The Boats in Literature

Boats struck the imagination of certain authors whose writings were inspired by the Deportation of the Acadians. In his novel Martyr d'un people published in 1927, French author Léon Ville was inspired by the story of the Pembroke, to which he added a touch of fiction. It is a fact that Acadians succeeded in taking over the Pembroke, which had left Annapolis Royal on December 8, 1755. The ship then sailed to the Saint John River estuary, where its passengers got off on February 8, 1756. Many of them went up the Saint John River and took refuge in Québec, but others died during the journey. In Léon Ville's novel the hero is Captain Beaulieu, a character outraged by the fate of the Acadians and determined to avenge them. In the story, when the ship arrived in Saint John, many Acadians joined Beaulieu and under his orders, attacked the British ships to avenge their own people.