The coffin ship : life and death at sea during the Great Irish Famine / Cian T. McMahon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McMahon, Cian T., author.

Series:

Glucksman Irish diaspora series.

The Glucksman Irish diaspora series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Seafaring life.

Passenger ships.

Ocean travel.

Irish--Foreign countries.

Immigrants.

Emigration and immigration.

Ocean travel--History--19th century.

Irish--Foreign countries--History--19th century.

Irish.

Immigrants--History--19th century.

Passenger ships--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Immigrants--Correspondence.

Ireland.

Great Britain.

Ireland--Emigration and immigration--History--19th century.

Ireland--History--Famine, 1845-1852.

Genre:

Personal correspondence

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource (315 p.) : illustrations.

Other Title:

Life and death at sea during the Great Irish Famine

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2021]

Summary:

A vivid, new portrait of Irish migration through the letters and diaries of those who fled their homeland during the Great FamineThe standard story of the exodus during Ireland's Great Famine is one of tired clichés, half-truths, and dry statistics. In The Coffin Ship, a groundbreaking work of transnational history, Cian T. McMahon offers a vibrant, fresh perspective on an oft-ignored but vital component of the migration experience: the journey itself.Between 1845 and 1855, over two million people fled Ireland to escape the Great Famine and begin new lives abroad. The so-called "coffin ships" they embarked on have since become infamous icons of nineteenth-century migration. The crews were brutal, the captains were heartless, and the weather was ferocious. Yet the personal experiences of the emigrants aboard these vessels offer us a much more complex understanding of this pivotal moment in modern history. Based on archival research on three continents and written in clear, crisp prose, The Coffin Ship analyzes the emigrants' own letters and diaries to unpack the dynamic social networks that the Irish built while voyaging overseas. At every step of the journey-including the treacherous weeks at sea-these migrants created new threads in the worldwide web of the Irish diaspora.Colored by the long-lost voices of the emigrants themselves, this is an original portrait of an overlooked aspect of the migration process that left an undeniable mark on their new lives overseas. An indispensable read, The Coffin Ship makes an ambitious argument for placing the sailing ship alongside the tenement and the factory floor as a central, dynamic element of migration history.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

1. Preparation

2. Embarkation

3. Life

4. Death

5. Arrival

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Essay on Sources and Methodology

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781479808809

1-4798-0880-6

OCLC:

1224585194