SNIPPET: Irish immigration to America and Canada had been growing since 1835, but the potato failure ten years later broke all records; more than 100,000 had crossed the Atlantic by year's end. Where ships had always sailed in the spring and summer months, dangerous year-round sailings became necessary so that the number of ships available could cope with the numbers. In reasonable weather groups of passengers would be allowed on deck to breath fresh air for a change, wash their clothing and to clean themselves and cook whatever rations were still fit to eat. In bad weather they would be forced to remain below, in complete darkness if the seas were really rough, most of the time spent on their bunks amongst seasick, possibly very ill passengers. Women's skirts would often get caught between the gaps in the planks as they closed up with the movement of the ship and they would be trapped in one position until the ship shifted enough to release the clothing. Ireland's capital city, Dublin, was by far the biggest and busiest of all the ports around the Irish coast, and the passengers for one of the first voyages of the Famine period directly to New York boarded here on St. Patrick's Day in 1846. The sweet smell from the hatches of the "Perseverance" still hung in the air, for Demerara, the old Dutch colony in the West Indies, was her last port of call and sugar, rum and molasses had recently been loaded. The ship was commanded by a man who knew his craft so well that some years earlier the owners had entrusted him with overseeing the building of new vessels for their fleet. Martin and Sons were long-established Dublin merchants, and when the Atlantic trade replaced the nearer but less profitable markets of Europe, the place to build and buy ships was on the eastern seaboard of British North America, as Canada was then known. The Canadian forests provide a cheap and plentiful source of wood. Martin and Sons despatched their senior captain, William Scott to Saint John in New Brunswick to build, buy and commission new ships to sail under their flag, to be registered in the port of Dublin. A native of the Shetland Isles in the north of Scotland, Captain William Scott was a veteran of Atlantic crossings. At an age when most men would have thought about retiring, he gave up his desk job and his home in Saint John and returned to his adopted city. When he took the "Perseverance" out of Dublin that day, he was an astonishing 74 years old! For the first time, Captain Scott's baroque of 597 tons was carrying passengers. The crew had cleared the holds, and the ship's carpenter James Gray had fitted out bunks four tiers high and six feet square. The fare for steerage was 3 pounds. In the cramped conditions for 210 passengers, pots and pans to cook their meager rations were a priority, as were a tradesman's tools to earn a living in America. The mate Shadrack Stone checked the passengers and their belongings as they stepped on board. There were probably some fiddles, a squeezebox or a set of Irish pipes brought along. Catherine Halligan was a seamstress, Michael McSollough, Patrick Byrne and Tom Hanbury were blacksmiths, but it is doubtful there would have been room for a spinning wheel or their anvils. John Butler was a watchmaker and his tools would fit easily into a pocket. George and Patrick Dermody was listed as being cabinet makers. A partial list of the passengers included Christe Archbold, male, 20, laborer; Pat Cashen, male, 22, laborer; Ann Marrinan, 24, servant; Mrs. U. Graham, servant; John Archbold, 22, laborer; James Morgan, 19, laborer; Charles McNulty, 24 laborer; Sarah Mitchelton, 40, wife; Maria Dowling, 20, servant; John McParlin, 20 laborer; Rose McParlin, 16, servant; Ann Fitzpatrick, 22, servant; U. Hay, 22, lady's maid; Jane Hay, 20, lady's maid; U. Spencer, 25, clerk; Laurence Monks, 22, butcher; Jos. Galoghlin, 22, tailor; Christopher Baker, 18, tailor; Richd. Cumming, 20, clerk; Ann Lynn, 20 wife; Eliza Flood, 22, dressmaker; James Morrison, 25, weaver; Rose Carrolin, 30, weaver; Julia Leonard, 20, laborer; John Lawless, 30, laborer; his wife, U. Lawless, 25, and children Peter, 2, and Catharine, 1; Wm. Riddle, 25, carpenter; Mary Flynn, 20, servant; Ann Doyle, 22, servant; Michael Costello, 25, servant; Bridge Cullen, female, 20, servant; Patrick Maguire, 30, laborer; Peter Byrne, 25, laborer. The passenger list does not give information as to which county each passenger called home; it is not possible to assume they were all from Co. Dublin. The voyage was not an easy one, it lasted two months, although the "Perseverance" was considered a fast ship. Captain William Scott was determined and experienced, but it was said that he was likely a hard task-master and not popular with the crew. The "Perseverance" arrived on May 18, 1846, and 216 went ashore, all the passengers plus the mate Shadrack Stone and the bosum Michael Kelly, both from Dublin, two seamen, Thomas Branagan from Rush and Patrick Maguire from Drogheda, and two young apprentices. According to the original ship's papers for this voyage the entire crew deserted in New York. More than four years would pass before Captain Scott's ship would make another such journey, carrying emigrant passengers to America, a 3,000 mile undertaking. Five thousand ships sailed across the Atlantic with Irish emigrants in the six years of the Famine Emigration. They were varied in their size, safety, comfort, (or lack of it), age, experience and quality of their crew, their speed, provisions on board and the fares they charged.