{"id":"01KG8AKZ9RWKVSM68ED4NEKCPR","cid":"bafkreifgev4ow3nfyyfak2a7554f5w6oggi5pspq3ktyn3vjjdzmozgw6q","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11538,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.843Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":11477,"text":"white foam of the wave-crests, like avalanches; while the seething and\r\nboiling that ensued, seemed the swallowing up of human beings.\r\n\r\nBy the afternoon of the next day this heavy sea subsided; and we bore\r\ndown on the waves, with all our canvas set; stun’-sails alow and aloft;\r\nand our best steersman at the helm; the captain himself at his\r\nelbow;—bowling along, with a fair, cheering breeze over the taffrail.\r\n\r\nThe decks were cleared, and swabbed bone-dry; and then, all the\r\nemigrants who were not invalids, poured themselves out on deck,\r\nsnuffing the delightful air, spreading their damp bedding in the sun,\r\nand regaling themselves with the generous charity of the captain, who\r\nof late had seen fit to increase their allowance of food. A detachment\r\nof them now joined a band of the crew, who proceeding into the\r\nsteerage, with buckets and brooms, gave it a thorough cleansing,\r\nsending on deck, I know not how many bucketsful of defilements. It was\r\nmore like cleaning out a stable, than a retreat for men and women. This\r\nday we buried three; the next day one, and then the pestilence left us,\r\nwith seven convalescent; who, placed near the opening of the hatchway,\r\nsoon rallied under the skillful treatment, and even tender care of the\r\nmate.\r\n\r\nBut even under this favorable turn of affairs, much apprehension was\r\nstill entertained, lest in crossing the Grand Banks of Newfoundland,\r\nthe fogs, so generally encountered there, might bring on a return of\r\nthe fever. But, to the joy of all hands, our fair wind still held on;\r\nand we made a rapid run across these dreaded shoals, and southward\r\nsteered for New York.\r\n\r\nOur days were now fair and mild, and though the wind abated, yet we\r\nstill ran our course over a pleasant sea. The steerage-passengers—at\r\nleast by far the greater number—wore a still, subdued aspect, though a\r\nlittle cheered by the genial air, and the hopeful thought of soon\r\nreaching their port. But those who had lost fathers, husbands, wives,\r\nor children, needed no crape, to reveal to others, who they were. Hard\r\nand bitter indeed was their lot; for with the poor and desolate, grief\r\nis no indulgence of mere sentiment, however sincere, but a gnawing\r\nreality, that eats into their vital beings; they have no kind\r\ncondolers, and bland physicians, and troops of sympathizing friends;\r\nand they must toil, though to-morrow be the burial, and their\r\npallbearers throw down the hammer to lift up the coffin.\r\n\r\nHow, then, with these emigrants, who, three thousand miles from home,\r\nsuddenly found themselves deprived of brothers and husbands, with but a\r\nfew pounds, or perhaps but a few shillings, to buy food in a strange\r\nland?\r\n\r\nAs for the passengers in the cabin, who now so jocund as they? drawing\r\nnigh, with their long purses and goodly portmanteaus to the promised\r\nland, without fear of fate. One and all were generous and gay, the\r\njelly-eyed old gentleman, before spoken of, gave a shilling to the\r\nsteward.\r\n\r\nThe lady who had died, was an elderly person, an American, returning\r\nfrom a visit to an only brother in London. She had no friend or\r\nrelative on board, hence, as there is little mourning for a stranger\r\ndying among strangers, her memory had been buried with her body.\r\n\r\nBut the thing most worthy of note among these now light-hearted people\r\nin feathers, was the gay way in which some of them bantered others,\r\nupon the panic into which nearly all had been thrown.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJT5SAHKG6V354KE5GRJR","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKZ9HHQ1Z8YDPKZCRKM2R","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKZ9R8J96D4EGGPHDTJ8H","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:21.816Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:35.033Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}