Voyages VIII–IX · Steamers · 1850–1851
Pacific · Asia
New York → Liverpool → New York · 1850–1851
VIII — Pacific, New York to Liverpool, 12 September 1850.
I have no notes on this crossing; we had an 11-day passage. Screw steamers were not yet known.
Instead of the 12 to 20 passengers of the sailing ships, we were about a hundred. It was a méli-mélo [hodgepodge] of German Jews, of English, Scottish and American merchants, all eager to secure the best cabins and the best places at table.
This ship — new, built to race the Cunard line — was superb. She measured 3 to 4000 tonneaux [tons burthen]. The fittings were luxurious: the dining saloon, the drawing rooms, the cabins were in the 'tween-deck; the crystal, the porcelain, the linen, the furniture were of the best taste. The following year, in 1851, the Pacific left Liverpool in the month of May and never arrived. She was supposed to have been split open, with all hands and cargo, by a night collision with a mountain of ice.
IX — Asia, Liverpool to New York, 4 January 1851. No notes. Regular run faster than in the past. An 11-day crossing despite heavy weather, degenerating sometimes into Storms. There was always fog on the Newfoundland banks. It was then that one could not help feeling dread. One evening we stopped, making the siren howl, firing rockets. We heard distinctly the sound of the bow cutting the water close by us. At last we heaved sighs of satisfaction on seeing a great three-master pass abeam, 50 meters from us.
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