Thank you so much for this!  I can't imagine what hardships our ancestors

experienced.  Pictures like this help.  Thank you!





--- In SLOVAK-ROOTS@yahoogroups.com, "Ron" <amiak27@...> wrote:

>

>...

>

> The section on shipping includes a display on immigration, and as most of you

know many of our ancestors exited Europe through German ports between 1880 and

1914. With the cooperation of the German ship lines they have displays of a

first class cabins as well as a third class or steerage class display

representing the conditions on a sailing ship. I took a few photos that I will

post in the FILES FOLDER "1870 ship emigrant display"

>

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SLOVAK-ROOTS/files/1870%20ship%20emigrant%20displa\

y/

>

> ...

On my way back to the Frankfurt airport and my flight back to Alaska on the 3rd

of July I headed to Munich and spent a day at the Deutsches Museum, a well

respected museum of sciences and technology that can be compared to the

Smithsonian in Washington. It is recommended for anyone with an interest in the

breadth of human knowledge and development.



The section on shipping includes a display on immigration, and as most of you

know many of our ancestors exited Europe through German ports between 1880 and

1914. With the cooperation of the German ship lines they have displays of a

first class cabins as well as a third class or steerage class display

representing the conditions on a sailing ship. I took a few photos that I will

post in the FILES FOLDER "1870 ship emigrant display"

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SLOVAK-ROOTS/files/1870%20ship%20emigrant%20displa\

y/



This is what the exhibit signs had to say:

" Between Decks of an Emigrant Sailing Ship, about 1870, Replica

Poverty and political persecution caused about 14 million Europeans,  in some

cases with their families, to go to North America between 1850 and 1914. The

journey could take between 4 weeks and four months; hundreds f people had to

spend this time tween-decks. Lack of care and atrocious hygienic conditions led

to epidemics on board. In 1853 every tenth emigrant died on board. Passengers

had to provide their own food, crockery, mattresses and bedding. They formed

cooking

groups and elected a member who distributed the food rations which were then

prepared and cooked by the women. Emigrant transports were an important export

item; shipping companies employed persons to recruit passengers. National and

economic interests thus led to reforms which required by law minimum dimensions

of 2.85 cubic meters per passenger and also stipulated the extent of sanitation

and life saving equipment to be provided."



2.85 cubic meters is 101 cubic feet, or in a deck 6 feet high, equivalent to

floor space of 4x4.



There was no display on steerage in later sailing ships.  Looking at the

pictures, the generous space depicted does not seem to reconcile with the space

calculated.