All at Sea - Part 2
Illustrated London News - July 29 1848 We went down into the hold, which was fitted up with berths, if such a name may be given to the tiers of un-planed deal boards, which resembled large hen-coops piled one above another; and stretched on mattresses upon these wooden gridirons we saw many of the emigrants, waiting wearily for the appointed hour that was fixed for sailing. It made the heart sicken to picture that hold, when out at sea with the hatches battened down, and the vessel driving through a storm. There were little children running about, and playing at hide and seek amongst the bales and casks – fair-haired, red-cheeked, blue-eyed beauties, whose sunburned arms and necks told that they had had the run of the open village green; and such we found had been the case when we enquired. Both father and mother were fine specimens of our English peasantry; the grandfather and grandmother were also there. ... https://www.history.com/news/steerage-act-immigration-19th-century A wret