My name is Alexander Emerson and I am 23 years old. I left Glasgow, Scotland in May 1910. I am planning on meeting my future wife when I arrive in America. She is with her parents in Brooklyn, New York. Her dad sells fruit and vegetable on a pushcart from dawn to dust. I plan on helping him when I arrived. My world changed here in Scotland when my dad was murdered at the age of 44. So I must leave here and find a better way of life in America for the rest of my family.

May1, 1910
The first part of our journey began with the inspection before you board our ship.
Everyone had to take a cold shower and then get checked for bugs. Fortunately, I was lucky I didn’t have any bugs. The next thing they did was spray us with some chemical. Then we had to wait 36 hours in a hotel room, just to make sure all the bugs were gone.

May 2, 1910
We are finally aboard our ship the Furnessia. We are scheduled to leave in a few hours. The sleeping arrangements are horrible. We must climb down many stairs to reach the steerage. This is where we sleep. Finally, after 6 hours
I hear the Captain blow the horn signaling our departure.

May 4, 1910
After 2 day aboard ship, everyone is seasick. The wind is blowing and the rain is making everything damp and soggy. We are assigned a bunk for each family; because I was traveling alone I had to share a bunk with another family. The bunks not only had to accommodate all the members of a family, but their belongings as well.

May 5, 1910
The morning sun is shining across the water, and I feel much better today. I am able to roam around the ship. I made friends with a couple of lads from Italy. We played cards and danced to some music. My clothes are dirty and I am not able to take a bath to keep clean. However, everyone else is in the same position. I can hardly wait to get to America

May 7 , 1910
It’s cold and raining and I am sick again. The ship has been rocking back and forth since yesterday afternoon. All the small children on board are sick. One little girl was running around and fell and hit her head. Her father bandaged her head with an old cloth to stop the bleeding. I hope she will be ok. The smell below the deck is overpowering. Not only do passengers have to put up with the smells of disease, sickness and unwashed bodies, but also the smell from the cargo brought over on the voyage from Ireland. This grayish material, bird droppings, was used as fertilizer in both Ireland and Scotland.

May 10, 1910
To pass the time I have been playing cards with some of the other men onboard the ship. I leaned a new game called Hearts; however I have lost 1.00 and have lost interest in gambling. I spend so much time waiting in line to use one of two topside cooking fires. (Imagine up to 300 people trying to cook on a pitching, rolling deck.) If it rained we have no fires. We are lucky to get a drop or two of weather and some bread to eat.

May 16, 1910
I woke up this morning hear the Captain sound the fog horn. I like I see the Statue of Liberty in the distance. Everyone is excited and crying. I am so happy to be almost there. After several hours we are allow to leave the ship.

I make my way across the gangplanks with lots of other people. The first thing I need to do is go straight up a long set of stairs called the “Stairs to the Great Hall”. There are several doctors and nurses at the top. They are asking people several questions. I saw some doctor put a big X with a piece of chalk on a man. Click here top see chart. I was lucky I made it through this test.
Next came the medical exam, and I also made it through this test. After you had been checked out by the doctors, you had to pass a mental exam. The doctors had you perform things that we think are incredibly easy, but if you were an immigrant who had no education, the tests were very hard. I had to put a puzzle together, it was hard but I passed. After this was the legal test they asked questions such as:
What is your name? Do you have any relatives here? Do you have a criminal record? Have you ever been to the United States before?
I passed all the tests and was able to go meet my future bride with her parents.