Hulks

Hulks were ships that were no longer sea-worthy, used as prisons for warehousing convicts, often as way stations for convicts awaiting transportation to penal colonies. In fact, the governments of this period had a conflict of interest in that labour was needed to hold and develop colonies. Labourers were needed not only by the British in Australia, Georgia, Demarrara (British Guyana), but also by France in Cayenne (French Guyana), the Dutch in Surinam (Dutch Guyana), the Portuguese in Angola and Laurenço Marques (Mozambique), etc. Without "criminals", where would these colonies be? Hence, the criminal offences were often minor as the offence was merely a pretext to gather a labour force. Indeed, at this time, common labourers required to man the "slavers" (slave ships) were commonly "Barbadoed" or as we now say "Shanghaied".

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