New-York tribune., 1908-11-08

length for the reception of the bodies. We con-
tinued our labor until our guards considered
that a sufficient space had been excavated. The
corpses were then laid into the trench without
ceremony, and we threw the sand over them
The whole appeared to produce more effect
upon our guards than If We burying the
bodies of dead animals instead Of men, They
scarcely allowed US time to look about US, for
no sooner had heaped the earth above the
trench than the order given To march.
But a single glance was sufficient to show
parts of bodies which were exposed to view,
although they had probably been placed there,
with the same mockery of interment, but few
days before"
On the way back to the Jersey, though the
members of Captain Dring's party were not al
lowed to battle in the waters of the bay. they
were permitted to gather few small patches Of
turf which they took back with them, and Of the
return with these he says: Sadly did ap-
proach and re-enter our foul and disgusting
place of confinement The pieces Of turf which
we carried on board were sought for by our
fellow prisoners with the greatest avidity, every
fragment being passed by them from hand 10
hand and its smell inhaled as if ii had been
fragrant rose"
1T was estimated shortly after the close Of the
war" says Stiles. that upward of eleven thou
places the average number Of deaths a day
aboard the ship at five. Dring also places the
daily death roll at five. Silas Talbot says while
he was aboard the prison ship the number of
deaths was reduced by cool and dry nights to
an average Of ten. and Philip Freneau, in his
stinging rhyme, The British Prison Ship" says:
Each day at least six carcasses We bore
And scratched them graves along the sandy shore.
The precise number of these unknown mar
tvrs." SAYS Stiles writing Of the total number
of prison ship deaths who perished in the
prison ships and were buried in the loose sands
of the WaIIabout viii probably never be accu-
rately known"
The first definite steps to give the bones
Of the prison ship dead proper burial, according
to Stiles. was at the annual town meeting in
Brooklyn in 1892, when it was resolved that they
should be buried in the graveyard of the Re-
formed Dutch Church and a monument erected
over them. This not done. In 1905 the
Tammany Society succeeded in arOusing much
public interest in the project and, attended by
a great celebration, the cornerstone OF the
martyrs tomb was laid on April 13 of that year.
When the lot on which the tomb stood was sold
for taxes Benjamin Romaine. treasurer of the
fund. bought it. and the better to protect the
tomb designated il the burial place OF him.
self and family. In 1856 the movement result
ing in the erection Of the monument to be dedt-
Gated this week was begun.
The Prison Ship Martyrs Monument Associa-
ton of the United States was Incorporated in
May g. 1903. When it had raised a little over
$1,000 an appeal was made TO Congress, and
largely through the efforts of s. V. White a
joint resolution was passed and approved on
June 50 1902. carrying with il appropriation
Of 100000 on condition that the society raise
So. which had already been done, and that
the state and city contribute $4,000 more. In
1904 the state appropriated $1,000 and the
same year the city authorized by the Legis-
lature to appropriate, and did appropriate 500
UUO making the total sum raised $2O0,00o.
The actual contract price of the monument
which is 135 feet high and was designed by Nc
Kim Mead & White, is about S175,0O0- The
great Doric column is surmounted by a funeral
urn and flagstaff. and beneath it, gathered IN
new metallic coffins rest the bones of the mar
tyrs Of the prison ships, in the spacious vault
to which they were quietly removed about thrae
weeks ago