Disease and Vermin—Reports—Pressed Men—Removal to the Tarbay—Cold
Berth—Sickness prevails—General Lee—A Friend—An Act of
Parliament—Removal for better—Better Quarters—Special Favors—Liberal
Distribution—Great Contrast—A good Friend—Sickness increases.
FEBRUARY 5. It is a pay-day for bounty, on board this ship, (the
Bellisle,) which occasions a great market on board.
6. We begin to grow very sickly, and twenty or thirty of us are
suffering with the itch, and we are all dreadfully infested with vermin.
I make a constant practice of examining my clothes every day, when we
are permitted to go upon deck. I often find them swarming with these.
We are informed that the Admiral was heard to say, that no favor was to
be shown to us, on account of our orders. We are also told by some, that
we are to be removed, soon, on board the Ocean, which is the Admiral’s
ship; by others, that we shall be removed to prison.
This afternoon, about _one hundred_ pressed men were brought on board
this ship.
7. We were removed from the Bellisle, after having been on board
nineteen days, and were carried up to Ammores, and put on board the
“Tarbay,” a ship of seventy-four guns, and confined in the bay, between
decks, where there was not room for all of us to lay down; it is parted
off, like a sheep-pen, and takes in two side-ports only.
8. Pleasant weather, but very cold for persons in our condition, as we
are obliged to lay upon a wet deck, without either bedding or clothes,
more than what we have on our backs—except a very few who have an old
blanket apiece. As there is not room enough within our narrow quarters
for every one to lay down at night, some are obliged to sit up all
night.
9. There are now _sixteen_ of our number on the doctor’s list, and there
are but very few of us but what are either complaining with bad colds or
rheumatic pains; and if there are ten sick with as many different
complaints, they give them all alike the same medicine.
10. Rough, cold, and some snow; all the way we have to keep ourselves
warm, in the day time, is by play, and making ourselves merry.
11. We hear that General Lee is taken. I had to-day a handful of bread
given to me by a woman, which I _joyfully_ received.
12. We are informed that Parliament has passed an act that all Americans
taken in arms against the King, shall be deemed rebels; and those taken
in armed vessels, upon the high seas, as pirates.
13. Our company is in a very poor state of health. Last night I sat up
with one at the point of death. We were removed to-day from the Tarbay,
after being on board six days, and carried on board the Burford, a ship
of _seventy-four_ guns. Thanks be to God for this removal, for here we
have more room, and there are but few men belonging to the ship besides
the officers.
14. We are now on board the Burford, where we find better usage than we
have received since we have been taken, and our sick have good care
taken of them. We are also allowed to go upon deck, twenty at a time.
15. This morning sailed from Ammores three ships of the line, of
seventy-four guns—the Albion, the Boyne and the Tarbay. To-day nine of
our sick were carried on shore to the Royal Hospital. We were informed
by one of the lieutenants of the ship, that, although their orders were
to strip and plunder us, yet we should be allowed a bed and bedding, and
such of us as had not clothes to change ourselves, should have them;
which we may account as a favor.
16. Clear and pleasant, (Sunday,) and as we are now between-decks, and
have more room and the light of the sun, and not confined to the
cable-tier, we have an opportunity for reading.
17. Very stormy. To-day we had delivered to us, by the purser of the
ship, bedding and clothes. I received a shirt, and bedding, consisting
of a _flock bed and pillows_, a _rug_, and _blankets_. Some, who were
almost naked, had nearly a whole suit given them. When they gave us the
shirts, they told us to take off our old ones and throw them overboard,
“lice and all.”
18. Those of us who did not receive clothes yesterday, have received
them to-day, and those who did not receive beds, are to receive them in
a few days. Our beds are a great comfort to our sore bodies, after
laying fifty-five nights without any—all the time since we were
taken—sometimes upon hard cables, sometimes upon boards laid over the
cables, and at other times on a wet deck, with nothing to cover us but
the clothes on our backs. Now we have good bedding for our comfort,
thanks be to God! _and a good friend_; for we are told that the captain
of the ship, whose name is Boyer, gave us these clothes and beds, out of
his own pocket.
19. This evening the remainder of our company received beds. We never
know the true state of our condition till it is illustrated by its
contraries; neither do we know how to value what we have but by the want
of it.
20. It is very sickly amongst us, and some one is taken sick almost
every day.
21. The Reasonable came out of dock and dropped to her moorings. The
Ocean is stripped and going into dock. The Lizard, frigate, has lately
arrived from America, and to-day was towed up from the Sound, having cut
away her masts yesterday in a gale of wind.
22. To-day a frigate sailed.