Ships that carried Irish and Scottish migrants during the 19th century
For other uses, see Coffin ship (disambiguation).
Replica of the "good ship" Jeanie Johnston, which sailed during the Great Hunger when coffin ships were common. No one ever died on the Jeanie Johnson
A coffin ship (Irish: long cónra) is a popular idiom used to describe the ships that carried Irish migrants escaping the Great Irish Famine and Highlanders displaced by the Highland Clearances.[1]
Coffin ships carrying emigrants, crowded and disease-ridden, with poor access to food and water, resulted in the deaths of many people as they crossed the Atlantic, and led to the 1847 North American typhus epidemic at quarantine stations in Canada.[2] Owners of coffin ships provided as little food, water and living space as was legally possible, if they obeyed the law at all.[3] With death rates commonly reaching 20 percent and horror stories of 50 percent dying, these vessels soon became known as coffin ships. Those who died were buried at sea.
While coffin ships were the cheapest way to cross the Atlantic, mortality rates of 30 percent aboard the coffin ships were common.[4] It was said that sharks could be seen following the ships, because so many bodies were thrown overboard.[5][6][7]
^Gallagher, The Reverend John A. (1936). "The Fever Fleet – The Irish Emigration of 1847 and Its Canadian Consequences". CCHA Report. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
^Plimsoll Line and coffin Ships
^"Early Emigrant Letter Stories". eligrantletters.com. Archived from the original on 12 April 2010.
^Hickey, D.J.; J. E. Doherty (1980). A dictionary of Irish history since 1800. Barnes & Noble. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-389-20160-1. sharks.
^Wakin, Edward (2001). Enter the Irish-American. iUniverse. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-595-22730-3.
^Davis, John H (1992). The Kennedys: dynasty and disaster. S.P.I. Books. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-56171-060-7.
A coffinship (Irish: long cónra) is a popular idiom used to describe the ships that carried Irish migrants escaping the Great Irish Famine and Highlanders...
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lack of mortality contrasted sharply with coffinships that carried many other Irish immigrants. In 1855, the ship was sold to William Johnson of North Shields...
in 1847, during the Great Famine, aboard crowded and disease-ridden "coffinships". In Canada, more than 20,000 people died from 1847 to 1848, with many...
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immigrant (a ghost, as his words reveal) answers that his voyage was on "a coffinship," and thus, having died on the journey, he has no answers. According...
ships' sails. Each sail is engraved with the names of 50 ships which carried those escaping the Great Famine. These ships, sometimes known as coffin ships...
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forms of quarantine, who had contracted the disease aboard the crowded coffinships in fleeing the Great Irish Famine. Officials neither knew how to provide...
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directly from the German Das Totenschiff; in English, they are called coffinships. Traven first wrote Das Totenschiff in English in 1923 or 1924. Editor...
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Levi Coffin (October 28, 1798 – September 16, 1877) was an American Quaker, Republican, abolitionist, farmer, businessman and humanitarian. An active leader...
Chronology of the Great Famine British Relief Association Souperism Coffinship Irish diaspora Young Ireland rebellion Encumbered Estates' Court Legacy...
Chronology of the Great Famine British Relief Association Souperism Coffinship Irish diaspora Young Ireland rebellion Encumbered Estates' Court Legacy...
passengers who were simply viewed as cargo in the eyes of the ship workers. Notable coffinships include the Jeanie Johnston and the Dunbrody. There are statues...
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