The Packets : 247 



chiefly between New York and Liverpool served first to select the 

 kind of immigrants that came to this country in that period. It also 

 influenced the way they distributed themselves on arrival in this 

 country. The Liverpool to New York run was naturally a conven- 

 ience to those living in Ireland over the period of the great exodus of 

 the last century. 



New York, however, was not the only port affected. Several packet 

 lines operated out of Boston to Liverpool including the one organized 

 by Enoch Train, operating the large, fine packets designed and built 

 by Donald McKay. These combined packet services to Boston laid 

 the foundation for the large concentration of Irish found in Boston 

 and the surrounding area. 



Packet services from the port of Havre, likewise, carried to New 

 York another wave of migrants. Though the port of departure was 

 French, the French contributed relatively few passengers to this 

 group — the greater number being made up of Germans and a con- 

 siderable number of Swiss immigrants. 



For their position of leadership in the world trade, the packet serv- 

 ice paid a price in death and disaster. One out of every six packet ships 

 was wrecked. When we consider the dangerous and stormy character 

 of the winter North Atlantic, the difficult shores and the poor aids to 

 navigation, the desire to depart on time and keep to schedule — this 

 was not a bad record. In other terms it meant that there were only 

 twenty-two wrecks out of 6,000 packet crossings or in the language 

 of modern air lines, one death for every 500,000 passenger miles. 



In 1822 the Black Ball packet, Liverpool, was launched on June 15; 

 she sailed on July 16 in command of Captain William Lee, Jr. On the 

 25th of July she struck a fog and an iceberg almost at the same time. 

 Within two hours the thirty-six persons who made up captain, crew 

 and passengers had abandoned the ship in boats, finding space even 

 for the mailbags. In seven days they had sailed to St. Johns, New- 

 foundland without loss of life. 



During the winter of 1826 the packet Crisis sailed from England 

 for the westward passage and was never heard from again. At the 

 end of 1844 the United States of the Red Star Line and the England 

 of the Black Ball Line sailed within five days of each other. Other ships 

 reported encountering terrific storms during that Christmas season 

 but neither of the vessels reached port and neither was ever reported. 



One of the most dramatic disasters came early. In April of 1822 the 

 fine fast packet Albion was making a fast passage with a distin- 

 guished international company aboard, including Count Lefevbre- 



