Hi Val You can read about some of the war time activities of HMS LEVIATHAN, which was built in 1790 at Chatham and hulked following the Napoleonic wars in 1816, at: http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/L.HTM Hulked means that her masts, rigging and anything useful to the navy was removed and all openings, eg gun ports etc were covered in. It is interesting to note that whilst hulks were considered to be unsuitable as prison accommodation the Navy continued to use them to accommodate RN personnel until the early part of the 20th century in lieu of Barrack type accommodation, and it was 1923 before HMS VERNON at Portsmouth moved ashore :-) I would suggest it was the treatment of the prisoners rather than the accommodation that was to be feared more than anything. You can see the sort of thing you are looking for if you have a look at: http://www.dartmouth.org.uk/displays/shops/Chroniclebook/chronbk.htm ie the former ships of the line HMS HINDUSTAN and HMS BRITANNIA which were used up until 1905 as the Royal Naval College Dartmouth in Devon. One mast was kept on training ships for instructional purposes, although the vessels couldn't go anywhere under their own steam:-) As photography was't used commercially until the 1840/50s I doubt if there are any photos of her, but there may be one or two drawings. I am told that the RN Museum at Portsmouth: http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/ has a fine selection of RN memorabilia and depending when LEVIATHAN was eventually scrapped you might even find a photo: you might like to try writing to them at: information@royalnavalmuseum.org to see if they can help? Your question regarding how they travelled from London to Portsmouth raises an interesting question, about which I have no idea. Do any other researchers from Oz have any recollections from rellies in their collections? Regards Paul Portland On Sat, 7 Apr 2001 16:00:33 +1000, you wrote: >Hello Listers > >I recently posted a request on the Aus-Convicts list seeking some >information about the hulk LEVIATHAN. A couple of books were suggested to >me but they are not in our local library and do not appear to be in the Qld. >State Library either. I'll have to try some Aus. bookshops to see if I can >purchase them. I found a small amount of information with google and I'm >wondering if anyone on the list is familiar with Portsmouth and could tell >me whether or not any kind of a photo of the Leviathan is available. > >My convict was tried at the Old Bailey in 1826 and I was also wondering how >the convicts travelled from London to Portsmouth. Would they have walked or >would they have been transported in carts of some kind? > >Regards >Val (near Bundaberg, Qld., Oz.) >Researching APLIN/APPLIN around Thorncombe, Cheddington, Drimpton, in Dorset >and MORRISSEY/ MORRISON coastguards in Hampshire, Sussex and Devon from >1820s to 1850s. > > >==== WESSEX-PLUS Mailing List ==== >Can't find the mail list you need - try John Fuller's page at: >http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_country-unk.html > or Rootsweb's own pages from http://lists.rootsweb.com/ > > For 19th Century Newspaper Extracts see: http://members.netscapeonline.co.uk/pbtyc/News_Extracts/News_Extracts_Index.html