Short Jacket

Short jacket and blue trousers,
This fair one she put on;
Just like some jolly seaman bold,
She'd gaily move along.
She bargained with one Captain Roth,
To work her passage free;
For to go and seek her own true-love,
'Twas on the raging sea.

One night she sat a-dozing,
She were going to her bed;
The captain hove a smile and said,
"I wish you were a maid.
Your cherry cheeks and ruby lips,
Have all enticed me;
I oft' times wish within my heart,
You were the maid for me."

"Come hold your tongue, dearest captain,
Your talk is all in vain;
For if our sailors would come to know,
They would make sport and game.
For when that we do reach the shore,
Some handsome girls we'll find;
For to rove along with those fair lads,
That always were inclined."

It's about a few days after,
We reached the Irish shore;
"Here's adieu, here's adieu, here's adieu, captain,
Here's adieu forevermore.
A sailor once I been on board,
A maid I reach the shore;
Here's adieu, here's adieu, here's adieu, captain,
Here's adieu forevermore."

"Come turn you back, you fair one,
Come turn you back to me;
A sailor once you been on board,
A lady you might be."
"A sailor once I been on board,
A maid I reach the shore;
Here's adieu, here's adieu, here's adieu, captain,
Here's adieu forevermore."

####.... Author unknown. Variant of a British broadside ballad, The Maid In Sorrow, [Laws N12] American Balladry From British Broadsides (G. Malcolm Laws, 1957) ....####

Collected in 1929 from Mrs. Tom White and published as #46 in Ballads And Sea Songs Of Newfoundland by Elisabeth Bristol Greenleaf and Grace Yarrow Mansfield (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1933; Folklore Associates, Hatboro, PA, 1968). A variant was also collected in 1958 from Mrs. Charlotte Decker of Parson's Pond, NL, by Ken Peacock, and published as Blue Jacket And Whte Trousers in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 2, pp.327-328, by The National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.