Bold Gallantry- Angell (RI) c.1821 Flanders II
[I'm listing it under the informant's father because she learned it from him. This takes the date nearly back to the 1700s. Below are Coffin's introductory notes from Flanders' Ancient Ballads. This ballad covers over 80 pages, the most extensive collection published.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Sweet Trinity or the Golden Vanity
(Child 286)
This ballad is immensely popular in America and not hard to find in Britain. It dates back to a broadside of the 1680's in which the deceitful captain is Sir Walter Raleigh. (See Flanders FF.) Since then it has taken many forms and may conclude in any number of ways. The Flanders texts give an excellent cross section of the plot variations found in this ballad. In A-T the boy drowns in the lowlands low. In U, he sinks the captain's ship as well as that of the enemy before he drowns. In V, he also sinks the captain's ship and there is only one survivor to tell the tale. In W, he sinks the captain's ship, ironically drowning the girl he loved with the crew. In X, he dies after being hauled on deck. In EE his ghost returns to treat the captain to a glass of beer before sinking the boat. In FF-JJ, the heroic lad is rewarded with a leave of absence, the daughter's hand, or gold and silver. Of these texts, A1, with the stanzas on the phantom ship, and R, with the lines borrowed from "The Mermaid" (Child 289) are noteworthy. So are V, with its one survivor, like Melville's Ishmael; and FF, which preserves the name of Raleigh, if not the ending, from Child A" The vessel's name, originally The Sweet Trinity, varies greatly in America, becoming The Golden Vanity, The Green Willow Tree, The Merry Golden Tree, and so on. Its opponent, sunk by the cabin boy, was "a false galley" in the old broadside, but it is more likely a Turkish (or Russian, Irish, French, etc.) Revelee or "Shavaree" (sloop) in the States.
There is a certain preposterous quality to this song, and college students and music hall writers have exploited this fact in a series of parodies. see Coffin, 155, for references. Perhaps for the same reason, it has been extremely popular with sailors.
A long bibliography for "The Sweet Trinity" is easy to come by. See coffin, 153-5 (American); Dean-Smith, 69; Belden, 97 (English); Greig and Keith, 228-9, and Ord, 450-1 (Scottish). Phillips Barry, British Ballad's from Maine, 339-47, includes and discusses it. There is a song, once in a while confused with "The Sweet Trinity," called "The Low-lands Low." while it has a similar burden, it tells a very different story and goes back to an English stall ballad, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (Laws M 34), that was well known here and in Britain, see Laws, ABBB, 197-8; Belden, 127; and Dean-smith, 118, for some references to it.
The tunes for Child 286 can be divided into six groups which, however, may turn out to be related at least to some extent. The groupings are as follows: (1) Davis, Edwards, Moses, Burditt, and possibly Pease; (2) George, Daniels, Houghton; (3) Henry, Blake, George, Barry; (4) Clarke, Cassidy, Richards, Dragon; (5) Ingalls; and (6) Fish and Percival. The Ingalls runs seems to be a version of the popular "Canada-I-O." In order to save repetition, the tune relationships for standard collections are given here. Only relatively close tunes have been selected. from the large number available. In spite of their profusion, however, there is a lack of analogues for groups (2) and (6). For group (3), see Sharp I, 282-285, 2B9 I; FCB 4, 120, 47 A, 121 A (I), 123 C (I) ; BES, 346, ROI, 195, 200 (D); BI, 160. For group (3), especially the Blake rune, see BES, 34b (distant). For group (4) see Sharp l, 287, 288 G; GCM, 214; ROI, 200.
II. "Bold Gallantry" sent by Mrs. Forest A. Elkins, 113 Willington Avenue, Stafford, Springs, Conn. She wrote, "My father, James P. Angell, from whom I learned it, was born in Rhode Island, and, was a descendant of Thomas Angell who came with Roger Williams to settle Rhode Island, and, he learned, the song from his mother, who was a Brown, another pioneer family of
Rhode Island. As far as I can figure out, the song has been known in our family one hundred, and ten years at least."
H. H. F., Collector; August 4, 1931
Bold Gallantry
I have a ship in my own country.
It goes by the name of some Bold Gallantry.
I fear she will be taken by some Turkish galoo
As she sails along the lowlands, lowlands, lowlands,
As she sails along the lowlands, low.
Up steps a boy, to the captain did say,
"What will you give to me if her I'll destroy?,"
"I will give you gold and I will give you store
And you shall have my daughter dear
When you arrive on shore
If you'll sink her in the lowlands, lowlands, lowlands,
If you'll sink her in the lowlands, low."
This boy had an auger he'd brought from the shore.
Instead of boring one hole, 'twould bore twenty-four.
while some were playing cards and others shaking dice,
He let the water in and he dazzled all their lives
And he sank them in the lowlands, lowlands, lowlands,
And he sank them in the lowlands, low.
This boy he won gold and silver bright,
This boy he won gold and silver bright,
This boy he won gold and silver bright,
Likewise the captain's daughter
Who was his heart's delight,
For he sank her in the lowlands, lowlands, lowlands,
For he sank her in the lowlands, low.