All Standing

My interest in the study of Irish history has long since made me acutely aware of most of the gruesome details of An Gorta Mór, the Great Famine, and the disease and mass emigration that resulted. Sorrowfully, too, I’d read of the free-market and laissez faire policies that exacerbated the crisis. Left with no other option, the destitute Irish flocked to the docks to board coffin ships on which many or most of them would lose their lives. It was a bit of a relief, then, to read of the Jeanie Johnston, a barque built in Quebec by John Munn with care for the cargo it was to carry. The cast of praiseworthy characters in this true story also include the ship’s long-time captain, James Attridge, and her physician, Dr. Richard Blennerhassett. These two worked together to create an environment aboard ship that would result in eleven voyages with only one death to passenger or crew. Interwoven with the ship’s story is an anecdotal account of one of the Jeanie Johnston’s passengers. Nicholas Reilly was born aboard the ship on its first voyage, and for the duration of his long life listed the Atlantic Ocean as his place of birth.