The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-21 00:00:00

MORTALITY AT SEA.

The New York papers continue their fearful records of
mortality on board the ships arriving at that port from
Europe. Here is a partial list of the arrivals for the last
seven days, with the mortality reported :
"Ship Statesman, from Antwerp, 25 deaths ; barque
Cmsar, from' Hamburg, 7 ; Calhoun, from Liverpool,
(including 4 seamen and 1 boy) 54 ; Emma Fields, from
Liverpool, 42 ; Delaware, from Bremen, 15 ; Empire, from
Havre, 73; Antarctic, from Liverpool, 75; ship Fidelia,
from Liverpool, (seamen) 3 ; barque Rhein, from Hamburg,
; ship Cornelia, from Liverpool, 13."
The Journal of Commerce, commenting upon this sad
fatality says :
" During the last two months, disease has greatly afflicted
the emigrant vessels. It is not recollected that the mortality
on shipboard was ever before so great. Some variety of opi-
nion has existed as to the nature of the disease prevailing—
but upon inquiry at the emigration office, we learn that the
physicians at quarantine (who have already had an extensive
experience,) are nearly or quite agreed that it is closely allied
to that form of cholera which has for some months past pre-
vailed in Europe.. There are no local influences on our emi-
grant ships tending to aggravate the disease, for these vessels
are as cleanly, well ventilated, and well provisioned, as here-
tofore. In these respects, they are generally far superior to
what they were a comparatively short, time ago. Yet hun
in -
dreds of individuals have died forty-eight hours after the
first attack. Some even die before the ships leave their
anchorage in Mllitpcan Ponta- The ordinary ship fever is
not as malignant. We learn that some of the sea captain.
have great confidence in the use of a mixture of brandy and
cayenne pepper as a remedy. Captain Kelly, of the
American Union, considers that he owes his life to this
prescription.
" Since the cholera began to prevail on ship-board with
the fatal effects now so frequently noticed, or, say within two
months past, probably 12,000 emigrants have been landed
at quarantine, on Staten Island, and there cleansed, fed, and
elothtd, at the expense of the emigration 'commissioners,
wh.le the vessels have undergone a process of purification.
By this means, the disease has been excluded from the city,
and from the emigrant houses on Ward's Island. Every ship
is detained at quarantine two or three days, or until the health
officer pronounces her in good order."
The Evening Post, commenting upon the statement above
made, " that there are no local influences on our emigrant
ships tending to aggravate the disease," remarks, and we
think with much truth :
But, admitting the general improvement, it is still true
that many of them are entirely unfit for the business to
which they are appropriated. If the writer of the paragraph
would visit one of these vessels just after her arrival in
port, he would find the foul air, the filth and the oduur,
emanating from the parts to which emigrants are confined,
wholly intolerable."
WO would again call the attention of our New York con-
temporaries to the fact that there has been no unusual
mortality on board the ships of. Train's line of Boston and
Liverpool packets. We have already given a table, showing
that the deaths on board these packets during the summer
months did not average more than one to a ship. The
same exemption from sickness has continued during the fall
months. Within a fortnight five ships have arrive at this
port consigned to Enoch Train and Co., bringing nearly two
thousand passengers, and the deaths have not averaged
more than one to a ship ; and this while the vessels which
left Liverpool at the same time for New York, have marked
their track over the broad ocean with the dead bodies of
their human- freight. In the name of humanity, we ask,
why is this? We know that particular attention is paid
in the Ships of Train's line to cleanliness: and ventilation,
and the most watchful supervision is exercised over the san-
itary condition of the ships. We can only attribute the
mortality on board the. New York ships to a lack of these
precautions and of this unceasing vigilance.—Boston Paper,