Prologue:
Mister Adams walked through the cabin door, startling many inside the sleeping quarters.
"Wake up you miserable swine! We are half way to America and we do not have anytime to lose!" he cried as he booted a young sailor in the ribs, who had been sleeping off a drunk. "Get up! Get up! You lazy piles of dung! Get up I say!"
I sit up rubbing the sleep out of eyes and clutching the side of my body that was unmistakably kicked. I stagger to my feet as the ship rolls to the side. My name is Fintan Hughes and I am aboard the ironically named ship 'The Penance'. We have been aboard the ship for months and Mister Adams, the Captain's first mate has been telling us we were half way to Canada since the second day in our voyage. I, a lowly cabin-boy have been cast upon this god forsaken ship after the constable back in Cork caught me stealing a loaf of bread for my sickly mum. I was given a choice to either have my hand cut off or hop on the next boat to America. Now that I reflect upon it, the constable never liked me much, for many reasons I shall not go into. Penniless, I find myself sailing toward the 'mighty' St. Lawrence river and to a colony called Bytown, because they need labourers to build a canal. Yesterday, the Captain said that we should be approaching the coast soon, then it was only a short while down the St. Lawrence.
As I stagger above deck, the light blinds my view of the world. My eyes slowly come into focus to see the same thing I had been seeing for months, open sea. A feeling of despair creeps over my body. How could I ever have convinced myself that we will ever reach Bytown? Many drinks.
"Finn! Start tying down those lines! Cap'n says a storm's brewin' ." Yells Mister Adams from the corridor I recently emerged from.
As I get to my work I can't help thinking about the mum, two brothers and three sisters I left behind in Ireland. God only knows, if I will ever see dry land again...
