This is a record newly come to light, thanks to Dr Conor Brosnan’s research. Dingle Historical Society hosted an illustrated talk on The Great Famine in the Dingle Peninsula delivered by Dr Brosnan, in the Skellig Hotel, Dingle on 13th August last. To a packed house of more than 300 people, Dr Brosnan gave a comprehensive account of the devastation that the An Gorta Mór wreaked in the peninsula. One aspect of his talk was of particular interest to genealogists.

Dr. Brosnan told us that the only two emigrant ships that are known to have left Dingle directly for North America were the Waterford Racer, freighted by Dingle merchant Michael Manning, which left for St John’s, New Brunswick, Canada on 20 May 1846  and the Palmyra which landed whole wheaten flour there in April 1847 and left for America with emigrants.  (Dublin Weekly Nation, 23 May 1846, Kerry Evening Post, 1 May 1847). It was reported locally that the Racer had 165 passengers but the New Brunswick Courier (27 June 1846) stated she carried 181 on arrival on 29 June.  Evidently she was over-crowded as Captain Richard Power was fined £5, the amount had been reduced in recognition of the measures he had undertaken for ‘the safety and comfort of the passengers after the fever broke out’. (New Brunswick Courier, 11 July 1846).  

As of now, we don’t have a passenger list for the Racer 1846, but we have a valuable list of passengers on the Palmyra :

Dingle, Ireland to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
7 July 1847

Report or Manifest of all the Passengers taken aboard the Schooner Palmyra whereof Foster is Captain from Dingle, Ireland, burthen 127 tons and owned by James Lunham of London and bound to Philadelphia