The Crossing - Mid-Atlantic On Tuesday, September 24th 1850 On The Three-Mast Ship The Charlotte Jane Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

I needed to know who you were,
The neglected and hidden child,
Borne to paradise with porpoises.

Nobody seemed to care.
The ship’s surgeon Dr Barker
Received 10 shillings for
Every passenger safely delivered to Lyttelton
But had to pay back 20 shillings
For every passenger who died.

Economists have a label
For this kind of arrangement –
If you write the script -
It is 'moral hazard'.

But there is a name
Crossed out in the Passenger List –
Bridget Maitland, aged 11.

It seems that she was travelling
With George and Ann Allan
And their daughter Ann Elizabeth
Aged 9.

And that George and Ann’s indifference
Betrayed the fact that she was an orphan
Tagging along as a shadow -
A sometimes servant
A sometimes playmate -
At the ragged sleeves
Of the family of a poor labourer.

But how majestic Bridget
That you should be welcomed
To the deep by heavenly creatures,
Following God’s purpose
Across Enchanted Seas
To the Land of Beulah.


[After reading: ‘The Journal of Edward Ward – Canterbury 1850-51’]