Westward Cork Migration by Sail 1815-1860 by John Sutton

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * Oswego Canal Completed

The New York Canal System was further improved with the opening in 1828 of the 23.7- mile Oswego Canal connecting the Erie Canal at Three Rivers, New York to Oswego NY on the south shore of Lake Ontario. A report on the success of the Erie Canal after three years of operation indicated that: ‘the facilities afforded of transportation by the Erie Canal to the western parts of Pennsylvania and all the States bordering on the Ohio, together with the rapid improvement of those immense districts, have turned the tide of emigration to the western States, chiefly through that channel’ (1829, Oswego Harbour, Part ll) * Passenger Safety Considerations By the last Passenger Act , passed by Congress, vessels arriving in the United States are restricted from carrying more than one person to every five tons. By the report of the last session of the British Parliament, in relation to emigration, the evidence, that one passenger to every two tons, for all the purposes of health, affords ample accommodation was deemed satisfactory and has become the law, rigidly enforcing, however, that there shall be 75 days ample provision and water for each passenger proceeding from a British port to North America. * Buchanan Appointed Superintendent of Emigrants at Quebec (1828) Mr. A.C. Buchanan, Esq., brother to the British Consul at New York, arrived in this city on Saturday morning, on his way to Quebec, with dispatches to His Excellency the Governor in Chief from the Colonial Office. Mr. Buchanan, it will be recollected, was lately appointed Superintendent of Emigrants at Quebec. * Murder at Sea Respected Cork Captain, previously in Trade between Cork and Quebec on Sir James Kempt and Albion , arrested. An event without parallel in the annals of marine misfortune, occurred on board the brig Mary Russell , Captain Stewart of Cork, on her passage home from Barbadoes, which arrived at Cove on Thursday: There were on board, besides the master and mate, 8 men and 4 boys; of these, six seamen and a naval gentleman, passenger in her, were found dead in the cabin on Monday morning last, by Captain Callender, of the Mary Stubbs , of Belfast, (which was also on her passage home from Barbadoes, and spoke the Mary Russell on the above morning,) having been killed on the day before by the Captain, according to the statement of the four boys. The cause assigned by the Master to Capt. Callender was, an attempt on the part of the crew to mutiny, and his apprehension that they would take away his life; but to save himself, that he induced them to be tied in the cabin, each singly, before another was called down ; and when all were rendered powerless, that he put those seven to death with a crow bar! The mate named Smith, and one sailor named Howes, by some means extricated themselves, and escaped death; after being wounded in several places. It appears he was in the act of tying the boys also, when the Mary Stubbs hove in sight. Capt. Callender held by the Mary Russell and saved Capt. Stewart from being drowned, he having leaped twice into the sea for that purpose. Wednesday again, for the third time, he flung himself overboard off Castletown and was picked up by a hooker. A warrant for the apprehension of Capt. Stewart, has been issued, by Sir Antony Perrier, on the information of Capt. Callender, and an inquest held on the bodies of the seven men. We cannot conceive that anything but insanity could induce a human being to imbrue his hands