Prison Ship Martyrs Monument

• coordinates: 40° 41' 30" N. 073° 58' 32" W. Google Map
• Feature Class: Park. Park: Fort Greene Park. Location: Myrtle to Dekalb Avenues, Edwards and Cumberland Streets
• County: Kings. City: New York. Borough: Brooklyn. State: NY (New York) Country: US (United States)

Please add profiles to this project (actions menu > add profiles) of anyone associated with the memorial, but not the soldiers interred in the crypt; they are to be added to the related project, Crypt for the Prison Ship Martyrs. See "notables" section. Profiles must be set to "public."

Description

The Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, is a memorial to the more than 11,500 American prisoners of war who died in captivity aboard sixteen British prison ships during the American Revolutionary War. The remains of a small fraction of those who died on the ships are interred in a crypt beneath its base. The ships included the HMS Jersey, the Scorpion, the Hope, the Falmouth, the Stromboli, Hunter, and others.

Long after the war ended, the bones of the dead, who had been buried in shallow graves along the East River, washed up on the shores of Brooklyn. Residents collected them and eventually created an initial memorial in the early 19th century at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for those who perished aboard the prison ships.

In 1867, Olmsted, Vaux & Company, redesigned Fort Greene Park, and installed a crypt for the remains of the prison ship victims in a stone wall, halfway up the stairs that now face the Fort Greene housing projects.

In the first decade of the 20th century, McKim, Mead, and White was commissioned to create an obelisk in tribute. In 1908, President Taft traveled to Fort Greene for an official ribbon-cutting ceremony.

A plaque was added in 1960 located across from the front label on the monument. The plaque reads:

In memory of the 11,500 patriotic American sailors and soldiers who endured untold suffering and died on the prison British ships anchored in Wallabout Bay during the Revolutionary War 1776- 1782. Their remains lie buried in the crypt at the base of this monument which was dedicated on November 14, 1908. This plaque was afforded by The Society of Old Brooklynites on June 1, 1960. Farelly Crane M.D. President.

Notables

Please replace the Wikipedia link with the Geni profile link, and feel free to expand the list

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Parkes_Cadman
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Louis_Marshall
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_L._Mitchill
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Law_Olmsted
• Benjamin Romaine
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvert_Vaux
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolph_Alexander_Weinman
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_White
• Stanford White

Notes

The United States House of Representatives passed legislation on April 28, 2014 to authorize a $150,000 study to determine if turning the memorial into a national monument would be feasible.

Resources

• Official Website of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, Fort Greene Park, Prison Ship Martyrs Monument Map It!
• Fort Greene Park
  • The City of Brooklyn designated the site for use as a public park in 1845. Walt Whitman (1819-1892), the chief editor at the time of the Brooklyn Eagle and King’s County Democrat, rallied popular support for the project. Whitman appealed for a pleasant retreat for city dwellers, “a place of recreation… where, on hot summer evenings, and Sundays, they can spend a few grateful hours in the enjoyment of wholesome rest and fresh air.” In 1847, the legislature approved an act to secure land on the site of the old fort for what would be called Washington Park, the original name of Fort Greene Park.
• "Resurrecting Patriots, and Their Park; Shrine to Revolution's Martyrs Is Part of Fort Greene Renewal" New York Times, by Douglas Martin. Published: September 23, 1995
• Wikipedia
  • Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, Fort Greene, Brooklyn Rootsweb page of links
• Geographical Names

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