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Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. It was

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Speaker 1: the fourth of July. The small group of men sang

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Speaker 1: patriotic songs and waved makeshift flags on the deck of

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Speaker 1: a British prison ship. The armed guards weren't feeling as celebratory,

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Speaker 1: though the Revolutionary war had begun to favor the American

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Speaker 1: rebels and their patients. With the inmates grew thin, they

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Speaker 1: ordered the men to stop singing, but the prisoners only

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Speaker 1: sang louder, drowning out the demands for silence. Having had

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Speaker 1: enough of the men's defiance, the guards ordered them below deck.

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Speaker 1: Half starved, dehydrated, and kept in deplorable conditions. The men

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Speaker 1: were used to such treatment and worse, With nothing to lose,

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Speaker 1: they rushed the guards without weapons, though their fight was

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Speaker 1: short lived. Easily outnumbered, they were forced into their cramped

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Speaker 1: and overcrowded cells with the others. Usually, prisoners were rotated

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Speaker 1: between the cells and deck, but not this time. The

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Speaker 1: holding area below was rodent infested, dark and dank. The

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Speaker 1: men had no clean water or access to fresh air.

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Speaker 1: Buckets had been supplied for them to relieve themselves in.

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Speaker 1: But forcing the men into the filthy cells wasn't enough

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Speaker 1: for the guards, nor was refusing the next group access

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Speaker 1: to the deck. The guards also confiscated the rebels decorations,

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Speaker 1: and for emphasis, they stomped on them in front of

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Speaker 1: the prisoners. Satisfied that they had quilled the men celebration

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Speaker 1: and spirit, the guards climbed the stairs, closing the hatch

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Speaker 1: behind them. Broken flags didn't break their spirit, though, one

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Speaker 1: by one, in the stench and darkness, they began to

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Speaker 1: sing out once more. Infuriated by their patriotism, the guards

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Speaker 1: threw back the hatch and descended loud, carrying lanterns and swords.

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Speaker 1: Seeing their intent, the prisoners scrambled on top of each

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Speaker 1: other like cornered rats, yelling and cursing at the men.

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Speaker 1: The British rammed their blades in between the bars, stabbing

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Speaker 1: as many men as they could reach. After several of

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Speaker 1: the men lay wounded, dead or dying, the guards retreated,

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Speaker 1: shutting the door on the men's cries. The remainder of

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Speaker 1: the day and night, the prisoners received no food or water,

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Speaker 1: no medical treatment, despite their pleas for help. Instead of

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Speaker 1: showing decency, the guards laughed and mocked the desperate men,

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Speaker 1: and as the knight turned to dawn, the cries for

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Speaker 1: compassion below deck grew weaker. By morning, the British guards

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Speaker 1: opened the hatch and returned, still without food and water.

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Speaker 1: They didn't attend to the injured, nor did they give

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Speaker 1: them any means to clean their wounds. Their request was short,

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Speaker 1: send up the dead. Ten of the men had died overnight,

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Speaker 1: either from the previous night's injuries or from the diseases

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Speaker 1: that ravaged the ship. A few of the men were

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Speaker 1: ordered to carry their deceased companion's top side. Once the

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Speaker 1: bodies were on deck, the guards ordered the men below

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Speaker 1: once more enclosed the hatch. Among the moans of the sick, starving,

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Speaker 1: and wounded, the hundreds of remaining prisoners listened as the

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Speaker 1: bodies of their fellow soldiers were thrown overboard. For the moment,

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Speaker 1: there was no more singing I'm lorn Bogelbaum, Welcome to

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Speaker 1: American Shadows. After Margaret Davis passed away, in her relatives

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Speaker 1: set about the task of cleaning out her house. Amid

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Speaker 1: a lifetime of memories and cherished treasures, They came across

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Speaker 1: something they didn't know she had an old handwritten journal.

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Speaker 1: The writing wasn't hers, though, the yellowed pages within the

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Speaker 1: book dated back to the eighteen hundreds and to a

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Speaker 1: man named Christopher Hawkins. After some investigating that they of

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Speaker 1: his family discovered that he was an ancestor they had

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Speaker 1: never known about before. Carefully they turned each delicate page,

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Speaker 1: and as they read, they uncovered a truly historic tale,

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Speaker 1: vividly detailing his time during the American Revolution. Based on

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Speaker 1: the entries, Hawkins had started the journal when he was

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Speaker 1: seventy years old, and in it he recounted his entire life,

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Speaker 1: or at least as much as he remembered. He wrote

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Speaker 1: so well that his descendants were treated to a front

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Speaker 1: row intimate saga, almost as though he were right there.

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Speaker 1: The suffering of my youth is still fresh in my memory,

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Speaker 1: he wrote. He reflected that he wasn't writing for publication,

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Speaker 1: but to simply record his narrative so that he could

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Speaker 1: pass it down to his family one generation to the next.

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Speaker 1: It was his hope, he said, to show the struggle

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Speaker 1: of his country for independence. He finished the introduction with

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Speaker 1: a note of dedication to my descendants and those of

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Speaker 1: my fellows. Christopher Hawkins Newport, New York, April three, eighteen

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Speaker 1: thirty four. Throughout the pages there were drawings of ships,

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Speaker 1: technical descriptions, and some unusual terminology, but mostly there was

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Speaker 1: a story to tell, and the Davis family turned page

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Speaker 1: after page. Hawkins had been born some time in seventeen

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Speaker 1: sixty four in Providence, Rhode Island, and like many other

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Speaker 1: children in his day, he had been sent to live

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Speaker 1: with an apprentice. They were offered room and board in

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Speaker 1: an education in exchange for what was essentially child labor,

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Speaker 1: all in the guise of teaching a trade. Still, an

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Speaker 1: apprenticeship was considered a lucky thing, and the adults around

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Speaker 1: him thought Hawkins had a bright future ahead of him

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Speaker 1: thanks to a tanner named Aaron Mason. Hawkins didn't feel

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Speaker 1: the same about his future with Mason or the tannery

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Speaker 1: business in general, so at the age of thirteen, he

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Speaker 1: ran away. He didn't return home, though, Instead he headed

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Speaker 1: to the coastline. After a while, he secured a position

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Speaker 1: on the Eagle, a schooner under the command of one

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Speaker 1: Captain Moriy Potter. The Eagle was armed with twelve cannons,

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Speaker 1: which was a good thing. The crew were privateers, government

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Speaker 1: commissioned pirates tasked with plundering enemies ships. In the case

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Speaker 1: of the Eagle, their targets were British merchant ships, and

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Speaker 1: Captain Potter had a reputation for being relentless and bold.

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Speaker 1: He often sailed straight to England to catch the British

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Speaker 1: ships off guard. Hawkins Journal recounted one particular evening that

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Speaker 1: the eagle came across a large British merchant ship. As usual,

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Speaker 1: Potter ordered a shot fired over the merchant ship's bow.

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Speaker 1: When the eagle drew closer, Potter demanded that the British

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Speaker 1: captain board his ship alone. After much deliberation, the enemy

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Speaker 1: captain convinced Potter to wait till morning before boarding them,

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Speaker 1: that it would take his crew hours to unbury their

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Speaker 1: wares from beneath the load of equipment they were carrying,

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Speaker 1: and oddly, Potter believed him. Even more oddly, though, he

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Speaker 1: failed to post sentries to watch the British ship overnight.

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Speaker 1: When the crew awoke at daybreak, the British were gone.

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Speaker 1: Potter set sail for Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and an attempt

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Speaker 1: to catch up with the merchant ship. The eagle was fast,

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Speaker 1: but it couldn't outrun a storm that had cropped up

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Speaker 1: for two days. The Eagle and crew tufted it out

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Speaker 1: on the gale swept seas, doing their best to keep

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Speaker 1: their ship from taking on water. Then, when they least

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Speaker 1: expected it, another ship emerged from out of the gray,

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Speaker 1: a British sloop of war called the HMS Sphinx. It

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Speaker 1: was a sort of ship that made no distinction between

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Speaker 1: privateers and pirates and hunted down ships like the Eagle

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Speaker 1: without mercy. Hawkins and the others scrambled to hoist their sails,

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Speaker 1: getting as much canvas against the wind as possible, but

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Speaker 1: the Sphinx quickly overtook them. While the men of the

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Speaker 1: Eagle fought bravely, they were outnumbered and outmatched by the British.

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Speaker 1: As Hawkins and as shipmates were brought on board the Sphinx,

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Speaker 1: they watched as their ship, already damaged, was sunk Now Prisoners, Potter,

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Speaker 1: Hawkins and the rest the crew were transferred to the

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Speaker 1: HMS Asia, a British gunship, before being offloaded the HMS Maidstone,

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Speaker 1: a Coventry class frigate. Though smaller than the Asia, the

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Speaker 1: Maidstone had been well stocked, allowing her to stay at

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Speaker 1: sea longer now, maybe it was his youth that saved

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Speaker 1: him from the prison ships, or perhaps the British needed

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Speaker 1: extra hands and found a willing young boy. Either way,

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Speaker 1: Hawkins was kept on board to serve as part of

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Speaker 1: the Maidstones crew. During the Revolutionary War, it wasn't uncommon

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Speaker 1: for the British to capture young American men and force

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Speaker 1: them into servitude. Of course, they didn't call it that.

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Speaker 1: They dressed up what was essentially kidnapping and human trafficking

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Speaker 1: by calling it impressment. The term was familiar to anyone

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Speaker 1: living in the colonies. In fact, back in seventeen fifty seven,

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Speaker 1: seven years before Hawkins was born, the British swept New

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Speaker 1: York City, taking eight hundred men prisoner and eventually keeping half.

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Speaker 1: So common was the practice that the British she used

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Speaker 1: special groups of soldiers called press gangs to roam colonial

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Speaker 1: towns and kidnap men and boys. England's king had even

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Speaker 1: declared the practice legal, using the rebellion as justification, and

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Speaker 1: so Hawkins decided that playing along with his captors was

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Speaker 1: better than being taken to a prison ship, but coming

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Speaker 1: instead both the cabin boy and waiter for the Maidstone's crew,

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Speaker 1: where he served for the next eighteen months. During his impressment,

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Speaker 1: Hawkins managed to assure his captors that he was quite

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Speaker 1: happy to be among them, and that he didn't want

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Speaker 1: to be returned home to the colonies. His lie was

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Speaker 1: so convincing that when the Maidstone docked in New York Harbor,

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Speaker 1: he and another boy were sent ashore to deliver a message.

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Speaker 1: And this had been the opportunity Hawkins had waited for.

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Speaker 1: Once ashore, he made a rent for it, hiding in

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Speaker 1: Long Island before carefully heading north to Providence, where he

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Speaker 1: found employment. It achieved what many others in a situation

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Speaker 1: had not, and his work and life were good. But

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Speaker 1: a safe life on dry land and wasn't what fulfilled him.

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Speaker 1: After a few years, his sailor's legs and patriots heart

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Speaker 1: began to look towards the sea. What he would find there, however,

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Speaker 1: would put his life at risk once more. In one

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Speaker 1: Hawkins turned seventeen January, had seen the British, led by

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Speaker 1: Benedict Donald Burne Richmond. Through spring and summer. The colonists

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Speaker 1: fought in several other battles and skirmishes, and by late

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Speaker 1: August help arrived by way of a French fleet that

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Speaker 1: entered Chesapeake Bay, effectively cutting off the British General Cornwallis's escape.

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Speaker 1: The rebels were proving much more resilient than the British

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Speaker 1: had anticipated, and Hawkins, unable to resist the call of

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Speaker 1: the sea and the excitement of privateering, returned to the coast,

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Speaker 1: finding a vessel and captain happy to have his experience.

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Speaker 1: Soon the captain and crew set course, with land four

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Speaker 1: days behind them. Hawkins was back in his element. The

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Speaker 1: smell of the ocean and the sound of the spray

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Speaker 1: against the ship made him happy. He was meant to

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Speaker 1: be a privateer, capturing British vessels and taking over their shipments.

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Speaker 1: Unlike pirates, privateers didn't keep their hard earned prizes. Instead,

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Speaker 1: they were paid a portion the remainder of the goods

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Speaker 1: helped fund the fledgling American naval fleet and support the

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Speaker 1: war effort. They were so essential that by privateers were

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Speaker 1: known as Washington's navy, and the colonists loved them. In fact,

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Speaker 1: while not officially part of the military, privateers had become

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Speaker 1: one of the colony's best weapons of war. The British

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Speaker 1: fleet was far superior to the Americans, though they had

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Speaker 1: more ships, which were all bigger and better armed. Their

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Speaker 1: men were highly trained, whereas the Americans took on anyone

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Speaker 1: willing to learn. To the British, these privateers were inferior,

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Speaker 1: and when men like Hawkins were captured, they weren't merely

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Speaker 1: prisoners of war. No to the British, they were rebellious

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Speaker 1: backwater colonists, guilty of treason and piracy. Of course, the

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Speaker 1: privateers knew the risks. They had heard the stories first

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Speaker 1: hand from the fortunate few who had either escaped or

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Speaker 1: been freed in exchange for British soldiers. They knew that

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Speaker 1: if they were captured, their fate would be far worse

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Speaker 1: than the already appalling treatment of soldiers and civilians. The

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Speaker 1: British had assumed that the rebel colonies would be beaten

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Speaker 1: back into submission quickly, but they had underestimated how scrappy

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Speaker 1: the colonists could be, how hard they'd fight for their freedom.

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Speaker 1: So as the war dragged on, the British needed more

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Speaker 1: and more prisons. When there weren't enough to hold the

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Speaker 1: number of men captured, they confiscated warehouses, churches, and other

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Speaker 1: buildings to serve that new purpose, without permission or restitution,

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Speaker 1: land and property were stripped from farm owners. British soldiers

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Speaker 1: pore down barns and whatever else they could find, scavining

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Speaker 1: for enough material to make holding cells to run the prisons.

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Speaker 1: The British commanders wanted only the cruelest of men. The

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Speaker 1: colonists were to be shown no mercy. Beatings, murders, and

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Speaker 1: torture were common, and while the Americans had certain standards

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Speaker 1: for treating prisoners of war, the British seemingly did not.

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Speaker 1: Men didn't have to be part of the Continental military

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Speaker 1: to be arrested. Colonists were occasionally charged and taken in

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Speaker 1: for failing to pledge allegiance to England. The British declared

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Speaker 1: the colonies under martial law and closed all courts when

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Speaker 1: it came to the colonists rights. Imprisonment was so prevalent

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Speaker 1: and dangerous that more colonial soldiers died in British prisons

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Speaker 1: than in battle. Those detained were fed a mere two

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Speaker 1: thirds of the rations of British soldiers, and the food

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Speaker 1: was often moldy or infested with maggots. During the winter months,

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Speaker 1: they weren't supplied with efficient blankets or clothing. Cells were

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Speaker 1: overcrowded and filthy. The men were beaten, kept without sufficient water,

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Speaker 1: and their wounds and illnesses left untreated. One evening, the

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Speaker 1: men of Hawkins ship exchanged stories about the prisons on land.

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Speaker 1: It was said that as money as twenty men shared

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Speaker 1: single prison cells. One of the sailors recounted the story

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Speaker 1: of a British captain, Cunningham, who ran a prison in Provost.

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Speaker 1: On top of the usual treatment, he had starved the

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Speaker 1: rebels and refused loved one's requests to visit. He had

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Speaker 1: even seared prisoners flesh with hot irons. Still, the men

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Speaker 1: on Hawkins ship remained hopeful, and there were rumors that

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Speaker 1: the war might be at a turning point. The fifth

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Speaker 1: day aboard the ship began just like the four, a

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Speaker 1: vast landscape of sea and sky and not much else.

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Speaker 1: But for Hawkins and the rest of the crew it

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Speaker 1: wouldn't end the same. That day to British cruisers found

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Speaker 1: their schooner outmatched and outnumbered. The British overtook the ship,

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Speaker 1: and Hawkins, along with his captain and the rest of

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Speaker 1: the crew, were immediately a rested and charged with treason.

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Speaker 1: The crew was taken to a packed ship. They consoled

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Speaker 1: themselves in the relief that they weren't treated as poorly

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Speaker 1: as some before them, that at least they weren't made

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Speaker 1: to sleep on cattle dung or drink bilge water, as

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Speaker 1: was done on some prison ships. So far, at least,

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Speaker 1: it all depended on which ship they'd be sent to next.

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Speaker 1: There were certain levels of hell, it seemed, and some

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Speaker 1: ships had worse reputations than others. The Mentor, the Argo,

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Speaker 1: and the Whitby were bad enough. The Pacific would be

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Speaker 1: far worse, though. Tales of psychological warfare and torment on

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00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:41,680
Speaker 1: that ship were rampant. Men were frequently stabbed and whipped,

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Speaker 1: often without provocation. But the worst of the worst, the

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Speaker 1: ship everyone feared, was the HMS Jersey. The treatment on

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Speaker 1: other ships was almost civil by comparison, The odds of

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Speaker 1: survival above the Jersey were nearly non existent, and worse

255
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Speaker 1: than death was the fate of those who survived for them.

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Speaker 1: The ship's nickname said it all. Prisoners called it hell afloat,

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Speaker 1: and sadly, that was precisely where Hawkins and the crew

258
00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:20,160
Speaker 1: were headed next. The h M S Jersey was a

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Speaker 1: hulk of a ship, badly damaged and needing repairs. It

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Speaker 1: found alternate use as a prison ship in seventeen eighty.

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Speaker 1: Designed to hold four hundred men. Within a year, the

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Speaker 1: ship's reputation had spread not just through the privateering community,

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Speaker 1: but throughout the colonies as well. The British thought the

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Speaker 1: ship's reputation would prove a powerful psychological weapon against the

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Speaker 1: colonial soldiers, that the treatment of men aboard the Jersey

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Speaker 1: would deter colonists from rising against them. Pamphlets and flyers

267
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Speaker 1: were created with gruesome tales of conditions, torture, and murder.

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Speaker 1: No other prison ship reported as many deaths as the Jersey.

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Speaker 1: It had the opposite effect, though The stories became proof

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Speaker 1: of British cruelty and oppression. Anger over the treatment of

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Speaker 1: their new found countrymen fueled the fires of rebellion, spurring

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Speaker 1: the colonists to fight even harder. British Commissary David Sproute

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Speaker 1: openly allowed and even encouraged the mistreatment and death of prisoners.

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Speaker 1: The men were kept below deck in almost total darkness

275
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Speaker 1: with no fresh air. In the summer, suffocation and heat

276
00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:29,960
Speaker 1: stroke were the most common causes of death. In winter,

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Speaker 1: prisoner's limbs blackened with frostbite, while other men simply froze

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Speaker 1: to death. They were fed moldy bread, rotting meat, worm

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Speaker 1: infested fruit, and something the guards called soup, which was

280
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Speaker 1: little more than bilge water mixed with brackish sludge from

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Speaker 1: the East River. Newcomers tried to pick the worms and

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Speaker 1: maggots out of their food. Long term prisoners were so

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Speaker 1: starved they didn't even bother. The cells and surrounding holding

284
00:17:55,880 --> 00:18:00,359
Speaker 1: areas were never cleaned, even when diseases transformed into epidet mix.

285
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Speaker 1: The refuse from the sick covered the floor, and the

286
00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:07,400
Speaker 1: ship was infested with lice and rats. The death poll

287
00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:11,040
Speaker 1: aboard the Jersey averaged about a dozen men every twenty

288
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Speaker 1: four hours. Corpses were left with the prisoners anywhere from

289
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Speaker 1: a day to a week, depending on the mood of

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Speaker 1: the guards. When Hawkins and the crew stepped aboard, there

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Speaker 1: were already eight hundred other prisoners. The overcrowding was discouraging enough,

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Speaker 1: but the nights were the worst, he recalled. There were

293
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Speaker 1: so many men they could hardly sit, and much less

294
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Speaker 1: lie down. Typhoid, Dysenterry's, smallpox, and yellow fever were rampant.

295
00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:41,159
Speaker 1: There was no escape from the smell, the decay, and

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Speaker 1: the sickness. Only two prisoners were allowed to visit the

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Speaker 1: upper deck at a time. He wrote, there was no

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Speaker 1: place between decks provided us to satisfy those calls. Occasionally

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Speaker 1: the guards would offer them a choice, serve the Royal

300
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Speaker 1: Navy or stay on the Jersey and die. The prisoners,

301
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Speaker 1: though all but one, chose to stay. Without much hope

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00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:06,840
Speaker 1: beyond a certain death, The men held tight to each

303
00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:10,359
Speaker 1: other as best they could. As time aboard the Jersey

304
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:14,199
Speaker 1: dragged on. Hawkins like so many of the men dreamed

305
00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:17,960
Speaker 1: of escape. Those who tried were shot, but that never

306
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:23,080
Speaker 1: stopped men from trying. By October six men had managed

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Speaker 1: to pry the bars off the starboard port silently. One

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00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:29,960
Speaker 1: by one, they lowered themselves into the water and began

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00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,560
Speaker 1: to swim away. A young boy followed them, but seeing

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Speaker 1: the others far ahead, he foolishly cried out that he

311
00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:40,679
Speaker 1: couldn't swim well. Terrified of slipping beneath the surface, the

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00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:44,360
Speaker 1: boy grabbed the gunwhale. His cries had alerted the guards,

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Speaker 1: and one of them used the butt end of his bayonet,

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Speaker 1: hitting the boy's hand so hard that bones broke through

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Speaker 1: the skin. The guard then ran the boy through with

316
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Speaker 1: a blade. Other guards fired at the other escape ese,

317
00:19:56,320 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 1: killing five. The sixth, knowing he would soon share their fate,

318
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:05,240
Speaker 1: chose instead to return. He clung to the ship's anchor chain,

319
00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:08,879
Speaker 1: keeping just his nose above the water. When the guards

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Speaker 1: gave up their watch, he climbed back aboard into the

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00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:17,000
Speaker 1: mass of prisoners. Hawkins decided then and there that, no

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Speaker 1: matter what the consequences might be, he had had enough

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Speaker 1: of the Jersey and began to plan his escape. Before long,

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Speaker 1: he and another prisoner named Waterman had managed to steal

325
00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,520
Speaker 1: an axe and the crow bar. On a stormy night,

326
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:34,160
Speaker 1: they worked, along with the claps of thunder, to hack

327
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:38,560
Speaker 1: away at bolts and bars below deck. Hawkins captain, however,

328
00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,920
Speaker 1: begged him to stay, believing that attempting an escape would

329
00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:45,359
Speaker 1: surely mean the young man's end, But death felt more

330
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Speaker 1: certain on board the Jersey. With the bolts loosened and

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00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:52,320
Speaker 1: the bars free, Hawkins covered the damage with old scraps

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00:20:52,359 --> 00:20:55,880
Speaker 1: of clothing. A haze set over the water that night,

333
00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:58,840
Speaker 1: and the two men quietly exited through the hole it

334
00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:01,399
Speaker 1: had made. Secu He at a rope and then lowered

335
00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 1: themselves into the water. The pair swam for some time

336
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Speaker 1: through the darkness, and when the lights from the Jersey

337
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:12,040
Speaker 1: had vanished from sight, Hawkins called out to waterman. When

338
00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:15,880
Speaker 1: there was no answer, fear assumed the worst, and Hawkins

339
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:18,879
Speaker 1: kept going on his own. It was only when he

340
00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:21,200
Speaker 1: had made it to shore when he realized he had

341
00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:24,719
Speaker 1: no money, no clothes, no supplies, and no one on

342
00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:29,080
Speaker 1: Long Island to call on for help. Hawkins ended up

343
00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:32,439
Speaker 1: walking until he found a barn to sleep in. Along

344
00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:36,000
Speaker 1: the way, he reluctantly stole food from orchards, and while

345
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:38,919
Speaker 1: he found assistance for a short while, when two boys

346
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:41,960
Speaker 1: stumbled upon him, a woman in the house alerted the

347
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:46,960
Speaker 1: British to his presence. Soldiers eventually captured Hawkins, promising to

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00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 1: send him right back to the Jersey, but when the

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00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:51,879
Speaker 1: guards ordered some civilians to watch over him for a

350
00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:55,119
Speaker 1: short time, Hawkins discovered they were sympathetic to the rebel

351
00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:57,960
Speaker 1: cause and turned their heads while he slipped out of

352
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:00,960
Speaker 1: the house. The rest of his travels were more of

353
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:04,200
Speaker 1: the same and stealing food and resting in unlocked barns,

354
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,439
Speaker 1: but his luck changed one day when he came across

355
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Speaker 1: one Captain Daniel Havens, the uncle of a privateer Hawkins

356
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:15,879
Speaker 1: had been impressed with on the Maidstone. Years before, Havens

357
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:18,639
Speaker 1: agreed to stow Hawkins on a smuggling vessel that was

358
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:22,680
Speaker 1: heading back home to Rhode Island. Free at last, Hawkins

359
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:26,680
Speaker 1: decided to keep his patriotic feet firmly on solid ground

360
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 1: for the rest of his life. His eyes never again

361
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:41,800
Speaker 1: wandered towards the sea. We are always weighing the cost,

362
00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:44,760
Speaker 1: whether it's the risks involved in taking on a bit

363
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:47,960
Speaker 1: of debt or uprooting our family to seek out aboutter life.

364
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Speaker 1: Our choices all come with a cost, will have to bear.

365
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:57,399
Speaker 1: During the American Revolution, people like Christopher Hawkins risked so

366
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,159
Speaker 1: much more. After all he had experience. It's hard to

367
00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:05,280
Speaker 1: blame Hawkins for settling down, But deciding he'd had enough

368
00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:08,359
Speaker 1: of a sailor's life didn't stop him from thinking about

369
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:10,720
Speaker 1: all the men he had left behind on the Jersey.

370
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:16,120
Speaker 1: He thought of them often. On October nineteenth of seventeen

371
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Speaker 1: eighty one, just two days after Hawkins had boarded that

372
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:23,919
Speaker 1: smuggler's ship to journey home, General Cornwallis surrendered to George

373
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Speaker 1: Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, But that didn't earn the men

374
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:31,520
Speaker 1: aboard the Jersey their freedom, far from it. It didn't

375
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:34,320
Speaker 1: even stop the British from transferring more prisoners onto the

376
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:38,840
Speaker 1: ship or stop the atrocities taking place on board. The

377
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:43,119
Speaker 1: Jersey would remain active until April six of seventy three.

378
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:48,520
Speaker 1: The ship's incredulous commander complained bitterly, but eventually the last

379
00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:53,200
Speaker 1: surviving prisoners were taken from the ship. They returned home, yes,

380
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:55,640
Speaker 1: but as mere shells of the men that had once

381
00:23:55,680 --> 00:24:00,880
Speaker 1: been both physically and mentally. Unable to at ease until

382
00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 1: he knew the outcome of his fellowship mates, Hawkins eventually

383
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:07,600
Speaker 1: tracked down Waterman's brother. He was relieved to hear that

384
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:10,480
Speaker 1: Waterman had also survived, although he wasn't living in the

385
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 1: area and was doing well. All that remained of that

386
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:17,680
Speaker 1: dark time in his life was the Jersey itself, an

387
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:20,680
Speaker 1: empty ghost of a ship still floating in the bay,

388
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:25,640
Speaker 1: that is, until some unknown individuals set at ablaze, letting

389
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:28,920
Speaker 1: it burn until the ship, known as hell Afloat, sank

390
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:32,560
Speaker 1: to the bottom of the bay, close enough perhaps to

391
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:37,760
Speaker 1: the depths of Hell. After that, Hawkins moved to Connecticut

392
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 1: and finally Newport, New York, where he settled down and

393
00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,960
Speaker 1: took a job as the town supervisor. Well, he had

394
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:47,120
Speaker 1: no urge to spend another moment at sea. He never

395
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:50,640
Speaker 1: forgot his time there, nor the men he sailed alongside.

396
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,960
Speaker 1: When he turned seventy, Hawkins decided to record his story.

397
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Speaker 1: He didn't think of it as the sort of tale

398
00:24:57,280 --> 00:24:59,919
Speaker 1: one might find in the history books, but he wanted

399
00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:02,879
Speaker 1: to make sure the sacrifice of his fellow privateers was

400
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:07,280
Speaker 1: never forgotten or lost to time. Not all tales of

401
00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:10,240
Speaker 1: bravery are easy to hear, and there are plenty of

402
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:14,640
Speaker 1: dark shadows across the records he left behind. But by

403
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:17,720
Speaker 1: writing it all down for us, Christopher Hawkins made one

404
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 1: truth abundantly clear. It's never a bad time to sing

405
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:33,159
Speaker 1: the praises of the unsung hero. There's more to this story.

406
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:36,359
Speaker 1: Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all

407
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 1: about it. Daniel Benton, son of one polland Connecticut's first settlers,

408
00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 1: built his colonial family homestead in on the forty acres

409
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 1: given to him by his father. Over time, his father

410
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,399
Speaker 1: passed additional tracts of land to him, for a total

411
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:01,960
Speaker 1: of a hundred thirty one acres. Collectively, the Bentons owned

412
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:05,359
Speaker 1: over four hundred. For our metric friends, that's about a

413
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 1: hundred sixty hectores, a true patriot and the believer in

414
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,919
Speaker 1: the strength of family. Daniel taught those values to his

415
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 1: sons and grandsons, all of whom lived on the homestead.

416
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:19,640
Speaker 1: The property would stay in the family for six more generations.

417
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 1: All of Daniel's sons followed in their father's patriotic footsteps

418
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,160
Speaker 1: and served in the French and Indian War, and when

419
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:31,840
Speaker 1: his sons had boys of their own, well, they served too.

420
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:36,640
Speaker 1: In fact, one of Daniel's sons, also named Daniel, had

421
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:39,320
Speaker 1: three boys who all proudly went off to serve in

422
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:43,800
Speaker 1: the American Revolution. But before he left for battle, Daniel's

423
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: eldest grandson, Elijah, promised his sweetheart, a girl named Jemima

424
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:52,199
Speaker 1: Barrows that had returned to her shortly. While the brothers

425
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 1: were at war, the Benton homestead was called upon to

426
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:57,639
Speaker 1: do their part and offered to house prisoners in the

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Speaker 1: farmhouse basement. The British had hired Germanic mercenaries to supplement

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00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,840
Speaker 1: their forces, and the Betons makeshift prison housed them both.

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00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:09,520
Speaker 1: The family took care of their prisoners, though, ensuring that

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00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,600
Speaker 1: they were well fed, given plenty of clean water for drinking,

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00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:15,880
Speaker 1: and hygiene and supplying them with clothing, blankets, and even

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00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:18,679
Speaker 1: wood for the basement fireplace during the cold winter months.

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Speaker 1: In September of seventeen seventy six, during the Battle of

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00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:26,760
Speaker 1: Long Island, the Continental troops were easily bested by the British,

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00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 1: losing one thousand one men. But while the Benton brothers

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00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:34,680
Speaker 1: fought in the battle, they all managed to survive long

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00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:38,920
Speaker 1: enough to be captured, they weren't given the same treatment

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00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: their family gave the British back home. The brothers were

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00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 1: whisked off to a prison ship in Long Island Bay,

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00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: forced to work menial and pointless jobs and live in

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00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: unsanitary conditions, starved, beaten. Only one of the brothers ultimately survived,

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00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 1: and then when a wave of smallpox spread through the ship,

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00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 1: Elijah began to show symptoms. During a prisoner exchange, Elijah

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00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: was chosen in trade for British soldiers. While survivable, the

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00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:11,160
Speaker 1: disease was still deadly. The British often selected infected men

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00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:14,160
Speaker 1: for prisoner swaps in the hopes that infect their fellow

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00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:18,160
Speaker 1: soldiers or the rebel families and towns that had come from.

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00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 1: While the family was grief stricken that they had lost

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00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:23,920
Speaker 1: two of the brothers. They were also relieved that Elijah

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00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:28,240
Speaker 1: had survived. Back home, they placed him in quarantine, but

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00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: his sweetheart Jemima soon rushed to be by his side.

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00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:35,560
Speaker 1: At first, the Bentons tried to turn her away, but

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00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: Jemima snucked into the house and by law, none had

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00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:44,280
Speaker 1: to be under quarantine herself. There she cared for Alasha

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00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 1: every day until he died on January twenty one, seventeen

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00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: seventy seven, two weak and worn from his treatment, to

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00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:56,240
Speaker 1: board the prison ship. Tragically, Jemima also became sick and

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00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:59,040
Speaker 1: died alone in the same room just one month later.

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Speaker 1: The families agreed that although the young couple couldn't be

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00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 1: buried together since they weren't married, they decided to place

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00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:12,080
Speaker 1: them near one another. Today, the Benton Homestead is a museum.

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00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:15,920
Speaker 1: Elishah and Demim's graves are still on the property, undisturbed

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00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 1: after all these years, with an old carriage road passing

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00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 1: between them, close but probably not close enough. Oh and

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00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:29,160
Speaker 1: that ship where the Benton brothers were imprisoned. The Jersey

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Speaker 1: American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was

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00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:46,960
Speaker 1: written by Michelle Muto, with researcher Robin Miniter and produced

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00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:51,480
Speaker 1: by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Minky,

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00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:55,320
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show,

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00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 1: visit grim and mile dot com. For more podcasts from

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00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:13,680
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts m HM