In Canada, more than 20,000 people died from 1847 to 1848, with many quarantined in fever sheds in Grosse Isle, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto and Saint John.
[3] Dr. George Douglas, Grosse Isle's chief medical officer, recorded that by midsummer of 1847 the quarantine regulations in force were 'physically impossible' to carry out, making it necessary for the emigrants to stay on board their ships for many days.
Robert Whyte records seeing 'hundreds... literally flung on the beach, left amid the mud and stones to crawl on the dry land as they could'.
[3] Because of the lack of space on Grosse Isle, Dr. Douglas required healthy passengers to stay on ship for fifteen days once the sick had been removed, by way of quarantine.
[3] On 29 July 1847, Whyte recorded the neglect of his fellow passengers, who 'within reach of help' 'were to be left enveloped in reeking pestilence, the sick without medicine, medical skill, nourishment, or so much as a drop of pure water'.
One Catholic priest, Father Moylan, reported giving water to invalids in a tent who had not been able to drink for 18 hours.
The Senate Committee stated that because of the lack of personnel and space, the invalids lay in their own excrement for days and there were insufficient staff to take away those who died during the night.
Dr. Douglas attempted to enlist nurses from among the healthy female passengers with the promise of high wages, but fear of disease meant none accepted.
Nurses were expected to sleep alongside the sick and share their food; they had no privacy, often caught the fever themselves and were not helped when they fell ill.
[8] More than forty Irish and French Canadian priests and Anglican clergymen were active on Grosse Isle, many becoming ill themselves.
During the crossing itself, bodies were thrown into the sea, but once the ships had reached Grosse Isle they were kept in the hold until a burial on land became possible.
According to Montreal journalist and historian Edgar Andrew Collard, thirty of 40 nuns who went to help became ill, with seven dying.
When a mob threatened to throw the fever sheds into the river, Montreal mayor John Easton Mills quelled the riot and provided care, giving patients water and changing bedding.
[11][12] Workers constructing the Victoria Bridge across the St. Lawrence River discovered a mass grave in Windmill Point with victims of the epidemic.
The men, many of whom were of Irish descent, were unsettled by the discovery and created a memorial, known as The Black Rock to ensure the gravesite would not be forgotten.
[15][16] The epidemic also killed the first Bishop of Toronto, Michael Power, while providing care and ministering to Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine.
[17] Partridge Island, New Brunswick, just outside the main harbour of Saint John, was chosen as the location for a pest house and quarantine station as far back as 1785.
In 1847, with a large influx of Irish migrants, the typhus epidemic quickly filled the fever shed with sick and dying.
[11] Those stricken while passing through Kingston, Ontario found shelter in makeshift "immigrant sheds" erected near the waterfront.