In this two men shared every bunk, and the conditions
were wretchedly unsanitary. He was placed in a bunk with a man named
Wills from Massachusetts, a very gentle and patient sufferer, who soon
died.
"I have seen seven men drawn out and piled together on the lower
hatchway, who had died in one night on board the Frederick.
"There were ten or twelve nurses, and about a hundred sick. Some, if
not all of the nurses, were prisoners. * * * They would indulge in
playing cards and drinking, while their fellows were thirsting for
water and some dying. At night the hatches were shut down and locked,
and the nurses lived in the steerage, and there was not the least
attention paid to the sick except by the convalescent, who were so
frequently called upon that, in many cases, they overdid themselves,
relapsed, and died."
Sherburne suffered extremely from the cold. "I have often," he says
"toiled the greatest part of the night, in rubbing my feet and legs to
keep them from freezing. * * * In consequence of these chills I have
been obliged to wear a laced stocking upon my left leg for nearly
thirty years past. My bunk was directly against the ballast-port; and
the port not being caulked, when there came a snow-storm the snow
would blow through the seams in my bed, but in those cases there was
one advantage to me, when I could not otherwise procure water to
quench my thirst.
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