The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-11-09
FIND GHOST
OF Old JERSEY
Piles Reveal Place of English
Prison Ship.
STORY OF ITS LOSS
After the Revolution 1t Was
Abandoned.
STORY OF ITS LOSS

!, AT once destroyed and numbered with
he dead.
Thin to perish in the face Of the cay.
Where twice ten thousand deaths enc
death delay.
eRENEAU's SONG of the prisoners on
'Old jersey.
Beneath the waters Of Wailabout Bay,
seneath the rearing structure Of the new
e.0oo ton battle ship Connecticut, build
irg at the BrooAlyn Navy Yard, lies the
gnost of Old Jersey the notorious prison
ship OF Revolutionary times. Lost for al
most q hundred years; searched for in
vain by government authorities and his
torical societies, the remains of the ship
which brings a flush Of shame to the
English check Whenever it is mentioned
today were found accidentally by the
laborers who were driving piles upon
when to build amodern Warship. 1t is
as if # were a fuldllment Of a prophecy
that upon the ruins OF the wooden hulk
OF the enemy shall rise the iron struct-
ure of man-o war of the infant country
j. sought to crush
On solid earth, away from the sea, the
''Old Jersey lies today where the wind
VI tAAC S4Ir VI tA4N tiOeI "a pau us = az
trouble her no more. Buried as deep
as the breach has been between the two
counties. but it is still there. a grim mon
Cment 10 the fact that while the past IS
forgiven yet st is not forgotten. Sixteen
feet OF soil have been thrown in on top
OF the British vessel more deeply inter
red than were the bones OF the martyrs
who died within her sickeniHg sides ard
were afterward left bleaching on the
sands Of the shore washed by the tide.
The massive oak and teak tiuabers of
rle prison ship. preserved by the water
'sre still in as good condition as when
yshe first slid from her ways into the
yates Of the harbor of Glasgow But
row that she has been found, there is
little probability that she VIII be raised
for several years. If at all. In order TO
get her out of her grave it would be
necessary to dig up large area of the
ground she occupies in the navy yard,
which would greatly hamper the work
OF laying the foundation for the keel Of
the Connecticut
L: Is altogether likely that the work Of
TIE piledrivers win go on. in which event
tie "Oid Jersey would be pierced in
hundred places and practically broken
M Civil Engineer Bellinger who has
chsrge of the foundations, experienced
. considerable difficulty In driving the long
spies where he wanted taem. Every
wlnre he went along the track laid down
70 the ways he came in contact with
havy timbers at a depth of sixteen feet,
8 persistent was the obstruction that
s seemed as If there were a wooden floor
aid down under the earth.
No particular Importance was attached
20 this. because Il was weil understood
that timber Instructions were to be en-
countered under the made ground on
the navy yard. 1t was not until the pile
drivers had actually felt about under the
soil and marked out the length and shape
OF the timbers that il was known that
the hull Of a large ship was lying there.
The timbers ran for = distance of two
hundred and fifty feet. with a pointed
BOW toward the land and a nat stern
near the water front
The vessel on account Of its huge bulk
huge for those days-could not be an or
binary sailing vessel of olden times be-
cause the merchantmen We're always
smaller being easily handled by moder-
ately large crew But this vessel was so
large that ID wouid have required a crew
of seventy-fve or hundred TO brace
ar yards Therefore it was evidently
British msn-of-war.
While the engineers were wondering
what historic frigate they had discovered,
an old man. leaning upon cane, appear
ed upon the scene. he inquired into the
cause of the trouble. and. when told Of
the size and shape OF the obstruction.
. declared that II was the huh of old
Jersey which they had discovered.
For. when ] was a boy, some sixty
years ago. he said Il remember seeing
the remains of the old frigate lying sub
merged about at this point. 1t was al
water here then. but at low tide You
could cake ont the sides II the huh sunk
IN the mud.
Further investigation revealed the fact
that The old resident was right After
the close Of the Revolution the British.
having TO further use for the unsea-
worthy "Old Jersey" LEFT her where she
Mas. anchored ia Waliabout Bay she
Was moved I'm out OF the channel, and no
further attention was paid 10 her. Desert
ed and left alone fun OF yellow fever
germs and small poX. which had killed
imprisoned patriots by the hundreds. she
was Stunned by all men. SO that nobody
would 80 near enough 10 her TO set her
or IRE one day she opened a leak and
settled into the oozing mud Of the bank
and the quicksard opened up TO receive
hhr.
Then the historical societies Of New
York awoka to the TACT that a valuable
old relic was living sorlevh here in Wal
: lahout Basin They instituted q search
1or her. but the wind and TIDE kept ,Aeir
secret. ard the whereabouts OF he
dread old ship remained until the search
ing fingers of the piles found her out.
About October %. 1T76. tire hrst prison
snip WAS anchored in "Wauabochtr Bay.
row the Brooklyn Navy Yard basin She
was the only prison ship In the bay until
III. n that year two more ships came.
znd the sickiy prisoners in The Whitley.
the first snip. were transferred TO them.
During October. l.-7. one OF these YES
sells were burned and many prisoners per
ishec IN the Games a second was set
On IRE hy the despaIriug prisoners n
Februa-y Of the following year. The aooa
Hope. the SCORPION. the Prince Of Wales.
and tie old Jersey took their places
But OF all these terrible prison shirs
tire Did jersey the ffeil Is she was
callet-was the most notorious. She was
oriEilsny q si<ty-four gun ship. ana had
become UNIT for actual war service. After
. Iatae with q FreRch feet, IN which