Crime and Punishment in the Victorian Era Naughties

During the 18th and 19th centuries, England had a few issues with overcrowding in their prison system and set about ways to rectify the problem.

Among a number of inventive practices, of which deportation to the colonies was a favourite, the idea of coverting old ships to floating jails became fashionable.

This was a period in which the concept of crime and punishment was being explored. A popular topic of conversation among the highly educated, dramatic changes were starting to occur as it became evident that imprisonment was as much a punishment in itself as flogging, banishment, torture or any of the ways criminals were dealt with in the past. Jeremy Bentham, a prominent British philosopher developed the concept of the Panopticon, a new type of prison in which inmates would be housed in separate booths, unable to see each other, but under constant supervision by prison staff.


Hulks were a response to this new form punishment as prisons became overcrowded. Their masts lopped off a couple of meters above the deck, hulks were moored in rivers or bays, often surrounded by a circle of bouys that was to be kept clear of boats, allowing warders on shore to watch for escapees and to prevent disease spreading - an olden days "exclusion zone".


As they were more or less overflow tanks for the prison system, the hulks were frequently overcrowded and held the worst prisoners. Slowly rotting at their moorings, no sanitation, fresh food or air, they must have been horrendous things to see.

Not many people know this, but Melbourne had it's very own prison hulks during the mid 1800s. Moored off Williamstown pier, they too held the overflow from Melbourne's own gaols. Groaning under the crush of new arrivals intent on making their fortunes on the Goldfields, Melbourne was struggling to handle the number of prisoners generated by the Victorian Era discipline. There were six of them in all, a convenient way of shutting away people who had become an inconvenient problem.

Well being the history nerd that I am, it fills my heart with joy that our Federal Government has decided to give us a taste of what it must have been like in Australia 150 years ago. In a similar fashion to the Walking with Dinosaurs: Live Experience show currently taking place in Sydney, Amanda Vanstone and the lovely bunch at DIMIA have announced that we are getting our very own prison ship.

Isn't that nice.