The Song of Dailey's Life-Boat
This song has already been reported by Chappell (FSRA 58)
from the same region (in 1924) but from a different informant.
The differences between the two texts are considerable. For ex-
amples : Chappell's stanza i reads, "She struck on the bar and she
sunk in the deep"; his chorus reads "Run out your lifeboat"; his
text lacks the equivalent of stanza 2; the order of his stanzas 2 and
3 is the reverse of 3 and 4 below; the captain of the rescue ship is
named Joseph Gaskill ; his last stanza warns sailors to "Give Hat-
teras a berth."
'The Song of Dailey's Life-Boat' was reported by L. W. Ander-
son as obtained from Bob Meekins, Kitty Hawk, with the following
note:
This man, Dailey, was a Coast Guardsman near Kitty Hawk, and I
think he was captain of the station. When the Clara May went aground
he refused, for some reason or other, to go to her. That, of course,
was his duty, and as soon as this ballad was composed the Government
promptly dismissed him from service. Some people say that he did not
aid the sinking vessel because of the unusually bad sea at the time.
There is a legend connected with this ballad, however, that tells a
different story. Dailey, as the legend goes, was superstitious, and he,
having heard how the pirates of old came up the coast and pretended
to be in distress, merely to get people on board and rob and kill them,
thought this ship to belong to a then much dreaded pirate.
Mr. Anderson's note on local traditions about the wreck of the
Clara May and Dailey's alleged refusal to rescue her crew was con-
firmed in August 1948 by a story obtained by Mr. David Samples,
a gradaute student of the University of North Carolina then acting
in Paul Green's The Lost Colony, from Captain John Wescott of
Manteo, N. C. According to Mr. Samples, his informant "has
lived here all his life, some 62 years, been captain of the Hatteras
station, and recalls the records of the event being kept there." Here
is Captain Johnny Wescott's story :
It all happened on Diamond Shoals off Hatteras. The sea was so
rough that Dailey would not venture out. An old man on the beach
asked the captain of the station if he would try to get them. Dailey
answered that it was impossible. Captain Gaskins said that if he could
get three men he would take his sailboat and rescue them. Three men
volunteered, reached the vessel, and saved the crew. It was then dis-
covered that the captain of the stranded ship was Dailey's brother. When
the news reached the government Dailey was asked to resign. Wescott
told the tale with the greatest of ease and recall. He said he was not
sure of the time of the event. He said he had never heard of the song.
672 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
Careful search of Life-Saving Service records has failed to find
official confirmation of the story of the stranding and the rescue of
the Clara May. Furthermore, official records of Daileys in the Life-
Saving Service would seem to refute the imputation of cowardice
contained in 'The Song of Dailey's Life-Boat.' Coast Guard files
in the National Archives at Washington contain the service records
of four Daileys from North Carolina. Fabius Findleton Dailey,
born in North Carolina in 1867, enlisted in the Coast Guard service
as a surfman in 1915, was retired in 1918, and died on March 18,
1937, without a smirch on his record. R. B. Dailey, of Cape Hat-
teras, was an electrician on the U. S. cutter Seminole. Nasa W.
Dailey, who enlisted in the Life-Saving Service in 1889, and served
at various North Carolina stations until July 31, 1904, according to
official record, was: "Discharged from Little Kinnakeet Station.
Avon, N. C. Reason for separation shown as 'Did not reengage.'
(In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it is assumed that
this discharge was under honorable conditions.)" The only mem-
ber of the Life-Saving Service with that name who was captain
of a North Carolina coast station was Benjamin B. Dailey. His
service record shows that on April 27, 1882, L. C. Latham, mem-
ber of Congress from North Carolina, recommended him to the
superintendent of the Life-Saving Service for a gold medal "for
gallant conduct in connection with the loss of the Goodman.'' The
Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving
Service for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1886 (Washington,
G. P. O., 1886), pp. 162-3, records that on December 22, 1885, "the
crew of the Hatteras Station, (Sixth District,) coast of North
Carolina, under the leadership of Keeper Benjamin B. Dailey,
assisted by Keeper Patrick H. Etheridge, performed one of the
most heroic feats in the annals of the Life-Saving Service, by the
rescue of nine men composing the crew of the barkentine Ephraim
Williams, of Providence, Rhode Island. . . . The boat's crew, con-
sisting of Keeper Benjamin B. Dailey and Surfmen Isaac L. Jen-
nett, Thomas Gray, John H. Midgett, Jabez B. Jennett, and Charles
Fulcher, of the Cape Hatteras Station, and Keeper Patrick H.
Etheridge, of the Creed's Hill Station, were awarded medals of
the first class for their conspicuous bravery."
In the face of apparently negative or contradictory evidence, and
in the lack of more definite local testimony confirming the circum-
stances related in the ballad, it is difficult to account for 'The Song
of Dailey's Life-Boat.' Was it an off-the-record story of an actual
incident, or was it a fictitious story invented by some jealous de-
tractor as a libel on a brave man? Or was it an adaptation of an
older ballad made by someone who wished to give verisimilitude by
inserting the names of actual local people?
I When the tempest was raging
And the seas running high
The little Clara May
Came skudding down by.
Ah, she struck on the bar
NORTH CAROLINA BALLADS 673
And she sunk all in the cold,
Almost in hailing distance
Of the life boat.
Chorus:
Oh, come with your life boat,
Come with your life boat!
She will stand the raging storm.
Come with your life boat,
Come with your life boat!
Ah, Dailey will come take us
In his life boat.
'Lay aloft, jolly sailors,
And don't fall to sleep,'
Cries our brave captain,
'Or you'll drop all in the deep ;
For the night sinks apace
And the day is coming on,
And we soon shall see the coming
Of the life boat.'
Now the darkness has vanished
And the sun is shining too ;
The Life-Saving Station
Is plain to our view.
And the men we can see
As they walk along the strand ;
But nothing of the coming
Of the life boat.
We are cold, wet, and hungry,
We are tired and sick,
But close to the topmast
We are compelled to stick ;
So we will think of our wives
And our little ones at home,
And wave our hats and jackets
For the life boats.
'Hurrah!' cries the sailors,
'A sail is in view !'
[The] Mary Lo[u]ise
Came boiling thru the slue.
Oh, she crosses the bar
And she heaves to the wind ;
'Hurrah! I see them lowering
The yaul boat !'
674 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
6 Oh, God speed the yaul boat,
God speed the yaul boat.
Help her to brave the raging storm ;
Oh, God speed the yaul boat,
God speed the yaul boat !
Oh, Captain Joseph Gaskins tuck us
In his life boat.
7 Here's a word to my shipmates
Who is passing this way :
Give Diamond Shoals a berth
By night as well as by day ;
For if you are stranded
And cannot reach the shore
You need not look for a sucker^
From the life boat.
8 For you'll not see the life boat,
You'll not see the life boat.
Although she would stand the raging storm ;
You'll not see the life boat,
You'll not see the life boat.
For Dailey will not venture
In his life boat.
9 Oh, where is the life boat.
Where is the life boat?
She can stand the raging storm.
Oh, where is the life boat.
Where is the life boat?
Oh, Dailey, can't you venture
In your life boat?