The Gallant Ship- Greene (VT) pre1941 Flanders B
[From Flanders; Ancient Ballads; 1966; Her E version dated 1904 was already printed by Barry in the JAFL. Notes by Coffin although they may be by Flanders in this case. She refers to Sharp 1 (as in first edition) but it should be Sharp 2 (the 1932 edition).
R. Matteson Jr. 2014]
The Mermaid
(Child 289)
It is an established belief among sailors that it is unhappy to sail on Friday and that mermaids both bode bad weather and lead ships to destruction. The ship in "The Mermaid" is therefore doomed. It goes down, carrying the crew to Davy Jones's locker. In Child's A text, the tragedy of the voyage is retained, though a bit sentimentally; however, in the Child B-D series the mood lightens and nobody seems to care very much. American versions, with their "stormy winds" refrain, follow this B-D tradition and are generally close to print and full of spirit. This is undoubtedly because of the popularity of the ballad in college songbooks and in the music halls of Britain and America during the last 150 years. See Coffin, 158, for a start on the extensive bibliography to such material. He also gives references to the game-song and play-party uses to which the ballad has been put. Dean Smith, 88, and Belden, 101 (English), and Greig and Keith, 242, and Ord , 333-4 (Scottish) include British citations. Coffin, 157, gives a list of texts from oral tradition in America. The Flanders material and all but one of the versions referred to there are much alike.
The three tunes for Child 289 are related, but fairly distantly.
B. As sung by Charles A. Greene of Woodstock, Vermont. Learned when a young man. M. Olney, Collector; June 2, 1941.
The Gallant Ship
One Friday morn as we set sail,
And we were not far from land
When the captain spied a pretty fair maid,
With a comb and a glass in her hand.
[Then something about a storm. They realized they were helpless, when:]
Then first spoke the captain of our gallant ship,
A fine spoken man was he,
Saying, "I have a wife in fair Yorkshire town,
And a widow I fear she will be."
Then up spoke the mate of our gallant ship,
A fine spoken man was he,
Saying, "I have a sweetheart in fair Dublin town
And tonight she'll be looking for me."
Then up spoke the cook of our gallant ship,
And a very fine cook was he,
Saying, "I care more for my kettles and my pans
Than ail of the depths of the sea."
Then up spoke the cabin boy of our gallant ship,
A fine spoken lad was he,
Saying, "I have a mother in a fair Vermont town
Who this night is praying for, [1]
Who this night is praying for me."
Then three times 'round went our gallant ship,
And three times 'round went she,
And three times 'round went our gallant ship
And she sank to the bottom of the sea.
1. It could be a mistake or lapse here. Perhaps this was sung similarly to the extended last line versions:
Who this night is praying for me, for me,
Who this night is praying for me."