at the arsenal
stairs, amid huge stone heaps, piles of cannon tumbled
about, and all bounded by long storehouses and workshops
that seemed to cross each other in every direction.
We accompanied the deputy-governor
in his inspection of the gangs, as the convict crew stood
drawn up in lines, headed by their respective officers.
It is necessary to change and equalize the gangs daily,
we were told, according to the work each has to perform.
Here the officers proceeded to search under the men's
waistcoats, and to examine their neckcloths, so as to
prevent the secretion of clothes about their persons,
which would enable them to disguise themselves, and to
escape among the free labourers. No less than seventeen
such attempts to escape had taken place among the "DEFENCE"
convicts in one year, though out of these only three got
off. In 1854 there were five attempts at escape, of which
but one was successful.
The searching and arrangement of the
working parties or gangs being effected, the officer gives
the word of command, "Cover!" then, "Face-forward!"
and each gang wheels off to the direction of its work,
the men walking two abreast, and the rear being brought
up by the officer in charge.
As the several gangs leave the parade-ground,
the officer in charge gives the number of his party, and
that of his men. The parties, or gangs, are numbered from
1 to 30. Thus, as one party passes, the officer calls,
"Two-eight;" that is, party No. 2, containing
8 men.
" Close up ! close up your party,
Matthews - they're all straggling!" cries the deputy-
governor to one of the guards, who is taking off his men
somewhat carelessly.
The arsenal is now in full activity.
The tall chimneys vomit dense clouds of black smoke; steam
spurts up here and there; the sharp click of hammers falling
upon metal can be heard on all sides; the men are beginning
to roll the shells along the miniature railways laid along
the ground for the purpose. All the gangs of prisoners
are off, leaving a dense cloud of dust behind them.
There are 299 in the arsenal to-day,
the deputy-governor informs us. This number is added,
he says, to the ascertained number remaining on board
the hulk; and then, if the whole tally with the number
registered upon the governor's books, all is right.
We then turned our attention to the
hulk once more, and re-entered the deputy- governor's
gig. As we were jerked through the water by the regular
strokes of the men, and the measured working of the rullocks,
we noticed the heavy cranes planted along the quay - their
wheels covered with small roofs like parasols, but bearing,
nevertheless, some evidences of exposure to the weather.
With one of those cranes," said the officer to us,
"I have seen a single man lift a cannon on board
a ship. They are worked by hydraulic pressure."
No sooner did we reach the gangway
of the "DEFENCE" once more, than the principal
warder on board cried, as he met the deputy-governor,
" Two hundred and ninety-nine, sir!" alluding
to the number of prisoners who had left the ship for labour
in the arsenal.
"All right!" was the laconic
reply.
***
The Library and School at the Hulks.- "Would
you like to come and see the meat, sir?" we were
asked by our attendant officer. "I have to go."
The steward sees to the proper weight, while the deputy-governor
examines the quality of the meat. The piece we saw was
an enormous leg of beef, against which prodigious weights
were necessary to ascertain its precise value.
The prisoners left aboard the hulk
were now busy washing the deck and the gangway. Some dashed
buckets of water on the boards, while others were vigorously
plying flat scrubbing-brushes, fixed at the extremity
of long handles. Below, in a boat, alongside the hulk,
were more brown prisoners, pumping at a small engine,
and forcing the water, taken from the Artesian-well in
the arsenal, into the capacious tank of the hulk. There
is, in fact, one continued splashing of liquid everywhere
- on the decks, and in the long-boats, or cutters, which
have now returned from the shore. The "DEFENCE,"
we may add, has twenty tanks, holding two tons each of
water.
We next adjourned to the governor's
comfortable breakfast-room, with its pretty stern-windows,
and its light blue and white walls. The military salute
of the convict-servant who entered from time to time,
with his white apron about his loins, was the only reminiscence
of the hulk as we sat at the morning meal.
After this we visited the chapel and
school-room.* The chapel is a square apartment,
*
TABULAR STATEMENT OF SCHOOL PROGRESS AT THE "DEFENCE"
HULK, DURING THE YEAR 1854. |
|
Date
of Reception |
Could
not read |
Since
learned to read imperfectly |
Read
only |
Since
learned to read and write imperfectly |
Read
and write imperfectly |
Since
learned to read and write well |
Made
considerable progress in arithmetic |
Read
and write well |
Well
educated |
Total |
|
February
11, 1854 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
12 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
- |
16 |
February
24, 1854 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
5 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
- |
6 |
March
13, 1854 |
- |
- |
4 |
4 |
14 |
5 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
24 |
March
24, 1854 |
1 |
- |
2 |
2 |
7 |
3 |
5 |
2 |
2 |
14 |
April
20 |
2 |
- |
3 |
3 |
16 |
7 |
10 |
5 |
4 |
30 |
May
2 |
6 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
16 |
5 |
7 |
5 |
- |
28 |
May
4 |
3 |
3 |
- |
- |
3 |
1 |
6 |
3 |
2 |
11 |
July
1 |
7 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
7 |
3 |
8 |
25 |
- |
45 |
August
11 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
- |
4 |
4 |
- |
10 |
August
14 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
- |
4 |
3 |
1 |
10 |
October
9 |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
2 |
October
11 |
13 |
- |
3 |
- |
18 |
- |
5 |
13 |
- |
47 |
November
2 |
7 |
- |
- |
- |
13 |
- |
3 |
8 |
- |
28 |
December
19 |
6 |
- |
- |
- |
5 |
- |
4 |
7 |
- |
18 |
December
23 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
4 |
- |
2 |
4 |
- |
9 |
Total |
52 |
16 |
22 |
18 |
125 |
31 |
67 |
89** |
10** |
298 |
**
The prisoners who could "read and write" well,
and those who were "well educated" on reception,
have since made considerable advancement in arithmetic
and the lower branches of mathematics.

Admirably
arranged for its purpose, the part on the level with the
top deck forming the galleries, to which the prisoners
on that deck pass direct from their wards, while the body
of the little church is even with the middle deck, and
accommodates the rest of the prisoners.
The pulpit is erected at the stern
end of the chapel, between the two decks, and has a bright
brass reading lamp to it; its cushions being covered with
canvas. Four more lamps are suspended from the ceiling,
the whole of the wood-work being painted to imitate oak.
It is in the body of this chapel that the black, slanting
desks, with inkstand holes (the very models of those which
all boys remember with horror), are ranged for the daily
school.
At the side of the pulpit is the prison
library. The selection of books is suggestive. Let us
run over a few titles culled from the backs of the volumes
- "Marcet's Conversations on Natural Philosophy,"
"Paley's works," "The Pursuit of Knowledge
under Difficulties," Sturm's "Reflections on
the Works of God," "Persian Stories," "Recreations
in Physical Geography," "The Rites and Worship
of the Jews," "The Penny London Reader,"
"First Sundays at Church," "Stories from
the History of Rome," "Short Stories from the
History of Spain," "Swiss Stories, " Scenes
from English History," "Rodwell's First Steps
to Scottish History," "Stories for Summer Days
and Winter Evenings," "Easy Lessons in Mechanics."
There are in all 1099 volumes upon the shelves.
In reply to our questions as to the
books that are the most popular among the convicts, and
the rules on which they were issued, we were informed
that each prisoner had a right to have a book, and to
keep it ten days. If he wanted it longer, he could generally
renew the time. The books most in demand were Chambers'
publications, and all kinds of histories and stories.
Very few asked for Paley's "Moral Philosophy."
"I think," continued our
attendant warder, "that 'Chambers' Miscellany,' 'The
Leisure Hour,' and 'Papers for the People,' are generally
preferred beyond other publications. There is a great
demand for them. We haven't got Dickens' 'Household Words,'
or I dare say it would be in request. The chaplain objects
to it being in the library."
All friends of education have scouted
the idea long since, of leading uneducated men to a love
of books by such works as Paley's "Theology"
or Sturm's "Reflections." These are now generally
regarded as the unread books of Literary institutes -
because difficult to understand, and in no way appealing
to the minds of the great majority of readers. Let us,
therefore, imagine a convict who has been rubbing the
rust from cannon-balls all day long, with a copy of Paley
for his hour's amusement before he turns in. If he reads
he most probably will not understand. A distaste rather
than a taste for reading is hereby engendered. Yet books
teaching kindly lessons, in the homely accidents of life,
and which all may read and comprehend, are hardly to be
found upon the chaplain's library shelf.
The school is divided into nine divisions.
The first division, subdivided into sections A and B,
musters 110 men. The second division musters 55 men, and
so on. The divisions, as they attend the school, are generally
so managed as to average 55 in number. Some convicts,
we were told, cannot read, and no teaching will make them.
The teaching includes reading, writing, and arithmetic,
as far as "practice." In reply to our inquiry
as to the interval that elapsed between the convict's
school-days, we were informed that the turn to remain
on board for lessons came round once in every nine or
ten days.
The prisoners told-off for school now
appeared on the ground-floor of the chapel, at the black
desks. They were well-washed and brushed, and wore blue
and white neckerchiefs, and gray stockings barred with
red stripes. The third division is in to-day. The school
begins with two psalms and a prayer.
"Now, attention for prayers!"
is called out before they begin. Then the clerk reads
a chapter of St. Luke; next the schoolmaster cites a verse
from a psalm, and the men go stammering after him. It
is a melancholy sight. Some of the scholars are old bald-headed
men, evidently agricultural labourers. There, amid sharp-featured
men, are dogged-looking youths, whom it is pitiful to
behold so far astray, and so young. And now the clerk
who read the prayers may
be seen teaching the men; but it is evidently hard work,
and few, it is to be feared, care for the school, further
than for the physical repose it secures them.
We now passed to the little rooms off
the wards, where a few prisoners were tailoring, while
others were making the solid shoes such as the working
gangs in the arsenal wear.
We then advanced to the cabins ranged
along the sides of the weather-deck. In one a bookbinder
was binding the rugged library volumes in black leather.
"Take off your cap, sir !" cried our attendant
to the prisoner, as we appeared, "and go on with
your work!"
Next we passed to the lamp-man's cabin,
and found him trimming the night lamps for

the
wards. Then we reached the carpenter's shop; and there
a gray-headed old prisoner who was planing a deal-board,
turned a melancholy face towards us as we entered.
Then we visited the linen-house, where
two or three prisoners were arranging the linen of the
various wards in little tight rolls. We inquired how often
the men had a change. "They change their linen every
week, and their flannels every fortnight," was the
reply. How gratifying to men who can remember the horrible
filth in which, only a few years since, the hulk convicts
were allowed to remain.
There was not an idle man on board.
Festoons of clothes were drying above our heads, swung
from the two stunted masts; while across the main deck,
lines of dark-brown string were being twisted by a convict
rope-maker, to be turned to account for the hammocks that
two other prisoners were mending in a little cabin hard
by. Everywhere officers were standing over the men at
their labours, each warder being provided with his book,
in which he enters the men's industry, or want of energy.
Their tone to the men was firm, but not hard or harsh;
still they kept them to their task. Every prisoner we
approached saluted us, military fashion, then stood still
till the officer said, "Go on with your work, sir
!-Go on with your work !" when the men turned to
their labour again.
***
The Working Parties in the Arsenal - The governor
now called his gig to the gangway to carry us ashore to
inspect the labourers in the arsenal. It was a smart little
boat, and the rowers were trimly dressed in white, with
the word "DEFENCE" printed round the legs of
their trousers. The men, with their glazed hats and ruddy
faces, looked unlike convicts. Their position is the reward
of good conduct. They sit in a little deck-house close
to the

gangway,
all day long, ready to be called out at any moment. The
men volunteer for boat service. First, they are put into
the water-boat, which conveys the well-water to and from
the shore; from this service they are promoted to the
provision cutter, which also takes off the subordinate
officers; and then they reach a seat in the governor's
gig. The men like this service, and are sent for misconduct
- as when they use bad language - to labour on the public
works. We started for the arsenal once more, at a rapid
pace; the governor himself steering the pretty gig with
its white tiller ropes.
On landing, after passing by the heavy
cranes, we came up with the first gang of prisoners, who
were loading a bark alongside the quay. "These are
the sloops that convey war-stores to Sheerness,"
we were told. "And yonder black hull is a floating
powder-magazine, near which no ship anchors. We remarked
the absence of military sentries, and were told that they
had been withdrawn from the convicts working in the arsenal,
although they still mounted guard. Then the place is pointed
out to us where the "DEFENCE" once had a washing-house,
which has been taken away by the government; together
with a vegetable garden, where the convicts formerly cultivated
vegetables for the hulk. "Now we wash on board the
little 'SULPHUR' hulk," continued our informant,
"and dry on board our own ship."
We walked into the grounds of the arsenal,
and soon came up with a second party of prisoners at work
digging out shot. As we approached, the officer in charge
gave the governor a military salute, saying-
"All right, sir - l0-8."
The 10 being, as we have already noticed, the number of
the gang, and 8 the strength of it. The governor, who
knows what the strength of each gang is, can thus assure
himself of the presence of all the men. We next turned
into the stone-yard, the chosen ground of hard, dull,
mechanical labour. Here there was a strong gang of men
breaking granite.
"All right! how many ?" calls
the governor.
"All right, sir - 8-9," answers
the officer in charge. Then, seeing a free workman at
hand, the officer is told to keep him off. Here each man
is doing task-work. Every convict must break so many bushels,
according to the size to which he is required to reduce
them, the size being measured by a wooden machine, through
which they are passed. Thus, a man breaking up the stones
small, for a garden walk, must break two bushels daily,
whereas a man breaking them up less, must fill four or
six bushel measures.
We then passed on to huge stacks of
valuable timber. "All this," said our companion,
"has been piled by convict labour." Through
fields of cannon lying in rows - here black as charcoal,
there red with rust-past stacks of wheels and wheelless
waggons, by sheds where the air was impregnated with turpentine
from the freshly-worked timber, under heavy cranes, through
mud, and sawdust, and shavings - here hailing a gang turning
a wheel, and there a gang clearing rubbish - deep down
a grove of conical heaps of rusty shells, where the men
were filing and polishing them, we made our round of the
convict working parties. All of them were busy. The officer
takes care of that; for he is fined one shilling every
time one of his men is caught idling, while the escape
of one entails his dismissal.
Suddenly we came upon a guard whose
duty it was to go the round of the gangs and collect the
men who wished to satisfy a call of nature. Then we came
upon an angle of the arsenal wall against the Plumstead
high-road, where we saw an armed guard with his carbine,
marching rapidly backward and forward.
"Now I shall know directly whether
all is right," said the governor, as he raised his
hand. The sentinel instantly halted, presented arms, then
raised his right hand.
"Had there been an escape,"
continued the governor, "he would have grasped his
carbine by the barrel, and held it aloft horizontally.
That is the escape signal, and this man is stationed here
because escape would be easy over the wall to the high
road. Only the other day I caused a drain to be stopped
up that led from the arsenal to the marshes; for we once
had a hunt, that lasted all day long, after two prisoners
who got into that drain. We caught them at its mouth by
the Plumstead road.
It is exceedingly difficult to prevent
attempts at escape, especially while there are so many
free men in the arsenal. Last year there were no less
than 14,000 free labourers employed there, and these men
taken on without reference to character.
Here the attempts at escape, which
prisoners had made from time to time, formed for some
time the subject of our conversation.
"The convicts," we were told,
"were generally assisted by the free labourers,"
who deposited clothes for them in some convenient spot.
The convict slipped for a moment from his gang, put the
clothes on, and passed out of the arsenal gates with the
crowds of free men. Or else he made a dash for it, bolted
past the sentinels, swam the canal, reached the marshes,
and made off to the wood at hand. These attempts sometimes
defied the utmost vigilance of the officers. It was the
duty of a guard, from whose gang a man escaped, to hasten

on
board with the rest of his men (unless he can find an
officer to undertake this duty while lie runs after the
lost man), and report the escape. We then signal to the
police authorities by telegraph, to Bow Street, Erith,
Guildford, Ilford, Bexley Heath, and Shooter's Hill, so
as to surround him with a band of vigilant policemen,
and prevent his getting clear. It was impossible to guard
entirely against these attempts under this mixed system.
They could not prevent the men from talking by night.
But how much worse was it under the old system, when some
six hundred or seven hundred prisoners were crammed into
a hulk smaller than the "DEFENCE," and with
only one officer all night to watch them.
We inquired whether the men were very
severely punished when they were lazy, and were answered
in the affirmative.
"They are sent here to labour,"
said the governor. "Here, officer, give me your labour-book."
This book contained on one side a description of the nature
and quantity of the work performed, and on the other the
conduct of the men during the work. We were assured, however,
that the men have very seldom to be punished for idleness.
"They do twice as much as free men," added the
governor. "They work excellently."
We now turned from the busy arsenal,
crossed the canal bridge, and approached the little black
wooden lodge of the policeman who guards the gate leading
to the marshes. He salutes us as we pass out to the marshes.
The scene, close by the gate, is singularly
English. To the right lies the rising ground of Plumstead,
with its red square church-tower peeping from among the
dense green cluster of the trees. Below is a cluster of
village houses, and beyond swells Abbey Wood up the shelving
ground; while beyond this, again, and serving as background,
rises Shooter's Hill, capped by two or three suburban
villas.
Right before us is a vast earth-work,
all, as we are told, raised by convict labour! It is a
5-mortar battery. We approached it (crossing the range
where the ordnance authorities try their rifles at the
butt, while that solitary man, far over the marshes, comes
out of the shed by the side of the mark, after every shot,
and with a long pole marks the point hit) and found the
prisoners, with their brown jackets thrown off, and some
with their legs buried in water-boots, reaching to their
thighs, digging the heavy, black, clayey soil, and carrying
it away in barrows, under the eyes of two guards, with
their cutlasses at their sides and two non-commissioned
officers of the sappers and miners, who were directing
the works. (See engraving.)
"That's a nice circular cut, sir,"
said one of the non-commissioned officers, pointing to
the earth-work thrown up.
The governor then challenged the guards,
who told off their numbers, and gave the usual "All
right !" The bright red shell-jackets, and. the caps
with gay gold bands, stood out in painful contrast with
the dingy crew of unfortunate men they were directing.
As we looked on at the work going bravely forward, our
attention was specially directed to the healthy appearance
of the men.
"See," said the governor,
evidently not a little proud of their ruddy checks, "they
are not ill-looking men. I have to punish them very seldom.
One or two of the men in the stone-yard were old offenders,
and they're the best behaved. There's a fine young chap
there, stript to the buff, and working away hard!"
***
The Convicts' Burial Ground.- We turned away, and
went farther over the marshes, the ground giving way under
our feet; and presently we passed behind the butt, while
the Minié balls were whistling through the air,
and that solitary man was marking the hits. We approached
a low piece of ground-in no way marked off from the rest
of the marsh - in no way distinguishable from any section
of the dreary expanse, save that the long rank grass had
been turned, in one place lately, and that there was an
upset barrow lying not far off. Heavy, leaden clouds were
rolling over head, and some heavy drops of rain pattered
upon our faces as we stood there. We thought it
was one of the dreariest spots we had ever seen.
"This," said the governor,
"is the Convicts' Burial Ground !"
We could just trace the rough outline
of disturbed ground at our feet. Beyond this was a shed,
where cattle found shelter in had weather; and to the
right the land shelved up between the marsh and the river.
There was not even a number over the graves; the last,
and it was only a month old, was disappearing. In a few
months, the rank grass will have closed over it, as over
the story of its inmate. And it is, perhaps, well to leave
the names of the unfortunate men, whose bones lie in the
clay of this dreary marsh, unregistered and unknown. But
the feeling with which we look upon its desolation is
irrepressible.

We followed the governor up the ridge that separates the
marsh from the river, and walked on, back towards the
arsenal. As we walked along we were told, that under our
feet dead men's hones lay closely packed; the ridge could
no longer contain a body, and that was the reason why,
during the last five or six years, the lower ground had
been taken.
Then there is a legend - an old, old
legend, that has passed down to the present time - about
a little pale-blue flower, with its purple leaves - the
"rubrum lamium"- which, it is
said, grows only over the convict's grave-a flower, tender
and unobtrusive as the kindness for which the legend gives
it credit. Botanists, however, will of course ruthlessly
destroy the local faith that has given this flower value;
for they will tell you it is only a stunted form of the
"red dead nettle."
We pass from the graves-meet a perambulating
guard, who signals "All right !" by saluting
and raising his hand-and then, recrossing the canal-bridge,
where the convicts are stacking wood, and the click and
ring of bricklayers' trowels are heard, relieved now and
then by the reports of hit ordnance rifle-practice, we
make our way towards the boat saluted by the "All
rights" and salutes of the officers of other working
parties that we pass by the way.
There are many objects to arrest our attention, as we
go, from the exploded wrecks of barrels, &c., lying
for sale near the butt bank, where men are digging shot
out of the ground. We meet another patrolling guard, who
gives the "All right" salute; and whose duty
it is, as soon as he hears of an escape, to dash through
the enclosure about the arsenal, and, waving his carbine
horizontally in the air, communicate the fact to the sentries
in the marshes.
Our way lies then by the rocket-sheds,
rather celebrated for accidents.
"Occasionally you see the men
at work there," said the governor, "rush out
with their clothes all in flames, and dive into the canal.
Only a month or so ago, two or three sheds blew up, and
the rockets were flying about all amongst my men."
As we passed, a workman, black as gunpowder, appeared
at the door of one of the sheds with a sieve.
Close at hand to the rocket-sheds,
were little powder boats, like miniature Lord Mayor's
barges, with the windows blocked up and the gilding taken
off.
"There are the cartridge-sheds,
too; and there the fire-engines are always kept at the
water's edge, in case of accident, and with the hose ready
in the water, as you see. All right, Mr. Watson ?"
"All right, sir! No. 3-10."
Here, opposite the gang of convicts
just hailed, and who were hard at work stacking planks,
were some few idlers upon the top of a barge. Contrast
the conduct of those fellows with my men, was the governor's
observation.
"Their language is dreadful, as
you can hear. You see, too, that new building, with the
tall, minaret chimneys, flanked by low stacks, and with
crimson tongues of flame at top - that's a shell factory."
There are shoots of white steam, and plumes of black smoke
issuing from it; and as we advance past endless stacks
of heavy timber arranged by the convicts, we hear the
rattle of machinery and the noise of wheels. Then as we
go by the large new building where mortars are to be cast,
the governor approaches a gang, and asks again- "All
right, Mr. Jenning ?"
"All right, sir ! 10-10,"
replies the officer.
We now pass through sheds - large as
railway stations-under which numerous piles of timber
are stacked, together with endless rows of wheelless carts,
with their wheels stacked opposite, and here we find the
prisoners beginning to march in gangs towards the parade-ground.
"It is half-past eleven o'clock, and they must be
on board the hulk to dinner at noon precisely," says
the governor to us. As we draw nearer and nearer to the
parade-ground, we can see them filing along from different
directions. There is no confusion on reaching the spot,
for each man knows his exact place. Then a strict search
of the men is made by the warders, to see that they have
not secreted anything while at work - the men opening
their waistcoats, and pulling off their cravats, as before,
to facilitate the operation.
The searching over, the men descend
the stairs, in parties, to the cutters, and return to
the hulk in the order in which they left her in the morning.
Having made the tour of the arsenal
(which, including the section of the marshes turned to
use, measures 150 square acres in extent), we also returned
on board the hulk with the governor.
"Weigh all!" is the word
of command. And in a few minutes we are at the "DEFENCE"
gangway. The officers are hurrying the convicts on board.
"Now, Mr. B--, bring your men
up!" A long-boat approaches, crammed with men and
warders.
"Hoist your oars !" cries
an officer as the cutter touches the hulk. The warders
land first, and then they hurry the men up the gangway
steps. As soon as they reach the deck they advance, in
single file, to their respective hatchways, and descend
at once to their wards.
The tread of these two hundred men
sounds below almost like thunder rolling under the decks!
They are at once locked up in their wards, where their
tin mug and plate are turned upside down, one upon the
other, around each mess-table, previous to dinner.
***
The Convicts at Dinner and Leaving for Work. -
Now men appear at the end of the wards with large clothes-baskets
full of bread.
"3-7; 4-8; and 5-8!" cries
the warder, as he dispenses the loaves to each mess.
The mess-men of these parties advance
to the gate of the ward, and receive their proper quantities
for their respective messes. Some messes have a loaf and
a quarter, others two whole loaves, according to their
numerical strength - the men dividing these quantities
themselves. There is also upon the mess-tables a deal-board
to cut up the meat upon. A man now comes below carrying
knife-bags, and distributes them according to the number
of men in each compartment. After dinner they are cleaned,
put back into the bags, and returned to the proper officer.
The men who have been on board all day were in their wards,
pacing to and fro, before their companions came pouring
down from their arsenal work.
"To your table, men !" cries
the chief warder; and accordingly the men range themselves
in their proper seats.
"Now A ward!" is shouted
down the hatchway. "Come on here - one, two, and
three ! " A man from each mess answers the call.
Presently these messmen are seen returning, each carrying
a small tub full of meat, and a net full of potatoes,
together with the supper bread. One man at each mess may
now be seen serving out the potatoes into tin plates.
Then there is a cry of- "All up!"
The men rise, and grace is said. When
the men are re-seated, a man proceeds at once to cut up
the meat upon the mess-board. The dinner is now portioned
out, and we are informed that the men very rarely quarrel
over the division of the allowed quantities. When the
meat is cut into eight or nine portions, as the case may
be, the meat-board is pushed into the middle of the table,
and each man takes the piece nearest to him. Then the
peeling of potatoes goes actively forward, and the men
are soon fairly engaged upon their meal, talking the while
in a low, rumbling tone.
"Not too much talking there! Silence-silence
here! " cries the warder.
Since the morning, the top deck and
the others have undergone a complete change. The windows
have been removed, and the atmosphere is fresh and pleasant.
The governor now went his rounds, and
was saluted on all sides.
At length one o'clock sounded. At five
minutes past we saw the guard go down the gangway with
fixed bayonets, followed by one of the principal warders.
"Now, then, turn the hands out,
Mr. Webb, and man the gig!" was shouted.
In a few minutes the convicts began
to stream up the deck from the hatchways, and to move
down the gangway in single file, to the cutters, as in
the morning.
"Oars up, here! Oars up!"
shouts the guard in the cutter to the rowers, as the first
prisoners reach the water's edge. The boat carrying the
guards - their bayonets sparkling in the sun - and some
officers too, is already off to receive the men on shore.

In
a few minutes the two hundred men are on their way to
the parade-ground; while on board the officers arc occupied
in mustering the "boarders" and schoolmen.
Once more we push off in the governor's
gig, as the sharp crack of the rifles in the marshes reminds
us that the ordnance men are still practising at the butt.
During the men's absence in the afternoon,
the boarders carry the hammocks back from the houses ;
and while we were watching this operation, our informant
related to us the story of a convict who, being employed
in the chaplain's room, managed to cut imp his black gown,
and manufacture it into a pair of black trousers. With
only this garment upon him, he contrived, one very dark
and gusty night, to drop overboard. He swam clear off,
and reached a swamp, where he got entangled in a bed of
rushes. Here he got frightened, and cried for help. Some
men in a barge, who were passing, picked him up, and suspecting
that he was a convict, delivered him up to the prison
officers.
The convicts leave their afternoon's
work at a quarter-past five, so as to be all collected
by half-past, and before the free men leave. It was a
pretty sight to see them re-embark for the night; for
the slanting rays of the sun threw long shadows from the
cutters over the water, and the evening light sparkled
warmly upon the tide, and danced as it caught every polished
point of the dense mass, while the boats advanced towards
the hulk.
As we watched the cutters approach,
we inquired into the regulations concerning the receiving
visits and letters from their friends by the convicts.
In reply we were told that they see their relatives once
in three months, and that they arc allowed to write every
three months. These meetings of the prisoners with their
friends arc held under the poop - three meetings taking
place at a time. There are, however, no regular days for
visits; if a friend calls while a man is away at labour,
the authorities send for him. The regulations, we should
add, appear to be carried out with great consideration.
On the cutters reaching the hulk, the
prisoners stream up the gangway in single file as before
- then pour down the hatchways, into their respective
wards, where gruel is at once served out to them, and
they arc allowed to rest till chapel-time, at half-past
six o'clock.
After chapel, at eight o'clock, the
men are mustered in their wards-and the gates of the wards
locked for the night. When the officer cries, "The
muster's over!" the men jump up, the tables disappear,
the forms are ranged along the sides of the ward, and
each man gets his hammock from the corner in which they
were piled in the afternoon by the boarders. In a few
minutes all the hammocks are slung, and the men talking
together. "The 44 division is for school to-morrow,"
cries an officer.
Shortly after this each man is beside
his hammock, preparing for bed, and then they are allowed
to talk until nine o'clock; but directly the clock strikes,
not another word is hoard. At nine o'clock the two officers
to each deck are relieved by the night officer, and the
men are in bed. There are also four guards who relieve
one another through the night, at the gangway.
At nine o'clock the countersign is
given out by the governor to the chief warder, the chief
warder giving it to the officers on the watch, so that
after this hour nobody can move about the ship without
it.
All is quiet. We hear once more the
gurgling of the water about the hulk. Over towards the
arsenal, the warm red lights of the little white pier
stand out prettily against the dark shore, and there are
bright lights shining over the crumpled water, in little
golden paths. The shore, too, is studded with lights as
with jewels.
We are informed that the countersign
for the night is "Smyrna." Then we hoar the
loud metallic ring of two bells. "Nine o'clock!"
cries the warder. Now there is not a sound heard below,
but the occasional tramp of footsteps over-head. The men,
as they lie in their hammocks, look like huge cocoons.
The principal warder tries all the locks of the wards,
and at ten o'clock the hatches are padlocked for the night,
and the day's duties are ended.
The
"Unité" Hospital Ship.
While the men were performing their afternoon labours
in the arsenal, we found time to go, in the captain's
gig, on board the convicts' hospital ship, the "UNITÉ"-
or "Uneet," according to the local pronunciation.
The "UNITÉ" hospital
ship, moored to the "DEFENCE", is an old 36-gun
frigate, taken from the French. The officer who steered
us on. board bade us examine the beauty of her build.
This ship is excellently arranged and
has large airy decks, along which iron bedsteads are placed,
at sufficient distances, for the reception of the sick
men from the "DEFENCE" and "WARRIOR"
labour hulks. The vessel is cleaned by a few healthy convicts;
while some of the convalescents, in their blue-gray dresses
and odd comical night-caps, are employed as nurses. The
top deck is a fine spacious room, covered with matting,
and lighted by wide, barred port-holes.
The invalid bedsteads were ranged on
either side of the deck from one end to the other, and
at the head of them there were small places for books.
"Here the temperature in the winter months,"
said the master, "is kept up to sixty."
We passed one man in bed, who was coughing.
It was a case of phthisis. He had chloride of lime hanging
all round him, to destroy the odour of the expectoration.
Then there was another poor fellow, with his head lying
upon a pillow, placed upon a chair at the side of the
bed, who had a disease of the heart, and had been spitting
blood. The convalescents, in their queer, blue-gray gowns,
draw up at the end of their beds as we move along, and
salute us. Another man lies in bed, wearing a night-cap,
marked "Hospital;" he has a broken leg.
Another, of whom we asked the nature
of his illness, replied, "Asthmatical, sir!"
"Two healthy prisoners are employed
on each deck," said the master, "to act as nurses.
One of the convalescents acts as barber. That's he, with
his belt round his waist filled with sheaths and razors."
Then we visited the place where the
convalescents assemble for prayers, morning and evening.
"We have twenty-four in hospital to-day," the
master added; "five were discharged this morning.
There is plenty of ventilation, you perceive. A perfect
draught is kept up, by means of tubes, right through the
ship. We were told that a Bible and Testament were placed
at the head of each bed; and we saw one convict reading
"Recreations in Astronomy."
We inquired about the scale of diet.
In reply the master said, "The man so bad, up-stairs,
has 2 eggs, 2 pints of arrowroot and milk, 12 ounces of
bread, 1 ounce of butter, 6 ounces of wine, 1 ounce of
brandy, 2 oranges, and a sago pudding daily. Another man
here is on half a sheep's head, 1 pint of arrowroot and
milk, 4 ounces of bread, 1 ounce of butter, 1 pint extra
of tea, and 2 ounces of wine daily. Here is the scale
of full diet for convalescents:-
BREAKFAST
4 ounces of bread
¼ pint of milk.
2 ounces of oatmeal gruel.
SUPPER
4 ounces of bread.
One-sixth of an ounce of tea.
½ ounce of sugar.
¼ pint of milk.
DINNER
8
ounces of bread.
8 ounces of mutton (uncooked).
1 pound of potatoes.
½ ounce of salt.
½ pint of porter.
1 pint of soup."

The
healthy men employed on board the "UNITÉ"
muster twenty strong, including the boatmen, cooks, and
washermen. There are nine warders, an infirmary warder,
and principal. The night-watches begin at half-past five,
at which hour half the officers leave the ship, and return
at seven o'clock on the following morning. The principal,
however, lives on board, and there is also a resident
surgeon.
From the directors' report in 1854,
we learn that there were on board, on the 1st of January
in that year, 58 patients; that in the course of that
year 675 patients were admitted; that in the course of
the same year 658 patients were discharged; that two patients
were pardoned on medical grounds; that 25 died; that two
patients were invalided to the " Stirling Castle;"
and that on the 31st of December, 1854, there were 36
patients left in the hospital.
The
"Sulphur" Washing Hulk.
From
the "UNITE" we proceeded, in the gig of the
governor of the "DEFENCE", past old steamers,
low wharves, flaunting little river-side public-houses,
towards the great bulging hulk of the "WARRIOR".
But before being landed at the dockyard steps, to go on
board the model hulk, we pulled aside to a little, low,
dingy ship, which serves as a floating wash-tub to the
Woolwich hulks.
This old sloop of war, once carrying
thirty guns, has now fifteen convicts on board, under
the orders of a master, whose business it is to wash the
clothes of the men in the "WARRIOR" and "DEFENCE"
hulks. There are three washermen, one blacksmith, and
two stocking-menders here employed. On deck there was
a solitary soldier keeping guard. The maindeck was very
wet. Forward there were large square black water-tanks,
and beside these a corrugated iron blacksmith's shop,
with an old convict filing away inside. Bundles of convicts'
stockings lie waiting to be mended near the poop, while
lines, ornamented with linen, dangle over-head. Below,
between the low decks, we groped our way, in the deep
gloom, amid damp clothes-past men mending stockings, others
folding convict clothes, and tying them up into rolls
ready to ho worn-in the steam and smell of clothes drying
by heat, past capacious vats and boilers, all half-hidden,
and looking terrible, because dark and spectral-like.
The warder in charge of the old sloop
showed us over his dingy kingdom with great courtesy,
and answered our many questions with excellent good-humour.
lie told us that all the convicts employed with him throughout
the day slept on board the "WARRIOR" opposite.
He alone remained on board all night.
We pushed off from the "SULPHUR",
thanking the warder for his courtesy, and pulled for the
dockyard steps alongside the "WARRIOR."
The
"Warrior" Hulk.
This great hulk - an old 74-gun ship, upwards of sixty
years of age, which has been the subject of annual remonstrances
from the prison directors to the government for some time
past and the ribs of which, it is said, hardly hold together
- is moored alongside the dockyard, with her head towards
London, and serves to house the convicts who work in the
dockyard.
We have so fully described the hulk system
on board the "DEFENCE," which differs in no
important particular from that pursued on board the "WARRIOR",
that it will be unnecessary to do more than glance at
the general arrangements of this ship. Even the employment
of the prisoners in the dockyard differs little in character
from that performed by the convicts who work in the arsenal.
The distribution of the prisoners'
time closely resembles that on board the "DEFENCE,"
there being 2 hours given to meals; 9 hours and 5 minutes
to work; and 4 hours and 25 minutes to in-door occupation
throughout the summer; while in the winter the meals occupy
2 hours and 5 minutes; work, 7 hours and 55 minutes; and
the in-door occupation, 5 hours.
The "WARRIOR" is reached,
from the dockyard, by a gallery projecting from the quay
to the gangway. At the end of the compartment under the
forecastle is a large iron palisading, with two gates,
which are securely padlocked at night.
"The ship," our attendant-warder
informs us, "is lighted by gas - the only one in
the world, perhaps, that is so." This is owing to
the close contiguity of the vessel to the shore.
The top deck has a fine long wide passage.
The wards are divided into two messes, and contain two
tables each. The other arrangements are the same as in
the "DEFENCE". Here, however, each ward has
its little library; and every man has a Bible, a prayer-book,
a hymnbook, and a library-book; the last he gets from
the schoolmaster. Each ward, too, has a solid bulkhead,
which prevent the authorities having too large a body
of prisoners together. There is a gas-light at the bulkhead
between each ward, so arranged as to light two wards at
once, while the passage is darkened, so that the officer
on duty can see the men, while they cannot see him.
The middle deck is very fine and spacious,
the passage being about five feet in width. There are
eight wards on the top deck, ten in the middle deck, and
fourteen on the lower deck.
The ship can accommodate four hundred
and fifty men. There are now four hundred and forty-nine
men in her, and out of this number only ten in the hospital.
At the head end of the middle deck is a shoemaker's shop,
where we found the convicts mending prisoners' shoes;
while opposite them is the tailor's shop, and here the
workers were repairing shirts and flannels.
The lower deck is also a fine long
deck, reaching right from the head to the stern. There
is a current of air right through it. It is, however,
very low. At the fore-part of this deck, on one side,
is the carpenter's shop; while the seven refractory cells
occupy the opposite side.
A black label hangs at each door of
the dark cells, and upon this is chalked the name and
punishment of the inmate. One runs thus:- "In for
4 days; B and W (bread and water); in 19th, out 23rd.
The next man is in for seven days, with bread and water,
for having attempted to escape; and a third prisoner is
also in for seven days, for extreme insolence to the governor
and warders. We now passed on to the chapel, the surgery,
&c., and entered the schoolmaster's cabin, where we
saw the same class of books as we noted down on board
the "DEFENCE".
The school classes are divided into
eleven divisions, arranged according to the ability of
the men. All the men have half a day's schooling each
per week. All take three lessons, viz., one hour's reading,
one hour's writing, and one hour's arithmetic. Here we
found some trying in vain to write, while one was engaged
upon a letter beginning, "Dear brother." The
copies the men were making were generally better than
one could expect.*
[*STATEMENT
SHOWING THE PI1ISONERS PROGRESS AT SCHOOL ON HOARD THE
"WARRIOR" HULK DURING THE YEAR 1854. |
|
Date
of Reception |
Could
not read when received |
Since
learned to read imperfectly |
Could
read only when received |
Since
learned to read and write imperfectly |
Could
read and write imperfectly when received |
Since
learned to read and write well |
Have
made progress in arithmetic |
Could
read and write well when received |
Were
well educated when received |
Total |
|
January
4 1854 |
2 |
1 |
8 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
3 |
- |
- |
16 |
February
24 1854 |
9 |
5 |
6 |
5 |
12 |
11 |
5 |
12 |
- |
39 |
March
14 1854 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
- |
- |
4 |
March
24 1854 |
- |
- |
2 |
2 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
- |
10 |
April
20 1854 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
- |
15 |
April
27 1854 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
- |
1 |
10 |
May
1 1854 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
- |
- |
5 |
May
3 1854 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
- |
10 |
June
7 1854 |
7 |
4 |
12 |
9 |
10 |
8 |
6 |
5 |
- |
34 |
June
15 1854 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
- |
- |
2 |
7 |
- |
12 |
August
14 1854 |
6 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
7 |
7 |
4 |
2 |
- |
20 |
August
28 1854 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
- |
9 |
October
11 1854 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
10 |
9 |
3 |
7 |
1 |
21 |
October
20 1854 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
- |
9 |
- |
20 |
October
27 1854 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
November
2 1854 |
4 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
- |
8 |
- |
18 |
November
3 1854 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
December
19 1854 |
2 |
- |
6 |
- |
13 |
- |
- |
7 |
- |
28 |
Totals |
53 |
33 |
63 |
50 |
86 |
68 |
36 |
69** |
2** |
273 |
**
Those who could "read and write well" when received,
or were "well educated" have since made considerable
progress in arithmetic and other subjects
We
noticed also the chapel clerks, who were convicts with
silver-gray hair, and appeared to belong to a better class.
They write letters or petitions, we were told, for the
prisoners who are unable to do so themselves. One of these
clerks had been a medical man, in practice for himself
during twenty-five years, while the other had been a clerk
in the Post-office. The clerk had been transported for
fourteen years; and the medical man had been sentenced
to four years' penal servitude.
The working parties here are arranged as
in the arsenal, only the strongest men are selected for
the coal-gang, invalids being put to stone-breaking. In
the dockyard there are still military sentries attached
to each gang of prisoners. We glanced at the parties working,
amid the confusion of the dockyard, carrying coals, near
the gigantic ribs of a skeleton ship, stacking timber,
or drawing carts, like beasts of burden. Now we came upon
a labouring party, near a freshly pitched gun-boat, deserted
by the free labourers, who had struck for wages, and saw
the well-known prison brown of the men carrying timber
from the saw-mills. Here the officer called - as at the
arsenal - "All right, sir! 27-10." Then there
were parties testing chain cables, amid the most deafening
hammering. It is hard, very hard, labour the men are performing.
The
Victorian Dictionary
compiled by Lee
Jackson |
|