The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-07 00:00:00

EMIGRATION SHIPS.

(From the Freeman's Journal )
There are few to whom the benevolent exertions of
Mr. Vere Foster, our countryman, are not known. He
has devoted his time to the emigration question, and
done much to smooth the difficulties which interposed
between our emigrating countrymen and the objects of
their pursuit. We know of few gentlemen who have
laboured so energetically and successfully in destro lag
the crimp system, and otherwise improving the emi•
grant's condition before and during the long sea passage.
Some time ago Mr. Foster collected in Louth, Msatb,
and the neighbouring counties a number df-Young girls
of unspotted reputation, to the number of 120, wit ► a
view of providing for them in the Western States o f
America, Having shipped them at Liverpool on board
the packet ship City of Mobile, and made all the necee-
sary arrangements for their safe conduct, as he imagined,
Mr. Forster preceded them by steam to New York, both
to receive them on their arrival and conduct them to
their future settlement. The City of Mobile duly ar-
rived, but for: some reason or other Mr. Foster found a
general reluctance on the part of hie protegees to go
further. Ultimately not more than a dozen of the 120
consented to leave New York, with whom he went west-
ward and placed in good situations. What became of
the 100 who left their homes under such promising aus-
pices, and whose characters were so pure before the poi-
lution of the emigrant ship ! Nothing was kno sn of
the poor creatures—how they lived or died—until some
thne after, when a kind-hearted gentleman was struck
with the appearance of a wretched object in the most
fashionable thoroughfare of New York. She was an
Irish girl—one who had suffered and was suffering much
in mind and in body. Her face was covered with
bruises and her body with rags. She told a wild and
pitiful story to the Commissioners of Emigration—that
she came to New York in the City of Mobile, under the
care of a gentleman whom she afterwards requited with
ingratitude—that she bad since lived a life of crime and
suffering, and was now a wanderer in a strange land
without a home, friends, or money. Susan Smith, the
Broadway outcast, was one of the girls who went out
under Mr. Foster's care, and had been seduced from the
ship by sailors sad others to houses of ill-fame, where
their ruin was accomplished. The wretched girl was too
weak at the time to make a full statement, but cubse-
fluently she deposed to the following facts, of which
there is no doubt, and which unfold another chapter in
the diabolical history of Liverpool emigration :—Her
affidavit is to the effect that, after the vessel had cast
anchor in the port, five of the female passengers were on
the same night taken on shore by a boat's crew of the
ship ; next morning five others were taken off by " the
quarter master ;" at noun the same day the deponent
and another girl were taken away to a brothel where
they remained for six waeks ' • that the other females
were taken to Castle Garden, the regular point of disem-
barkation at New York, and landed. There is little room
however, to doubt that all or the majority were subjected

to the same profligate influences and consequences.
Here is a whole cargo of virtue—before it was subjected

to the contamination of sailors—lost for the want of or-
dinary care. We never heard or read of such a sad story.
Out of 120, who left Ireland in safety, with their cha-
racters vouched by their clergy, only 12 or so were un-
infected, the rest having been ruined in the short space
of one month. Emigrant ships, in truth, are boating
bells. Little or no care is taken by the owners to pro-
vide proper officers, and the vicious persons who are
invested with command are just as wicked as the crew.
It was the duty of.the callers to select suitable. officers
and to prohibit, by every possible means, all intercourse
between tho passengers and toilers. In this particular
case, where such a number of unmarried females, with-
out control or protection, were embarked for a long sea
voyage, every care should have been taken to prevent
intercourse with the crew. How they conducted
themselves while on board we have no information—but
it is very evident the officers of the City of Mobile neg-
lected the duty which the Jaw imposed. For every pas-
senger not landed at Castle Garden the captain was
liable to a fine, and yet he permitted the crew to secrete
some of the passengers in the forecastle, who afterwards
smuggled them ashore, and carried them to the terrible
dens where their destruction was consummated. Here
is at least a wiltul violation of state law by the officers of
the ship, and we trust the state authorities have dealt
vigorously with the legal and moral infraction. The
horrors of the City of Mobile are not solitary instarc,s
of depravity. Unprotected females, of whom hundreds
annually leave our shores in quest of friends or fortune,
are sacrificed in this loathsome middle passage. The
officers are just as licentious as the crew. Both classes
are equally intent on the ruin of their victims, and, if
opportunities be wanted aboard, the disgusting dens with
which New York, like Liverpol, abounds, are directed
to have Unir emissaries isrepared, on the arrival of the
vessels, to take charge of the passengers, and convey
them to " cheap and comfortable lodgings." We need
not dwell on the results. A New York journal lately
stated, and we believe with truth, that more women are
prostituted every year in the packet ships from European
porta to New York, than in London, Paris, and New
irons taken together. From information which has
reached ourselves, we are satisfied this account is not to
much exaggerated. Females without protection are in
most instances loft either afl.,at or ashore. After all
the noise about emigration officers and
passenger acts,
there is really little done to insure the moral safety of
passengers. Unrestricted intercourse is the general rule
on board. We are reluctant to fay a word deprecatory
of Mr. Feist r's conduct. We are convinced he used
every exertion, and exerted every promise that the
pas een g Would be
presume
e d
theyu l y
were taken care
in
eh o
charge
r gef
oifna
inh i ab-
sence.
as
tro
y)
who appears to have ill-understood her duty, cr
not 'to have had sufficient influence to counteract
the wicked designs of the debauched crew. We think
Mr. Foster should have been with them during the
voyage. Perhaps his engagements rendered that course
nconvenient or impracticable. At any rate it was highly
dangerous, as events proved, to commit such a number
of innocent girls to the temptations of a free intercourse
with depraved men, with no, other restraint than the
presence of a matron, who could exercise no repressive
authority in the face of snob dangers. We presume the
friends and relatives of the sad freight per ship City of
Mobile are already in possession of the facts to which we
syrj"erkz%; and says
have adverted—if net, they may discover in the sub-
joined deposition of poor Susan Smith food for tears and
lamentation. Better let the whole mad story be known.
It may produce ultimate good.in wlsolty stay a! tLatl
national madness for emigration of Which we have well
nigh seen the end :
" City and County 1331SluTslia.n Smith, late
DEPOSITION
0 iNoeEvr
of county Meath, Ireland, beingLscwaome
deposespassenger to the
that she is 21 year!r
York otfheagseh'ip City of Mobile, Marshall,
dhaardrirceadstonantchhea3rOtohtfofcJaustniee pmoar.ttaorf,Nfreawm
Garden, Margaret Floody and four other passengers of
the ship were on the same night, at about 11 o'clock,
taken elf the vessel by two of the sailors belonging to
last ;
that
aftYLerivrtekhrpeinovole,saaenl
the ship, in one boat, and brought to the city ; that on
the next morning, about 8 o'clock, the ship having mean-
pnaelsisye,ngers
tmi ma
re
yb eme na
otnaek, e
mn roor tau ni(d
etl
ya,
Annepier ,
Donne
passengers
named
Jane Craw-
ley, and a girl named Margaret, were taken off by the
quartermaster, named Bill Mooney, who was always, so
far as deponent knows, at the wheel during the voyage ;
that at about 12 o'clock noon, on the same day, Wed-
nesday, deponent and a girl named Ellen Neary, who
was a passenger, were taken off the vessel by two sailors,
named James and Thomas, and brought to the house of
Kit Burns, No. 32, Water-street, where deponent has
remained up to the present time. Says that the other
passengers were taken off the vessel in a steamboat ond
the day of arrival, at about six o'clock p.m.,
an
brought to Castle-garden, as deponent believes, and that
a
meantime deponent and the other females, asip
stated, were concealed in the forecastle of the ship by
the sailors until brought ashore, as abovehst:ted.
" SUSAN S SMITE.
mark..
ne D
rof eeds.
"BERNARD CASSERLY, oim.ss.? .
by 'then oonieht of Justice Os.
" The Commissioner,
"Sworn to before me this 4th day of August, 18t7,
-•erl Ellen Neary, and sent her to Ward's Island."
born, sent an officer to No. 32, Water-street, and arf

THE SUBMARINE lELEGRAPII TO ALGIERS.—The Mon,
zmibano, Sardinian frigate, arrived at Cagliari £ll the
let, with all the m1111(.1.10.03 and engineers on board who,
are to superintend the sinking of the cable between that
city and Bona. The weather was ex'remely favouradhl in
?
and it was hoped the operation would be comp
43 hours. The Piedmontese Gazette expresses a. brie
that the operation will commence at Cape spartiventor
instead of at Bona.