Jersey was built during a time of peace in Britain. Length: 44 m; 1,068 bm tons; Crew: 400; Armament: 24x24 pdr, 26x9 pdr, 10x6 pdr; built in 1736. Her first battle was in Admiral Edward Vernon's defeated attack on the Spanish port of Cartagena, Colombia, around the beginning of the War of Jenkins' Ear in October 1739. She was badly damaged in battle in June 1745, with her captain's log recording the loss of all sails and: Jersey next saw action in the Seven Years' War and also took part in the Battle of Lagos under Admiral Edward Boscawen on 18–19 August 1759.
In March 1771, the aging Jersey was converted to a hospital ship In the winter of 1779–1780, she was hulked and converted to a prison ship in Wallabout Bay, New York, which would later become the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She became infamous due to the harsh conditions in which the prisoners were kept. Thousands of men were crammed below decks where there was no natural light or fresh air and few provisions for the sick and hungry. As many as 1,100 men were imprisoned at a time in a ship designed for 400 sailors, and as many as 8,000 prisoners were registered on Jersey over the course of the war. James Forten was one of those imprisoned aboard her during this period. Political tensions only made the prisoners' days worse, with brutal mistreatment by the British guards becoming fairly common. As many as eight corpses a day were buried from the Jersey alone before the British surrendered at Yorktown on 19 October 1781. When the British evacuated New York at the end of 1783, Jersey was abandoned and burned. Christopher Vail, of Southold, who was aboard Jersey in 1781, later wrote: In 1778, Robert Sheffield of Stonington, Connecticut, escaped from one of the prison ships, and told his story in the Connecticut Gazette, printed 10 July 1778. He was one of 350 prisoners held in a compartment below the decks. The Department of Defense currently lists 4,435 US battle deaths during the Revolutionary War. Another 20,000 died in captivity, from disease, or for other reasons. Estimates of deaths aboard the New York prison ships vary around 8,000. Prisoner exchanges were hardly possible for two reasons: the British often captured far more prisoners than the Americans did, and George Washington did not favor exchanging veteran British soldiers for ragtag American troops, as it would only put his army at a greater disadvantage. Accounts of imprisonment on HMS Jersey are American Heritage Magazine and on prison ships American Heritage Magazine.
Rediscovery of ''Jersey''
During October 1902 as the keel of the ship USS Connecticut was under construction at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that HMS Jersey had been found. While pile driving a new dock, the wood from the ship was encountered, precisely where the burned hulk was reported to lay after the British abandoned the ship and she was set on fire.
