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 Jr. months rest due to overwork. As the centenary of their grandfather's birth approached, the reduced circumstances of Charles Jr.'s daughters led to a public fundraising appeal. On 7 January 1912 a gala performance, where 'leading actors and actresses appeared as Dickens' characters' at the London Coliseum raised £2500, while a separate appeal by "The Daily Telegraph" added an additional £3882. By the close of the fund in March 1912 it held £12,000, which was to provide £150 per year to each of the daughters. Author Lucinda Hawksley, a descendant of the elder Charles Dickens, has written that 'the girls' begging