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« on: Saturday 06 March 10 15:42 GMT (UK) »
I was reading a Canadian newspaper report from 1902 of a migrant ship arriving in Halifax, Canada from Liverpool. There was a United States immigration inspector based in the port. He refused to allow four of her passengers to land, as they were declared to be suffering from tranconia. Two of the cases were young girls from Sweden. They had broken up their home to go to friends in Minnesota, were without English and had very little means. All four were sent back on board the ship, to be returned to Liverpool.
Would these two girls really have been sent back to Liverpool and just dumped on the quayside to fend for themselves, or would the ship’s captain put them ashore in Canada when no one was looking? Why were there no inspectors in the British ports to check the passengers prior to sailing? Surely that would have been a better solution.
Also, what is tranconia? I cannot find any reference to it. Perhaps it has something to do with a trance. Maybe epilepsy or catalepsy?
leighton