The Jeanie Johnstone Ship

Lovely ship.

its a replica of a famine ship Toto, its used for training and also as a museum

Very nice, have you ever been on it?

It very smart , I don,t know what a famine ship is Eileen , did it bring in supplies to the hungery people ?

who was Jeanie Johnstone Irish . . . its a fine looking ship

ive never been on it im afraid.
and i have no idea who Jeanie Johnstone was.

A famine ship was used to transport people from Ireland to America and Canada Amy

sounds horrific Eileen!
The original Jeannie Johnston~
~built in 1847 in Quebec it took starving Irish potato farmers to the new world when their crops failed totally due to a disease called potato blight .
From the web
The 1841 census recorded an Irish population of 8.2 million. By 1851 this figure had been reduced to 6.5 million. These statistics give some indication of the scale of the disaster but since many of those affected by the famine lived in remote and inaccessible places, it is more than possible that far more people died that has ever been thought. It has been estimated that at least one million people died from starvation and its attendant diseases, with the remainder seeking emigration to Britain and North America.

not sure whether it was just the name given when the ship was launched but it had a very good record~see below
The original Jeanie Johnston was bought by Tralee, Co. Kerry-based merchants John Donovan & Sons, as a cargo vessel and traded successfully between Tralee and North America for a number of years. The trading pattern was to bring emigrants from Ireland to North America, and then to bring timber back to Europe.

Famine voyages

She made her maiden emigrant voyage from Blennerville, Co. Kerry to Quebec on April 24, 1848, with 193 emigrants on board, as the effects of the Famine ravaged Ireland. Between 1848 and 1855, the Jeanie Johnston made 16 voyages to North America, sailing to Quebec, Baltimore, and New York. On average, the length of the transatlantic journey was 47 days. The most passengers she ever carried was 254, from Tralee to Quebec on April 17, 1852. To put this number in perspective, the replica ship is only licensed to carry 40 people.

Despite the number of passengers, and the long voyage, no crew or passenger lives were ever lost on board the Jeanie Johnston. This is generally attributed to the captain, James Attridge, not overloading the ship, and the presence of a qualified doctor, Richard Blennerhassett, on board for the passengers.

In 1855, the ship was sold to William Johnson of North Shields in England. In 1858, en route to Quebec from Hull with a cargo of timber, she became waterlogged. The crew climbed into the rigging, and after nine days clinging to their slowly-sinking ship, they were rescued by a Dutch ship, the Sophie Elizabeth. Even in her loss, she maintained her perfect safety record.

lol you were on the website too Arlene ?
interesting story isnt it?
did you see the list of food that they had to survive on

awww u spoiled it irish I was convinced Arlene was a real brain box .. . . . . . the truth is out Arlene!

oopsssssssss lol

This is all very interesting when I think about my ancestors at that time planning to come to England , leaving behind a country which they no doubt loved ,not knowing if they would ever return , It would have been a terrible time for the whole country , it sad to think about it !

Wow....beautiful ship. And, an interesting story. It must have been a terrible time. Even the emigrants didn't have any better time....I have letters which were written by a 4 x great aunt who was one of the first Byrne settlers to South Africa in 1849. The conditions on ship were horrific and the conditions once they reached South Africa were horrific....I imagine the same can be said for conditions of immigrants to North America.

aye Amy very very sad.

its still one of the school subjects here Gilli.
some amazing stories from this time in history

Interesting but sad history Eileen but probably accounts for how such a small country seems to have Irish communities all over the world.

Amazing that you have such things Gilli wouldnt even know of my ancestors back then ... then again a few would probably be spinning in their graves at the thought of being related to me ! lol

I do like to find out about things~I am a mine of useless information! This was going on at roughly the same time,
~the Highland clearances in Scotland threw the people off the land with just about what they stood in,burning down their property and leaving them destitute. Most of them went abroad all over the world too!
Can you tell us about this Maccrimmon~sounds nasty!
see this account!

highland clearances

Portrait by Henry Raeburn of Alasdair Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry in 1812. McDonnell claimed to support Highland Culture, while simultaneously clearing his tenants.

Lord Stafford’s eldest son from his second marriage to Lady Louisa, George, married Elizabeth Gordon, 19th Countess of Sutherland. The family became notorious during the highland clearances for ejecting tenants and replacing them by sheep. Elizabeth and her factor, Patrick Sellar, had a reputation for being especially cruel in the Highland Clearances and their names are reviled in Sutherland to this day. Donald McLeod, a Sutherland crofter, later wrote about the events he witnessed:

  «The consternation and confusion were extreme. Little or no time was given for the removal of persons or property; the people striving to remove the sick and the helpless before the fire should reach them; next, struggling to save the most valuable of their effects. The cries of the women and children, the roaring of the affrighted cattle, hunted at the same time by the yelling dogs of the shepherds amid the smoke and fire, altogether presented a scene that completely baffles description — it required to be seen to be believed.

  A dense cloud of smoke enveloped the whole country by day, and even extended far out to sea. At night an awfully grand but terrific scene presented itself — all the houses in an extensive district in flames at once. I myself ascended a height about eleven o’clock in the evening, and counted two hundred and fifty blazing houses, many of the owners of which I personally knew, but whose present condition — whether in or out of the flames — I could not tell. The conflagration lasted six days, till the whole of the dwellings were reduced to ashes or smoking ruins. During one of these days a boat actually lost her way in the dense smoke as she approached the shore, but at night was enabled to reach a landing-place by the lurid light of the flames.»[1]

The letters were passed along to me by a distant cousin who I found through researching my family history BB. There are a number of them which document the family's life in SA over decades. Very interesting reading.
I'm also related to the Yorkshire Giant of Market Weighton, William Bradley....born in 1787...Britains tallest man. William stood 7' 9" tall and weighed 27 stone. His shoe was 15" long and 5 3/4" wide. He was my 4xGreat Uncle of a different line. Good job I'm not that tall.....

I can see that many members also have an interest in family research. Very rewarding isn't it, gives you a unique reference in history. Fascinating!

It is Wohlibuli....I have learned so much and found so many interesting things to say nothing of the numerous lovely cousins I have met along the way.

Arlene you are as bad as me it seems lol. i love finding out all about these things.
highland clearances were pretty much the same as here, landlords set fire to the houses, didnt matter if the people were inside or not.
another bit of useless info is that ireland has the highest home ownership and they recon it comes from the time when we were not allowed to own anything, not even a horse.

wow Gilli, you are so lucky to have letters like that