Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/37

Rh We shall see hereafter that this shocking mortality is not confined to remote times, and that the living generation has witnessed thousands of deaths from the same causes. To give an adequate idea of recent losses of human life on board of ill-provided, ill-ventilated vessels, it may be stated here that out of 98,105 poor Irish emigrants shipped to Canada by their landlords after the great famine of 1846, during the summer of 1847 there died 5,293 at sea, 8,072 at Gross Isle (Quarantine) and Quebec, and 7,000 in and above Montreal, making 20,365, besides those who afterwards perished whose number will never be ascertained. Thus the Lark, reported at Quebec on August 12, 1847, from Sligo, sailed with 440 passengers, of whom 108 died on the passage and 150 were sick, almost all of whom died a short time after landing. The Virginius sailed with 496; 158 died on the passage, 186 were sick, and the remainder landed feeble and tottering; the captain, mates, and crew were all down. At that period, the ratio of the sick per one thousand was 30 on board British, 9 2/5 on American, and 8 3/5 on German vessels. Ship-fever and want of food were almost unheard of on board of vessels from Northern Europe, and particularly those from Hamburg and Bremen.

It has been estimated by medical statisticians that not less than 20,000 emigrants perished by ship-fever, and in the various emigrant hospitals in American ports, during the year 1847. Compared with these losses, the mortality on board the Hamburg ship Leibnitz of the notorious Sloman line was quite small, for out of 544 passengers (children and infants included), 108 fell victims to the bad ventilation and insufficient provisions. The fever-ship Leibnitz arrived at New York on January 11, 1868.

The first law which prescribed the space to be allotted to each steerage passenger was that passed by Congress on March 2, 1819, according to which a ship was forbidden to carry more than two passengers for every five tons, Custom House measure. This law, however benevolent its purpose, proved insufficient; for it did not prohibit the orlop-deck, nor provide for proper ventilation or side-lights, nor deduct the freight-room and accommodations for the officers and first-class passengers from the computation of the total amount of tonnage. Thus a ship which