The Journey
What went wrong
Luxury
The rich had a large advantage over many of the other passengers, being able to afford comfortable rooms on large decks, which meant lots of fresh air. There was good food, and more than enough:
"We had a beautiful life for 10 days at the sea. The first five days, the weather was pretty well. There was some wind, so that the boat was going up and down for 100 feet, the boat is very big, but the sea is playing with it. We weren't seasick for many times, but the most of the people were. We were with one thousand men, which wasn't much, cause there can be 2,400 in this boat. There were 6 sailors, we were with 100 men at the table:
10 tables and also 10 waiters, 3 times a day we get meat, eggs and 4 geese, ducks and chickens. There were also much fruit, and too much to name. 9 days we only got water and air. On Tuesday 14th we arrived in New York on 6 o'clock in the evening. Oh, what a lots of people. No eyes to see. We were 20 hours in the train. On the 15th on half past six we arrived in Cleveland and there were people changed and more people from Almelo and what a tears of joy that you would think that God saved us so loyal and than to the house of Hindrik and there the house was full. The reverend and two elders too welcome us. God is good and now we are in America."
Disasters
The Dutch were fortunate enough not to have many disasters during their journey. Little, ordinary things, but nothing too large. The one and only big disaster with the Dutch immigrants was in 1847, when there were 152 people on board of a Big Lake Steamship (the "Phoenix") on "Lake Michigan". There was fire on the boat; the sailors didn't act on it and they to the passengers who discovered the fire, 'mind your own bussiness', and even hit one of the alerters. So, it happened that 127 died and only 43 were saved. They were almost at their destination and had less to navigate than 10 kilometers.Approved
These journeys were approved by the Dutch government, saying that the immigrants might use the colony if they lived in peace. However, that was the only thing the government did. They didn't do anything for thesafety of the colonists. The journeys were financed by English merchants, who wanted to get something back for it: profitable lots of fish, fur and wood from the colonists.Not approved
America didn't approve the transports. When there were too many complaints by the immigrants about the way they were treated, the rules became more strict, for example: the space for every steerage passenger. There came more controls. Suddenly, the Dutch government began to have problems for the trade and shipping with the USA. The Dutch government paid more attention about the way the immigrants were treated. When the rules became more strict in March of 1847, the government and ship owners were surprised. Many ships asked for exemption due to the huge streams of immigrants that relentlessly continued.
Discomfort
[What went wrong]
The End