Now that we have had our discussion on wine and water...and a few other things to drink, let's consider what a trip from Europe to America was like on a sailing ship in the early seventeen hundreds.. The ship takes on passengers in Amsterdam and sails to England, Scotland or Ireland where it is tied up for two weeks waiting for cargo and other passengers.. The people who boarded in Amsterdam are not allowed to leave the ship and have to spend the little money they have for food while they wait..Cargo is finally loaded and more passengers are crowded aboard until the space allowed each person is two feet by two feet by six feet..Finally the ship sails, most of the passengers have never been on a ship before and half of them get seasick, that makes everybody else sick..nobody can leave their "space" and go up on the deck for fresh air..Some woman goes into labor and begins screaming with pain...everybody gets so upset..they decide to push her out a port hole into the ocean..a child dies and is buried at sea.. nobody can take a bath...everybody gets lice...they are being fed salt cured meat...and the water supply runs low...they hit a storm and everyone thinks they will never live through it...they all start to praying...or cursing the day they got on that ship...parents die, leaving small children to look after themselves..the food supply runs out and there is nothing left except the ship biscuit..and it has made several voyages back forth across the atlantic and is full of bugs and worms...finally after two months or more under such conditions..land is sighted...Everyone who is still able..gives thanks to the Lord..The ship docks in Barbados..they all get some fresh water but are not allowed to leave the ship..Finally they arrive in Philadelphia, sick,starving, dirty, covered with lice and broke, facing several years of indentured service for their passage to the new world. After such a trip, our forefathers were prepared to face the wilderness, wild animals, savage Indians or anything else to stay here because they knew they were never going to get on another ship! G. Lee Hearl Abingdon, Va.