They suffered untold misery and died by hundreds from lack of
food, from exposure, smallpox and other dreadful diseases, and from
the cruelty of their captors. The average death rate on the Jersey
alone was ten per night. A conservative estimate places the total
number of victims at 11,500. The dead were carried ashore and thrown
into shallow graves or trenches of sand and these conditions of horror
continued from the beginning of the war until after peace was
declared. Few prisoners escaped and not many were exchanged, for their
conditions were such that commanding officers hesitated to exchange
healthy British prisoners in fine condition for the wasted, worn-out,
human wrecks from the prison ships. A very large proportion of the
total number of these prisoners perished. Of the survivors, many never
fully recovered from their sufferings.
In 1808, it was said of the prison ship martyrs: "Dreadful, beyond
description, was the condition of these unfortunate prisoners of
war. Their sufferings and their sorrows were great, and unbounded was
their fortitude. Under every privation and every anguish of life, they
firmly encountered the terrors of death, rather than desert the cause
of their country. * * *
"There was no morsel of wholesome food, nor one drop of pure water. In
these black abodes of wretchedness and woe, the grief worn prisoner
lay, without a bed to rest his weary limbs, without a pillow to
support his aching head--the tattered garment torn from his meager
frame, and vermin preying on his flesh--his food was carrion, and his
drink foul as the bilge water--there was no balm for his wounds, no
cordial to revive his fainting spirits, no friend to comfort his
heart, nor the soft hand of affection to close his dying eyes--heaped
amongst the dead, while yet the spark of life lingered in his frame,
and hurried to the grave before the cold arms of death had embraced
him.
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