Westward Cork Migration by Sail 1815-1860 by John Sutton

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

– of St John NB sailed for New York from Cork 1 Nov with emigrants. Arrived 4 Dec. – of Boston arrived at Boston from Cork 5 Dec with emigrants. – (port unknown) sailed for Philadelphia from Cork 19 Nov with emigrants. – (port unknown) sailed for New Orleans from Cork 23 Nov with ballast and emigrants.

Java

Bark Niagra Joseph Porter

Weskeag

Cambria – (port unknown) sailed for New York from Cork 23 Nov with emigrants – (possibly of Hull) sailed for New York from Cork 5 Dec with emigrants. Brig Cremona on A-List possibly had a delayed departure or stopover en route to explain an apparent 73-day voyage. RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo This Treaty, which was signed on 2 Feb 1848 after the termination of the Mexican War , ceded extensive territories to the USA, including California. *California Gold Rush Russia Unknowingly James Marshall discovered flakes of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California on 24 January 1848 when constructing a mill for John Sutter. The California Gold Rush (1848-55) was about to begin. The non-Indian population of California in 1840 was only 8,000 (1850 Census questionnaire) and would reach 379,994 in 1860, per the US 1860 Census. That same Census also documented that out of that total there were 146,528 foreign-born residents of whom 33,127 were Irish and 21,646 were German. * Emigration Change following ‘Black 47’ BNA statistics changed forever as most of the Irish abandon BNA (see Part ll). Total UK emigration in 1848 : 248,098 . Distribution: BNA - 12.5%, US - 76%, Australia - 9,6%. The high mortality among Irish immigrants arriving at Quebec in 1847 was followed by a decline in the distribution of all emigrants to BNA from the UK from 42% to 12.5% in 1848. Emigration from Cork in 1848 was USA: 8,600 , Canada: 3,021 . This swing from BNA to US ports is also evident in this Calendar of Ships for 1848. *John Mitchel Arrested John Mitchel, Irish Nationalist, 'United Irishman' journalist and critic of the London Government for mishandling the Irish Famine, was arrested for inciting rebellion, and sentenced to transportation for fourteen years at the penal colony in Bermuda. He passed four days at Spike Island in Cork Harbour before travelling to Bermuda, where he spent a year on a prison hulk, prior to his transfer via the Cape Colony to Van Diemen's Land. *Young Ireland Rebellion This rebellion in July 1848 , sometimes called the Famine Rebellion, was easily defeated and its Young Irelander leaders, William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Francis Meagher, Terence MacManus, and Patrick O'Donoghue were captured, found guilty of sedition and sentenced to death, before their sentences were commuted to transportation to Australia for life.