Towards The Sunset (Pat Byrne) with lyrics and video

#1366: YouTube video by townside99 ©2010.
~ Used with permission ~

Oh, swing her head 'round, we're heading for the wester',
Swing her head 'round, we're heading off the bay;
Oh, swing her head 'round, we're heading t'wards the sunset,
Towards the sunset, in search of yesterday.

All cares will vanish as soon as we clear Bertold,
And the seven combers that roll there day by day;
We're joined again with those who sail before us,
T'wards Chapereau or out to Golden Bay.

Our thoughts go back now to those trim Yankee bankers,
Taking bait on for Georges or the Briar;
And the song-sung men like those who sailed from Bruley,
Bound for St. Peters in the springtime of the year.

Lost in the mists are the ghosts of sturdy hunters,
From Rose-a-Rue still searching for the whale;
And the ghostly fleet forever beating win'ard,
Forever riding that fabled August gale.

And the ghosts of those who forever are returning,
From far aport or the Indies with their charms;
Driving bows under to make it home for Christmas,
To kitchen fires and women's waiting arms.

The Islands stand now like silent grey reminders,
Of times gone by when Nat was in his prime;
They hold the secret for all who wish to find it,
Forever flowing in blood like yours and mine.

####.... Pat Byrne, SOCAN, all rights reserved ....####

Recorded by Pat and Joe Byrne with Baxter Wareham (Towards The Sunset, Pigeon Inlet Productions, 1983, SingSong, Inc., 2003).

The YouTube video aboves features a live performance by Pat and Joe Byrne with Baxter Wareham at the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival on August 7, 2010.

From the American Meteorological Society Glossary:
Comber - large wave that rolls over or breaks on a beach, reef, etc.

From the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:
Bankers - fishing vessels engaged in cod-fishing on the Newfoundland offshore grounds, especially the Grand Banks.

General Notes:
Bruley (or Brule as it is sometimes spelled) - small community on Merasheen Island in Placentia Bay. The community has since been abandoned.
Cape Chapereau - blunt headland at the entrance of Placentia Bay.
Georges (Georges Bank) - large elevated area of the sea floor which separates the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean and is situated between Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia.
Golden Bay - settlement in Southern Newfoundland, within the Cape Saint Mary's Park Reserve.
Rose-a-Rue - desolate Newfoundland landfall, once the location of a whaling station operated by Norwegians, with a slipway for hauling out dead whales, a processing plant, living quarters for the whalers, and not much else.
St. Peters - from 1714 to 1764, the island of St. Pierre, Miquelon was an English possession. During that time, the name was anglicized to St. Peters, a name passed on by generations of Newfoundlanders.

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