Expertly applying his extensive research, Watson spares no detail on the prison ship HMS Jersey, including all of the shocking ones. By telling this story as fully as he possibly can, he shines an updated, overdue, and quite bright spotlight on a curiously forgotten chapter of the American Revolution. I also personally think that by giving modern day readers an opportunity to learn (and quite thoroughly to boot) about the Jersey, not only has Watson crafted a solid history, but he has honored the thousands who perished about that floating horror as best as he possibly can.

Unfortunately I wasn't in the right frame of mind for nonfiction when my request for this title was approved. My library did purchase and I ended up recommending it to another staff member who read it and really enjoyed it. I promise I'll get to it eventually-- it seems really interesting!

Robert Watson's The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn is an account of a fairly little-known aspect of the American Revolution: the treatment of the prisoners of war held on hulks near the city of New York. The book is fairly well written, though a bit repetitive at times. Its scope is broader than what the title would indicate: Watson doesn't just deal with "The Ghost Ship" (HMS Jersey). He writes about a number of different hulks used by the British as prisons, as well as digressing into brief histories of a number of different prisoners, giving their personal stories, how they were captured, and what they did after the war. I don't mind Watson using these stories to try to add a personal touch to general arc of this tragic story.

However, I came away from this book with the idea that Watson has a bit of an us vs. them mentality when it came to the British treatment of prisoners. While there certainly was a high level of violence and a callous disregard for human life present among many of the British at this time, it was not unique to them. The 1700's were violent times, and the Revolutionary War was particularly violent even for that time period. For a broader and less biased account of the violent nature of this war and the treatment of prisoners on both sides, I would recommend Scars of Independence by Holger Hoock. While this book contains plenty of enlightening information and, occasionally, good storytelling, it still left me a bit disappointed overall.

I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher and was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I express in this review are entirely my own.

Robert P Watson has given a voice to so many that have been forgotten. The HMS Jersey was docked just 100 yards off New York - and mere blocks to my current apartment. The HMS Jersey was a literal living hell for thousands of Americans either captured by the British or accused of disloyalty during the American Revolution.

From the publisher: "Crammed below deck--a shocking one thousand at a time--without light or fresh air, the prisoners were scarcely fed food and water. Disease ran rampant and human waste fouled the air as prisoners suffered mightily at the hands of brutal British and Hessian guards. Throughout the colonies, the mere mention of the ship sparked fear and loathing of British troops. It also sparked a backlash of outrage as newspapers everywhere described the horrors onboard the ghostly ship. This shocking event, much like the better-known Boston Massacre before it, ended up rallying public support for the war."

We tend to think of POW of World War II or Vietnam, but we can trace this back to the beginning of time. The HMS Jersey prisoners were treated worse than the rats that terrorized them. Watson recently gave an interview to the New York Post that really stuck with me. “This ship, the Jersey, the ‘ghost ship,’ it was the single bloodiest conflict of the entire Revolutionary War. Not Saratoga, not Trenton, not Yorktown, not Germantown. The single bloodiest conflict was on board this one ship.”

These are the horrors of war that remain untold for decades, centuries. This is an important work that we can learn from even today.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn by Robert P Watson deals with a little known part of the American Revolution. A run down ship, HMS Jersey, was used by the British (along with other ships) to house thousands of war prisoners. These men were packed into the depths of the ships with little food or water while disease after disease tore through the crowded quarters. This is not an easy book to read, but I am glad that I read it. It brings to life the sacrifices that were made for the freedoms we enjoy today. It also makes me even more embarrassed by how those in Washington are currently behaving.

Mr. Watson did an excellent job in researching the book and telling the stories of these forgotten men. He shares information about America's beginning and the Revolutionary War. An important part of history is now brought to the forefront through this book. I also learned about the Prison Ships Martyrs Memorial in New York state. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in history as well as those who want to know more about the cost of freedom.

This is an interesting book about a little known prison ship during the American War of Independence. The horrific conditions that the men were kept in was quite an eye opener.
I found this book easy to read as it flowed well with a good narrative style. Some non-fiction books can be difficult to read and drain the life out of a subject unlike this one which bought it to life.
This isn't a period of history which usually interests me but I found the book interesting & easy to read. It was obviously well researched and it has greatly enhanced my extremely basic knowledge of this period.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

I very rarely read non fiction books on wars especially parts of history of which I am ignorant. But this well researched, well written and frankly appalling revelation of British military treatment of prisoners during the American Revolutionary War in the 1770s might well dispel our US/UK Special Relationship.
Dead as heroes is an apt phrase to describe the thousands of prisoners who perished in 'Hell Afloat' on HMS Jersey, a prison ship moored off Brooklyn when the British went to quell the rebellion in 1775 and arrest colonial 'troublemakers' as they sought to trample across the New World extending their Empire and of course making money from the plantations.
The author uses archive testimonies from the few survivors. There were not many as more people died on the prison ship than across many of the skirmishes of the war.
The ship was a battered war relic so was 'hulked' removing all its ornaments and leaving a bare, damp, dangerous and deadly shell in which the prisoners were thrown.
On the American side we meet General Washington fighting against the British military might sent by Prime Minister Lord North and King George III.
Dead bodies were washed up around the area and even centuries later Walk Whitman found prisoner bones washed up outside his home. There is now a Prison Ship Martyr's Monument to commemorate their suffering in a harsh and vicious time in history.
However we mustn't be too sentimental. The Americans had been hacking their way across the country killing the indigenous Indians and the British had spent years killing natives and taking many as slaves to seek land and wealth..
But to return to the American Revolutionary War which marked the US independence eventually. Well worth a read but not sure it will feature in the future post-Brexit trade talks between the UK and America....

This made me so freaking mad and broke my heart at the same time. Thank God we gained our independence and with the way they treated us, it's a wonder that we have a "special relationship" now. We weren't treated as POW's, but Rebels, so all bets were off...over-crowding, lack of rations, no medical care, you name it.

I did enjoy this book. I had just finished reading The Loyal Son so i will admit it was hard to get through another revolutionary war book but this book actually went right along with that book and could almost be seen a compendium of the dark world that swirled in colonial america during the revolution

I received a free Kindle copy of The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn by Robert Watson courtesy of Net Galley and DeCapo Press, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review to Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my history book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I read a great deal about the Revolutionary War, but this is the first time that I have seen a book devoted to the subject of the prison ships used by the British. It is the first book by Robert Watson that I have read.

This is a well researched and engaging read. It is not a dry recitation of the facts surrounding the subject. The author used the written first hand experiences of five survivors of the infamous prison ship the Jersey that reportedly had over 11,000 men die as a result of their incareration on it.

Watson delves into the reasons why the British used the ship(s) and the amount of embezzlement that led to the horrid conditions on the ship. In addition, he discusses the differences in the groups of rotating guards on the ship. In the final chapter, he briefly presents what happenned to the the 5 survivors and the main characters on the British side.

I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Revolutionary War and is interested in an interesting read about something of which there has been little written about.

This was an interesting look at a very specific historical instance but suffered from some incredibly grating repetition. Let an editor get their hands on this could be interesting enough, but in its current for it read more like an educational aide then a fully realised work of non-fiction.

As interesting as the idea of a book about a ghost ship, or rather, a prison ship, should be, this wasn't well put together. I understand needing to lay out some of the history of the period in order to provide contest, but the chapters felt like they kept going on tangents. Tracing the history of one ship is great, especially one with a horrible past, but keep the narrative tight! I'd rather read 100 great pages than a rambling 200.

A big thank you to Robert P. Wats, Da Capo Press, and Netgalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

When Americans think of prisoners of war, we think of WWII, the Vietnam war, Stalin. Sometimes we remember the atrocities we perpetrated on ourselves during the Civil War. What is not prevalent in the annals of our history classes is the role of a prison ship utilized by the British during the 1770s moored in New York known as the Jersey.

The British were not choosy; prisoners included: sailors, civilians who refused the oath of allegiance, privateers, and Continental soldiers. The ship could hold as much as a thousand persons at a time moored in murky, shallow waters in Wallabout Bay. Disease was rampant, killing more Americans by the end of the war than combat did. It, of course, deserved its rotten reputation and became a symbol of liberty for the Revolutionists.

Wats has obviously done his homework here. Luckily the British were adequate record keepers and the prisoners were not shy about sharing their experiences and wrote memoirs. But I'm wondering if this book has the correct title? For one it covers so much more than the POW warships; for two the author makes it plain that there were many of these wooden floating houses of torture and discusses all of them. I'm supposing the title comes from the poem used throughout the book and the fact that the memoirs used are all from Jersey survivors?

Wats does an excellent job of discussing the poor conditions aboard the Jersey and other ships. However, he has a tendency to repeat himself. That repetitiveness broke the flow of the book for me.

Overall this was an informative read. I've already recommended it to two of my teacher friends, one is a home schooler; one teaches history. I think it is promising enough that it can enrich lessons.

Good job, Wat! With a little tweaking this will be a great book.