. . . We made arrangements to cross the Atlantic in the "Ocean Monarch," a sailing vessel which would leave Liverpool about the tenth of Aug. 1848. On Tuesday morning I went to the factory at 6 a.m. in room 46 and when Mr. Dunderdale came in, I accosted him and told him I had quit work and would go to Liverpool and on ship board this day, 10 of August, and sail for America. Next day he told me to go round and bid goodbye to my old shop mates, which I did and they were surprised. We bade kindly goodbyes. I did not speak to George [-] no, nor ever after the day he gave my name and betrayed me. I saw him on our visit to England in the early part of 1852, but we did not speak. The parting with my parents, brothers and sisters was pathetic. We took the train at Hunslet 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 the boarding house the next day. I think we engaged passage on the ship Garrick and telegraphic news was received that the "Ocean Monarch" was burnt to the waters edge on the Irish Coast and many lives lost. We went on board the 13th and set sail Sunday, 14th of August according to my best recollection. We was 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 [-] 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 and one of its boats which was towed by 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 nothing only regretted very much that so many emigrants should be made victims of unprincipled scoundrels. We paid steamboat fare afresh, from Buffalo to Milwaukee over Lakes Erie, Huron, St. Clair and Michigan; an distance about 1,000 miles. We had an uneventful voyage in the afternoon of the day we landed. We started on foot for the English settlement about 125 miles. We called at farm houses and got something to eat when hungry, camping out in the woods and hay stacks at night. On the night before reaching Madison, the capitol of the state of Wisconsin a violent [p.209] rain storm came on. We were at a hay stack and got wet though we arose and started in the night dripping wet. We reached Madison and got in a saloon. Next night, we stopped at Mr. Williams, a friend of cousin Benjamin who resided at the Blue Mounds and was a miner and a native of England in Coonwell [UNCLEAR, POSSIBLY Cornwall]. Next day we reached [-] log cabin and had a joyous meeting. We visited among the settlements who were chiefly English from around Leeds and Liverpool. I got acquainted with Mr. James Copley, from New [-] who with his family were brought out by an emigration society, the same as my uncle William Bywater belonged to . . . . [p.210]

BIB: Bywater, James. Reminiscenses (Ms 1803/1), pp. 209-10. (CHL)
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