Crossing the Atlantic, continued

While doing the research for "Great-Grandma's Trunk," I read the book "The Immigrant in American History," by Marcus Lee Hanson, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger.  The author described a typical emigrant's experience aboard ship during the 1860's and 1870's era, which helped me picture the Pequegnat family crossing the Atlantic in the Westphalia.

The emigrants had to provide their own straw for a mattress, and bring cups, plates, and eating utensils. The ship's food was rationed, so they were advised to bring extra provisions in containers that were impervious to rats.  Most of the ships used for transporting emigrants had an upper deck for first class passengers and the crew.  A ladder conveyed the rest of the passengers down to the steerage area, also referred to as "between decks."  There would be approximately six feet of space between the floor and ceiling.  Around the sides of the steerage ran two layers of berths, which were cumbersome shelves wide enough for five persons.  This filled most of the floor space.  The lowest part of the ship, called the hold, contained the heavy baggage and chests, casks of water, and the cord wood used for fuel.

The ship's provisions for the passengers in steerage consisted of salt beef, barreled pork, tinned mutton, highly smoked bacon, and salt fish.  Preserved potatoes, carrots, miscellaneous other vegetables, and hard biscuits were served with main meals.  Sweets were rice and sago pudding.  Oatmeal was the breakfast staple.

The information from this book, plus others that I found on shipping and emigration, enabled me to imagine the daily life aboard ship.  The "crossing" was a hardship that all emigrants to America had to endure.  From the time of the earliest American colonists until the mid-nineteenth century, a time span of nearly 250 years, emigrant ships were prone to disease and epidemics.  'Ship fever,' or typhus, was highly contagious and often fatal.  Associated with poverty, filth, and overcrowding, it would spread rampantly through the steerage of an emigrant ship.  Cholera was transmitted by contaminated water, and was characterized by violent diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, collapse, and usually death within hours.  Finally, around the time of the mid-nineteenth century, every maritime country in Europe, as well as America and Canada, had built up a code of regulations.

So, it seems as if the Pequegnat family had it better than the Europeans who crossed over before.  But, Pauline Pequegnat would probably have had a word or two about this.  She was described by her descendants as being a "holy terror," and, she "ruled the roost."

Read more about Pauline and her family aboard the Westphalia in "Great-Grandma's Trunk."


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