New York prison ship category?

Question

I was looking for a category for somebody who survived one of the New York prison ships during the Revolutionary War. I see a category for people who died in them, and a category for English prison hulks, which doesn't seem to have the New York prison ships. 

Answer 1

Hi Kate, it might help to include a tag for categorization and 1776 for the for the American Revolutionary War Project.  I, too, am interested in this topic.

Answer 2

I'm answering again to reset the question.

Answer 3

The ship isn't identified, but is this OK? https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Prisoner_of_War_Ships%2C_New_York_Harbor%2C_British_American_Revolution_Camps_for_American_POWs

Comments

Looks good (although a bit long), thanks. 

PS Actually, I could not get it into my guy's profile. Maybe just too unwieldy? Also it has a note on it "This is a high level category. Please do not add individual profiles. Add profiles to the narrowest category possible."

---

I saw the notes - this category is for ships. It is also marked as a top level category - not for individual profiles.

I live far away from USA. I only observe that the category seems odd for the collection of a small number of profiles.

---

Hi Kate, I had the same idea as you to add this category to Jacob's profile. The category wasn't added because it was too unwieldy. It needed the word "Category:" at the start of [[Category: Prisoner of War Ships, New York Harbor, British American Revolution Camps for American POWs]]

---

That category is unusual for a high level category (in particular saying "This category contains ship categories of Prisoner of War Ships") in that it doesn't actually have any subcategories.

---

According to this webpage, the only extant prisoner list in British records was for the Jersey, although there were several other ships. We might not be able to get more narrow of a category. 

http://usmm.org/revdead.html

---

The New York Prison Ships in the American Revolution

By Commander Louis H. Roddis (MC.), U. S. Navy

March 1935

Proceedings U.S. Naval Institute

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1935/march/new-york-prison-ships-american-revolution

Vol. 61/3/385

and

Wikipedia contributors, "Prisoners of war in the American Revolutionary War," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prisoners_of_war_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War&oldid=1186712293 (accessed January 17, 2024).

This category is potentially fairly large.  The available records would probably be US pension files (vague memories of elderly people) and/or prisoner exchange lists from British files.  Specific ship names might be hard to come by. 

---

I had read the Naval Institute article, which is why I brought up the topic in the first place. Also a list of ships and prisoners at http://www.usmm.org/revdead.html. But using a general category for American prisoners is okay with me. Maybe it's unusual to find a record of somebody who survived those ships. And Jacob Getcheus turned Loyalist and moved to Nova Scotia after being an American POW, so he probably isn't a typical case (except that maybe taking on the job of commanding British ships is part of the reason he survived). Reading the page with the list of ships and people, it looks like there aren't any good records of who was on what prison ship and what happened to them.

---

Richard Stockton is a notable survivor, Washington arranged for his release.  He was the only signer of the Declaration to recant (to save his life) and swear allegiance to the King; they broke him in just a couple months.

---

@Kate. I have limited knowledge about the history.

As an outsider, the categories seem confusing to me. In my opinion, [[Category: Prisoner of War Ships, New York Harbor, British American Revolution Camps for American POWs]] should not be identified as a high level category that does not contain individual profiles.

It would be more clear to me if the POWS were identified in the more general [[Category: British American Revolution Camps for American POWs]]

If it is useful to identify by ship, I like the example of [[Category: Torbay Prison Ship, Charleston, South Carolina]]