1847 ... Gerard Keegan, a schoolteacher, and his young bride left County Sligo to travel aboard the new infamous coffin ships to Canada. In his diary Gerard Keegan charts the reality of famine and emigration-relatives seeking his advice, the walk from Sligo to Dublin, fever on board ship, a fight with the first mate, a catch of fish, storms, sighting whales, the passengers' first sight of land--and the bittersweet fate of those who survived to reach the promised New World.