FOSTER OF GLYDE PAPERS.
Newspaper cutting from the New York Daily, January 1851 of a
letter from Foster to Horace Greely, editor of the New York
Tribune. It consists of a summary of Foster's experience of
the voyage and aims to arouse public awareness in an effort to
prevent abuse of emigrants.
[1] Treatment of Emigrants on Passenger Ships.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TRIBUNE.
Sir: As affecting a subject of very great importance to
hundreds of thousands who annually reach the shores of this
great and flourishing country, in search of that means and
existence and remuneration for their labour, which, owing to
the overcrowded state of the population in Europe, or owing to
defective laws, they have been unable to find there, I take
the liberty of requesting the insertion in your paper of the
following lines.
Having determined on a voyage to this country for the
purpose of ascertaining the treatment and requirements of
emigrant passengers on board ship, their treatment and
proceedings immediately on their arrival in this country, and
their prospects of employment in the various states of the
Union, with a view of spreading such useful information as I
shall have aquired on my return to Ireland and England, I
sailed from Liverpool on the 27th October last in the
"Washington", one of the Black Star line of Packets, Commander
A. Page, having selected that ship as the largest emigrant
vessel afloat, and as bringing out on that voyage the largest
number of emigrant passengers who ever sailed in a single ship
from Europe to America.
As I believe the bad treatment received by the passengers
on board that ship is not an isolated instance, but is often
even much surpassed, I feel it my duty to call polite
attention to the fact, and thereby endeavour more strongly to
awaken the attention of the proprietors of emigrant ships to
the desirability and humanity of electing such officers for
the higher and subordinate commands of their vessels as shall,
if possible, combine with nautical skill, a certain amount of
consideration for the comforts and feelings of their
passengers, more especially as the class of emigrant
passengers, who sail in their ships usually occupy that
position in life in which protection, consideration, and fair
dealing on the part of others is most wanting. The complaint
which I have to make is one which is substantiated in a
document of which the following is a copy, signed, on the
#PAGE 2
evening before landing at New York, by one hundred and twenty
of the passengers, and which, but for the bustle of
preparation for landing, and, above all, the fear of
interference on the part of the officers of the ship, would
have revovered the unanimous signatures of all the 916
passengers who were old enough to write at all.
Copy. Ship WASHINGTON, off New-York, 2 December 1850.
WE testify, as a warning to, and for the sake of future
emigrants, that the passengers generally on board of the noble
ship washington, Commander A. Page, have been treated in a
brutal manner bt its officers, and that we have not received
one-half the quantity of provisions allowed by Act of
Parliament, and stipulated for us in our contract tickets.
Here follow 120 signatures, of which I have the originals
in my possession.
I also enclose a copy of a letter which, at the request
of my fellow passengers, I presented to Commander Page on the
31st October, the ship having been advertised to sail and all
the passengers on board on the 26th - he being the man from
whom, moore than from any one else, justice might have been
expected in case of foul play from his subordinates.
Copy. Ship WASHINGTON, 30th October, 1850.
Respected Sir: We, the undersigned, passengers on board the
ship Washington, paid for and secured our passages in her in
the confident expectation that the allowance of provisions
promised in our contract tickets would be faithfully delivered
to us. Four entire days having expired since the day on which
(some of us having been on board from that day and most of us
from before that day) the ship was appointed to sail, and
three entire days since she actually sailed for the port of
Liverpool, without our having received a particle of the
stipulated provisions excepting water, and many of us having
made no provision to meet such an emergency, we request that
you will inform us when we may expect to commence receiving
the allowance which is our due.
Here follow eleven signatures.
P.S. From want of conveniences of writing, and particularly
from thefear of being interfered with by the officers of the
ship, no more signatures have been proceeded with, otherwise
near 900 might have been added. While writing the former part
of this letter, at the request of my fellow-passengers, the
first Mate, Mr. Williams, knocked me down flat upon the deck
with a blow in the face. Another day has elapsed without
provisions being served out.
October 31, 1850. Vere Foster.
The following was the mode of reception of the above
letter. I said:
#PAGE 3
Captain, may I speak to you for a moment.
Captain. - What about ?
Myself, - A letter about provisions.
Captain, - Read it.
I read through about one-third of the letter, when the
Captain said:
"That's enough ! I know what you are; you are a damned
pirate, a damned rascal, and I will put you in irons and on
bread and water for the rest of the voyage."
The first mate the came up and pushed me down on the deck.
Such conduct [stained] [-owing] was not unfrequent. A
[delica---?] [stained] [---ed?] John McCorcoran after washing
[stained] was stooping down wringing them when the [stained]
mate, a powerful man, came up behind him and gave him a severe
kick with his [stained] lower extremity of his back, {wh--?]
[--wn] upon the eck, in consequence [stained] poor man was
obliged to go the [wa---------?] frequently every day for
some days afterward passing blood each time. On other
occasions the first and fourth mates took it into their heads
to play the hose upon passengers in occupation of the water
closets, drenching them from head to foot; and I have on
several occasions seen the first mate without provocation,
strike passengers with his fists and knock them down. I could
furnish my journal with incidents of the voyage, or I could
mention many individual cases of brutal treatment, but that I
am anxious to avoid trespassing upon your space.
I have since seen some of the passengers whom I sent in the
"Washington" on her proceeding voyage, and I learn from them
that no provisions were issued on that voyage to the
passengers till the fourteenth day, and that no meat was
issued during the whole voyage, although the Company engage to
supply one pound of pork (free of bone) to each passenger
weekly. I have alsolearned from passengers whom I have sent
in variuos other ships belonging to the same line of packets,
that the treatment of the passengers on board of some of those
ships has been similar or worse, while that on board of others
has been very just and kind on the part of the officers, as on
board the "Aberdeen" and on board the "St. [Saint] Loius", and
"Constellation", belonging to other companies.
I should have written to you before this had I not been
suffering from illness ever since I left the ship, and had
been unsuccessful in obtaining the insertion of this letter
into another paper. Now, it appears to me Sir, to be more
particularly the duty of every person who holds an independent
position, and who has had such personal opportunities as I
have had of observing such treatment as I have mentioned, to
make public the results of his observations as an individual
#PAGE 4
means of inducing a remedy for the future, and you, Sir, as
Editor of one of the leading journals of this country, may
earn the gratitude of the poor, and of all who take an
interest in their welfare, by giving insertion to the above
too feebly expressed complaint, and by, pehaps, availing
yourself of the opportunity, if you should think it a fitting
one, to embark your powerful pen in the exposure of the
grievances which I have related, and in the advocacy of
renedies for many other grievances connected with emigrant
ships, on which I have not touched.
I am, Sir, Your ob't [obedient?] serv't. [servant?]
Vere Foster.
