Author Kathryn Miles tells the tale about people fleeing Europe when it was hit by the Irish potato famine in her new novel 'All Standing: The Remarkable Story of the Jeanie Johnston, The Legendary Irish Famine Ship".
Of the 35 million people from Irish descent living in America today, many of them are originally from Europe and they all came to America when Europe was hit by the Irish potato famine. In the hope for a better tomorrow and the will to survive starvation, many people boarded ships that took them to a "New World". The deadly combination of starvation and diseases took the lives of many, but surprisingly, not a single life was claimed among people who boarded the Jeanie Johnston. Named the "Luckiest Ship in the World", this ship carried 2,000 immigrants safely to the New World in a dozen voyages across the Atlantic between 1845 and 1858.
Kathryn Miles tells the story in her new book, "All Standing: The Remarkable Story of the Jeanie Johnston, The Legendary Irish Famine Ship." She talks to Jacki Lyden, host of weekends on "All Things Considered" about her book, the deaths caused due to starvation and diseases, and the "Lucky Ship".
On the providentialism of the ruling British
"This was part of what, really, I think we can call a kind of significant racism of the 19th century. And that was the idea that if the Irish people, in this case, were meant to survive, they would find the means to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, as it were. And if they didn't, then that was quite possibly sort of a divine intervention."
On why death rates were so high aboard 'coffin ships'
"These ships were packed with people. Most families of four would be given a platform that was about 6 feet square. So they were sleeping head-to-toe and there was no sense of quarantine or hygiene. ... So if someone stepped aboard and was sick, and there were no facilities on board - most ships had maybe two buckets and so there was, of course, a tremendous amount of human waste - that, of course, is a great way to spread disease."
On the Jeanie Johnston's stellar record
"The Jeanie Johnston was built by a really remarkable man named John Munn. And when the Irish famine hit and he started to see these waves of immigration coming into North America, he looked for ways he could help. ... And so out of his own pocket, he built this ship ... he made little alterations to these otherwise very standard, square-rigged ships. He made the hold particularly solid. He made the decks high enough that a grown man could walk about. And so these little things made it a very safe, very secure ship."