Life on a Sailing Ship in the Early 1800’s From Die Gartenlaube Leipzig Fruft Neil Courtesy of the Mariners’ Museum http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater/assets/graphic/full/3008.jpg “The two months journey of Philippine and her companions would surely test any of today’s travelers. We complain about how uncomfortable a one day trip might be by plane, train or bus. (Are we there yet?) They didn’t have any restaurants to stop at for a hot meal of fresh food, little or no privacy. Could the students imagine what it must have been like below the decks of those ships?” Emory Webre, Retired Teacher Philippine’s Daily Life on the Rebecca The Old-Type Steerage Experience “We went down to the wharf, where we were to take The old-type steerage is the one whose horrors have a small boat carrying the passengers to the ocean been so often described. It is unfortunately still vessel.” found in a majority of the vessels bringing Callan, p. 223-224 immigrants to the United States. It is still the “I meant to tell you about the first night on the common steerage in which hundreds of thousands vessel. When the time came to retire, I did not know of immigrants form their first conceptions of our just how to manage in the narrow berths. Of course country and are prepared to receive their first there was a good deal of laughter among us, but I impressions of it. The universal human needs of finally managed with patience and some pain. My space, air, food, sleep, and privacy are recognized berth was the top one. When at last I got into it I to the degree now made compulsory by law. found I had very little covering, but I could not get Beyond that, the persons carried are looked upon as out and down again. When I tried to turn over I so much freight, with mere transportation as their bumped first against one thing, then against another. only due. The sleeping quarters are large I got settled, but there was no sleep, and there was compartments, accommodating as many as 300 or not room even to raise my head.” more persons each. For assignment to these, Callan, p. 224 passengers are divided into three classes, namely, “For a whole week she tossed in rough weather on women without male escorts, men traveling alone, the Bay of Biscay, and her passengers experienced and families. Each class is housed in a separate the desperate helplessness of seasickness.” compartment and the compartments are often in Callan, p. 224 different parts of the vessel. It is generally possible “Then came the long stretch of unbroken ocean, to shut off all communication between them, 1 Philippine’s Daily Life on the Rebecca The Old-Type Steerage Experience when there were pleasant days on deck and they though this is not always done. could think more coherently, pray more peacefully, listen more attentively to Father Martial’s little The berths are in two tiers, with an interval of 2 feet spiritual talks and to the English lessons they all and 6 inches of space above each. They consist of found so difficult.” an iron framework containing a mattress, a pillow, Callan, p. 224 or more often a life-preserver as a substitute, and a “There was Holy Mass at four or four-thirty in the blanket. The mattress and the pillow, if there is one, morning whenever Father Martial was well enough, are filled with straw or seaweed. On some lines this and Communion for the nuns followed by a long is renewed every trip. Either colored gingham or thanksgiving, before the ship’s bell sounded for coarse white canvas slips cover the mattress and breakfast. Often in the late afternoon the nuns stood pillow. A piece of iron piping placed at a height together in the bow of the boat, their full skirts where it will separate the mattresses is the rippling out in the breeze, their thin veils waving in ``partition" between berths. The blankets differ in the fading twilight. Then the captain called for “the weight, size, and material on the different lines. On hymn,” and the sweet strains of the Ave Maris Stella one line of steamers, where the blanket becomes floated over the waters. As her nuns sang, Mother the property of the passenger on leaving, it is far Duchesne’s intent gaze studied the sky, the waters, from adequate in size and weight, even in the and the western horizon. The long weeks of the summer. Generally the passenger must retire almost voyage, the stench, the nausea, the still tender fully dressed to keep warm. Through the entire memories of separation from loved ones, laughter, voyage, from seven to seventeen days, the berths news about people and things that were part of her receive no attention from the stewards. The berth, 6 life-all seemed to drop away as she stood there, feet long and 2 feet wide and with 2 and a half feet looking westward toward the sunset and her of space above it, is all the space to which the promised land. steerage passenger can assert a definite right. To When the evenings lengthened and were fair, this 30 cubic feet of space he must, in a large they remained on deck “as late as nine o’clock,” measure, confine himself. No space is designated Father Martial sitting quietly near them as they for hand baggage. As practically every traveler has talked of France and the friends they had left so some bag or bundle, this must be kept in the berth. willingly, yet so reluctantly, or of the events that had It may not even remain on the floor beneath. There broken the monotony of the day: a ship sighted and are no hooks on which to hang clothing. Everyone, signaled to-“bound for Granada,” they learned almost, has some better clothes saved for through the porte-voix; a porpoise caught-“so big it disembarkation, and some wraps for warmth that took several men to haul it in, and when served at are not worn all the time, and these must either be table it tasted like beef, but the fat was like pork”; hung about the framework of the berth or stuck latitude reckonings and islands coming in sight, and away somewhere in it. At least two large “the trail of light behind the vessel when it made transportation lines furnish the steerage passengers good speed.” That phosphorescence was a eating utensils and require each one to retain these phenomenon they gazed at with astonishment and throughout the voyage. As no repository for them is delight. provided, a corner of each berth must serve that While the nuns suffered a good deal from purpose. Towels and other toilet necessities, which their crowded and stuffy sleeping quarters, they had each passenger must furnish for himself, claim no complaints to make about the meals served on the more space in the already crowded berths. The Rebecca. Mother Duchesne said only that the food floors of these large compartments are generally of was nourishing and abundant, though she found wood, but floors consisting of large sheets of iron 2 Philippine’s Daily Life on the Rebecca The Old-Type Steerage Experience cabbage soup disgusting when she was seasick. were also found. Sweeping is the only form of Mother Audé, however, praised the menu, cleaning done. Sometimes the process is repeated remarking that: Dinner was usually an affair of six several times a day. This is particularly true when or seven courses-soup, fresh roasted chicken, ham, the litter is the leavings of food sold to the vegetables, fish or eggs, dessert, dried fruits, liqueur. passengers by the steward for his own profit. No At breakfast there was omelet, herring, anchovy, sick cans are furnished, and not even large ham, sausage, fruit, tea or café-au-lait three times a receptacles for waste. The vomitings of the seasick week, preserves. Once a week a sheep or a pig was are often permitted to remain a long time before slaughtered, so there was very little dried meat being removed. The floors, when iron, are served. Fresh fish was caught frequently, and there continually damp, and when of wood they reek was plenty of excellent wine. with foul odor because they are not washed. The captain [she continues] was very nice to us; but after four passengers left the vessel, he was The open deck available to the steerage is very much nicer. The sailors of the crew were as meek as limited, and regular separable dining rooms are not lambs, working quietly and without any included in the construction. The sleeping objectionable language. The second-in-command compartments must therefore be the constant abode was a very intelligent man, silent and reserved, of a majority of passengers. During days of whom the sailors obeyed without a word of continued storm, when the unprotected open deck objection to orders. As for the passengers, they cannot be used at all, the berths and the were all bound for New Orleans to rejoin their passageways between them are the only space families. They were polite and friendly on the where the steerage passenger can pass away the whole. One lady [Sister Lamarre’s partner at time. Pauillac] stayed close to us during the whole voyage. When to this very limited space and much filth and Callan, p. 225-227 stench is added inadequate means of ventilation, the “During the bad weather she turned night into day result is almost unendurable.