In
the early 19th century sailing ships took about six weeks to cross
the Atlantic. With adverse winds or bad weather the journey could
take as long as fourteen weeks. When this happened passengers would
often run short of provisions. Sometime captains
made extra profits by charging immigrants high prices for food needed
to survive the trip.
In 1842 the British government attempted to bring an end to the exploitation
of passengers by passing legislation that made it the responsibility
of the shipping company to provide adequate food and water on the
journey. However, the specified seven pounds a week of provisions
was not very generous. Food provided by the shipping companies included
bread, biscuits and potatoes. This was usually of poor quality. One
government official who inspected provisions in Liverpool
in 1850 commented that "the bread is mostly condemned bread ground
over with a little fresh flour, sugar and saleratus and rebaked."
Captains were sometimes accused of using rations to control the behaviour
of their female passengers. William Mure, the British consul in New
Orleans reported that one captain "conducted himself harshly
and in a most improper manner to some of the female passengers having
held out the inducement of better rations to two who were almost starving
in the hope they would accede to his infamous designs." In 1860
the New York Commissioners of Emigration reported that there were
"frequent complaints made by female emigrants arriving in New
York of ill-treatment and abuse from the captains and other officers."
As a result of their investigation Congress passed a law that enabled
captains and officers to be sent to prison for committing sexual offences
against female passengers. However, there is no evidence that anyone
was ever prosecuted under this law.
Travellers often complained about the quality of the water on the
journey. The main reason for this was that the water was stored in
casks that had not been cleaned properly after carrying substances
such as oil, vinegar, turpentine or wine on previous journeys. One
immigrant travelling in 1815 described the water as having such "a
rancid smell that to be in the same neighbourhood was enough to turn
one's stomach".
To maximize their profits shipowners tried to cram as many people
as possible on board for the trip. In 1848 the U. S. Congress attempted
to improve travelling conditions, by passing the American Passenger
Act. This legislation prescribed a legal minimum of space for each
passenger and one of its consequences was the building of a a new,
larger type of ship called the three-decker. The top two decks carried
the immigrants and although they had more space, the journey was still
unpleasant. It was very dark in the lower deck and their was also
a shortage of fresh air. Whereas those on the upper-deck had to contend
with the stench rising constantly from below.
Immigrants suffered many dangers when crossing the Atlantic. This
included fires and shipwrecks. In August,
1848, the Ocean
Monarch,
carrying immigrants from Liverpool to
Boston, caught fire and 176 lives were
lost. As ships got larger so did the deaths from fires. In September,
1858, an estimated 500 immigrants died after a fire on the steamship
Austria.
Another 400 died on the William
Nelson
in July, 1865.
In 1834 seventeen ships shipwrecked in
the Gulf of St Lawrence and 731 emigrants lost their lives. In a five
year period (1847-52) 43 emigrant ships out of 6,877 failed to reach
their destination, resulting in the deaths of 1,043 passengers. In
1854 the steamship City
of Glasgow
carrying
480 emigrants went missing after leaving Liverpool
and was never heard of again.
A major problem for emigrants on board ship was disease.
There were serious outbreaks of cholera
in 1832, 1848 and 1853. Of the 77 vessels which left Liverpool
for New York between 1st August and 31st
October, 1853, 46 contained passengers that died of cholera on the
journey. The Washington
suffered 100 deaths and the Winchester
lost 79. All told, 1,328 emigrants died on board these ships on the
way to America.
The most common killer was typhus. It
was particularly bad when the passengers had been weakened by a poor
diet. In 1847, during the Irish Famine,
7,000 people, most of them from Ireland,
died of typhus on the way to America. Another 10,000 died soon after
arriving in quarantine areas in the United States.
In 1852 shipping companies began using steamships to transport immigrants
to America. This included the ships the City of Manchester and the
City of Glasgow, that could transport 450 immigrants at a time from
Liverpool to New York. The fare of six guineas a head was double that
charged by sailing ships. However, it was much faster and by the 1870s
the journey across the Atlantic was only taking two weeks.
Italian family arriving in New
York in 1905.
(1)
Reverend William Bell, writing about the quality of the water on a
boat sailing from Leith to Quebec in 1817.
Our water has for some time past been very
bad. When it was drawn out of the casks it was no cleaner than that
of a dirty kennel after a shower of rain, so that its appearance alone
was sufficient to sicken one. Buts its dirty appearance was not its
worst quality. It had such a rancid smell that to be in the same neighbourhood
was enough to turn one's stomach.
(2)
In 1860 the New York Commissioners of Emigration carried out an investigation
into the treatment of female passengers on board ship bring immigrants
from Europe to the United States.
The
frequent complaints made by female emigrants arriving in New York
of ill-treatment and abuse from the captains and other officers. caused
us to investigate the subject; and from investigation we regret to
say that after reaching the high seas the captain frequently selects
some unprotected female from among the passengers, induces her to
visit his cabin, and when there, abusing his authority as commander,
partly by threats, and partly by promises of marriage, accomplishes
her ruin, and retains her in his quarters for the rest of the voyage,
for the indulgence of his vicious passions and the purposes of prostitution;
other officers of the ship often imitate the example of their superior,
and when the poor friendless woman, this seduced, arrive at this port,
they are thrust upon shore and abandoned to their fate.
(3)
Samuel Gompers and his family emigrated
to the United States in the summer of 1863.
The
Cigarmakers' Society Union of England, whose members were frequently
unemployed and suffering, established an emigration fund - that is,
instead of paying the members unemployment benefits, a sum of money
was granted to help passage from England to the United States. The
sum was not large, between five and ten pounds. This was a very practical
method which benefited both the emigrants and those who remained by
decreasing the number seeking work in their trade. After much discussion
and consultation father decided to go to the New World. He had friends
in New York City and a brother-in-law who proceeded us by six months
to whom father wrote we were coming.
There came busy days in which my mother gathered together and packed
our household belongings. Father secured passage on the City of London,
a sailing vessel which left Chadwick Basin, June 10, 1863, and reached
Castle Garden, July 29, 1863, after seven weeks and one day.
Our ship was the old type of sailing vessel. We had none of the modern
comforts of travel. The sleeping quarters were cramped and we had
to had to do our own cooking in the gallery of the boat. Mother had
provided salt beef and other preserved meats and fish, dried vegetables,
and red pickled cabbage which I remember most vividly. We were all
seasick except father, mother the longest of all. Father had to do
all the cooking in the meanwhile and take care of the sick. There
was a Negro man employed on the boat who was very kind in many ways
to help father. Father did not know much about cooking.
When we reached New York we landed at the old Castle Garden of lower
Manhattan, now the Aquarium, where we were met by relatives and friends.
As we were standing in a little group, the Negro who had befriended
father on the trip, came off the boat. Father was grateful and as
a matter of courtesy, shook hands with him and gave him his blessing.
Now it happened that the draft and negro rights were convulsing New
York City. Only that very day Negroes had been chased and hanged by
mobs. The onlookers, not understanding, grew very much excited over
father's shaking hands with this Negro. A crowd gathered round and
threatened to hang both father and the Negro to the lamp-post.
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