Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

60 and he may well also have been the ‘correspondent’ who provided regular updates for the readers of Bell’s Life. On 3 September, the only stop of the trip was made in Queenstown (Cobh) in County Cork, to pick up its cargo of Irish emigrants, the majority of whom would be paying $30 for steerage in the hope of finding their fortune in the New World. As for the rest of the journey, ‘it was not all sweets’ according to James Lillywhite, and indeed the seasickness of the first few days was such that ‘several wished they had never ventured’. George Freeman, in a letter home to his wife, confirmed that most, but not all, of the twelve were bad sailors: … the four or five first days were ones of sorrow for most of us, and we wished many times that we were back in dear old England. We were all bad with sea-sickness, except Rowbotham, Willsher and Griffith, and it was a great treat to hear us all kicking up the most horrible rows imaginable. … Four of us slept in one berth, and it was just like lying on the shelves in the pantry at home. … We have on board about 950 souls, with the crew. One death took place and we had also a birth, so that in all we finished as we started. Alfred Shaw was particularly impressed by the considerable intestinal fortitude of those left standing: Joe Rowbotham … received the name of ‘Old Tar Pot’ on this journey. The reason was that on board ship he stuck to everything he had to eat, in contrast to most of the members of the party, who missed more meals and paid more painful visits to the ship’s side than can be recorded. George Griffith and Rowbotham never missed a meal between Liverpool and New York. For a few days they had our party’s table to themselves, and their excellent appetites were reflected in their sleek forms and rubicund faces. When the bad sailors had sufficiently recovered to face the dinner table and claim their own share of the fare, Rowbotham and Griffith complained that they could not get enough to eat! Perhaps the periodmentioned by Freeman and Lillywhite coincided with the four days of fog described by Shaw, ending in a near miss with an iceberg. However, after a week of relative calm in which to recover their health and spirits, the team were greeted on the morning of Sunday, 13 September, by a magnificent view of the Hudson River as the ship slowly steamed into New York harbour. On their arrival at two o’clock a letter was handed to Willsher, inviting the whole party to stay for free at Mr W.B.Burrows’ Everett Captain of England