The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-06-13
A PASSAGE IN THE STEERAGE.
Some Of tm Discomforts Encountered
During an Ocean Voyage.

some OF u" OtSCOu1IOFts
During an Ocean Voyage.
II may serve rs warning to all con-
cerned to publish the following extracts
from recent private letter. giving an ac-
count Of the first part of a voyage to the
River Plate on board one Of the finest
steamers ailoat. and belonging to one OF
the best known companies. The writer is
a young man who has 10 face the world
az best he may. and by necessity took
stecrage passage He says;
In the bay of Bsca: we tve had very
bad weathcr-high wind. rain and heavy
seas. Last night was dreadful. The
horrors OF Il Storage passage can only be
realized by experience. The food is bad
and is eaten the best way we can manage.
There is 10 table We must eat-sitting
on wooden bench or standing-from
greasy tin plates with greasy tin spoons
aud forks or greasy knives, and we drink
out of greasy tin mugs. At , Il. III. we
have a compound which bears a faint re.
semblauce 10 coffee, without milk, and
good bread. which is the only good thing
we have There il also u substance they
tenn butter" but the sight and smell OF
II ere enough At ) a Ill. We have break
fast. which consists of II kind of soupy
stew with potatoes, and concoctien
which has not the least resemblance to
tea. being, in fact, merely dirty water. |
do not drink It, At noon we have dinner,
which consists Of beef cut in slices about
an inch thick. and which will not yield to
masticatiOn, potatoes and bread and water.
At D. IN. we have more soupy stew and
biscuit. which will yield only to the ham
mcr These are all the meals, and the
bill of fare has only varied twice in four
days-once on Sunday, when we had salt
fish, which was horrible. and today, when
we had salt pork, which was worse.
"The sleeping arrangements are on a
par with the rest. Our cabin has twenty
eight berths, which are all full The
hunks are about two feet wide. and the
beds are composed of straw mattress
and pillow. and two blankets The wash
ING arrangements are smple-tin basins,
with about two inches Of water. Baths
there are none The state of dirt we
shall be In when we reach MOntevideo |
cannot conjecture At night we have
only one light--a dingy oil lamp. But
the worst is to come At Bordeaux Cor
unna and Virgo, we took on a cargo OF
the wretchedast ragtag and bobtail Of the
French. Spanish and Portuguese nations
men. women aud children | believe
we now have about eight or nine hundred
Of these on board. and there are more TO
come at LISBON, which we should reach
tomorrow.
The scenes that have taken place on
.ieck and below since these poor wretches
came on board bafi.e description. Men,
women and children are scattered about,
eating. drinking. chatteriHg. singing and
vomiting Fortunate it Is that our cabin
is full. SO that these people are berthed IN
other cabins. but the noise az night and
the stencil are horrible Some OF them
.rc literally in rags. many without shoes
)r stockings, but all with one accord are
very dirty. Moreover. the ship itself is
dirty There seems to be no attempt TO
keep it clean The door of our cabin is
slippery with grease and dirt. We have
three Cnkempt Portuguese stewards to
attend Oh us. They are fairly civil The
only English steerage passengers are the
twenty-eight in our cabin They are all
decent fellows Some are engine drivers
from the Midland railway, some clerks,
etc They share little luXuries freely with
one another As the above mentioned rag
tag and bob:ail are in the habit Of steal
ing out of the cabins. and even ripping
bags open we have organized n watch OF
half an hour a spell each, so that the
cabin is never left Untenanted all day. -
St James Gazette