Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

by George Francis Dow

"Our company continually increased, when the most shocking oaths and curses resounded from every corner, some loading their neighbors with bitter execrations, while others uttered imprecations too awful to be recorded. The persons present were: first, the captain's clerk, the young fellow who gave me the invitation. I found him a person of considerable reading and observation who had fled his native country on account of a young lady to whom he was engaged. Second, was one John Tuzz, a midshipman and one of my messmates, a good-natured, honest fellow, apt to blunder in his conversation and given to extravagant profaneness. Third, one Butler, a minister's son, who lived near Worcester, in England. He was a descendant from Butler, the author of Hudibras, and appeared to be a man of fine sense and considerable breeding, yet, upon occasion, was extremely profane and immodest, yet nobody seemed a greater admirer of delicacy in women than himself. My fourth companion was one Spear, one of the mates, a most obliging ingenious young gentleman, who was most tender of me in my cruel sickness. Fifth: one of our company this evening was the carpenter of the ship who looked like a country farmer, drank excessively, swore roundly, and talked extravagantly. Sixth: was one Shephard, an Irish midshipman, the greatest champion of profaneness that ever fell under my notice. I scarce ever knew him to open his mouth without roaring out a tumultuous volley of stormy oaths and imprecations. After we had passed away an hour or two together, Mr. Lisle, the lieutenant of marines, joined our company. He was about fifty years of age, of gigantic stature, and quickly distinguished himself by the quantities of liquor he poured down his throat. He also was very profane.

"About nine o'clock the company began to think of supper, when a boy was called into the room. Nothing in human shape did I ever see before so loathsome and nasty. He had on his body a fragment only of a check shirt, his bosom was all naked and greasy, over his shoulders hung a bundle of woolen rags which reached in strings almost down to his feet, and the whole composition was curiously adorned with little shining animals. The boy no sooner made his appearance than one of our society accosted him in this gentle language. 'Go you —— rascal, and see whether lobscouse is ready.' Upon this the fellow began to mutter and scratch his head, but after two or three hearty curses, went for the galley and presently returned with an elegant dish which he placed on the table. It was a composition of beef and onions, bread and potatoes, minced and stewed together, then served up with its broth in a wooden tub, the half of a quarter cask. The table was furnished with two pewter plates, the half of one was melted away, and the other, full of holes, was more weather-beaten than the sides of the ship; one knife with a bone handle, one fork with a broken tine, half a metal spoon and another, taken at Quebec, with part of the bowl cut off. When supper was ended, the company continued their exercise of drinking, swearing and carousing, till half an hour after two, when some of these obliging gentlemen made a motion for my taking some repose. Accordingly, a row of greasy canvas bags, hanging overhead by the beams, were unlashed. Into one of them it was proposed that I should get, in order to sleep, but it was with the utmost difficulty I prevented myself from falling over on the other side....

"The next day, towards evening, several passengers came on board, viz: Mr. Barons, late Collector, Major Grant, Mr. Barons' footman, and Mrs. Cruthers, the purser's wife, a native of New England. After some considerable dispute, I had my lodgings fixed in Mr. Pearson's berth, where Master Robant, Mr. Baron's man, and I, agreed to lie together in one large hammock."[64]

Such were the accommodations of the petty officers' mess on board a twenty-gun ship of 1760 in the New England service.

In October, 1774, Miss Janet Schaw set sail from the Firth of Forth, Scotland, in the brig Jamaica Packet, of eighty tons burden, built in Massachusetts two years before. With her sailed a girl friend, two young nephews, her brother and her maid. They arrived on board in the evening and turned in at once. In Miss Schaw's journal of the voyage, now in the British Museum, we read:

"Our Bed chamber, which is dignified with the title of state room, [there were only two staterooms: the captain occupied the other] is about five foot wide and six long; on one side is a bed fitted up for Fanny and on the opposite side one for me. Poor Fanny's is so very narrow, that she is forced to be tied on, or as the Sea term is lashed in, to prevent her falling over. On the floor below us lies our Abigail. As she has the breadth of both our Beds and excellent Bedding, I think she has got a most envyable Berth, but this is far from her opinion, and she has done nothing but grumble about her accommodations." The two had been asleep about an hour when her brother came to the stateroom and let down "the half door" to enquire after their healths. His "Cott" swung from the ceiling of the cabin of the brig and the two boys slept on a mattress on the deck beneath the hammock. The hencoop was located on deck just over his head and in the morning the rooster and hens kept up such a pecking that it was impossible for him to sleep. The brig was making a northerly course in a heavy sea and Fanny and the maid were both seasick and lying flat on their backs in their five by six foot cubicle, dimensions probably somewhat underestimated by Miss Schaw, although later she records that "we sit in bed till we dress, and get into it whenever we begin to undress."

In the cabin, in which Schaw hung his "cott," was a small cast-iron stove and here, too, was the case containing the Captain's gin, which he frequently opened and the odor of which set their stomachs topsy-turvy and sent poor Fanny to her bed, and Schaw flying on deck for fresh air. This cabin was furnished with joint stools, chests, table, and even an elbow chair which Miss Schaw had lashed to a mooring near the fireside.

A few days after sailing the brig ran into a storm and the water finding its way into the cabin almost reached the beds in the stateroom—(which was located beside the companion stair)—forcing the maid to "peg in with the boys who could easily let her share with them." The gale also washed away most of their private store of provisions so they were forced to depend upon the ship's stores which consisted mainly of neck-beef, several barrels of New England pork, then on its third voyage across the Atlantic, oatmeal, stinking herrings and excellent potatoes. Lobscouse was a favorite dish made from salt beef that had been hung by a string over the side of the ship till tolerably fresh and then cut up in little pieces and stewed for some time with potatoes, onions and peppers. They also varied their diet by "chowder, scratch-platter and stir-about."[65]

Just forward of the cabin was the steerage filled with immigrants of all ages. Their beds were made up on the deck where they lay alongside of each other and in this low-studded space they existed when the hatches were battened down in stormy weather. "They have only for a grown person per week, one pound neck beef, or spoilt pork, two pounds oat meal, with a small quantity of bisket, not only mouldy, but absolutely crumbled down with damp, wet and rottenness. The half is only allowed a child, so that if they had not potatoes, it is impossible they could live out the voyage. They have no drink, but a very small proportion of brakish bad water."

It is quite plain that eighteenth-century trans-Atlantic voyaging was full of discomfort to the average traveler, and to the unfortunate in the steerage a fearful adventure.