Born somewhere in the north Atlantic on a large fishing vessel, Tom's mother was an Austrian gypsy who had disguised herself as a male deck-hand in order to board the ship and create a new life on the other side. Her identity was revealed when she went into labour and shortly after Tom's birth was forced to walk the plank. Tom was taken ashore by an aging sailor named Whisky Gibbons who deposited him at a brothel on the edge of a small town somewhere outside of anywhere.