"
We will quote more of this interesting account written by an
eyewitness of the horrors he records, in a later chapter. At present
we will endeavor to give the reader a short history of the Jersey,
from the day of her launching to her degradation, when she was devoted
to the foul usages of a prison ship.
She was a fourth rate ship of the line, mounting sixty guns, and
carrying a crew of four hundred men. She was built in 1736, having
succeeded to the name of a celebrated 50-gun ship, which was then
withdrawn from the service, and with which she must not be
confounded. In 1737 she was fitted for sea as one of the Channel
Fleet, commanded by Sir John Norris.
In the fall of 1738 the command of the Jersey was given to Captain
Edmund Williams, and in July, 1739, she was one of the vessels which
were sent to the Mediterranean under Rear Admiral Chaloner Ogle, when
a threatened rupture with Spain rendered it necessary to strengthen
the naval force in that quarter.
The trouble in the Mediterranean having been quieted by the appearance
of so strong a fleet, in 1740 the Jersey returned home; but she was
again sent out, under the command of Captain Peter Lawrence, and was
one of the vessels forming the fleet of Sir John Norris, when, in the
fall of that year and in the spring of 1741, that gentleman made his
fruitless demonstrations against the Spanish coast.
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