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Great Writing - Home > Extended > Susanna Woychik's Diary 1868 - Chapter 5
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Extended Work
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| Susanna Woychik's Diary 1868 - Chapter 5 | |
| By jean.day | ||||||||
| 30 May 2009 | ||||||||
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Monday, 27th April, 1868
I was so busy with packing and last minute things that I have not had time to write in my diary. But I now have it with me on the train, and as this journey will take several hours, I can get a bit written.Nie chwal dnia przed zachodem slonca Don't praise the day before sunset We were given a lift by my aunt’s husband, Leonard Filla, to the closest train stop. It is about half way between Poppeleau and Shalcowitz. It does not have a station house as such, but the train will stop if the driver sees anyone waiting. There was quite a long stop as between us, we loaded dozens of packing cases. We had thought to send them to the dock early, but didn’t manage to finish packing for the two week prior to sailing requirements. Then we rode to our market town, Oppeln, which took about an hour. This same train will take us to Breslau. I am hoping we do not have to get a different train on to Hamburg. Our family took fourteen cases, and on six of them we will have to pay excess baggage. Mostly we took clothes and some tools, and extra food for the voyage - things like dry bread and fish, with quite a lot of cheese. But there were also family heirlooms that Moma could not leave behind, and Papa allowed her to pack one case with these things - which will be all we have to remind us of our homeland, as we shall never be able to go back again. It was quite sad, although many of our neighbors gathered at the station halt to wish us good luck, and we know that we will be seeing most of them again either this year or in the next - in our new country. Later We are now on the train to Hamburg. Because the train put all of us in the last carriage, with our luggage, they were able to shunt that carriage onto the Hamburg train, rather than having to get us all off one and onto another. I guess they are very used to dealing with emigrating families. We shall be going through Berlin on this stage of the journey, but we will not have time to get out and look around. I have been told the train journey will last about five hours and that we should be in Hamburg well before night fall. Later still Arriving at one of the four railway stations in Hamburg, we met with our agents, Mr. O Gusssing and Mr. A G Rhederei and were given a list of information and instruction for emigrants to North America. We were then taken to the emigrant depot of the Hamburg-American line where our papers were examined. We were all required to take baths and our clothing was disinfected after which we constantly emitted the delicious odors of hot steam and carbolic acid. Pa and Uncle Simon filled in the contracts with the appropriate details. This is what the form asked and had to be filled in for each of us. Number. Name in full. Age. Sex. Married or single. Calling or occupation. Able to read and write. Nationality. Last residence. Seaport for landing in United States. Final destination in United States. Whether having ticket to such destination. By whom was passage paid? Whether in possession of money. If so, whether more than $30, and how much, if less than $30. Whether ever before in the United States, and if so, when and where. Whether going to join a relative, and if so, what relative—their name and address. Ever in prison, or almshouse, or supported by charity? If yes, state which. Whether a polygamist. Whether under contract, express or implied, to labor in the United States. Condition of health— mental and physical. Deformed or crippled—nature and cause. Afterwards the luggage was weighed, and the men paid the excess that was due. The agents checked that our names were visible and readable. Then we were off to the police station where the contracts were signed and names entered into the emigrant register. Men who were of age for military service (age 22-36) had to provide documentation that they had permission to emigrate, or discharge papers, from the military authorities. Luckily both Pa and Uncle Simon are older than that, but it will affect their cousin Peter, who is 36. Male emigrants below the age of military conscription had to present a certificate signed by their local district commissioner. This didn’t matter for our boys, as they were much below the required age. Also asked for were our certificates of baptism but they didn't read them carefully, thank goodness, or they would have known that we had lied about our ages. The agents then suggested that the men take our packing cases directly to the Bavaria which is in, waiting for us. So Pa hired a man with horse and cart and arranged for him to take our cases which were labelled as "inspected and passed" - to be taken directly to the dock. The agents went with him, and the rest of us walked to the Emigration Hotel, which took us about ten minutes. We had our rooms reserved, so we were able to leave our overnight cases and then we walked to the dock to see what was going on. When we arrived at the dock, we saw that Pa and Uncle Simon were busy getting someone else to take the cases on a ferry which was used to deliver passengers and luggage to the ship, as it needed to be docked in deep water. Later Pa told us what happened when they arrived at the ship. We had kept our carpet bag cases with us for our immediate needs. One of the cases with the plates and utensils and some food stuffs in had been labelled for immediate use on setting sail, and one other was marked for later use when we would be able to get in out in ten day's time. There were many sailors dealing with luggage for others of the emigrants, as we weren’t the only ones to arrive a day early. The cases which would stay in the hold for the whole journey, have spare clothing and household axes, saws, planes and chisels, hoes and spades, bedding, thread, needles, yarn, medicine, and Moma's heirlooms. Also we had packed some clocks, as suggested by the book, that we might well when we got there. After passing this preliminary examination to the steamship company's satisfaction, Pa and Uncle Simon asked about our berths when they were there. It is all arranged, and all of the Silesian people will be together in the same section - which will minimize language problems, although Pa was told that mostly the people were German, Swiss or Austrian. We are numbers 105-111 and Uncle Simon and his family are 114-117, but they are right next to us, as numbers 112 and 113 are single men and will be in another section. Pa was told that as I was a young girl, on my own, I would have to share my berth with another girl or woman. I wonder who it will be. Families go into the center section of the boat, with the single men on the far side, and single women on the other end. The Bavaria is a very large boat. There are only 30 in first class, and over 800 in steerage, which is what they call third class. There won’t be any second class passengers on our voyage.
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