The parting with my parents, brothers and sisters was pathetic. We took the train at Hunslet [p.11] Station for Liverpool; on arriving engaged a conveyance to the dock, where lay the "Ocean Monarch." We could not ship on her. She had her complement of passengers save one, so we drove to a boarding house. The next day, I think, we engaged passage on the ship Garrick, and telegraphic news was received that the "Ocean Monarch" was burned to the water's edge on the Irish coast and many lives lost.

We went on board the 13th and set sail Sunday the 14th of August, according to my best recollection. We ran into a vessel and broke our jib boom, no other damage. We had a very fair passage, save we were struck by a squall once and had many sails destroyed. We were tossed about violently for about two hours. The sea broke over the ship; we, the passengers, were battered down in the hold. We also had a couple of incipient fires but arrived safely in New York on the 15th of September. We landed next day, being just five weeks from going on board to landing.

The same night we went to Albany on a Hudson river steamboat, and from there started the following day for Buffalo by way of the Erie canal on one of its boats which was towed by a horse. Having arrived at Buffalo we found our tickets, which we and others had purchased in New York City for a through passage to Milwaukee in Wisconsin, were bogus. We visited the mayor, but he could do nothing, only regretted very much that so many emigrants should be made the victims of unprincipled scoundrels. We paid steamboat fare afresh from Buffalo to Milwaukee over Lakes Erie, Huron, St. Clair and Michigan, distance about 1000 miles. We had an uneventful voyage. . . .[p.12]

BIB: Bywater, James [Autobiography], IN The Trio's Pilgrimage
, comp. by Rose Ellen Bywater Valentine (privately printed, 1947) pp. 11-12. (CHL)
(source abbreviations)