| Borge | You might find our articles about "The Transatlantic Crossing" and "Nice to know about ships" interesting (links below). There you will see that many emigrants traveled on what was then called "steerage". The quarters where the emigrants were accommodated was frequently used for cargo on the homeward journey, given a cursory clean and temporary partitions erected after discharge of cargo and used for steerage accommodation on the outward passage.
The origin of the expression "steerage", comes from "steers" (cattle), and indicates that the emigrants traveled on the same decks as was used for transporting livestock. Temporary quarters for passengers were set up in many of the ships. The "steerage" term was used for the lowest price accommodations on ships long time after they stopped using the same quarters for cattle and human passengers. Around the turn of the century it became more common to use the term "3rd class" for the low price accommodation, some ships even had 4th class.
Børge Solem |