6 – HMS Jersey
The HMS Jersey was used as a prison ship by the British during the War of Independence. Conditions were so bad that it earned the nickname, HMS Hell. The HMS Jersey was built in 1736 and was used in several battles during the middle of the 18th century. It was converted into a hospital ship in 1771 before becoming a prison ship in early 1780. During the war, the British troops that occupied New York used decommissioned warships to hold prisoners.
Not only did they imprison revolutionaries, they even punished people who refused to swear the Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown. In total, an estimated 11,000 people died aboard these ships during the war due to malnutrition or disease. Even amidst this grim backdrop, the HMS Jersey was known for its abominable conditions.
In the middle of 1776, General Howe invaded Long Island with a large fleet and 34,000 men. He defeated the small band of rebels led by George Washington, but the Revolutionary general and his men escaped across the East River. By mid-September however, Washington’s army had been pushed off the island as the British controlled Manhattan. Although the American forces enjoyed victories at Trenton and Princeton later in 1776, the British remained in New York until November 1783.
The British captured tens of thousands of people, and soon, space ran out in their land-based jails. They began loading prisoners onto ships in Wallabout Bay, and the HMS Jersey was the worst of the loss. It was common for the ship to hold over 1,000 prisoners and approximately one dozen died every day. The main causes of death were diseases such as smallpox and dysentery, as well as torture and starvation.
The HMS Hell as it became known, was seen as a powerful symbol of British tyranny by the Patriots. The inmates were so hot that most of them stripped naked and in some cases, dead bodies remained undiscovered for up to 10 days. If you somehow survived the other horrors, there was the possibility of being eaten alive by rats. At the end of the war in 1783, there were only 1,400 survivors amongst the entire fleet of prison ships.
