"Stone Walls Do Not A Prison Make"

A quick note: my name is Mike Romero, and I'm a Historic Interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg.  The postings I make on this site are my own personal opinions and research, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Colonial Williamsburg.  With that said, enjoy the read!

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A plan of Mill Prison near Plymouth, England.

As the American Revolution raged from 1775 to 1783, combatants on both sides discovered just how fickle the fortunes of war could be.  Depending on the day, the Continental Army is driven out of New York, General Burgoyne is captured at Saratoga, the Continental Navy is sent running from Penobscot, John Paul Jones captures the Serapis in a dilapidated old tub, Charleston is besieged and taken by the British, and the combined Franco-American army is victorious at Yorktown.  Thousands of prisoners were taken on both sides, marched to remote camps, held aboard disease-ridden prison hulks, and incarcerated in prison facilities on both continents.

However, for some in the Continental and Virginia Navies, being taken prisoner was not the end of the story...

On February 6, 1777, the Virginia Navy brig Mosquito departed the Virginia Capes, bound for the West Indies to cruise against British shipping.  In late March, Mosquito captures the transport Noble bound for Antigua carrying beef, bacon, candles, flour...and smallpox.  With her crew quarantined and forced to undergo inoculation, Mosquito is held at Guadeloupe for nearly three months.  Shortly after departure on the evening of June 4, Mosquito is sighted, overhauled, and captured by the 20-gun HMS Ariadne.

Her officers, including Captain John Harris, Lieutenants Byrd Chamberlayne and George Chamberlaine, and Marine Captain Alexander Dick are conveyed to Forten Prison in England while the rest of Mosquito's crew languishes in Barbados.  Considered rebels rather than prisoners of war, the Virginia officers are only granted two thirds of the rations normally allotted.  Despite severe punishments including solitary confinement and even further reductions in rations, Captain Dick and several other prisoners manage to get away:

     "The pavements of the lower floors were all laid with bricks.  Some managed to take up the bricks,      and dig down until they got below the wall, then dig outside the pickets.  This was all done by        concealing the dirt in some parts of the prison....At this time ten men....all officers, made          their escape, to wit: Second Lieutenant Benjamin Chew, Jess Harding, Robert Ewart, Benjamin            Whalen...Captain Meredith of Hampton, Captain Dick, a Mr. Moore, a Mr. Martin, Colonel Webber and      Colonel Bibbitrong."

Lieutenants Chamberlayne and Chamberlaine also somehow managed an escape and were back in Virginia before June 25, 1778.  At this point, the Navy Board Journal mentions they were "given leave of absence for a fortnight."  Duty called, apparently.

Richard Dale, veteran of the
Virginia Navy, Continental Navy,
and a future Commodore
in the United States Navy.

Richard Dale joins the Virginia Navy in late 1775, but is captured by the crew of HMS Liverpool in March 1776.  While confined in a prison ship off Norfolk, Dale is compelled by a former schoolmate serving with the British to take part in an engagement against rebel forces on the Rappahannock River.  Dale is wounded, but resolves to return to the patriot cause at the earliest opportunity.

After the British vessel Dale is travelling aboard is captured by Captain John Barry of the brig Lexington, he volunteers to serve in the Continental Navy.  Serving well under Barry, Dale is rated midshipman and later master's mate by Lexington's next captain. Unfortunately, in late 1776, Dale is captured by the British a second time along with several other members of Lexington's crew.  His second incarceration is short; Dale is exchanged in January 1777 and returns to his ship.  Later that year, under Captain Henry Johnston, Lexington is cruising with a small squadron off Ireland where their exploits quickly draw the attention of the Royal Navy. Lexington is pursued and captured in September 1777, and Dale's third round of incarceration begins at Mill Prison.

As at Mill Prison, American prisoners are forced to subsist on reduced rations and punished harshly for attempting escape.  Dale and another prisoner manage to dig a tunnel under the prison walls, but are recaptured in London while attempting to find passage to Dunkirk.  Dale spends forty days confined in a pit known as the "Black Hole" as a reward.  Following this round in solitary confinement, Dale begins keeping a journal which he uses to continue his education in mathematics, stocks and barter, and a dictionary of naval terms necessary for commanding a ship.  In February of 1779, Dale escapes for good: he never records the exact details, but is able to steal the uniform of a British officer and simply walk out of the prison.

Dale eventually makes his way to L'Orient, where he joins the crew of Bonhomme Richard as master's mate and later first lieutenant under John Paul Jones. In the later years of the American Revolution, Dale serves aboard the frigate Trumbull (where he is briefly captured a FOURTH time) and ascends to command the privateer Queen of France.  In the early 1790's, Dale becomes one of the first six officers of the United States Navy, supervising construction of the USS Chesapeake in Virginia.

Captain Gustavus Conyngham
became one of King George's
most hated rebels after commanding
a series of successful privateer
cruises along the British coast.

Gustavus Conyngham has been referred to as "the most successful of all Continental Navy captains."  (Not a difficult title to earn given the poor caliber of captains such as Dudley Saltonstall and James Nicholson, but this is beside the point.)  Born in Ireland in 1747, Conyngham immigrates to Philadelphia, learning the shipping trade and eventually rising to the command of a small merchant vessel named the Charming Peggy.  Conyngham is in Britain at the outbreak of the American Revolution, and attempts to load his vessel with a cargo of various good and stores that he believes will be of great use to the American war effort.  Nearly captured and trapped in Dutch waters, Conyngham sells Charming Peggy to Dutch officials to avoid its seizure by the British.

Eventually travelling to Paris and meeting with Benjamin Franklin, Conyngham is commissioned as a captain in the Continental Navy and appointed to command the lugger Surprise on March 1, 1777.  Cruising in Surprise and later Revenge (mounting political pressure from the British nearly results in his imprisonment by the French as an attempt to maintain their 'neutrality' at the time, causing his original commission to be confiscated and relinquishing command of Surprise) off the British Isles, Conyngham takes approximately two dozen prizes, causing the costs associated with shipping to rise to a (then) all-time high in Britain. Conyngham is frequently denounced as a pirate in the British press, and King George himself reputedly expressed a desire to personally witness Conyngham's hanging.

His Majesty almost gets his wish; having crossed the ocean and completed a successful cruise in the West Indies, Revenge is captured by HMS Galatea off New York on April 27, 1779.  British leaders are ecstatic at his capture; Conyngham spends weeks nearly starving in a New York prison before being taken to the waterfront in a hangman's cart, and put aboard a packet for London to be tried and hanged as a pirate.  Mounting political pressure from America and France prevent Conyngham's execution (General George Washington himself threatens to execute six captured British officers if Conyngham is hanged), and he is incarcerated in Mill Prison instead.  Like other inmates of Mill Prison, Conyngham was offered his freedom if he would consent to join the Royal Navy; not only does he refuse, Conyngham encourages many other American prisoners to sign a document stating their refusal to join the Royal Navy no matter how terrible conditions become. Conyngham is tossed into the "Black Hole" mentioned earlier for his trouble, repeating the experience following each of many attempted escapes.

In one instance, Conyngham mingles with a group of visitors, and simply walks out of the prison gates, though he is recognized by a woman before he can leave the crowd and quickly apprehended.  Later, Conyngham attempts to disguise himself as one of the prison doctors by dressing in a suit of dark clothes and wire-rimmed frames (without the glass) and imitating the doctor's peculiar gait; he passes through the prison gates and makes it as far as nearby Plymouth before being recognized by one of the prison peddlers.  Conyngham and fifty-three other sailors finally escape Mill Prison for good by tunneling beneath the walls on November 3, 1779.  (Perhaps he heard about Captain Dick's escape from Forten Prison the previous year.)

Conyngham successfully makes his way to the continent, sails with John Paul Jones aboard Alliance for a time...only to be captured aboard Experiment on March 17, 1780 and returned to Mill Prison.  Conyngham is eventually exchanged and begins fitting out the Dutch vessel Layona for another cruise, when word of a peace treaty reaches him. Conyngham returns to America, serving in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France, and is later elected to the Common Council of Philadelphia.

While some of these stories may read like historical fiction or even tragi-comedy at times (thinking of Conyngham imitating the prison doctor always makes me smile), the great perseverance in adversity and unwavering dedication to duty demonstrated by these early Americans helped create the traditions of service and personal sacrifice still followed by the US Armed Forces today.  My ongoing respect and thanks for all who serve or have served.

Sources:
1. Cross, Charles B.  A Navy for Virginia: A Colony's Fleet in the Revolution.  (The Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, 1981).
2. Stewart, Robert A.  The History of Virginia's Navy of the Revolution.  (Mitchell and Hotchkins, 1933).
3. McGrath, Tim.  Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea.  (The Penguin Group, 2014).