What was life like on coffin ships?

Cargo ships became “Coffin Ships”

They saw many deaths due to their unseaworthy nature, overcrowding, lack of clean drinking water, unsanitary conditions and the rampant spread of disease. Cholera and Typhoid were common on these ships and many had death rates of 20%, with some even as high as 50%.

What food did they have on coffin ships?

The ship was 83 years old, having been built in 1763 for a legal maximum passenger load of 165 but it set sail with 276 who had to share just 36 berths. No food was given to the passengers on the voyage. They had to survive on what little (if anything) they had brought onboard.

How many people survived on coffin ships?

Worst of all, death ran rampant in these vessels, leaving only one in three passengers to survive the ordeal. “'Coffin ships,' these were called,” Davis claimed, “and indeed the only coffins the dead had been the ships they died in.”

Why did people go on coffin ships?

Coffin ships were used to transport people from Ireland during the Great Famine. They earned the name because of the high number of people who died on them. People sailing on coffin ships faced disease, quarantine, and other hardships.

How long did the coffin ships take?

The first coffin ships headed for Quebec, Canada. The three thousand mile journey, depending on winds and the captain's skill, could take from 40 days to three months.

The Great Famine and the coffin ships

What were immigration ships like?

Conditions varied from ship to ship, but steerage was normally crowded, dark, and damp. Limited sanitation and stormy seas often combined to make it dirty and foul-smelling, too. Rats, insects, and disease were common problems.

How were the Irish treated in Canada?

The cholera epidemics killed endless numbers of people and truly affected Canada. Along with the difficult trip over, the early years of living in Canada did not get much better for them. The Irish went through a lot of discrimination, and difficulties years after they migrated.

How long did the coffin ships take to get to America?

An emigrant escaping the famine for North America was crammed with three others into a 6-foot-square berth--"less room than in a coffin.” The berths were stacked three high in the holds of sailing ships that took five to seven weeks to cross the Atlantic.

What happened to the Irish when they came to America?

Disease of all kinds (including cholera, typhus, tuberculosis, and mental illness) resulted from these miserable living conditions. Irish immigrants sometimes faced hostility from other groups in the U.S., and were accused of spreading disease and blamed for the unsanitary conditions many lived in.

Why was 1847 the worst year of the famine?

The following year, 1847, known as 'Black '47' in folk memory, marked the worst point of the Famine. The potato crop did not fail that year, but most potato farmers had either not sown seeds in expectation that the potato crop would fail again, did not have any more seeds or had been evicted for failure to pay rent.

How many Irish died on coffin ships?

Two of the babies died before the ship nudged the dock. The online database shows 8,075 births at sea among more than 410,000 Irish passengers to arrive in New York from January 1846 through December 1851, the teeth of the Famine years. Of these newborns, 452 died, among 2,883 total reported fatalities.

How was the potato famine stopped?

The "famine" ended in 1849, when British troops stopped removing the food. While enough food to sustain 18 million people was being removed from Ireland, its population was reduced by more than 2.5 million, to 6.5 million.

How long did it take Irish immigrants to get to America?

The journey to Ellis Island: arrival in New York

In the sailing ships of the middle 19th century, the crossing to America or Canada took up to 12 weeks. By the end of the century the journey to Ellis Island was just 7 to 10 days. By 1911 the shortest passage, made in summer, was down to 5 days; the longest was 9 days.

How many Irish died in the potato famine?

It decimated Ireland's population, which stood at about 8.5 million on the eve of the Famine. It is estimated that the Famine caused about 1 million deaths between 1845 and 1851 either from starvation or hunger-related disease. A further 1 million Irish people emigrated.

What really happened Irish famine?

The Great Famine was caused by a failure of the potato crop, which many people relied on for most of their nutrition. A disease called late blight destroyed the leaves and edible roots of the potato plants in successive years from 1845 to 1849.

Did English take food from Ireland?

In fact, the export of all livestock from Ireland to England increased during the famine except for pigs. However, the export of ham and bacon did increase. Other exports from Ireland during the "famine" included peas, beans, onions, rabbits, salmon, oysters, herring, lard, honey and even potatoes.

How many American presidents are of Irish descent?

Did you know that there are 23 US Presidents that boast Irish heritage?

Why did the Irish only grow potatoes?

For a long time Ireland was sparsely populated, and it was only with the discovery of potatoes that they could grow enough food to allow for significant population growth, as potatoes could grow on harsh terrain that was unsuitable for other crops such as wheat or barley.

Who came to America first Irish or Italian?

The Irish were the first big wave of immigrants coming to America after the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s. Their story was treacherously enduring before eventually becoming triumphant.

What port did most Irish immigrants leave from?

The majority of departures were from Irish ports mainly Belfast, Dublin and Derry. After the 1830s, as trade increased between Britain and the US, the cost of the journey from England dropped. Many Irish first crossed to Liverpool and from there made their way to New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

What disease did the Irish bring to Canada?

The typhus epidemic of 1847 was an outbreak of epidemic typhus caused by a massive Irish emigration in 1847, during the Great Famine, aboard crowded and disease-ridden "coffin ships".

What is the most Irish city in Canada?

As Canada's (self‐proclaimed) most Irish city, Saint John has over two centuries of Irish history beginning with the arrival of Irish American Loyalists around 1783. In the 19th century, Saint John was a major metropolitan city, offering jobs, family connections and employment opportunities.

Why did my ancestors leave Ireland?

Pushed out of Ireland by religious conflicts, lack of political autonomy and dire economic conditions, these immigrants, who were often called "Scotch-Irish," were pulled to America by the promise of land ownership and greater religious freedom.

What did immigrants eat on the ships?

Those in steerage, second and third class cabins were required to cook their own food. Meals could include rice pudding, sea pie, pea soup, and oatmeal porridge. Different classes of ticket dictated passengers' rations. Those who could afford to would often bring extra jam, sugar, biscuits, eggs, cheese and ham.

What was life like on a ship in the 1800s?

Life at sea during the age of sail was filled with hardship. Sailors had to accept cramped conditions, disease, poor food and pay, and bad weather. Over a period of hundreds of years, seafarers from the age of the early explorers to the time of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, shared many common experiences.