A Sailors Trade

from So Ends This Day by éilís kennedy

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about

When we first ran our pub in Dingle in the early 1990’s I would regularly sing the wonderful Sandy Denny version of A Sailors Life . I have never been tempted to record it , but as I read Gale Huntingdon’s book Songs The Whalemen Sang - this song leaped off the page and some of the lines just killed me !

As with all the songs in his book , the whaleship from whose journal he found the lyrics ,is named at the bottom , along with the year . The book has simply wonderful notes , attesting to Gale’s ability as a scholar and a researcher.
In the notes for this particular song , he writes “ I am very sorry about the missing lines. They are lost because some of the pages in the journal have had water spilled on them , and where that happened , the ink vanished “
I filled in the gaps in question with the lyrics from A Sailor’s life
Gale Huntington was a teacher on Martha’s Vineyard . He and his wife Mildred collected hundreds of songs from various whaling ship journals . Sailor‘s journals reveal a lot about life aboard , in a way that the logbook , with its daily official records, cannot.

lyrics

A Sailor’s Trade Elizabeth 1847

A sailor’s trade is a roving life
It’s robbed me of my heart’s delight
Leaving me behind to weep and mourn
I never know when he will return

That short blue jacket he used to wear
His rosy cheeks and his coal black hair
His lips as smooth as the velvet fine
The thousand times he has kissed mine

Come father build me a little boat
That o’er the ocean I may surely float
And every ship that we pass by
There I’ll enquire for my sailor boy

She had not sailed long upon the sea
When a kings ship, she chanced to see
You sailors all please tell me true
Does my young William sail among your crew

Oh no fair maid he’s not here
For he’s been drown’ed we gravely fear
On yon green isle as we passed by
There we laid eyes on your sailor boy

She wrung her hands and she tore her hair
In all her grief and deep despair
And her little boat to the shore did run
How can I live now , my William’s gone

Come all ye women that dress in white
Come all ye men that take delight
Come haul your colours at half-mast high
And help me weep for my sailor boy

credits

from So Ends This Day, released June 18, 2020
TRAD ARR KENNEDY / O BEIRNE

Performed by Eilis kennedy

Gerry O Beirne : 12 string guitar Eamon Mc Elholm: Harmonium
Shaun Davey : Estey pedal reed organ Trevor Hutchinson : Bass

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about

éilís kennedy Dingle, Ireland

Singing , writing , composing ,learning, teaching.
,Amhráin , Béarla & Gaelainn from the South-West of Ireland.

New Album 'So Ends this day' out now

eiliskennedymusic.ie

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