Allen was first placed aboard , a brig anchored at Montreal. He was kept in solitary confinement and chains, and General Richard Prescott had, according to Allen, ordered him to be treated "with much severity". In October 1775, the "Gaspée" went downriver, and her prisoners were transferred to the "Adamant", which then sailed for England. Allen wrote of the voyage that he "was put under the power of an English Merchant from London, whose name was Brook Watson: a man of malicious and cruel disposition".