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  • noun A ship that carried Irish emigrants escaping the potato famine, usually with an extremely high mortality rate onboard.

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  • Applied to an old, ill-found, unseaworthy vessel, as likely to prove the burying-place of those on board.

    Usage:

    Did you work upon the railroad?

    Did you rid the streets of crime?

    Were your dollars from the white house,

    Were they from the five and dime?

    "Ah, no," says he, "'twas not to be--

    On a coffin ship I came here,

    And I never even got so far

    That they could change my name."

    --"Thousands Are Sailing," the Pogues, c. 1988 Phillip Chevron

    February 7, 2007

  • One can't help thinking of the "coffin ships" bearing Irish potato famine immigrants to American shores in the mid 1800's.

    July 12, 2010