On Board The Scarborough

• Jacob Bradley, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2015

On Board the Scarborough
By Jacob Bradley

Dear Merlin,

I am on board the Scarborough this very moment. The conditions to survive here are vile and harder than living on the streets there are that many diseases. I have met a boy named Charles - we talk to each other during the ten minutes we are allowed out. Charles committed a very similar crime to me plus he is an orphan too!

Charles and I are heading to this place they call Sydney Cove where we and the other convicts will start a penal colony. They will feed us and make us work: it sounds better than performing theft for a living.

The reason I am on board this rat-infested ship is because I dodged a dog after I stole a piece of bread and a pistol. But I didn’t see that it was a guard dog and the guard ran around the corner and arrested me.

The Scarborough is a horrible ship! It smells of bloody vomit, sewerage and rat guts. I feel horrified, scared, ashamed and astonished at how many diseases there are. I can hear gunfire, screams, shivering orphans and shaking planks. I don’t want to but I can see infected people, blood leaking across the planks, hardened brutal guards and infected skinless dead rats. This so called ship is as damp in blood as soaking wet clothing. It is as dirty as cow pat and as smelly as fresh horse droppings.

I firmly and highly regret performing larceny and I have learnt my lesson even though I didn’t have a choice at the time. Although there is one or two alternatives but they only scrape the line too keep you alive. I also learnt that you will be worried, you will be suffering from fear and you will be annoyed with your petrified self while on board the Scarborough.

I may never return or write again so goodbye Merlin.
Love Jacob

P.S The Scarborough is one of the eleven ships transporting convicts to Sydney Cove in Australia.