{"id":"01KG8AJT5605PEE376MG95GY41","cid":"bafkreiarvzky6rnfidu4sawuykqdooiethyi6qe3dkoekhcr7yjt4w75nm","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER LI. THE EMIGRANTS\n## Overview\nThis is a chapter from the novel [Redburn: His First Voyage](arke:01KG8AJ9CVDS15WWAP46A9M4XP) by Herman Melville. The chapter, titled \"CHAPTER LI. THE EMIGRANTS,\" describes the narrator's observations of Irish emigrants aboard a ship as they approach Ireland after having left for Liverpool weeks earlier. It was extracted from the source text file, [redburn.txt](arke:01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF), and is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection.\n\n## Context\nThe chapter is positioned between [CHAPTER L. HARRY BOLTON AT SEA](arke:01KG8AJT56E0P2PPTSG89EMH92) and [CHAPTER LII. THE EMIGRANTS’ KITCHEN](arke:01KG8AJT51W0VXG01P5T2QSR5Q) within the novel.\n\n## Contents\nThe chapter recounts the narrator's experience with Irish emigrants on a ship. The emigrants, initially excited at the prospect of arriving in America, are crestfallen to discover that the land they see is actually Ireland, their point of departure. The narrator describes the emigrants as simple people with little understanding of distance, who would eagerly anticipate seeing America each morning. He also shares an anecdote about an old man who constantly searched for land and was amused by the sight of porpoises, which he called \"great pigs of the sea.\"\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:10.023Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER LI. THE EMIGRANTS","end_line":10321,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:38.127Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER LI. THE EMIGRANTS","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":10279,"text":"CHAPTER LI.\r\nTHE EMIGRANTS\r\n\r\n\r\nAfter the first miserable weather we experienced at sea, we had\r\nintervals of foul and fair, mostly the former, however, attended with\r\nhead winds, till at last, after a three days’ fog and rain, the sun\r\nrose cheerily one morning, and showed us Cape Clear. Thank heaven, we\r\nwere out of the weather emphatically called _“Channel weather,”_ and\r\nthe last we should see of the eastern hemisphere was now in plain\r\nsight, and all the rest was broad ocean.\r\n\r\n_Land ho!_ was cried, as the dark purple headland grew out of the\r\nnorth. At the cry, the Irish emigrants came rushing up the hatchway,\r\nthinking America itself was at hand.\r\n\r\n“Where is it?” cried one of them, running out a little way on the\r\nbowsprit. “Is _that_ it?”\r\n\r\n“Aye, it doesn’t look much like _ould_ Ireland, does it?” said Jackson.\r\n\r\n“Not a bit, honey:—and how long before we get there? to-night?”\r\n\r\nNothing could exceed the disappointment and grief of the emigrants,\r\nwhen they were at last informed, that the land to the north was their\r\nown native island, which, after leaving three or four weeks previous in\r\na steamboat for Liverpool, was now close to them again; and that, after\r\nnewly voyaging so many days from the Mersey, the Highlander was only\r\nbringing them in view of the original home whence they started.\r\n\r\nThey were the most simple people I had ever seen. They seemed to have\r\nno adequate idea of distances; and to them, America must have seemed as\r\na place just over a river. Every morning some of them came on deck, to\r\nsee how much nearer we were: and one old man would stand for hours\r\ntogether, looking straight off from the bows, as if he expected to see\r\nNew York city every minute, when, perhaps, we were yet two thousand\r\nmiles distant, and steering, moreover, against a head wind.\r\n\r\nThe only thing that ever diverted this poor old man from his earnest\r\nsearch for land, was the occasional appearance of porpoises under the\r\nbows; when he would cry out at the top of his voice—“Look, look, ye\r\ndivils! look at the great pigs of the sea!”\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER LI. THE EMIGRANTS"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ9CVDS15WWAP46A9M4XP","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJT56E0P2PPTSG89EMH92","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJT51W0VXG01P5T2QSR5Q","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:43.782Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:11.373Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}