There Was A Little Ship- Duvall (OK) pre1964 Moore
[From: Ballads and Folk Songs from the Southwest Moores 1964. Since no information is given about the date of this ballad, which should probably date c. 1900 at least to when when Duvall came to Oklahoma, the date is pre1964.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)
The ballad of The Sweet Trinity (Child, No. 286) is very widespread in Oklahoma, as it is elsewhere in the United States. Texts and references are in the following: Belden, 97-100; Brewster, 158-63; Chappell, 43-45; Child, V, 135-42; Cox, 169-71; Creighton and Senior, 101-106; Davis, 5 16-20; Gardner and Chickerin g, 214-15 ; Greenleaf and Mansfield, 43; Hudson, 125-27; Iournal, Vol. XVIII, t2S (Barry), Vol. XXIII, 429 (Belden), Vol. XXX, 331 (Kittredge), Vol. LII, 1t-12 (Treat); McGill, 97; Morris, 326-28; Randolph, I, 195-201; Sandburg, 343; Scarborough, Song Catcher, 184-89; Sharp I, 282-90; and Wyman and Brockway, 72-75.
There was a Little Ship, sung by Walter May (Dick) Duvall of Reed. Mr. Duvall was born in Llano County, Texas, in 1882. As a young man he was a cowboy working on ranches located in the forks of the Pease rivers. He came to Oklahoma Territory in 1900, when he bought the ranch where he now lives.
There was a little ship in the northern country,
And it went by the name of the Merry Golden Tree.
It sailed on the low land low,
It sailed on the lonesome sea.
One day a little boy come running on deck,
Saying, "Captain, oh Captain, what'll you give unto me,
To sink the Turkish Reveree,
To sink her in the low land low?
I'll send her to the bottom of the sea."
"I'll give you gold and I'll give you silver;
A pretty little maid I'll marry unto thee
If you sink that Turkish Reveree,
If you'll sink her in the bottom of the low land low,
If you'll sink her in the bottom of the sea."
He bowed his breast and down swum he,
Bored nine holes in the bottom of the salt-water goose;
He sunk her in the low land low,
He sunk her to the bottom of the lonesome sea.
Back to the captain, "Captain, oh Captain, will you
Fill all the promises that you made unto me?
I sank that Turkish Reveree,
I've sank her in the low land low;
She's on the bottom of the lonesome sea."
"f 'll neither give you gold nor silver;
A pretty little maid I'll not marry unto thee.
I'll leave you in the low land low,
I'm going to leave you in the lonesome sea."
"Captain oh Captain, if it wasn't for your men,
I'd do unto you as I done unto them.
I'd leave you in the low land low,
I'd send you to the bottom of the lonesome sea.
He bowed his head and down sank he,
And he bade farewell to the Merry Gold Tree
As she sailed on the low land low,
As she sailed on the lonesome sea.