Aboard a Packet
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants left Europe for the United States in the 1800s. They sought economic opportunity, religious and political freedom, and the chance to join family members who had gone ahead.
Many immigrants sailed to America or back to their homelands in packet ships, vessels that carried mail, cargo, and people. Most crossed in the steerage area, below decks. Conditions varied from ship to ship, but steerage was normally crowded, dark, and damp. Limited sanitation and stormy seas often combined to make it dirty and foul-smelling, too. Rats, insects, and disease were common problems.
A typical packet in the 1820s and 1830s could also accommodate 10 to 20 well-to-do cabin passengers. Rich or poor, many travelers alternated between anxiety and boredom on long ocean crossings, depending on the weather.
“The Embarkation, Waterloo Docks, Liverpool”
In the mid-1800s, most British immigrants to the United States departed from Liverpool, England. Many Scandinavians also sailed to America through the British port. Other European emigrants sailed from Le Havre, France; Bremen and Hamburg, Germany; and Antwerp, in Belgium.
“Interior of the Saloon of a Sailing Packet-Ship”
Wealthy travelers took advantage of packets’ reliable sailings to study, tour, or transact business abroad. Staterooms, although tiny, normally came equipped with a mattress and linens, a washbasin, and some drawers. Their ventilated doors opened directly into the cabin or saloon, a common area for eating and socializing. On many ships, the captain dined with the cabin passengers.
Train & Co. sailing announcement, August 1850
Imagine you were emigrating from Great Britain to the United States in 1850. How would this announcement help you prepare for your voyage?
What was included in the price of a steerage ticket?
What could you expect to eat while on board?
What was not included with your ticket?
How could Irish travelers starting in Belfast get to Liverpool, England, to catch the ship for their transatlantic crossing?
This document uses traditional English weights and measures. 1 stone = 14 pounds (6.3 kilograms); 1 cwt or hundredweight = 112 pounds (50.8 kilograms)
Cooking at Sea
This report of conditions in steerage was written by a doctor who had crossed the Atlantic many times on large American packet ships. “Reform must be made,” he wrote, “to better the condition of the poorer classes of emigrants.”
In Steerage
Steerage passengers slept, ate, and socialized in the same spaces. They brought their own bedding. Although food was provided, passengers had to cook it themselves. On rough crossings, steerage passengers often had little time in the fresh air on the upper deck. If passengers didn’t fill steerage, the space often held cargo.
Inside a Packet Ship, 1854
This cutaway reveals how travelers, immigrants, and cargo sailed together. Travelers with enough money purchased “cabin passage” and slept in private or semiprivate rooms. The vast majority of passengers, usually immigrants, bought bunks in steerage, also called the ’tween deck for its position between the cabins and the hold.
Packet ship Shenandoah
Built at Philadelphia, 1840
Capacity: about 290 passengers
A Ship on a Schedule
Beginning in the 1820s, transporting immigrants developed into a profitable, large-scale business. The Shenandoah carried people and freight from 1840 until 1854, usually running between Philadelphia and Liverpool. On a typical crossing in August 1845, the ship arrived in New York with 231 passengers—all but a handful of them farmers, clerks, mechanics, and laborers from England and Ireland.
