In June 1857 Thomas Blackah wrote a diary about his journey from Liverpool to Canada, wherein he and his family experienced the most terrible discomforts crossing the ocean.  Having been persuaded by an emigration agent to try a new life in America, he with eleven members of his family travelled to Canada, only to find on arrival that the expected lead mines did not exist and they all had to return much the poorer.

This is a rare and valuable firsthand account of the hardships on board an emigration ship full of hope and aspiration.