An emigrant's home letters/Letter Twenty-One
LETTER TWENTY-ONE.
Plymouth Sound,
April 7th, 1839.
My Beloved Sister,
Mr. Marshall's clerk brought your letter on board this morning. It rejoices Clarinda and myself to learn from it that all of you are still pretty well in health. I was very glad of the money. Had three half-pence when I received it, and no more. Am a great deal better than when I wrote my last. Clarinda also is a great deal better.
We fare very well, considering all things, on board the Strathfieldsaye, but the steerage of an emigrant ship is of necessity a most miserably uncomfortable place to me. I am more solitary and companionless than I ever was in all my life in this stagnant crowd of human beings. Some of them are of the most indecent and brutish description. My hopes of ultimate success are as good as ever, and it is worth something to endure the disagreeableness of the next four months.
Now for a bit of description of our residence. The large hold of the ship, where the goods generally are stored, is divided in about the middle by a deal partition. The apartment towards the forecastle, or front of the ship, is allotted to the male steerage passengers; the other, towards the cabins in the poop, or the back part of the ship, to the females. There are two rows of berths, one above the other, round each compartment. The berths are three feet by six feet, just affording room for two persons to lie down. They are separated from each other by a slight, low deal board, about ten inches high, so that when we are all in bed, our bodies, rising higher than these boards which separate us, it seems as if we were ranged side by side in one immense bed all round the place. We sleep on straw mattresses, with a double blanket and a rug. We live at present on nothing but beef and soup and biscuit, but there is plenty of that. We are divided into messes—eight persons to a mess. One of the eight acts as captain for the rest for a week, and then another for another week. The captain's job is to get the provisions for the rest from the ship's steward, to see to its being cooked, to wash the dishes, &c. I am captain this week. We have a black cook. When we get out to sea where fresh beef cannot be obtained, we shall be victualled according to the scheme in Mr. Marshall's paper. I think that will suit me a great deal better. We have nearly all our passengers on board now. A boat load of Irish 'real emeralds,' as the surgeon called them, came last night. A young Jew from London forfeited his passage money and left the ship the other day, heartily tired of it. A man who was going out free also ran away last Sunday morning, as soon as we got here, and left all his clothes behind him. We have a clergyman going out with us, who came on board to-day.
They talk of our going direct to Sydney, and not touching anywhere. We have live stock on board for the use of the ship, A cow and calf, 24 pigs, 30 sheep, geese, fowls, etc. Not for us, though, mind you. Our united love to father, mother, and all of you. Give Clarinda's love to her father and brother, if you ever see them.
Your affectionate brother,
H. PARKES.
This letter will go to London by Mr. Marshall's agent.