On May 16, 1847, USS Jamestown Returns to Charlestown Navy Yard after Humanitarian Voyage to Ireland

Photo of USS Jamestown by E.D.Walker, Marine Artist

At 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, May 16, 1847, the USS Jamestown anchored off the Navy Yard in Charlestown, exactly seven weeks and one hour from the start of its historic voyage to bring food and medical supplies to the dying people of Ireland ravished by the famine.

The historic voyage to Cork began on March 28, 1847, at the Charlestown Navy Yard, and "crowds lining the wharves cheered and waved as the ship passed."

The USS Jamestown had arrived in Queenstown Harbor on April 12, after a 15 day journey. There, the Americans were greeted enthusiastically by government officials and townsfolk for bringing needed supplies to people who were perishing in their small cottages and even on the road, through lack of nourishment and medical attention.

The voyage home, however, took 24 days to complete, due to headwinds, calms and a gale. And when they arrived, crowds of people were waiting to greet them.

Henry Lee's masterful account, Massachusetts Help to Ireland During the Great Famine, notes that on May 16, "The churches were 'thinly attended' that morning, for every wharf in Boston and Charlestown was filled with people who had come down to welcome Jamestown."

According to Lee, Captain Robert B. Forbes wrote to a relative that he was thankful it was the Sabbath, otherwise "the St. Patrick's Society might well have carried out its threat to waylay him on arrival and carry him home 'neck and heels with music.'"

In addition to the rough weather, there had also been a tragedy on the voyage home, Lee notes.

"On May 3, some time between two and three in the morning as the third mate was reducing sail, one of their best men, John Hughes, lost his hold in furling the jib and was seen no more. The weather was dark and rainy, the ship making ten to twelve knots, and no one was aware that he fell.

"The event was one 'which makes old men of us,' and the fact that Hughes was the only Irish-born member of the crew was an especially sad circumstance which 'cast a shade' on the whole expedition."

Forbes and his men brought many mementoes back from Ireland with them, including "a fine thoroughbred cow with calf, put aboard Jamestown by a grateful citizen of Cork," Lee writes. That cow "produced numerous progeny which were for years known around Boston as the Jamestown or Blarney breed."

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin

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