Early spring, 1861  ---  written from a European seaport

I’m Rat.  

Most rats don’t keep diaries --- but I’m an ADVENTURER-RAT!

I’m going to run onto shipboard, along the dock ropes like my 
ancestors did.  We rats originated in Asia, and sailed all over 
the world.  I’m sailing to the new country across the Atlantic 
Ocean.  I’ve heard they have fields of grain I can feast on, and 
fields of cotton I can nest in. But I’m definitely NOT jumping 
onto a covered wagon and heading West in a "gold rush" like my 
crazy cousins did a few years ago with the "Forty-Niners," or 
1849-ers.  I guess I’ll be a Sixty-Oner, since it’s 1861.

I’m a traveling Rat!   Not like most rats who live their whole lives 
in tiny areas, about 150 feet across, the length of the "packet ship" 
I’m sailing on.  Ships used to ONLY sail in good weather, when they 
had a full load of cargo and passengers.  Then Americans began 
trading a lot more, so they built packet ships to carry trade goods - 
and they sail on schedule, fully loaded or not, despite the weather - 
which is scary to a rat.  We hide from storms.  Packet ships are kind 
of short and wide compared to the sleek "clipper ships" that are built 
for speed so they can get all the way to China.

An old shiprat at the docks told me ocean crossings like mine take 
from 5 to 6 weeks, because we sail against westerly winds.  Later, when 
I come back to Europe, it will only take 3 to 4 weeks because the winds 
will push us.   I hope we don’t run out of food!