American Prisoners of the RevolutionDandridge, Danske
History
American Prisoners of the Revolution
Dandridge, Danske
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Prisoners and prisons
“Our beds and clothing were kept on deck until nearly the hour when we
were to be ordered below for the night. During this interval * * * the
decks washed and cleared of all incumbrance, except the poor wretches
who lay in the bunks, it was quite refreshing after the suffocating heat
and foul vapors of the night to walk between decks. There was then some
circulation of air through the ship, and, for a few hours, our existence
was, in some degree, tolerable.
“About two hours before sunset the order was usually issued for the
prisoners to carry their hammocks, etc., below. After this had been done
we were all either to retire between decks, or to remain above until
sunset according to our own pleasure. Everything which we could do
conducive to cleanliness having then been performed, if we ever felt
anything like enjoyment in this wretched abode, it was during this brief
interval, when we breathed the cool air of the approaching night, and
felt the luxury of our evening pipe. But short indeed was this interval
of repose. The Working-party was soon ordered to carry the tubs below,
and we prepared to descend to our gloomy and crowded dungeons. This was
no sooner done than the gratings were closed over the hatchways,
the sentinels stationed, and we left to sicken and pine beneath our
accumulated torments; with our guards above crying aloud, through the
long night, ‘All’s well!”’
Captain Dring says that at that time the Jersey was used for seamen
alone. The average number on board was one thousand. It consisted of the
crews of vessels of all the nations with which the English were at war.
But the greater number had been captured on board American vessels.
There were three hospital ships in the Wallabout; the Stromboli, the
Hunter, and the Scorpion. [Footnote: At one time as we have seen, the
Scorpion was a prison ship, from which Freneau was sent to the Hunter
hospital ship.] There was not room enough on board these ships for
all the sick, and a part of the upper deck of the Jersey was therefore
prepared for their accommodation. These were on the after part of the
upper deck, on the larboard side, where those who felt the symptoms of
approaching sickness could lie down, in order to be found by the nurses
as soon as possible.
Few ever returned from the hospital ships to the Jersey. Dring knew but
three such instances during his imprisonment. He says that “the outward
appearance of these hospitals was disgusting in the highest degree.
The sight of them was terrible to us. Their appearance was even more
shocking than that of our own miserable hulk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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