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We left Galveston, Texas,
In December safe and sound,
With a heavy load of cotton,
To a port in France was bound;
Her voyage it was unevil,
Till our course we tried to trace,
All in a blinding snowstorm,
When making for Cape Race.
It was on Monday afternoon,
This storm it did appear,
On the thirteenth day of January,
To you I'll make it clear;
When suddenly she struck the rocks
Where ships had struck before,
Some distance from Freshwater Point,
Near little Seal's Cove Shore.
With twenty-seven souls on board,
Which did compose the crew,
They lowered the boats when Captain Paine
Gave orders for to do;
Like matchwood they were smashed in pieces
By heavy seas on rock,
While those poor, fatal, shipwrecked crew
Were striking on the rocks.
They jumped into the seething surf
And swam towards the beach,
Which, thanks unto kind providence,
They all did safely reach;
And with the wreckage from the ship
That lived amidst the storm,
A fire upon the rocky beach
That night to keep them warm.
They won't forget that awful night,
When they had reached the shore,
With frowning cliffs around them,
And the ocean made a roar;
With frost and sleet beneath their feet,
Their faces blind with spray,
Shipwrecked at Little Seal's Cove,
Up in Trepassey Bay.
At ten o'clock next morning,
Some fishermen from The Drook,
And on that awful steep cliff
They chanced to cast a look;
They saw The Tolesby's shipwrecked crew
Five hundred feet below,
While brave Joe Perry volunteered
That to them they would go.
This gallant, young fisherman
That did this deed so bold,
His name it should be handed down
In letters of bright gold;
None but a noble fisherman
This danger would have faced,
As they lowered him o'er the hillside
With a rope tied 'round his waist.
And now among the shipwrecked crew
Directly he did stand,
With a dozen fishermen about,
With strong and willing hands;
Around the waist of twenty-two
This hempen rope he tied,
And one by one they were pulled up
That rugged, steep hillside.
Oh, tell not me of other lands
Where courage has been shown,
Have we not got the men to do
Such brave deeds they sing in our own?
Where would you find a braver man
Than those upon that day,
Who saved The Tolesby shipwrecked crew
Up in Trepassey Bay?
Collected in 1951 from John Bulger 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 also collected in 1951 from Mrs. John Molloy of St. Shott's, NL, and published as The Wreck Of The Tolsby in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
According to Newfoundland Estate Files, Rose Perry, the wife of Joseph Perry of The Drook, a tiny settlement in Trepassey Bay, predeceased him intestate on August 26, 1891. He later filed a petition to be his wife's executor in order to recover $400.00 in her bank account in St. John's. Today, The Drook is part of Portugal Cove South.
