Bones on a Canadian beach likely belonged to Irish immigrants

MONTREAL, CANADA—According to Radio Canadascientists from the University of Montreal have confirmed that 21 sets of human remains found on a beach on the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec belong to Irish immigrants killed when Whitehaven Carricks sank in 1847. The ship was traveling from Sligo to the Port of Quebec when it sank, killing 132 passengers. The bones of three children aged 7 to 12 at the time of their deaths washed up on the beach during a storm in 2011. The rest of the remains were discovered in a mass grave during an archaeological investigation carried out in 2016 Analysis of the bones showed that the dead all suffered from disease and malnutrition likely brought on by the Irish Potato Famine. “The tragic events of the Carrick shipwreck are a reminder of how difficult the trip was for the travelers and that not everyone had the chance to reach their new home,” said Diane Lebouthillier, MNA for the Gaspésie-Les Îles-de-France region. -Madeleine. The bones will be reinterred on the beach at Cap-des-Rosiers this summer. For more on two other ships that sank in Canadian waters in the 1840s, see “Franklin’s Last Voyage.”