The "Dungeon"

The fort was not built as a prison and had no dungeons, but it became a prison, and at times hard cases were confined in magazines or secure gunrooms. Dr. Samuel Mudd was shackled in irons here after trying to stow away on a departing ship, and he described being loaded down with heavy chains and locked in a wet, damp room for twelve hours out of every twenty-four during working days and all day on Sundays and holidays, with no exercise except within the limited space of a small room while wearing irons. He said the air was highly impregnated with sulphuric hydrogen gas generated by numerous sinks that emptied into the breakwater. The room in this bastion is probably the dark and gloomy dungeon one commandant mentioned to his prisoners. On its door were lines from Dante's Divine Comedy: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Tradition says the same words once appeared over the door to the mess hall.