Royal Navy Prisons and Prison Ships

Throughout history, man’s inhumanity to man has perhaps best been exemplified by the brutal conditions to which prisoners of war have too often been subjected. Whether due to physical torture or psychological terror, the end result for many prisoners has been either death or a survival that would make death seem a better alternative.

Interior of the HMS Jersey

Few places in history have harbored worse conditions for prisoners than did New York during the Revolutionary War. Since New York served as the principle British base in North America during the conflict, it was here that the most gut-wrenching atrocities were perpetrated. This is not to suggest that Americans were saintly in their treatment of British prisoners of war. It is simply to say that the historical record on the British side is far more revealing.

The principle reason why the British treated American prisoners so poorly is because they did not recognize captured Americans as prisoners of war. Since to their minds the revolution was a traitorous act, American rebels captured by the British deserved to die a traitor’s death. What happened to these individuals as a consequence of falling into British hands was of no great concern to either the British military or British citizenry.   

HMS Jersey

British prisons in America were mostly in old decrepit ships known as “prison hulks,” the worst of which was HMS Jersey, a former 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line that was dismantled at the start of the war. Save for a fortunate few who managed to escape its clutches, being sentenced to this horrific hulk of oak was tantamount to a death sentence. Stripped of its spas and rigging and lower decks, Jersey was anchored in Wallabout Bay (later to become the site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard). Once hauled aboard, captured American sailors and soldiers were shoved below into a black hole of purposeful neglect and untold misery. On average, eight American prisoners died each day in Jersey, their bodies picked up each morning by a boat and taken ashore to the mud flats for a quick and unceremonial burial.

During the course of the rebellion, 11,500 men and woman died aboard these prison hulks, more than twice the number of Americans who died in every battle of the Revolution combined. On one prison hulk, the Whitby, desperate prisoners set the ship ablaze, preferring a quick death by fire to a slow and painful death by starvation.

In England, American prisoners were treated somewhat better, in large part because they normally shared a compound with French prisoners. Great Britain was also at war with France at the time, and captured French military personnel were awarded prisoner of war status. One such prison is profiled in A Matter of Honor, Volume I of the Cutler Family Chronicles. The compound is Old Mill Prison in Falmouth, England, and it is here that protagonist Richard Cutler is incarcerated following his capture during the raid on Whitehaven. (See a previous blog, Raid on Whitehaven.) In Old Mill he meets fellow prisoners and future naval heroes Silas Talbot, the second captain of USS Constitution, with whom Richard serves briefly in The Power and the Glory (published October 2011 by the Naval Institute Press), and Richard Dale, commodore of the first Mediterranean squadron in A Call To Arms (to be published in October 2012). Following is an excerpt from chapter seven:

“Diversions from soul-dulling drudgery were created by bored men and mandated by their morose conditions. Whittling had become a popular past-time, an activity encouraged by wardens who ensured that ample supplies of wood were made available around the inner yard. They even gave prisoners, upon request, small knives with blunted tips to use for whittling. Such curios as model ships, ladles, and makeshift mallets were sculpted from wood and sold to local citizens visiting Old Mill on Sunday afternoons. Whatever coins the prisoners received was more often than not snapped up by other locals hawking their wares in every corner of the compound. Barter was also a mainstay of commerce. In exchange for a toy pistol Richard had fashioned from a slab of oak, an elderly woman agreed to post a letter he had written to his family in Hingham [Massachusetts], telling them simply where he was and that he was in good health. She was a kind and caring woman, for she had paid good money for an object that any discerning eye would agree was a poor replica of a pistol. Richard felt certain she would actually post the letter; whether it would ever reach Hingham was another matter.”

   

Not much to write home about, perhaps, but one has a hard time imagining local citizens and merchants of New York fancying a row out to the prison ship Jersey on a summer Sunday afternoon, to buy or sell anything.. 

Christianity vs. Islam, 1788 vs. 2012

Barbary Coast

The struggles between Christians and Muslims have been gong on for centuries. So what have been the central issues involved in these struggles and how far have we come during the past two centuries in addressing them? Below is one perspective provided by a conversation between Richard Cutler, the main protagonist in the Cutler Family Chronicles, and Jeremy Hardcastle, a post captain attached to the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Squadron. Richard is dining with his brother-in-law in the after cabin of HMS Invincible, Jeremy’s 64-gun third rate ship-of-the-line, prior to Richard’s cruise to the Barbary Coast of North Africa in the schooner Falcon to rescue his brother Caleb and his shipmates from captivity in Algiers. The dialogue is extracted from chapter six of For Love of Country, Volume II of the Chronicles.

“There are essentially three points you need to understand,” Jeremy said, settling into an explanation that Richard suspected had by now become quite familiar to him. “I’ll try to keep them brief and simple -- though admittedly there is precious little about our Muslim friends that fits comfortably under either of those terms.

“First, you must recognize that Muslims do not believe that what they are doing violates civil or Islamic law. To the contrary, their religion encourages a holy war, or jihad, against non-believers. That most definitely includes you and me, and everyone else who does not pay homage to the prophet Muhammad or follow the Koran, the Islamic sacred book that Muslims accept as the word of God dictated to the Prophet. So you see, all this has a religious undertone to it.

“However – and this is my second point -- while religion is important to the Muslim mind, its role is secondary in affairs of State. Put another way, what to you and me is piracy on the open seas is, to the dey (of Algiers) and his council, simply good business. The tribute he receives from European powers to protect their shipping in these waters, and the ransoms he receives for the release of captured sailors, are critical to the economy of Algiers and the other Barbary States.”

“So the dey not only supports acts of piracy, he directs them.”

“Just so. And I might add that he earns a pretty penny in the process: one-fifth of every tribute paid, one-fifth of every ransom paid, one- fifth of the value of every foreign cargo seized. The captain and owners of the corsair receive half, and her crew and soldiers divide up the balance. A rather tidy arrangement, isn’t it? Does it happen to remind you of anything?”

“Privateering?”

“Well done. Bravo. As I recall, during our recent squabbles your privateers were quite active in the Atlantic and Caribbean doing precisely what Barbary corsairs are doing today in the Mediterranean.”

“

That’s hardly a fair comparison, Jeremy,” Richard protested. “America was at war with England at the time. Every nation accepts privateering as a legitimate activity in times of war.”

“Ah, there’s the nub of it. You’ve put your legal finger right on it. Brilliant.” Jeremy raised his glass in a silent toast. To Richard’s confused expression he explained: “To you and me, Richard, and to everyone else of a Western mind, peace exists until a state of war is declared between two nations. Muslims, however, tend to look at things a bit differently. They believe that a state of war exists ipso facto with an infidel country until a temporary peace has been declared with that country. Such a notion has its roots in Islam, since Islam is forever fighting what Muslims believe is a holy war against non-believers. That’s just my opinion, of course. You’ll not find that in the Koran. And incidentally, the purpose of jihad is not strictly to convert non-believers by force. It is rather to remove obstacles to their conversion to Islam. To achieve that goal, force often becomes necessary.”

Richard contemplated that. “And a temporary peace can only be declared if and when another nation pays a financial gift, or tribute, to the Barbary State?”

“Exactly so.”

“We call that blackmail in America, Jeremy.”

“We call it blackmail in England too, Richard. But to repeat myself, the Muslims don’t see things our way. Mind you, the dey does not desire peace with every nation, only the most powerful ones, such as England. The others he’d prefer to prey upon, and take his profit from their cargoes and sailors. Cheers.” Jeremy drained his glass, gripped the bottle, and after glancing over at Richard’s half-filled glass, filled his own. “And by the bye, you may be interested to know that in Arabic, the word ‘corsair’ does not mean ‘pirate’ as many people believe. It means ‘privateer’.”

Richard settled back in his chair.

“What’s your third point?”

“Sorry?”

“Your third point. You said there were three points I need to understand.”

“So I did. Let me see…I should let up a bit on the wine…Ah yes. My third point is simply that taking innocent people for slaves has been going on for centuries, by Christians and Muslims alike. Barbary corsairs have raided the coasts of Ireland and England and as far north as Iceland to cart off and sell off whoever and whatever they can. Britain has returned the favor by raiding villages in North and sub-Saharan Africa, and making slaves of Berbers, Moors, and Negroes. France, Spain, Holland, you name it, they have all followed our example. As have you chaps over there in the colonies, quite enthusiastically I might add. So you see, Richard, we are all guilty in the eyes of God – or Allah, if you prefer.”

This is one man’s perspective, of course, but it nonetheless is a perspective worth noting?