May 24th 1782. Last Saturday the Retaliation prison
ship was safely moored in the river Thames, about a mile from the
ferry, for the receipt of such British prisoners as may fall into our
hands, since which about 100 prisoners have been put on board."
It is said that this ship was in use but a short time, and we have
been unable to learn anything further of her history.
Thomas Philbrook, who was a prisoner on board the Jersey for several
months was one of the "working-party," whose duty it was to scrub the
decks, attend to the sick, and bring up the dead. He says: "As the
morning dawned there would be heard the loud, unfeeling, and horrid
cry, 'Rebels! Bring up your dead!'
"Staggering under the weight of some stark, still form, I would at
length gain the upper deck, when I would be met with the salutation:
'What! _you alive yet?_ Well, you are a tough one!'"
CHAPTER XXX
RECOLLECTIONS OF ANDREW SHERBURNE
Andrew Sherburne, a lad of seventeen, shipped on the Scorpion, Captain
R. Salter, a small vessel, with a crew of eighteen men. This vessel
was captured by the Amphion, about the middle of November,
1782. Sherburne says that the sailors plundered them of everything
they possessed, and that thirteen of them were put on board the
Amphion, and sent down to the cable tiers between the two decks, where
they found nearly a hundred of their countrymen, who were prisoners of
war.
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