View of the Justitia Hulk, with the Convicts at Work, near Woolwich. New Newgate Calendar or Malefactor's Register

Convicts perform hard labour at the Woolwich Warren. The hulk on the river is the 'Justitia'. Prisoners were kept on board such ships for months awaiting deportation to Australia. The 'Justitia' was a 260 ton prison hulk that had been originally moored in the Thames when the American War of Independence put a stop to the transportation of criminals to the former colonies. The 'Justitia' belonged to the shipowner Duncan Campbell, who was the Government contractor who organized the prison-hulk system at that time. Campbell was subsequently involved in the shipping of convicts to the penal colony at Botany Bay (in fact Port Jackson, later Sydney, just to the north) in New South Wales, the 'first fleet' going out in 1788.

Object Details

ID: PAI9265
Type: Print
Display location: Not on display
Places: Woolwich
Vessels: Justitia [British]
Date made: 1777
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Sheet: 177 mm x 98 mm