Golden Vanity- Scott (NS) pre1950 Creighton B
[From: Traditional Songs from Nova Scotia by Helen Creighton (1899– 1989) Creighton and Doreen Senior. Five versions of Child 286 were published. Here's a few brief biographical bits from the Maine Folklife Center:
Helen Creighton was born into an old and distinguished Halifax family in 1899 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. She was born with a caul, a folkloric sign of good fortune. In the 1920s, she began to write travel pieces, fiction, and stories for the radio.
Creighton began her career as a folk music collector in 1928. In 1931 Creighton found a partner in her efforts; the English folklorist Doreen Senior. During the 1930s the pair traveled throughout Nova Scotia gathering folksongs. Creighton sought out the informants and recorded song lyrics, while Senior transcribed the music. Creighton and Senior published Twelve Folk Songs from Nova Scotia in 1941; and Traditional Songs from Nova Scotia in 1950.
R. Matteson 2014]
B. Golden Vanity- Sung by Mr. Andrew Scott, Enfield.
1. There was a rich merchant ship from the northern counteree,
The ship was the Golden Vanity,
They scared they'd be taken by the Spanish enemy
That sailed up on the lowland lowland sea,
That sailed upon the the lowland sea.
2. Then up spoke a youth, he was a cabin boy,
He said to the captain, "Oh what will you give me
If I swim beside the Spanish enemy
And sink her in the lowland lowland sea,
And sink her in the lowland sea?"
3. "Oh I will give you silver and I will give you gold,
And my only daughter your bride shall be
If you swim beside the Spanish enemy
And sink her in the lowland lowland sea,
And sink her in the lowland sea."
4. Then the boy made ready and overboard sprang he,
And he swam alongside the Spanish enemy,
And with his auger sharp in her side he bore holes three
And he sank her in the lowland lowland sea,
And he sank her in the lowland sea.
5. Then the boy turned round and back again swam he,
He called to the skipper of the Golden Vanity,
But the skipper would not heed, from his promise would be freed
So he left him in the lowland lowland sea,
So he left him in the lowland sea.
6. Then the boy turned round and swam to the port side,
He called to his messmates and so bitterlee he cried.
"Oh messmates pick me up for I'm drifting with the tide
And I'm sinking in the lowland lowland sea,
I'm sinking in the lowland sea."
7. Then his messmates picked him up but upon the deck he died,
They wrapped him in his hammock which was so long and wide,
They lowered him overboard and he drifted with the tide
And he sank beneath the lowland lowland sea,
And he sank beneath the lowland sea.