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For a relatively short period in the early nineteenth century, Britain was at war concurrently with both France and the United States, and was faced with the novel problem of incarcerating large numbers of prisoners of war from both countries, a majority of whom were sailors. After experimenting with prison hulks and temporary camps, the Admiralty decided to build a permanent penal establishment at Princetown in Devon: what would become Dartmoor Prison. It was the first ever prison on British soil to be designed and built on the orders of central government, and it was also the latter’s first experience of the long-term incarceration of prisoners of war, or indeed of prisoners of any kind.?Among the themes which are explored in this book are: how the prison was conceived and designed; how it was administered both from London and on the ground; how the fate of its prisoners intertwined with the military and diplomatic history of the period; and finally how those prisoners interacted with each other, with the prison authorities and with the local community.