An “Eternal Flame” Relit Over Brooklyn

Yesterday evening, despite heavy rain during the day and still threatening skies, 200 or so people gathered in Fort Greene Park to attend the rededication of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, which honors the approximately 11,500 Revolutionary War combatants captured by the British who died aboard old warships anchored in Wallabout Bay (adjacent to the present Brooklyn Navy Yard site) and used to house prisoners of war. Conditions aboard these ships were so horrendous that almost one third of those imprisoned did not survive. The monument, a Doric column designed by the eminent architect Stanford White, was dedicated exactly 100 years before, also on a rainy day, in a ceremony at which then President-Elect William Howard Taft was the guest of honor.