Coffin says there was a good passage of air through the vessel
from her port holes. It is probable that the Jersey became so
notorious as a death trap that at last, for very shame, some attempt
was made to secure more sanitary conditions. Thus, just before peace
was established, she was, for the first time, overhauled and cleaned,
the wretched occupants being sent away for the purpose. The port holes
were very probably opened, and this is the more likely as we read of
some of the prisoners freezing to death during the last year of the
war. From that calamity, at least, they were safe as long as they were
deprived of outer air.
CHAPTER XXXIII
A WONDERFUL DELIVERANCE
There are few records of religious feeling on board the "Jersey,
vulgarly called 'Hell.'" No clergyman was ever known to set foot on
board of her, although a city of churches was so near. The fear of
contagion may have kept ministers of the gospel away. Visitors came,
as we have seen, but not to soothe the sufferings of the prisoners, or
to comfort those who were dying. It is said that a young doctor, named
George Vandewater attended the sick, until he took a fatal disease and
died. He was a resident of Brooklyn, and seems to have been actuated
by motives of humanity, and therefore his name deserves a place in
this record.
But although the rough seamen who left narratives of their experiences
in that fearful place have told us little or nothing about the inner
feelings of those poor sufferers, yet it must be presumed that many a
silent prayer went up to the Judge and Father of all men, from the
depths of that foul prison ship.
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