The "Dungeon"

The "Dungeon". Fort Jefferson. The fort was not built as a prison, and it has no dungeons. But prison it became, and at times "hard cases" were clapped into magazines or secure gunrooms., One man who knew this room was Dr. Samuel Mudd. He was shackled in irons after trying to stow away on a departing ship: "Imagine one loaded down with heavy chains, locked up in a wet, damp room, twelve hours out of every twenty-four during working days, and all day on Sundays and holidays. No exercise allowed except in the limited space of a small room and with irons on. The atmosphere we breathe is highly impregnated with sulphuric hydrogen gas... generated by the numerous sinks that empty into the... breakwater...", (caption) 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!