The Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument is a war memorial at Fort Greene Park, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

[4] In 1873, after development near the Brooklyn Navy Yard uncovered the remains, they were moved and re-interred in a crypt beneath a small monument.

Following the end of the war in 1783, the remains of those who died on the prison ships were neglected, left to lie along the Brooklyn shore on Wallabout Bay, a rural area little visited by New Yorkers.

"[12] Officials of the local Dutch Reformed Church met with resistance from the property owner when they sought to remove the bones to their churchyard.

[13] Nathaniel Scudder Prime reported on "skulls and feet, arms and legs sticking out of the crumbling bank in the wildest disorder".

Finally, when President Thomas Jefferson enacted the Embargo Act of 1808, Tammany and the Republicans used their plans for a re-interment as part of their campaign to bolster anti-British sentiment in the United States.

It was located on a triangular plot of land near the Brooklyn Navy Yard waterfront (Wallabout Bay) in what is now called Vinegar Hill.

At the entrance through the fence, an inscription said: "Portal to the tomb of 11,500 patriot prisoners, who died in dungeons and prison-ships, in and about the City of New-York, during the Revolution.

Later in the nineteenth century, the idea of erecting of a monument on the vault site attracted only occasional interest until 1873 when an appropriation of $6,500[31] was established for a new mausoleum.

The front of the tomb had the following inscription: "SACRED TO THE MEMORY, OF OUR SAILORS, SOLDIERS AND CITIZENS, WHO SUFFERED AND DIED ON BOARD BRITISH PRISON SHIPS IN THE WALLABOUT DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION".

[33] Following the discovery of additional bones in the Brooklyn Naval Yard in 1899, interest in establishing a significant monument was again renewed.

[34][35] On June 16, 1900, the bones found during additional excavations in the Brooklyn Navy Yard were interred in the crypt with full military honors.

[45] He set out in detail the treatment of American prisoners and of the dead he said: "They died because of the cruelty of their immediate custodians and the neglect of those who, in higher authority, were responsible for their detention.

"[43] He carefully described British culpability: I do not wish to be understood as charging that these conditions were due to the premeditations of the English commanders in chief or to the set purposes of anyone in authority having to do with the fate of the unfortunate men whose bravery and self-sacrifice this monument records.

[46] They broke the eagle from the granite base, rolled it down the slope and loaded it on a three-wheeled pushcart, leaving tracks which the police were able to follow.

[1][4] In the ensuing years, however, the park slowly decayed again and, by the 1970s, graffiti covered much of the base of the monument and vandalism was taking its toll.

The original site (block 44, lot 14 Brooklyn) is located on 89 Hudson Ave (formerly Jackson Street: named after an early donor of the property for the Monument in 1808).

[57] The scheduled repairs were plagued by cost overruns and the initial electrical contractor was fired by New York City and needed to be replaced.

[60] In April 2015, a group of anonymous vandals illicitly installed a 100-pound bust of Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistle blower, atop one of the four columns at the edge of the memorial.

[64] In 1974, Joseph Bresnan, director of the monument division, promised the return of the eagles by late spring of that year, a commitment that was not honored.

[71] Two of the original bronze eagles have been reinstated at the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park, accompanied by two replicas.

Constructed of granite, the monument's single Doric column 149 feet (45 m) in height sits over the crypt at the top of a 100-foot-wide (30 m) staircase with 99 steps.

At the foot of the staircase, the entrance to the vault was covered by a slab of brown sandstone, now in storage,[4] that bears the names of the 1808 monument committee and builders, as well as this inscription:[72] In the name of the spirits ofthe departed freesacred to the memory of that por-tion of American seamen, soldiers &citizens who perished in the cause ofliberty & their country on board theprison ships of the British (during theRevolutionary War) at the Wall-about.This is the corner stone of the vaultwhich contains their relics.

The groundfor which was bestowed by John JacksonNassau Island, season of blossomsyear of discovery, the 316thof the institution the 19th and ofAmerican Independence the 32ndApril the 6th, 1808.At the top of the column are uprights two feet (0.61 m) in diameter which are the shape of lion's heads.

[4] The urn, which is 22.5 feet (6.9 m) tall and weighs 7.5 tons, was cast by the Whale Creek Iron Works in Greepoint from designs of Manhattan sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman.

The plaque reads:[10] In memory of the 11,500 patriotic American sailors and soldiers who endured untold suffering and died on the British prison ships anchored in Wallabout during the Revolutionary War, 1776 - 1782.

President.During the Bicentennial Year – 1976, King Juan Carlos of Spain dedicated a plaque honoring the 700 Spaniards who died on the prison ships.

[1] Currently surrounding the monument are secured exhibits explaining the history of the prison ships, the Battle of Brooklyn and a list of the 8,000 known martyrs.

Near the monument, a small building designed to coordinate with the work of McKim, Mead, and White once provided restroom facilities but was re-purposed as a visitors' center for the park.

[77] The visitors center has pictorial exhibits plus displays of Revolutionary War weapons and uniform buttons that have been uncovered in the park over the years.