What follows are extracts from an article printed in the Illustrated London
News on Saturday July 6th 1850. It is a contemporary account of the
procedure of Emigration from the port of Liverpool to the New World and the
Colonies.
The Tide of Emigration to The United States And to The British Colonies.
The great tide of Emigration flows steadily westward. The principal
emigrants are Irish peasants and labourers. It is calculated that at least
four out of every five persons who leave the shores of the old country to
try their fortunes in the new, are Irish. Since the fatal years of the
potato famine and the cholera, the annual numbers of emigrants have gone on
increasing, until they have become so great as to suggest the idea, and
almost justify the belief, of a gradual depopulation of Ireland. The
colonies of Great Britain offer powerful attractions to the great bulk of
the English and Scottish emigrants who forsake their native land to make
homes in the wilderness.
But the Irish emigration flows with full force
upon the United States. Though many of the Irish emigrants are, doubtless,
persons of small means, who have been hoarding and saving for years, and
living in rags and squalor, in order to amass sufficient money to carry
themselves and families across the Atlantic, and to beg their way to the
western states, where they may 'squat' or purchase cheap lands, the great
bulk appear to be people of the most destitute class, who go to join their
friends and relatives, previously established in America.
Large sums of
money reach this country annually from the United States. Through Liverpool
houses alone, near upon a million pounds sterling, in small drafts, varying
from 2 Pounds or 3 Pounds to 10 Pounds each, are annually forwarded from
America, for poor persons in Ireland, to enable them to emigrate; and the
passage-money of many thousands, in addition, is paid in New York. Before
the fatal year 1847, the emigration was very considerable; but, since that
time, it has very rapidly increased. The following document, issued on the
authority of her Majesty's Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners,
shows the progressive increase in the numbers of British subjects who have
annually quitted our shores as Emigrants, from 1825 to January 1st 1850:-
Years N.American
Colonies U. S Aus+N.Z. others
1825 8741 5551 485 114
1826 12818 7063 903 116
1827 12648 14526 715 114
1828 12084 12817 1056 135
1829 13307 15678 2016 197
1830 30574 24887 1242 204
1831 58067 23418 1561 114
1832 66339 32872 3733 196
1833 28808 29109 4093 517
1834 40060 33074 2800 288
1835 15573 26720 1860 325
1836 34226 37774 3124 293
1837 29884 36770 5054 326
1838 4577 14332 14021 292
1839 12658 33536 15786 227
1840 32293 40642 15850 1958
1841 38164 45017 32625 2786
1842 54123 63852 8534 1835
1843 23518 28335 3478 1881
1844 22924 43660 2229 1873
1845 31803 58538 830 2330
1846 43439 82239 2347 1826
1847 109680 142154 4949 1487
1848 31065 188233 23904 4887
1849 41367 219450 32091 6590
Total 808740 1260247 185286 30911
Average Annual Emigration from the United Kingdom for the last twenty five
years-
91,407
The emigration of the present year bids fair to exceed even the
unprecedentedly large emigration of 1849. This human stream flows
principally through the ports of London and Liverpool; as there is but
little direct emigration from Scotland or Ireland. In the year 1849, out of
the total number of 299,498 emigrants, more than one-half, or 153,902 left
from the port of Liverpool. We learn from a statement in a Liverpool
newspaper, that in the months of January, February, March and April of the
present year, the total emigration was 50,683 persons; and as these four
months include two of the least busy months of the year, it is probable
that the numbers during the months of May, June, July and August, the full
emigrational season, will be much more considerable, and that the
emigration for the year will exceed that for 1849.
Her Majesty's Colonial
Land and Emigration Commissioners publish in the spring of every year a
useful little pamphlet, entitled the ' Colonisation Circular', which
contains the names and duties of the Emigration offices in the ports of The
United Kingdom and in the colonies- the cost of passage to the various
colonies-a statement of the demand for labour-the rate of wages, and the
price of provisions in each colony-an explanation of the mode of disposal
of Crown lands-the privileges granted to naval and military settlers-the
victualling scale on board ships-an abstract of the Passengers Act, and
other valuable particulars. The Government however, gives no information
relative to the United States-so that its admirable little circular is of
comparatively little service to at least one-half of the great crowds of
emigrants.
The majority of emigrants take a steerage passage, and go out at the
cheapest rate. Out of the 153,902 mentioned above as having left the port
of Liverpool in 1849, the number of first and second cabin passengers was
only 4639.
Emigration From Liverpool
We now proceed to detail the process of emigration, beginning with the
arrival of the emigrants at Liverpool, the great port of intercourse with
the United States. The first care of the emigrants, if their passage have
not previously been paid for them by their kind friends in New York, is to
pay their passage-money, and make the best bargain they can with the
passenger-brokers. The competition in this trade is very great, and fares,
accordingly, vary from day to day, and even from hour to hour, being
sometimes as high as 5 Pounds per passenger in the steerage, and sometimes
as low as 3 Pounds 10 Shillings.
The walls of Liverpool are thoroughly placarded with the notices of the
days of sailing of the various packets, for which many firms act as
passenger-brokers, and set forth in large letters the excellent qualities
of such well known and favourite packets as the YORKSHIRE, the NEW WORLD,
the ISAAC WEBB, the WEST POINT, the CONSTITUTION, the ISAAC WRIGHT, the
LONDON, the STAR OF THE WEST, the QUEEN OF THE WEST, and scores of others.
The average number of steerage passengers that can be accommodated in these
fine vessels (which are mostly owned in New York) is 400; but some of them,
such as the ISAAC WEBB, can comfortably make room for double that number.
After the emigrant has chosen the ship by which he will sail, and perhaps
run the gauntlet through scores of designing and unscrupulous
'man-catchers'-a class of persons who get a commission from the
passenger-brokers for each emigrant that they bring to the office-his next
duty is to present himself at the-
Medical Inspector's Office
By the terms of the New Passenger Act, 12 and 13 Vict., c.33, no
passenger-ship is allowed to proceed until a medical practitioner appointed
by the emigration office of the port shall have inspected the
medicine-chest and passengers, and certified that the medicines etc are
sufficient, and that the passengers are free from contagious disease. The
master, owner, or charterer of the ship is bound to pay the medical
inspector the sum of 1 Pound sterling for every 100 persons thus inspected.
When the emigrant and his family have undergone this process, their
passage-ticket is stamped, and they have nothing further to do, until they
go on board, but to make their own private arrangements and provide
themselves with outfits, or with such articles of luxury or necessity as
they may desire over and above the ships allowance.
All persons who may be
discovered to be affected with any infectious disease, either at the
original port of embarkation or at any port in the United Kingdom into
which the vessel may subsequently put, are to be re-landed, with those
members of their families, if any, who may be dependent upon them, or
unwilling to be separated from them, together with their clothes and
effects. Passengers re-landed are entitled to receive back their
passage-money, which may be recovered from the party to whom it was paid,
or from the owner, charterer, or master of the ship, by summary process,
before two or more justices of the peace.
The Embarkation
The scene in the Waterloo dock, at Liverpool, where all the American
sailing packets are stationed, is at all times a very busy one; but, on
the morning of the departure of a large ship, with a full complement of
emigrants, it is peculiarly exciting and interesting. The passengers have
undergone inspection, and many of them have taken up their quarters on
board for twenty-four hours previously, as they are entitled to do by
terms of the act of Parliament. Many of them bring, in addition to the
boxes and trunks containing their worldly wealth, considerable quantities
of provisions, although it must be confessed that the scale fixed by the
Government to be supplied to them by the ship is sufficiently liberal to
keep in health and comfort all among them, who, in their ordinary course of
life, were not accustomed to animal food. The following is the scale, in
addition to any provisions which the passengers may themselves bring:-
2 and 1/2 lb of Bread or biscuit (not inferior to navy biscuit)
1 lb Wheaten Flour
5 lb Oatmeal
2 lb Rice
2 oz Tea
1/2 lb Sugar
1/2 lb Molasses
Per week. To be issued in advance, and not less often than twice a week. Also:-
3 quarts of Water daily.
5 lb of good Potatoes may, at the option of the master, be substituted for
1lb of oatmeal or rice; and in ships sailing from Liverpool, or from Irish
of Scottish ports, oatmeal may be substituted, in equal quantities, for the
whole or any part of the issues of rice.
Vessels carrying as many as 100 passengers must be provided with a
seafaring person to act as passenger's cook, and also with a proper cooking
apparatus. A convenient place must be set apart on deck for cooking, and a
proper supply of fuel shipped for the voyage. The whole to be subject to
the approval of the emigration officer.
Dancing Between Decks
The scenes that occur between decks on the day before the sailing of a
packet, and during the time that a ship may be unavoidably detained in
dock, are not generally of a character to impress the spectator with the
idea of any great or overwhelming grief on the part of the emigrants at
leaving the old country. On the contrary, all is bustle, excitement, and
merriment. The scene of a party of emigrants, male and female, dancing
between decks-to the music of the violin-played for their amusement, by
some of their fellow-passengers, is not a rare one. Sometimes a passenger
is skilful upon the Irish Bagpipe, and his services are freely asked and
freely given for the gratification of his countrymen and countrywomen-not
simply while in dock, but, according to the reports of captains and others,
during the whole voyage. Any person who can play the Violin-the Flute-the
Pipe, or any other instrument, becomes of interest and importance to the
passengers, and is kept in constant requisition for their amusement. The
youngest child and the oldest man in the ship are alike interested; and
grey headed men and women are frequently to be seen dancing with as much
delight, if not with as much vigour, as if Seventeen, not Seventy, was the
number that would most nearly express their age.
But, as the hour of departure draws nigh, the music ceases. Too many fresh
arrivals take place every moment, and the docks become too much encumbered
with luggage to admit of the amusement. Although notice of the day and hour
of departure may have been given for weeks previously, there are a large
class of persons (-not confined to emigrants it may be observed 'en
passant'-) who never will be punctual, and who seem to make it a point of
duty and conscience to postpone everything to the last moment, and to enjoy
the excitement of being within a few minutes or even moments of losing
their passage. These may be seen arriving in flushed and panting
detachments, driving donkey-carts laden with their worldly stores, to the
gangway, at the ship's side. It often happens that the gangway has been
removed before their arrival, in which case their only chance is to wait
until the ship reaches the dock-gate, when their boxes, bails, barrels and
bundles are actually pitched into the ship, and men, and women, and
children have to scramble up among the rigging, amid a screaming, a
swearing, and a shouting perfectly alarming to listen to. Not infrequently
a box or barrel falls overboard, and sometimes a man or a woman suffers the
same fate, but is speedily re-saved by men in a small boat, that follows in
the wake of this ship for the purpose, until she have finally cleared the
dock.
The Departure
There are usually a large number of spectators at the dock-gates to witness
the final departure of the noble ship, with its large freight of human
beings. It is an interesting and impressive sight; and the most callous and
indifferent can scarcely fail, at such a moment, to form cordial wishes for
the pleasant voyage and safe arrival of the emigrants, and for their future
prosperity in their new home. As the ship is towed out, hats are raised,
handkerchiefs are waved, and a loud and long-continued shout of farewell is
raised from the shore, and cordially responded to from the ship. It is
then, if at any time, that the eyes of the emigrants begin to moisten with
regret at the thought that they are looking for the last time at the old
country-that country which, although, in all probability, associated
principally with the remembrance of sorrow and suffering, of
semi-starvation, and a constant battle for the merest crust necessary to
support existence is, nevertheless, the country of their fathers, the
country of their childhood, and consecrated to their hearts by many a
token. The last look, if known to be the last, is always sorrowful, and
refuses, in most instances, to see the wrong and the suffering, the error
and the misery, which may have impelled the one who takes it, to venture
from the old into the new, from the tried to the untried path, and to
recommence existence under new auspices, and with new and totally different
prospects.
'Farewell, England! Blessings on thee-
Stern and niggard as thou art.
Harshly, mother, thou hast used me,
And my bread thou hast refused me:
But 'tis agony to part:
-is doubtless the feeling uppermost in the mind of many thousands of the
poorer class of English emigrants at the moment when the cheers of the
spectators and of their friends on shore proclaim the instant of departure
from the land of their birth. Even in the case of the Irish emigrants, a
similar feeling-though possibly less intense-can scarcely fail to be
excited. Little time, however, is left to them to indulge in these
reflections. The ship is generally towed by a steam-tug five or ten miles
down the Mersey; and during the time occupied in traversing these ten
miles, two very important ceremonies have to be gone through: the first is
'the Search for Stowaways;' and the second is the ' Roll-call of the
Passengers'.
The Search for Stowaways
The practice of 'stowing away', or hiding about a vessel until after the
passage tickets have been collected, in order to procure, by this
fraudulent means, a free passage across the Atlantic, is stated to be very
common to ships leaving London and Liverpool for the United States. The
'Stowaways' are sometimes brought onboard concealed in trunks or chests,
with air-holes to prevent suffocation. Sometimes they are brought in
barrels, packed up to their chins in salt, or biscuits, or other
provisions, to the imminent hazard of their lives. At other times they take
the chance of hiding about the ship, under the bedding, amid the confused
luggage of other passengers, and in all sorts of dark nooks and corners
between decks. Hence, it becoming expedient to make a thorough search of
the vessel before the steam-tug has left her, in order that, if any of
these unhappy intruders be discovered, they may be taken back to port and
brought before the Magistrate, to be punished for the fraud which they have
attempted.
As many as a dozen stowaways have sometimes been discovered in
one ship; and cases have occurred, though not frequently, of men, women,
and young boys, having been taken dead out of the barrels or chests in
which they had concealed themselves, to avoid payment of 3 Pounds or 4
Pounds passage money. When the ship is fairly out, the search for stowaways
is ordered. All the passengers are summoned upon the Quarter-Deck, and
there detained until the search has been completed in every part of the
ship. The Captain, Mate, or other Officer, attended by the clerk of the
passenger broker, and as many of the crew as may be necessary for the
purpose, then proceed below, bearing masked lanterns or candles, and armed
with long poles, hammers, chisels, etc, that they may break open suspicious
looking chests and barrels. Occasionally, the pole is said to be tipped
with a sharp nail, to aid the process of discovery in dark nooks; and
sometimes the man armed with the hammer hammers the bed-clothes, in order
that if there be a concealed head underneath, the owner may make the fact
known, and thus avoid a repetition of the blows. If a stowaway be concealed
in a barrel, it is to be presumed that he has been placed with his head
uppermost, and the searchers, upon this hint, whenever they have a
suspicion, deliberately proceed to turn the barrel bottom upwards,- a
process which never fails, after a short time, if the suspicion be well
founded, to elicit an unmistakable cry for release.
Although this search is
invariably made with the upmost care, it is not always effectual in
discovering the delinquent; and instances have occurred in which no less
than eight, ten, or even a larger number, including both men and women,
have made their appearance after the vessel has been two or three days at
sea. Some captains used to make it a rule to behave with great severity, if
not cruelty, to these unfortunates; and instances are related of their
having caused them to be tarred and feathered, or to walk the decks through
the cold nights with nothing on but their shirts: but this inhumanity does
not now appear to be practised. As there is a great deal of dirty work that
must be done on ship-board, the stowaways are pressed into that service,
and compelled to make themselves useful, if not agreeable. They are forced,
in fact, to work their passage out, and the most unpleasant jobs are
imposed upon them. After the search for them in every corner of the ship,
the next ceremony is commenced.
Roll-Call
This is one that occupies a considerable space of time, especially in a
large ship, containing seven or eight hundred emigrants. The
passengers-those in the state cabin excepted-being all assembled upon the
Quarter-Deck, the clerk of the passenger-broker, accompanied by the ship's
surgeon, and aided in the preservation of order by the crew, proceeds to
call for the tickets. The clerk, or man in authority, usually stands upon
the rail, or other convenient elevation on the Quarter-Deck, so that he may
be enabled to see over the heads of the whole assemblage-usually a very
motley one-comprising people of all ages, from seven weeks to seventy
years. A double purpose is answered by the roll-call-the verification of
the passenger-list, and the medical inspection of the emigrants, on behalf
of the captain and owners. The previous inspection on the part of the
governor was to prevent the risk of contagious disease on board. The
inspection on the part of the owners is for a different object.
The ship has to pay a poll-tax of one dollar and a half per passenger to
the State of New York; and if any of the poor emigrants are helpless and
deformed persons, the owners are fined in the sum of seventy five dollars
for bringing them, and are compelled to enter in a bond to the city of New
York that they will not become a burden on the public. To obviate this
risk, the medical officer of the ship passes them under inspection; and if
there be a pauper cripple among the number who cannot give security that
he has friends in America to take charge of him of arrival, and provide for
him afterwards, the captain may refuse to take him.
The business of verification and inspection generally occupies from two to
four hours, according to the number of emigrants on board; and, during its
progress, some noteworthy incidents occasionally arise. Sometimes an
Irishman, with a wife and eight or ten children, who may have only paid a
deposit of his passage-money,
attempts to evade the payment of the balance, by pleading that he has not a
farthing left in the world; and trusting that the ship will rather take him
out to New York for the sum already paid, than incur the trouble of putting
him on shore again with his family. Sometimes a woman may have included in
her passage-ticket an infant at the breast, and may be seen, when her name
is called, panting under the weight of a boy of eight or nine years of age,
whom she is holding to her bosom as if he were really a suckling. Sometimes
a youth of nineteen, strong and big as a man, has been entered as under
twelve, in order to get across to America for half the fare of an adult;
and sometimes a whole family are without any tickets, and have come on
board in the hope that, amid the confusion which they imagine will be
attendant upon the congregation of so many hundred people on a ship, they
may manage to evade notice, and slip down unperceived amid those whose
documents are found 'en regle'.
These cases, as they occur, are placed on one side; and those who have duly
paid their passage money, and produced their tickets, are allowed to pass
down and take possession of their berths. Those who have not paid, either
in whole or in part, and are either unable or unwilling to satisfy the
claim against them, are then transferred on board the tug, with bag and
baggage, to be reconveyed to port. Those who have money, and have attempted
a fraud, generally contrive, after many lamentations about their extreme
poverty, to produce the necessary funds, which, in the shape of golden
sovereigns are not unfrequently found to be safely stitched amid the rags
of petticoats, coats, and unmentionable garments. Those who have really no
money, and who cannot manage to appeal to the sympathy of the crowd for a
small subscription to help them to the New World, must resign themselves to
their fate, and remain in the poverty from which they seek to free
themselves, until they are able to raise the small sum necessary for their
emancipation. The stowaways, if any, are ordered to be taken before the
magistrates; and all strangers and interlopers being safely placed in the
tug, the emigrant ship is left to herself. May all prosperity attend her
living freight!
'Far away-oh far away-
We seek a world o'er the ocean spray!
We seek a land across the sea,
Where bread is plenty and men are free,
The sails are set, the breezes swell-
England, our country, farewell! farewell!