New-York tribune., 1908-11-08
PRISON SHIP M4RTYRS.
Continued from second page.

| but people suffering did could eat it
OF the bread furnished the prisoners the Rev.
| Thomas Andros wrote in his account: Il do
not recoIlect seeing any which not full Of
| living vermin. but eat it, worms and all. must
| or starve"
| The condition of the great copper in which
| the prisoners meat was boiled is thus described
| in the memoirs Of Ebenezer Fox. also prisoner
| aboard the Jersey: THE inside of the copper
| had become corroded to such a degree that it
was lined with a coat of verdegris- The Jersey.
| from her size and lying the shore, was
embedded in the mud and l do not recolleCt
| seeing her afioat during the whole time I a
| prisoner. All the filth which accumulated among
] upward of a thousand daily thrown
! overheard and would remain there until carried
away by the tide. The impurity of the water
may be easily conceived. and in this water
| meat boiled"
Another extract from the Rev. Mr. Sherburne's
| memoirs says: "The beef was all put into a
| large copper. perhaps five feet deep. The beef
would fill the copper within a few inches of the
| top; and the copper was then filled up with sea
water and the cover put on. Our fuel was green
! chestnut The cook would commence his fire
/ by 7 in the morning. and frequently he
would not get his copper to boil until twelve
o'clock and sometimes when it was stormy
weather it would be or 3 o'clock. I have
| known it to be the case that he could not get
| it to boil in the course of the entire day"
John Van Dyck, of the prisoners aboard
the Jersey says in his record of his imprison-
ment there that he went one day to draw the
! pork for his mess, "and each one Of US eat our
days allowance in one mouthful Of this salt pork
and nothing else one day. called pea day.
he went to the galley with the drawer Of a sea
| chest for a soup dish and received the allow
/ ance Of my mess. and behold brown water AMI
fifteen floating peas-no peas on the bottom of
! my draw-and this for six mems allowance for
| tweuty-four hours. The peas We're all on the
! bottom of the big kettle; those left would be
| taken to New York ard I suppose sold Cn2
day in the week called pudding day three
/ pounds of damaged flour; in it would he green
/ Jumps. such as the could not eat. and one
pound Of very bad raisins onc-third sticks. We
would pick out the sticks, mash the Jumps Of
! flour. put all with some water in our drawer,
mix our pudding and put it into a bag with
| taIIey tied to it with the number of our mess.
J This was a days allowance
! The same writer also relates an instance Of
/ cruelty on the part Of Captain Laird, COM
mander Of the Jersey, who one day ordered two
half hogshcad tubs in which the daily allow
| ance Of rum for the prisoners had been mixed
/ into gr0g to he upset on the main decks in fail
| view of the famished wretches, whose feelings
! of disappointment as they saw it run through
/ the ships scuppers into the water may De bet
ter imagined than described"
| Captain Alexander Coffin, jr-, records the fact
| that ION the upper deck of the Jersey. hogs
| were kept in pens by those officers who had
charge Of her for their own use. They were
sometimes fed with bran The prisoners when
| ever they could get an opportunity, undiscov-
/ cred by the sertries. would with their tin pots
scoop the bran from the troughs and eat it. after
! boiling. when there was a fire in the galley,
which was not always the case. with seemingly
as good appetite the hogs themselves
In the narrative Of Thomas AndrOs is con-
| tanned a description of a night between decks
| in the Old Jersey. in which he says: Utter de-
rangement was a common symptom of the
| fever that caused many deaths board. and
to increase the horror of the darkness that
| shrouded us, for were allowed light be-
| twixt decks. the voice of warning would he
| heard Take heed TO yourselves; there is a
madman stalking through the ship with a knife
! in his hand I sometimes found the man Il
| corpse in the morning by whose side l laid my
self down at night At another time he would
| become deranged and attempt in the darkness
| to rise and stumble over the bodies that every
where crowded the deck. In this case l had to
| hold him in his place by main strength. In
| spite of my efforts he would sometimes rise AMI
| heels and lay him again upon the deck. While
| so many were sick with raging fever, there was
| q loud cry for water but none could be had