Displaying 1 - 20 of 23
The brig Dalton sailed from Newburyport, November 15th, 1776, and from Portsmouth, on the 26th of the same month, and on the 24th of December following, about nine o'clock in the evening, we were taken by the Reasonable, manof-war, of sixty-four guns. As her cruise was over, she was bound to Plymouth, England. The first lieutenant of the ship was the first man that boarded us, and he ordered us...
Date: 24 December 1776
Volume: Volume 7
[1777. January] 16. A number of seamen's wives came on board to-day, and upon being told that they had American prisoners on board, "Have you?" said one to the other; "What sort of people are they?" "Are they white?" "Can they talk?" Upon being pointed to where some of them stood, "Why!" exclaimed they, "they look like our people, and they talk English."
Date: 16 January 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. January] 18. To-day is the Queen's birth-day, and every ship in the harbor that is in commission, fired twenty-one guns, as a royal salµte.
19. Sunday. To-day we were removed from the Reasonable to the Bellisle, a ship of sixty-four guns, after having been on boarµ the Reasonable twenty-seven days. Here we lodged in the cable-tier, 011 boards laid over the cable, which is better than we...
Date: 19 January 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. January] 27. The daily allowance on board His Majesty's ships, is: Sunday, pork and peas; Monday, birgu,2 butter and cheese; Tuesday, beef and pudding; Wednesday, birgu and peas, butter and cheese; Thursday, pork and peas; Friday, birgu and peas, butter and cheese; Saturday, beef and pudding; a pint of wine, or half a pint of rum, when at sea; and when in port, beer in abundance...
Date: 28 January 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777] February 5. It is a pay-day for bounty, on board this ship, (the Bellisle,) which occasions a great market on board
6. We begin to grow very sickly, and twenty or thirty of us are suffering with the itch, and we are all dreadfully infested with vermin. I make a constant practice of examining my clothes every day, when we are permitted to go upon deck. I often find them swarming with these...
Date: 6 February 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. February] 7. We were removed from the Bellisle, after having been on board nineteen days, and were carried up to Ammores [Hamoze ], and put on board the "Tarbay," a ship of seventy-four guns, and confined in the bay, between decks, where there was not room for all of us to lay down; it is parted. off, like a sheep-pen, and takes in two side-ports only.
8. Pleasant weather, but very cold...
Date: 10 February 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. February] 11. We hear that General Lee is taken. I had to-day a handful of bread given to me by a woman, which I joyfully received.
12. We are informed tha:t Parliament has passed an act that all Americans taken in arms against the King, shall be deemed rebels; and those taken in armed vessels, upon the high seas, as pirates.
13. Our company is in a very poor state of health. Last night I...
Date: 13 February 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. February] 17. Very stormy. To-day we had delivered to us, by the purser of the ship, bedding and clothes. I received a shirt, and bedding, consisting of a flock bed and pillows, a rug, and blankets. Some, who were almost naked, had nearly a whole suit given them. when they gave us the shirts, they told us to take off our old ones and throw them overboard, "lice and all."
18. Those of us...
Date: 18 February 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. February] 24. Mr. Holland, the master-at-arms of the ship, has been on shore; he informs us of the death of one of our company—Ebenezer Hunt. He died on the 20th of this month, in the Royal Hospital; he was one of the nine that were sent on shore the 15th inst.
25. This morning Mr. Holland came into our apartment inquiring for a joiner. I offered myself, and went upon deck to work for him...
Date: 26 February 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777] March 1. Myself and one of my shipmates have again been upon deck to work. We made a chest for the master-at-arms, for which he gave us some biscuit. We mended, also, a table for the ship's cook, for which he gave us a supper and s me spare bread and meat. It is i'n the paper that the ship which brought Dr. Franklin from Philadelphia to France, as she was returning, took a brig laden with...
Date: 2 March 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. March] 26. It is four months since we sailed from Portsmouth, having been in that ,time twenty-eight days on board the Dolton, twenty-seven days on board the Reasonable, nineteen on board the Bellisle, six on board the Tarbay, and forty-one on board the Burford, which is our present place of abode.
27. We are told that we are to go on shore tomorrow to prison. Our company, one after...
Date: 31 March 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777] April 1. To-day I took an emetic of the doctor. There is another one of our company attacked with the small-pox, and to all human appearances it will go through the company. I do not know that I ever can have it better than now, as I am well dieted, and therefore do not try to escape it.
2. To-day the Admiral2 and his lady, with several other ladies, came on board this ship to...
Date: 5 April 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. April] 9. Two more of our company are quite unwell, and we expect it is small-pox. A lad who stole, and was obliged to run the gauntlet twice before, stole again, and to-day was punished in the same manner.
10. To-day three more were sent on shore with the small-pox, and three returned from the Hospital well, who were carried on shore the 15th of February. They tell us that they were used...
Date: 12 April 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. April] 13. Sunday. I have been taking sulphur, to prepare for anointing this evening.
14. The first day I came here I was put upon diet; I had only half a pound of bread and a quart of milk, but now I am put on full allowance, which is a pound of beef, a pound of potatoes, and three pints of beer, per day.
15. We take a large spoonful of sulphur mixed with honey and cream tartar, morning...
Date: 19 April 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. April] 20. I have had six applications for the itch, but am not half cured; and to-day when the doctor came in to see me, he told me I had the small-pox, and ordered the nurse to remove me immediately, into the small-pox ward, which she did. After I got there, I was ordered to strip off all the dirty clothes that I had upon me. I washed myself in warm water, and put on a clean linen shirt...
Date: 26 April 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. May] 5. This morning Joseph Hatch, one of our company, died with small-pox. He is the second of our company that has died in these hospitals. 2
6. I begin to grow bravely, and have a very good appetite for my victuals. I remain very sore, yet not so sore as I was two or three days ago; as my pox ran all together then, when I used to rise up in bed to receive any thing, and...
Date: 10 May 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. May] 25. To-day I was upon full allowance, and drew a pound of beef, a pound of bread, a pound of potatoes, and three pints of beer.
26. This morning about seven o'clock, died James Jutson, an old man, prisoner from the Queen, 2 taken with Captain [Francis] Brown in the privateer sloop Charming Sally.
27. To-day we were forebidden the liberty of going up stairs to speak to our...
Date: 31 May 1777
Volume: Volume 8
[1777. June] 4. As we were discharged yesterday, and the boat did not come for us, we were again put upon cazzelteers and draw only a quart of milk, and a half pound of bread. Today is the King's birth-day, and there is great firing of cannon, and chiming of bells, in Dock and Plymouth. This morning about three o'clock, another prisoner died of small-pox — the same person who jumped from the...
Date: 7 June 1777
Volume: Volume 9
[1777. June] 8. Sunday; and there has been a great number of persons at the gate to see us, who gave in, for our relief, several shillings.2
9. Rainy weather, so that we keep house all day, except when we go out to draw our provisions.
10. There have about ten or twelve prisoners come from the ships to prison to-day. Having so lately had the small-pox, and being so long physiced...
Date: 14 June 1777
Volume: Volume 9
[1777. August] 22. We hear that Ticonderoga is taken by the King's troops, and also Philadelphia; that the Hancock, Captain Manley, is taken, and the Fox retaken; but we cannot tell what to believe by what we hear; for since we have been taken we have heard, nearly twenty times, that Philadelphia was taken, and as many times that Washington was killed; that Congress was divided, that continental...
Date: 22 August 1777
Volume: Volume 9