Evidently this prison ship had already become
notorious, for Fox writes: "The idea of being incarcerated in this
floating pandemonium filled us with horror, but the ideas we had
formed of its horror fell far short of the reality. * * * The Jersey
was removed from the East River, and moored with chain cables at the
Wallabout in consequence of the fears entertained that the sickness
which prevailed among the prisoners might spread to the shore. * * * I
now found myself in a loathsome prison, among a collection of the most
wretched and disgusting looking objects that I ever beheld in human
form.
"Here was a motley crew, covered with rags and filth; visages pallid
with disease; emaciated with hunger and anxiety; and hardly retaining
a trace of their original appearance. Here were men, who had once
enjoyed life while riding over the mountain wave or roaming through
pleasant fields, full of health and vigor, now shrivelled by a scanty
and unwholesome diet, ghastly with inhaling an impure atmosphere,
exposed to contagion; in contact with disease, and surrounded with the
horrors of sickness, and death. Here, thought I, must I linger out
the morning of my life" (he was seventeen) "in tedious days and
sleepless nights, enduring a weary and degrading captivity, till death
should terminate my sufferings, and no friend will know of my
departure.
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