ABSTRACT
Instances of extreme suffering on the part of the emigrants were so frequent that a committee, which enquired into the abuses then affecting the transport trade. In parenthesis, it may be mentions that the figures relating to emigration in the early years are of little value, as they take no account of the surreptitious sailings. The home authorities witnessed hundreds of cases of overcrowding, but were powerless to interfere. The form of legislation was undoubtedly necessary to check the abuses which had sprung up in the Atlantic transport trade, it was generally felt that the first Passengers’ Act imposed unnecessary hardships on the shipowners, and consequently on the emigrants themselves. The regulations concerning the provisions were also unnecessarily severe that an important of the emigrants of the time were of Irish nationality, whose usual diet consisted largely of milk, potatoes, and herrings. The Commissioners directs much care and thought to the various methods of provisioning emigrants during the Atlantic voyage.
