14: Castle GardenDetermined to avoid running into Doctor Feigenbaum again, Eliza chose to endure the conditions below decks for the remaining hours of the voyage, only emerging as the ship’s foghorn gave its celebratory blast as they entered New York harbour.
She kept in the middle of the crowd from steerage, hanging back until she could see the doctor disembarking with the rest of the second class passengers. The first and second class passengers cleared the immigration process on board and were then spirited away to the mainland, while those, like Eliza in steerage, had to wait on board the ship before going through the lengthy ordeal of entry to the United States via the Castle Garden immigration centre. The vessel was quarantined in the harbour for a couple of hours – until a medical
