"The Embarkation, Waterloo Docks, Liverpool" Illustrated London News.
Embarkation frequently took place in a panic. Captains would wait until the hold was loaded before letting passengers come on board. Then began a frantic rush as several hundred people with chests and packages scrambled on. The exact time of departure was determined by wind and tide rather than by the convenience of the passengers. It was not unusual for the crew to remove the gangway and for the ship to begin to move out before the last emigrants had embarked. Then, wrote the reporter for the Illustrated London News, "their only chance is to wait until the ship reaches the dock-gate, when boxes, bales, barrels, and bundles are actually pitched into the ship, and men, women and children have to scramble up the rigging amid a screaming, a swearing and a shouting perfectly alarming to listen to."
