THE CROSSING

By: Jerry Delany

The time was back around the turn of the 1800’s and Ireland was,--as always,--in turmoil. Times were hard and food was not plentiful. In a large poor Irish family,--you better know what time your body clock says food is being served or you go without eating. Chores were heavy and started early each morning and ran late into the night. You shared sleeping space with all your brothers and sisters and had to care and rear the younger ones,--which were many. Most houses had dirt floors,--no running water,--open fire places for cooking and outside privies. The yard around the house was like the barn yard where the animals ran free and it was usually muddy and messy.

This story is about young Dan Delany who lived around County Cork in the southwest part of Ireland and not to far from the English coast. SIDE NOTE:--- As with many Surnames the spelling has and still does vary according as to who is writing down the information. You will find the name Delany or Delaney spelled both ways,---which is correct?—I don’t know—but we use Delany.

When young Dan was around the age of eleven he started thinking, "THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY OF LIFE." This type of thinking went on for several years and all the while he kept dreaming of GREEN PASTURES---LAND OF PLENTY. Around the age of fourteen he became very head strong (a Delany trait) and determined to STRIKE OUT on his own. He was determined to start a new beginning and it was going to be in America. He had no currency and no means of getting anywhere. He had little to no formal education and his only belongings were those on his back and the few he carried in a nap sack. Day after day he would hang around the sailing ships—going to different places. His young blood and desire for adventure and the unknown was boiling in his brain and body.

This young man Dan Delany is the great-great-great grandfather of my sons and my oldest son is named after him. Around age fourteen,--young Dan Delany with his nap sack,--secretly boarded a sailing ship for America. He is now a stowaway on a sailing ship and must secure his hiding place. At night he comes out and slips around to gather foods and other items to survive. During the day he is watching the passengers and crew busy about doing things in making the long crossing. As time passes the ship runs into some rain squalls and the ship is being tossed about. Deck items are sliding from port to starboard,--bow to stern and young Dan is thrown from his hiding place. A burly deck hand picks him up by the back of the neck and Dan finds himself dangling in mid-air. He is dragged to the captain quarters,--after some threatening and loud discussion,--Dan is put to work as a deck hand. He is assigned to the burly man and made to swab decks, pull sail, coil ropes and work in the galley. He is being over seen by all crew members but figures he must work his way to the Americas. He and the galley cook strike up likeable personalities and he is assigned permanently to the galley.

The trip takes on the average of thirty eight to forty seven days to make the crossing,--he is one of more than two hundred making the crossing. Along the journey there are many small storms with lightening and high waves—passengers getting sea sick—deck hands securing heavy items washing about.

About three days out of the Americas the sailing ship runs into a furious storm and is taking on water and breaking apart. Dan is in the galley with the cook and they had been preparing to cook a goose. The ship is doomed to sink and passengers and crew are scrambling to save themselves. The ship continues to break apart and the cook grabs Dan and they climb a top the floating galley door. They hold to the door as the waves toss and roll them about. After many hours the storm subsides and Dan and the cook are safe upon the door,--but where are they,--how far from land are they. The cook had grabbed the entrails of the goose they were preparing and stuffed them inside his shirt. This is what they rationed themselves to eat and survive for the days they would be at sea. Many days later they were picked up by another sailing ship and taken into the Boston Harbor. Dan had made it to the Americas. He did not likely know how to read or write his name at the time of immigrants signing the necessary forms and papers. It is likely that Dan secured some type of employment and made a way of life for himself.

SIDE NOTE: Is this story fiction or part truth----don’t know??? I do know that Dan Delany came from Ireland and from around County Cork. I know that he married Mary Murphy and they lived in Milford Massachusetts and that she was some how kin to the O"Sullivans. I know that they had children and one was named Jerry Delany (my great grandfather)who was a policeman in Chicago. I know that from her line of heritage, some of their children had blond hair and blue eyes. I would like to think that some day I could verify more information.

Jerry Delany

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