Convict Ships

Source

Notes 

Prisoners Of War In Britain

From Prisoners of war in Britain, 1756 to 1815; a record of their lives, their romance and their sufferings:


As to the sickness on board the hulks...the Government had the following table drawn up relative to the hulks at Portsmouth in a month of 1813:

Source

...published tables of prison mortality in England in confirmation of the belief among his countrymen that it was part of England's diabolic policy to make prisoners of war or to kill or incapacitate them by neglect or ill-treatment. Between 1803 and 1814, the total number of prisoners brought to England was 122,440.

The Death Of Captain Nicholas Biddle

Songs, Odes, and Other Poems..... was dedicated to Captain Biddle's memory.

A poem about Captain Biddle was included in the volume:

Captain Biddle died on the Randolph frigate.

Passenger Lists At Ancestry

The folks at Ancestry are allowing free access to their passenger list databases until the end of 2006. So I thought I’d try a few searches. Among those I’ve found were Alger family members of Detroit and Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Russell A. Alger, Sr., was a Michigan Senator and Governor and was also the Secretary of Defense during the Spanish-American War. Mrs. Alger was a descendant of Wait Squier, connecting the Alger family to members of my family. Sailing on the S.S. Kaiser Wilhelm II from Cherbourg on March 18, 1908, were Mrs. Russell A. Alger, Jr., and daughters Josephine and Fay. I didn’t remember a Josephine Alger, so I did a “Google” search and found information about her in the Grosse Pointe newspapers. To see a boatload (!) of Alger references in the Grosse Pointe newspapers, see the link at the Grosse Pointe Library sponsored by the historical society.

The S.S. Calamares sailed from Port Antonio, Jamaica, in 1914 with members of the Alger family on board. While looking through the same manifest (online at www.ancestry.com), I noticed the name Stewart Grafton. A nice coincidence -- the Graftons are also in my genealogical database as relatives of my Howard relatives in Canada. A quick “Google” search found the following links to the Graftons:

Biography of James Beatty Grafton

Apparently the Graftons were from South Carolina ---

WorldConnect Database of Graftons in South Carolina & Mississippi

Grafton Land Grants On The Mississippi

Also found were Gottlieb & Fannie Palm (on one of their trips from Germany back to the United States) as well as Eve Billo who went to the Territory of Hawaii in the 1950’s. There are plenty more queries before 2007 arrives!

Ezra Younglove in War of 1812

…Perry with his little fleet engaged the enemy on Lake Erie. A call was made for 150 picked Kentucky volunteers to man the fleet. Among these were three men known to be from Christian, Ezra Younglove, John Anderson and Washington Dunkerson, who were assigned to the ship Niagara. It is related of one of them, perhaps Dunkerson, that in the hottest of the fight, and when the colors had been shot away, he climbed into the rigging and re-nailed them to the mast, in the face of a murderous fire from the enemy. Years afterward, and while Col. George Poindexter was a member, the Legislature of Kentucky voted a gold medal to each of these heroes. On the obverse of this medal was the name of one of the soldiers. and on the reverse the ship Niagara in action, and the date of the engagement.
[From: http://www.kyseeker.com/christian/perrin/chap7.html]


Muster of U.S. Brig “Niagara” in War of 1812:
http://www.brigniagara.org/muster.htm

Brig Niagara – Page from the National Park Service:
http://www.nps.gov/pevi/HTML/Niagara.html