Father, Father Build Me a Boat- Ellen Sullivan (VT) 1939 Flanders
[From: Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College Special Collections & Archives,
Track 03c. Classification #: LAK12.
Partially transcribed from recitation- almost impossible to understand.
Listen: https://archive.org/details/HHFBC_tapes_D70B
R. Matteson 2017]
Father Father Build Me a Boat (Sailor Boy I) - recitation performance by Ellen M Sullivan at Springfield (Vt.). Dated 11-10-1939.
Father father build me a boat,
...
...
Until I can find my sailor boy
She had not sailed but a mile or two
Oh captain captain oh tell me true,
Did my love Willie come aboard with you?
On the green island that we passed by,
It's there I lost your sailor boy.
She wrung her hands and she tore her hair,
Like one distracted in despair,
She set her small boat again the rock,