{"product_id":"book-dcpr","title":"Voyage of Mercy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Sean Patrick Hopkins offers exactly the kind of narration this audiobook deserves...He makes this story of America's first significant overseas aid effort and the two people most responsible--a sea captain and a Catholic priest--come alive.\" -- \u003ci\u003eAudioFile Magazine, \u003c\/i\u003eEarphones Award Winner \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe remarkable story of the mission that inspired a nation to donate massive relief to Ireland during the potato famine and began America's tradition of providing humanitarian aid around the world.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMore than 5,000 ships left Ireland during the great potato famine in the late 1840s, transporting the starving and the destitute away from their stricken homeland. The first vessel to sail in the other direction, to help the millions unable to escape, was the USS \u003ci\u003eJamestown\u003c\/i\u003e, a converted warship, which left Boston in March 1847 loaded with precious food for Ireland.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn an unprecedented move by Congress, the warship had been placed in civilian hands, stripped of its guns, and committed to the peaceful delivery of food, clothing, and supplies in a mission that would launch America’s first full-blown humanitarian relief effort.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaptain Robert Bennet Forbes and the crew of the USS \u003ci\u003eJamestown\u003c\/i\u003e embarked on a voyage that began a massive eighteen-month demonstration of soaring goodwill against the backdrop of unfathomable despair—one nation’s struggle to survive, and another’s effort to provide a lifeline. The \u003ci\u003eJamestown\u003c\/i\u003e mission captured hearts and minds on both sides of the Atlantic, of the wealthy and the hardscrabble poor, of poets and politicians. Forbes’ undertaking inspired a nationwide outpouring of relief that was unprecedented in size and scope, the first instance of an entire nation extending a hand to a foreign neighbor for purely humanitarian reasons. It showed the world that national generosity and brotherhood were not signs of weakness, but displays of quiet strength and moral certitude. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eVoyage of Mercy\u003c\/i\u003e, Stephen Puleo tells the incredible story of the famine, the \u003ci\u003eJamestown \u003c\/i\u003evoyage, and the commitment of thousands of ordinary Americans to offer relief to Ireland, a groundswell that provided the collaborative blueprint for future relief efforts, and established the United States as the leader in international aid. The USS \u003ci\u003eJamestown\u003c\/i\u003e’s heroic voyage showed how the ramifications of a single decision can be measured not in days, but in decades.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Puleo has found a new way to tell the story with this well-researched and splendidly written chronicle of the Jamestown, its captain, and an Irish priest who ministered to the starving in Cork city…Puleo’s tale, despite the hardship to come, surely is a tribute to the better angels of America’s nature, and in that sense, it couldn’t be more timely.” -- \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eVoyage of Mercy\u003c\/i\u003e is why we read. It's history as it should be written. It reads like a terrific, page-turning novel, with characters who live and breathe and struggle and yearn, with grand dramatic moments, with settings so vividly described in a world so impeccably researched that you think you're there, with powerful themes that will resonate long after you've finished reading.\" — William Martin, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eBack Bay\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBound for Gold\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Audio","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49372970811696,"sku":"BDdcpr","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/123804-dcpr-Square.jpg?v=1734733468","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-dcpr","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}