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Attention Newfoundlanders, and listen to my song,
And if you pay attention, it won't delay you long;
It's of two men from Brewley went in to have some fun,
They went up to St. Peters all for a bowl of rum.
The day it being a fine one, the sun was shining bright,
And on that following evening they arrived there just at night;
They took on board their heavy stock and then the wind bore down,
They then set sail for Brewley and left St. Peter's town.
The wind brought them to St. Lawrence, the sky a kind of light.
Our skipper says, "Sure we'll go in where we can take a night."
We'd anchored 'round a point of beach and towed our line ashore,
"I think," he says, "that we can sleep while wind and sea do roar."
Oh, now the storm is raging, and those came out all right,
And when the water smoothered down again they put her out;
They laid up in the evening, the sky too thick with snow,
And very shortly after, on board the wind did blow.
No compass for to guide them, no way to rig a light,
They ran her then 'fore wind and sea all that long winter's night;
Oh, who could know the feelings of those two Brewley men,
Cast on the stormy ocean, nothing to comfort them?
The ocean in a snowdrift, while wind and sea do roar,
The ocean in a snowdrift, they say where can they go?
They caught each other by the hand to part forevermore,
They thought that night they'd never see their friends again ashore.
We must pray to the Almighty and His Blessed Mother, too,
Likewise our Blessed Saviour who died for me and you;
The blood was frozen in their veins and salt tears in their eyes,
They raised their voice to Heaven and He heard their mournful cries.
It wasn't very long after when a vessel hove in sight,
The captain's name was Harvey, was out that cruel night;
When Harvey saw them coming, he called his men on deck,
Saying, "B'ys, just look to wind'ard and see what makes us pray.
"We have no means of saving them," he says unto his crew,
"Get ropes and life bouys ready and we'll try what we can do."
And when they came in call of them that rang with all their might,
Saying, "Save us, Captain, save us, oh, try and save our life."
There were no time for talking, he told them what to do,
He said, "Run 'round our quarter and then bring her to."
They then grabbed hold on those two men and dragged them in,
They placed them by a hard-coal fire and gave them boiled wine.
Harvey then gave orders, unto his men did say,
"The wind is on a drop, my boys, we'll get her underway;
So trim your canvas by the wind and then we'll reach her down."
And on that following evening they arrived at Marystown.
Come all you men from Brewley, I'll have you to beware,
Don't go up to St. Peters till the springtime of the year;
When winter storms are raging, afraid you'll get a fright,
For Harvey won't be there, waiting to save your life.
Collected in 1951 from John James of Trepassey, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
