Jeanie Johnston
No Coffin Ship
'Over the green sea Mavourneen, Mavourneen,
Long shone the white sail that bore thee away,
Riding the white waves that fair summer morning,
Just like a Mayflower afloat on the bay...'
19th Century Irish Emigration ballad
Ireland is threatened with a thing that is
read of in history and in distant countries,
but scarcely in our own land and time - a
famine. Whole fields of the root have rotted
in the ground, and many a family sees its
sole provision for the year destroyed.
(The Spectator, October 25,1845)
During the fall of 1845, the scortching wind of famine blackened
Ireland's green and misty isle. Ireland’s potato crop was
infected with a fungus that destroyed the crop and triggered
the most catastrophic event in Irish history - the Great Hunger.
Over the next five years, the successive failure of the potato
crop led to the death of approximately one million Irish men,
women and children. Another one and a half million of Ireland’s
population fled 3,000 miles to North America . They went in all
kinds of vessels, most of them hastily converted cargo ships
referred to as "coffin ships." Some, in virtual panic crowded
into these ill-equipped, unsanitary vessels and died of disease
and hunger before ever reaching the new world. Mortality
rates of 20-40% aboard the coffin ships were common with 17,465
documented shipboard deaths in 1847 alone. But not all
suffered this melancholy fate. While the journey was always
perilous, and the accommodation cramped and rudimentry, some
got to travel under responsible captains and in a seaworthy
craft. Of all of Kerry's emigrant vessels, the Jeanie Johnston
was the most famous and had the proudest record.
The original Jeanie Johnston (1847 - 1858) piled out of the small
part of Tralee, County Kerry in South West Ireland. Built in
Quebec in 1847 by the Canadian shipbuilder John Munn, and bought
shortly thereafter by the Donovan family of Tralee, the Jeanie
Johnston was a no "coffin ship" but a stout triple masted ship,
32 meters long, constructed of oak and pine, displacing 700
tons, and designed to carry 200 passengers and a crew of 17.
The firm of John Donovan & Sons of Tralee, Ireland purchased
the ship to serve as both a passenger and a cargo vessel. As
was often the custom, the Jeanie Johnston was used as a passenger
ship from Ireland to Baltimore, New York and Quebec. On the
return voyage the ship usually carried timber from North America
to Tralee; however, during the winter of 1848 the ship brought
badly needed food supplies from New York to Tralee in an attempt
to ease the famine conditions.
During the period of the Great Hunger, the Jeanie Johnston made
16 trans-Atlantic voyages. However, unlike coffin ships of that
era, the Jeanie Johnston never lost a single passenger or
crewmember. A broadside, dated March 24, 1848, advertises that
the Jeanie Johnston "...possesses spacious accommodation for
passengers and will be fitted up in the most comfortable manner."
On six different occasions, passengers published letters of
appreciation attesting to the attention given to them by the
ship’s captain, James Attridge.
When the Jeanie Johnston sank, waterlogged at last in the
mid-Atlantic in 1858, she did so slowly enabling everyone aboard
to be rescued thus maintaining her untarnished reputation for
safety.
Baltimore, Maryland was one of the ports visited by the Jeanie
Johnston. Passengers to Baltimore reflected the common trends
of Irish emigration and the large numbers of female emigrants
to Baltimore was typical for the times. Another trend was the
ability of the Irish emigrants to make a better life for
themselves in their new country. Patrick Kearney, a passenger
on the 1849 voyage of the Jeanie Johnston arrived in Baltimore
as a "gardener."
By 1860, the census listed him as a Harford County farmer owning
land valued at $1500 and employing a laborer.
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Great Hunger and
to honor the role played by the Jeanie Johnston, architects and
master shipbuilders came together to build a full-size sailing
replica of this famous emigrant barque. Original plans said
the reconstructed Jeanie Johnston would set sail for North
America in April 2000, visiting over 20 cities, including
Baltimore New York and Quebec. The departure of the Jeanie
Johnston was delayed for nearly three years, thanks to a litany
of financial problems. She set sail on 16 February 2003, and
arrived in Florida on 19 April 2003.
Citizens of Maryland may took great pride in the arrival of the
Jeanie Johnston as it, along with other ships of its kind,
brought to their shore emigrants who made positive contributions
to their state and the country. Further information regarding the
the Jeanie Johnston: (Updated information can be found on the
Internet at www.jeaniejohnston.com)
Sources:
* Gray, Peter. The Irish Famine. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995.
* Keating, John. Irish Famine Facts. Dublin: Teagasc, 1996.
* The Jeanie Johnston Project: A Dream Rebuilt.
Tralee: Jeanie Johnston Project, 1999.
See also http://www.irishtradingpost.com/jeanie-johnston.htm or
www.jeaniejohnston.com
Shamelessly plagurized from multiple sources by LPKelley
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