View source for Hannah (1849 shipwreck)

{{Other ships|Hannah (ship)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
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|Ship country              = United Kingdom
|Ship flag                 = {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}}
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| Ship owner               = Samuel Shaw, and others
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| Ship builder             = Built in [[Norton, New Brunswick]], Canada
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| Ship launched            = 1826
| Ship acquired            = "First registered at St. Johns, then Whitehaven."<ref name="mightyseas">{{cite web |url=http://www.mightyseas.co.uk/marhist/maryport/built_elsewhere/hannah.htm |title=Hannah, a Maryport brig built in 1826 |work=mightyseas.co.uk |year=2010 |accessdate=4 March 2011}}</ref> Registered at [[Maryport]], 1840.<ref name="mightyseas"/>
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| Ship fate                =Sank 29 April 1849
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| Ship class               = [[Brig]]
| Ship tonnage       = 287 gross tons
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| Ship complement          = Captain, 12 crew, approx. 200 passengers<ref name = "mightyseas"/>
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'''''Hannah''''' was a [[brig]], launched at [[Norton, New Brunswick]], Canada in 1826. She transported emigrants to [[:Canada]] during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Irish Famine]]. She is known for the terrible circumstances of her 1849 shipwreck, in which the captain and two officers left the sinking ship aboard the only lifeboat, leaving passengers and the rest of the crew to fend for themselves.<ref name = "mightyseas" />
==Sailing career==
''Hannah'' was registered at [[Maryport]] in 1840. She was owned by Samuel Shaw and others. Her captain was John Briggs. She brought immigrants to Canada during the Irish Famine, arriving in Quebec from [[Sligo]] with passengers in July 1847.<ref name = "mightyseas" /> On that occasion the vessel had 390 passengers crammed aboard, a number of whom died of fever and were buried at sea. At one point during the crossing, Captain Shaw, son of the owner, had the passengers confined below to stop them coming up on deck during a storm so they would not impede the crew in working the ship.<ref>Carey, Thomas, "Voyage of the ''Hannah'', ''Sea Breezes'', 115 (12) June 1929, p.131</ref>
===Shipwreck in 1849===
''Hannah'' was transporting more Irish immigrants fleeing the famine from [[Warrenpoint]] and [[Newry]]<ref name = "mightyseas" /> to [[Quebec City]], when she sank in the [[Gulf of St. Lawrence]] on Sunday, 29 April 1849,<ref name= Guardian>{{cite news |title=Awful Wreck of an Emigrant Ship |newspaper=Armagh Guardian |date=4 June 1849 |url=http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Wrecks/hannah1849.htm |access-date=28 February 2011 |archive-date=4 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204180708/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Wrecks/hannah1849.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=Boswell>{{cite web |url= http://www.canada.com/news/From+starvation+through+shipwreck+Irish+family+comes+Canada/4350266/story.html |title= From starvation through shipwreck, an Irish family comes to Canada |author=Randy Boswell |date = 25 February 2011 | accessdate= 27 February 2011}}</ref> resulting in, as well as can be ascertained, 49 deaths.<ref name = Guardian2>{{cite news |title=The Wreck of the 'Hannah'. Authentic Particulars |newspaper=Armagh Guardian |date=11 June 1849 |url=http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Wrecks/hannah1849.htm |access-date=28 February 2011 |archive-date=4 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204180708/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Wrecks/hannah1849.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The ''Hannah'' set sail from [[Newry]], Ireland on Tuesday, 3 April 1849 with a crew of 12 under its 23-year-old master, Curry Shaw,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2011/famineandshipwreck/ | title =Famine and Shipwreck, An Irish Odyssey |publisher=[[CBC News]] | location = CA |accessdate = 11 March 2011}}</ref> transporting mainly agricultural labourers and their families.<ref name=Guardian/> The exact number of passengers is difficult to determine as the ship's list was lost, but it was around 180.<ref name=Guardian2/> According to the documentary ''Famine and Shipwreck, An Irish Odyssey'', ship's doctor William Graham later accused Shaw of several times slipping into the bunks of unmarried young women during the voyage.
The ship encountered "heavy winds, and a quantity of floating ice" on 27 April.<ref name=Guardian/> At 4 am on 29 April,<ref name=Freeholder>{{cite news |title=Tracing ancestry to shipwreck |author=Melissmelissa Di Costanzo A Di Costanzo |newspaper=[[Cornwall Standard Freeholder]] |date=8 March 2011 |url=http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3010020 |access-date=11 March 2011 |archive-date=23 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723015015/http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3010020 |url-status=dead }}</ref> the ''Hannah'' struck a "reef of ice" which punched a hole in the hull.
When they found that there was no hope of saving the ship, Shaw ordered the ship's carpenter to hammer shut the after hatch, trapping the passengers below, but another seaman wrenched it open.<ref name=Odyssey>''Famine and Shipwreck, An Irish Odyssey''</ref> Shaw and his first and second officers then fled in the only [[Lifeboat (shipboard)|lifeboat]]. Dr Graham asserted that he swam after them, but was held at bay by Shaw swinging a [[cutlass]].<ref name=Odyssey/>
The remaining crewmen helped the passengers onto an ice floe next to the bow.<ref name=Guardian/> The ship sank in 40 minutes. A strong gale was blowing, and there was sleet.<ref name =Freeholder/> Some went down with the ''Hannah'', others slipped and fell into the water, while some who did make it safely to the ice later perished from the cold. Ann McGinn (or McGenn) found and gathered together her six children, only to have them all perish.<ref name=Odyssey/> John Murphy left his twin boys on the ice to search for his infant daughter. Miraculously, not only did he find her, but she survived being immersed in the frigid water.<ref name=Odyssey/> Sadly, however, the ice holding his boys drifted away.<ref name=Odyssey/> In all, 49 were ascertained to have died.<ref name= Guardian2 />
The [[barque]] ''Nicaragua'', under the command of Captain William Marshall, appeared the next day and picked up either 127 or 129<ref name=Guardian/> survivors. ''The Guardian'' of 11 June 1849 reported 49 dead and 127 rescued, a total of 176 – "the total number supposed to be embarked", but this may exclude the three officers who abandoned ship.  The same article also lists 159 passengers and an unspecified number of daughters of an Ann Lennox. Captain Marshall compiled a slightly different list that includes ten passengers not found on the ''Guardian''{{'}}s tally and omits four that are.<ref name=Guardian2/> Marshall later transferred a number of survivors to other ships: 28 to the barque ''Broom'', 17 to the barque ''Lord Byron'', 22 to the barque ''Aldebaran'', and 20 to the ''Port of Glasgow''. He arrived in Quebec City with the remainder on 10 or 14 May.<ref name=Guardian/> Dr Graham later died in a Quebec hospital.<ref name=Odyssey/><ref>Suggestions of Dr William Graham’s death at Quebec are, however, contradicted by reports of his return to his native Ireland and death at Londonderry in 1858: ''Coleraine Chronicle'', 6 March 1858.</ref>
Shaw and the other two officers were rescued by the ''Margaret Pollock'' and reached Quebec.<ref name = "mightyseas" /> The ''[[Ballina, County Mayo|Ballina]] Chronicle'' reported that a charge was laid against the three "of their being guilty of one of the most revolting acts of inhumanity that can be conceived."<ref>{{cite news |title=Irish famine survivors settled near Perth |author=Chris Must |newspaper=EMC Perth |date=10 March 2011 |url=http://www.emcperth.ca/20110310/news/Irish+famine+survivors+settled+near+Perth}}</ref> However, according to ''Famine and Shipwreck, An Irish Odyssey'', Shaw successfully defended himself by casting doubt on the testimony of Graham and others, and escaped punishment.
==Documentary films==
A Northern Ireland documentary titled ''The Ice Emigrants'' deals with the tragedy and aired on the [[BBC]] in February 2011.<ref name=Boswell/> Journalist [[Brian McKenna]] has produced another documentary of the incident called ''Famine and Shipwreck, An Irish Odyssey'', which was broadcast on 17 March 2011 on [[CBC Television]].<ref name=Boswell/>
==See also==
* [[Coffin ship]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{1849 shipwrecks}}
{{coord missing|Atlantic Ocean}}
[[Category:Brigs]]
[[Category:Ships built in New Brunswick]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence]]
[[Category:Ships sunk by icebergs]]
[[Category:History of immigration to Canada]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in April 1849]]
[[Category:1826 ships]]
[[Category:Great Famine (Ireland)]]
[[Category:Sailing ships of Canada]]