The Mermaid- Short (MO) 1940 Randolph C
[From: Ozark Folksongs Volume 1; Randolph 1946. Notes follow by Randolph, my title.]
THE WRECKED SHIP
An Ozark version of "The Mermaid" (Child, English and, Scottish Popular Ballad. 1882-1898, No. 289). For British texts see Ebsworth (Roxburghe Ballads, VIII, 1896, p. 446), Baring-Gould (English Minstrelsie, VI, p.74), Buck (The Oxford. Song Book, 1916, p. 422).
Part of this piece has been used as a children's game, according to Gomme (Traditional Games, 1898, II, pp. 143, 422); see comment on this point by Botkin (American Play-party Song, 1937, p. 56). For American texts and references see JAFL (18: x905, p. 136; 22, 1909, p. 78), McGill (Folk-Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, 1917, p. 45), Shoemaker (North Pennsylvania Minstrelsy, 1919, p. 157), Cox (Folk-Songs of the South, 1925, p. 112). Add JAFL 25, 1912, p. 176, in which Belden reports a variant from Kirksville, Mo., where it is known as "The Shipwreck." This text, with a valuable headnote, is reprinted in Belden's Ballads and Songs (1940, pp. 101-102). "The Mermaid" appears in the forthcoming Brown (North Carolina Folk-Lore Society) collection. Chappell (Folk-Songs of Roanoke and the Albemarle, 1939, pp. 46-47) does not place this with British ballad survivals.
C. [The Mermaid] Contributed by Mrs. Leonard Short, Cabool, Mo., Mar. 31, 1940.
'Twas Friday night when we set sail
And 'twas not far from land,
When we all of us spied a pretty mermaid
With a comb and a glass in her hand,
With a comb and a glass in her hand.
Chorus: And the breaking waves dash high,
And the raging seas do roar,
Whilst we poor sailors go to the top
And the landlubbers lie down below, below,
And the landlubbers lie down below.
Then up stepped the captain of our gallant ship,
And a gallant man was he,
Saying I've got a wife in far London town
And tonight she's a widow for me, oh me,
And tonight she's a widow for me.
She will watch the stormy sky,
And she'll blame the cruel sea,
But she'll weep and watch for me in vain,
For I'll sleep at the bottom of the sea, salt sea,
For I'll sleep at the bottom of the sea.
Then up stepped the mate of our gallant ship,
And a gallant man was he,
Saying I've got a sweetheart in Plymouth town,
And tonight she's looking for me, oh me,
And tonight she's looking for me.
Then up stepped the lad of our gallant ship,
And a gallant lad was he,
Saying I've got a mother in Plymouth town,
And tonight she is weeping for me, oh me,
And tonight she is weeping for me.
Then three times round went our gallant ship,
Then three times round went she,
Then three times round went our gallant ship
And she sank to the bottom of the sea, salt sea,
And she sank to the bottom of the sea.