It is indeed to be hoped that no other woman ever set foot in
that terrible place to suffer with the prisoners, and yet there are a
few women's names in the list of these wretched creatures given in the
appendix to this book. It is most likely, however, that these were
men, and that their feminine appellations were nicknames. [Footnote:
One is named Nancy and one Bella, etc.]
CHAPTER XXIX
TESTIMONY OF PRISONERS ON BOARD THE JERSEY
We must again quote from Ebenezer Fox, whose description of the
provisions dealt out to the prisoners on board the prison ships shall
now be given.
"The prisoners received their mess rations at nine in the morning. * *
* All our food appeared to be damaged. The bread was mostly mouldy,
and filled with worms. It required considerable rapping upon the deck,
before these worms could be dislodged from their lurking places in a
biscuit. As for the pork, we were cheated out of it more than half the
time, and when it was obtained one would have judged from its motley
hues, exhibiting the consistence and appearance of variegated soap,
that it was the flesh of the porpoise or sea hog, and had been an
inhabitant of the ocean, rather than a sty. * * * The flavor was so
unsavory that it would have been rejected as unfit for the stuffing of
even Bologna sausages. The provisions were generally damaged, and from
the imperfect manner in which they were cooked were about as
indigestible as grape shot.
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