TRANSATLANTIC SHIPPING ROUTE
Englishman John Cabot set out in 1497 aboard the Matthew on a quest to find an alternative route to the Indies. He landed in Newfoundland in present day Canada and claimed it for Henry VII. During his voyage he sailed down the eastern seaboard of America as far as Boston. On his return Henry rewarded him for finding a new island off the coast of China!
It was 10 years before Europeans realised that Cabot, and Christopher Columbus before him, had actually discovered new territories. The new lands provided valuable trading, mainly gold and silver, but also
introduced Europeans to corn, chocolate, coffee, tomatoes and, famously, tobacco
and potatoes.
They changed the course of history.
However, it wasn’t until 1607 that the first permanent British colony was established in America. Captain John Smith and 105 pioneers settled in Jamestown, Virginia. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers set sail in Mayflower landing in Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts. They were Puritans escaping religious persecution. Over the next 200 years many other Britons fleeing religious persecution followed in their footsteps.
However, the peak time for British immigration to the USA was during the 19th century. An agricultural depression in the 1830s led many English workers from rural areas to seek their fortunes in America. Industrialisation also meant fewer jobs in the cities and textile workers fled to America’s industrial hubs. Then in 1845 the first of a series of potato blights hit Ireland’s main crop and thousands of Irish starved to death. In an effort to escape the famine they crossed the Atlantic. In 10 years nearly two million Irish citizens – a quarter of the population – had settled in the States. The historical connections between Ulster and America are explored in the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh, Country Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
British citizens looked to American for the promise of a brighter future and better prospects – a new life in the ‘New World’. They travelled in the new ocean liners in third-class, or steerage, compartments built especially for them. When the Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage she had 706 third-class passengers onboard, 120 of them Irish citizens. Only 178 people from steerage survived.