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No distinction of rank was made by the jailors on the Jersey, but the prisoners themselves agreed to allow the officers to occupy the extreme afterpart of the ship, between decks, called the gun-room. Dring soon became an inmate of this place, in company with the other officers who were already in possession, and these tendered him all the little services in their power.
Captain Dring says that at that time the Jersey was used for seamen alone. The average number on board was one thousand. It consisted of the crews of vessels of all the nations with which the English were at war. But the greater number had been captured on board American vessels.
We have only to lament that the endeavors of those who went, for the same laudable purpose, to Philadelphia, have not hitherto been so fortunate." This was published before the release of Captain Dring and the crew of the Chance, and shows that they were not the only prisoners who were so happy as to be exchanged that summer.
The specimen of the species of Helix I have above mentioned was found by Mr. Dring, one of our most successful collectors in that department. Leaving Depuch Island, we examined the coast to the eastward as far as the Turtle Isles, a distance of eighty-five miles, the first twenty-seven of which trended North 55 degrees East, and the remainder North 67 degrees East curving slightly inwards.
This book was published in 1865, having been prepared for the press and annotated by Mr. Albert G. Greene, who speaks of Captain Dring as "a frank, outspoken, and honest seaman." His original manuscript was first published in 1829.
Dring describes the prison ships as leaky old hulks, condemned as unfit for hospitals or store ships, but considered good enough for prisoners doomed to speedy annihilation.
Captain Dring continues his narrative by describing the manner in which the dead were interred in the sand of the Wallabout. Every morning, he says, the dead bodies were carried to the upper deck and there laid upon the gratings. Any person who could procure, and chose to furnish, a blanket, was allowed to sew it around the remains of his departed companion.
These were on the after part of the upper deck, on the larboard side, where those who felt the symptoms of approaching sickness could lie down, in order to be found by the nurses as soon as possible. Few ever returned from the hospital ships to the Jersey. Dring knew but three such instances during his imprisonment.
"I was again captured in 1782," Dring continues, "and conveyed on board the Jersey, where * I was a witness and partaker of the unspeakable sufferings of that wretched class of American prisoners who were there taught the utmost extreme of human misery. I am now far advanced in years, and am the only survivor, with the exception of two, of a crew of 65 men.
I am a CATHOLIQUE, you is a SCHISMATIQUE; you thing it is wrong to dring some coffee well, then, it IS wrong; you thing it is wrong to make the sugah to ged the so large price well, then, it IS wrong; I thing it is right well, then, it IS right; it is all 'abit; c'est tout. What a man thing is right, IS RIGHT; 'tis all 'abit.
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