The crew of Hit and Run History heads to Boston to investigate a son of the North End: Joseph Ingraham.

Years before Ingraham was chosen as second officer of the ship Columbia, he experienced the Revolutionary War firsthand, along with the Boston Massacre and Tea Party. On board the Massachusetts warship Protector, he battled a British privateer, only to be captured the next year.

Between Manhattan and Brooklyn, Ingraham would be crowded on board the prison ship Jersey. Hit and Run History meets up with historian Joshua Smith to talk about the horrible conditions Ingraham would have faced aboard the prison ship Jersey—known to its inmates simply as “Hell.”

Andy’s Notes: Joseph Ingraham was a real challenge for us.  When we committed to doing a series of biographies with WGBH, I just liked the number eight.  There were six owners behind the the voyage, with their names emblazoned on the Columbia and Washington Medal.  But in our second episode, we’d already profiled the New Yorker John M. Pintard.

So that left five.  But I also felt we hadn’t done enough in our first episode for John Ledyard (“THE HERALD“), who brought the idea of global trade to the United States.  If we didn’t deal with him now, the series, I felt, would need to move on.  So he was placed in the front of our series.

The famous Captain Robert Gray (“THE ROVER“) was a natural for adding onto the end, with his connections to the two previous profiles of owners (and slavers) Crowell Hatchand Samuel Brown.  So that left us with seven bios to film.  That didn’t feel right.  And there was one more compelling character I wanted to talk about.

Now, you wouldn’t naturally think that the 2nd Mate of the any ship would be as worth of note as, say, the captain or the wealthy men behind it, or even the junior officer who kept the log.

But the Columbia Expedition made Joseph Ingraham’s reputation.  His later writing shows him to be perhaps the most talented writer and artist of the lot.  There always seemed to be a Lord Jim quality about him, and for some reason, in my mind’s eye, he is played by a young Daniel Day Lewis.

In the log of a later voyage, Ingraham refers to suffering during earlier years, but does not specify what that might have been.  My first assumption was that he grew up poor in Boston and worked his way up to earn the rank assigned by Captain John Kendrick, commander of the expedition.  Speculation by other writers mentions probable service as a privateer during the Revolution.

But further research revealed that Ingraham was a prisoner on board the British prison ship Jersey.  When we spent the better part of the day at the Mass. Historical Society, we were able to nail down that he was indeed from Boston — in fact the North End, by dint of his baptismal at the New Brick Church.  We then could imagine him growing up, watching the same scenes that Charles Bulfinch did, of Boston during the Revolution.  But in contrast to Bulfinch’s privilege.

Wrong again.  Right about the time of the Boston Tea Party, Ingraham’s father moved the family west of the city.  And they weren’t poor.  His father was a wealthy ship captain and — big surprise by now — slaver.

And we now know how much quiet the Ingrahams found in Concord in 1775.  They really couldn’t escape the war.

Using Ancestry.com, we were able to look up more details about his wartime service.  We already knew we would be heading down to New York for this one, but didn’t have the full details of how he came to be there.  Luckily, our good friend Josh Smith, who teaches at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, was already in Manhattan that day, and offered to come down to Pier 11, at the end of Wall Street.

Although our plan to take the water taxi over to Wallabout Bay fell through.  We found out it doesn’t run in the middle of the day.  Not much of a water taxi — more like a water bus.  An infrequent one at that.  Instead, we hailed a real taxi and drove over to Fort Greene Park.  Walking up to the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, Josh put Ingraham’s captivity on board the Jersey in context.

It also helped to head to the nearby museum to see a diorama of the burial of dead prisoners on the shore.  A pretty horrific scene of the nighttime ritual.  Conditions were so bad on board these ships, gravedigging detail was seen as a real privilege.

But still, questions remain as to Ingraham’s time on board the Jersey.  Chiefly, we haven’t found any record of when he was released.  Various shipmates of his returned to Boston two to six months after their capture.  Perhaps he remained on board until the British evacuated New York in 1783 and the Jersey was left to rot on the shores of Wallabout Bay.

Or he could have been paroled with no record.  Perhaps he escaped.  Two other options remained:  he bribed his way off, or he gained his freedom by joining the British Navy.  Neither of those appear very honorable.  But then again, the conditions on board these ships was horrific.

As with any of our subjects, no one is wearing a completely white or black hat (maybe some more than others of the latter).  With any luck, we’ll learn more about Ingraham’s background, giving us a fuller picture.  What I am happy about is that we are able to, in this last bio, show that assumptions are touchy things in historical research.

Hit and Run History:  The Columbia Expedition is the centerpiece of the history page for PBS-powerhouse WGBH. Watch THE PRISONER online at wghh.org/hitandrunhistory. Boston soundtrack,  “Small Talk”, provided by Sidewalk Driver.  New York soundtrack, “Rock’n Rose”, provided by Shea Rose.  For more information on Hit and Run History following the story of Captain John Kendrick and the Columbia Expedition visit their fan page on Facebook.