According to that account, John, Jean, and Patrick crossed the Atlantic in a sailing vessel, and the voyage did not go smoothly. Unfavorable winds prolonged the crossing to three months. Before they reached America, their water and provisions ran short. Patrick supposedly left Ireland wearing a new pair of buckskin breeches that fit him tightly. After three months at sea, with food running short, the breeches were considerably looser when he stepped ashore.

During & After the Irish Famine (1845–1855) The famine-era coffin ships became infamous because conditions collapsed into humanitarian catastrophe. These ships were carrying people fleeing: starvation, eviction, disease, total economic collapse. Many boarded already severely weakened from: malnutrition, typhus, fever, dysentery. Shipowners often packed vessels beyond safe limits to maximize profit. Some ships became floating disease environments with almost no medical care. Mortality rates exploded.