CAMPBELLs, LUGGs, & BLACKWELLs of Nelson, PA

The Ship Captain's Records of Joshua Blackwell; Joshua's Nephew, William Perrin Blackwell, age 10; the Rev. John Hey and Family -- and their Baggage on the Brig Cornelia's 1804 Voyage from Bristol, England to Philadelphia.

We are very lucky these records survived. There were no immigration laws in 1804, the country truly had "open borders." A ship tied up to a wharf, its passengers disembarked and that was it. Captains were not required to report who landed or even to make lists of passengers. But why did Joshua bring his young nephew? To help with tasks like polishing his shoes? To start the boy's education on how to conduct business? Or perhaps as a favor to an impatient child, anxious to see the country they were moving to and not wanting to wait till the next year when the rest of his family was coming. I find it interesting to look at what baggage the passengers brought with them. Note also that in the handwriting of that time, A "double s" (as in 'passenger') is written 'fs".

The Hey family could afford a cabin, but the Blackwells traveled "steerage." That was the large, "open" area between decks. "Passengers slept, ate, and socialized in the same spaces. They brought their own bedding. Although food was provided, passengers had to cook it themselves. On rough crossings, steerage passengers often had little time in the fresh air on the upper deck. If passengers didn’t fill steerage, the space often held cargo." From a NY Times article in 1851 "Each passenger receives weekly 5 lbs. of oatmeal, 2 1/2 lbs. biscuit, 1 lb. flour, 2 lbs. rice, 1/2 lb. sugar, 1/2 lb. molasses, and 2 ounces of tea. [No meat, cheese, vegetables or fruit.] He is obliged to cook it the best way he can in a cook shop 12 feet by 6! This is the cause of so many quarrels and...many a poor woman with her children can get but one meal done, and sometimes they get nothing warm for days and nights when a gale of wind is blowing and the sea is mountains high and breaking over the ship in all directions." {Of course, when the seas were that rough, most of the passengers were seasick and didn't want to eat.]

[The Cornelia, built in 1799, sank 8/8/1804 in mid-Alantic while returning to Bristol.]