During the 1920s , the vessel was used as a military base and prison ship for the holding of Irish Republicans by the British government as part of their internment strategy post Bloody Sunday . Cloistered below decks in cages which held 50 internees , the prisoners were forced to use broken toilets which overflowed frequently into their communal area . Deprived of tables , the already weakened men ate off the floor , frequently succumbing to disease and illness as a result . There were several hunger strikes , including a major strike involving upwards of 150 men in the winter of 1923 . By February 1923 , under the 1922 Special Powers Act the British were detaining 263 men on '' Argenta '' , which was moored in Belfast Lough . This was supplemented with internment at other land based sites such as Larne workhouse , Belfast Prison and Derry Gaol . Together , both the ship and the workhouse alone held 542 men without trial at the highest internment population level during June 1923
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1920)
Hunger strike