2-888-780 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Departure, 1850. Emigrants leaving Britain for the colonies: United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia or New Zealand. The average annual emigration from the United Kingdom between 1825 and 1850 was 91,407. 'Since the fatal years of the potato famine and the cholera, the annual numbers of emigrants have gone on increasing, until they have become so great as to suggest the idea, and almost justify the belief, of a gradual depopulation of Ireland...The majority of emigrants take a steerage passage, and go out at the cheapest rate. Out of the 153,902 mentioned...as having left the port of Liverpool in 1849, the number of first and second cabin passengers was only 4639'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.