These three sketches show what the conditions were like for immigrants traveling in steerage from Europe to North America in the mid 1800s.
First sketch shows immigrants waiting to board with their worldly possessions.
Second sketch shows the interior of steerage accommodations.
Third sketch shows deck plans for a typical packet sailing ship.
And last but not least, this description of food conditions for the steerage passengers;
From Liverpool each passenger receives weekly 5 lbs. of oatmeal, 2 1/2 lbs. biscuit, 1 lb. flour, 2 lbs. rice, 1/2 lb. sugar, 1/2 lb. molasses, and 2 ounces of tea. He is obliged to cook it the best way he can in a cook shop 12 feet by 6! This is the cause of so many quarrels and...many a poor woman with her children can get but one meal done, and sometimes they get nothing warm for days and nights when a gale of wind is blowing and the sea is mountains high and breaking over the ship in all directions.—Anonymous, New-York Daily Times, October 15, 1851
First sketch shows immigrants waiting to board with their worldly possessions.
Second sketch shows the interior of steerage accommodations.
Third sketch shows deck plans for a typical packet sailing ship.
And last but not least, this description of food conditions for the steerage passengers;
From Liverpool each passenger receives weekly 5 lbs. of oatmeal, 2 1/2 lbs. biscuit, 1 lb. flour, 2 lbs. rice, 1/2 lb. sugar, 1/2 lb. molasses, and 2 ounces of tea. He is obliged to cook it the best way he can in a cook shop 12 feet by 6! This is the cause of so many quarrels and...many a poor woman with her children can get but one meal done, and sometimes they get nothing warm for days and nights when a gale of wind is blowing and the sea is mountains high and breaking over the ship in all directions.—Anonymous, New-York Daily Times, October 15, 1851