The Jersey was an infamous British prison ship during the Revofutionary War (1775-83). In the wake of their capture of New York in 1776, the British found themselves with thousands of revolutionary prisoners. The British army and navy struggled to cope with the captives, and prisoners were interned in all large public and private buildings including churches and warehouses in New York City. When these were filled to capacity with captured soldiers, the transport ships that had carried Wiffiam Howe’s army to North America were used to hold privateersmen (see also privateering) and naval prisoners captured by the Royal Navy.
The most notorious of the British prison hulks in New York Harbor was HMS Jersey, in Wallabut Bay, Brooklyn. The Jersey was built as a 64-gun ship of the line in 1736. In 1776 the vessel was used as a transport to convey hired Hessian troops to North America for the campaigns in and around New York. After the British invasion of Long Island and subsequent capture of New York City, the Jersey was used as a storage vessel and then as a hospital ship. During the winter of 1779-80, after prisoners set fire to two other prison ships, the Jersey was converted to accommodate captives. It was gutted and dismasted, its rudder was unhung, and its guns were removed. The Jersey’s portholes were bolted shut and a series of holes—20 inches wide at 10 foot intervals, blocked by iron bars—were cut into the sides of the ship to afford its unfortunate residents with light and air. Between 1780 and 1783 thousands of American, French, and Spanish sailors were held aboard the Jersey. At any one time between 400 and 1,200 captives were confined to the ship. They were allowed to walk the ship’s deck by day and confined below at night.
Between 1776 and 1783, more than 18,000 prisoners were held aboard more than 20 prison ships in New York Harbor. Of these, approximately 8,500 captives (nearly 47 percent) died in British custody. Most died from the combined effects of neglect, disease, malnutrition, overcrowding, and exposure to the elements (see also disease and epidemics). During the Revolutionary War the treatment of prisoners aboard the Jersey and the other prison ships was a subject of controversy. George Washington and the Second Continentaf Congress wrote to the British authorities in New York to protest the maltreatment of captured seamen. The British brushed aside the criticisms. During the decades after the conflict, a number of memoirs were published by former prisoners, which emphasized the ill-treatment they had received from their captors. Many of these memoirs were written by Jersey survivors, and they guaranteed the ship’s reputation as the worst of the New York prison hulks and that the Jersey would come to symbolize the sacrifice of seamen in the Revolutionary War.
After the British evacuated New York in 1783, the Jersey was abandoned, slowly rotted, and disappeared below the surface of Wallabut Bay early in the 19th century. Later in the 19th century repeated unsuccessful attempts were made to erect a monument to commemorate the victims of the Jersey and the other prison ships.
Further reading: Francis D. Cogliano, American Maritime Prisoners in the Revolutionary War: The Captivity of William Russell (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2001); Paul A. Gilje, Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).
—Francis D. Cogliano
World History
