the floating prison

“The Floating Prison” is the first complete English translation of Garneray’s own account of life on board the hulks. The book describes a world where the prisoners enforced their own savage discipline; the strong preyed on the weak and men who had gambled away their clothes and food starved to death. Other prisoners forged banknotes, fought duels with razors tied to sticks and plotted desperate escapes. Yet the hulks also contained prisoners who studied, earned money from various trades, wrote and performed plays and created exquisite ship models. A few, including Garneray, were artists. While observing the grotesque contrasts of his surroundings and the occasional grim humour of life as a prisoner of war, Garneray struggled to develop his talents as a painter. In the course of his captivity he painted a remarkable series of views of the hulks, some of which are reproduced in this book for the first time.