December 15, 2008
Bob Mooney
- One Book One Island
My story starts in the winter of 1851 when Nantucketers were awakened to the news that a large, full-masted sailing ship had run aground off the western end of the island. The ship proved to be the British Queen, a three-masted vessel carrying a cargo of Irish immigrants from Dublin headed for New York. They were fleeing the potato famine in Ireland which had killed over a million people.
The ship had experienced very terrible weather on her voyage from Dublin. She ran into northwest gales which extended the voyage, which was supposed to take four weeks, but wound up with eight weeks at sea. The ship ran out of food and the captain, Christopher Conway, was unable to do the navigation because he was taken sick, as a result of which the vessel ran aground in Muskeget Channel, a dangerous channel, between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
Bob Mooney
There were 226 Irish immigrants on board and the vessal rapidly filled with water forcing the immigrants to the exposure on the main deck where they huddled freezing, starving, praying for help.
Fortunately the ship was spotted by a lookout in the south tower, which is the present Unitarian Church on Nantucket, and he spotted the ship about 12 miles from the entrance to the harbor. The Nantucketers rapidly made plans to effect a rescue. And they went out with three small vessels headed by an experienced Nantucket mariner named David Patterson, who was an expert wrecker, salvage master.
The three vessels were the steamer Telegraph and the schooners Gamecock and Hamilton. The British Queen unfortunately was trapped in the ice because it was a bitter cold December that year and ice was surging in the harbor. However Captain Patterson and his men brought their vessel alongside the British Queen and eventually rescued 226 immigrants without losing a single person.
They were all brought in to Straight Wharf on Nantucket where they presented a very sad spectacle, for they had nothing but the clothes on their back. The ship was a total loss. The Nantucketers responded by putting the immigrants up in various public halls and fire houses. One of the halls being Harmony Hall, which is the present site of St Mary’s Church.
Eventually all the Irish moved on to New York on Christmas Day, except for two people Robert and Julia Mooney, who were in their 20s and had just been married in Ireland, and were on their honeymoon trip, but this was no pleasure trip. As a result they swore they would never take another ship, so they spent the rest of their days on Nantucket. With one exception, when he was 80 years old Robert Mooney was persuaded by his sons to travel to Brockton to visit the Brockton Fair where he could look at the chickens. This was a great day in his life, but it was the only bit of America he ever saw.
Now there’s one other peice of history, the quarterboard of the British Queen, bearing the words “British Queen.”, eventually washed ashore and was presented to Robert Mooney by some fishermen. He displayed this last remnant of the British Queen on his farm on the Polpis Road for many years and it has since been preserved by his descendants. Robert and Julia had seven children, 12 grandchildren and god knows how many great grandchildren, because I am one of them and that’s my story of the luck of the Nantucket Irish.
One Book One Island 