prison ships
Seaborne detention vessels
Prison ships are vessels used to confine prisoners, historically employed when land-based facilities were overcrowded or unavailable.
British prison ships, called hulks, held thousands of American captives during the Revolutionary War, with notorious mortality rates.
The term also applies to ships transporting convicts to penal colonies: Convicts bound for Australia endured months aboard prison ships.
- hulksMassive unwieldy forms
- convictsImprisoned felons
- transportationMoving people or goods
- penal colonyDistant settlement for exiled criminals
- shacklesMetal bonds for prisoners
ball and chain · chains · typhus · Australia · New South Wales · Thames · moored · rotting · felons · Botany Bay · overcrowding · deportation · galleys · anchored · disease · floating · holds · below decks
- captivitycaptive, detained, incarcerated, confinement, jail
prison shipspenitentiaries
Institutions housing convicted criminals
state prisons · federal prisons · county jails · correctional facilities · prisons
prison shipscruise ships
Seagoing pleasure vessels
pleasure boats · luxury yachts · passenger liners · ocean liners · party boats
prison shipsfreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · free passage · open waters · safe harbor · sanctuary
prison, ship, prisons, ships, prisoner, prisoners, imprison, imprisoned, imprisoning