What is the Dunkirk hulk?

Answer 1

I think it'd be more accurate to say what WAS the Dunkirk Hulk. It was an 18th Century British prison ship moored off Plymouth- old decommissioned navy warships were often demasted and used as offshore holding centres for convicts awaiting transportation to prison colonies overseas, the reason being that in those days few people could swim, so the chances of escape would be minimised. They were known as hulks, and the former HMS Dunkirk was one such. It was notorious for the appalling conditions in which the prisoners on board were kept and one of the few to contain female prisoners as well as male- the women were often raped and brutalised by the Marines who were meant to be guarding them, starvation and disease were rife, and sanitary conditions nearly non-existent. It lead to a damning report published in 1784 condemning conditions on board prison ships, which led to an improvement in standards, inquiries into abuse and cruelty by the army guards, and better welfare of those convicts awaiting transportation.