From Protection to Free Trade: Rush Seamen, 1820-1914.

Paper 256

Lecture – 2006

Author – Snook, David

The author discusses the connection between the demand for sugar in Great Britain to satisfy the increasing popularity of chocolate in the late 19th century and how the shipping line Palgrave Murphy played its part in meeting this demand by importing beet sugar from Hamburg to Bristol, Swansea, and Belfast. He also explains why so many of the crew were from Rush and the east coast of Ireland.

The author also investigates the link between the coming of the coastguard to Rush in 1820 and a Rush man who built up a fleet of ships supplying Indian workers to the West Indian sugar plantations. (13 pages).