Page 60 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

46.

under excellent sailing conditions. Before then, an average

trip lasted five to six months. Considering the small ton­

nage of most American merchantmen in the ocean trade, even

this length of time was remarkably short.

A voyage to Canton in an American merchantman was a

memorable experience for an American merchant, especially if

the venture was his first. Shortly after the ship cleared

the harbor all neophyte travelers aboard, whether passengers

or seamen, fell prey to seasickness. Virtually no one escaped

the malady at the beginning of the trip. Unless a person

regularly sailed the ocean, he could furthermore anticipate

suffering seasickness on every ocean voyage he made. The

first pages of memoirs, journals and letters of travelers to

China all dwelt upon the travails of seasickness. All of

them would agree with one who commented, "I defy anyone, even

the most colorist, to depict the horrors of seasickness." The

illness forced a person to sink into a "state of utter hope­

lessness, and frustration of strength and spirits.

Fortunately, after a few days of such agony, the voyager

regained his appetite and began to revel in the fresh salt air

on deck.

By the second week of the voyage, when the traveler

was accustomed to ocean sailing, he discovered a new problem:

filling his time. In 1830 American merchants had begun

traveling to China as passengers more often than as members

2
Diary of H. Low, May 24, 1829, Nov. 20, 1833, Library
of Congress, Low Family MSS.