“Quebec or the bottom!” the captain shouted and he was a man of his word.
In late 1853, the ship Annie Jane set sail from Liverpool heading for Quebec in North America. On board were 450 men, women and children: Irish, Scottish and English emigrants fleeing poverty and famine. They never made it. At almost midnight on the 28th of September the ship was wrecked in a horrendous storm and driven ashore on the small island of Vatersay in the Outer Hebrides. With the loss of up to 350 of the passengers and crew. In this deeply researched and powerfully told story, author Allan F. Murray tells the story of life aboard a typical 19th century emigrant ship, vividly capturing the bravery and resilience of the neglected, impoverished steerage passengers and the extraordinary final journey of the Annie Jane.
The book is a fitting memorial to the brave emigrants who did not make it. For the first time the names of those who perished and survived one of the worst shipwrecks in British Maritime history is recorded for posterity.