, taken before the
subscriber, the 16 day of July, 1782.
"The said deponent saith, that he was taken prisoner on board the
aforesaid ship on the 12 of March last by the ship Garland, belonging
to the king of Great Britain, and carried into the city of New York,
on the 15 of the same month, when he was immediately put on board the
prison-ship Jersey, with the whole crew of the Admiral Youtman, and
was close confined there until the first day of this month, when he
made his escape; that the people on board the said prison-ship were
very sickly insomuch that he is firmly persuaded, out of near 1000
persons, perfectly healthy when put on board the same ship, during the
time of his confinement on board, there are not more than but three or
four hundred now alive; that when he made his escape there were not
three hundred men well on board, but upward of 140 very sick, as he
understood and was informed by the physicians: that there were five or
six men buried daily under a bank on the shore, without coffins; that
all the larboard side of the said ship was made use of as a hospital
for the sick, and was so offensive that he was obliged constantly to
hold his nose as he passed from the gun-room up the hatchway; that he
seen maggots creeping out of a wound of one Sullivan's shoulder, who
was the mate of a vessel out of Virginia; and that his wound remained
undressed for several days together; that every man was put into the
hold a little after sundown every night, and the hatches put over him;
and that the tubs which were kept for the use of the sick * * * were
placed under the ladder from the hatchway to the hold, and so
offensive day and night, that they were almost intolerable, and
increased the number of the sick daily.
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