Bluegrass Messengers

Sailor Boy & his Faithful Mary- (Lon) c.1820 Pitts

[D. "Sailor Boy and his Faithful Mary" ("A sailor's life is a merry life") Pitts printer, Wholesale Toy and marble war[e]house. 6 Great st Andrew street 7 dils [sic] London,  1819 and 1844.

The "Sailor Boy and his Faithful Mary" begins similar to and was modeled after B.  It was printed by J. Harkness, of Preston at 121, Church-street; between 1840 and 1866. It also appeared on a panel opposite "Sailor Boy" printed by Pitts between 1819 and 1844. It introduces a new stanza, the 2nd.

Although D has a similar opening as B, it introduces new stanzas and shows the effect of tradition. Identifiers include "Queen's ship," "green island" and "sat down and wrote a song."

R. Matteson 2017]

Sailor Boy and his Faithful Mary

A sailor's life is a merry life:
They rob young women of their heart's delight,
Leaving them behind to sigh and mourn:
And never know when they will return.

Four-and-twenty sailors, in a row;
And my sweet William cuts the brightest show.
He is proper, tall, genteel with all,
If I don't have him I'll have none at all.

Father, bring me a little boat
That I may on the ocean float,
And every Queen's ship that I pass by
I may enquire for my sailor boy."

She had not sailed on the deep
When a queen's ship she chanc'd to meet.
You sailors all, pray tell me true,
Does my sweet William sail among your crew?

O no, fair lady, he is not here,
For he is drowned, I greatly fear.
On yon green island as we pass by
There we lost sight of our sailor boy.

Then she sat down for to write a song,
She wrote it freely and she wrote it long
At every verse she dropt a tear
Saying at the bottom, I have lost my dear.

She wrung her hands and tore her hair,
Jut like a woman in great despair,
Her little boat against a rock did run:
Saying, how can I live now my William's gone.

She wrung her hands and tore her hair,
Jut like a woman in great despair,
She flung her body into the deep
In her William's arms to lay fast asleep.