Dunbrody (1845)
1845 immigrant ship
The Dunbrody was a three-masted barque built in Quebec in 1845 by Thomas Hamilton Oliver for the Graves family, merchants from New Ross in Wexford.
She operated primarily as a cargo vessel, carrying timber and guano to Ireland.
Passenger service
She was fitted with bunks and between April and September from 1845 to 1851, she carried passengers on the outward leg to North America. These passengers were people desperate to escape the Great Famine of Ireland at the time, and conditions for steerage passengers were tough.
An area of six foot square was allocated to up to 4 passengers (who might not be related) and their children. Often 50% died on passage (they were known as "coffin ships"). However, the mortality rate on the Dunbrody was exceptionally low, no doubt due to her captains, John Baldwin and his successor John W. Williams, with passengers writing home often praising their dedication. On one passage with 313 passengers, almost twice her normal complement, only 6 died.
Disposition
In 1869, after 24 years of service with the Graves family, she was sold. In 1874, while travelling from Cardiff to Quebec, she ran aground in the Saint Lawrence River.
The public source identifies “Dunbrody (1845)” as 1845 immigrant ship. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dunbrody, immigrant and ship.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Dunbrody (1845)”, the useful work is to connect “1845 immigrant ship” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 24, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q3041214. Authority coordinates are 52.394, -6.948. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1845, 1851, 1869 and 1874.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Dunbrody (1845)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Dunbrody (1845) primary sources, Dunbrody (1845) archive and Dunbrody research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dunbrody (1845)”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Dunbrody (1845)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.