coffin ships
Death-laden emigrant boats
Coffin ships were overcrowded, poorly maintained vessels that transported emigrants—especially Irish fleeing the Great Famine in the 1840s—across the Atlantic.
The name reflects the high mortality rates from disease, starvation, and shipwreck on these voyages.
The term now applies to any dangerously unseaworthy vessel: Activists condemned the rusty freighters as modern coffin ships.
- Great FamineMass starvation in Ireland
- emigrationLeaving homeland permanently
- Atlantic crossingSea voyage between continents
- seaSaltwater body, not ocean
- mortalityState of eventual death
death toll · famine · ocean · burial at sea · cholera outbreaks · seaworthiness · quarantine stations · overcrowding · disease · journeys · Ireland · passengers · sailor · profiteering · transatlantic · immigrants · history · voyage
- Irish HistoryGreat Famine, Easter Rising, Irish nationalism, Irish War of Independence, Irish Civil War
- Celtic DiasporaIrish diaspora, Irish Americans, Celtic heritage, Irish ancestry, Irish immigrants
- Irish AmericanaIrish diaspora, Irish heritage, Irish identity, Irish traditions, Irish Catholic
- Irish DiasporaIrish immigration, Irish Americans, Irish immigrants, Irish diaspora, emigration
- Irish Faminepotato blight, starvation, mass starvation, emigration, workhouses
- vehicle folkloreghost cars, ghost riders, chariot of fire, flying boats
coffin shipslifeboats
Emergency watercraft for survivors
safety · luxury liners · hospital ships · passenger liners · ocean liners
coffin shipsrescue
Save from harm
salvation · Kindertransport · Underground Railroad · safe harbor · sanctuary
coffin, ship, coffins, ships, shipped, shipping, shipment, shipments, shipper