prison ship hull

[Ralph47]

Looking for a ship model that after its UK and only finding one, sailing days were over it was made into i prison ship.

Having looked into prison ship history which is out of my price range.

Does anyone know of a hull that could pass as one?

Ralph

 

[AllanKP69]

Ralph,
Sounds like a very interesting project.

While not a prison ship per se, the HMS Enterprise was converted from a fighting ship to a receiving ship that held men kidnapped by press gangs as prisoners until they were forced aboard fighting ships. There are detailed plans on the RMG Collections website and many of them in high resolution on the Wiki Commons site. The internals are all different, Things such as the masts, steering wheel and guns are gone. You can start with the Drydock Enterprise model as it shows some things as a receiving vessel and some as a fighting ship. You can ignore the sailing/fighting ship paraphernalia and follow the RMG plans for a receiving ship to make the changes on your own. As with most things of that era, every hulk was different. There are a lot of contemporary prison hulk drawings on the RMG website which are free in low resolution. Perhaps you can pick one and match it to a similar size ship kit. There are plans of a 50 gun, 74 gun and others that were converted from warships to prison ships.
Allan

 

[RussF]

There is a Wikipedia page listing British hulks that were used as prisons.

 

[Bob Cleek]

Merchant brigs abandoned for want of a cargo to justify a return to the Eastern Seaboard during the early days of the California Gold Rush, were also used on the U.S. West Coast as jails and prisons for convicted civilian criminals. These vessels were employed until permanent facilities could be build on shore.

Euphemia, pictured below moored outside the Apollo saloon, operating within another repurposed beached ship, Apollo, was used as San Francisco's first County Jail. , while Waban, beached in the mud at Point San Quentin on San Francisco Bay in 1852, became the new California state prison, in operation at the site to this day. See: https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Prison_Ship_'Euphemia'



(Below La Grange, Sacramento County's first jail, located on the Sacramento River. This jail was used until 1860 when it sank during a violent winter storm.



Contemporary drawing of unidentified naval prison hulk interior:



In terms of a kit one could "bash" to represent a civilian prison or jail hulk, offhand the first candidate that comes to mind would be the Charles w. Morgan. Launched in 1841, Morgan would be much like the popular cargo carriers of the day and by 1849 or 1850, would have been much like many of her sister vessels who were getting tired and to whose owners a one-way trip to California offered their highest and best use.

 

[Bob Cleek]

Merchant brigs abandoned for want of a cargo to justify a return to the Eastern Seaboard during the early days of the California Gold Rush, were also used on the U.S. West Coast as jails and prisons for convicted civilian criminals. These vessels were employed until permanent facilities could be built on shore.

Euphemia, pictured below moored outside the Apollo saloon, operating within another repurposed beached ship, Apollo, was used as San Francisco's first County Jail. , while Waban, beached in the mud at Point San Quentin on San Francisco Bay in 1852, became the new California state prison, in operation at the site to this day. See: https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Prison_Ship_'Euphemia'

View attachment 562728

(Below La Grange, Sacramento County's first jail, located on the Sacramento River. This jail was used until 1860 when it sank during a violent winter storm.

View attachment 562730

Contemporary drawing of unidentified naval prison hulk interior:

View attachment 562729