Prison ship ships at sea, claiming legal authority to do so. In 2009 the US Navy converted the main deck aboard the supply ship into a brig to hold pirates captured off the coast of Somalia until they could be transferred to Kenya for prosecution. The brig was capable of holding up to twenty-six prisoners and was operated by a detachment of Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Charles Dickens' novel "Great Expectations" opens in 1812 with the escape of the convict Abel Magwitch from a hulk moored in the Thames Estuary. In fact, the prison ships were largely moored off
Charles Dickens Clark Charles Dickens Clark Charles Dickens Clark (October 7, 1847 – March 15, 1908) was a United States federal judge. Born in Laurel Cove, Tennessee, Clark received a B.A. from Burritt College in 1871 and an LL.B. from Cumberland University in 1873. He was on the staff of Confederate States General George G. Dibrell in Richmond, Virginia from 1864 to 1865. He was in private practice in Manchester, Tennessee from 1876 to 1883, and in Chattanooga, Tennessee from 1883 to 1895. On December 17, 1894, Clark was nominated by President Grover Cleveland to seats on the United States District Court for