A MISERABLE VOYAGE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 372, 7 April 1881, Page 3

A MISERABLE VOYAGE.

Mo revelations of the misery endured T~ emigrants on English vessels equal l':-' tale told by the passengers of the ssrland, from Antwerp to New Y::k, on Nov. 25th. She had 430 r eerage passengers on board, mostly Germans and Swedes, and she was eighteen days in crossing the Atlantic. There was no separation been the sexes; there were only three lights in the steerage at night ; and in the. semi-darkness the mixed multitude gave way to such brutal immorality that, in the words of one of the passengers. “ the ship was nothing but a floating hell.” The people were crowded together like hogs in a pen. The steerage was never cleaned, but remained foul and filthy Throughout the voyage, the accumulated abominations emitting an effluvium of “ beyond belief.” Two gallons of water / A?ere served out for the 430 passengers to wash w'th, and pure drinking watering unattainable. Most of the crew were shipped drunk. One of them was so nearly murdered by;the boatswain that his life was despaired of. Two Italian stowaways were stripped naked and ex- .. posed to the biting winds for four hours * on deck. The sailors were more than once on the verge of mutiny. These horrors of the Atlantic steerage recall memories of the Middle Passage.