HMS Jersey (1736)
The Jersey Prison Ship as moored at the Wallabout near Long Island, in the year 1782
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| History | |
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 Great Britain
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| Name: | HMS Jersey |
| Builder: | Plymouth Dockyard |
| Launched: | 14 June 1736 |
| Fate: | Abandoned and burned to prevent capture, 1783 |
| Notes: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 1733 proposals 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1,065 long tons (1,082.1 t) |
| Length: | 144 ft (43.9 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 41 ft 5 in (12.6 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 16 ft 11 in (5.2 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Armament: |
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HMS Jersey was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment of dimensions at Plymouth Dockyard, and launched on 14 June 1736. She is perhaps most noted for her service as a prison ship during the American Revolutionary War.
Jersey was built during a time of peace in Britain. Length: 44 m; 1,068 bm tons; Crew: 400; Armament: 24x24 pdr, 26x9 pdr, 10x6 pdr; built in 1736. Her first battle was in Admiral Edward Vernon's defeated attack on the Spanish port of Cartagena, Colombia, around the beginning of the War of Jenkins' Ear in October 1739. She was badly damaged in battle in June 1745, with her captain's log recording the loss of all sails and:
The braces, bowlines shot away several times, also the staysail halyards. The running rigging very much shattered. The main topsail yard shot ... the foremast shot through about the collar of the mainstay, and another wound in the after part of the mast ... the mainmast shot about two thirds up from the deck and divided [to] the starboard. Ship making 11 inches of water an hour occasioned by two shots in the counter, under the water line.
Jersey next saw action in the Seven Years' War and also took part in the Battle of Lagos under Admiral Edward Boscawen on 18–19 August 1759.
In March 1771, the aging Jersey was converted to a hospital ship In the winter of 1779-1780, she was hulked and converted to a prison ship in Wallabout Bay, New York, which would later become the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She became infamous due to the harsh conditions in which the prisoners were kept. Thousands of men were crammed below decks where there was no natural light or fresh air and few provisions for the sick and hungry. James Forten was one of those imprisoned aboard her during this period. Political tensions only made the prisoners' days worse, with brutal mistreatment by the British guards becoming fairly common. As many as eight corpses a day were buried from the Jersey alone before the British surrendered at Yorktown on 19 October 1781. When the British evacuated New York at the end of 1783, Jersey was abandoned and burned.
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