E 281 .C67 , I ~ t I L3
Q-AS~. 05\. DATE . 91~ .31\ C. bS 1 '2oTe.2.~ Acce:ss u:n~ ~o \ 31f, 31
SOU~CE .
,t
I I :' ((;S4
THE DESTRUCTIVE OPERATION
OF
Foul Air, Tainted Provisions, Bad Water and Personal Filthiness upou Hum<~n Constitutions; exempli tied in the unparalleled Cruelty of the British to the American Captives at New York during the R cvol utionary War, on Board their Prison a11d Hospital Ships, in a comrnunication to Dr. Mitchill,
dated September 41 1807.
ALSO
A Letter to the 'J'annnany Society, upon tht' ~anH! s\JbjeC" t,
BY CAPTAIN ALEXANDER CoFFIN, JuN.
One of the surviving sufferers,
WITH
AN INTRODUCTION,
HY CHARLES l. BUSHNELL.
(YJ "-1 (J )
<.'~ z =:::> -")
NEW YORK: PRIVATELY PRINTED. 1865.
f ["
I' c/ t I ...... L) I C
_.. / ALEXANDER COFFIN, JR. THE DESTRUCTIVE OPERATION
OF
Foul Air, Tainted Provi~ions, Bad \Vater and Personal Filthinest; upon Human Constiturions; exemplified in the unparalleled Cruelty of the British to the American Captives at New York during the Revolutionary \Var, on Board their Prison a11d Ho~pital Ships, in a communication to Dr. l\Iitchill, dated September 4, 18o7.
ALSO A Letter to the Tammany Society, upon the same subject,
BY CAPTAIN ALEXANDER CoFFIN, JUN.
One of the surviving sufferers,
WITH
AN INTRODUCTION,
BY CHARLES I. BUSHNELL
NEW YORK: PRIVATELY PRINTED.
1 s 0~3. ONLY THIRTY COPIES PRINTED,
Ten of which are on fipe paper. j'Vc INTRODUCTION.
following conmnmicutions. now, for the first tin!e, printed collectively, were written by Capt. ALEXAXDER CoFFIN, Jr., for many years a resident of the city of New York, and one of its most esteemed and valued citizen~ The first one was written to Samuel L. Mitchill, M.D., Chief Editor of the "Medical Repository," and appeared in that valuable journal in the year 1807. The second was addressed to tlHe T:unm:my Society, and was published by that body in 1808, in the pnmphlet detailing the Proceedings at the Intern1ent of the Bones of the Martyrs of the British Prbon Ships and Hospital Ships during tl1e Revolutionary War. ' These letter,; contain the best account wl1ieh we have of the sanitary comlition of those tloating prisons, and were called forth by the proceedings which were taken in favor of rendering respect, to the remains of the noble pntriots who perished on boanl. Although the communications nre very
1 :Vi-h!·~·~ similar, yet it ''"as ueell>ed uest tl>nt Loth sl:oulu lie printed, there being in each one a few facts wl1icl> nre not elllurace
was appointed an Inspector of Customs, a po~ition wllicl> l,c filled to the time of l1is decease. Capt. Coffin was a man of sterling integrity, and wns pos ;;esseu of no ordinary share of ability. lie was a useful and enterprising citizen, a brave and competent offirer, and a pure and ardent patriot. As a husband, he wns kin!l and devoted ; ns a fathm·, watchful and indulgent; as a frien!l, disiutcrested and warm-liearted. Capt. Coffin From the " .MEDICAL REPOsrroRY/' Yo!. xi., pp. 2G0-2G7. SUALL furnish you with an account of tho treatment that I, with other of my fellow citizens received on board tho Jm·sey and Jolin prison ships; those monuments of British barbarity and infamy. I shall give you nothing but a plain simple statement of facts that cannot be oontro>erted. And I begin my nurrath·e from the time of my leaving the South· Carolina frigate. In June, 1782, I left the above mentioned frigate in the Havanna, on board of which ship I had long served as a mid shipman, and made several trading voyages. I sailed early in September from Baltimore for the Ilavanna, in a fleet of about forty sail, most of which were captured, anu we among tho rest, by tho British frigate Ceres, Captain llawkins, a man in 6 every sense of the \YorJ il perfect brute. Although om· com mander, Captilin Hughes, was a very gentlemanly man, l10 was treated in the most shameful and abusive manner by saiJ Hawkins, and ordered below to mess with the petty officers. Our officers were put in tl1e cable-tier with the crew, and a guur Gardner, nn Iri~hman. Tl1is scl1ooner Relief plied between the prison-sl1ip nml New-York, and carricJ the water and provisions from the city to the sl1ip. In fact, the sai ::mu they found means to procure my release, p::tssing me for a Quaker·, to which I confess I had no pretensions further tkm my mother being a member of that resp2ctable society. Titus, Sir·, I retumed to my friends fit for the newest fashion, after an absence of three years. For my whole wardrobe I carried on my back, which consisted of a jacket, shirt, and trousers, a pait· of old shoes, and a handkerchief servell me for a hat, and IJatl more than two months, for I lost my ],at the day we were t:tken, from the main-top-gall:mt-yanl, furling the top-gallant s.'lil. :M:y clothes, I forgot to mention, wero completely laceil • with locomotive tinsel, and moveu, as if by instinct, in all directions; but as my motlrm· \vas not fond of such company, she fumished me with a suit of my father's, who was absent at sea, and condemned my bcotl suit for the benefit of all concerned. Being then in the prime of youth, about eighteen years of nge, aml naturally of a roving disposition, I could not boar the Uea of be in;; illle at hon1e. I therefore proceetld to Provi dence, Rhode lslullll, a::~il sltippin;; on bo::tnl the br·ig Betsey al1ll Polly, O.tptain Robert Folger, hounll for virginia and Amster·ilam, we s::tileil ft·oru Newport e:trly in Febru:try, 1783; a::~cl were takea five d:tys :tfter off the capes of virginia, by the Fait· American privatee1·, of this port, mounting sixteen sixes, anu having eighty-five man, comma!1l1eu by one Burton, a rofug.;e, most of whose officers were of the same stamp. W c were immediately hantlcuffeil t11·o an:l two, anil or·ilcreil into t!1c hoU i:1 thc e3ble-tier·. II:wing bcca pluntlci·ed of our 11 Leds anll beulling, tl1e softest boll we hall was the soft side of a water cask and tho coils of a cable. The Fair American having been hanusomely dressed by an United States vessel of one half of )ler force, was obliged to put into New-York, then in possession of the British enemy, to refit ; and we arrivecl within the Hook about the beginning of 1\Iarch, anll were put on board 11 pilot Loat 11nd brought up to this city. The boat haulcll along sille of the Cmnc-wharf, whore we had our irons knocked off, the marks of1ohich I carry to tlds day j 11nd were put on board the s11me schooner Relief mentioned in 11 former part of this narrative, and sent up once more to the prison ship. It was just three mouths from my leaving the olcl Jersey, to my being again 11 prisoner on board of her; ancl on my return I founll but very few of those whom I had. left three months before; some had m11de their esc11pe; som~ had been exchanged; but the greatm· part l1ad taken up their abode under the surfr~ce of tl1at hill wldch you can see from your windows, where their bones are moulderin;; to dust, ancl mingling 1oith mother earth). a lesson to Americans, written I~ CAPITALS, 0~ BRITISH CRUELTY AND I~JUSTICE. I fo -und, On my return on board the Jersey, nwre prisoners than when I left her). and she being so crowded, they were obliged to send about two hundred of us on board the John, a tmnsport ship of about, three hundred tons. There we were treated worse, if possible, than on board the Jersey j and our accommodations were infi nitely worse, for the Jersey being an old condemned sixty-jou1· gun ship, hail two tier ofports fore an'd aft, air ports ctnd la,r(je 12 hctlcftways, 1Dhich [JaL'e a pretty free circulation of a"·1, through tlw ship,· 1ohe1·eas the John being a merchant ship, and 1oith small l1atchways, and no ports, and the hatches laid down every nigltt, and no man allowed during the nigl1t to go on deck, all exonerations 1oere of course made below; the ejftuvia arising f1·om these, together with the already contaminated air occa sionecl by the breatlb of so many people so pent up together, was enough to destroy men of the most ltealthy and r~bust constitutions. All the time I was on board this ship not a prisone1· eat lds allowance, bad as it was, cooked, more than three or four times; but eat it 1·aw as it came out ofthe ba1'1'el. These, Sir, are stubbo1·n facts that cannot be controverted. In the middle of this ship, btiltll·een decks, was raised a plat form of boards about two aud a half feet high, for those prisoners to sleep on who had no hammocks. On this they used frequently to sit and play at cards to pass the time. One night in particular, several of us sat to sec them play till about ten o'clock, and then retired to our hammocks, and left them plnying; about one A.M. we were called and to!d that one Binl was dying; we turned out and went to where he lay, and found him just expiring. Thus, at ten P.M. this young man was apparently as well as any of us, and at one A.M. had paicl tl1e debt to nature. l\Iany others went off in the same way. It will perhaps be said that men may die suddenly any where. True; but do they die suddenly any where from the same cause? After all these things, it is, I think, impossible for the mind to form nny other conclusion than that there was 13 a premeditated design to destroy as many Americans as they could on board of their prison-ships; the treatment of the prisoners warrants the conclusion; but it is mean, base and cowardly, to endeavour to conquer an enemy by such infamous means, and truly characteristic of base and cowardly wretches. The truly brave will always treat their prisoners well. There were two or three hospital ships near the prison ships; and so soon as any of the prisoners complained of being sick, they were sent on board of one of them ; and I verily believe that not one out of a hundred ever returned or recovered. I am sure I never knew but one to recover. Almost (and in fact I believe I may safely say) every morning a la1•ge boat from each of tlw hospital·ships went loaded with dead bodies, which were all tumbled together into a hole dug for the purpose, on the hill where the national navy-yard now is. A singular affair hap pened on board of one of those hospital-ships, and no less true than singular. All the prisoners that died after the boat with the load had gone ashore, were sewed up in hammocks, and left on deck till the next morning. As usual, a great number had thus beeri disposed of. In the morning, while employed in loading the boat, one of the s of the hammocks~ just as they were about launching it down the board placed for that purpose from the gnnwale of the ship into the boat, and exclaimed, D--n my eyes, that fellow is not dead; and, if I have been rightly informed, and I believe I have, there was quite a dispute between this man and the others about it. They swore he was i!ead enough, and should 14 go into the boat; he swore he should not be launched, as they termed it, and took his knife and ripped open the hammock, and behold! the man was really alive. There had been a heavy rain during the night, and as the vital functions had not totally ceased, but were merely suspended in consequence of the main spring being out of order, this seasonable moisten ing must have given tone and elasticity to the great spring, which must have communicated to the lesser ones, and put the whole machinery again in motion. You know better abont these things than I do, and can better judge of the cause of the re-animation of this man from the circumstances mentioned. He was a native of Rhode-Island; his name was Gavot. He went to Rhode-Island in the same flag of truce with me about a month afterwards. I felt extremely ill, but made out to keep about till I got home (my parents then lived on the island of Nantucket); was then taken down, and lay in my bed six 'veeks in the most deplorable situation ; my body was swelled to a great degree, and my legs were as big round as my body now is, and affected with the most excruci ating pains. What my disorder was I will not pretend to say; but Dr. Tupper, quite an eminent physician, and a noted tory, who attended me, declared to my mother that he knew of nothing that would operate in the manner that my disordet· did but poison. For the truth of this I refer to my father aud brothers, and to Mr. IIenry Coffin, fathet· to Captain Petet· Coffin, of the Mancl1ester Packet of this port. Thus, Sir, in some haste, without much attention to order 15 or diction, I have given you part of the history of my life and sufferings; but I endeavoured to bear them as became an American. And I must mention, before I close, to the ever lasting honour of those unfortunate Americans who were on board the Jersey prison-ship, that notwithstanding the savage treatment they received, and death staring them in the face, every attempt (which was very frequent) that the British made to pt>rsuade them to enter on board their ships of war or in their army, was treated with the utmost contempt; and I never knew, while I was on board, but one instance of dcfectio11, and that person was hooted at and abused by the prisoners till the boat was out of hearing. The patriotism in preferring such treatment, and even death in its most frightful shapes, to the serving the British, and fighting against their own country, bas seldom been equalled, certainly never excelled. And if there be no monument raised with hands to commemorate the virtue of those men, it is stamped in capitals on the heart of every American acquainLed with tl1eir merit and sufferings, and will there remain so long as the _blood floiYS from its fountain. ·-V ~';J-lfJ-;y_- '/l;,:.i;/''V'..f ~ - ~ New- York, Mm·ch 22, 11308. To THE CoM~IITTEE oF TIIE T A~IMANY SoCIETY. Gentlemen, AYlNG been one of those American seamen who w!ls confined on board the JPrsey Prison-ship ~ during our strug-gle for independence, I had an · ~ · opportnnity of witnessing tl1e unexampled suf ferings of my intrepid countrymen and brother seamen: an!l though I confess that it \Yill he impossible fpr me to pomtrny our sufferings in so animnted. eloquent, and pathetic a manner ns the subject justly clcrnan we did of the wl1i~tling of the wirul passing ove1· our heads. :Many of tlH; pri,;oners, during tlie severity of winter, l1ad scnrcely clothes sufTiricnt to cover· tl1eir nakedness, and but ve1·y few enough to keep the111 wann: to remedy those incon veniences we were obliged to keep below, and either get into our lwmmocks or keep in con;;tant motion, without which 19 precautions we must ha\·e perisheu. But to cap tl1e climax of infamy, we were fed (if fer] it might be calleu) witl1 provi~ions not tit fo1· any humun being to make use of: pntl'iu beef nnd pork and wonn enten bread, condemned on bourd their ships of wur, was sent on board the Jersey to feed the prisoners: water, sent from this city in a schooner called (emphntically cnlled) the Relief! water, which I nfiirm, with out the fem· of refutation, wns wo1·se than I ever hnd, or e''er saw, on a three years voyage to the East 1ndies: "·nter, the scent of which would l1ave disco111posed the olfactory nerves of a Hottentot; while within a cnble's length of tl1e ship, on Loug-lslnnd, tl1ere WllS running before our eyes, ns though intended to tantalize us, as fine, pure and wholesome water as any man would wisll to drink. The question will very naturally be asked, \Yhy, if good wate1· was so near at lwnu, it was not. J>I'Octll'ed for us instead of bringing it nt con siderable expense and trouble from the city? It is impossible for any one, bnt those ". ho had the directiou of the b:.~siness, to answer that question satisfactorily: bnt the object in bringing the water from New-York was to me, and the rest of the prisoners, as self-eYident as the plnin and simple fact that two and two make four: because the effects that water ha•l on tlJe prisoners could not be concealed, and were a da1nping proof why it 11·a:; fiiled in New-York. On the upper gun 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, whenever they conlrl 20 get :ill opportunity nndiscovcrec! by the sentries, wonhl, with their tin pots, scoop the bran t'rom the troughs and eat it (after boiling, wllen there "·as fire i11 the galiey, which was not always tl1e c:v;e,) with seemingly as good nn appetite as the hogs themsel ve~. The second and la::;t time I 1ra,; un buanl the Prison-sllip, was in Febrnary anrl ~[:u-cll, 1783, jn,;t before peace took place. I wns taken in n brig from Providence, (R. I.) off the Oapes of Virginia, by the Fair American privateer uf tl1i" port, commanded and officer\! principally ·with refugees; though it is doing Capt. Btuton bnt bare jnstice to declare, that he tt·eated ns civilly, and with much more humanity than [ IHtd before experienced from llnwkins, commander of the ]3,·iti,;h king's ship Ceres, whose inveterate hatrerl of Ameri cnns was ne1•cr exceeded by uny man living. The only lwrd trcntment on board the F:tir .-\mericun wns being kept in it·on~ the whole time; bnt tl~:tt was a prccantiouat·y mensure on the pnrt of Iter COllllllandel·; tl1ere being ~o many prisonm·s on bonnl, who doubti~ss 11·oul otl:" at the Crane-whnrt~ nnrl from thence we were sent on bo:l!" acknowledge, we were revolters, but our revolt was legitimate; we revolted against oppression, against a government that had revolted (if I may be allowed the expression) again~t its own subjects, and violated the most sacred of all duties towards its peopic-the duty of defending and protecting their constitu tional rights and privileges, which had been left them as a legacy by their brave ancestors, who had fought and bled to obtain them, in common with Englishmen. There are other facts which perhaps are not generally known to the American people, that I shall mention.-One is, that a · man of the name of Gavot, a native of Rhode-Island, died, as was supposed, and was sewed up in his hammock, and in the evening carried upon deck to be taken with others who were dead, and those who might die during the night, on shore to be interred, (in their mode of interring.) During the night it rained pretty hard: in the morning, when they were loading the boat with the dead, one hammock was observetl by one of the English seamen to move; he spoke to the officer an 913.3 1\ Q..~S4 24 penrleu, but not toblly annihilated. Thi~ ~nm•J m::tn, Gavot, went afterwat·ds in the same flag with me to Rhode-Island, Capt. Shubael Worth, of Iludson, was. master of tlw. flag, and will bear testimony to the same fact. Anllther fact is, that although there were sel,Jom less than 1000 prisoners constantly on board the Jer~ey, new ones coming about as fast as the old ones died, and were exchanged, (which by-the-bye was but seldom,) I never, in the two dif ferent times that I was on board, knew of but one prisor.er entering on board a British ship·of·war, thon!'h the boats from the fleet were frequently there, and the Engli~h officers were endeavouring to persunde them to enter; but their per suasion and offers were invariably treated 'rit.h contempt, and even by men who pretty well knew they should die where they were. These were the men whose bones have so long been blenching on the shores of the Wallttbout; those were the patriots who preferred death in its most horrib!e shape to the disgmce and infamy of fighting the battles of a base an I ltave now, Gentlemen, gi 1·en a~ correct a statement of facts, relative to onr treatment on bom·d the Pri~on-ships by the Britislt, dnring onr revolutionary wnr, as I can from memot·y, after snclt a !Hpse of time; and 1 feel confi By CHARLES I. BusHNELL. ""'" "-v-o HE "JERSEY " was originally a Brit1sh ship of the line. She was registered as a 4th-rate, caJTied 60 guns, and T was built in 1736, as successor to a 50-gun ship, which had been condemned as unfit fo1· further duty. The first service of our ship was in 1737, when she was one of the Channel fleet, under Sir John Norris. In 1739 she was commanded by Edmund Williams, and composed one of the Mediterranean fleet., under Rear-admirals Nicholas Haddock and Sir Chaloner Ogle, and she was subsequently one of the squadron that was designed against Ferro!. In 1741 she was commanded by Peter Lawrence, and in March of that year, she bore the flag of Sir Chaloner Ogle, at which time she composed one of the fleet of Admiral Vernon, in his unsuccessful expedition against Carthagena. In 1743 Harry Norris was appointed to her, who in 1744 was succeeded in command by Charles Hardy, subsequently Governor of New York. Under this officer she formed, in the following year, one of the Meditermnean fleet, under Vice-admiral Howley. On the 26th of July, when on a cruise off Gibraltar, she fell in with the St. Esp1·it, a French ship of 74 guns. An engagement ensued, and lasted for 2~ hours, when the St. Esprit, being much damaged, was compelled to sheer off. The Jersey being also much crippled, was unable to pursue her, and accordingly put into Lisbon for repair. She subsequently se1·ved in the Mediterranean fleet, under Admiral Medley, and then returned home. In Oct., 1748, the Jersey was reported as a hulk, and in 1755, after being put into • 28 repair at Chatham, and mannec1 with a crew of 4~0 men, she was placed under the orders of Hir William Burnaby, in antidprdion of a rupture with France. In 17G7 John Barker was appointed to her, and under him she formed one of the li:Iediterranean fleet, under Henry Osborne, Admiral of the blue. In 1759 she com posed one of the fleet of Admirn.l Boscawen, in his maneuvers against the French squadron, under M. de Ia Clue, and she was one of the three ships that made the unsuccessful attempt to cut away two of the enemy's vessels in the harbor of Toulon. About the latter part of the year, Andrew Wilkinson was appointed to her, under whom she composed one of the llfediterranean fleet, nnr1er Vice-admiral Saunders, until ne:tr the termination of the war. In 1766 William Dickson was appointed to command her as captain to Sir Richard Spry, who hoisted his flag 0n board, r.nd continued in her as comm:mder of a small squadron in the Medi termne::m till1768. In tho following year she sailed ft·om Ply month for Newfoundhtnd, t:tking the Hon. John Byron, the newly appointed Governor of that colony, as a passenger, and bearing his flag on bo:trt1. She retmned home at the end of the year \'nd put into Chatham, where she was soon after fitted up as :t hospita) ship. She was placed under the orders of Commander W. A. H:tlstead, :tncl sfliled for America in the spring of 1776, as one of the squadron of Com::noclore Hotham, arriving at Sanely Hook in the month of August. She subsequently was usecl for a short time as a store-ship, then employed agn.iu as a hospital-ship, :mel finally fitted up as a prison-ship, in which c:tpacity she remained till the terminution of the Wttr, when she was broken up and tillilk off the Long Island shore, near the site of the present ntwy yard. .:.Ya,·rath't of'Jolul Blatchford, pp. 108-JIO. Adventures l!fC!trist. Ha'Wl.·f,,s, pp. 202-:ZJS. •