Year: 1873

Our Great Atlantic Steamship Lines.


The Miseries Of the steerage Pas


senger.


In another place in the HERALD of this
morning will be found long and able
letter from q correspondent, rejecting
gravely on the management Of one of the
largest and most respectable of our great At
lantic steamship companies. We print the
letter with some regret because we feel salts
fed that it must give pain to the managers Of
the National line. We are satisfied, however,
after proper inquiry, that our correspondent is
a man of honor and integrity, and that he
writes in the interests of the public, whom it is
our business and our duty to serve. We
shall be glad to learn that the evils COM
planned Of are really not so bad as represented
In the meantime however, we have no choice
but give our correspondents letter to the pub
lie; and if the managers of the National line
feel aggrieved we beg to assure them that our
columns will be as open to them for explana-
ton and defence as they are now to Mr.. Nc
Donnell for the statement OF his complaint 1t
requires to be stated at the outset that the
charges made in Mr.. McDonnelrs S letter are of
a special character they relate only to what
happened on one voyage Of the Erin and it
is quite possible that the grievances COM
planned of were due to exceptional causes, the
statement Of which may go far to vindicate and
justify the general management of the National
line.


According to our correspondent the steam.
ship Erin, of the National line, on which he
had taken passage, was to sail from the
Victoria Docks, London, on the 30th of No
vember. On that day, when the passengers
came on board, they were made aware that
the vessel would not sail until Monday, the
Cd Of December The sailing was again
deferred until Tuesday, and finally until
Wednesday, the vessel, however, not leaving
the dock till four O clock on Thursday morn
ing. 1t is but just to the company to add
that for each day they were detained every
adult person received at the rate Of eighteen
pence day. We are willing to be as just to
the management as possible; but oil things
considered we cannot in the first place justify
the detention, nor can we in the second in
stance commend them for the grandeur of
their liberality Any one who knows London
and is familiar with the Victoria Docks can
conceive the misery which these poor peo- .
pie, some of them women and children, must
have endured during those four days of the
gloomiest season which London knows. At
Havre, where the vessel called, some eight
hundred additional passengers were taken on
board, and for these, it appears the most
wretched accommodation was provided To
this portion of our correspondents letter we.
specially call the attention of our read
ers We cannot in this place repro
duce all the disgusting details; but if
the one-haf of what he states is true
1t is high time that the horrors of the steerage
passage should be proclaimed to the world
and that an indignant public on both sides of
the Atlantic should unite for the purpose of
making an end of an imquity which recalls all
the worst features of the slave trade, when
human beings, without regard TO age or sex,
were huddled together like so many cattle, and.
in circumstances Of impurity disgusting to
think of, were transported across the seas. We
have done much to make an end of the one
iniquity the other cannot be tolerated.


1t is in the last degree necessary that on
board passenger ships there should be a sufi-
cient number of stewards and satisfactory
medical attendance. In both these particulars
the Erin on her last voyage to these shores
seems to have been at fault. When the vessel
left Hawe there were only three regular
steerage stewards, and of them the most
oblging and intelligent was shortly afterwards
removed to the sailors quarters. Some Of tina