Escape Route

It is not known how Josef traveled to the port city of Bremen, Germany, and had money to book passage on the steamer S.S. Salier which landed in New York on October 7, 1883.  Josef called the trip a “stormy voyage of 14 days”, and the S.S. Salier manifest lists Josef Hackenberg as a passenger in steerage class.
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Above: The manifest lists Josef Hackenberg as a passenger.

Steerage referred to the one or more below-deck compartments of a ship located fore and aft where the ships steering equipment or cattle had been located in an earlier era. The steerage compartments of late 19th century steamers were no more than cargo holds which were cold, damp and dark without portholes.  They had poor ventilation, were unpartitioned, six to eight feet high, and crammed with two or more tiers of narrow metal bunks. Travelers had to bring their own bedding and sometimes straw mattresses which were cast overboard on the last day of the voyage. Men and women were segregated, sometimes on separate decks but often by nothing more than some blankets draped over a line in the center of the compartment. Children were permitted to stay with their mothers. Some of the larger ships sailing the Atlantic crammed as many as 2,000 men, women and children into compartments unfit for any human habitation.

The air was always fetid because of poor ventilation. Emigrants had to bring their own cups, plates, and utensils and often their own food. They cooked their meals in one of several galleys shared by all those in steerage.

Some ship companies provided herring because it was inexpensive, nourishing and helped to combat sea-sickness.  Toilet facilities varied from vessel to vessel. Some earlier ships had as few as twenty-one toilets per thousand.