Black Hole of Calcutta - The Holwell Account

The Holwell Account

Holwell wrote about the events after the fall of the fort. He met with Siraj, who assured him "on the word of a soldier, that no harm should come to us". After seeking a place in the fort to confine the 146 prisoners (including Holwell), at 8 pm, the jailers locked the prisoners in the fort's prison ("the black hole" was 18th century military slang for any military prison - similar to "the glasshouse" in the 20th century British Army or "the brig" in the US Navy), which was 14 by 18 feet (4.3 m × 5.5 m) in size. When the "Black Hole" was opened the next morning at 6 am, only 23 people were alive. Stanley Wolpert argues that only 64 people were imprisoned and 21 survived. D.L. Prior argues that 43 members of the garrison were dead or missing for reasons other than suffocation and shock, while Busteed argues that, because so many non-combatants were present in the fort when it fell, the number who died cannot be stated with any precision. Regarding responsibility, Holwell believed that it "was the result of revenge and resentment in the breasts of the lower Jemmaatdaars, to whose custody we were delivered, for the number of their order killed during the siege." Wolpert concurs and argues that Siraj did not order it and was not informed about it.

The following description from a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica portrays Holwell's point of view vividly:

The dungeon was a strongly barred room and was not intended for the confinement of more than two or three men at a time. There were only two windows, and a projecting veranda outside and thick iron bars within impeded the ventilation, while fires raging in different parts of the fort suggested an atmosphere of further oppressiveness. The prisoners were packed so tightly that the door was difficult to close.

One of the soldiers stationed in the veranda was offered 1,000 rupees to have them removed to a larger room. He went away, but returned saying it was impossible. The bribe was then doubled, and he made a second attempt with a like result; the nawab was asleep, and no one dared wake him.

By nine o'clock several had died, and many more were delirious. A frantic cry for water now became general, and one of the guards, more compassionate than his fellows, caused some to be brought to the bars, where Mr. Holwell and two or three others received it in their hats, and passed it on to the men behind. In their impatience to secure it nearly all was spilt, and the little they drank seemed only to increase their thirst. Self-control was soon lost; those in remote parts of the room struggled to reach the window, and a fearful tumult ensued, in which the weakest were trampled or pressed to death. They raved, fought, prayed, blasphemed, and many then fell exhausted on the floor, where suffocation put an end to their torments.

About 11 o'clock the prisoners began to drop off fast. At length, at six in the morning, Siraj-ud-Daulah awoke, and ordered the door to be opened. Of the 146 only 23, including Mr. Holwell (from whose narrative, published in the Annual Register for 1758, this account is partly derived), remained alive, and they were either stupefied or raving. Fresh air soon revived them, and the commander was then taken before the nawab, who expressed no regret for what had occurred, and gave no other sign of sympathy than ordering the Englishman a chair and a glass of water. Notwithstanding this indifference, Mr. Holwell and some others acquit him of any intention of causing the catastrophe, and ascribe it to the malice of certain inferior officers, but many think this opinion unfounded.

After the prison was opened, the corpses were thrown into a ditch. Holwell and three others were sent as prisoners to Murshidabad; the rest of the survivors obtained their liberty after the victory of a relief expedition under Robert Clive.