Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1897-03-04
Prison Ship Victims.

The rapid approach of the end
of the session has not prevented
the recent introduction into Gene
gress of a bill to provide for the
erection of a monument at Fort
Greene to the victims of the Brit
ish prison ships stationed in New
York waters during the Revolu-
tionary war.
The bill is put ON a proper foot
ing, since it makes the contribu>
ton from the Treasury depend on
the raising of an equal sum from
other sources. No doubt is felt,
however, that this last condition
would be met, the project long
ago having been urged in and
around Brooklyn, while the Long
Island Society of the Daughters
of the Revolution also has taken
it up.
The proposed site of the monu-
ment could not be better, as it is
close upon the Wallabout, where
most of the prison ships were
moored, although at first, we be-
lieve, the transports hat were
converted into prison ships lay
either in Gravesend Bay or off the
Battery: Easily foremost in in
fanny among the prison vessels vas
the Jersey, a 64-gun ship, after
ward a store ship, and then a float
ing jail. The Whitby, burned in
1777; the Good Hope, burned IN
1880, and the Scorpion, Strom>
boil, and Hunter were other of the
prison ships.
There were, as is we'll known,
many British prisons ashore,
churches and sugar houses in New
York having been occupied for
this purpose, as we'll as the pro
vost Jail. Accounts of the terri
BILE sufferings of the inmates have
come down to us, and many OF
them died. The crime committed
by an American colony in seeking
independence from a European
yoke seemed in that day, as it does
in this, SO heinous, especially in
the eyes of a monarchy and its
servants, that inhumsn treatment
of prisoners may have been re-
garded as only an inadequate pun.
ishment for such iniquity.
But while other British pris,
ons had their fearful story, g
peculiar horror has always hung
around the hulks in the North
and East rivers, and the Jersey
held so many victims that it has
become the typical floating dun
geon, The presence of seyera.
hospital ships near her allowed
some mercy fur the sick, but i;
can be imagined how full they
we're. The prisoners on the Jer>
sey could also crawl up to the
deck for a part of the day, but
the horrors of the nigh in the
crowded and fetid holds, otter
with lack of proper food ane
clothing. may be imagined. Tn,
desperation which led to effort.
to escape was followed with Sc.
verer restriction on liberty.
It has been said that over Il,
900 Americans persisted in thcs'
hulks during the war. Whatev
er the exact numbers, observer
long held in memory the sight O
boats taking away the dead, da,
after day, and burying them OF
the beach near by. The trenche
were often SO shallow that il
time winds and tides uncoveret
the bones, and nearly ninet,
years ago many hogsheads o
them we're collected by the Tam
many society and placed in larg'
collins in a vault outside tn
navy yard wall, on what is nov
Hudson avenue. Afterwards the,
were transferred to Washingt tot
Park.
1t will be see that some res
pect was paid long ago to tn
remains of these hapless prison
ers. But the present move for
monument at old Fort Greene il
an additional evidence of how
grateful posterity still hold
their services and sufferi1gs il
Observation-Disclosures York Sun.