Convict Girl

Chapter 1

The salty, tangy sea air was life-giving to my thirsty face. I gripped onto the rusty rails as the Lady Penrhyn ploughed its way through the vast ocean. The wind whipped through my hair. I couldn’t remember the last time I hadn’t felt heavy, clanking chains on my sore, swollen ankles. It was uncomfortable on the deck, but I didn’t care; anything was better than being in the horrible hold.

The hold was a forbidding prison chamber under the deck. I hated going down there; I always felt cramped. The air was a choking mixture of overflowing privies, stale sweat and sickness. Breathing through my mouth helped.

We called it the ‘hole’.

My name is Eleanor Stone. I am a convict. I was 19 years old when I was caught stealing a rich woman’s purse. My partner in crime was Sarah Bailey. She was older than me. We were condemned on this ship, on an immense sea, headed for a foreign land; prisoners. She now stumbled up from the hole.

“Still up ‘ere?” Sarah grinned, showing blackened teeth. “It’s fresh out ‘ere.”

“It’s much better than being in that slimy hole,” I said.

“Mmm,” Sarah sounded her approval. “It’s ‘orrible. Them rats nibble on me toes in the night. I ‘ate them an’ the spiders too.” She trailed off, knowing there was no point voicing these injustices. We all longed for home. All longed for our families. All longed to be free.

It wasn’t long before a guard shouted harshly; “Get back down in the hold.” The convicts got into a line, pushing and shoving. I stayed at the back of the long line, so I could be in the fresh air longer. Most tried to get to the front of the line so that they got a bit of room down in the hole.

I gazed at the violet sky once more before I was shoved roughly down into the hole. My world was plunged into darkness as the wooden hatch clattered down over my head. Then came the overpowering stench of the thick, putrid fumes. I shuddered.  

The guard yelled at us to get into our prison cells. I was in a prison cell with Sarah and two other women. We all shared two hammocks. The guard shut and locked the bars. Sarah’s whispery voice told me I needed sleep, so I obeyed her, falling into a restless sleep on a hammock.