American privateer John Claypoole recorded letters and other details of his time as a prisoner of war in Ireland and England in this book. He and his crewmates, including Betsy Ross’s second husband Joseph Ashburn, were captured at sea in April 1781. Claypoole wrote that by the time the crew was exchanged in 1782, Ashburn had died, leaving Ross a widow for the second time. She had lost her first husband, John Ross, in 1775. After he was released and returned to Philadelphia, Claypoole and Betsy married in 1783.