Passage to the Americas

In 1847, approximately 100,000 Irish migrants went to Canada, 138,000 to the USA, and several thousand to Australia and New Zealand. Mass long distance Irish emigration followed British migration routes established from 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Most of the Irish who went to Canada continued along the inland waterways to the United States. A few Irish who landed in New York came to Canada.

The age of steamboats and large passenger ship lines had not yet arrived on the Atlantic run. These were to reduce crossing times and death rates in the 1850’s. Many small sailing ships, owned by many small companies, carried the passenger of 1847. There were between 1,200 and 1,500 Canadian timber ships and about 18,000 sailors involved in the “timber-out, migrants-in trade.” The timber ships that grew in large numbers during the Napoleonic Wars, carried immigrants mostly to Quebec City and Saint John, New Brunswick. Saint John had approximately 400 timber ships which explains the importance of New Brunswick in the Famine story. The Yankee “packets” that took Irish migrants to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and New Orleans tended to be specialized passenger ships. The packets had little cargo going to Europe and made their money on the Liverpool-United States leg of the journey. Packets charged about 3 pounds 10 shillings to 4 pounds ($13-16) for their cheapest tickets. Canadian ships made money both ways across the Atlantic and charged 2 pounds 10 shillings to 3 pounds ($9-12) for their cheapest tickets, steerage. Timber ships had tiers of wooden bunks packed with immigrant families. Those on the top bunks were often sick on those below. Poorer immigrants went to the New World via Canada.

Canadian and British ships were less regulated by governments than the Yankee packets which were not allowed to carry as many passengers per tonne. The journey varied from about 40 days to 90 days according to the wind so that scarce food and water became even scarcer.

Debate surrounds the numbers who died at sea. Be careful. Some statistics (numbers) include all immigrants, such as German and Scots immigrants of 1847. Other statistics include only those Irish immigrants who went to Canada or cover other years besides 1847. So, according to the evidence used, approximately 8-12% of the migrants crossing the Atlantic died in 1847. However, far more died crossing to Canada than to the United States. You should be able to explain why that was. Were Canadian and British captains more unscrupulous in packing, feeding, and watering their passengers than were the United States captains? Many terrible journeys can be traced, and so many died that the name “coffin ships” was given to the immigrant ships of 1847. Was the name justified or did a few terrible journeys overshadow the rest? Not all timber ships were coffin ships. The Jeanie Johnston, a Quebec-built timber ship owned by an Irish merchant, carried several thousand passengers to Canada and the United States. Not one died. Why was that? Few studies have really explained this. It would be interesting to compare the Jeanie Johnston to ships such as the Agnes (arrived 10th June, 1847, Grosse Isle) where of the 428 passengers, 29 died at sea, 35 on the ship in quarantine, and 96 in the quarantine hospital of Grosse Isle, a total of 160 deaths.

No immigrant diary exists for the journey in 1847 but many newspapers of the time published letters. Find out what the food was like, why the water was often bad, bathroom facilities,and what it was like to be locked in the hold for days during a storm. Explain why an anonymous writer coined the poetic phrase, “The Atlantic was lined with crosses.”