Dr Anna Lois McKay

Now in its fourth year, The Ideas Prize is an award for the best debut trade non-fiction proposal from an academic. Izzy Everington, Editorial Director at Profile Books, commented: ‘We have seen an extraordinary range and breadth of submissions this year, and the quality has been astounding. Many thanks to all who applied, and a huge congratulations to our longlisted authors: each of your submissions was filled with ambition, creativity and panache.’

Asked to picture a nineteenth-century ship, you might think of the HMS Victory or HMS Temeraire, symbolic of empire. Something epitomised by flag-waving and victory - Britannia rules the waves. In this edition of Free Thinking, Catherine Fletcher asks if we memorialise one aspect of our maritime past at the expense of others - she is joined by Dr Anna McKay, Dr Lloyd Belton, and Dr Oliver Finnegan.

This prestigious scheme offers early career researchers the opportunity to develop programmes for the BBC. Selected as a finalist in January 2024 for my programme idea telling the untold story of the people who served time on the hulks – we’ll see how they lived and fought alongside each other, formed friendships, and plotted escapes. Looking through the prism of Empire, we’ll also ask, are we guilty of memorialising one aspect of our nation’s naval past, and not what happened next?

This policy paper explores the parallels between the British government’s current use of barges to house asylum seekers and the historical use of prison hulks. The first part provides an introduction to the issues of asylum seekers and accommodation barges today, and shows how governments periodically turn to ships as the means to detain so-called ‘problem’ groups. The second aims to determine what lessons can be drawn from history and how this evidence should be recognised in tackling the problem of asylum accommodation today.

In the 19th century, the public initially turned a blind eye to prison hulks — but not so today. In the coming weeks, the British government will accommodate asylum seekers on board a barge in Portland, Dorset. This plan was formally announced in April, but the barge is yet to arrive, delayed by protests and growing public criticism. Britain has seen this before: it’s impossible to look at the policy without making historical comparisons to prison hulks, 19th-century floating prisons etched on to public memory thanks to screen adaptations of Great Expectations.

​In a move that echoes 19th-century policy, the Home Office has announced it will house 500 male asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm, a 222-bedroom accommodation barge, off the coast of Portland in Dorset. The decision is supposed to reduce pressure on the UK’s asylum system, as the cost of housing migrants in hotels amounts to more than £6m a day. Although the government claims this action brings the UK into line with countries around Europe, it also draws darker comparisons to Britain’s historical use of prison hulks, infamous “floating hells” that were used to detain criminals.

The immigration minister is reopening a dark chapter in British history.

Robert Jenrick announced plans on the 29 March to house several thousand male asylum seekers in disused military bases in Essex, Lincolnshire and East Sussex. But what really caught the eye was Jenrick’s other announcement. He said that the government was exploring the possibility of housing migrants on vessels such as disused cruise ships or barges.

The New Statesman is the leading progressive political and cultural magazine in the United Kingdom, founded in 1913.

During the 63 year long reign of Queen Victoria, seven men took the fateful decision to try to kill her. The seven men were within seconds of changing history - each could have brought the Victorian era to a premature end, yet each has been forgotten to history.

This new podcast series narrated by Dr Bob Nicholson will look to answer the question of what led these men to try to kill the most famous and influential woman on the planet.

Anna will be talking to Bob about would-be assassin, the 'low-born Irish blackguard', bricklayer William Hamilton, and serving time on convict hulks in Episode 4.

Anna McKay delves into the development, use and abolition of floating prisons - and the horrible experience of those incarcerated on board.

Convicts in Georgian and Victorian Britain experienced notoriously miserable conditions, and perhaps no inmates endured harsher deprivations than those confined on prison hulks.

HistoryExtra podcast episodes are released six times a week, featuring interviews with notable historians on topics spanning ancient history through to recent British to American events. Episodes feature history stories and perspectives on everything from crusading knights to Tudor monarchs and the D-Day landings.

Early one misty morning in 1855, Henry Mayhew and John Binny stepped aboard a dilapidated ship moored on the Thames. Its large wooden hull was studded with barred portholes instead of flags, a rudimentary washing line hung between the ship’s masts. The overall impression was one of oppression and decay. The Defence struck a curious contrast to the gleaming steamboats and sailboats streaming past: for one thing, rather than carrying passengers, it housed convicts. Formerly a naval man-of-war, it was now a prison ship, also known as a hulk. Mayhew and Binny, both journalists and social reformers, had previously toured the prisons of London. They had inspected the solitary cells at Millbank, the exercise yards in Pentonville, and the female workrooms in Brixton. But the hulk system was unlike any other prison they had encountered.

Prisoner-made objects held immense monetary, national, and emotional value for their makers and consumers. In Britain and its colonies, partially dismantled wooden warships known as hulks were employed to ease prison overcrowding. Between 1775 and 1815, they housed both prisoners of war and convicts, often in neighboring ships. Although operating under different systems of administration, both types of prisoner crafted objects from whatever materials could be stolen, scavenged or bartered, and they concealed, smuggled, and hid them from authorities.

This working paper discusses the Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies 'Interdisciplinary Walks' project, and reflects upon the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary research and the value of walking and thinking as viewed by academic researchers. Consultations with University of Leicester staff members recognised the importance of access to parks and green spaces, and identified four key walking behaviours: walking alone, together, to disconnect, and to focus. This paper argues that by understanding individual preferences, researchers can harness the potential of walking as a tool to improve mind, body, and research.

The Alexander Prize is awarded for an essay or article based on original historical research, by a doctoral candidate or those recently awarded their doctorate, published in a journal or an edited collection of essays.

My article, ‘”Allowed to Die?” Prison Hulks, Convict Corpses and the Enquiry of 1847’ — which appears in Cultural and Social History (May 2021) — was described as: Compelling and historically rigorous, challenging, shocking and deeply moving … offering a penetrating insight into how marginalised individuals were regarded in life and death.

The MSCA Seal of Excellence is a quality label awarded to applicants for MSCA Individual Fellowships who scored 85% or higher in the assessment. The Seal of Excellence is a guarantee of the outstanding value of the research project, recognized by a comprehensive and thorough assessment process. Beneficiaries can use this award to obtain alternative funding for their research.

Proposal supported by University College Cork, Ireland and University of Lancaster, UK, National Museum of Bermuda.

The 1847 Inquiry into General Treatment of Convicts in Hulks at Woolwich publicly exposed the prison hulk system as one that used, mistreated, and trafficked convict corpses. By focusing on the treatment of deceased convicts on board British prison hulks, this article enhances our understanding of how both the hulk system and anatomy inspectorate were administered in the years that followed the passing of the Anatomy Act.

As an Affiliate Researcher on the ESRC-funded Carceral Archipelago Project (2015-18), I co-authored an online learning resource on Bermuda’s penal station with Professor Clare Anderson and Dr Kristy Warren. The guide is designed to speak to three different levels of educational progression. These are: Level 1 – Early Secondary (roughly ages 12-16) Level 2 - Upper Secondary (roughly ages 16-18) and Level 3 - Undergraduate.