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Ye seamen bold, as I have been told,
Of the stormy sea and the briny flow,
If you'll listen to me it's a song I'll sing,
It will put you in mind of a sailor's dream.
If you'll listen to me it's a song I'll sing,
It will put you in mind of as sailor's dream.
We were homeward bound on the raging deep,
Locked in my hammock I fell asleep;
I dreamed a dream, oh, I thought it true,
Concerning Franklin and his bold crew.
I dreamed a dream, oh, I thought it true,
Concerning Franklin and his bold crew.
As we sailed east, as we sailed west,
The course of Greenland I thought it best;
With four hundred seamen of courage bold,
With their hearts undaunted and their courage bold.
With for hundred seamen of courage bold,
With their hearts undaunted and their courage bold.
As we drew nigh the Alma shore,
A lady wept as she did implore;
She wept so loudly and this did say,
Did you see my Franklin who is far away?
She wept so loudly and this did say,
Did you see my Franklin who is far away?
There is Captain Ross of our town,
And Admiral Perry of a high renown;
There is my bold Franklin like many more,
Who have often crossed o'er the Arctic shore.
There is my bold Franklin like many more,
Who have often crossed o'er the Arctic shore.
Trying to find a passage 'round the North Pole,
Where lightning flashes loud cannons roar;
Where trials and dangers do now lie low,
Through fields of ice where our ship got stove.
Where trials and dangers do now lie low,
Through fields of ice where our ship got stove.
In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow,
The death of Franklin there is no man knows;
At last he's gone like many more,
Who have left his home to return no more.
At last he's gone like many more,
Who have left his home to return no more.
Collected in 1951 from Alphonse Sutton of Trepassey, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
A condensed variant was collected in 1929 from Stephen John Lewis of Fleur de Lys, NL, and published as Lady Franklin's Lament in Ballads And Sea Songs Of Newfoundland, #151c, by Elisabeth Bristol Greenleaf and Grace Yarrow Mansfield (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1933; Folklore Associates, Hatboro, PA, 1968.)
