Posted on 06/29/2003 9:25:30 AM PDT by ex-snook
The story of the Jeanie Johnston is the story of one of the most momentous periods in Irish history – the era of the Great Famine that swept the country in the middle of the 19th century.
It is also a tale of great humanity, remarkable courage and pioneering spirit on the part of Irish people fleeing the dreaded famine, which decimated the population of Ireland in a few short years.
It can be truly said that the Jeanie Johnston – and the many similar emigrant ships of the 19th century which it eloquently represents – paved the way for Irish people to play a leading and distinguished role all over the world in the intervening years.
Stark choice… emigrate or starve
When disease hit the potato crop – the staple diet of the Irish people – during consecutive seasons from 1845 to 1848, disaster struck. Every family in the country was touched in one way or another.
For many people, it came down to a stark choice between risking the fearful transatlantic voyage on an emigrant ship or remaining in Ireland to starve.
This is where the famed Jeanie Johnston entered the picture to dramatic effect. A square-sterned, three-masted barque, constructed of Quebec oak and pine, the 408 tonne ship was built in Quebec, Canada by noted Scottish-born shipbuilder, John Munn in 1847.
A year later, the prominent Tralee, Co. Kerry hardware merchant, Nicholas Donovan, purchased the ship in Liverpool and originally intended to use it on the North Atlantic route as a cargo vessel.
New beginning for over 2,500 people
The dire circumstances of the starving Irish soon altered his plans and the ship made its maiden voyage to Quebec on April 24, 1848, with 193 emigrants on board who were searching for a new life as the effects of the Famine ravaged the land.
Over the next seven years, the sturdy wooden sailing vessel made 16 heroic voyages in all to North America, sailing to Quebec, Baltimore and New York. From 1848 – 1855, the ship carried over 2,500 Irish people across the Atlantic on the first step in a brave new adventure.
In the process, the Jeanie Johnston accomplished a remarkable feat. Under the direction of its kind-hearted owner, Nicholas Donovan, its caring captain, Captain James Attridge and a highly experienced resident medical doctor, Dr. Richard Blennerhassett, no lives were lost on board.
Few comforts on hazardous journey
The Jeanie Johnston boasted just a single main deck and a poop deck, housing its travellers in very cramped bunks. It offered few comforts on the hazardous journey, which usually lasted about two months, but it was also far removed from the infamous ‘coffin ships’ most notably associated with the thousands of emigrants who perished on the transatlantic voyages in 1847.
The emigrants on the Jeanie Johnston were berthed below deck in the steerage area, where temporary accommodation was rigged up for them, and they were expected to provide their own bedding. They were pressed tightly together in tiny spaces – four to a six foot-square bunk, with two children counting as one adult! It is difficult to visualise that, on one trip, the stalwart ship carried a total of 254 passengers.
Can’t you imagine the turmoil and confusion as frightened people, who perhaps had walked for miles from neighbouring counties beforehand to catch the emigrant ship at Tralee, were thrown together in strange surroundings on the high seas – with very poor lighting and ventilation – to face a highly uncertain future?
On the way, they would experience many variations in weather – sailings were usually in April (when it was cooler) and in the warmer August when the ship, however, may have been caught up in a hurricane.
While families were kept together, where possible, and separate bunks were generally arranged for single men and women, the laws of the time did not even stipulate the segregation of the sexes.
The makeshift quarters used by the emigrants were removed when the emigrants disembarked in North America, enabling the ship to perform its secondary role of transporting vital supplies of food and timber back to Ireland on its return journey.
Who were these brave Irish people who paid the fare of £3.10 shillings to make the heroic journey to the ‘New World’? Although the passenger lists to Quebec remain undiscovered, a complete list for the voyage to Baltimore offers some clues to the profile of those on board the voyages. Farmers and labourers figure prominently, and many were family groups. The largest group, however, were single women, the majority between the ages of 16 and 30.
Unusual passenger!
One unexpected passenger joined the Jeanie Johnston in 1848. The story of how a baby boy was born on board the day before the ship’s maiden voyage began from Tralee perhaps encapsulates the emigrant vessel’s heartening story generally. To mark the unusual surroundings of his birth, which was assisted by Dr. Blennerhassett, the parents – Daniel and Margaret Ryal from Tralee – named the child after both the ship’s owner and the ship. Consequently Nicholas Johnston Ryal was proudly added to the passenger list!
For many Irish people in the mid-19th century, it was a stark choice between risking the fearful transatlantic voyage on an emigrant ship or remaining in Ireland to starve.
Limited provisions
The passengers on board had to make do with very limited food provisions during their treacherous journey. They were expected to bring some food on board with them – that’s if they could afford it, of course – and this was not likely to last too long into the voyage, with the sweltering heat and crowded conditions.
All were also required to provide their own cooking utensils and to cook for themselves. This meant queuing up for a turn on the only stove which was located on the main deck. The main meal of the day could be at six o’clock in the morning or six at night. If the weather was bad, or there was overcrowding, the family would go hungry that day or be reduced to eating raw flour or meal.
An indication of the meagre provisions received by the emigrants on board can be gauged from the shipping legislation of the time, which calculated the following amounts should be given on a weekly basis to passengers: 21 quarts water; 2½lbs bread or biscuit; 1lb flour; 5lbs oatmeal; 2lbs rice; 2ozs tea, ½lb sugar and ½lb molasses.
Toilets were practically non-existent on mid-19th century emigrant ships like the Jeanie Johnston. If they were lucky to have them, people resorted to chamber pots or, more often, shared buckets below deck, which they had to then empty overboard up on deck! The stench from these buckets and from the seasick poor souls can only be imagined.
A well run ship with an enviable record
Despite these extremely cramped and primitive conditions by today’s standards, the Jeanie Johnston was a well run and humanely operated ship which cared as best it could, in most difficult circumstances, for the fleeing emigrants.
Its enviable record (in the context of 19th century transatlantic voyages) of not having lost a single life to either disease or illness at sea was largely due to the great efforts of Dr. Richard Blennerhassett, supported by the humanitarian attitude of the ship’s master, Captain James Attridge.
The doctor would ensure that hatches were open every day when possible, that the bedding was aired, the accommodation below deck was kept as clean as possible and that everyone would be encouraged to take a walk on the deck each day unless the weather was too rough.
In this regard, the Jeanie Johnston differed from many other ships of the time in that it employed a highly reputable and experienced doctor. In their frequent letters of appreciation to Captain Attridge following their voyage, the passengers also singled out Blennerhassett for praise.
It is also noteworthy that, even when the ship met its final end, no lives were lost. In 1856, she was sold as a cargo ship to William Johnson of North Shields in England and, two years later when en route from Quebec to Hull with timber, she ran into trouble in mid-Atlantic. Overloaded and waterlogged she sank, but not before all aboard were rescued by a passing Dutch ship, the Sophie Elizabeth – preserving her unblemished safety record.
Brave crew
Life on board a 19th century emigrant ship was also arduous for the 17-man crew who had to, first, maintain some order as the confused emigrants arrived on board, many with not much more than the clothes they wore. It was a difficult and emotional time, with perhaps families becoming separated from each other and, on shore, loved ones wailing and shouting as their relatives prepared to leave them forever.
The crew had to take it in their turn to man the four-hour watch from the poop deck, keeping the ship on a steady course and watching for other vessels. They steered with the aid of a magnetic compass located immediately in front of the ship’s wheel, and it took two men to hold the wheel together in bad weather.
Crew members came from all over Ireland (including ten from Northern Ireland on different voyages), the UK, Continental Europe, Canada, the US and South America.
The captain, meanwhile, plotted the ship’s position in the Chart Room, using the sextant and chronometer as the primary instruments of navigation.
PROUD AND CARING
Nicholas Donovan – Proud owner
Born in 1815, Nicholas Donovan was the largest importer of timber in Kerry who also dealt in coal, iron and slate, and had extensive flour and saw mills. In 1841, he married Katherine Murphy who was the sister of James J. Murphy, the founder of the Cork brewery. He died in 1877.
Experienced captain
Capt. James Attridge (1805 – 1885) was the ship’s master until the Donovans sold it in 1855. From Castletownsend, Co. Cork, he had been a captain from the age of 23 and had first gone to sea as a 15-year old in 1820.
A caring doctor
Son of a well-known Dublin and Tralee physician, Richard Blennerhassett was a graduate of Edinburgh University, then one of the most prestigious medical colleges in Britain and Ireland.
After qualifying in 1845, Dr. Blennerhassett served as a ship’s doctor on the Bassora Merchant on a journey to Calcutta. Although he would have had a whole range of careers open to him, he decided to concentrate on caring for passengers on the high seas by joining the Jeanie Johnston.
Tragically, Dr. Blennerhassett later contracted cholera on board another emigrant ship, the Ben Nevis, that sailed from Liverpool and he died at the age of 36 in 1854.
Jeanie Johnston – dawning of a new era
The Jeanie Johnston opened up a new world for the Irish emigrants, in the midst of despair and poverty – and Irish people have followed in their pioneering footsteps with distinction and glory all over the world ever since.
The Jeanie Johnston 19th century emigrant ship offers a unique insight into emigration from Ireland in the Famine and post-Famine eras.
Yep, the crowds were huge. One of the crew told me it took 8 weeks to cross. Those on this ship were fortunate with a caring owner, captain and doctor. Many other ships were called 'coffin ships' because of the number that died enroute.
NYC is the next stop for Freepers in that area.
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