Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/33

 CHAPTER II.

THE SEA VOYAGE.

DURING the whole of the last and the greater part of the present century, the ship-owners chartered the lower decks their vessels to agents, for the payment of a certain sum for each ton or the whole space disposed of. The agents made the needful temporary arrangements for the accommodation of the passengers, and underlet the steerage, either to associations of emigrants, or parcelled it out to sub-agents or to single passengers.

Thus the owner of the vessel had not the least concern or interest in the welfare or good treatment of the passengers; all he looked for was the payment of the stipulated price for that part of the ship which he had let. The steerage passengers were simply additional and unwelcome freight; they had to follow the directions of the owner, and were subordinate to what he considered his more important interests. They had to wait for their departure as long as it pleased him, and had no other right than to occupy the ten or twelve square feet which were allotted to them. To the owner, they were less than a box of goods, and handled with less care, as they did not break, nor, if injured, require to be paid for. The agents, in order to make the business lucrative, sent on board as many passengers as they could get hold of, without the smallest reference to the conveniences of the steerage, the number of berths, the separation of the sexes, or any thing except their own immediate profit. Besides assigning a space, however small, to the emigrants, they had no responsibility, and ran no risk whatever. There was no check to the over loading of the vessel. Even if it had more than double the number of passengers that it could accommodate, there was no authority to which the emigrants could apply for protection. The agents did just as they pleased. A vessel which was not good and safe enough to be used as a transport for goods and merchandise was, nevertheless, employed for the conveyance of