The Golden Banneree- Wyatt (VA) 1922 Davis B
[From Davis, Traditional Ballads Of Virginia- 1929, his notes are below. Somehow this version became titled, "The Golden Vanity"--I've changed it to the proper title.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE SWEET TRINITY (THE GOLDEN VANITY)
(Child, No. 286)
Our complete text, A, and five more or less fragmentary ones, with one tune, have been found in Virginia. The titles are 'The Lowlands Low," "The Green Willow Tree," "The Golden Vanity," "Turkeyrogherlee and the Yellow Golden Tree," and "Sailing in the Lowlands Low." All the Virginia items are printed here. They are all closely related to the Child C version, as shown especially by the final death of the cabin boy, either from exhaustion in the sea, as in A, or on deck, as in B. But there are verbal suggestions of other versions; for instance stanza 1 of the Virginia E fragment suggests Child B 9. Several Virginia texts of a later "Lowlands low" song, also known in Virginia as "Young Edmund," which belong to the English song of "Younq Edwin in the Lowlands Low" have of course been excluded as out of place here. The story of the ballad is given with fair completemess in Virginia A.
B. ["The Golden Banneree"] "The Golden Vanity," Collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Mr. J. A. Wyatt, King William County. September 11, 1922.
1 There was a ship and she sailed across the sea,
And they called her The Golden Banneree.
First on deck there was a cabin boy:
"Captain, what'll you give me for the ship if I'll destroy,
If I sink her in the lowland sea?"
2 "I'll give you gold and silver," the captain he replied,
"And all the more I'll give you my daughter for your bride,
If you'll sink her in the lowland sea."
3 The boy grabbed the anchor and overboard he went;
The boy began to bow [1] and the ship began to sink,
And he sank her in the lowland sea.
4 The boy swam around to the other side:
"O captain, pull me in, for I'm drowning in the tide."
"I won't pull you in," the captain he replied,
"I'll never do, indeed, for my daughter to be your bride."
S "I'll cut you and I'll shoot you and I'll drown you in the tide,
And I'll bury you in the lowland sea."
6 The boy swam around to the other side:
"Mate, pull me in, for I'm drowning in the tide."
The mate pulled him in, and on deck he died.
7 They wrapped and they wound him so very neat and wide
And they buried him in the lowland sea. [2]
1. bore
2. stanza divisions as given in the original MS