SHIPS
by Paul Petersen

They were BIG ships, larger than anything

people had seen in their entire lifetime.

and they actually moved....slow...lumbering

...unstopable. The Dreadnaughts plowed the

wild Irish sea and ordinary men stood at the

rail and dreamed about having a farm, their

OWN farm. America, in the 1850s was a place

of free-land giveaway's, of homesteads and

hearths.... and all you had to do was get

there.

and get there they did, in great waves of

humanity, millions and millions of them.

And it all started with ships.

To view the complete poem by the late Paul Petersen, 

please visit Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild

Castle Garden – 1820 - 1892