Westward Cork Migration by Sail 1815-1860 by John Sutton

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

the consequent abundance of provisions. 2dly. To the non-prevalence of typhus in the south and west of Ireland last winter and spring, the result of a plentiful potato harvest. 3dly. To the comparative small number of emigrant vessels, on board of which smallpox broke out on the passage. While last season the number of passenger-ships on board of which this epidemic prevailed, was 17; this year the number has not exceeded seven. Nearly one half of the whole number of emigrants that arrived this season came out in the month of May, at which time, from the prevalence of east wind in the River and Gulf of the St. Lawrence, the voyage is usually short, and the coolness of the weather unfavourable to the generation of febrile miasm. Another obvious advantage of the short voyage is the abundance of food, the scarcity of which is so great a predisposing cause of disease. On board of some of the most crowded of the vessels this season, the Lord Seaton , with 546 passengers; the Dumfriesshire , 621; Ann Jeffry , 261; and George Marsden , 229; measles and whooping cough prevailed extensively among children, and as usually happens in similar cases, proved fatal to a great degree; the Lord Seaton having lost 14, the George Marsden , 13, the Ann Jeffry , 9 of their passengers. The total number of deaths of emigrants on the voyage out this season, has been 222, five-sixths of whom are young children, and very old persons, whose extreme age and feebleness rendered them unfit to encounter the privations of a sea voyage. Twenty-nine children were born on the voyage out; notwithstanding the unfavourable circumstances under which these births took place, both mothers and infants, with a few exceptions, were doing well on their arrival at the Quarantine station. Two female emigrants, one in the barque Borneo , from Limerick, and another in the ship Lord Seaton, from Belfast, died in childbirth on the passage; and among other casualties, a female passenger in the brig Duchess of Buccleugh , was washed overboard and drowned in a gale of wind, and two men, one a passenger in the barque Julie , from Sligo, and the other in the barque Agenora , from Liverpool, were lost, out of the ship's head, the usual places of accommodation having been knocked down by order of the master, on the plea of want of cleanliness on the part of the passengers. I have brought this circumstance under the notice of the Chief Agent for emigrants at this port as deaths take place from the same cause every season. The emigrants as a body appeared in more comfortable circumstances than last year, being better provided with wearing apparel and bedding, and presenting fewer cases of squalor and misery. It is to be regretted that the difference of the law regulating the transport of passengers to this port and to that of New York should prove an inducement to send out by vessels coming to Quebec, large families of women and children unprovided with their natural protectors. The Passenger Act of the state of New York imposes an uniform tax of two dollars a-head upon emigrants of all ages (children as well as adults) and limits also the number embarked to two passengers to every five tons, making no distinction between children and adults. The sum charged the emigrants for passage is, therefore, double that paid by those coming to this port, and is exacted without reference to age. It is found, therefore, to be a. great saving for the adults of a family to embark for New York, and to leave the younger members to come out by the St. Lawrence under the charge of some female relative or other friend, trusting, in many instances, to receive assistance on their arrival here to enable them to proceed on to join their parents. The consequence of this is, that emigrant vessels coming to this port are too often crowded to excess, though the number actually on board does not exceed that allowed by the Act. This arises from the great proportion of children under 12 months, that are not included in the passenger list, and from those under seven years, three of whom are only counted as one adult, and from those under 14, two of whom are counted as one.