THE EMIGRANTS.
While this conversation was going on Mr. George and Rollo had been
sauntering slowly along the walk, with warehouses on one side of them,
and a roadway for carts and drays on the other, between the walk and the
dock; and now all at once Rollo's attention was attracted by the
spectacle of a large ship, on the decks of which there appeared a great
number of people--men, women, and children.
"What is that?" asked Rollo, suddenly. "What do you suppose all those
people are doing on board that ship?"
"That must be an emigrant ship," said Mr. George. "Those are emigrants,
I have no doubt, going to America. Let us go on board."
"Will they allow us to go?" asked Rollo, doubtfully.
"O, yes," said Mr. George; "they will not know but that we are emigrants
ourselves, or the friends of some of the emigrants. In fact, we _are_
the friends of some of the emigrants. We are the friends of _all_ of
them."
So saying, Mr. George led the way, and Rollo followed up the plankway
which led to the deck of the ship. Here a very singular spectacle
presented itself to view. The decks were covered with groups of people,
all dressed in the most quaint and singular costume, and wearing a very
foreign air. They were, in general, natives of the interior provinces of
France and Germany, and they were dressed in accordance with the
fashions which prevailed in the places from which they severally came.
The men were generally standing or walking about. Some were talking
together, others were smoking pipes, and others still were busy with
their chests and bundles, rearranging their effects apparently, so as to
have easy and convenient access to such as they should require for the
voyage. Then there were a great many groups of women and girls seated
together on benches, trunks, or camp stools, with little children
playing about near them on the deck.
"I am very glad to see this," said Mr. George. "I have very often
witnessed the landing of the emigrants in New York at the end of their
voyage; and here I have the opportunity of seeing them as they go on
board the ship, at the beginning of it."
"I am glad, too," said Rollo. "But look at that old woman!"
Rollo pointed as he said this to an aged woman, whose face, which was of
the color of mahogany, was wrinkled in a most extraordinary manner, and
who wore a cap of very remarkable shape and dimensions. She had an
antique-looking book in her hands, the contents of which she seemed to
be conning over with great attention. Mr. George and Rollo looked down
upon the pages of the book as they passed, and saw that it was printed
in what might be called an ancient black-letter type.
"It is a German book," said Rollo, in a whisper.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I suppose it is her Bible, or perhaps her
Prayer Book."
Near the old woman was a child playing upon the deck. Perhaps it was her
grandchild. The child had a small wagon, which she was drawing about the
deck. The wagon looked very much worn and soiled by long usage, but in
other respects it resembled very much the little wagons that are drawn
about by children in America.
"It is just like one of our little wagons," said Rollo.
"Yes," replied Mr. George, "of course it is; for almost all the little
wagons, as well as the other toys, that children get in America, come
from Germany."
"Ah!" said Rollo; "I did not think of that."
"Would you ask her to let me see her wagon?" continued Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George; "that is, if you can ask her in German."
"Don't you suppose she knows English?" asked Rollo.
"No," said Mr. George, "I presume not."
"I mean to try her," said Rollo.
So he extended his hand towards the child; and then, smiling upon her to
denote that he was her friend, and also to make what he said appear like
an invitation, and not like a command, he pronounced very distinctly the
words, "Come here."
The child immediately came towards him with the little wagon.
"There!" said Rollo; "I was pretty sure that she could understand
English."
The child did not understand English, however, after all. And yet she
understood what Rollo said; for it so happens, by a remarkable
coincidence, that the German words for "come here," though spelled
differently, sound almost precisely like the English words. Besides, the
child knew from Rollo's gesture that he wished her to come to him.
Rollo attempted to talk with the child, but he could make no progress.
The child could not understand any thing that he said. Presently a very
pleasant-looking woman who was sitting on a trunk near by, and who
proved to be the child's mother, shook her head smilingly at Rollo, and
said, with a very foreign accent, pointing at the same time to the
child, "Not understands English."
Mr. George then held a little conversation with this woman in German.
She told him that she was the mother of the child, and that the old
woman who was reading near was its grandmother. She had a husband, she
said, and two other children. Her husband was on the shore. He had gone
into the city to make some purchases for the voyage, and her two other
children had gone with him to see what was to be seen.
Mr. George and Rollo, after this, walked about the deck of the ship for
some time, looking at the various family groups that were scattered here
and there, and holding conversations with many of the people. The
persons whom they talked with all looked up with an expression of great
animation and pleasure in their countenances when they learned that
their visitors were Americans, and seemed much gratified to see them. I
suppose they considered them very favorable specimens of the people of
the country which they were going to make their future home.
I am sure that they needed all the kind words and encouraging looks that
Mr. George and Rollo bestowed upon them; for it is a very serious and
solemn business for a family to bid a final farewell to their native
land, and in many instances to the whole circle of their acquaintances
and friends, in order to cross the stormy ocean and seek a home in what
is to them an entirely new world.
[Illustration: PLEASANT WEATHER.]
Even the voyage itself is greatly to be dreaded by them, on account of
the inevitable discomforts and dangers of it. While the ship is lying in
the docks, waiting for the appointed day of sailing to arrive, they can
pass their time very pleasantly, sitting upon the decks, reading,
writing, or sewing; but as soon as the voyage has fairly commenced, all
these enjoyments are at once at an end; for even if the wind is fair,
and the water is tolerably smooth, they are at first nearly all sick,
and are confined to their berths below; so that, even when there are
hundreds of people on board, the deck of the ship looks very solitary.
The situation of the poor passengers, too, in their berths below, is
very uncomfortable. They are crowded very closely together; the air is
confined and unwholesome; and their food is of the coarsest and plainest
description. Then, besides, in every such a company there will always be
some that are rude and noisy, or otherwise disagreeable in their habits
or demeanor; and those who are of a timid and gentle disposition often
suffer very severely from the unjust and overbearing treatment which
they receive from tyrants whom they can neither resist nor escape from.
Then, sometimes, when the ship is in mid ocean, there comes on a storm.
A storm at sea, attacking an emigrant ship full of passengers, produces
sometimes a frightful amount of misery. Many of the company are
dreadfully alarmed, and feel sure that they will all certainly go to the
bottom. Their terror is increased by the tremendous roar of the winds,
and by the thundering thumps and concussions which the ship encounters
from the waves.
[Illustration: THE STORM.]
The consternation is increased when the gale comes on suddenly in a
squall, so that there is not time to take the sails in in season. In
such a case the sails are often blown away or torn into pieces--the
remnants of them, and the ends of the rigging, flapping in the wind with
a sound louder than thunder.
Of course, during the continuance of such a storm, the passengers are
all confined closely below; for the seas and the spray sweep over the
decks at such times with so much violence that even the sailors can
scarcely remain there. Then it is almost entirely dark where the
passengers have to stay; for in such a storm the deadlights must all be
put in, and the hatches shut down and covered, to keep out the sea.
Notwithstanding all the precautions, however, that can possibly be
taken, the seas will find their way in, and the decks, and the berths,
and the beds become dripping wet and very uncomfortable.
Then, again, the violent motion of a ship in a storm makes almost every
body sick; and this is another trouble. It is very difficult, too, at
such times, for so large a company to get their food. They cannot go to
get it; for they cannot walk, or even stand, on account of the pitching
and tossing of the ship; and it is equally difficult to bring it to
them. The poor children are always greatly neglected; and the mournful
and wearisome sound of their incessant fretting and crying adds very
much to the general discomfort and misery.
It often happens, moreover, that dreadful diseases of an infectious and
malignant character break out on board these crowded ships, and
multitudes sicken and die. Of course, under such circumstances, the sick
can receive very few of the attentions that sick persons require,
especially when the weather is stormy, and their friends and
fellow-passengers, who would have been glad to have assisted them, are
disabled themselves. Then, in their dejection and misery, their thoughts
revert to the homes they have left. They forget all the sorrows and
trials which they endured there, and by the pressure of which they were
driven to the determination to leave their native land; and now they
mourn bitterly that they were induced to take a step which is to end so
disastrously. They think that they would give all that they possess to
be once more restored to their former homes.
Thus, during the prevalence of a storm, the emigrant ship is filled
sometimes with every species of suffering. There is, however,
comparatively very little actual danger, for the ships are very strong,
being built expressly for the purpose of resisting the severest
buffetings of the waves; and generally, if there is sea room enough,
they ride out these gales in safety. Then, after repairing the damages
which their spars and rigging may have sustained, they resume their
voyage. If, however, there is not sea room enough for the ship when she
is thus caught,--that is, if the storm comes on when she is in such a
position that the wind drives her towards rocks, or shoals, or to a
line of coast,--her situation becomes one of great peril. In such cases
it is almost impossible to save her from being driven upon the rocks or
sands, and there being broken up and beaten to pieces by the waves.
[Illustration: THE WRECK.]
When driven thus upon a shore, the ship usually strikes at such a
distance from it as to make it impossible for the passengers to reach
the land. Nor can they long continue to live on board the ship; for, as
she strikes the sand or rocks upon the bottom, the waves, which continue
to roll in in tremendous surges from the offing, knock her over upon her
side, break in upon her decks, and drench her completely in every part,
above and below. Those of the passengers who attempt to remain below, or
who from any cause cannot get up the stairways, are speedily drowned;
while those who reach the deck are almost all soon washed off into the
sea. Some lash themselves to the bulwarks or to the masts, and some
climb into the rigging to get out of the way of the seas, if, indeed,
any of the rigging remains standing; and then, at length, when the sea
subsides a little, people put off in surf boats from the shore, to
rescue them. In this way, usually, a considerable number are saved.
These and other dreadful dangers attend the companies of emigrants in
their attempts to cross the wide and stormy Atlantic. Still the prospect
for themselves and their children of living in peace and plenty in the
new world prompts them to come every year in immense numbers. About
eight hundred such shiploads as that which Rollo and Mr. George saw in
the London Docks arrive in New York alone every year. This makes, on an
average, about fifteen ships to arrive there every week. It is only a
very small proportion indeed of the number that sail that are wrecked on
the passage.
* * * * *
But to return to Mr. George and Rollo.
After remaining on board the emigrant ship until their curiosity was
satisfied, our travellers went down the plank again to the quay, and
continued their walk. The next thing that attracted Rollo's attention
was a great crane, which stood on the quay, near a ship, a short
distance before them.
"Ah!" said Rollo; "here is a great crane. Let us go and see what they
are hoisting."
So Rollo hastened forward, Mr. George following him, until they came to
the crane. Four workmen were employed at it, in turning the wheels by
means of two great iron cranks. They were hoisting a very heavy block of
white marble out of the vessel.
While Mr. George and Rollo were looking at the crane, a bell began to
ring in a little steeple near by; and all the men in every part of the
quay and in all the sheds and warehouses immediately stopped working,
put on their jackets, and began walking away in throngs towards the
gates.
"Ah!" said Mr. George, in a tone of disappointment, "we have got here at
twelve o'clock. That was just what I wished to avoid."
"Yes," said Rollo; "they are all going home to dinner."
Rollo, however, soon found that all the men were not going home to
dinner, for great numbers of them began to make preparations for dining
in the yard. They began to establish themselves in little groups, three
or four together, in nooks and corners, under the sheds, wherever they
could find the most convenient arrangement of boxes and bales to serve
for chairs and tables. When established in these places, they proceeded
to open the stores which they had provided for their dinners, the said
stores being contained in sundry baskets, pails, and cans, which had
been concealed all the morning in various hiding-places among the piles
of merchandise, and were now brought forth to furnish the owners with
their midday meal.
One of these parties, Rollo found, had a very convenient way of getting
ale to drink with their dinner. There was a row of barrels lying on the
quay near where they had established themselves to dine; and two of the
party went to one of these barrels, and, starting out the bung, they
helped themselves to as much ale as they required. They got the ale out
of the barrel by means of a long and narrow glass, with a string around
the neck of it, and a very thick and heavy bottom. This glass they let
down through the bunghole into the barrel, and then drew up the ale with
it as you would draw up water with a bucket from a well.
Rollo amused himself as he walked along observing these various dinner
parties, wondering, too, all the time, at the throngs of men that were
pouring along through all the spaces and passage ways that led towards
the gate.[G]
[G] It was while these workmen were going out in this way from the yard
that the incident of the little girl falling into the dock occurred, as
has been already related.
"I did not know that there were so many men at work here," said he.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "When business is brisk, there are about three
thousand at work here."
"How did you know?" asked Rollo.
"I read it in the guide book," said Mr. George.
Here Mr. George took his guide book out of his pocket, and began to read
from it, as he walked along, the following description:--
"'As you enter the dock, the sight of the forest of masts in the
distance, and the tall chimneys vomiting clouds of black smoke, and the
many-colored flags flying in the air, has a most peculiar effect; while
the sheds, with the monster wheels arching through the roofs, look like
the paddle boxes of huge steamers.'"
"Yes," said Rollo; "that is exactly the way it looks."
"'Along the quay,'" continued Mr. George, still reading, "'you see, now
men with their faces blue with indigo; and now gaugers, with their long,
brass-tipped rules dripping with spirit from the cask they have been
probing; then will come a group of flaxen-haired sailors, chattering
German; and next a black sailor, with a cotton handkerchief twisted
turban-like around his head; presently a blue-smocked butcher, with
fresh meat and a bunch of cabbages in a tray on his shoulder; and
shortly afterwards a mate, with green paroquets in a wooden cage. Here
you will see, sitting on a bench, a sorrowful-looking woman, with new,
bright cooking tins at her feet, telling you she is an emigrant
preparing for her voyage. As you pass along the quay the air is pungent
with tobacco, or it overpowers you with the fumes of rum; then you are
nearly sickened with the smell arising from heaps of hides and huge bins
of horns; and shortly afterwards the atmosphere is fragrant with coffee
and spice. Nearly every where you meet stacks of cork, or yellow bins of
sulphur, or lead-colored copper ore.'"
"It is an excellent description," said Rollo, when Mr. George paused.
Mr. George resumed his reading as follows:--
"'As you enter this warehouse the flooring is sticky, as if it had been
newly tarred, with the sugar that has leaked through the casks----'"
"We won't go there," said Rollo, interrupting.
"'And as you descend into these dark vaults,'" continued Mr. George,
"'you see long lines of lights hanging from the black arches, and lamps
flitting about midway.'"
"I should like to go there," said Rollo.
"'Here you sniff the fumes of the wine,'" continued Mr. George, "'and
there the peculiar fungous smell of dry rot. Then the jumble of sounds,
as you pass along the dock, blends in any thing but sweet concord. The
sailors are singing boisterous Ethiopian songs from the Yankee ship
just entering; the cooper is hammering at the casks on the quay; the
chains of the cranes, loosed of their weight, rattle as they fly up
again; the ropes splash in the water; some captain shouts his orders
through his hands; a goat bleats from some ship in the basin; and empty
casks roll along the stones with a hollow, drum-like sound. Here the
heavy-laden ships are down far below the quay, and you descend to them
by ladders; whilst in another basin they are high up out of the water,
so that their green copper sheathing is almost level with the eye of the
passenger; while above his head a long line of bow-sprits stretch far
over the quay, and from them hang spars and planks as a gangway to each
ship. This immense establishment is worked by from one to three thousand
hands, according as the business is either brisk or slack.'"
Here Mr. George shut the book and put it in his pocket.
"It is a very excellent account of it altogether," said Rollo.
"I think so too," said Mr. George.
* * * * *
As our travellers walked slowly along after this, their attention was
continually attracted to one object of interest after another, each of
which, after leading to a brief conversation between them, gave way to
the next. The talk was accordingly somewhat on this wise:--
"O uncle George!" said Rollo; "look at that monstrous pile of buck
horns!"
"Yes," said Mr. George; "it is a monstrous pile indeed. They must be for
knife handles."
"What a quantity of them!" said Rollo. "I should think that there would
be knife handles enough in the pile for all creation. Where can they get
so many horns?"
"I am sure I don't know," said Mr. George.
So they walked on.
Presently they came to an immense heap of bags of coffee. They knew that
the bags contained coffee by the kernels that were spread about them all
over the ground. Then they passed by long rows of barrels, which seemed
to be filled with sugar. Mr. George walked by the side of the barrels,
but Rollo jumped up and ran along on the top of them. Then came casks of
tobacco, and next bars of iron and steel, and then some monstrous square
logs of mahogany.
Mr. George and Rollo walked on in this manner for a quarter of a mile,
and at length they came to one of the drawbridges. This drawbridge led
over a passage way which formed a communication from one basin of the
dock to another. It was a very long and slender bridge of iron, made to
turn on a pivot at one end. There was some machinery connected with it
to work it.
"I wish they would come and turn this drawbridge away," said Rollo. "I
want to see how it works."
"Perhaps they will after dinner," said Mr. George.
"Let us sit down, then, here somewhere," said Rollo, "and wait."
So Mr. George and Rollo, after crossing the drawbridge, sat down upon
some of the fixtures connected with the machinery of the bridge.
From the place where they sat they had a good view of the whole interior
of the dock. They could see the shipping, the warehouses, the forests of
masts, the piles of merchandise, and the innumerable flags and signals
which were flying at the mast heads of the vessels.
"It is a wonderful place," said Rollo; "but I don't understand how they
do the business here. Whom do all these goods belong to? and how do they
sell them? We have not seen any body here that looks as if he was buying
any thing."
"No," said Mr. George. "The merchants don't come here to buy the goods.
They buy them by samples in the city. I will explain to you how they
manage the business. The merchants who own ships send them to various
parts of the world to buy what grows in the different countries and
bring it here. We will take a particular case. Suppose it is coffee, for
instance. The merchant never sees the coffee himself, perhaps. The
captain or the supercargo reports to him how much there is, and he
orders it to be stored in the warehouses here. Then he puts it into the
hands of an agent to sell. His agent is called a broker. There are
inspectors in the docks, whose business it is to examine the coffee and
send specimens of it to the broker's office in the city. It is the same
with all the other shiploads that come in. They are examined by
inspectors, specimens are taken out and sent to the city, and the goods
themselves are stored in the warehouses.
"Now, we will suppose a person wishes to buy some of these goods to make
up a cargo. Perhaps it is a man who is going to send a ship to Africa
after elephants' tusks, and he wants a great variety of goods to send
there to pay the natives for them. He wants them in large quantities,
too, enough to make a cargo. So he makes out a list of the articles that
he wishes to send, and marks the quantities of each that he will
require, and gives the list to the agent. This agent is a man who is
well acquainted with the docks and the brokers, and knows where they
keep the specimens. He buys the articles and sends them all on board the
ship that is going to Africa, which is perhaps all this time lying close
at hand in the docks, ready to receive them. As fast as the goods are
delivered on board the African ship, the captain of it gives the agent a
receipt for them, and the latter, when he has got all the receipts,
sends them to the merchant; and so the merchant knows that the goods are
all on board, without ever having seen any of them."
"And then he pays the agent, I suppose, for his trouble," said Rollo.
"Of course," said Mr. George; "but this is better than for him to
attempt to do the business himself; for the agent is so familiar with
the docks, and with every thing pertaining to them, that he can do it a
great deal better than the merchant could, in half the time."
"Yes," said Rollo, "I should think he could."
"Then it makes the business very easy and pleasant for the merchant, I
suppose," said Mr. George. "All that he requires is a small office and a
few clerks. He sits down at his desk and considers where he will send
his ship, when he has one ready for sea, and what cargo he will send in
her; and then there is nothing for him to do about it but to make out an
inventory of the articles and send it to the agent at the docks, and the
business is all done very regularly for him.
"Only," continued Mr. George, "it is very necessary that he should know
how to plan his voyages so as to make them come out well, with a good
profit at the end, otherwise he will soon go to ruin."
Mr. George and Rollo sat near the drawbridge talking in this manner for
about half an hour. Then the men began to return from their dinner; and
very soon afterwards the quays, and slips, and warehouses were all alive
again with business and bustle. They then rose and began rambling about
here and there, to watch the various operations that were going on. They
saw during this ramble a great many curious and wonderful things, too
numerous to be specified here. They remained in the docks for more than
two hours, and then went home by one of the little steamers on the
river.