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Thursday, June 08, 2006

Sunday June 8. 1777
This being the Lord’s Day we could hear the church bells ringing in Plymouth this morning and afterwards a large number of well meaning people from town came to the prison gates to donate money for us. Many of our men are ill fed and some have already traded away nearly all of their clothing in exchange for food. Some our more industrious men have taken to carving wooden utensils and making boxes to sell. I too plan to take up this occupation to avoid the state that some of the men are in.

We are allowed out of the Long Prison to walk in the yard from ten to noon. The turnkeys lock us down in the Long Prison from noon until three when we are allowed back out until evening. However, yesterday before I arrived from my examination the men here were locked down all day due to one of the guards being insulted by an American. I have seen the Keeper of this Prison, William Cowdry, and I can tell that he will be trouble for us.

Our yard is quite large with the Long Prison making up a portion of the north wall. The Long Prison is two stories high with windows on both floors facing to the south with a good view of the Sound. We can watch the ships beating up and down the Sound from the Long Prison and from certain places in the yard. We are issued hammocks which hang from the low rafters on both floors of the prison. We are also dividing ourselves into messes as were were on our ships before our capture. The captains of our ships have already begun to impose shipboard discipline among the men.

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