The Star of the Sea (59 page)

Saturday, 4 December, 1847
Our twenty-seventh day out of Cove

L
ONG:
74°.02′W. L
AT
: 4O°.42′N. A
CTUAL
G
REENWICH
S
TANDARD
T
IME:
04.12 a.m. (5 December). A
DJUSTED
S
HIP
T
IME:
11.17 p.m. (4 December). U
NITED
S
TATES
N
ATIONAL
O
BSERVATORY
T
IME:
11.12 p.m. (4 December). W
IND
D
IR
. & S
PEED:
E. 88°. Force 2. P
RECIPITATION
& R
EMARKS:
Extremely cold with biting gusts. Lying at anchor in New York Harbour.

This morning at a quarter to five we passed Jamaica Bay and Coney Island and reached the Scotland Light Vessel in Lower Bay; leading to the South Channel of New York Harbour. There we signalled by flag-hoist for a pilot to come out. Reverend Deedes conducted a brief service of thanksgiving for our safe arrival while we waited for the steersmen and wharfinger to come; and never in all my years at sea was I happier or more thankful to the Almighty than I was this morning. Lord Kingscourt joined us at prayer: a mighty unusual thing. He said he had been having difficulty sleeping of late.

No signal came back for more than two hours but I thought nothing of it, since the port has been extremely busy in the last several years. I returned to my quarters and commenced to bundle my kit. By eleven o’clock no pilot had come and then I began to feel a mite apprehensive. I returned to the upperdeck and waited with the men.

Finally, just before noon, the tugboats appeared in the distance and a great cry of cheering arose among the passengers. Many embraced each other and began singing hymns and national songs. But their joy was soon to be tempered by a further necessity of patience. On board the leading pilot boat was an officer of the city’s Quarantine Division, charged to present me with an order under the Customs Acts not to debark but to come in and await further instructions. He refused to furnish more information; simply I must do as was requested and keep the ship calm. I said nothing to the men or the passengers: only to Leeson. We both of us felt the news might not be happily greeted.

Pilot Captain Jean-Pierre Delacroix came aboard and took the wheel, an Acadian man of Louisiana. He appeared to speak extremely little English so I called Mr Dixon who knows some of the French language. But Delacroix would not say anything about what was taking place in the port, merely remarking that he had a job to do.

Many of the passengers were in a state of tremendous jubilation as we fixed lines to the tugs and began to move through the Narrows and into the bay. After nigh on a month at sea, to be so close to land always seems a blessing. And indeed the land looked so beautiful and verdant in the cold sunlight; Staten Island and New Jersey to the West, the farmlands and little towns of Brooklyn to the East. It is sometimes said by seamen that land has a smell, and this day such seemed indeed to be the case, a wonderful aroma of vegetation and fodder. One could see the town of Red Hook through the lifting mist, and several of the cattlemen on the silhouetted hillsides raised their caps and waved as we passed, to the great rapture of all the passengers.

It was only when we were directed by the pilots into the Buttermilk Channel that I knew something was badly amiss, for in fourteen years making the voyage this has never happened before. A very heavy feeling of foreboding came down. From there we were towed around the island and into the harbour to meet a situation of extreme concern.

Such a scene I never saw in my life. At my estimation, about a hundred vessels are lying at anchor in the harbour at present, all having been refused permission to tie up at the dock. We were led
by the pilots’ tugboats to a position about quarter of a mile from the South Street Docks, between the
Kylebrack
out of Deny and the
Rose of Aranmore
out of Sligo, with the
White Cockade
out of Dublin lying aft. There we were ordered to drop anchor and await further communications. By the time we had anchored and stowed and written report for the tidewaiter, two more vessels had come in behind, the
Kylemore
out of Belfast and the
Sir Giles Cavendish
out of Mobile, Alabama for Liverpool but mainsail torn from the gaskets off northern Pennsylvania.

I considered the overall situation facing us now. If I said I had many sick on board, which I do, it might make the passengers’ chances of being permitted entry that much the lesser. Very hard to know which course to take. I sent a message in to the port to say I was practically out of provisions and water and had well upward of three hundred on board between men and passengers; but a notice came back from the Port Office telling me to wait. Freshwater could be provided, and a surgeon if necessary, but any attempt to come in with the ship would be regarded as an illegal act and met harshly; by the impounding or burning of the vessel if necessary and the imprisonment of every man and passenger on board. I asked for a representative of the company to be sent out to consult with me, but at the time of writing none has appeared.

At two o’clock I had a visit from Surgeon Wm Mangan, who said he was greatly troubled by the situation on the ship. A number of passengers were extremely ill and must be taken into a fever hospital immediately. I explained the circumstances and said there was nothing I could do. He asked if it was true that we had a quantity of mercury amongst the cargo. When I said it was indeed, he asked if he could have some for the preparation of some medicament or another. Of course I acceded. (‘Some debaucher down in steerage must have a certain dose,’ Leeson joked to myself, when the good doctor had gone. And he added: ‘One night with Venus, a whole life with Mercury.’ But I did not think such a remark at all amusing. I have seen men die of that evil condition and would not wish such a death on the very worst foe.)

The situation is become alarming, not to say precarious. Many of the passengers have thrown their bedding overboard, in the belief that it is to be inspected by the quarantine officers for lice; and are
thus left with no protection from the cold at night. They do not understand that for all the cold of the day, the cold of night can be lethal at this latitude. We are lying so close to the
Ferrytown
and the
Clipper
that the passengers are able to call across to those on the other two vessels. All manner of rumours are now being diffused: viz, any person from Ireland will be turned away from the customs post; all European immigrants must produce a sum of one thousand American dollars before being granted admission; the men are being separated from the wives and children & cetera, and repatriated.

I had Leeson gather all the passengers in assembly and informed them there was no cause whatsoever for alarm, but my remarks were not greeted well. Many heckles and angry remarks were made. I ordered all remaining supplies of wines, ales and spirits for the First-Class passengers to be distributed among steerage. Perhaps that was a foolish course; but it is too late now.

It is to be hoped that some news will come tomorrow, for many are in a condition of surpassing agitation.

First Day, 5 December, the sabbath,
^*
Our twenty-eighth day out of Cove

L
ONG:
74°.02′W. L
AT
: 4O°.42′N. A
CTUAL
G
REENWICH
S
TANDARD
T
IME:
11.14 p.m. U
NITED
S
TATES
N
ATIONAL
O
BSERVATORY
T
IME:
6.14 p.m. P
RECIPITATION
& R
EMARKS:
Extremely low temperatures all the day, falling to minus 16.71° Celsius this night. Decks and ladders hazardous with thick ice. Ratlines and riggings are frozen solid. Icicles hanging from masts, jibs and shroud-ropes, presenting a danger to passengers; have ordered them broken with spars. Turbulent last night with heavy winds and many passengers sick of stomach.

Still lying at anchor at low tide in New York Harbour. Black, leaden sky all the day. I estimate the number of vessels similarly situated to be now 174, and increasing by every hour. The waters of the
harbour badly clogged with feculence and foul matter of all kinds. Hundreds of large black eels in the filthy water. A child of steerage last evening scooped up what she thought to be a large purple balloon with a line-and-hook. Very badly stung by Portuguese man o’ war jellyfish. She may die.

I sent a message at noon with an urgent request for a meeting with some person from the Port Office but no reply has yet been given. About an hour ago I had Leeson flag-signal to the Wharfage House for us at least to be allowed to disembark the women and children, many of whom are by now in a pitiful condition, but again no response whatsoever has been forthcoming.

Two steerage passengers died last evening, John James McCraghe of Lee, nr. Portarlington, Queen’s County, and Michael Danaher of Caheragh, County Cork. I have ordered the remains to be placed in the hold, since burials within the harbour are strictly forbidden. (In any case, those passengers who profess the Catholic faith consider it unholy to be buried on the sabbath day.) A seaman, William Gunn of Manchester, is badly struck with a fever and is not expected to last the week.

This morning Seaman John Grimesely came to see me and said he had been requested (indeed elected) to do so by his comrades. He said the men were most disturbed by recent developments and could not be asked to bear them much longer.

Last night a number of altercations had broken out in steerage, some of them of very considerable violence. Eight male passengers had been placed in the lock-up, two of them having to be restrained with manacles or leg-irons. He said there was a rumour of a plot among the steerage passengers to scupper the ship or put it to fire were we not granted permission to debark without delay.

At that remark I lost my temper and said I would light the first torch myself: that I went to sea to be a seaman not a glorified undertaker and that if he did not return to his watch immediately I would elect the tip of my boot up his democratic hole.

Food very low. Water almost gone. What we have is frozen to rock.

Monday, 6 December
The twenty-ninth, day out of Cove

L
ONG:
74°.02′W. L
AT:
40°.42′N. A
CTUAL
G
REENWICH
S
TANDARD
T
IME:
00.21 a.m. (7 December). ‘L
OCAL
T
IME’:
07.21 p.m. (6 December). P
RECIPITATION
& R
EMARKS:
Extremely cold with bitter frost. Temperature at 2 p.m. was minus 17.58° Celsius. Smoke and soot in the air.

Our comrade William Gunn departed this life early this morning, a terrible sadness for he was a good honest lad. He was 19 yrs old, from the city of Manchester, a true friend to all he met.

Heavy snow now falling. Harbour choked up to Governors Island. Widely rumoured that the port has been closed by the navy; all vessels being halted and boarded by frigates off Coney Island and Rock’way Beach. Very large crowds of the poor congregating on the docks before us in expectation of news of loved ones aboard the ships. Many constables and troopers fending them back.

At the suggestion of Lord Kingscourt, I have given orders that all provisions now on board are to be shared equally between the steerage passengers, the men and those in First-Class. Have had vigorous complaints from Wellesley the Mail Agent, who says he shall never again sail with the Silver Star Line. I said I profoundly regretted his decision (which I do not) but I could not suffer the passengers to starve to death in order to retain his custom.

Mr Grantley Dixon has begun to send in by boat a number of reports and articles he has made on our predicament for the
Tribune
of New York. As to whether or not this is helpful I venture no opinion. (The man secretes such an intimate cognition of righteousness that one would swear he sees an archangel in the glass when he shaves.)