American Prisoners of the RevolutionDandridge, Danske
History
American Prisoners of the Revolution
Dandridge, Danske
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Prisoners and prisons
From Rivington’s _Gazette,_ March lst, 1780. “Last Saturday afternoon
the Good Hope prison ship, lying in the Wallebocht Bay was entirely
consumed after having been wilfully set on fire by a Connecticut
man named Woodbury, who confessed to the fact. He with others of the
incendiaries are removed to the Provost. The prisoners let each other
down from the port holes and decks into the water.”
So that was the end of the Good Hope. She seems to have been burned
by some of the prisoners in utter desperation, probably with some hope
that, in the confusion, they might be enabled to escape, though we do
not learn that any of them were so fortunate, and the only consequence
of the deed appears to have been that the remaining ships were crowded
to suffocation.
A writer in the Connecticut _Gazette,_ whose name is not given, says:
“May 25th, 1780. I am now a prisoner on board the Falmouth, a place the
most dreadful; we are confined so that we have not room even to lie down
all at once to sleep. It is the most horrible, cursed, hole that can
be thought of. I was sick and longed for some small beer, while I lay
unpitied at death’s door, with a putrid fever, and though I had money I
was not permitted to send for it. I offered repeatedly a hard dollar for
a pint. The wretch who went forward and backward would not oblige me. I
am just able to creep about. Four prisoners have escaped from this ship.
One having, as by accident, thrown his hat overboard, begged leave to
go after it in a small boat, which lay alongside. Having reached the hat
they secured the sentinel and made for the Jersey shore, though several
armed boats pursued, and shot was fired from the shipping.”
The New Jersey _Gazette_ of June 4th, 1780, says: “Thirty-five
Americans, including five officers, made their escape from the prison
ship at New York and got safely off.”
“For Sale. The remains of the hospital ship Kitty, as they now lie at
the Wallebocht, with launch, anchors, and cables.” Gaine’s _Mercury_,
July 1st, 1780.
New Jersey _Gazette_, August 23, 1780. “Captain Grumet, who made his
escape from the Scorpion prison ship, at New York, on the evening of
the 15th, says more lenity is shown the prisoners. There are 200 in the
Strombolo, and 120 in the Scorpion.”
It was in 1780 that the poet Freneau was a prisoner on the Scorpion,
which, at that time, was anchored in the East River. In Rivington’s
_Gazette_, at the end of that year, the “hulks of his Majesty’s sloops
Scorpion and Hunter” are advertised for sale. Also “the Strombolo
fire-ship, now lying in North River.” It appears, however, that there
were no purchasers, and they remained unsold. They were still in use
until the end of the year 1781. Gaine’s _Mercury_ declares that “the
Strombolo, from August 21st to December 10th, 1781, had never less than
150 prisoners on board, oftener over 200.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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