BRITISH PASSENGER LAWS (1848-1855). During the period from 1848 to 1855 Great Britain enacted several important laws affecting steerage passengers. In 1849 the pro visions of the British acts of 1842, 1847, and 1848 were consolidated and amended. The additional regulations ordered that an adequate ventilating apparatus should be put on board all ships carrying 100 or more passengers, and that adult passengers of different sexes, unless husband and wife, should be separately berthed; a lifeboat and two life buoys were to be provided, and the following dietary scale was prescribed: Three quarts of water daily; and 24 pounds bread or biscuit (equal in quality to navy bread), 1 pound wheat flour, 5 pounds oatmeal, 2 pounds rice, 2 ounces tea, one-half pound sugar, and one-half pound molasses weekly, to be issued in advance, and not less often than twice a week. Certain substitutions in the matter of food were allowed in ships sailing from Irish or Scotch ports, and the emigration commissioners were allowed to vary the diet under the direction of the secretary of state. By an act passed in 1851 the British law of 1849 was so amended as to enable the emigration commissioners to fix a different length of voyage for steam and sailing vessels, and to allow the use of an alternative diet scale in all passenger vessels. Vessels putting back into any port in a damaged state were prohibited from putting to sea again until effectually repaired. Bond was required to be given by masters of foreign ships carrying passengers to the British possessions abroad that they would submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the colonial courts in the same manner as if they were British subjects. By an act passed in June, 1852, the two previous acts were repealed, but their provisions were reenacted in an amended form. The following were the main differences introduced in the new law: It provided that "passenger ships" putting to sea without obtaining a clearing certificate from the emigration officer should be forfeited; it required the survey of a ship by two surveyors instead of only one; it required that single men should be berthed in a separate compartment in the fore part of the vessel; it provided for hospitals and privies; it added horses, cattle, and lucifer matches to the articles expressly prohibited as cargo; it increased the length of the voyage for ships sailing for North America from seventy to eighty days; it empowered the emigration officers to reject bad provisions; it required the provisions to be issued in a cooked state, and daily instead of twice a week, at the same time allowing a greater variety of articles to be substituted for oatmeal, rice, and potatoes; it provided for the appointment of stewards and interpreters when required, and for the medical inspection of crew and passengers; it required masters of ships which put back for the purpose of repairing damages to maintain the passengers or pay them subsistence money until the ship was ready for sea, or else provide them with passage in some other ship. Emigrant runners were for the first time brought under legal control. In the agitation, investigation, and discussion leading up to and culininating in the United States legislation of 1855, the lack of uniformity in the laws of the various countries was given considerable attention, and effort was made to harmonize important points of difference. In its report to the Senate the select committee previously referred to called attention to the difficulty of enacting laws that would not conflict with the regulations of foreign countries. Upon this subject the report said:" It is, of course, the intention of every lawmaker that the laws passed by him shall be enforced; and to place enactments on the statute book which can not be carried into effect, without subjecting those who are governed by them to difficulty and annoyance from foreign countries, is worse than useless. That such a state of things at present [1854] exists under the passenger laws now in force has been proved by experience; and those engaged in the transportation of passengers do not hesitate to say that the laws under which they are acting are in many respects impracticable, unless at great expense and loss to the American shipowner. It is only necessary to allude to one case of the kind by way of illustration. The acts of Congress require that every passenger ship shall be furnished with provisions of a certain description to a given amount. An American ship goes to Bremen or Hamburg and there takes on board a cargo of passengers. The laws of those cities require that all passenger ships sailing from them with passengers shall be supplied with a prescribed amount of certain provisions, which are specified. Now, in order to comply with the regulation of the port whence he sails for America, the American captain must provide a supply of the articles required by the local law, and, at the same time, to comply with the law of his own country, he must be provided with the food called for by the act of Congress. Some idea of the difficulty of framing laws that would be beneficial to the emigrant without being in conflict with foreign laws regulating passenger-carrying vessels may be seen from the following table, which shows the food supply per passenger required to be carried in 1854 on ships sailing from various European ports, compared with the requirements under the United States law: TABLE 1.-Food supply per passenger required on ships bound to United States ports from the ports indicated, 1854. [From "Sickness and Mortality on Board Emigrant Ships." (Rep. Com. No. 386, 33d Cong., 1st sess., p. 91.)] Antwerp: Children under 8, 2 as 1 adult; under 12, 4 equal to 3 adults. London: Children under 14, 2 equal to 1 adult. CHAPTER II. TRANSITION FROM SAIL TO STEAM, 1856 TO 1872. Unlike the earlier laws regulating passenger traffic, which were hurriedly enacted, the act of 1855 was preceded by a careful investigation into emigration and steerage conditions. On December 7, 1853, the Senate passed an order directing the appointment of a select committee of that body "to consider the causes and the extent of the sickness and mortality prevailing on board the emigrant ships on the voyage to this country, and whether any, and what, legislation is needed for the better protection of the health and lives of passengers on board such vessels." INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE. Hon. Hamilton Fish was chairman of the select committee appointed in pursuance of the Senate's order. In carrying on the investigation the committee issued a circular letter containing a series of questions pertinent to the subject. This letter, which was sent to numbers of the medical profession, shipowners and navigators, customs officials, heads of benevolent societies, and others interested in the subject under consideration, was as follows: " SENATE CHAMBER, Washington, December 29, 1853. SIR: A select committee, appointed by the Senate of the United States, to inquire into the causes and the extent of the sickness and mortality prevailing on board the emigrant ships have instructed me to obtain the opinion of gentlemen of experience and of professional knowledge, both with reference to any deficiency in the provisions of the existing statutes, and the propriety of further legislation. In conformity with their direction, I take leave to ask your opinion as to the adequacy of the existing laws with respect to I. The space allotted to each passenger. II. The quantity and the quality of the provisions required for each passenger. III. The permission allowed to the passengers to furnish their own provisions for the voyage, instead of making it, in all cases, the duty of the master to provide them. IV. Ventilation. V. The cooking arrangements. VI. The duty of the master to enforce personal cleanliness and to insure the cleanliness of the vessel. The committee further request your opinion as to the propriety of amending the existing laws by requiring VII. The employment of a qualified and experienced surgeon. VIII. The employment of a reasonable number of attendants to minister to the sick, and to enforce the observance of cleanliness, both of the persons of the passengers and of the vessel. IX. The separation of the sexes, and the prevention of unnecessary intercourse between the crew and the passengers. X. A thorough process of disinfecting every vessel on board of which disease has once made its appearance. a Sickness and Mortality on Board Emigrant Ships. (Rept.Com. No. 386, 33d Cong., 1st sess., p. 31.) XI. A report, to be made by every vessel bringing emigrant passengers, of the length of voyage, number of passengers, number of deaths, etc., to be published and to be returned to the State Department. XII. In case deaths have occurred during the voyage, an inquest to be held under the supervision of federal officers, and the verdict to be published and returned as above. XIII. A limitation to the number of passengers allowed in any vessel, in proportion to the tonnage of the vessel. XIV. A distinction with respect to the number of passengers between vessels passing within the Tropics and those not so passing. The committee will also be happy to receive from you any statements of facts within your knowledge tending to exhibit the extent or the causes of the sickness and mortality which have prevailed or the insufficiency of the provisions of the existing laws, as well as any suggestions which you may think proper to make in connection therewith or with regard to the proper remedy to be applied. An early reply, with answers to any or all of the points above suggested, will be esteemed a favor. Very respectfully, HAMILTON FISH, Chairman. It is unnecessary to reproduce in detail the various replies to the select committee's circular letter. It may be said, however, that generally they emphatically condemned existing conditions on emigrant ships relative to air space, ventilation, food provisions, treatment of the sick, and the attitude of members of the ships' crews toward steerage passengers. A summary of certain of the. recommendations made by persons addressed by the committee is interesting for purposes of comparison with the recommendations of the select committee and the legislation which actually followed the investigation. The correspondents generally recommended an increase in the air space for each passenger, although some contended that the space required by the law then in force was sufficient. Some advocated the substitution of cubic air space for the superficial-area system, and there were various opinions with regard to the value of the methods under which the number of passengers was apportioned according to the ship's tonnage. One advocated from 20 to 30 superficial feet for each passenger, according to the location of the deck; others suggested that the height between decks should be considered in allotting space, and that a certain amount of open deck room should be provided for each passenger. The most radical recommendation relative to air space was that of John H. Griscom, M. D., of New York, who said that in his opinion not less than 250 or 300 cubic feet should be given to each passenger. One correspondent expressed the opinion that a ship with a single steerage should never carry more than 500 passengers, and that ships of two steerages should not be allowed to carry more than 200 in the lower and 400 in the upper steerage. It was also recommended that on ships of three decks the use of the orlop deck for passengers be prohibited. Concerning the opinions of correspondents relative to space, the select committee's report says in part: The opinions furnished to the committee in regard to space are in a high degree conflicting, some of them being in favor of the sufficiency of the provisions contained in the present laws, while others pronounce them to be totally inadequate. This antagonism of opinion may, in part at least, be accounted for by the fact that the interests of those from whom they emanate are opposed. Generally speaking, the parties to be accommodated and their friends deem the present provisions insufficient, while those who are required to incur the expenses of a change, with a few exceptions, think differently. The correspondents were practically unanimous in recommending that masters be required to supply cooked food to steerage passengers. The Bremen law of the period required this, but, as a rule, the old system under which passengers supplied and cooked their own food prevailed on ships sailing from other ports. There was a difference of opinion relative to ventilation. One advised that more and larger ventilating tubes be required, but a majority of the opinions published in the committee's report were to the effect that the ventilation of ships would be adequate if there were less crowding of steerage quarters. As regards cleanliness, one correspondent suggested a bath and clean linen for each passenger before embarkation, and there appears to have been a general agreement that ships' captains should be empowered by law to enforce cleanliness on the part of passengers. Upon this subject one correspondent said: The great cause, therefore, of the filthy, beastly, degrading condition of passengers and their berths is the want of adequate power in the master to establish a competent police. Two ship captains in a joint report said: At present we have no legal power whatever to enforce sanitary regulations. Power should be given to commanders of ships to enforce obedience to necessary regulations for daily cleanliness. We think this could be the most easily accomplished by giving them power to stop the supplies of provisions and water to such persons who refused to comply with such regulations. Opinions varied regarding the proposed requirement that surgeons and attendants to administer to the sick be employed on emigrant ships. One correspondent stated that a qualified and experienced surgeon was too costly a luxury, and recommended as an alternative that a steerage steward and a steerage stewardess be required for every 25 passengers on board. In general, however, the sentiment was that all ships should carry a surgeon, especially if any considerable number of passengers was carried. It was also recommended that a small apartment be set aside for hospital purposes on ships carrying more than 100 passengers. One correspondent advocated a female nurse for each 100 passengers because of complaint against the brutal language of the crew toward the sick. Samuel Cartwright, M. D., New Orleans, in his reply to the letter of the committee, made some interesting observations on the proposition of having surgeons and hospitals on board emigrant ships. He said: * * * God has made the ocean healthy, and if it prove otherwise it is in consequence of man's tyranny, ignorance, or avarice pursuing the emigrants on their passage hither, requiring the interposition of republican legislation to correct the evil. Ship fever can be banished from the ocean by the same means that jail fever and the whole host of surgical diseases were cast out of the United States of America. No art was a match for the pestilence generated in the dark, dank, crowded cells of filthy, unventilated jails, the inmates eating unwholesome food, drinking impure water, and rebreathing the foul emanations of their own bodies. No art can cope with a similar pestilence, generated from similar causes, on shipboard. * ing down the artificial causes of ship fever the physicians * important aid to the shipbuilder, the masters, and owners of vessels and to the goyerning authorities, They can demonstrate that man requires a certain amount of oxygen, and if he does not get it he sickens and dies in the presence of the ablest physicians of the land; that there is no medium of sufficient virtue to enable man to do without wholesome food, drink, and fresh air. * The medical profession will not assent to any measures creating the necessity for hospitals by depriv * ** * * * * * In strikcan render |