The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn: An Untold Story of the American Revolution
By: Robert P. Watson / Narrated By: Bob Hess
Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
Half historical treatise and half sheer horror show… thanks England!
I do so love a good audiobook sale, and as I’ve a slew of accounts, like, everywhere, I take advantage of any I come across. Now, while a credit is somewhat pricey over on audiobooks.com, they DO have magnificent 2 for 1 monthly sales on various subjects and, as you can’t mix categories, you’re left with a decision: Here’s ONE audiobook I WANT, but jeez, none of the rest is shouting: Get me NOW. This leads to some pretty cool discoveries. I don’t remember which other audiobook I WANTED, but I do recall seeing The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn as an offering and chose it as the second choice for m’ credit swap. I mean, have you seen our Revolutionary War section?! Can you say: Gee, there’s nothing there?
HAD to get it!
And am quite glad I took the chance on this. What do I love more than History if not a horror show (Uhm, esPECially since there’s no person hopping up in the audience shouting: Too Soooon!!!)? And while the writing does get rather repetitive, in no way does it ever become boring, and it certainly never becomes dull. It’s just, how much of: They were starved and beaten and they lived in their own excrement can an individual listen to before thinking, “Wha? Again? Still?”
So there’s that. For 9-hours. But dude! seriously! That War section is sooo sorely lacking, and actually? I’d never ever ever ever heard of prison ships being used during the Revolutionary War. Zip, not a peep. It was only Paul Revere, and that’s about it before History classes moved onto other more recent things. Like, oh say, the Civil War… which might’ve received two chapters cuz even that wasn’t relevant enough to a little kid’s life.
Ostensibly about all the prison ships, ostensibly about the fates of Patriots who landed there, The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn is mostly about the HMS Jersey, and most of its materials studied are of five individuals. Before veterans of that war could receive any sort of pensions (Like, eeeeeons after the shouting and the fighting), they had to prove that they had served. After the passage of so much time, it was difficult to prove, and this led to individuals writing their memories, with as much detail as they could.
Which leads author Robert P. Watson to some real gems, some extensive memories/recounting. All of this is mixed with snippets of information gleaned from other sources, but it’s all tied to run together fairly smoothly. The takeaway?
Man, I weep for mankind cuz if pics from Abu Ghraib freaked you out over Man’s Inhumanity to Man? Well, apPARently we’ve quite the capacity of numbing ourselves to cruelty in the heat of battle. Time and time again, Watson’s sources recount guards, taken from all nationalities (‘Tain’t only the British but also Scots, Hessians, other nationalities doing guard duty on the vessels) inflicting cruelty and humiliation upon those within the bowels of the floating dungeons. Be it something as relatively benign as verbal abuse and roughness, all the way to punishing would-be escapees with slashes by broadswords and peppered with musket shot, then depositing the dying before others (Hey, nothing says Do Not Attempt like tortuous deaths), the prisoners kept on the vessels suffered and endured not on a day by day basis but from minute to minute. Those who couldn’t endure died slow painful deaths.
The wake up call for prisoners/Patriots was: “Rebels, bring out your dead.”
And the kindest thing any Patriot heard from guards was, “(Expletive) Rebel”. Other than that, it was suffering from poor rations, if any; suffering from being poorly clothed in frigid temperatures from icy winds that swept over the waters; suffering from lice crawling everywhere; suffering from small holes as the only source of ventilation, the only source of light. Indeed, overcrowding sometimes extinguished flames from light sources—just insufficient oxygen.
And I’m going to cut narrator Bob Hess some slack cuz he kept me engaged throughout. Granted, the writing was pretty goshdanged good, but I sooo liked Hess’ enthusiasm and his avuncular: Gee-this-is-tragic tones. He really emphasized the tragic parts without overwhelming this listener. So he was grand, it’s just that? Oh my, either the producers weren’t paying attention so Boooo them; -or- Hess’ recording equipment ain’t the best. Cuz you could tell exACTly where he flubbed his reading as the ol’ Punch-and-Roll recording varied wildly from flub to flub. Sooo, it wasn’t so bad as to warrant an: Atrocious! rating. But it was enough to kinda take me outta the flow for some time. Still, this is practically ancient history, is it not? So Bravo to him for making it seem immediate and emotionally evocative.
Speaking of ancient history and kudos? Author Watson himself is to be congratulated as he made this seem immediate as well. For the ending he recounts how the prison ships and all who were held there, or who died on them (Estimates are approximately 11,000…+…) came to be forgotten by the country. America was moving on to bigger and better things, and it took people like Walt Whitman to remind the populace, like, decades later. And it wouldn’t be for more decades beyond even his efforts, before the victims were acknowledged and remembered.
For a History book, seriously, this isn’t a long book. It’ll take so little of your time, but you’ll learn so much. Plus, you’ll be honoring a part of our history as American Patriots.
Huzzah and Thank You!!!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.