JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY ·noNEGAL .HISTORICAL ·soCIETY TiHiE Irish emigrant knew th:at before him lay "all the Tryals, Hardships., and Dangers of the Seas, by Storms, Shipwrecks, Turks and Pyrates, or to be cast Siway by the vmanv of Ship 114aSters." 1 The sensationa1 is m<>ire striking than the commonplace and usually outlives it, but the realities of the average em1gr.ant voyage in the eighteenth century need no embellishments to make it surprising that aJbout 110,000. peop~e sailed from the five north Insh emigration ports2 to Nortih Ameirica. bet•ween 1715 and 1775. The tri·als of the emigrant often began before he set foot on the vessel that w.as to carry him to America. It was unusuaE for an emigrant vessel to sail on the advertised sailing date. For example. onlv two of the eleven vessels that were advertised to leave BellfMt with emigrants in 1774, did not publish notices of postponement. The average period of del!ay, in 1773 and 1774, wa.s. three and a harf weeks. The consequences of suoh delays were often serious. The paying passenger-as opposed to the indentured servanthad to .suoport himself till the vessel sailed and·in so doing he used part or all of the money with which he had intended to pay his passage or had hoped would enable· ihim to secuire a footing in America. The disUlusioned had eithier to become indentured servants o.r return home-, forfeiting the · guine:a "earnest money" alreadv paid to the sh1ipping agent. A speedy passag·e was ardently hoped for ·by all em~gr.ants and was as ardently .promised bv th~ agents of all vessels. The average duration of the Transatlantic voyage remained fairly constant in the eighteenth century. as, indeed, it did till the advent of steam power. Given favourable conditions, the voyage lasted from eight to ten weeks in 1729, and from six to eight weeks in 1847. The dul'ation of thirty-eight emigrant voyages be:tween 1771 and 1775 fil'om the North of Ireliand to the Continental! colonies in America has been recorded in Irish newspapers. The average duration Oil these · voyages was seven weeks and four days; .the shortest being twentyseven days, and the Longest seventeen weeks; both voyages being from Derry to Philade1phia. AH vessels that adV€1rtiSied passages stressed the abundance of provisions that would be supplied to emigrants, but only one vessel! detailed the provisions that its passie<nge!I'S were to ex.pect. The Britannia, 'a'blout to sa.it f.rom Newry to Philadelphia in 1775, advertised: . "These are to certify to an people that choose to take their passage on board the B.l'i.tannia . . . that the following allowance of provisions and water will be, per week, faithfully given to each passenger, viz., six pounds of good beef. <which was put on board said ship at Cork), six pounds of good ship bread (brought from Philadelphia in said ship), or six pounds of good oatmeal, as the passengers may choose· to t~ke; one pound of butter, or a pint of treacle or mola.~es. and fourteen quarts of water." 3 Provisions oither than those named in the Britannia advertisement were carried by some vessels, and among those mentioned in advertisements and in letters from emigrriants were potatoes-"lar~e., not washed, but dried in the sun and not cut in the digging" --.and rum, which was sold on board most emigrant vessels in, the Seventies at 3s. 9td. per gal'lon. Emig.rants were never fed on a princely sc.a.Le. but starvation was the fate of feiw Irish emigirants, and on those occasions was due to inordinately lengthy voyages. Five vaya.ges from
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQxNzU3