 In some cases as many as 1,800 refugees were packed into one ship, which would also carry livestock and household possessions.When the ships did not sink, such crowded environments proved suitable for spread of diseases and dehydration, and when the ships arrived at their destinations, they contained only remnants of their original human cargo.For this reason, they were referred to by contemporary observers as "floating graveyards" with "decks swarming with the dead and dying".