 For something like two weeks the captives were kept in the hold. Foster wanted to keep them out of sight in case they passed other ships that would have seen them and potentially found that they were making this illegal voyage. After two weeks he decided that the coast was clear and he started bringing them up on deck sort of in shifts. They would be rotated through and the first time they were brought up their muscles were so atrophied that they couldn't stand up or walk and the sailors had to support them.