#9 TWO SHIPS
THE HOMUTH’S EMIGRATION SHIP
I have just returned from a 5 day Caribbean holiday aboard the
Celebrity Summit cruise ship; it was built in 2001 at a cost of $350 million
and refurbished in 2019. This ship can accommodate 2200 guests and had a staff
of 999—crew, cooks, bar staff, musicians and entertainers, room stewards, cleaners, etc.
There are 8 restaurants (sit-down, buffet and speciality—casual to formal dress),
a spa, pools & hot tubs, 8 different lounges, a theatre, glass elevators, a
casino, tennis court, shops, medical facilities and a helipad for emergency
needs. There is an on-board doctor, cruise director, art auctions, trivia
games, and opportunities for on-shore excursions. And life jackets and lots of lifeboats and
safety regulations.
The 160 cooks and 250 chefs and cleaner personnel prepare
16,000 dishes daily. An average 7 day
cruise consumes 14,500 pounds of beef, 12,450 pounds of potatoes, 32,652 pounds
of fresh fruit, 48,650 pounds of fresh vegetables, 4,250 pounds of coffee,
19,000 tea bags, 12,000 eggs, 12,450 bottles of wine, 250 pounds of
herbs/spices.
On our five day cruise, we travelled 1500 nautical miles.
The sea might have been choppy, but we could feel only mild vibrations and
certainly no seasickness. A floating hotel!!
All of this made me think of my Homuth family who emigrated from
Prussia in 1858. The family of eight travelled aboard the Donau, a packet sailing-ship.
Packet ships were medium-sized ships designed to carry mail and were the first ships
to sail between European and North American ports on a regular schedule. The
length of the voyage varied due to weather, but Captains competed to see how
fast they could make the journey. The Donau’s 3350 nautical miles voyage from Hamburg
to New York City in October/November 1858 took about 6 weeks and apparently it was a rough sail as son
August Homuth boasted that he was one of the few aboard who did not get sick.
THE SHIP: The Donau had 6 cabins for first/second class passengers, but the Homuths were in steerage along with about 300 other immigrants. The Donau had been modified by a deck between the upper deck and the cargo hold and this is where steerage was. The ceiling height of the between-deck was usually 6 to 8 feet. To get down to steerage, passengers often had to use ladders.
The bunks were made of rough boards and were set up along both sides of the ship; each bunk was intended to hold three to six persons so they were often called family bunks. The best place to have a bunk was midship as the rocking of the ship was felt less there. The bunks had straw mattresses. Emigrants had to bring their own pillows, blankets, animal hides and other necessary bedclothes. Lice and fleas thrived; there were rats. There were one or two primitive toilets on each side of the deck and always a lineup to use them. There were no separate areas for men and women. Light came through open hatchways and partly through skylights on deck but during rough seas, and when these had to be covered for a length of time, the air in steerage became frightfully bad.
With many passengers gathered in a limited space, rules for
conduct were necessary. Some captains were more strict than others. While all
types of games were allowed and encouraged on some ships, such activities were
forbidden on others. This is a set of rules for one immigrant ship.
1. The
fire will be lit on the stove each morning at 6 am and every passenger not
hindered by sickness…shall get up no later than 7 am.
2. The
fire shall be put out at 8 pm and all passengers must be in their bunks by 10
pm.
3. The
deck in the passengers’ quarters and under the bunks shall be swept each
morning before breakfast and the sweepings be thrown overboard.
4. Each
morning before the fire is lit, necessary fuel and water will be distributed to
the passengers. This task, and the cleaning of the decks and cabins on desk,
will be carried out on a daily basis by a suitable number of men on a rotation
basis. This group is also to check the cleanliness of the passengers.
5. Tobacco
smoking is not permitted below deck, nor is the use of open flame or hay or
straw permitted.
6. All
cooking utensils must be washed after use and always be kept clean.
7. All
bedding must be taken up on the deck once or twice a week and be aired out, and
the bunks cleaned each time this is done.
8. Clothing
must not be washed or hung up to dry below deck, but each day, as conditions
permit, a day will be determined for general washing.
9. All
passengers who bring spirits or other alcoholic beverages on board are
obligated upon embarking to hand over the same for safekeeping. These
passengers may receive a reasonable daily portion. Passengers are forbidden to
have gunpowder in their possession, and this, as well as guns or other weapons
on board must be placed in safekeeping with ship’s officers. These will be retuned to passengers at the
end of the journey’s end.
10. Cards
or dice are not allowed on board as these can easily lead to quarrels and
disagreements. Passengers should treat each other with courtesy and respect. No
quarrelsome or disruptatious [sic] behaviour will be tolerated.
11. No
seaman is permitted on the passenger deck, unless he has received orders to do
specific work. Nor is any passenger, under any circumstances, allowed in the
cabin of a crewmember or the ship’s galley.
It is not permitted to drill holes, do any cutting, pound nails or do
any other kind of damage to the ships’ beams, boards or decks.
12. It
is expected of the passengers that they appear on the deck each Sunday in clean
clothing and that they, as much as circumstances permit, keep the Sabbath.
13. All
manners of games and entertainment are permitted and encouraged as contributing
to the maintenance of good health during a long journey. Personal cleanliness
also contributes a good deal to this and is therefore highly recommended to the
passengers.
14. Passengers
must not speak to the man at the helm.
15. It
is taken for granted that every passenger is obligated to obey the orders of
the Captain in all respects.
FOOD: The Homuth
family, travelling by sail, would have
had to bring their own food. This was
often stored in a hold under the steerage deck and each day, the passengers had
to go down to fetch provisions. The most common food was cured mutton and other
dried and salted food, dried vegetables and red pickled cabbage. Flatbread was
almost always brought along as was sour milk and beer in kegs and dairy
products like butter and whey cheese. They also had materials to cook porridge. It was important that the provisions could be stored for the duration
of the journey. Emigrants were advised to bring equipment such as a water pail
(the size according to the needs of the family, about 3 quarts a day per
person), a cooking pot, kettle, dishes and eating utensils.
Mother Christina Homuth had to prepare all the family’s food
in the ship’s galleys on deck. As there
were only a couple galleys, lines for preparing food would be long. One
description of an 1851 crossing was: The kitchen where the cooking was done was
a board shanty about 12 by 16 feet in size and was built on deck near the
middle; along the back side of the shanty was a bin 4 feet wide and 1½ high.
This bin was filled with sand and on top of the sand the fires were built and
the cooking done. There was no chimney where the smoke could escape, only an
opening in the roof. Early in the
morning you could see the women coming up from below with a bundle of split
wood and a kettle of some sort, heading for the kitchen, eager to find a vacant
place somewhere on the bed of sand large enough to set their kettle and build a
fire underneath. Soon you would see half a dozen women come out [of the shanty]
with their aprons over their faces, wiping tears, coughing, and almost
strangled with smoke. They would stay outside long enough to get their lungs filled
with fresh air, and the tears wiped from their eyes, then they would crowd back
in again—perhaps to find the fire and wood removed from their kettle and under
somebody else’s. Then, of course broad hints and sharp words would be exchanged,
and the loser would watch for an opportunity when another person would have to go outside for
fresh air to get her wood and fire back again.
Daily rations of wood and water were included in the price
of the tickets. Travellers often complained
about the quality of the water; the main reason for this was that the water was
stored in casks that had not been properly cleaned after carrying substances
such as oil, vinegar, turpentine or wine on previous trips. If bad weather
lengthened the voyage, emigrants could run out of food and water before
reaching port.
HEALTH: Ventilation was an issue. Most sailing ships were
ventilated through vents, which had to be closed during bad weather to prevent
the ship from taking on water. If the
bad weather lasted a while, the air could get very bad. On many ships, these vents were the only
source of light, so it got pitch-black when they were closed; because of fire
hazards, oil lamps could not be used during bad weather. And it did not help
that most passengers got seasick in bad weather. Vomit, and worse, could soil the
between-deck. Those not seasick were sickened by the stench.
Most ships tried to maintain good hygiene. It was common that passengers had to help
with daily cleaning. But even though the decks were washed daily, not all
passengers were as careful about washing themselves. The lack of water may
explain this, but many were just unaccustomed to personal hygiene or bathing at home. Rainwater was collected for all types of
washing.
Most travel accounts of sailing ships talk about seasickness.
There was no medicine for this but there were some home remedies. Passengers were fed gruel; passengers were
encouraged to stay above deck as much as possible. There were no doctors on ship to treat the
common illnesses like cholera, typhoid, measles, chicken pox and dysentery. The
great mortality among emigrants was the result of illnesses on board--illnesses
most often attributed to poor hygiene.
The majority of those who succumbed were small children and the elderly
who had little resistance. Those who died at sea were buried at sea, either
wrapped in canvas or placed in coffins made by the ship’s carpenter. As there
was often a shortage of lumber for coffins, or when there were many deaths, two
persons would be placed in the same coffin with feet in the opposite direction.
If no minister aboard, the Captain would read the funeral service.
Other dangers included fires and shipwrecks and accidents. The
Donau was involved in a few accidents. In 1853, the Donau “ran down” a schooner
and the master and 4 crewmen of the other boat drowned. And in the month before
the Homuths sailed, the Donau collided with a French brig and lost its bowspit
and foretopmast.
ARRIVAL
QUARANTINE: There was no Statue of Liberty to greet the Homuths when they landed In New York on November 30, 1858. The Donau sailed through the Narrows, a passageway between Staten Island and Brooklyn and was then required to anchor at quarantine near the Staten Island shore. Local authorities always were concerned that shiploads of unwashed and unhealthy immigrants might carry smallpox, typhoid fever or cholera into the city streets, so quarantine was the screening process used to reduce this threat. Official health inspectors scanned the immigrants for signs of contagious disease and examined the ship’s records for detail of death at sea. The ship could then proceed up bay and anchor near Castle Island.
Castle Garden was America’s first official immigration processing centre and the forerunner of Ellis Island. The experience at Castle Garden, however, was much less dramatic than Ellis Island (where families were split up, the ill indefinitely quarantined and one’s family name could be instantly erased.) After a customs official checked luggage, immigrants, escorted by a landing agent were taken from the vessel in barges and tugs to the Castle Island pier and examined by a medical officer to determine if the health inspector had missed any sick at quarantine.
PROCESSING: Immigrants were then taken into the rotunda, the circular
space in the centre of the depot, which had
separate compartments depending on whether the immigrant did, or did not,
speak English. The interior of the Castle Garden station was crowded and
unpleasant. As the rotunda had once been a military fort, circulation of air
was poor. “Deadening, stifling smell”,
wrote one reporter, “greets the nostrils as you enter the hall, almost
overpowering. He detected a foul mix of
scents: boiled butter, rancid cheese, onions, herring. The floor, though swept
daily, was “a sink of filth and unfit for human beings.” People were “herded
together like sheep in a July sun.”
The name, nationality, former residence and intended destination for each immigrant were recorded. They might be directed to a railway agency to purchase tickets, arrange for delivery of baggage or exchange silver or gold for US currency—all safer than being defrauded outside Castle Garden. Clerks versed in foreign languages might help those writing letters to family already in the country.
Officials at the less-bureaucratic Castle Garden let in
almost anyone except the very sick. There was no intimidating round of
questions, no sophisticated detention centre and rejections were rare. An
immigrant found to be a convict, lunatic, idiot or anyone unable to take care
of him or herself without becoming a public charge” could be denied entry.
Between 1855 and 1890, Castle Garden welcomed 8 million immigrants—mostly from
Germany, Ireland, England, Scotland, Sweden, Italy, Russia and Denmark. This
place was a “cultural cacophony” and the Yiddish term Kasselgarden came to mean
“any space that was noisy, chaotic and confusing”.
ON TO CANADA
All the Homuths—parents Charles and Christina, brothers
William, John, Charles, August and sisters Augusta and Hannah—survived the
crossing, made it through the Castle Garden quarantine and registration, and the
New York experience. (A family rumour that another daughter was lost on the
streets of New York City, and never found, is not true. This little girl,
however, belonged to the Johnston family; her brother William Johnston married
Augusta Homuth)
The Homuth family made its way from New York to Buffalo to
Canada likely by rail, or possibly by barge on the Erie Canal. They settled in
Waterloo Township, near Preston, a predominantly German area. They then moved
to the “Queen’s Bush” near Wingham, Huron County. My great-grandfather August,
his parents and siblings were naturalized in 1863. Brother John became a tailor, ran a boot and shoe business and later a general store;
Actually, there are a few parallels (sort of) with travel today. VS
ReplyDeleteI’ve only been on two ships in my life and both times I was seasick. I would never have survived your ancestors journey…..you certainly come from hearty stock!
DeleteWell, you know I would never survive that voyage. Strong ancestors,
ReplyDelete