Each berth was presumed to be five feet six inches square, but the necessities of stowage had deprived them of six inches, and even under that pressure twelve men were compelled to sleep on the deck.

Pine did not exaggerate when he spoke of the custom of overcrowding convict ships; and as he was entitled to half a guinea for every man he delivered alive at Hobart Town, he had some reason to complain.
When Frere had come down, an hour before, the prisoners were all snugly between their blankets.

They were not so now; though, at the first clink of the bolts, they would be back again in their old positions, to all appearances sound asleep.

As the eye became accustomed to the foetid duskiness of the prison, a strange picture presented itself.

Groups of men, in all imaginable attitudes, were lying, standing, sitting, or pacing up and down.