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A journal, of a young man of Massachusetts, late a surgeon on board an American privateer, who was captured at sea by the British in May, eighteen hundred and thirteen and was confined first, at Melville Island, Halifax, then at Chatham, in England, and last at Dartmoor prison : $b Interspersed with observations, anecdotes and remarks, tending to illustrate the moral and political characters of three nations. To which is added, a correct engraving of Dartmoor prison, representing the massacre ofWaterhouse, Benjamin

History

A journal, of a young man of Massachusetts, late a surgeon on board an American privateer, who was captured at sea by the British in May, eighteen hundred and thirteen and was confined first, at Melville Island, Halifax, then at Chatham, in England, and last at Dartmoor prison : $b Interspersed with observations, anecdotes and remarks, tending to illustrate the moral and political characters of three nations. To which is added, a correct engraving of Dartmoor prison, representing the massacre of

Waterhouse, Benjamin

Dartmoor Prison; United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Prisoners and prisons

The next evening the prisoners were to be counted; and it was of the
first importance to keep up the entire number, and prevent the
detection of our plot. To this end we cut a hole through one deck, big
enough for one man to pass from one enclosure of prisoners to the
other. There was always a number of prisoners left on each deck, who
were counted by the sergeant below; while the sergeant passed from the
lower deck to the next above it, sixteen men slipped through the hole,
and were counted over again; and this deception kept the numbers good,
and this trick was practised several times with success. The nights
were now too light for a second attempt to escape. When they became
sufficiently dark again, we prepared for a second attempt. After
drawing lots for the chance, each man was provided with a little bag
of clothes, plaistered over with grease, to keep them water-tight;
they then passed agreeably to lots drawn, to the hole near the stern
of the ship.--Two got well into the water, but one of them was tender
and timid. Trepidation and the coldness of the water made him turn
back to regain the hole he crept out of. In coming near the staging
where the sentinel was posted, he heard the poor fellow breathe, and
at length got sight of him;--"Ah," says Paddy, "here is a porpoise,
and I'll stick him with my bayonet." On which the terrified young man
exclaimed--"don't kill me, I am a prisoner." The sentinel held out his
hand, and helped him on to the staging, and then fired his gun to give
the alarm. The guard turned out, and the officers ran down in a
fright, not being able to conceive how the man could have got
overboard, surrounded with a platform, and guarded as this ship
was.--They ran here and there, and questioned, and threatened and
rummaged about; at length they discovered the sally port of the enemy.
The officers stood in astonishment at the sight of a hole big enough
for a man to creep out, cut through the thick planking of a ship of
the line! While they stared and looked pale, many of the prisoners
burst out a laughing. None but an American could have thought, and
executed such a thing as this. One of the officers said he did not
believe that the Devil himself would ever be able to keep these
fellows in hell, if they determined on getting out.

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