In this year a terrible epidemic carried off nearly 1,000 prisoners. The Transport Board’s Surveyor was sent down, and he reported that the general condition of the prison was very bad, especially as regarded sanitation. The buildings were merely of fir-quartering, and weather-boarded on the outside, and without lining inside, the result being that the whole of the timbering was a network of holes bored by the prisoners in order to get light inside. In the twelve solitary cells of the Black Hole there was no convenience whatever. The wells were only in tolerable condition. The ventilation of the French officers’ rooms was very bad. The hospital was better than other parts of the prison. The report notes that the carpenters, sawyers, and masons were prisoners, a fact at once constituting an element of uncertainty, if not of danger. In December 1801 Woodriff found it necessary to post up an order about shamming ill in order to be changed to better quarters: ‘Ayant connaissance que nombre de prisonniers français recherchent journellement les moyens de se donner l’air aussi misérable que possible dans le dessein d’être envoyés à l’Hôpital ou au No. 13 par le chirurgien de visite, et que s’ils sont reçus, soit pour l’un ou l’autre, ils vendent de suite leurs effets (s’ils ne l’ont déjà fait pour se faire recevoir) le Gouvernement done [_sic_] avis de nouveau qu’aucun prisonnier ne sera reçu pour l’Hôpital ou pour le No. 13 s’il ne produit ses effets de Literie et les Hardes qu’il peut avoir reçu dernièrement.’