Dunbrody Famine Ship

What is the Dunbrody Famine Ship about? 

            We visited the Dunbrody Famine Ship. The original ship was built in 1845, in Quebec by an Irish emigrant named Thomas Hamilton Oliver; the full-scale replica that is open to the public was built in New Ross in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Dunbrody’s initial purpose was carrying cargo overseas, such as timber and guano, which is a type of fertilizer. Coincidentally, the ship was built the same year that the Potato Famine started, so the ship transformed from a cargo vessel to an emigrant ship, carrying people across the Atlantic from 1845 and 1851. The typical number of passengers on the Dunbrody at one time ranged from 160 to over 300; in 1847, the ship carried 313 passengers from Ireland to Quebec. Many of the emigrant vessels of the time were known as “coffin ships” because so many people died as a result of the horrendous conditions below deck. 

(Full-scale Replica of the original Dunbrody. Credit: Kelly)

Who do we need to remember?

Thomas Hamilton Oliver (builder)

John Baldwin (captain)

John Williams (captain; Baldwin’s successor)

Where is it? 

New Ross, Co. Wexford, Ireland

What does it look like? 

            There was an area at the front of the ship where the cook kept livestock such as pigs and chicken as food for the crew and cabin passengers. The cook would kill an animal on deck and let the blood and innards run through the cracks between boards into the cabin below where the crewmembers slept.

The lower class passengers all shared one big room and slept in bunks with three to four other people. They were only allowed on deck for thirty minutes a day, which was also the time they were allowed to cook their bread for the day. They were not allowed to eat meat. On the other hand, the upper class passengers lived in nicer cabins with just their family members. They were allowed to eat meat and other luxurious foods and go on deck whenever they pleased.

The cabin passengers, also known as the upper class, paid five to eight pounds a person to live in nicer conditions. Each family had their own private cabin as well as a common dining area used only by the upper class. The steerage passengers, who were the lower class, paid between three and four pounds a person to live in the confined and unhygienic space; as many as six or seven people were crammed into a bunk that could comfortably fit three or four people. Food was served at a long table with benches on either side. Disease spread like wildfire in these horrific conditions; the first-class passengers, however, rarely got sick. Every day, dozens of corpses were thrown overboard as families lost their loved ones.

Many of the lower class passengers did not pay for their passage because their landlords evicted them from their farms to clear the failed potato crop plots to make room for cattle. This system ensured the landlords a profit in a way that a starving family living there could not. One could only imagine the difficulties of leaving everything behind to go to a new country.

(A lower-class cabin space on the Dunrbody. Credit: Kelly)

What does the Dunbrody Famine Ship mean to Ireland in the past and today?

The Dunbrody is an excellent example of the Irish people’s desperation to leave the country during and after the famine. This coffin ship shows the atrocious conditions that were common for this journey. After 5 years of famine conditions, Ireland’s population was cut almost in half. A total of 1.5 million Irish people emigrated, mostly to North America, during the Famine, and this influence can be seen today.  As Americans with Irish ancestry, it was eye-opening to see what it took for our courageous ancestors to start over in a new country. We cannot imagine what it must have been like to endure a famine of this magnitude, and then decide to abandon everything that we had ever known. While we were on our tour, two women dressed as passengers of the ship—one lower class and one upper class—and described to us what it was like aboard the Dunbrody. Hearing their stories made the ship come alive. Besides being able to walk around and stand in the cramped quarters, hearing about the loss of the woman’s husband really hit home.