The day came to leave. The Reverend Woodside and sixteen families from his congregation set sail from Londonderry in a brigantine named the Maccallum.

It was a two-masted sailing ship with square rigged foremasts and at least two sails on the main mast. Another ship, the Mary and Elizabeth, also left from Londonderry.

The Reverend McGregor and the families from Aghadowey left from Coleraine on the Robert. Two other ships, the William and Mary and the William, sailed with them.

The ships were made from wood. They were designed to transport cargo, not passengers, so they weren’t very comfortable or big. These ships sailed frequently between America and Ireland, carrying goods such as flax seed, timber, grain and tobacco.

My parents were excited about new opportunities, but a little anxious about taking a young child on such a long and dangerous journey. Passengers had to stay below deck in the cargo hold. They only went out on deck for a short time each day.

There was very little privacy. My mother tried to partition off a small area for the family with some linen cloth, but it didn’t stop the noise of the other passengers.

The journey was to take about eight weeks, but that depended on the weather and the seaworthiness of the ship. The passengers had to wash their clothes in buckets of seawater.

My mother cooked meals on the ship, which wasn’t an easy task. My parents and their friends brought food with them: potatoes and vegetables, eggs, oats and salted and dried meat. The fresh food didn’t last long. They cooked their food on a caboose, as lighting fires on deck risked setting fire to the ship. Often families cooked together using the same pot of boiling water, so each family wrapped the food in a muslin cloth so that they knew which was theirs.