The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-20
ENGLAND's LAST CONVICT Hulk
How BarbarOusIy Criminals Wer.
Treated no Longer Than Fort.
Years Ago.

now baFDaFousiy Criminals Were
Treated no Longer Than For,,.
Years Ago.
From the London Daily Graphio
The last Of the convict hulks is now "
ing at the East India docks, and a mo-.
disreputable old carcass she looks -
her brOken-nosed fgurehead to the naa1f,,-.
woodwork Of her stern she faunts a so,,.f
Id disrepute. She has been built 1O5 ,-es~.
and she looks every one Of them: she ~
been sunk in Sydney harbor, and from, an
appearances she might have Just been
cahSH upi she IS convict, and nobody
could imagine her anything else She bsS,
acquired most fitting local color
None the less, the Success is. q. most in
teresting old boat; she has been bro7rgpr
over mere by company which has stuffed
her cells with wax figures and in the nv
cess OF adapting her interior to what il
imagined TO be the needs of the nuhlfe
has cleared up and cleaned away so5,,''
thlng OF the dirt, and little-not uucb
OF me horrible construction of the hot
tom row of the ships cells While the shin
lasts, however, and il is likely to last Z
good deal longer, seeing that il is bufit
OF teak, as hard iron and as thick az
the walls of the Norman church-ft vrin
not be possible to clear away an the bort
rors OF the prison. However unimaginatf,-a
you may be, you cannot stand in the bot
tom tier of the honeycomb of cells will
out realizing the black desperation of The
convlcts who were chained there in tba
dark. They were called the solitary IN
Iney never left the ship as others of tbs
convicts did to work in the uuarries NTosl
were in cells four feet by seven feet some
OF the worst were herded together in a
common den, where periodically thew
throttled one another in the night T6s
solitary 60, most Of them, carried from 20
10 40 pounds of weight of irons There are
two cells which are two feet eight inches
man chained here to an iron ring in the
side could neither lie down, nor sit down
nor kneel down. He could not see ii was
as much as he could do to breathe, and the
interchange Of blasphemies between him.
self and his companions was the only
thing that preserved to him his reason
For the discipline, the triangles the
necklace contriVance which kept a row
OF men standing for a day in the torture
OF racking cramp-the irons, the seventv-
two-pound leg shot. the fogging, We're
powerless to subdue the indomitable sDirit
OF the solitary sixty. They show YOU
cato mine tails among the relics of fba
Success weapon of nine serDents of car
gut, as thick as blind cord, and twisted
with wire. One of the sixty has had his
back scored and crossed with forty lashes
of this unwincing, and then has turned
round from the triangle offering to fight
the best officer on board.
There is a fascination about the shin
but there is not a redeeming memory
about 1t. The inspector general of the
ship was John Price. Some of the hulk
the Quarries battered in his head with a
shovel. There is a chapel on board-a
place that looks like a cage for hyenas
except that il is darker The chaplain OK
the ship used to stand inside the bars and
preach at the twelve or fourteen most
penitent rufflans on board 1t was a re-
ward for good conduct, and the men liked
it as diversion. The better behaved pris-
oners were put in the middle deck cells
which were only seven feet by four feet
but permitted glimmer of light. Ths
least refractory were put three together
in styes seven feet by seven feet This
was dvice highly favorable TO the forma-
ton of mutinies, of which there were sew
eral; but they all ended in the shooting Of
one or more prisoners and the hogging Of
the rest, together with a descent to the
dark cells. In these the floor is worn away
here and there by the rubbing of the irons
as the convicts tried to find a position in
which they could rest more easily. Thers
are two other facts about the ship, among
a number of interesting ones, that are
especially remarkable. One is that she
was only saved from destruction to remain
a somewhat scandalous memorial of the
treatment of conVicts forty years ago, by
an accident The government, in selling
these hullxs, used to stipulate that they
should be broken up. The stipulation was
forgotten in this instance. The other fact
is that she was built "by the old AIoul-
mein Pagoda, looking eastward to the
sea-"