The Salt Sea- Rena Hicks (NC) pre1978 Burton
[From Thomas Burton's "Some Ballad Folks" 1978. This surely dates back to the early 1900s and beyond. This is a version of the Hicks/Harmon family and resembles Nora Hicks version. It was taken from her "ballit box" a collection of family ballad versions. This version dates back to at least the 1800s through her parents and immediate family. Two members of the Hicks family; David and his son. Big Sammy, were among the earliest settlers in the area before the Revolutionary War. Some stanzas which are incomplete can be filled out from Nora's version.
She (Mrs. Nathan Hicks) was also recorded by Herbert Halpert, Library of Congress AAFS recording 2856 A2. Rena was the wife of Nathan Hicks and the mother of Ray Hicks (storyteller) and mother-in-law of Frank Proffitt. She was the daughter of Andrew Jackson Hicks and Susan Ann Presnell. See also Lee Monro Presnell's version as well as Sam Harmon's version (his daughter's was collected by Mellinger Henry), Nora Hick's version and Jane Hicks Gentry's version.
The first two lines of the opening stanza are missing as well as the following middle stanza where only the first line was remembered:
She dressed her self in silk so fine
Most glorious to behold
And as she walked down towards the sea
She outshined glittering gold.
What is probably remainder of that stanza is found in a corrupt form as these three lines:
And as she walked toward the seashore,
She outshined the glittering gold.
She would look most glorious to be home (to behold).
R. Matteson 2016]
NOTES: As in other ballads, Mrs. Rena was concerned about the ethical conduct of the people involved. "I think she done a bad deed there when she married the carpenter and thought that much of him and had her baby and then died over them after she was gone. I've got a feelin' the man was right if she'd still been single; but after she was married, I feel he done wrong. I believe she felt she done wrong a'ter she got in conflict and couldn't change the situation-it was done over."
She had heard another ending to "The Salt Sea," perhaps stemming from another ballad she once sang, "Lowland Lonesome Low" ("The Sweet Trinity, The Golden Vanity," Child 286); but she didn't give the variation much credibility. "The ship sinks, but I heard she cut a leak in the ship; but it isn't in the song thataway, the way I heard it; they just come a leak in it. But if she did, I'd say she didn't want to live no longer; death would be easier than her life was. She couldn't help-that's God (that's what I believe)-the leak just come in it; and that's the way I always heard it: 'There come a leak in her truelove's ship.' Which, in a
way, I don't count it true love; in a way she had two of them. She should have kept her other love." The ethical problem here for Mrs. Rena seems to have been not that the ballad lady left her husband for a lover, but that she left her love for another love and regretted it too late. Had the ship not sunk, it may have been "done over." "I don't believe the husband would took her back a'ter she done that, that was if he was a true lover and truelove." But Mrs. Rena conceded: "And maybe he loved her good enough he'd took her back; it didn't matter what she would've done. I've knowed of that- them takin' them back, didn't
matter what they'd done, just to get 'em back, just thought that much of 'em."
The Salt Sea- from Rena Hicks, pre 1978, Beech Mountain NC.
"I come just from salt, salt sea,
And it's all for the love of thee.
"I could have married the king's daughter fair-
I'm sure she would have married me.
Oh, I refused a thousand weight of gold
All for the love of thee."
"Oh, if you could have married the king's daughter fair,
I am sure you are to blame;
For I am just married to a house carpenter,
And I think he's a fine young man."
"Oh, won't you leave your house carpenter
And go along with me?
I will take you where the grass grows so green
on the banks of sweet willie, on the banks of sweet willie."
"If I leave my house carpenter
And go along with you,
Do you have anything to contain me upon
To keep me from slavery?"
"I have seven ships all on the sea,
They are sailing for dry land;
Beside I have seven hundred brave seamen-
They all shall be at your command."
She dressed herself in silk so fine.
She picked up her little baby,
And kisses give it three.
"Oh, stay at home, my sweet little baby,
To keep your papa sweet company."
And as she walked toward the seashore,
She outshined the glittering gold.
She would look most glorious to be home[1].
They had not been on sea three weeks-
Not more than that I'm sure-
Until she fell a-weeping in her true lover's arms,
And she wept forevermore.
He says, "Are you weeping for my store,
Or either for my gold?
Are you just weeping for your sweet little baby
You never shall see anymore?"
"I am not weeping for your store,
Or for your gold;
I am just weeping for my sweet little baby
That I never shall see anymore."
They hadn't been on sea three months-
Not longer I am sure-
Before there came a leak in the true lover's ship,
And it sunk to rise no more.
A curse to all seamen,
A curse she give three.
1. to behold. These three line appear to be the conclusion of the single line: She dressed herself in silk so fine.