British Prison Ships

The dreadful secrets of these prison caves half sunk, half floating on my hudson’s waves. Philip Freneau, known as the poet of the American Revolution wrote The British Prison Ship as a first-person account of a six week ordeal on British prison ships. The HMS Jersey, the most notorious of them all. Most prisoners knew what would become of them on these ships, a floating receptacle of human misery. The number of supporters of the patriotic cause (some 11,000 or more) who died aboard the HMS Jersey and other British prison ships is far greater than the number believed to have been killed in combat in the American armed forces (around 4,500) over the course of the Revolutionary War. This is from our October 2021 Tee Party. Our shirts run a little small and are athletic fit so if you are in-between sizes or are unsure, please order up one size.