The Sailor Boy- Eileen Bleakney (OT-IR) c.1878
[From "Folk-Lore from Ottawa and Vicinity" by F. Eileen Bleakney in The Journal of American Folklore, Volume 31, published April 1, 1918. Bleakney's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
This song, and also Nos. 9 and 10, have been taught me by my aunts, the Misses Boville, who learned them about forty years ago from ballad-singers in the streets of Belfast, Ireland. These singers, who were often old sailors or soldiers, went about from place to place with their ballads, printed on loose sheets, slung over their arm. The saying, "There is a hole in the ballad," meaning that one has partly forgotten a song, probably originated from this custom, and the fact that such sheets were sometimes torn. (Compare p. 170.)
The Sailor Boy. Sung by F. Eileen Bleakney who learned it from her aunts, the Misses Boville. Her aunts learned it from ballad-singers in the streets of Belfast, Ireland about 1878.
"O father, father! get me a boat,
That on the ocean I may float,
To watch the small boats as they pass by,
That I may inquire for my sailor boy."
They had not long sailed on the deep
Till a boat of Frenchmen they chanced to meet.
"O captain, captain! tell me true,
Does my love Willie sail on board with you?"
"What kind of clothes does your Willie wear?
What kind of a lad is your Willie dear?" —
"A jacket of the royal blue.
He is easily known, for his heart is true."
" 'Twas on yon green isle as we passed by;
'Twas there we lost a fine sailor-boy.
He wore a jacket of the royal blue,
. . . . . .
"Make me a grave both broad and long,
And at head and feet put a marble stone;
And in the middle a turtle-dove,
To show the world that I died of love."