Prison ship
（重定向自Convict hulk）
![The beached convict ship HMS Discovery at Deptford. Launched as a 10-gun sloop at Rotherhithe in 1789, the ship served as a convict hulk from 1818 until scrapped in February 1834.[1]](/Images/godic/202501/06/Discovery_at_Deptford2640.jpg")
![Prison hulk HMS Success[2] at Hobart, Tasmania, Australia](/Images/godic/202501/06/Success_prison_hulk2640.jpg")
![1848 Woodcut of the Royal Naval Dockyard, Ireland Island, Bermuda, showing four prison hulks.](/Images/godic/202501/06/Ireland_Island_Woodcut2640.jpg")
![Interior of the British prison ship Jersey](/Images/godic/202501/06/Interior_HMS_Jersey_18552640.jpg")
A prison ship, often more precisely termed prison hulk, is a vessel (usually unseaworthy) salvaged as a prison, often to hold convicts or with the British, often civilian internees, awaiting transportation to a penal colony. This practice was popular with the British government in the 18th and 19th centuries.