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Ye landsmen and ye seamen bold,
Come listen to what I write,
Whilst crossing over those stormy seas,
I always took delight.
While ye are on the shore, brave boys,
It's little do ye know,
What we poor seamen do go through,
While stormy winds do blow.
You're always with your pretty, fair girls,
Telling to them fond tales,
The hardest work that ever you done
Was reaping the cornfields.
The wind came from the east-southeast,
And bitterly did blow,
The night was as dark as a dungeon,
It was on a lee shore we came.
Our captain stood and gave orders,
His orders to obey,
"Go forward, my boys, without delay,
Your fores'l to slack away."
Our captain stood and gave orders,
For us 'twas to be done,
'Twas under a two-reef fores'l,
Fifteen leagues to sea we run.
Early the next morning,
We sighted a desperate shore,
A vessel on her beam ends lay,
Five leagues from Mt. Bedford run.
Now, we sailed all around her,
Passing all remarks we could,
Two pumps before the mainmast,
And the roundhouse painted red.
The tower worked o'er the roundhouse,
And that proved very rare,
With a gooseneck on the end of it,
Light, as each man could stare.
We boarded her next morning,
We boarded her in haste,
There was death in every station,
And staring us in the face.
There was two lives frozen to the pond,
Five more in her cabin besides,
Like good seamen they done their work,
Like noble seamen died.
Some of our crew passed this remark,
"There is other dooms, I know,
The fore-course was cut from the fore-yardarm
To swivel on her bow."
And now we're on the shore, brave boys,
So lower your glass with rum,
The widows must mourn for their husbands,
And the mothers for darling sons.
This variant was collected in 1951 from Francis O'Brien 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 variant was collected in 1958 from Arthur Nicolle of Rocky Harbour, NL, by Ken Peacock and published as The Union From St. John's in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, pp.978-980, by The National Museum Of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
Two other variants were collected, one in 1976 from Moses Harris of Lethbridge, and one in 1980 from Pius Power, Sr. of Southeast Bight, NL, by Genevieve Lehr and Anita Best and published as #112, The Wreck Of The Union in Come And I Will Sing You: A Newfoundland Songbook, pp.190-193, edited by Genevieve Lehr (University of Toronto Press © 1985/2003).
Genevieve Lehr noted that an American broadside ballad The Wreck Of The Brig Union was discovered by Fannie Hardy Eckstrom and Mary Winslow Smyth and printed in their book Minstrelsy of Maine in 1927. According to them, the song was written in the early 1800s. However, the ship could possibly have been from Newfoundland since there were two (and possibly more) wrecks recorded of ships named the Union from Newfoundland around that time. Lehr also noted that Mr. Power's version is the closest of the two to the original broadside, which has Mount Desert's Rock instead of Mount Bernard Rock. Mr. Power learned the song from his Uncle Dave Brewer when he was but a child of nine or ten. 'When Uncle Dave got a drop in, this was the song he would always sing ... it was the only one he had.'
GEST notes that the Moses Harris variant dates the gale as 18 November, the same as Arthur Nicolle's variant, while Pius Power, Sr. dates the gale as 14 January. The date does not correspond, so whether or not it pertains to the Union in this song is questionable, but a page-long column in an old St. John's newspaper, entitled Memorable Springs and Other Information, Seal Fishery, has the following to say concerning the year 1833: "Celebrated for the loss of the schooner Union, Capt. Jno. Delaney, with a picked crew of 28 men from Trinity; built by Charles Newhook of New Harbour for Jno. B. Garland, merchant; capsized while under full sail. April 23rd, the schooners Active and Avon took some of her seals and towed her for 2 days, but had to let her go."
Source: Monograph entitled Newhook Master Shipbuilders by N. C. Crewe, Research Officer, Newfoundland Archives, St. John's, 28 May 1965.
