MARBLEHEAD – “DARTMOOR PRISON” The Darker Side of Essex County’s Privateering in the War of 1812. Illustrated Fireside Talk by Capt. Michael Rutstein of the Schooner Fame. Tuesday, November 1st, 7:00 pm, Main Level Reading Room, Abbot Public Library, Marblehead, MA
As the War of 1812 wound down, thousands of Essex County men – many of them having shipped out of Marblehead and Salem – found themselves confined in the notorious Dartmoor Prison, located on a moor in the southwest of England. This prison has been movingly portrayed in both fiction and non-fiction over the years. When the bankrupt US government was unable to repatriate its POWs promptly at the end of the war, unrest in the prison peaked, culminating in the infamous Dartmoor Massacre of April 1815. Capt. Mike Rutstein of the Salem privateer Fame will discuss the Dartmoor experience and the darker side of privateering – captivity, sickness, death, and injustice.
Capt. Mike Rutstein is the owner and operator of the Schooner Fame – a familiar site to Marblehead’s boaters and waterfront residents! He is the author of two books about the War of 1812, and also the publisher of Marlinspike, a quarterly magazine devoted to tall ships and sail training.
The Abbot Public Library is located at 235 Pleasant Street, Marblehead, MA 01945. For additional information, please call 781-631-1481 or visit www.abbotlibrary.org.
