[Forton Prison, Portsmouth, May 1778]
Sunday 24th Moderate weather, this evening about ten o’Clock there was a whole found out in the officers apartment which the Drum was ordered to beat to arms when all Portsmouth and Gosport were in an uproar five pounders a plenty to be seen expecting us out1
D, DLC, Forton Prison, England, American Prisoner’s Journal, 1777–79, collection 2272.
1. “Five pounders” were bounty hunters. They received a reward of £5 for recaptured American prisoners. Cohen, Yankee Sailors, p. 108.
