Lorna's Miscellany: Crossing the Atlantic in 1906

Friday, 31 January 2020

Crossing the Atlantic in 1906

I was going through some of my mother's papers the other day and came across several sheets of three-ring binder paper, my grandad had used to write about his life in Canada including this story about how he arrived here. His own words, written post-retirement in 1971, cleared up a puzzle I had been trying to figure out: which ship he came on.

The Rev. Canon Edmund Graff Nicholls Grant was born on April 28^th, 1887. He died in January1979. This little excerpt is taken from what he called Reminiscences 1906 -1964.

He left by train from Cardiff to catch the ship in Liverpool. Quite an adventure for a 17-year-old.

Grandad Grant's voyage away from home in Wales to a new life in Canada:

It was a wet and rather depressing morning in the middle of March 1906 when I boarded the train which was to take me to Liverpool. A couple of brothers and a sister saw me off, on that, which to me was a memorable night, at the age of almost 18 years.

The next day I found the vessel, a CPR ship, called "Lake Manitoba" which was to take me across the Atlantic.

The Lake Manitoba [Source:http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=lamam]

After getting on board, I was shown to my "stateroom," which was the hold of the ship and which the portholes were on a level with the ocean. As far as I can remember, there were about 100 men in this hold, which is a cavity in a ship below deck. We slept and had meals in the hold.

I spent the greater part of my time on deck, although it was chilly. The journey took 12 days, weather at times pretty rough, & 1 day (24 hours) we only made 50 miles. I was not sea-sick at all, but lots of passengers were. We landed at St. John NB on a cool and frosty morning where I took the train for Toronto. I stayed for a day in that city and took the train for Sutton, via the Grand Trunk RR.