A Sailor's Life- Mrs. Small (Sus) 1905 Broadwood
[From: Lucy Broadwood Manuscript Collection (LEB/5/376). MS has pages in wrong order online-- this is a version of Oikotype D.
R. Matteson 2017]
A Sailor's Life- MS sent in to Lucy E. Broadwood by Mrs. Small of Petworth Sussex, April 1905
A sailor's life is a merry life
They robs young girls of their heart's delight,
Leaves them behind to sigh and mourn:
And they never know when they will return.
There is four-and-twenty all in a row;
But my sweet William cuts the brightest show.
He is manly tall, he is genteel withal,
If I can't have him I will have none at all.
Oh father, buy me a little boat
That I may on the wide ocean float,
It's every Queen's ship that I do pass by
I'll make inquiries for my sailor boy."
I had not sailed for the briny deep
When a queen's ship I chanced to meet.
I says Jolly sailors all, pray tell me true,
Do[es] my sweet William sail among your crew?
O no, fair lady, he is not here,
For he is dead or drowned, I greatly fear.
For on yonder green island as we pass by
There we lost sight of your sailor boy.
Then she wrung her hands and she tore her hair,
Jut like a woman in deep despair,
Her little boat against a rock did run:
"How can I live now my William's gone.
Then she set me down for to write a song,
I wrote it wide and she wrote it long
At every line I dropped a tear
And at the bottom, cried, "Willie dear."
She wrung her hands and tore her hair,
much like a woman in deep despair,
She plunged her body into the deep:
And in William's arms lies fast asleep.