3-028-659 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Emigrants by the ship Ganges departing for Canada, [from Victoria Docks, London], 1870. On board were '...a large party of emigrants [761 souls] connected with the East-End Emigration Club, a society acting in union with the committee of the British and Colonial Emigration Fund... Captain Forster, R.N., the chief emigration inspector for the port of London, was present in discharge of his official duties, and no effort seemed to be wanting to secure the comfort of the passengers...a number of working people lined the adjacent quays, manifesting a lively interest in the proceedings, and cheering loudly as the Ganges proceeded out of dock. The emigrants were somewhat superior to the usual class, a circumstance partly attributable to the fact that they themselves contributed to the cost of their passage at the rate of £3 per statute adult. The actual cost of sending out this ship-load of emigrants will be rather more than £3400, exclusive of a sum of £1142, which has been advanced from Kelsall's Emigration Charity, to meet the expenses of an outfit, and to give the emigrant a start on his landing [in Canada]'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.