Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: The Great Migration

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Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: The Great Migration

AssociatedAssociated with Lord Mountbatten of Burma (Frogmore House, Windsor, England, 1900 - 1979)

Medallist John Pinches, Medallists

DateMay 2004

Object NameMedal

MediumSterling Silver

ClassificationsMedals

AcquisitionPresented in 2004 by Dr Joan M Burrell.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDMS072500.43

Keywords

About MeAt the beginning of the 19th century the substantial settlement of North America was virtually confined to parts of the eastern, coastal, fringe, to the St Lawrence Valley, and the what are now Atlantic provinces of, Canada. Seventy-five years later the continent contained some fifty million people.

Substantial emigration from Britain began after 1815 during the economic recession which followed the Napoleonic Wars.

This mass movement of people was possible because the ships were there to carry them at fares which they could afford. From the 182OS until 1860 the great majority of emigrants travelled in the empty holds of timber ships. The British timber trade with North America, mainly with Canada, developed in consequence of the Baltic embargo which followed the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807. Finance houses building up the trade from the St Lawrence and the maritime colonies obtained the imposition of duties in Britain on Baltic timber which ensured the perpetuation of the trade with North America after the end of the wars. The trade prospered on and off for half a century under the protection of these duties. Few outward cargoes were offered for ships in this trade and emigrants were an alternative to empty holds. Competition reduced fares at times to a level at which it was possible to cross the Atlantic for one week's wages for an unskilled labourer.

A great deal has been written about the evils of the emigrant trade. These arose from the exploitation of the gullible at the big ports, the awful conditions which prevailed during the Irish famine in the mid- 1840 's and the lack of regulation of the traffic.

But there is another side to the story. Emigrant ships from small ports were in a highly competitive business, their owners and masters and crews were local men and the ships had to have a good reputation or else they did not attract passengers. Some of them were almost family affairs with the passengers helping the crew, conditions as good as they could be made, and tolerable food. For instance, some ten thousand people were carried across the Atlantic from North Devon in local ships without the loss of one vessel with passengers or any large number of passengers from disease.

The final lifting of the duties on Baltic timber led in the early 1860's to a change in the structure of the North American timber trade and the end of mass emigration under sail. The great migrations of the later 19th century were in steam vessels, but the lumber trade and the small wooden sailing ships with which it was conducted had played their part in establishing the shape of the modern world.

The Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea, John Pinches Medallists Ltd.