On Board Of The Victory

Oh, I am a fair young lady whose fortune has been great,
My tongue has scarce been able my sorrows to relate,
For loving of a young man beneath my own degree,
He was forced all from my arms on board of the Victory.

His eyes like shining diamonds, the arrows on the moon,
His cheeks were like two roses bloomed in the month of June,
He was manly in proportion to every degree,
And my heart lies in his bosom on board of the Victory.

It was my cruel parents who had him sent away,
It was my cruel father who sent my love to sea.
If he were born of noble blood and me of a low degree
They never would have sent that lad I love on board of the Victory.

As I lay on my pillow I dreamed I was at rest,
I dreamed I was a-lyng all on my love's sweet breast,
I dreamed I was enjoying my love's sweet company,
To be pulled close in his arms on board of the Victory.

####.... Author unknown. Variant of a British broadside ballad, On Board Of The Victory, printed by J. Pitts (London) between 1819 and 1844, and archived in the Bodleian Library of Broadside Ballads, Harding B 11(2846) ....####

Collected in 1959 from Mrs. Charlotte Decker of Parson's Pond, NL, by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 2, pp.484-485, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.

Kenneth Peacock noted that a three-verse variant from Nova Scotia appears in Helen Creighton's (1899-1989) Maritime Folk Songs. The tunes are different, but their melodic contours suggest they came from a common ancestor.

Notes: Launched in 1765, the Victory is best known as Admiral Nelson's flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar. She was commissioned in 1778 and retired from frontline duty in 1812. Still manned in dry dock by the Royal Navy, Victory is the world's oldest commissioned warship.