Coffin Ship (12 page)

And the sickening smell of a crop from hell

Came up from every field.

'Twas not God's hand that cursed the land,

But the hand of a human master,

Who turned his back when the spuds turned black,

And created that awful disaster.

For the landlord's fields gave abundant yields,

But we Irish could not afford it;

So fathers and sons were held off with guns

While the harvested crop was exported.

And the men of renown, who worked for the crown,

To administer public care,

Heard our plea from across the sea,

And pretended that we weren't there.

How many fell sick in forty-six

When the potato failed again,

And malnutrition on frail conditions

Claimed children, women and men.

And what intent had the government?

Did they try to ease our pain?

Or did they try to keep prices high

By forbidding the import of grain.

The only food that they didn't exclude

Was American Indian maize;

For it posed no rival to the landlord's survival,

And for that it was given high praise.

But America warned that Indian corn

Was too hard, and had to be grated;

But they gave it away to the poor anyway,

And it cut through our bellies like razors.

Then, when a man died, his children and bride

Were sent to the workhouse for hire,

Where lice and fleas spread dreadful disease,

And fever set them on fire.

Again we implored, and again they ignored

As our dead were hauled off in carts.

Uncaring, they slept, while mothers wept;

And their apathy hardened our hearts.

Then, dear God in heaven, came black forty-seven,

A year that in horror still stands;

For the crown ordained that the landlords maintain

The tenants who lived on their lands.

So what did they do, these faithful and true,

Defenders of church and of crown;

They dispossessed our families like pests,

And tore our wee cottages down.

With no fixed abodes, we wandered the roads

Through the fiercest winter in years;

Clad only in rags; our possessions in bags;

With nothing to taste but our tears.

Wracked with pain we wandered the lanes

In search of berries and roots;

'Til the crown rushed through an evening curfew,

And arrested all those on the loose.

Alone and forsaken, our women were taken,

And sent as indentured servants,

To lands far away from their own native clay,

In spite of their pleas, grim and fervent.

And pity the children, the innocent children,

Whose parents were laid in their graves;

Too young to pay rent, they were hastily sent

To factories and sweatshops like slaves.

Then came the date in forty-eight

When the landlords, cruel and clever,

To avoid being forced to absorb further cost

Discarded their tenants forever.

They consigned us to trips aboard coffin ships,

Not suited for man nor for beast;

In holds dark and damp, we were crowded and cramped:

The living beside the deceased.

And as we lay dying; some praying, some crying,

Like lifeless cargo, all stacked,

The ship's rolling motion across the wide ocean,

Made our empty bellies contract.

Thousands were drowned on the ships that went down,

Never again to be seen;

If tombstones were floated for each death noted,

You could walk from Brooklyn to Skibbereen.

We barely survived on the ships that arrived

In the new land across the wide seas;

But weary and sore, we were stopped at the door,

For they said that we carried disease.

As the Banshee keened, we were quarantined,

And more came on every wave;

Then, some were freed; alone and in need,

While the rest found American graves.

Then came the time in forty-nine

When the rest of the world grew critical,

And loudly decried such genocide

For reasons that were only political.

So the government tried to stem the tide

Of the world's admonishing blast,

By producing a few potatoes that grew,

And declaring the crisis had passed.

But the official's voice didn't make us rejoice

That the land had finally been blessed;

For as we chewed on nettles, our spuds fed their cattle,

For by now, we'd been all dispossessed.

Then came the group with the watered down soup

To set up their charity kitchen;

But the price was too high, for to qualify

We would have to give up our religion.

To see parents denying, as children were dying,

To take the soup or the porridge,

Was both demonstration and documentation

Of a people's faith, and their courage.

No matter who stated the crisis abated,

We still knew disease and starvation,

'Til the final aid that helped it to fade

Came from Irish in far away nations.

They'd dispersed our kin to the stormy winds,

And that became our salvation;

For though they tried to commit genocide,

They failed to achieve liquidation.

And to our defence came our own emigrants,

Now scattered all over the earth;

Who'd improved their lot, but never forgot

The land that had given them birth.

Sisters and brothers wrote back to their mothers,

Or any one they had left living;

Each letter returning as much of their earnings

As they could afford to be giving.

And the greedy and sinister government ministers,

Who'd thought that they'd finally erased us,

Were astonished to learn that our sons would return,

And that in the end was what braced us.

Today we recall the memory of all

The disease, the starvation and sorrow;

Of those who perished for the faith they cherished

And the hope of a better tomorrow.

But let not our fate, be guided by hate,

For the lord will have taken fair vengeance;

Remember instead, our own Irish dead,

And say a prayer in silent remembrance.
[5]

While most sources estimate the number of victims of the
St. John
tragedy to be ninety-nine and the survivors twenty-two, there are others who place the death toll as high as one hundred and forty-six. In fact, Northern Maritime Research Canada places the loss of life somewhere between one hundred and forty-four and one hundred and sixty-four people. Various sources also report a different figure for that of the survivors. One of these reports, which was published in the
Galway Vindicator
, suggests that there were between twenty and thirty more passengers on board the
St. John
than was declared in the manifest.
The Boston Post
reported that two of the survivors accused Captain Oliver of falsifying the list of passengers, claiming that there were an additional twenty or thirty people listed in a memorandum book that the captain kept in his personal possession. Another puzzling aspect of the disaster is the disappearance of the ship's official manifest. Was it lost during the storm? Was it deliberately left behind so that the actual number of passengers on board would remain unknown? It may never be known, but what is certain is that there were more people on board the
St. John
that terrible night than was recorded in the official documents.
[1]

The main list of passengers available today seems to have been compiled by an American reporter. It contains more details regarding the victims from Clare than those from Galway. This would indicate that whoever supplied the information was more familiar with the Clare contingent on board. It is evident from the list that follows that the reporter who recorded the names had some difficulty understanding the Irish accent, resulting in errors in the spelling of names and addresses. Additional errors are also believed to have occurred when the list was sent to the printers, where the reporter's ‘longhand' writing was misread. The following are examples of such errors. The first two letters of the name Flannigan were misread as the letter H. One woman, a Margaret Keenan, seems to have been recorded twice under two spelling variations of Ennistymon. Confusion surrounds the first name of Honora or Mary Burke; some sources also spell her name as Honour. For this listing she is recorded as Honora (Mary) Burke. Peggy Mullen was recorded as Meggy Mullen; this has also been corrected. Most sources record one of the surviving sailors as William Larkin; however,
The Boston Mail
recorded him as John. Other differences arise in the same newspaper. James Moran is recorded as James Morgan. Winny Galvin is recorded as Minny Galvin. Miss Brooks is recorded as Mrs Brooks. Andrew Frost is recorded as Andrew Forrest. One of the surviving sailors, Henry O'Hern is not recorded in the newspaper at all
.
The three Mulkenan sisters are recorded as Mulkennan. In the cabin passenger list there is a Margaret Flannigan – could this be Mary Flannigan? In the same section an N. Flannigan is listed – could this be Nancy Hannagan? Martha Perky's name appeared as Martha Purky and it was stated that she was related to Peggy Purky. There are three persons named McDarratt recorded, but these are possibly McDermott.
[2]

Spelling errors also occurred in place names with different variations of the same name being recorded. These variations are included in the list along with the names believed to be correct, such as Ennistymon/Inistivan/Innistivan, and so on. There are obviously other misspellings recorded on the list of the victims, but as there were no records available to identify the correct spellings, they will remain as they were first recorded.
[3]

The following are examples of survivors who were not listed among the passengers or crew: Mrs Quinlan, recorded in the writings of Elizabeth Lothrop; the infant saved by Captain Lothrop; Martin and Patrick Flaherty (brothers); and a second Patrick Flaherty, all of whom returned to Lettermullen. If the brig
St. John
did indeed anchor off the coast of Lettermullen to take on water and extra passengers shortly after first setting sail, then the names of these additional passengers were not recorded. This being the case, there were more people on board than were listed in the ship's manifest.
The Boston Mail
records a Benjamin O'Brien as a surviving sailor, but he is not recorded in any other sources. M. Rootching is also recorded among the passengers saved, but he too is not recorded in any other source.
[4]

On the day after the disaster, Newcomb Bates (Jr), the town clerk of Cohasset, recorded some additional names that do not appear on any other list. They included Catherine Fitzgerald, Bridget Muligan, Mary Freeman and Sally Sweeney, whose body was found ‘calm and placid'. Nine of Patrick and Mary Sweeney's eleven children were named in
The Boston Mail
, November 1849 and later by a local source in Lettermullen, who was also in a position to name a tenth. Was Sally Sweeney a member of this family? There were two people named Miles Sweeney on board, one of whom was a child, and the son of Patrick and Mary Sweeney. Peggy Adams is recorded in the
Boston Daily Herald
; her sister arrived in Cohasset just as the funeral was about to take place. The following are additional names reported by
The Boston Mail
: Mary Joyce and her child, Mary Curtain, Peter Greally, Jas Greally, Pat Corcoran, Catherine McMahon, Thomas Donnelly, Bridget Doherty, Nappy Fahy, B. Kennelly or Conlin and three children. Nappy is a shortened version of the name Penelope. All of the additional names have been included in the list that follows, under the title ‘Place of origin unknown'.
[5]

Crew Survivors

Comerford, First Mate Henry (Galway)

Comerford, Isaac (Galway)

Flaherty, James (Lettermullen, Connemara, County Galway)

Frost, Andrew (Galway)

Kennelly, Michael (Galway)

Larkin, William (Galway)

O'Brien, Benjamin (Galway)

O'Hern, Henry (Galway)

Oliver, Captain Martin (Galway)

Walker, Thomas (Galway)

Crew Lost

Angiers, William

Connors, Michael

Kennelly, Edward

McDonough, Antonio

Thompson, William

– Two unnamed apprentice boys

Passenger Survivors

Burke, Honora (Mary) (aged 27)

Cole, Mary Kane (aged 24)

Cullen, Honora (aged 28)

Fitzpatrick, Michael (aged 26)

Flaherty, Martin (Lettermullen, Connemara, County Galway)

Flaherty, Patrick (Lettermullen, Connemara, County Galway)

Flaherty, Patrick (Lettermullen, Connemara, County Galway)

Flanagan, Catherine (aged 20)

Gibbon, Michael (aged 26)

Higgins, Betsy (aged 21)

Kearn, Austin (aged 20)

Kennelly, Barbara (aged 20)

Quinlan, Mrs (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Redding, Michael (aged 24)

Rootching, M. (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Slattery, Mary (aged 20)

– The infant saved by Captain Lothrop (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Passengers Lost

Adams, Peggy, steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Belton, John, steerage passenger (Galway)

Brooks, Ms, steerage passenger (Ennistymon/Inistivan/Innistivan, County Clare)

Burnes, Catherine, steerage passenger (Lahinch/Inch/Anch, County Clare)

Burke, Bridget, steerage passenger (Galway)

Burke, Thomas, steerage passenger (Galway)

Butler, John, steerage passenger (Galway)

Byrnes, Daniel, steerage passenger (Lahinch/Inch/Anch, County Clare)

Cahill, Mary, steerage passenger (Galway)

Connelly, Bridget, steerage passenger (Connemara/Kunnamara, County Galway)

Corcoran, Pat, steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Corman, Patrick, steerage passenger (Galway)

Curtain, Mary, steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Curtis, Mary, steerage passenger (County Clare)

Doherty, Bridget, steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Dolan, John, steerage passenger (Galway)

Dolan, Mary, steerage passenger (Galway)

Donnelly, Honora, steerage passenger (Galway)

Donnelly, Thomas, steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Egan, Bridget, steerage passenger (Ennis, Innes, County Clare)

Egan, Honor, steerage passenger (Ennis, Innes, County Clare)

Egan, Michael, steerage passenger (Ennis, Innes, County Clare)

Fahy, Nappy, steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Fahey, Bridget, steerage passenger (Galway)

Fahey, Martha, steerage passenger (Galway)

Fahey, Thomas, steerage passenger (Galway)

Fitzgerald, Catherine, steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Fitzpatrick, Catherine, steerage passenger (Galway)

Flannigan, Mary, cabin passenger (Kilfenora/Kilnare/Kilnara, County Clare)

Freeman, Mary (and child), steerage passenger (Ennis, Innes, County Clare)

Frowley, Mary (and child), steerage passengers (Roan, County Clare)

Galvin, Mary, steerage passenger (Kilmurry/Kilmary, County Clare)

Galvin, Winny, steerage passenger (Kilmurry/Kilmary, County Clare)

Glynn, Hugh, steerage passenger (Ennistymon/Inistivan/Innistivan, County Clare)

Greally, Jas., steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Greally, Peter, steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Griffin, Michael, steerage passenger (Lahinch/Inch/Anch, County Clare)

Hannagan, Margaret, cabin passenger (Kilfenora/Kilnare/Kilnara, County Clare)

Hannagan, Michael, steerage passenger (Lalinen, County Clare)

Hannagan, Nancy, cabin passenger (Kilfenora/Kilnare/Kilnara, County Clare)

Hassett, Ellen,
steerage passenger (Lahinch/Inch/Anch, County Clare)

Henniff, Catherine (and sister), steerage passenger (Galway)

Joyce, Mary (and child), steerage passengers (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Kane, Margaret (and child), steerage passenger (Kilmurry/Kilmary, County Clare)

Keenan, Margaret, steerage passenger (Ennistymon/Inistivan/Innistivan, County Clare)

Kennelly (or Conlin) B. (and three children), steerage passengers (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Lahiff (or Rohan), Honora, steerage passenger (County Clare)

Lahiff (or Rohan), John, steerage passenger (County Clare)

Lahiff, John, steerage passenger (Kilfenora/Kilnare/Kilanara, County Clare)

Lahiff, Patrick, steerage passenger (Kilfenora/Kilnare/Kilanara, County Clare)

Landsky, Mary, steerage passenger (Galway)

McDermott, Joyce (and child), steerage passengers (Galway)

McDermott, Mary, steerage passenger (Galway)

McGrath, James, steerage passenger (Kilmurry/Kilmary, County Clare)

McGrath, Patrick, steerage passenger (Kilmurry/Kilmary, County Clare)

McMahon, Bridget, steerage passenger (Roan, County Clare)

McMahon, Catherine, steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

McMahon, Patrick, steerage passenger (Roan, County Clare)

McNamara, Mary, steerage passenger (Kilmurry/Kilmary, County Clare)

Madigan, Hugh, steerage passenger (Ennistymon/Inistivan/Innistivan, County Clare)

Maddigan, Bridget, steerage passenger (Kilfenora/Kilnare/Kilanara, County Clare)

Malloy, Peggy, steerage passenger (Lahinch/Inch/Anch, County Clare)

Moran, James, steerage passenger (Dysart/Dyant, County Clare)

Mulkenan, Honora, steerage passenger (County Clare)

Mulkenan, Margaret, steerage passenger (County Clare)

Mulkenan, Mary, steerage passenger (County Clare)

Mullen, Honora, steerage passenger (Galway)

Mullen, Peggy (and her sister's child), steerage passengers (Galway)

Muligan, Bridget, steerage passenger (Place of origin unknown/lost)

Murphy, Jeremiah, steerage passenger (Dysart/Dyant, County Clare)

Nolan, Mary, steerage passenger (Roan, County Clare)

Noonan, Patrick, steerage passenger (Galway)

O'Brien, Eliza, cabin passenger (Ennistymon/Inistivan/Innistivan, County Clare)

Purky, Martha, steerage passenger (Galway)

Purky, Peggy, steerage passenger (Galway)

Quinn, Bridget, cabin passenger (Ennistymon/Inistivan/Innistivan, County Clare)

Riley, Thomas, steerage passenger (Kilfenora/Kilnare/Kilanara, County Clare)

Sexton, Martin, steerage passenger (Dysart/Dyant, County Clare)

Slattery, Ann, steerage passenger (Ennistymon/Inistivan/Innistivan, County Clare)

Slattery, Bridget, steerage passenger (Ennistymon/Inistivan/Innistivan, County Clare)