ABSTRACT
Robert Whyte's The Ocean Plague: A Voyage to Quebec in an Irish Emigrant Vessel (1848) is one of the most compelling and controversial examples of the Irish Famine migration genre. There is some debate about whether it is a genuine Famine journal or work of historical fiction. The fact that James J. Mangan, editor of the spurious Famine Diary: Journey to a New World (1991), republished The Ocean Plague under the title Robert Whyte's 1847 Famine Ship Diary: The Journey of an Irish Coffin Ship (1994), 1 has heightened suspicions of the text.
