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Oh, Harbour Grace is a very nice place
And so is the Bay of Islands,
So we give three cheers for Carbonear
When the boys comes home from swilin'.
Georgie he could build a boat
And he's the boy could drive her,
He's the boy could catch the fish
And take them home to Lizer.
I love to set by the big hot stove
And watch the kittle b'ilin',
Daddy will buy the baby a frock
When the boys comes home from swilin'.
Oh, Uncle George he went to town
To buy I aye some cotton,
If he don't bring the flowery stuff
He needn't bring I nottin'.
Now we're bound for Carbonear
With our bright colors flyin',
The girls will wear new sealskin pants
When the boys comes home from swilin'.
Billy was our captain bold,
And Georgie our commander,
But a great big sea washed over he
And drowned the Newfoundlander.
We'll all go down for Mackety Bay
And dere we'Il stay for de winter,
We'll all set down to a very good feed
With mussels in the corner.
Collected in 1950 from John Obe Smith of Glen Haven, NS, by Edith Fulton Fowke (Literary Edtor) and Richard Johnston (Music Editor) and published in Folk Songs Of Canada (Waterloo Music Company, Waterloo, Ontario, 1954). Recorded by Dick Nolan, Lukey's Boat (Arc AS-810). Also recorded by The Immigrants of Hamilton, Ontario (In Between Before And After, Trip The Light Productions, Toronto, 1995).
Harbour Grace is west of St. John's, on the western side of Conception Bay, NL.
From the Dictionary Of Newfoundland English:
Swiling - sealing.
