Checking my French-English Dictionnaire, "fin" can mean death, ne(w/accent)birth. Another word, "neant" (w/accented "e") means nothing, naught, annihilation, etc. All 1st year French students know that "a" is a broad prepostion meaning to, at, into, on, by, for..." depending on usage. "Fin a neant" could translate, even in modern French, to "death by annihilation."

Alternative for the seminarians...Death and Birth (fin a ne) could refer to the Resurrection, if you are so inclined.

Could the allusions to red garments in the discussion below and fire in the song could mean that the ship burned? Are there any historians of the slave trade out there?