And while negotiations for peace were pending
some relaxation in severity appears to have taken place.
CHAPTER XLVI
SOME OF THE PRISONERS ON BOARD THE JERSEY
We have seen that the crew of the Chance was exchanged in the fall of
1782. A few of the men who composed this crew were ill at the time
that the exchange was affected, and had been sent to Blackwell's
Island. Among these unfortunate sufferers was the sailing-master of
the Chance, whose name was Sylvester Rhodes.
This gentleman was born at Warwick, R. I., November 21, 1745. He
married Mary Aborn, youngest sister of Captain Daniel Aborn, and
entered the service of his country, in the early part of the war,
sometimes on land, and sometimes as a seaman. He was with Commodore
Whipple on his first cruise, and as prize-master carried into Boston
the first prize captured by that officer. He also served in a Rhode
Island regiment.
When the crew of the Jersey was exchanged and he was not among the
number, his brother-in-law, Captain Aborn, endeavored to obtain his
release, but, as he had been an officer in the army as well as on the
privateer, the British refused to release him as a seaman. His father,
however, through the influence of some prominent Tories with whom he
was connected, finally secured his parole, and Captain Aborn went to
New York to bring him home. But it was too late.
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