New-York tribune., 1908-11-08
PRISON SHIP MARTYRS.
Dedication of Monument Beneath
Which Their Bones WI Rest,


seems to be a permanent place of burial Will be
formally dedicated on the afternoon of Satur-
cay November "A. and the committee of ar
ranzernents Of which General Horatio c. King
l. chairman is planning to make the occasion
one to be long remembered in Brooklyn ana
Manhattan boroughs.
Those who in any way familiar with the
suffcrings Of the prison ship martyrs of the
American Revolution will probably agree with
Officials of the monument association that IL
honor is in any sense adequate return for pestf-
lence wasting disease. starvation petty tyrah-
nies and final death faced in the defence Of
good cause, honor the city OF New YORK can
pay their memory is too great
Reviewing their suferings In his History of
the city of Brooklyn Henry r. Stiles says, with
reference especially to the old Jersey prison
chip: 1T is evident that the Jersey, which had
ence accommodated crew of more than four
hundred with full armament, supplies, etc,
might without her stores, dismantled and an
chored in protected situation. have easily been
made comfortable for even the thousand pris-
oners which she is said TO have averaged. That
she was not SO and that she became fostering
plague spot was attributable largely to those
inferior officers under whose immediate care the
prisoners We're placed and who, by their disre
gard Of the policy of their government their
;,yaricious and shameful neutrality-suspicious. Of
the supplies placed at their disposal by that
government for the Of the prisoners and
their frequent and uncalled for severity. unnec-
essarily increased the suferings which they
should have mitfsated."
After reviewing the facts Mr.. Stiles says:
~1-rorn these well established facts il is evi-
Gont That the cruelties endured by the unfortu-
lat inmates Of the prison ships were not sys-
lon1tized aggravations practised by great and
civilized government. but the result generally
,f ayarice. Incidence and Indifference and un-
tarrdutabIc abuse Of power by hirelinEs, clothed
with a little brief authority. q class proverbiaIIy
despotic cruel and inhuman in Their treatment
Z the helpless
Captain Thomas Dring. who was a prisoner
aboard the ,;erses- for many years, left an inter-
fsting account Of his life there. With a large
rarty Of other prisoners he was taken to the Jer-
.e- by the notorious David Sproat, commissary
+ prisoners. OF his first sight of the ship Dring
ivs.
We at length doubled point and came in
vie" OF the WaIjabout where lay before us the
lack hulk of the cid Jersey with her satellites,
to three hospital ships, to which Sproat pointed
H. eNulting manner and said, There rebels,
there is the cage for YOU"
Registered and sent below the newcomers suf-
fered terribly from the intCle-able heat and the
foul air and when they sought the narrow air
holes they found them blocked by others who
fought with all their strength for even the
fainlest draft Of the precious air. With the
curses and imTrecations Of the haggard and tat
t"red throng about them ringing in their ears
and unable to sleep in the sitting atmosphere
il which they found themselves they somehow
dragged through their first terrible night aboard
tn" Jersey Next morning at s o'clock they were
permitted on deck for few moments to view
the morning sun, and were then sent below
again.
CAPTAIN Dring states that the extreme after
part Of the ship between decks. called the e-un-
roun, was appropriated to the use of captive
officers, and that the lowest deck Of all was as
signed to the French and Spanish prisoners. who
were treated even more cruelty than the Ameri-
cans.
The first care Of a prisoner on the Jersey Can
tain brings narrative says. was to form or be
admitted into some regular mess On the day
Of 4 prisoners arrival it was impossible for him
to procure any food and even on the second
day h" could not procure any in time O have it
cooked 10 matter how long he had tasted or
how acute might be his sufferfnss from hunger
and privations. his petty tyrants would on no
occasion deviate from their rule OF delivering the
prisoners morsel at a particular hour and at
no other; and the poor half famshed wretch
must absolutely wait until the coming day before
his rittance of food could be boiled with that
pf If. F.lg