Coffin Ships

The Coffin Ships

A starving Irish citizen who had 3.5 English pounds could buy passage to USA or Canada in the steerage of a sailing vessel. The voyage was of unpredictable duration, but ten weeks was not uncommon. It was impossible to stand to one's full height in steerage. A stall, six feet by six feet, was home to four adults for the entire voyage. This space contained two tiers of berths, and provided storage for clothing, possessions, and personal supplies of food and water. Privacy was non existent. When storms battered the ship, the emigrants were kept, in fact locked, below decks for days at a time, rolling about and buffeted by their luggage. Their space on deck on the good days was even more crowded than their space below.

The shippers had to provide a nominal (false measures reduced the amount) pound of meal, often mouldy, for each adult, lesser amounts for children. Two days a week biscuits were substituted for the meal. A problem with the meal was that it required cooking, cooking was done only on deck and was often impossible, grill space was severely limited and required water which was supplied at the rate of one nominal (three quarts) gallon per adult per day for drinking, washing, and cooking. Those who brought salt fish for the voyage, could not use it because there was insufficient water to wash the salt from it and to satisfy thirst.
If the ship carried British mail, these minimal food allowances could be further reduced.

An old joke comes to mind: Our hard tack was infested, our ship's biscuits were buggy; we had to choose the lesser of two weevils.

There were two toilets for the 350 steerage passengers. These were jerry rigged at the bow of the ship, placed so that they drained into the sea. In bad weather they were unreachable, in lesser storms the occupant would be drenched, and often these fixtures were destroyed by storms. The passenger who owned a chamber pot was fortunate.

I am being very careful in what I say next. Slave ships were carrying their cargo to America at the same time. Their occupants was horribly mistreated en route, and their lot did not improve when they reached shore. Slavery is cruel and indefensible. The point I want to make is that it was important to the slave trader that his cargo be delivered alive; there was no such burden on the master of the coffin ship. And again I say slavery is cruel and indefensible.

One ship had a good record. Its passengers survived; not one was lost in its many voyages. A replica of it has been built in County Kerry, Ireland. It will sail for America in April, 2000 to visit coastal and Great Lakes cities as part of the 150th anniversary of the starvation years of 1845-1850.

The Jeanie Johnston under construction in Tralee The Jeanie Johnson

In 1999 the Irish and US postal services issued stamps, identical in art work, commemorating the coffin ships: A most commendable thought ruined by the painting, a romantic and adventurous view of the exterior of a ship, the horrors hidden within.

For more information on the Great Hunger, see the excellent book, Paddy's Lament by Thomas Gallagher, published by Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich in 1982.