Generally Speaking: Brooklyn Society to salute America’s first POW’s
BY THEODORE W. GENERAL
The Society of Old Brooklynites which was founded in 1880 when Brooklyn was an independent city and the third largest in the nation will hold their 105th annual Memorial Tribute to Prison Ship Martyrs, on Saturday, August 24, at 10 a.m., at the top of the hill in Fort Greene Park.
Over 13,000 American patriots were held captive as POWs on decrepit former British sailing vessels that were stripped of their masts and turned into floating dungeon-like barges and anchored in Wallabout Bay, site of today’s Brooklyn Navy Yard.