Search Prison Ship (Hulk) Registers

There are records for around 13,300 prisoners held on prison ships between 1811 and 1843. Prison ships, or hulks, were ships used as floating prisons - often ships were used that were no longer fit for battle but were still afloat. Each record contains a transcript of the original records. The amount of information varies but you can find out the following about your ancestor:

• Name (including aliases)
• Age
• Where convicted
• When convicted
• What convicted of
• Number given on the hulk
• Character from gaoler
• Character from hulk
• Married or single
• Trade
• Whether died, pardoned or released
• Name of hulk

This collection of records includes details of prisoners on the following hulks: Antelope, Bellerophon, Coromandel, Dromedary, Euryalus, Hardy, and Weymouth as well as a small number of records for Parkhurst prison.

You may find that your ancestors appear in more than one hulk as they could have been transferred from one hulk to another. The information recorded for each hulk varies.

Under the provisions of the Act of 1776, convicts could be housed on board ships, or hulks, and set to hard labour in Public Works. By an Act, dated 4th July 1823, offenders convicted in Great Britain, and sentenced to transportation, could now be removed to other parts of His Majesty's dominions outside England. They could be confined either on land or on board any ship, and set to labour on H.M. Dockyards and Public Works overseas. In 1824 the first convicts were sent to Bermuda on board the Antelope. They were to be employed in the construction of a breakwater and the clearance of a wood on the hillsides around the cove.

You can find further information on the individual hulks in the sections below

This set of records includes the names of the first convicts to arrive in Bermuda on the Antelope (1824), together with those who arrived on board the Dromedary (1826), the Coromandel (1828) and the Weymouth (1829). The original records can be found among the Home Office papers held at The National Archives in HO7/3. The information will generally contain the following:

• Whence and when received – giving name of the hulk and date they were sent to the transport ship. No receiving dates are given for the Coromandel
• The number they were given on that hulk – not all numbers are given and it is worth noting that those numbers that are given do not always seem to correspond with the entry in the named hulk register
• Their prison number on the transport ship – this information is not given for any of the ships
• Last name – aliases have been separately indexed
• First name – once again if they were known by more than one forename they have been indexed under both names
• Offence – most offences involve the stealing of property, in the majority of the cases the actual item/items stolen is given, but in some cases it simply says – Theft – Burglary – Felony – Petty or Grand Larceny
• Age – many of those transported were in their teens or early twenties
• Where and when they were convicted – gives place and date of conviction
• Sentence – most were for 7 years, but there are also a few sentenced to Life or 14 years
• Character from gaoler – can include information on previous conviction and other family members who have been transported
• Character from hulk – this can include any punishment received or attempts made to escape
• Married or single – not always included, but some also include number of children. The majority of the men were single
• Trade – there are a variety of trades represented, as well as labourers there are brick makers, seamen, rope makers, masons, grooms, shoemakers, weavers, and at least one surgeon
• How disposed of – left blank in most cases, but does also include some dates of death, Free Pardons or transfers to other hulks
• Name of hulk – Antelope, Dromedary, Coromandel, or Weymouth

HMS Antelope was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship launched from King’s Yard at Sheerness in November 1802. She was used as a troopship from 1818. In 1824 the Home Office acquired the deactivated frigate from the Royal Navy and she was provisioned for a voyage to Bermuda. Under the command of Lieutenant Henry Hire, R.N., she sailed from Spithead on 5 January 1824, and arrived in Bermuda on 8 February, with a cargo of 300 convicts. Also on board were 200 Royal Marines, they were to perform the duty of Dockyard Guards. On 25 February 1824, the Antelope, lying off the Dockyard at Ireland Island, was paid off and handed over to Commissioner Briggs, who now held legal authority over the convicts in Bermuda. The Antelope remained in Bermuda as a convict hulk until 1845 when she was broken up.

HMS Dromedary was originally a teak-built mercantile vessel, the Kaikusroo, built in Bombay and launched in 1799. In 1805 she was bought from Sorabjee Mucherjee by Admiral Edward Pellew to serve as a 40-gun frigate and commissioned as the Howe. In February 1806 the Admiralty converted her and fitted her out as a 24-gun store ship and renamed her HMS Dromedary. In 1809, under the command of her master, Samuel Pritchard, she carried Lachan and Elizabeth Macquarie to New South Wales where Macquarie was to take over as governor from William Bligh. In 1819 Dromedary was fitted out as a convict transport ship and on 11 September 1819 under Captain Richard Skinner she sailed for Australia with 369 convicts. The Dromedary arrived at Hobart on 10 January 1820 where she landed 347 convicts before proceeding to Sydney where the other 22 convicts were landed. Early in 1826 the Dromedary, carrying another 300 convicts, joined the Antelope in Bermuda. Until 1851 the Dromedary was home to convicts sentenced to hard labour, remaining close to the quarries and construction sites where the convicts laboured. In 1851, 300 convicts from the Dromedary, together with another 300 from the Coromandel were moved to barracks on shore, and for the next 12 years the Dromedary was used as a kitchen for working convicts and those who guarded them.

HMS Coromandel, a teak-built two-decker, was built in Calcutta as an East Indiaman and was launched on 12 September 1798 and named Cuvera. In 1806 she was bought by the Royal Navy, renamed HMS Malabar and converted to a store ship. In 1815 Malabar was renamed Coromandel and between August and October 1819 she was fitted out as a convict transport ship. On 1 November 1819 she sailed from Spithead with 300 convicts and guard detachments of the 46th and 84th Regiments, arriving at Hobart on 12 March 1820, where 150 prisoners and together with half of the guard detachment disembarked. The remainder sailed on the Sydney, arriving there on 5 April. The Coromandel then sailed for New Zealand, returning to Sydney in June 1821, before sailing for England the following month, and she was laid up at Portsmouth in December 1821. Between June and July 1827 she was converted to a receiving ship and made ready for her voyage to Bermuda. The first convicts, from the Dolphin Hulk, arrived on board the Coromandel on the 22 October 1827 and sailed for Bermuda later that year.

The Coromandel served as a prison hulk in Bermuda from 1828 until she was broken up, by Admiralty order, in 1853.

HMS Weymouth was an East Indiaman ship, built at Calcutta in 1797, and named Wellesley. In May 1804 she was purchased by the Royal Navy and fitted out at the yards of Perry & Co, at Rotherhithe and renamed HMS Weymouth. She was further fitted out at Woolwich Dockyard in November that same year. In September 1806 she was fitted out as a store ship at Woolwich and re-commissioned in September 1807 under Commander Martin White. In January 1820, under her master, Richard Turner, the Weymouth left Portsmouth carrying eleven parties of British Settlers, arriving at Table Bay (Capetown) on 25 April 1820 and in Algoa Bay (now Port Elizabeth) on 15 May 1820. In November 1821 she was laid up at Deptford. Between February and October 1828 Weymouth was fitted out as a convict ship and sailed for Bermuda. In 1865 the Weymouth was sold in Bermuda for £300.

The Bellerophon was built by Edward Greaves and Co. at Frindsby and launched on 6 October 1786. She took part in both the Battle of the Nile and Trafalgar and on the 15 July 1815 her captain, Frederick Lewis Maitland accepted the surrender of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Bellerophon, with Bonaparte, General Bertrand and others on board, arrived at Torbay on 24 July 1815, and Napoleon was removed to the Northumberland.

The Navy Board agreed to her being converted into a prison hulk and by 16 October 1816 she was ready to take on board her first convicts.

Between 1823 and 1825 the Bellerophon became a boys’ hulk, holding 61 boys between the ages of 9 and 17. By the end of 1825 however it was decided that she was no longer suitable to house the boys as her layout meant there was no space for workshops. All boys under the age of 16 were transferred to the Euryalus which had been specially fitted for them.

These records will usually tell you the following about your ancestors:

• First and last names
• Age
• Number
• Where received from
• Offence
• Where and when convicted
• Sentence
• How and when disposed of

Please note that on the Bellerophon, the destination is generally given as NSW (New South Wales), although a number of the ships actually sailed for VDL (Van Dieman’s Land,Tasmania)

• Gaoler's report - unfortunately these have not survived for all those convicted
• The National Archives reference

In 1824 the decision was taken to rename HMS Waterloo, an 80-gun ship launched in 1818, HMS Bellerophon, and to free up the name HMS Bellerophon was renamed Captivity. In April 1826 the Bellerophon was taken into one of the docks at Sheerness, where she was re-coppered and prepared for a voyage to Plymouth. She was the second prison hulk to be named Captivity. (The first Captivity Hulk had started life as HMS Monmouth, launched in April 1772, and renamed Captivity in 1796 when she became a prison ship. She was finally broken up in 1818.)

Captivity sailed from Sheerness on the 4 June, calling at Portsmouth to pick up some convicts, and arriving at Plymouth on the 8 June. By July 1826 she was stationed at Devonport, with 80 convicts on board. She remained as a convict ship at Devonport until July 1834 when Mr John Henry Capper, Superintendent of the Convict Establishment, informed the Home Secretary that the convict stations at Plymouth and Sheerness had been abolished and the ships handed over to the Naval Department.

On 21 January 1836 the Bellerophon or Captivity as she was now called, was sold for £4030 and was broken up later that year. In September 1836 advertisements in the local Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse News announced the auctioning off of her timber. Some of the timber was bought by George Bellamy, who had been the surgeon on board the Bellerophon at the Battle of the Nile. He incorporated them into a cottage he was building at Plymstock.

These records can tell you the following about your ancestors:

• Number on ship’s book (No on SB)
• First & last name, any alias they were known by
• Age
• Crime
• Where and when convicted
• Sentence
• How and when disposed of
• Hulk
• National Archives reference

The Discovery hulk was a 10-gun sloop of 300 tons, built at Rotherhithe, and launched and purchased for the Navy in 1789. This Discovery was named after the previous HMS Discovery, one of the ships on James Cook’s third voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and is best known as the lead ship in George Vancouver’s exploration of the west coast of North America in his 1791-1795 expedition. In 1798 Discovery was converted to a bomb vessel and took part in the Battle of Copenhagen, she later served as an Army hospital ship before being converted to a convict prison hulk in 1818 and stationed at Deptford. By 1832 Discovery had moved from Deptford to Woolwich and she was finally broken up in 1834.

In 1832 several newspapers carried the same report relating to the Discovery. The following is taken from the Worcester Herald, Saturday 28 April 1832.

“The Discovery, the ship in which Captain Cook circumnavigated the globe, and which for many years has formed a hulk at Deptford, has been removed, preparatory, it is said, to being broken up.”

This would appear to be a case of mistaken identity as Captain Cook’s Discovery had been broken up at Chatham in October 1797. The misconception continued until the following year when the Leicester Journal announced on December 6 1833 that Captain Cook’s vessel was being sent to Deptford to be broken up.

The Discovery held around 200 convicts at any one time with a total number held of 712. Of these men 334 were pardoned, 100 were transported, 26 of them to Bermuda, and seven men managed to escape. A report of the first escape appeared in the Newcastle Courant, Saturday 23 October 1824.

“MORGAN JONES escaped from the Discovery Hulk, at Deptford, on the 30th ultimo. He is about 53 years of Age, 5 Feet 6 ¾ Inches in Height, stout made, swarthy Complexion, oval Visage, hazel Eyes, Roman Nose, black Hair, scar on right Beam, high Cheek Bones, full Mouth, Thumb of right Hand fractured; and having been lately ill, his Head was shaved; walks totteringly; is a Native of Ludlow; was a Constable at the Time of his Conviction, which was at Worcester, on the 7th of October 1820.”

A total of 50 men died whilst serving on the Discovery, 22 of them in 1832. There was a cholera outbreak on board in during this year and some of the deaths were no doubt due to this. The Chaplain at Woolwich at the time was the Reverend Samuel Watson, he refused to bury the dead until at least half a dozen were awaiting burial, and then, instead of accompanying them to the graveside, he read the funeral service from the deck of the hulk, about a mile away. When he reached the committal sentences he would drop his handkerchief as a sign to the officer on shore to lower the bodies into the grave.

You can usually find out the following about your ancestor:

• Number on ship’s book (No on SB)
• First & last name, any alias they were known by
• Age
• Crime
• When and where convicted
• Sentence
• How and when disposed of
• Character from gaoler
• Hulk
• National Archives reference

The Euryalus was the former 36-gun frigate commanded by Captain Henry Blackwood which had kept watch on the enemy fleet at Cadiz in the weeks leading up to the Battle of Trafalgar.

These records will usually tell you the following about your ancestors:

• First and last names
• Age
• Number
• Where received from
• Offence or crime
• Where and when convicted
• Sentence
• How and when disposed of
• Gaoler's report
• Character from gaoler
• Married or single
• Trade
• If they could read or write
• TNA reference

The Hardy was a 14-gun brig, which launched on 7 August 1804. During her time as a prison hulk she averaged around 100 convicts on board at any one time.

These records will usually tell you the following about your ancestors:

• First and last names
• Age (when convicted)
• Number on ship's book (No.SB)
• Offence
• Where and when convicted
• Sentence
• When mitigated
• How disposed of
• Convicts pardoned from the Hardy
• Character from gaoler

Notes and comments

• This includes additional information taken from other hulk registers and the reference to the appropriate document.
• For a number of men held on the Hardy there is no information on age, offence, when and where convicted, or sentence. Most men were held on another hulk, in many cases the York, before being transferred to the Hardy, so it has been possible to find this information in the appropriate registers. Where such information has been included, this is shown with the use of an asterisk, and the name of the hulk and reference is given in the notes column.
• The majority of the men held on the Hardy received a free pardon. This is shown in the records as 'Discharged PFP' or 'PFP' and the others were transferred to other hulks.

Abbreviations used in the records:

• C.R.: Capital respite. In some cases this is given as the offence, in others C.R. appears after the offence. This means that a sentence of death was recorded but then this was commuted to transportation
• F.P.: Free pardon

The hulk records also include 19 convicts on the Antelope (transferred from the Justitia hulk in November 1823) and 20 convicts in Parkhurst prison (transferred from the York hulk in December 1838).

The original registers can be found at The National Archives, reference HO9.

Our thanks go to Jill Chambers for providing these records and the background content.

Many of the words used in the gaoler's report and character from gaoler have been abbreviated and the abbreviations used are not always consistent. For example:

Connex - Connexions

Convd - Convicted

Custy - Custody

Disordy - Disorderly

Dispn - Disposition

Impd - Imprisoned

Indifft - Indifferent

Ordy - Orderly

Pund - Punished

In some cases the words 'the same' appear in the gaoler's report and character from gaoler - this indicates that the same remarks as those given for the person above apply. Where this is the case, the remarks appear in brackets, e.g., 'The same (Not known before. Good at Retribution)'.