In an age when we routinely cross the Atlantic Ocean in about eight hours and still complain about the food and drink, lack of leg room, and noisy passengers, it is probably impossible to comprehend fully what the crossing was like in the age of sail. Taking weeks, if not months, and facing the terror of storms, disease, and death, passengers on sailing ships were profoundly and forever affected by the ordeal. Naturally, the crossing had deep religious dimensions for passengers who suffered agonizing conditions and confronted the possibility of their death. This is the subject of Stephen R. Berry’s A Path in the Mighty Waters. Berry focuses on the eighteenth century and relies on the detailed accounts of some of the more famous crossings, especially those of Charles Wesley, James Oglethorpe, Olaudah Equiano, John Adams, among others. Though the story of these and other Atlantic crossings have been told many times before, Berry makes a fresh contribution by focusing on the religious dimension of the experience and the more modern concerns with memory and identity.
Berry spends much of his attention on the human encounters aboard ship and how the crossing brought people together in unexpected ways. Anglicans Anabaptists, Moravians, Methodists, and Quakers were forced into new relationships on the crossing. The relations between these pious passengers and the rough, foul-mouthed sailors are particularly interesting, for sailing culture could be shocking. The curious ritual of crossing the Tropic of Cancer for the first time, for example, entailed strange, sexually charged initiations of sailors—“insensible creatures” in Francis Asbury’s view—that included cross-dressing, drunkenness, dunking, and other activities the appalled most passengers. “Gender confusion” was everywhere as sailors had to perform the various tasks and roles normally taken up by women, including not only same-sex intimacy, but more mundane tasks like needlework. This, paradoxically, prompted many sailors to demonstrate their manliness in other, often violent ways, especially when fueled by alcohol. Altogether, this was disturbing and troubling stuff for passengers from deeply traditional religious backgrounds.
A very significant part of the Atlantic crossings of course involved African slaves, and the depths of this monstrous trade are also effectively sounded by Berry. Though there were some common experiences with the crossings made by free people, the differences were obviously more stark and important. Berry uses Olaudah Equiano’s famous account to show that, no matter how awful the crossing was for free people, it paled in comparison with that of enslaved Africans. In addition to their greater physical horrors and higher death rate, was their forced transformation into property to be sold in the New World.
Naturally, Berry pays much attention to the trauma of the voyage—the anxiety that came with delays, the tight quarters and close physical contact with others, the bad food and water, the sexual abuse of female passengers, storms, and of course the horrendous ordeal of sea sickness. Berry uses Samuel Johnson’s famous quote: “A ship is worse than a gaol. There is, in a gaol, better air, better company, better conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage of being in danger.” How the passengers responded to their situation allows a glimpse into their culture and mentality and the communities they were forced to create on the ship. Berry is particularly interested in the passengers' religious response to their ordeal: God was testing them and their faith; passengers like Francis Asbury found faith as the only real cure for the sickness. Those who were spared serious sickness took this as a sign of God's favor. Storms and the threat of death, especially, provoked deeply religious interpretations about the certainty, or uncertainty, of the afterlife. And even calm days could become a trial and test from God, as the tedium, monotony, and slow progress became depressing and extremely frustrating.
And yet, for all of this, the crossing had its lighter, even redemptive moments. On calmer days there were not only feasts and song, but also a new appreciation for God’s creation. Some of their experiences are familiar to us now: whale watching when they had the opportunity, as well as observing dolphins and sharks, flying fish, and other creatures. Sunsets could be spellbinding and religiously inspiring. Some passengers even found beauty and God's majesty in the storms and in the sheer immensity of the ocean. Some later recounted that the ocean's beauty alone made the crossing worth the trouble. When land was finally sighted there was also the journey inland, which had its own dangers, especially disease. But ultimately, when successful, the crossing brought people and their culture from one continent to another and was a key event in the creation of the modern world. Passengers' religious and personal conversations with people they otherwise would never have met also shaped individuals, their faith, and even their communities in positive ways. The crossing was truly a transforming experience and cultural force.
Berry’s fine book should be read by those interested in eighteenth-century religion and migration. It not only deepens our understanding of the era's religious culture and the voyages that helped create the modern world, but enhances our admiration for the courageous people who endured the Atlantic crossing.
