Christopher R. Perry-- Part 2: Service in the American Revolution

Born in Newport, Rhode Island.  His mother was a descendant of two of the Mayflower Compact signers.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION

He enlisted in a local militia company at age 14 early in the American  Revolution.  He then served on two privateers, but the second one was captured  and Perry was confines on the infamous prison hulk, the Jersey in New York Harbor for three months before escaping.

In 1779. he joined the Continental Navy as a seaman on the 30-gun frigate USS Trumbull.  He was aboard this ship when it engaged the 32-gun British letter of marque Watt in a hard-fought, but indecisive battle.

  After that, Perry enlisted on another privateer which was captured and Perry was again imprisoned, this time  at Newry Barracks in Ireland where he met his future wife, Sarah Wallace  Alexander. he was able to make another escape, this time by posing as a British seaman.  He arrived back in the U.S.  shortly before the end of the war in 1783.

(In case you're wondering, the Perry in my sign-off below comes from Christopher's son, Oliver Hazard Perry.  The Brock is from British/Canadian War of 1812  hero Isaac Brock.)

--Brock-Perry

James Lingan-- Part 2: American Revolution "I'll Rot First"

James Lingan enlisted in the Continental Army just nine days after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  He became a lieutenant in the Rawlings Additional Regiment, but was captured at Fort Washington on November 16, 1776.  James McHenry, for whom Fort McHenry in Baltimore was named, was also captured at this fort.

His imprisonment on the infamous prison hulk HMS Jersey.  He was initially kept in a cell where he could neither lie down or stand up.  A distant cousin, Samuel Hood, approached him and offered 10,000 pounds and a commission in the British Army to switch sides.  He reportedly answered, "I'll rot first."

He later gained the reputation as a defender of prisoner rights.  On one occasion, he defended the body of a recently deceased prisoner from guards who wanted to behead the corpse to make it fit into a small coffin.

He remained on the ship until the end of the war.

--Brock-Perry

James Lingan, Revolutionary War Hero and Victim of Baltimore Riots-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

Born May 15, 1751   Died July 28, 1812 (age 61, Baltimore, Maryland)

Died in the Baltimore Riots

Officer in the Continental Army and a senior officer in the Maryland State Militia.

Taken prisoner at Fort Washington early in the American Revolution and spent several years aboard a British prison hulk ship.  Always and outspoken advocate of the freedom of the press, at  the beginning of the War of 1812, Lingan was murdered by a  while defending the office of an anti war Federalist newspaper in Baltimore.

--Brock-Perry

HMS Swiftsure (1785): From British, to French and Back to British

From Wikipedia.

74-gun third rate ship of the line, 168 feet long, 46 foot beam.

Served in both the Royal Navy then french navy after her capture in 1801.

As a British ship fought in several famous engagements during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars including the battle of the Nile with the British and the Battle of Trafalgar with the French.  It was recaptured by the British at this battle.

Though badly damaged, it was repaired, taken back into service, laid up, recommissioned in 1808, renamed HMS Irresistible and became a prison ship at Chatham until 1816 when it was broken up.  It is likely that American prisoners were held on her.

--Brock-Perry

List of British Prison Hulks-- Part 2

This is taken from the much-longer Wikipedia list which covers all hulks.  I went through the list and pulled out just the ones that served the purpose during the War of 1812 (1812-1815).

I also found that many of them ceased to be prison hulks in 1816, after the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic Wars were over.

Glorze--  1814-1817, Bermuda.  16-gun sloop-of-war commissioned 1798.
Hector--  1808-1816  73-gun 3rd Rate SOL, built 1774.
Justitia--  1812-1830
Laurel--  1798-1821

Oiseau--  1810-1816
Portland--  18012-1817
Prothee--  1795-1815
Prudent--  1779-1814

Savage--1804-1815
Success--  1814-1820
Temeraire--  1812-1814
Vengeance--  1808-1816

--Brock-Perry

A Revolutionary Prison Hulk, the HMS Jersey

Of interest, I was watching the AMC TV show "Turn" about spies and there was mention of Americans being sent to the British prison ship Jersey and the remark made that this would be like a death sentence.  This of even more interest since I am doing some research and writing about British prison hulks right now.

The HMS Jersey was on the Wikipedia list I used for the last post.

HMS JERSEY--  1776-1783, stationed at New York.  60-gun 4th Rate ship-of-the-line built 1763 at Plymouth.  Most noted for service as a prison hulk in the American Revolution.

Abandoned at New York in 1783.

Someone was doing their homework at the show.

Home Bad Home on Those Hulks.  --Brock-Perry

List of British Prison Hulks-- Part 1

List of British Prison Hulks from Wikipedia.

These were used quite extensively by the English.  they were most often decommissioned warships.  These were all ships used during the War of 1812.

Antigua--  1804-1816
Bellerophon--  1815-1824
Belliqueux--  1814-1816
Canada--  1810-1834 at Chatham.  74-gun Third Rate ship-of-the-line commissioned 1765.

Crown--  1798-1802, 1806-1815 in Portsmouth, 64-gun ship-of-the-line (SOL)
Defiance--  1813-1817, 74-gun SOL commissioned 1783.
Edgar--  1814-1835, 74-gun Third Class SOL commissioned 1779.  renamed Retribution in 1814.
Fortitude--  1795-1820 at Chatham 74-gun, Third Rate SOL

Gelykeid--  1807-1814
Glory--  1809-1814, 90-gun Second Rate SOL

--Brock-Perry

HMS Crown

From Wikipedia.

The last entry had the Americans transferred to the Crown Prince.  I came across no listing for an HMS Crown Prince, but there was one for an HMS Crown, which most likely was the one they were on.

It was launched 15 Match 1782 at Blackwell Yard and was a 54-gun, 160-foot 3rd rate ship-of-the-line.  It became a prison ship in 1798 and was broken up in 1816.

It was a prison ship in 1798, a powder hull from 1802-1806 then a prison ship in 1806 before being put into ordinary in 1815.  Broken up in 1816.

--GreGen

A Prisoner of the British-- Part 5

The Americans were transferred to the Crown Prince which also held French prisoners and was moored at Gillingham Reach.  The American seamen on the Crown Prince had chiefly been impressed by the British before the war, but once it began, they gave themselves up as POWs, refusing to serve.

The British also didn't want them getting out and serving in the U.S. Navy.

--Brock-impre

HMS Malabar

From Wikipedia.

Yesterday, in Part 4 of Prisoner of the British, the American was placed on the storeship Malabar upon arrival in England.

The HMS Malabar was commissioned in 1804 and was a 56 gun 5th rate warship, previously the East Indiaman Cuvera.  It was purchased by the British government in 1804 and rebuilt as a 20-gun store ship in 1806.  It was renamed the HMS Cotomandel in 1815 and transported convicts to Australia in 1819.

From 1828-1853 it served as a prison in Bermuda and was broken up in 1853.

--Brock-Perry

A Prisoner of the British-- Part 4: Lots and Lots of Fleas

On September 1, 1813, 100 prisoners were sent to England on the HMS Regulus, a 44-gun frigate.  The ship had previously brought British troops to America who had been so kind as to leave a "myriad of fleas...When you killed one, twenty would seem to rise up in his place."

The ship arrived off Portsmouth and then were placed aboard the Malabar, a store ship.  All told, there were now 250 men in a space designed for 100.  Conditions rapidly went from bad to worse.  They then went to Chatham on the Medway River, a naval station with a lot of prison ships.

--Bock-Perry

A Prisoner of the British-- Part 1

"A Prisoner of the British: The Journal of a Prisoner of War in the War of 1812" by Benjamin Waterhouse.  Friendly Press, 2010, 260 pages.

This is an account originally published in 1816 with the rather long title of "A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, Late a Surgeon on Board an American Privateer Who Was Captured at Sea by the British."  This was an account of the author's experiences.

He was first held at Melville Island, Halifax, then on a prison ship in Chatham, England.

One account I have read had Major Watson, who is buried here in McHenry County and whom I have written about in other entries, both here and in my Cooter's History Blog as he was also a Revolutionary War veteran., being held there.    Click labels to find out his interesting history.

--Brock-Perry

Dartmoor Prison in Britain-- Part 1: The Need for a New Prison

From Wikipedia.

HM Prison Dartmoor.

Still a prison rated Category C, located in Princetown, County of Devon.

In 1805, the British were at war with Napoleonic France and many prisoners were captured.  Many of these were house in "hulks" which were derelict ships.  This was an unsafe situation due to the ships' close proximity to the Royal Navy Dockyard at Devonport called Plymouth Dock.

In addition, the living conditions on those hulks were horrible.

A new prison was planned for remote Dartmoor.

--Brock-Perry