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Our captain called all hands and away tomorrow,
Leaving those girls behind in grief and sorrow;
Dry up those briny tears and leave off weeping,
How happy shall us be at our next meeting.
"What makes you go abroad fighting for strangers?
Why don't you stay on shore free from all danger?
I will roll you in my arms, my dearest jewel,
So stay on shore with me, love, don't prove cruel."
Down on the ground she fell like one a-dying,
Spreading her arms abroad, saying and sighing:
"There is no belief in men, not my own brother,
So, girls, if you can love, love one another.
"Fare you well my dear friends all, father and mother,
'Tis your only daughter dear, you have no other;
'Tis in vain to weep for me for I am going
To seek the lad I love, he proved my undoing,
'Tis in vain to weep for me for I am going
To everlasting joy where fountains flowing."
Collected in 1958 from Mrs. Freeman Bennett (1908-2006) of St. Paul's, NL by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 2, pp.416-417, by The National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
Kenneth Peacock noted that the Cecil Sharp manuscripts contain two versions of this song collected in England in 1904 and 1908. Vaughan Williams noted a tune for it which he says was adapted from the Bunyan hymn He Who Would Valiant Be. Peacock added that he was not familiar with this apparently well-known hymn, but the Newfoundland tune does sound unusually 'hymny' for a folk song. Perhaps it is related to the one Vaughan Williams noted. The text is very similar to the Sharp variants, though a little more complete. Another almost identical variant was collected from Arthur Nicolle in Rocky Harbour, NL, and the last two lines of the text are his.
