The Mermaid- Jessup (CT) 1951 Flanders C
[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).
This lines in the first stanza are not correct but Flanders left them the way they were sent. Here's the first line:
It was on a Friday's evening that gallant ship did sail,
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.
C. Mailed to H. H. F. by Mrs. Sara Taylor, New Bedford, Massachusetts, as sung by Uysses S. Jessup of Connecticut. Copied literatim et punctatim. H. H. F. Collector January, 1951.
The Mermaid
It was on a Friday's evening
That gallant ship did sail
And we not far from shore
The first we came across
Was the Captain of our ship,
And a well spoken man was he,
I have a wife in New York City,
And to night she'll be weeping for me
Chorus
Oh blow you winds oh blow
While we poor sailors go skipping from the tops,
And the land lubbers lie down below below below
And the land lubbers lie down below.
The next we came across was two sailors of the ship,
And two well spoken boys were they,
We have a father and a mother in New York City
And to night they'll be weeping for us.
(Chorus)
The next we came across was the cook of our ship
And a black old devil was she,
I care much more for my kettles and my pots,
Than I do for the rolling of the sea.
(Chorus)
Then three times around went our noble gallant ship,
And three times around went she
Then three times around went our noble gallant ship
'Till she sank to the bottom of the sea.
Chorus