Prison ship

“ EXTRACT OF A LETTER WRITTEN ON BOARD THE PRISON SHIP JERSEY, APRIL 26TH, 1782.
“I am sorry to write you from this miserable place. I can assure you that since I have been here we have had only twenty men exchanged, although we are in number upwards of 700, exclusive of the sick in the Hospital ships, who died like sheep; therefore my intention is, if possible, to enter on board some merchant or transport vessel, as it is impossible for so many men to keep alive in one vessel.”
“Providence. May 25th 1782. Sunday last a flag of truce returned here from New York and brought a few prisoners. ”

“ The "prison" was divided into "bunks" or "bays," as in a troop-ship, each of which had a table for eight men, and at night eight hammocks. For a long time prison ships sailed always without any special staff for supervision. Later a small proportion of warders embarked in each. During the day these officers took turns to patrol the deck and keep a general look-out. But on the whole, they preferred to interfere as little as possible with the "people." At night five convict sentries kept watch on deck, and were held responsible that no others came up ”

“ He was immediately followed by Captain Sutherland, who had also been forced into the felon’s garb. Next came Captain Barrett, dressed as a convict; then the sergeant and the soldiers of the guard, most of whom were habited in the prison apparel, though some were without coats. Neither the doctor nor the officers looked to right or left. They kept their eyes fastened upon the deck, and so passed through the rows of armed criminals to the gangway. Nothing was to be heard but the insulting squeaking music of the fiddle. The hush upon the great throng of men made the scene tragically impressive. ”

“ We were almost out of sight of the enemy, when the greatest misfortune happened unto us; our mast being too much loaded with sails, and the wind being very high, by which cause the mast broke, and fell down. Having neither mast nor sails to effect our escape, we were obliged to stay where we was, and were taken prisoners. We were well treated by the enemy while we stayed on board their Ship; and were afterwards landed at the Island of Martinico, and put under close confinement in a prison Ship. Being the first time I ever was confined, I was plunged into a gulf of despair and grief ”

“ It was so ordered, however, that he should be free no more than thirty days after his glad homecoming in the Lady’s Adventure. He must have re-entered the American naval service a few days after reaching Boston, for we know that he was captured in a privateer on September 16th, by a British Man of War and taken into Halifax. On November 28th he was committed to the Jersey Prison ship in New York harbor. Here he found himself in a far worse plight than in Mill Prison with its genial routine of escape and its friendly relations with the Agent, the Guard, and the French and Spanish prisoners. ”

“ The morning arrived for the convict ship to sail, and the last chains of male prisoners were mustered in the prison yard of Millbank, ready to be marched to the train, for embarkation on the convict ship at Portland. ”

“ It did not take him off dry land, and the practice of retiring into winter quarters enabled him to combine a great deal of pleasure with his fighting. A ship was at all times but a prison, and in those it was a prison very much overcrowded and abounding in foul smells. ”

“ At last I was taken, and, for the third time, incarcerated in the prison at Wahoo, but was released through the intercession of the captain of a Dutch ship, the Villa de Poel, of Amsterdam, who gave me a berth on board.
We sailed for the Bay of Magdalina, California, where we took a right whale, and when we had towed him along side the ship a quarrel took place between me and the mate. We had a desperate fight, but they overpowered me and put me in irons. ”

“ It is not from the impregnable structure of the prison 300in a convict ship, that the great object of transportation is alone to be sought. The arm of the law, which deprives the convict of the power of committing mischief by sanctioning the coercive bolt or massy bar, can be as effectual in restraining the licentious seaman from transgressing the bounds of duty, and committing acts of violence towards the persons confined; such are powers of ordinary and every day efficacy. ”

“ On the main deck was a railed space named the pound, wherein the prisoners were allowed to walk and amuse themselves during the day; and there they were at liberty to expose for sale those boxes of dominoes, toy ships, buttons, bodkins, and other trifles, which, with the native ingenuity of their country, French prisoners were wont to manufacture from their ration bones and pieces of wood given to them by the ship carpenter.
But from the character of our prisoners—the refuse of the other prison hulks—I found few such traces of industry on board the Alceste. ”

“ I was placed on board a ship called the United States, with a number of my fellow-prisoners. Those of us who were officers were assigned by the captain of the ship to staterooms. We found that there were nine hundred prisoners on board from Andersonville and Florence, some of them in the last stages of emaciation. Two or three of them died on the voyage from Charleston to Annapolis, and their bodies were buried in the sea. The Sanitary Commission had an agent on board, with an ample supply of underclothing. ”

“ French writers are accustomed to say that the lieutenants in charge of the British prison ships were the scum of the service—disappointed men, men without interest, men under official clouds which checked their advance ”

“ Most of the chief medical officers of the prison ships had their own private practices ashore, with what results to the poor foreigners, nominally their sole care, can be imagined, and all of them resented the very necessary condition that they should sleep on the ships. ”

“ A crowd of men, many of them armed with the small-arms which they had found in the ship, gathered around the main-hatch and obstructed the view. A fellow, with a fiddle in his hand, climbed on the bulwark-rail close to the yawn of the gangway, and putting the fiddle into his neck, screwed out a tune. He was the convict who used to play the prisoners round the decks at exercise. When the mass of felons heard this music, they burst into a great shout of laughter. Such a wild, dreadful shout of merriment has seldom gone up out of human throats. ”

“ The soldier lounged across the deck and leaned against the barricade, looking at the great hulk, whose topmost tier of grated ports, and whose dingy height of bulwarks and rude, hut-shaped structures forward seemed to tower to half the height of the convict ship’s lower masts. I darted a swift glance round, and observed two figures on [276] the poop, both young fellows. Some soldiers stood forward near the convicts’ galley. A small group of men—lumpers or riggers—at the main hatch within the barricade inclosure were smoking and talking. ”

“ We then at once forced the captain off the deck into his cabin, and told him he must consider himself under arrest. He got very violent, and swore he would not be kept a prisoner by any one. Then we got him down again and placed two sentries in his cabin, with orders not to suffer him to go on deck. We next went to the mate and told him that his captain was a prisoner for habitual drunkenness and neglect of duty, and that he (the mate) should at once take the ship into port. ”

“ All this while the ocean remained breathless. Far away were the two black specks of quarter-boats, and beyond was the gleam of the long-boat’s sail, a point of light under the horizon like the image of a star. Fortunately for the convicts, the lay of the yards flung the shadow of the canvas upon the deck. Otherwise it was broiling where the sun was. The poop was sheltered by the awning that stretched from the mizzen-mast to the brass rail. Many of the people stood with their coats over their arms and their shirts open. ”

“ When the signal is made for punishment, all the ships in the fleet send one or two boats each, with crews cleanly dressed, the officers in full uniform, and marines under arms. These boats collect at the side of the ship where the launch is lying, the hands are turned up, and the ship’s company are ordered to mount the rigging, to witness that portion of the whole punishment which, after the sentence has been read, is inflicted upon the prisoner. ”

“ You are, of course, prisoners of war. It is my intention to accord you treatment as your rank demands. In ordinary circumstances you are at liberty to leave your cabins and come on deck whenever you wish during hours of daylight. There may be times when it will be necessary for you to be locked in—perhaps taken below. But, understand: if you attempt to jeopardize the safety of the ship, or to communicate with any passing vessel, or, in short, to behave other than officers on parole——"
"But we are not on parole," interrupted O'Hara. ”

“ They start well equipped—I’ve seen to that. It’s odds if they’re not picked up in a day or two, spite of our friend Will’s misgivings. They’ll take three boats from the ship. That’ll leave two and the gig. The gig’s for us. The convicts must see to themselves. It’s not a thing to be debated. It’s every man for himself at such times as these,’ and his eye went to the stain at the head of the poop-ladder where the sentry had been butchered.
‘Tom,’ said I, ‘if the sailors are leaving the ship, who’s to carry on the work?’
‘Seven or eight rogues stay,’ he answered. ”

“ The inmates of the ship are thrown together far more than in any country-seat or boarding-house. None can escape from the rest except by imprisoning himself in a cell in which he can hardly turn. All food, all exercise, is taken in company. ”

“ Why, haven’t you watched me whilst I [148] tramped in a gang to the tune of a fiddle, watched me at a felon’s work about the deck of the ship you were chief mate of, watched me with the irons upon my legs as I shuffled out of the hatch to the cries of a brother-convict? You’re a respectable man—oh, very respectable! ”

“ Down the steep ladder they stumbled into the misery of a 'bounty' ship. A long, dark gallery, on each side of which were ranged the berths; narrow shelves open to every prying eye; where, for four months, the inmates were to be packed like herrings in a barrel, without room to move, almost without air to breathe; the mess table, running far aft the whole distance between the masts, left little room for passing, and that little was encumbered with all manner of boxes, packages, and infants, crawling about like rabbits in a warren. ”

“ A wooden grating from a hatchway is placed on end, resting against the bulwarks. All hands are called to witness punishment. Everybody must be present, from the captain to the powder boys. The prisoner is stripped naked to the waist, his feet are lashed to the bottom of the grating, and his arms are stretched out full [113] length and fastened. The face and breast are then close to the grating, with no chance remaining of moving the body. The ship's surgeon watches to see that the prisoner does not die while being punished. The boatswain's mate is on the left side. ”

“ If she maintains her disguise as a boy, what sort of work will they put her to? If they find out that she is a woman, what sort of treatment will she receive from the master and mates, from the officers in charge of the guard, from the seamen forward? All this and much more would run in his head, and his love might betray me that he might save me.
Three days before the convict ship was to haul alongside the Warrior, I went on board the hulk. This time I gained the deck by the [253] dockyard stairs and the gallery that stretched to her gangway. ”

“ Here it may be asked, Will convicts witnessing those excesses, remain indifferent spectators of what is passing before them? Such is the manner in which a convict ship is laid out, that every thing almost occurring among the soldiers between deck, is within view of the prisoners. Will any of them in whose bosom there still lurks the spirit of licentiousness, fail to catch at the opportunity of again indulging in his favourite propensity? One cannot help shuddering to contemplate the horrible consequences which follow the footsteps of a female of those abandoned habits in such a situation. ”

“ I bade the waterman wait, got upon the ladder, and ascended. The warder or officer at the gangway inquired my business. I told him I was a visitor come to see one of the convicts, Thomas Butler. He bade me pass on to the quarter-deck, where were assembled two or three groups of persons who were also arrived to visit friends. The people might have come on board by way of a gallery [176] which connected the ship with the shore on the port or left-hand side; this gallery was defended under the forecastle by a huge iron palisade with two strong gates for padlocking. ”

“ A waterman's boat was now hired, and the rower, who had heard what had happened, demanded a sum for putting them on board which horrified them; but at last, after much bargaining, they were conveyed back to the ship. An hour later the chief of the party went ashore, and repairing to the Tower, where he had been ordered to conduct the prisoner, reported his escape. He was at once taken into custody on the charge of permitting the escape of his prisoner, and it was not until three days later, upon the evidence of his men and of the captain and officers of the ship, that he was released. ”

“ The regular crew of the ship consisted of a Captain, two Mates, a Steward, a Corporal, and about 12 sailors. The crew of the ship had no communication whatever with the prisoners. No person was ever permitted to pass through the barricade door, except when it was required that the messes should be examined and regulated, in which case each man had to pass through, and go between decks, and there remain until the examination was completed. None of the guard or of the ship’s crew ever came among the prisoners while I was on board. ”