Terminology (definitions)

 

“BI”        United States Bureau of Immigration

 

capacity utilization  = Paying Passengers / On-board passenger berths

 

 “closed berths”  = rooms aboard ships sleeping 2-8 passengers

 

debarred = would-be immigrants preventing from entering the United States during and sent back (if for medical reasons, then (after 1893) at transport company expense)

 

fiscal year  =  During 1900 to 1914, the U.S. government fiscal year ran from July 1 to June 30. Many annual U.S. government immigration statistics were measured over July through June fiscal years. Nonetheless, in this book, annual data shown are for calendar years unless fiscal years are specified.

 

NDLV = Nordatlantischer Dampfer-Linien-Verband (North AtlanticSteamship Line Association), founded by HAPAG, NDL,Red Star and Holland-America in 1892. See Figure 3-1 above  andMurken, p. 24.

 

 “open berths” = “dormitory-style” bunk rooms aboard ships, sleeping up to several  hundred passengers

 

passenger types =

 

non-migrants  =  native-born U.S. citizens, tourists, and business  travellers

migrants  =  All other passengers

 

 migrant types:

“Repeat”      =A migrant passenger who had  already crossed the Atlanticat least once before.

“First time” = All other migrant passengers

 

Tons/Tonnage =

A cubic measure of ship space. A “gross ton” = 100 cubic feet of   space. A “net ton” is the same, but applies only to space actually used  for revenue-generating purposes, i.e., passenger accommodations or   cargo holds. Net tons on a transatlantic passenger steamship were   typically about 70% of gross tons (according to data in the Lloyd   Register of British and Foreign Shipping (London, 1899)). Because   ratios (of net to gross tons, of volumes of passenger sections to  volumes of freight holds, and of migrant compartments to total  passenger areas) did not vary substantially over time, “gross tons per  passenger capacity” offers a rough gauge of trends in space available  for  migrants.

 

Travel Classes (on board North Atlantic ships, 1890-1914): 

I = First Class

II = Second Class

III = Third Class or Steerage

 

Note: First class (or “first cabin”) and second class (or “second cabin”)  were collectively called the “cabin”. Most writers and cataloguers have  defined “third class” and “steerage” as meaning, identically, all  accommodations priced lower than second class, whether in closed  berths (“new steerage”) or open berths (“old steerage”) or both.

 

Voyage Database  =   Excel spreadsheet of voyages and passengers, to and from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, 1899-1914, described in Appendix 1, “Quantitative Sources, Methods and Concentrations.”