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A Scarcely Credible Tale

The Nicklaus Schmitz family arrived in the U.S. in July of 1867. We knew that a ten-year-old daughter of the family died during the trip, what we didn't know is that 18 other people died on that voyage as well. The horrible conditions on the Giuseppe Baccareich led to an investigation. Here is the report from the British Medical Journal.

A Scarcely Credible Tale
A Statement has appeared in the public papers, which, notorious as the mismanagement of emigrant ships often is, is almost more than we can imagine to be true. An emigrant ship, Giuseppe Baccareich, left Antwerp for New York on the 20th of June. By the time she reached her destination, eighteen of the passengers were dead, and two more in a dying state. The remaining emigrants made complaint to the authorities at New York, and an official inquiry was ordered to be instituted, some of the results of which were as follows:--The passengers, 180 in number, received but 62 lb. of biscuit and 62 lb. of potatoes a day, and 148 lb. of flour and 250 lb. of peas a week. The water was kept in sperm-oil casks, the oil floating on the surface. The effect of drinking this fluid was severe diarrhea. The bread was mouldy and nasty; whole beans were taken from it by the passengers. There was neither tea nor sugar on board. The potatoes were rotten, or such as were not had sprouted. There was no doctor on board, nor medicine chest.

I discovered that the second name of the ship Giuseppe Baccareich was recorded in different places as Baccarcick, Baccarich, and Baccarick. I discovered through Lloyd's Register of Shipping that the name of the boat was later changed to the Istambool.

Now, the Waiting

As of last week, we've finished all the paperwork, and we've sent our book in to New Horizons, now is the time to wait and prepare for our new baby to arrive.

We've moved Alex and Nicky into the same bedroom, and we are beginning to prepare the nursery for a girl. If everything goes well, we hope to have a child placed by the end of the year.

Home Study #3

We met on Tuesday with Karine for our last home study. We didn't quite get through all the questions and answers, but we're close enough to do the last part over the phone. At this point we have a few paperwork items to take care of, we need to finish our family book, and then we just wait for the okay from New Horizons.

We asked them not to circulate our family book until July, because we think Nicky should get a few more months to mature, and we could also use a few more months to save some money. But as we head into these final months of preparation, we want to say thanks to our families for your thoughts and prayers. We have been praying nightly for our baby to be and her mother.

Suzy's Corner Office

I think most of you know that as of last November I was promoted to Manager, Group Marketing. As part of the promotion, I was supposed to move into a "double sized cube" (which is pretty exciting when you work for a large corporation and they monitor how many shelves and file cabinets you have in your cube). This move was delayed and delayed due to a number of factors, and finally last Friday I made the move into the corner double sized cube! No door, but 3 windows and still pretty exciting.

I'm attaching a photo, but it's still kind of messy, so I don't want to hear any guff! Can you imagine Suazay sitting here "managing"? Ha ha!

Home Study #2

Monday night, Jenny and I met again with Karine. We spent more time going through the questions and inquiries about our family, our history, and our ideas on raising kids.

We've got one more scheduled meeting on April 15, then we should be done with the home study. At that point, there are a few last details to take care of, and then we should be ready for a referral. We wouldn't accept any referrals until mid-summer at the earliest, but from then on, a child could be placed at any time.

Weekend at the Dells

In anticipation of the costs of our upcoming adoption, we decided that we could not afford a spring trip to either Florida or New Mexico this year. But after Jenny did a little research on train travel, we decided that a short weekend trip to Wisconsin Dells would be a good mini-trip for the family.

Jenny, Alex, and Nicky left Friday morning from the AmTrack station in St. Paul. I went to work and drove down Friday night. Alex really enjoyed the train, but Nicky was his typical busy self, so mama spent a large part of the trip chasing him around the coach.

I'd been to the Dells only in the summer before, when it is very busy. At this time of year, it is mostly quiet because all the outdoor attractions are closed until the weather warms up. But the Atlantis, where we stayed, had a nice kids pool for Alex and Nicky to play at. They had a lot of fun—Alex especially likes to play in the water.

We drove back Sunday afternoon. A short trip, but plenty long enough for everyone to have a lot of fun!