Am almost finished reading "Sea Routes to the Gold Fields" by Oscar Lewis (1997) and have come across some statistics regarding those who died aboard ship - other than shipwreck victims. Is there any possible list showing these ancestors of ours who died of cholera, yellow fever, etc? These passengers were "buried" at sea in most instances. A couple of examples: In Aug 1852, the Pacific Mail's "Golden Gate" with a full passenger compliment, which included several Fourth Infantry companies heading for S.F., lost 84 passengers to cholera before the ship 'cleared Panama Bay' and there were almost daily fatalities all the way to S.F. On 1 Sep 1854, the "Sonora" and the "Yankee Blade" reached S.F. from the Isthmus and each reported deaths enroute from the plague; the "Sonora" losing 8 and the "Yankee Blade" 6. In the summer of 1855, the "Sierra Nevada" arrived at S.F. with 31 fewer than left with them at Nicaragua, and two weeks later, the "Cortez" lost 20 enroute to S.F. When the "UncleSam" was on a voyage from San Juan, 104 died enroute and another 9 died in port. One last instance, the "Philadelphia" left Panama for New York in 1852 with 155 passengers, and one-third died on board. To quote the author: "San Francisco newspapers seldom reported the mortality on the incoming sailing ships, but the records of two have been preserved." (The "Blonde" and the "Sir Charles Napier" are the two mentioned.) These statistics tell me many of our ancestors were not only buried at sea, but I suspect any account of them has been lost. Tell me I'm wrong, please! Are any other of these epidemic-dead accounted for? Patricia <[email protected]>