Description Coffin Ship to Canada
On a coffin ship to Canada
I took my chances;
I left my pig, my ma, my pa
And all my romances.
The Elizabeth and Sarah
Sailed in the summer;
She went my some wayward star ?
No steerage was glummer.
Two hundred and seventy-six
Passengers aboard her;
She was built for thirty-two.
We slept without order.
There was no toilet and no food;
She took on no water.
There was nought but poverty
Abaft and athwart her.
Forty-two, the poor souls who
Were thrown o?er the gunwale
But we survived, kept just alive
Like rats in a tunnel.
Relapsing fever and dysentery
Stalked us below deck;
The cellarfuls of dying
Awaited us in Quebec.
This is the crowning mercy
Thanks to our landlord:
Our passage paid, our dead betrayed,
Anger eating all on board.
Chorus:
On a coffin ship to Canada,
Like felons on trial:
Starved on departure;
Dead on arrival.
Poem by Giles Watson, 2010. The Elizabeth and Sarah was an 83 year old ship when she sailed from Killala to Quebec in May 1847. A navigation mistake by the captain considerably lengthened the journey, resulting in appalling mortality amongst the passengers.
