All Standing: The Remarkable Story of the Jeanie Johnston, The Legendary Irish Famine Ship
The exodus from the Irish famine of the 1840s prompts Miles’ contribution to the literature of Eire’s trauma. It chronicles the 10-year existence of a sailing ship that embarked refugees for North America. Named the Jeanie Johnston, a reconstruction of which is today displayed in Dublin, the ship was purpose-built for the emigration trade by a shipwright, with a captain and a doctor whom Miles portrays as humanitarians; she writes distinctly less enthusiastically of the entrepreneur in the port of Tralee, Ireland, who financed the ship. No matter who merits the credit for the Jeanie Johnston’s career, credit there was, for her voyages were distinguished for not losing any passengers; Irish immigrants died in droves on other ships. Offering great detail about the Jeanie Johnston’s nautical characteristics, Miles exemplifies the Irish immigrant’s transatlantic experience in one family who endured the crossing, passed through quarantine inspection in Canada, and settled in the U.S. Chronicling the Johnston’s further journeys and sinking in 1858, Miles, who follows occasional tangents like Queen Victoria’s visits to Ireland, ably regales her central story of a remarkable vessel. --Gilbert Taylor