Golden Vanity- (Eastern Seaboard) 1963 Warner
[From: Folk Songs and Ballads of the Eastern Seaboard: From a Collector's Notebook (page 52) by Frank Warner (1963) from a series of lectures. I'm not sure of the source of this ballad because I don't have access to the booklet. I assume it's from the Outer Banks in North Carolina (1940s-1950s) but it's not in the Traditional American Folk Songs book.
R. Matteson 2014]
Folk Songs and Ballads of the Eastern Seaboard (1963):
It is "The Golden Vanity," which is about as widely known as some of the other songs we have been singing today. It has gone all over the world. Remember that these fellows are sitting around bunks underneath the low decks, with a fiddle or a banjo, and they are singing to the roll of the ship. That is the sort of of feeling you get. This is what you might call a fo'c'sle song, a song that the boys sang in the forecastle
The Golden Vanity
There was a lofty ship, and she put out to sea,
And the name of this ship was the Golden Vanity,
As she sailed upon the lowlands lonesome low,
As she sailed upon lonesome sea.
We had not been out but two weeks or three,
When we were overtaken by a Turkish reveille,
As we sailed upon the lowlands lonesome low,
As we sailed upon the lonesome sea.
Then up spake our little cabin boy,
Saying, "What will you give me if I will them destroy,
And sink them in the lowlands, lonesome low,
And sink 'em in the lonesome sea?"
"To him that them destroys," the captain then replied,
"Five thousand pounds, and my daughter for his bride,
If he sinks them in the lowlands, lonesome low,
If he sinks them in the lonesome sea.
Then the boy bent his breast, and away swum he,
And he swum till he come to that Turkish reveille,
As she sailed upon the lowlands lonesome low,
As she sailed upon the lonesome sea.
Well, he had a little tool made just for the use,
And he bored nine holes in her hull all at once
And he sunk her in the lowlands lonesome low,
And he sunk her in the lonesome sea."
Then he swum back to his ship, and he beat against her side,
Saying, "Captain, lift me up, for I am sinking with the tide,
I am sinking in the lowlands lonesome low,
I am sinking in the lonesome sea."
"I will not lift you up," the Captain then replied,
"I'll shoot you, I'll drown you,
I'll sink you in the tide,
I'll sink you in the lowlands lonesome low,
I'll sink you in the lonesome sea."
We are talking about the use of songs and, of course, work songs. . .