The Wreck of the Mexico, by James Fulton Pringle (1788–1847)
To Use This Document
With Your Students
Date
1837
Description
Shipwreck off coast in storm. The desire to achieve the elusive “American Dream” has led countless people from around the globe to attempt the journey to our nation, regardless of the dangers they may face. In October 1836, the “Mexico” left Liverpool, England, filled with Irish immigrants bound for New York. After 69 harrowing days crossing the North Atlantic, they were caught in a blizzard on New Year’s Eve and blown into a sandbar off Long Beach. A contemporary newspaper reported, “For 18 hours the unhappy strangers were exposed to the horror of the wreck, enduring the pangs of cold, and hunger, and misery, beholding face to face, as it were, the terrible death from which there was no means of escape.” One hundred-fifteen passengers perished less than 300 yards from the American shoreline. Yet the struggling Irish economy and lack of industrialization throughout that country led Irish to continue to risk the journey, with nearly a half million reaching the United States before the 1845 start of Ireland’s disastrous Potato Blight.
Type
Image
Region
Long Island, New York State, United States
Era
Industrialization
Topic
Environment, Immigration, Transportation
Repository
Identifier
2017.014
Source
Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY, Gift of Arthur and Nori Mattson, Lynbrook, NY, 2017
Rights
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