Life Was Rugged a Century Ago:
Experiences of an English Immigrant
By CARROL H. QUENZEL*
George H. Cadman was in his
thirty-fourth year when he left
Euston Street Station in his native
London on the first lap of the
trek to America. Rather than wait nine
whole days at Liverpool
for the delayed departure of the Cambria,
the ship on which he had
booked passage, he paid an extra fee to
be rowed seven miles to the
Benjamin Adams and was outward bound in considerably less than
twenty-four hours after his arrival.1
He paid for his impatience--he
subsequently categorized all Liver-
pool packets as "floating
hells."2 His fellow passengers included ap-
proximately a hundred Germans of the
British Foreign Legion, two
hundred Irish, forty Jews, and twenty
English; he was the only
Englishman in his section of the ship.
It was not long before "hell
broke loose." "Christmas
eve," as Cadman phrased it, "we began
our pantomime by one Paddy running his
knife into another fellow's
throat," and being put in irons.
The following day some of the
sailors got drunk and became involved in
a row with the Germans.
The Irish attempted to act as mediators,
but they joined the fray
when their efforts to make peace failed.
Resounding blows were
struck, knives were wielded, and order
was restored with great
difficulty.
The Benjamin Adams speedily
encountered foul weather and
spent two days "tacking about"
in sight of Holyhead, on the Welsh
* Carrol H. Quenzel is librarian and
professor of history at Mary Washington
College of the University of Virginia at
Fredericksburg, Virginia.
1 George H. Cadman to Esther C. Cadman,
his wife, February 22, 1857. This
article is drawn from longhand copies of
seven letters owned by Esther Cadman
Maglathlin of Tangerine, Florida. The
originals have been lost. All are addressed to
his wife.
2 Letter of September 8, 1857.