Prologue

Prologue: How It Started…

Today’s date is January twelfth two-thousand and fourteen and the date everything would change for our unsuspecting girl.

Joanne Harris was a nineteen-year-old student in college, studying to be a historian.

Having grown up in the small coastal town of Grimsby, on the north east coast of England, she decided that she would specialize in the history of fishing and their ports.

When she had first told her family of her plans, her brothers had all laughed, but her father was proud having come from a long line of dedicated fisherman. He thought it was a fitting tribute.

Her father sadly never had a chance, having lost his wife and mother to his children in a car accident shortly after Joanne was born. Her father, Matthew was left to raise three boys and a girl by himself.

Joanne stood in her bedroom searching out the best, yet most comfortable outfit for her day’s work.

She looked in her wardrobe at the masses of trousers, jeans and trackies.

‘No trackies,’ She thought. ‘I don’t want everyone thinking I’m a chav.’

She picked out a pair of navy blue baggy jeans, never liking the tight ones which she saw a lot of women wearing recently.

No. She was a tomboy and proud of it.

She hated anyone looking at her body.

Not that there was anything wrong with it, she just would rather they didn’t look.

With that she opted for a simple plain black shirt and a large oversized boyfriend style jumper.

She had never liked wearing girly clothes and most of her friends throughout school were boys.

“Dad, I’m off out now,” She called to her father. She shared the medium size house with him and not to mention, two of her lazy unemployed older brothers, the twins, Mike and Luke, who were probably still in bed after a night in the town. Her third brother, the oldest, Adam was also living at home, but unlike the other two he actually had a job on the docks with his father moving new cars off recently docked ships.

A boring job, both men, had told her, but very well paid.

“Do you need me to give you a lift into town, because Adam and I will be leaving for work in a minute anyway?” Her father asked her as he grabbed his keys.

“Thanks, I’ll just grab my bag and I’ll be out. I’ve got to go to the shop when I get to town and buy a few bits before heading to the Fishing Heritage Centre.”

Joanne had been in the town centre for almost an hour and had finally finished at the store buying bits that she needed because she knew that by the time she had finished to the Centre that the stores would be closed.

Lucky she had remembered to bring her backpack today, so she wouldn’t have to go around carrying a plastic bag.

Arriving at ‘The Centre’ after only a five minute walk.

There were two parts to the centre, first there was a museum inside the building with items and documents all to do with fishing over the years.

Secondly there was a now retired large fishing boat ‘The Sherry Belle.’

Once inside the building she made sure to go inside her bag and take out a small video camera she would use to film everything she saw so she would remember and be able to go over anything she forgot about later.

**

A couple of hours later…

Joanne sighed as she stepped out of the building and then began walking around the back of the building towards the waterside where ‘The Sherry Belle’ fishing boat was docked.

The tours were once an hour and only lasted about half an hour, but she had gotten permission to stay behind afterwards so she could take a more in depth look without people around.

The guide told her and the group about the different areas as he showed them around.

“This is the washroom,” He said as the group entered a small to medium sized cabin.

On one side of the room was an old-fashioned tin bath and on the other was what looked like a long side table with two large bowls placed in two holes in the table.

“The men would be busy with work and often not get chance to bathe more than once a month. That is where the two bowls on the side came in. They would fill them with hot water and wash that way. But being big masculine guys and having only other men for company most didn’t bother with even that,” He explained.

Joanne curled her lip up in disgust. She couldn’t bear to go a day without a bath let alone a month.

Her expression was copied by most in the group.

The guide saw this and smiled, not surprised in the least, having done this same tour for more than ten years now.

“But what you must remember was that this was a different time and the men didn’t have any of the fancy modern conveniences we do today,” He told them.

A young boy who looked to be about ten years old looked around the room and then confused when he couldn’t find what he was looking for.

Turning to the guide, he raised his hand and asked, “Sir, where are the toilets?”

The guide smiled again as if he had been waiting for someone to ask.

“That is a good question, son. Well, as I said before at the time this boat was in service there were a lot less of your moment day conveniences. One of them being the modern flush-able toilet. Most men on the ship would…”

He paused, “Please forgive my language,” He paused again, “They would piss over the side of the boat and as for their other business, some would also do that over the edge. But each of the men had a chamber pot in the bunk room for if they wanted some privacy. But once done they would have to empty in over the edge anyway,” He led the group out of the room into another part of the ship.

“This is the Captain’s quarters,” He showed them into a much larger grander cabin than the rest of the boat.

“Unlike the rest of the crew, the captain used a commode instead of a chamber pot. He was seen as above them and he had to make sure not to do anything to make them think otherwise. That is also the reason why these quarters have their own washroom,” He led them into a room which was also the same to the other bathroom, but this one was much cleaner looking.

“You may ask…” The tour guide said as he continued to lead them through the captain’s quarters

“Why is there a room to the side which contains another set of bunk beds similar to the ones in the sailors cabins,” He paused and watched as many people nodded their heads.

“Well, that is because the man who originally owned this boat had it put in so his sons could accompany him on trips and learn from him the family business.”

**

The tour went on for a while longer until Joanne was finally left by herself.

But not before being told by the guide to be careful and not the break anything and so on.

She just nodded as he spoke even though she had stopped listening about halfway through his rant.

Joanne was normally a very mature woman, but today was not one of those days.

Today she was in the mood to be childish.

Camera in hand she explored the whole ship, making sure to note every little detail.

Never being the one to take commands well, she did the opposite of what she was told.

Pressing many on buttons and touching lots of things she was told not to on her way.

But being careful not to touch the one thing that would start the engine.

That was all she needed to be stuck alone on an ancient fishing boat, sailing to God only knows where, by herself with no idea how to stop the damn thing.

No, she wouldn’t press that.

The boat was old but was in full working order, much to her surprise.

Her favourite room by far though was the helm, which contained the steering wheel.

With a huge grin on her face, she entered the room, walking straight over to the wheel.

Placing the camera on the side and pointing it at her, she looked back to the wheel and rubbed her hands together like some kind of super villain.

“Let’s play,” She said out loud grabbing the large wooden wheel.

She spun the wheel around and round, then in the opposite direction.

Joanne continued this for a couple of minutes before getting slightly bored.

The wheel was still spinning as she noticed a lever just to her right.

A small smirk made its way onto her face as she leaned down and grabbed it pulling it forwards.

Nothing happened…

She tried again.

Nothing…

Several more times… boring.

She kicked it this time, but lost her balance and fell back on the wheel.

Falling to the floor, she put out her hand to catch herself.

But just as she hit the floor, dizziness hit her. Her head was spinning and her body had skyrocketed.

This only lasted a few seconds but felt much longer before she returned to normal.

‘What the hell happened there?’ She thought to herself, but her thoughts were interrupted by a deep booming voice.

“GET UP NOW!” Still on the ground, she turned her head slightly to look to the owner of the voice.

“Boy, I told you to get up!” The large snowy-haired man, who had a big bushy beard and was build like a brick wall glared to her.

‘Boy?’ She thought. ‘How dare he!’

Pushing herself to her feet, she started to shiver as coldness now hit her body.

“What are you doing here, boy? How did you get here?” She looked at the man with a blank expression on her face.

Looking down at her clothes, she was shocked to see how he was dressed.

“You going to a re-enactment?” She asked the man.

The man returned her blank look, “Are you drunk, boy?”

‘This is going to take a while,’ She sighed internally.

She turned and looked out of the window and saw water.

Nothing but water.

Looking around…water…