International Travel

One traveler in the mid-1850s observed that "many mercantile men cross the Atlantic twice annually on business and think nothing of it". For the first-time traveler, or for the emigrant who expected to settle permanently in a new country, the undertaking was more momentous. Many emigrants, to conserve their funds, chose passage in steerage of a sailing ship, a vast open space beneath the main deck. In the mid-1850s the emigrant paid from £4 to £5 for a journey that lasted around 2 months. He received "weekly a supply of provisions, including tea, sugar, rice, oatmeal, biscuit, flour, &c., and a certain allowance of salt meat, or junk, possessing the consistency of gutta-percha, and the flavour of brine itself". Complaints about short weights and false measures apparently were frequent. A second-class cabin passenger on a sailing ship shared a small cabin with 3 others for the cost of £7 and paid a similar amount for provisions to feed himself during the voyage. For a slightly larger sum, the passenger might have traveled first class on the same sailing vessel, with all provisions except alcohol provided, or might have secured a second class cabin on a steam vessel and saved 5 weeks of travel time.