THE NARRATIVE OF CAPTAIN DRING (CONTINUED)
“The quarter-deck of the Jersey covered about one-fourth of the upper
deck, and the forecastle extended from the stern, about one-eighth
part of the length of the upper deck. Sentinels were stationed on the
gangways on each side of the upper deck, leading from the quarter-deck
to the forecastle. These gangways were about five feet wide; and here
the prisoners were allowed to pass and repass. The intermediate space
from the bulkhead of the quarter-deck to the forecastle was filled with
long spars and booms, and called the spar-deck. The temporary covering
afforded by the spar-deck was of the greatest benefit to the prisoners,
as it served to shield us from the rain and the scorching rays of the
sun. It was here, therefore, that our movables were placed when we were
engaged in cleaning the lower decks. The spar-deck was also the only
place where we were allowed to walk, and was crowded through the day by
the prisoners on deck. Owing to the great number of prisoners, and the
small space allowed us by the spar-deck, it was our custom to walk in
platoons, each facing the same way, and turning at the same time. The
Derrick for taking in wood, water, etc., stood on the starboard side
of the spar-deck. On the larboard side of the ship was placed the
accommodation ladder, leading from the gangway to the water. At the head
of the ladder a sentinel was also stationed.
“The head of the accommodation ladder was near the door of the
barricade, which extended across the front of the quarter-deck, and
projected a few feet beyond the sides of the ship. The barricade was
about ten feet high, and was pierced with loop-holes for musketry in
order that the prisoners might be fired on from behind it, if occasion
should require.
“The regular crew of the ship consisted of a Captain, two Mates, a
Steward, a Corporal, and about 12 sailors. The crew of the ship had no
communication whatever with the prisoners. No person was ever permitted
to pass through the barricade door, except when it was required that the
messes should be examined and regulated, in which case each man had
to pass through, and go between decks, and there remain until the
examination was completed. None of the guard or of the ship’s crew ever
came among the prisoners while I was on board. I never saw one of her
officers or men except when there were passengers going in the boat, to
or from the stern-ladder.
“On the two decks below, where we were confined at night, our chests,
boxes, and bags were arranged in two lines along the decks, about ten
feet distant from the sides of the ship; thus leaving as wide a space
unencumbered in the middle of each deck, fore and aft, as our crowded
situation would admit. Between these tiers of chests, etc., and the
sides of the ship, was the place where the different messes assembled;
and some of the messes were also separated from their neighbors by a
temporary partition of chests, etc. Some individuals of the different
messes usually slept on the chests, in order to preserve their contents
from being plundered in the night.
“At night the spaces in the middle of the decks were much encumbered
with hammocks, but these were always removed in the morning. * * *
My usual place of abode being in the Gunroom, I was never under the
necessity of descending to the lower dungeon; and during my confinement
I had no disposition to visit it. It was inhabited by the most wretched
in appearance of all our miserable company. From the disgusting and
squalid appearance of the groups which I saw ascending the stairs which
led to it, it must have been more dismal, if possible, than that part
of the hulk where I resided. Its occupants appeared to be mostly
foreigners, who had seen and survived every variety of human suffering.
The faces of many of them were covered with dirt and filth; their long
hair and beards matted and foul; clothed in rags, and with scarcely a
sufficient supply of these to cover their disgusting bodies. Many among
them possessed no clothing except the remnant of those garments which
they wore when first brought on board; and were unable to procure even
any material for patching these together, when they had been worn to
tatters by constant use. * * * Some, and indeed many of them, had not
the means of procuring a razor, or an ounce of soap.
“Their beards were occasionally reduced by each other with a pair of
shears or scissors. * * * Their skins were discoloured by continual
washing in salt water, added to the circumstance that it was impossible
for them to wash their linen in any other manner than by laying it on
the deck and stamping on it with their feet, after it had been immersed
in salt water, their bodies remaining naked during the process.
“To men in this situation everything like ordinary cleanliness was
impossible. Much that was disgusting in their appearance undoubtedly
originated from neglect, which long confinement had rendered habitual,
until it created a confirmed indifference to personal appearance.
“As soon as the gratings had been fastened over the hatchways for the
night, we usually went to our sleeping places. It was, of course, always
desirable to obtain a station as near as possible to the side of the
ship, and, if practicable, in the immediate vicinity of one of the
air-ports, as this not only afforded us a better air, but also rendered
us less liable to be trodden upon by those who were moving about the
decks during the night.
“But silence was a stranger to our dark abode. There were continual
noises during the night. The groans of the sick and the dying; the
curses poured out by the weary and exhausted upon our inhuman keepers;
the restlessness caused by the suffocating heat, and the confined and
poisonous air, mingled with the wild and incoherent ravings of delirium,
were the sounds which every night were raised around us in every
direction. Such was our ordinary situation, but at times the
consequences of our crowded condition were still more terrible, and
proved fatal to many of our number in a single night.
“But, strange as it may appear, notwithstanding all the * * * suffering
which was there endured I knew many who had been inmates of that abode
for two years, who were apparently perfectly well. They had, as they
expressed it, ‘been through the furnace and become seasoned.’ Most of
these, however, were foreigners, who appeared to have abandoned all hope
of ever being exchanged, and had become quite indifferent with regard to
the place of their abode.
“But far different was the condition of that portion of our number who
were natives of the United States. These formed by far the most numerous
class of the prisoners. Most of these were young men, * * * who had been
captured soon after leaving their homes, and during their first voyage.
After they had been here immured the sudden change in their situation
was like a sentence of death. Many a one was crushed down beneath the
sickness of the heart, so well described by the poet:--
“‘Night and day,
Brooding on what he had been, what he was,
‘Twas more than he could bear, his longing fits
Thickened upon him. _His desire for Home
Became a madness_’
“These poor creatures had, in many instances, been plundered of their
wearing apparel by their captors, and here, the dismal and disgusting
objects by which they were surrounded, the vermin which infested them,
the vile and loathsome food, and what with _them_ was far from being the
lightest of their trials, their ceaseless longing after their _homes_, *
* * all combined, had a wonderful effect on them. Dejection and anguish
were soon visible on their countenances. They became dismayed and
terror-stricken; and many of them absolutely died that most awful of all
human deaths, the effects of a _broken heart_.
“A custom had long been established that certain labor which it was
necessary should be performed daily, should be done by a company,
usually called the ‘Working party.’ This consisted of about twenty
able-bodied men chosen from among the prisoners, and was commanded, in
daily rotation, by those of our number who had formerly been officers
of vessels. The commander of the party for the day bore the title of
Boatswain. The members of the Working-party received, as a compensation
for their services, a full allowance of provisions, and half a pint of
rum each, with the privilege of going on deck early in the morning, to
breathe the pure air.
“This privilege alone was a sufficient compensation for all the duty
which was required of them.
“Their routine of service was to wash down that part of the upper deck
and gangways where the prisoners were permitted to walk; to spread the
awning, or to hoist on board the wood, water, and other supplies, from
the boats in which the same were brought alongside the ship.
“When the prisoners ascended to the upper deck in the morning, if the
day was fair, each carried up his hammock and bedding, which were all
placed upon the spar-deck, or booms. The Working-party then took the
sick and disabled who remained below, and placed them in the bunks
prepared for them upon the centre-deck; they then, if any of the
prisoners had died during the night, carried up the dead bodies, and
laid them upon the booms; after which it was their duty to wash down the
main decks below; during which operation the prisoners remained on
the upper deck, except such as chose to go below and volunteer their
services in the performance of this duty.
“Around the railing of the hatchway leading from the centre to the lower
decks, were placed a number of large tubs for the occasional use of
the prisoners during the night, and as general receptacles of filth.
Although these were indispensably necessary to us, yet they were highly
offensive. It was a part of the duty of the Working-party to carry these
on deck, at the time when the prisoners ascended in the morning, and to
return them between decks in the afternoon.
“Our beds and clothing were kept on deck until nearly the hour when we
were to be ordered below for the night. During this interval * * * the
decks washed and cleared of all incumbrance, except the poor wretches
who lay in the bunks, it was quite refreshing after the suffocating heat
and foul vapors of the night to walk between decks. There was then some
circulation of air through the ship, and, for a few hours, our existence
was, in some degree, tolerable.
“About two hours before sunset the order was usually issued for the
prisoners to carry their hammocks, etc., below. After this had been done
we were all either to retire between decks, or to remain above until
sunset according to our own pleasure. Everything which we could do
conducive to cleanliness having then been performed, if we ever felt
anything like enjoyment in this wretched abode, it was during this brief
interval, when we breathed the cool air of the approaching night, and
felt the luxury of our evening pipe. But short indeed was this interval
of repose. The Working-party was soon ordered to carry the tubs below,
and we prepared to descend to our gloomy and crowded dungeons. This was
no sooner done than the gratings were closed over the hatchways,
the sentinels stationed, and we left to sicken and pine beneath our
accumulated torments; with our guards above crying aloud, through the
long night, ‘All’s well!”’
Captain Dring says that at that time the Jersey was used for seamen
alone. The average number on board was one thousand. It consisted of the
crews of vessels of all the nations with which the English were at war.
But the greater number had been captured on board American vessels.
There were three hospital ships in the Wallabout; the Stromboli, the
Hunter, and the Scorpion. [Footnote: At one time as we have seen, the
Scorpion was a prison ship, from which Freneau was sent to the Hunter
hospital ship.] There was not room enough on board these ships for
all the sick, and a part of the upper deck of the Jersey was therefore
prepared for their accommodation. These were on the after part of the
upper deck, on the larboard side, where those who felt the symptoms of
approaching sickness could lie down, in order to be found by the nurses
as soon as possible.
Few ever returned from the hospital ships to the Jersey. Dring knew but
three such instances during his imprisonment. He says that “the outward
appearance of these hospitals was disgusting in the highest degree.
The sight of them was terrible to us. Their appearance was even more
shocking than that of our own miserable hulk.
“On board the Jersey among the prisoners were about half a dozen men
known by the appellation of nurses. I never learned by whom they were
appointed, or whether they had any regular appointment at all. But one
fact I knew well; they were all thieves. They were, however, sometimes
useful in assisting the sick to ascend from below to the gangway on the
upper deck, to be examined by the visiting Surgeon who attended from
the Hunter every day, when the weather was good. If a sick man was
pronounced by the Surgeon to be a proper subject for one of the hospital
ships, he was put into the boat waiting alongside; but not without the
loss or detention of his effects, if he had any, as these were at once
taken by the nurses, as their own property. * * * I had found Mr. Robert
Carver, our Gunner while on board the Chance, sick in one of the bunks
where those retired who wished to be removed. He was without a bed
or pillow, and had put on all the wearing apparel which he possessed,
wishing to preserve it, and being sensible of his situation. I found him
sitting upright in the bunk, with his great-coat on over the rest of
his garments, and his hat between his knees. The weather was excessively
hot, and, in the place where he lay, the heat was overpowering. I at
once saw that he was delirious, a sure presage that the end was near. I
took off his great-coat, and having folded and placed it under his head
for a pillow, I laid him upon it, and went immediately to prepare him
some tea. I was absent but a few minutes, and, on returning, met one of
the thievish Nurses with Carver’s great-coat in his hand. On ordering
him to return it his reply was that it was a perquisite of the Nurses,
and the only one they had; that the man was dying, and the great-coat
could be of no further use to him. I however, took possession of the
coat, and on my liberation, returned it to the family of the owner. Mr
Carver soon after expired where he lay. We procured a blanket in which
to wrap his body, which was thus prepared for interment. Others of the
crew of the Chance had died before that time. Mr Carver was a man
of strong and robust constitution. Such men were subject to the most
violent attacks of the fever, and were also its most certain victims.”