This was an excellent, heartfelt account of one of the worst time periods in Irish history, The Great Famine. Some of the discriptions of the level of hardship the Irish had to endure, were heartbreaking. Virtually abandoned to Her faith by the English Parliament, The United States mission of mercy was the first of its kind and pioneered modern humanitarian aid. This book should be on the curriculum in Irish schools. Highly researched. Epic.

In the Voyage of Mercy, Puleo chronicles the multitude of factors that combined to create the nationwide Irish famine. Puleo details the first time in history that humanitarian aid was sent from one nation to another in a complete act of altruism.

The date is 1847; the place is Ireland, and the occurrence is the Irish Famine known as the “Black 47.” It was a time of great tribulation for Ireland and its population. Puleo’s research details the starvation of millions in a country that was exporting food while its people suffered. He sets the stage leading up to, during and post famine including the effects, causes and the dire consequences. His work includes a cast of millions but focuses upon 3 main characters. In short, it is a horrifyingly unflinching examination of one of the worst cases of starvations in Ireland to that date.

The three key characters include:

The Reverend Theobold Mathew moreover known as the “Temperance Priest” was a controversial religious leader who undertook Herculean efforts to avert the growing crisis. He sent regular written reports to Assistant Secretary to the British Treasury detailing the crisis. When Father Mathews repeated warnings failed to solicit any assistance he took matters upon himself by providing extraordinary levels of support, comfort, sustenance and shelter to those starving. He went so far as to house them and feed them in his own parochial house.

If Reverend Mathew’s is one of the heroes of the tale, then Charles Trevelyn is definitely the villain. Charles Trevelyn was the Assistant Secretary to the British Treasury at that time and was tasked with overseeing the situation in Ireland. Puleo opinioned that Trevelyan exhibited a severe lack of humanity, immense indifference and gross incompetence. Those character flaws combined together with other extraneous events increased the suffering from an arguably avoidable situation into an unintended genocide and created a colossal Irish diaspora.

The third character is Captain Robert Bennet Forbes who volunteered to command the decommissioned Naval vessel Jamestown. A self-made man of considerable talents he sailed the Jamestown across the Atlantic stocked with produce, clothing and other commodities that were desperately needed in Ireland. Upon his return to America, he championed the Irish relief cause to drum up more support and aid for the suffering people.

Perhaps the saddest part of this story is that even as the victims of the famine were fleeing in the tens of thousands to America, the horrors followed them. The Atlantic crossing proved so dangerous that thousands ended up paying the ultimate cost. Worse still, once in America they were often the subject of a myriad of crimes which just continued their misery on a new continent.

CONCLUSION

I considered myself well educated in the history of the Irish famine. However, I now realize that I only had a minimal understanding of the grievous nature of those events.

There is too much information contained within the Voyage of Mercy to adequately describe in this brief review. The book covers the complete collection of emotions. It is a true-life tale of horror, adventure, human suffering, compassion, political incompetence and much more.

The author harrowingly relates the horrors that occurred when a confluence of factors came together creating a famine that changed thousands of lives on both sides of the Atlantic. Voyage of Mercy is skillfully written, engaging and thought provoking in equal measure. This tome dissipates the fog of history to reveal the victims, heroes and villains of the Irish Famine.

Please be aware that this book is not for the faint of heart. The subject matter discussed is heartbreaking, intense, and worst of all a true account of real people and real events. It was a time that literally changed the lives of millions of people forever. If you are looking for a light read, this definitely is not it. If you want to appreciate how dire the situation was during this milestone in world history then I encourage you to read this book.

I want to acknowledge the aid provided by the American Indians, slaves as well as those barely subsisting in America. They dug deep and gave of their own basic food supplies to assist a nation of people they would never meet but who’s struggle they completely understood.

I have to issue this book a rare 5 star review. You know a book is good when you can’t stop thinking about it days or weeks after you’ve finish reading it.

I was fascinated with Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America's First Humanitarian Mission from start to finish. I am giving it four and a half stars.

This is a very worthwhile read.

Puleo approaches the history of the Irish famine mainly through two people: a Catholic priest in Ireland, and a Boston ship captain. Their stories, which weave together at the climactic moment, are perfect windows into the catastrophic suffering in Ireland and the unprecedented American voluntary charity effort to send relief supplies.

A major take-away from _Voyage of Mercy_, which most readers would not be aware of, is that the American relief effort was the first of its kind ever. No nation had ever voluntarily sent massive charity to a foreign country with no expectation of payment or favors in return. The author argues that this was the very beginning of all foreign aid programs, including such operations as the Berlin Airlift.

The inevitable quibble: The book is perhaps 1/4 longer than it needs to be. The quality would be intact if a good editor did some combining, re-arranging, and just eliminating with conciseness in mind.

This book is an important book to read about the United States history of charitable contributions to other Nations.
It describes the event, the Irish Famine of 1847 and the call to provide relief to the Irish people. This call was answered by the young nation of the United States.
The people leading the charge was an Irish priest, Father Matthew and the sea captain/baron an American Robert Forbes.
People all over the United States donated money, clothing, and food for the USS Jamestown to take to the starving Irish.
I found most of the story interesting and I learned alot about how the blight of the potato decimated the Irish peasants...while still having food crops.
HOWEVER, I felt that the author went on tangents that did not enhance the story NOR did it enhance my learning. For instance, Father Matthew coming to the United States for a temperance movement.
Also, the shipwreck with Mr. Forbes after his command of the USS Jamestown.
The numerous times that the United States has employed charity from the Irish Famine till after World War II. These things bogged the story down and left me wondering why the author included them?!

Another note....when the author lists prices...for instance Mr Forbes inherited $16,000...is that in 1847 money or today's money? The author did not say and I was left confused to know if that was a lot of money or very little money.

Overall, there is a skinny book screaming to be let free from the over storytelling of this book.

I was pretty excited when I read the title of this book and that it is about the Irish Famine. I only fairly recently (a few years ago) had heard a little about this by a student whose ancestors had come to America during that time and the little knowledge that he had, so the title piqued my interest.

I can't even begin to convey how well-researched, informative, and detailed this book is. I learned a lot about the Irish famine, how apathetic America was at first, and about the courageous (very in my opinion) Robert Bennet Forbes was to brave the ocean to the other side of the world, leaving his wife, Rose, and their family under some very dire circumstances. It chronicles Forbes' adventures and how he began "boating" and how he was so passionate about it. He was given the honor of "commandeering" The USS Jamestown when he was not in the service. It caused quite a debate, but "for the first time in the sixty years since the United States had adopted its Constitution, Congress had agreed to use American warships on a humanitarian mission, and to place government-owned ships in private hands to transport private contributions to a foreign country" (loc. 1305). This statement in Puleos book is nothing less than incredible.

Irish people were dropping dead like flies, many homeless people with no place to sleep or have shelter, and families were dying in groups. There is so much detail and I was truly affected emotionally for what the Ireland's people had to go through, even with many believing that their cry was another "the-boy-wh0-cried-wolf" story. Oh. My. Gosh. What they went through will break anyone's heart, even if it was back in the mid 1800's.

One aspect of the book that I loved was how many people whose names, books, and ideologies I have studied were mentioned in the book, giving insight to more of what they've done. People such as Frederick Douglass, a black slave/abolitionist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth, Louisa May Alcott and so many others who voiced their opinions regarding Boston's Irish relief efforts.

Evidently Stephen Puleo has written several other nonfiction history books, so because of this book I definitely plan to read others. There is no way to articulate how informative this book is. I highly recommend this to anyone, historian or not. It could definitely be read by high school students and adults alike. Puleo has written it in such a way that it is very engaging, and I wasn't able to put it down because it kept me interested from beginning to end.

*NOTE: Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion of the book.

I really needed this book at this particular time in our country. I needed the reminder of what can happen when good people do the right thing. Voyage of Mercy is a splendid recounting of the mission of humanitarian aid undertaken in 1847. The story of a Boston Sea Captain and and Irish Priest and their mission to bring aid to famine stricken Ireland is heart rending and heartening at the same time. The United States kept giving, aid kept flowing and mass migrations were facilitated.
Voyage of Mercy is more than a history. Stephen Puleo also explores how humanitarian aid works (or doesnt) today. I appreciated his attention to detail and his conversational writing style.
I received my copy through NtGalley under no obligation.

Voyage of Mercy by Stephen Puleo is a beautifully written and researched account of humanitarian aid given to Ireland during the Great Famine. In 1847, said to be the worst year of the Great Famine, the USS Jamestown set off to deliver a ship full of food and supplies to Ireland and its starving people. The Voyage of Mercy is a heartbreaking historical novel that describes that journey in painstaking detail. This intense novel may very well be the best telling, if not the first, to describe the mass immigration of Irish people to the U.S., the number of Irish people who perished from starvation, and the many people of America who gave everything they could to end the suffering of those in Ireland. I highly recommend this book to all readers.
Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an Advanced Reader's Copy of Voyage of Mercy.

I received a free electronic ARC copy of this history from Netgalley, Stephen Puleo, and St. Martin's Press - History. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this work of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of Voyage to Mercy. Stephen Puleo is an author on my must-read shelves - he brings history alive.

Voyage of Mercy is the full story of the United States' first humanitarian mission - essentially the first humanitarian mission carried out by any country. And it is a history of the lives of two outstanding men - a Boston sea captain and lifelong sailor, Robert Bennet Forbes, and Catholic priest Theobald Mathew of Cork City, Ireland. These two men saved the lives of innumerable Irish men, women, and children, and opened the way for many others to carry on their work.

In 1847 glib-tongued Bennet Forbes talked the American military into loaning him a 157 foot, three-decker warship, the Jamestown (we were at war with Mexico at Veracruz at the time, so this was a minor miracle) and removed 20 of the 22 guns on the mid-deck to make room for donated foodstuff and clothing for the starving masses in Ireland. And he collected, from towns and individuals and farmers up and down the eastern seaboard and the Mississippi River farms, 8,000 barrels of foodstuff and crates of warm clothing. Forbes captained the crew, and the rest of the crewmen were volunteers. They set sail for Cove, in county Cork on March 27, 1847. Despite some problems - green crew, leaks, bad weather - they made the Irish shore in just fifteen days and three hours.

They were met by Father Mathew and a grateful, starving people. British help was too little, too late. Overlooking the fact that Ireland grew plenty in the way of grains and proteins to help themselves, their land had all been given over to British peers and was only rented to the farmers who husbanded it. All of those crops went immediately on harvest to England, to be sold on the world market. The potato crop was what the Irish ate, sold, traded for necessities and paid their rent on the land they farmed to their British landlords. With the partial failure of crops in 1846 and the complete failure of the potato crop in 1847, there were mass evictions, putting people out of their homes without warning. Over the winter of 1846-1847, the Irish population was dying in droves - of starvation, cholera, typhus, the 'fevers', and exposure. There were weeks just in Cove Town that Father Mathew buried as many as 300 souls. He fed, out of his home and his own pocket, as many as he could. And sadly, the western parts of Ireland and Scotland were in even worse shape than those coastal areas.

And the US just kept giving. Soon there were shiploads of foods being received in many of the port cities of Ireland, to be dispersed inland, and there was mass migration, mostly to Canada and the US. Boston saw 37,000 Irish immigrants arrive in'47, many ill, diseased and virtually all impoverished. Boston at that time had a population of only 115,000 and was quickly overwhelmed. New York, as well as other Atlantic coastal areas, did what they could. The last 20% of this story is a showcase of the growth of humanitarian assistance - what works, what doesn't, and how to begin the wheels turning in the face of catastrophe.

And that spirit of giving, of helping the downtrodden, still lives today. We need more Father Mathews to distribute the giving where it is needed, however. Haiti and Puerto Rico have been very expensive lessons in the improper art of aiding the downtrodden. And further afield, we have Serbia and Bosnia...

A fascinating look at America's first international relief campaign, sending ship upon ship of food to Ireland during the Famine. Americans from all over came together in this effort, Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Quaker, frontier and city folk. The Choctaw Indians, who had lost half their population in the Trail of Tears less than 2 decades before this, contributed to the campaign as well.

The book is exceedingly well-researched and thorough, painting vivid portraits of the various players and their time. The author includes extensive notes and documentation at the back of the book.

Highly readable, yet near-scholarly. Quite the feat.

Thank you, #netgalley for the e-review edition of this book.

Ireland's potato crop has failed again. With a majority of it's people dependent on this one crop, thousands upon thousands are dying of starvation. Britain is failing badly at saving her people. And who steps up? The USA, filling the warship USS Jamestown with donations from individual Americans in many cities and beyond, sends tons of lifesaving food and hope to Ireland - and along the way introduces international humanitarian aid to the world. Stephen Puleo has done an excellent job of explaining the famine, the social and political aspects of Ireland, England and the USA, and the life of the determined American citizens, particularly captain Robert Forbes, who led the way to help save Ireland's people. Well researched and documented, this is a very readable and interesting story of the times and of how remarkable this first mission truly was. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press History for the e-arc.

If you like history, you'll likely enjoy this. The history author I've read most is McCullough, and while this is a differently style (and subject), it is quite well done and does a good job of keeping readers engaged.. It is quite emotional at times, mostly sad, and will likely stick with readers for a while.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

Voyage of Mercy by Stephen Puleo was received direct from the authors publicist and I chose to review it. I had never heard of this author, however the topic of the book being the USS Jamestown and the Irish Famine are common knowledge to us who attended school in the less than modern era. I have been to Ireland and I saw many displays and heard many stories of the great potato famine. I do not recall hearing about the amount of American assistance that was rendered. This book changed that, as well as helping explain to me how a country as lush as Ireland could be unable to feed themselves. After reading the very detailed book, I don’t know why America was not mentioned. If you, or someone you buy gifts for is interested in Irish history or America’s first real humanitarian mission, certainly give this book a read.

4 stars

Out in March, which is perfect timing for Irish-American Heritage Month! This was a detailed account of something that happened in american history that I never has heard of!

historical-setting, historical-research, historical-places-events, humanity, Ireland, family

"Perhaps the most disgraceful aspect of the Famine was that in each of its six years there was probably enough food EXPORTED out of Ireland to sustain the nation, certainly enough to have saved the million who died (of starvation)." Edward Laxton
With meticulous research, documentation, and presentation the author presents the conditions of that harsh winter of 1847-48 with no food, no heat, no roof, scant clothing or shoes, and precious little hope. In England, the politicians favored the merchants over humanity and conscience, and the papers did not see fit to inform the populace. In the US, first immigrant families and Irish Catholic congregations sent what they could followed by indignation and fundraising by the noted personalities of the day (such as Daniel Webster, President Polk, Herman Melville) who were instrumental in tackling this humanitarian crisis. Money was raised from New Orleans to Boston and from Chicago to Charleston. But least remembered was the personal donations of foodstuffs from farmers from the Mississippi to New England and the ship's Captain Forbes who sailed the Jamestown across the Atlantic in hazardous seas as quickly as he could.
There is incredible detailing of the life histories of the major players and a whole lot more, but the undercurrent is the need by individuals in the US to do whatever they can whenever they feel that they can make a difference, regardless of nationality.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from St Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

Voyage of Mercy is a non fiction accounting of the humanitarian aid the US sent to Ireland during the famine in 1846. Mr. Puleo has poured through historical documents to bring us this bittersweet story. He introduces us to the key players, with plenty of background of who they were, why they took the actions they did, and we get a view of their lives. He has the facts and figures which he presents in a way that is interesting and furthers the story. Many English were surprised by the show Victoria when it revealed the story of the Irish famine, they had no idea that their country had treated Ireland so poorly or that so many died. All ages from young to old by the thousands, while England continued to demand exports. Many Americans can be proud of how our ancestors responded. The USS Jamestown was a retrofitted battleship on the first international humanitarian mission. People from across the US gave food, money, clothing and other supplies to be taken to Ireland in the hopes that it would relieve suffering. Up to this point, such action was seen as weak, but these people didn't care, they knew they lived in a bountiful land, and wanted to save lives. Thanks to #NetGalley for allowing me to review #VoyageofMercy and give my honest opinion, it was a very good book!!

Read if you: Think a heartbreaking, moving, and inspirational account of the Irish famine and the USA's first major international humanitarian program sounds up your alley.

Ireland's potato famine changed Ireland and the United States forever. Not just in terms of the many lives lost, but also in terms of the massive immigration of Irish men and women to the United States (where they faced enormous prejudices), the deepening of Ireland's hatred of England, and the mobilization of the United States's first international aid program, which became a blueprint of sorts for later massive aid programs, including the food drops in Berlin shortly after World War II. This is almost unbearably sad at times (particularly with Captain Forbes's many personal losses), but you will remember this long after finishing it.

Out in March, which is perfect timing for Irish-American Heritage Month.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I had never heard about this merciful mission before, and I think that more people should know about it! The famine, the widespread indifference, and a few shining examples of humanitarian concern are well worth reading about!