Shipping query

hjr

Hi there,

Just a general query someone may be able to help with.

My great uncles travelled to America in the early 1900's to 1930's, and my great great uncles travelled in the 1880's to 1900's timespan. I wonder does anyone know of any good resource for reading up on what the ship crossings were like at that time, what the conditions were like, etc.

Just curious really, but it'd make great reading I think!

spurious

Allowing for the usual exaggeration, etc., this is quite a good account from a Norwegian point of view. The rest of the site is interesting too.
http://www.norwayheritage.com/steerage.htm

I know members of my family travelled back and forth in the 1880s and 90s, so it can't have been really awful.

pinkypinky

Mod note: moved to H&H to ensure a wider response.

pedroeibar1

hjr wrote: »

.................
My great uncles travelled to America in the early 1900's to 1930's, and my great great uncles travelled in the 1880's to 1900's timespan. ......any good resource for reading up on what the ship crossings were like at that time, what the conditions were like, etc.

Just curious really, but it'd make great reading I think!

The Norway Heritage site mentioned above is good but be careful about getting the era correct. You first need to look at the Ellis Island site and find your relatives there – that will give you the names of the ships they sailed on (also how long it took to cross and to whom/where they were going) and you can then research those exact ships.

The voyages of your relatives would have been quite civilised, comfortable and rather unexciting (boring!), the monotony broken by sighting another ship or a whale. Evenings would be passed with home-grown entertainment such as songs, etc. In the 1880’s most of the ships were steam driven, on average it took about 7 days to cross the Atlantic; that dropped to about 6 days by 1900 and to about 4 days in the 1930’s. (By then engines had much more efficient compound/condensing boilers.) The vast majority of ships were quite comfortable, even for second & third class passengers, who generally shared accommodation in same-sex cabins of two, four or six, priced accordingly.

Huge steps were made from the 1850’s onwards (various ‘Passengers Acts’) to correct the conditions pre-1850. This was because many of the ships used in the 1840’s (the “Famine ships”) were not passenger vessels, they were cargo boats that carried lumber to Britain/Ireland from North America and carried European poor in temporary quarters in the holds on the return voyage.

Even as early as the 1860’s conditions were quite good, e.g. The Black Ball Line vessels on the much longer Liverpool – Australia route had a good reputation as being comfortable and healthy: they had well ventilated quarters for steerage passengers, state rooms for cabin passengers with smoking rooms and decorated saloons. Steerage passengers ate together in canteen-like conditions. More importantly they were renowned as sturdy ships, strongly rigged. (That Line became the model for the Onedin Line TV series.)

tabbey

The Black Ball line on the route to Australia, may well have been a good line. However they plagiarised the name, and used to their own advantage, the reputation of the Black Ball line of New York, which had set a standard for safety and passenger care.

pedroeibar1

Yes James Baines called his UK line ‘Black Ball’ and there was a row over it. I’ve no knowledge of how the original Black Ball Line (USA) was regarded from the passengers perspective, but it was quite small, and was best known for being the first shipping line to establish a regular schedule and fix sailing dates – before that ships departed when they had sufficient cargo & passengers on-board, so intending passengers lived on shore until they got word that the ship was about to sail ('P' flag, the Blue Peter).

As for reputation in the days of sail, the packet ships were hated by deck crew and avoided if possible because they had ‘slave-driving’ captains who drove crew and ship hard to meet the deadlines of ‘the Mails’. (There even is mention of this in a shanty on the Black Ball Line – not sure whether it refers to the US or UK one).

My favourite is the Swallow Tail Line, which, following the success of the Black Ball, was founded c1820 by two cousins, one a Quaker ex-whaler from New Bedford with the superb name of Captain Preserved Fish. (Honest!)