Travelling by packet boat

Tuesday, September 9th, 1823 – [Douglas continues his journey towards “Upper Canada”, as it was then known; upstate New York as it is now] At 8 o'clock this morning [9th] I left Utica by canal-boat for Rochester; sixty miles from here [on the Erie Canal] without a lock. The fields on its banks are rich and fertile and in general well cultivated.

The boats are fitted up on good principles; accommodation for twenty four ladies in one cabin and as many in the men's. I slept on board but was much disturbed passing the locks [Eh? He's just recorded it being 60 miles to Rochester without a lock?  Interestingly, the Editor of the published copy f his Journal - 1914 - also picks up on this inconsistency] I arrived at Rochester at 6 o'clock on the 11th [ie, the following day, after a 46 hour journey including two overnights on board. At just over 1 mile an hour this is considerably slower than the coach but presumably rather more comfortable].

The Erie Canal website gives a detailed description of boat travel on the canal, as follows:

"...both passenger boats (called "packets" or "packet boats"), usually horse-drawn, and working boats (also called "line boats" or "freighters"), drawn by either horses or mules, were common. Originally intended as a more comfortable alternative to the bone-jarring stagecoach, the packet boat fell out of favor as railroad travel improved, and basically disappeared by the latter half of the 1800s.

 

 Packet boats came in different sizes, but the most common size was 60-80 feet long by just over 14 feet wide. All featured the same basic accommodations: a multipurpose room which served as lounge, dining room, and sleeping room (with a curtain to separate the ladies and men), and a kitchen. The average charge for traveling on packet boats was 4 cents per mile, and included meals and sleeping accomodations. For those who couldn't afford a packet boat, line boats could take passengers at a charge of 2 cents per mile, and sometimes one cent, but accomodations were proportionally less comfortable and travel somewhat slower. 


The image below features a typical packet boat. 
 


Because it was usually hot and stuffy in the cabin in the summer time, passengers commonly sat on deck, what little there was of it, or often on the roof. Because headroom under bridges was usually low, passengers on the roof had to duck their heads, or occasionally, to flatten themselves to the roof to avoid being swept off the roof into the canal. The second image below illustrates a packet boat passing under a bridge, with passengers heeding the call of "Bridge!" or "Low Bridge!" Because travel on the Erie Canal was a leisurely affair -- the usual speed being four miles per hour -- passengers would sometimes disembark where they could, walk along the canal path for a while and re-board at some other convenient spot, sometimes by jumping onto the roof from a bridge."

 

In 1836 Thomas S. Woodcock made the trip from Schenectady, New York to Buffalo and recorded his experience aboard a packet boat:

"These boats are about 70 feet long, and with the exception of the Kitchen and bar, is occupied as a Cabin. The forward part being the ladies' Cabin, is separated by a curtain, but at meal times this obstruction is removed, and the table is set the whole length of the boat. The table is supplied with every thing that is necessary and of the best quality with many of the luxuries of life.
On finding we had so many passengers, I was at a loss to know how we should be accommodated with berths, as I saw no convenience for anything of the kind, but the Yankees, ever awake to contrivances, have managed to stow more in so small a space than I thought them capable of doing.

The way they proceed is as follows - the Settees that go the whole length of the Boat on each side unfold and form a cot bed. The space between this bed and the ceiling is so divided as to make room for two more. The upper berths are merely frames with sacking bottoms, one side of which has two projecting pins, which fit into sockets in the side of the boat. The other side has two cords attached one to each corner. These are suspended from hooks in the ceiling. The bedding is then placed upon them, the space between the berths being barely sufficient for a man to crawl in, and presenting the appearance of so many shelves. Much apprehension is always entertained by passengers when first seeing them, lest the cords should break. Such fears are however groundless. 

NB - the image below shows what Douglas's sleeping arrangements would have been like.

 
 copyright Sgerbic, via Wikimedia Commons


The berths are allotted according to the way bill, the first on the list having his first choice, and in changing boats the old passengers have the preference. The first Night I tried an upper berth, but the air was so foul that I found myself sick when I awoke. Afterwards I chose an under berth and found no ill effects from the air. 

These Boats have three Horses, go at a quicker rate, and have the preference in going through the locks, carry no freight, are built extremely light, and have quite Genteel Men for their Captains, and use silver plate. The distance between Schenectady and Utica is 80 Miles, the passage is $3.50, which includes board. There are other Boats called Line Boats that carry at a cheaper rate, being found for 2/3 of the price mentioned. They are larger Boats, carry freight, have only two horses, and consequently do not go as quickly and moreover have not so select a company. Some boats go as low as 1 cent per mile."
>> From: New York to Niagara, 1836: The Journal of Thomas S. Woodcock, at: "Traveling the Erie Canal, 1836", EyeWitness to History (2004). 

Given the speed Douglas records it sounds as though he may have been on one of the cheaper boats!

EDIT - New York State is celebrating the bicentennial of the Erie Canal’s creation this year (2018) with a campaign to “Reimagine the Canal.”

 

A series of conversations focused on economic and environmental sustainability of the historical Mohawk river towns will be held in Schenectady County beginning March 8th.
These events will kick-off with a presentation by some of the region’s leading experts on the Erie Canal, followed by dialogue on how re-imagining the canal and river can help community revitalization and sustainability in the region.

More info at: http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2018/02/27/schenectady-county-erie-canal-history-events-set/

Interval #1.3 - Life on board ship

The delay is over; Douglas finally boards the Ann Maria in Liverpool for his long journey to New York.  What can he expect to find on board?  Well, we can be sure it isn't going to be luxurious but I'm pretty sure he won't be down in steerage either. 

The Ann Maria was a packet boat, primarily in the business of transporting immigrants to North America.  This was a time when the first passenger lines were being established across the North Atlantic, with the Black Ball Line and the Red Star Line, both establised around 1817/18, offering competing services between New York and Liverpool.  Both sailed on fixed dates, typically twice a month, at fares of around 35 guineas.  

The Ann Maria doesn't appear on the list of ships of either line, and there was certainly other competition.  Nevertheless, she seems to have sailed on a reasonably frequent scheduled service and probably made a couple of North Atlantic crossings every year.  It certainly wasn't her first crossing.  Courtesy of the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild we can see the Ann Maria docking in New York from Liverpool on 9th March, 1820 and again on 3rd July that same year, so a pretty quick turnaround at both ends of the voyage.  She was in New York from Liverpool again on 12th July 1821 and of course on the 3rd August 1823 with Douglas.

So Douglas is sailing on a ship which is part of a well-established transatlantic passage.  Steamships are on the horizon, so to speak, but most travel is still by sailing vessel.  So what was the Ann Maria like?  Well, first of all she was a packet boat not a luxury liner, not that luxury liners existed back in 1823.  Courtesy of On the Water, from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, we see that she was an immigrant ship, carrying mail, cargo and people.  
 

 Courtesy of the Mariners Museum

For most it wouldn't have been a pleasant journey; most people travelled below decks in steerage, one deck up from the hold in conditions which were dark, crowded and poorly ventilated.  Most had to fend for themselves with a limited diet, and sanitary conditions were poor.  
 

 Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Libraries

As the Smithsonian tells us "Steerage passengers slept, ate, and socialised in the same spaces. They brought their own bedding. Although food was provided, passengers had to cook it themselves. On rough crossings, steerage passengers often had little time in the fresh air on the upper deck."  And the food available, and included in the cost of the passage, wasn't generous although it was not uncommon for there to be a cow, or possibly a couple of goats, on board to supply milk:


These people were making the conscious choice to leave their old lives behind and travel rough to America in the hope of making another, better, life in the New World.  For them a few weeks hard travelling on the North Atlantic, which may not have been much harder than the life they were leaving behind, was a discomfort worth bearing, although deaths 'en voyage' were not unknown.

But there was another class of traveller and I suspect it was into this group that Douglas fell.  Again from the Smithsonian "Travelers with enough money purchased “cabin passage” and slept in private or semiprivate rooms." 

 

 Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Douglas wasn't buying his own ticket.  The Horticultural Society would be paying for their employee's travel while he was on a job of work for them and I suspect he had a small cabin, certainly not the gloriously mis-named stateroom!  "Staterooms, although tiny, normally came equipped with a mattress and linens, a washbasin, and some drawers. Their ventilated doors opened directly into the cabin or saloon, a common area for eating and socialising. On many ships, the captain dined with the cabin passengers."  I think this is the onboard environment Douglas would have found himself in.  It wouldn't be luxurious but would be reasonably comfortable by the standards of the day and the all-in-it-together nature of the saloon would have meant no shortage of people to talk to and who may have been interested in his mission.  No doubt too there was a cook (it's unlikely the Captain would have been doing his own cooking!), so Douglas would be spared the necessity of cooking his own meals and may have eaten slightly better fare than the poor souls in steerage.

Nevertheless it would have been a long and demanding journey for one who had never made any sort of sea voyage before.  Douglas was fortunate that he had a clear goal ahead of him, explicit instructions and introductions and plenty of 'reading up' to do to keep him occupied.