The Golden Vanity- Gott (ME) 1925 Barry A
[From Barry and all in British Ballads from Maine, 1929. My title, as a title was not given for this version.
This ballad is found throughout across the US dating back to the early to mid 1800s. The chorus,
As we sailed along the lowlands, lowlands, lowlands,
As we sailed along the lowlands low.
as above or in a similar form was attached to different songs. Certainly a date going back to the 1700s is possible but yet not documented. Barry et all (see below in notes) comment: "One could hardly have better evidence of the date when it came to America. 'With the very first emigrants' is the only answer."
They also add: During the Civil War "lowlands," variously rewritten, was one of the most popular songs.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE GOLDEN VANITY
(Child 286)
"The Golden Vanity" appears to be entirely traditional in Maine. We know no copy in any broadside or early songbook, yet the song was known all over Maine, particularly along the coast, and even to the shores of the St. Lawrence; but we did not happen to find it on the Border, possibly because we saw none of the fishermen. We have not found the "happy ending" of Child B. Instead, our copies end with the death and burial of the intrepid cabin boy. None of Child's traditional copies are very old, and it may be that the American version is as much older than the happy ending versions as it is more effective in singing. During the Civil War "lowlands," variously rewritten, was one of the most popular songs.
This is another of the songs found equally along the Maine seacoast and in the Appalachian highlands; and like those notieed before, it is one of the older ballads, well known in England at a period before the emigration to America began. Indeed the subject matter insures its having been exceedingly popular at just the period when the English settlers were thronging to America; for in one version it is the Turk who is the enemy, and in the other it is Sir Walter Raleigh who is the hero, and both Turk and Raleigh, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, were what today would be called "front-page stories."
Though Walter Raleigh might be called almost the patron of all early adventurers to Virginia, the A-text of Child, bearing his name, does not seem as popular as the other text about the Golden Vanity. Copies containing some mangled form of the name of The Sweet Trinity are found in the South, but in New England the Golden Vanity is usually understood to be the vessel's name, indicating a preference for Child's B text. We do not recall a copy containing the line, "In the Neatherlands," so characteristic of Child A, but always, "the Lowlands" as in B. After all, except for the difference in the burdens, the two versions are closely similar. What is important is that a song which must have reached the height of its popularity in England at the period when colonists were leaving for the New World, should be found in the characteristic "split" texts in the southern Highlands balancing other not dissimilar texts found on the Maine seacoast. One could hardly have better evidence of the date when it came to America. "With the very first emigrants" is the only answer.
A. [Golden Vanity] From Capt. Lewis Freeman Gott, Bernard, 1925.
1 'Twas all on board a ship down in a southern sea,
And she goes by the name of the Golden Vanity;
I'm afraid that she'll be taken by this Spanish crew,
As she sails along the Lowlands,
As she sails along the Lowlands low.
2 Then up speaks our saucy cabin boy without fear or joy,
Saying, "What will you give me, if I will her destroy?"
"I'll give you gold and silver, my daughter fine and gay,
If you'll destroy her in the Lowlands,
If you'll sink her in the Lowlands low."
3 The boy filled his chest and so boldly leaped in,
The boy filled his chest and he began to swim;
He swam alongside of that bold Spanish ship,
And he sank her in the Lowlands,
And he sank her in the Lowlands low.
4 Some were playing cards and some were playing dice,
And some were in their hammocks sleeping very nice;
He bored two holes into her side, he let the water in,
And he sank her in the Lowlands,
And he sank her in the Lowlands low.
5 The boy then swam back unto our good ship's side,
And being much exhausted, bitterly he cried;
"Captain take me in, for I'm going with the tide,
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands,
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands low."
6 "I will not take you in," our captain then replied,
"I'll shoot you, I'll stab you, and I'll sink you in the tide,
And I'll sink you in the Lowlands,
And I'll sink you in the Lowlands low."
7. The boy then swam around next the larboard side,
And being more exhausted, bitterly he cried,
"Messmates, take me in, for I'm going with the tide,
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands,
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands low."
8. They hove the boy a rope and they hoisted him on deck,
They laid him going quarter deck, the boy here soon died;
They sewed him up in a canvas sack, they hove him in the tide,
And they buried him in the Lowlands,
So they buried him in the Lowlands low.
This text is nearest to "The Little Cabin Boy" (printed by P.B., with the air, in JAFL, XVIII, 126-127), a Vermont version of fifteen stanzas, which names the ships, respectively, "The Gold China Tree," and "The French Galilee," and brings the story to a happy ending.