A Ship Carpenter- H. Mitchell (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
[From Sharp's MS with tune. This version is close to being a version of Gosport however only the first and last stanzas are close and this is moreover a version of E, similar to Hilliard Smith's 1907 version.
Another version was collected from her daughter, Effie Mitchell in Burnsville and is also in Sharp's MS.
Sharp's Diary: After tea we move upstairs to two very pleasant rooms and then go up Mitchell Branch. Call on Mrs Hannah Mitchell who did sing but has forgotten her songs and then at her advice go on to her daughter Mrs Effie Mitchell from whom we get half a dozen rather good ones.
R. Matteson 2016]
A Ship Carpenter- Sung by Hannah Mitchell, of Burnsville, N. Carolina on 29 Sept., 1918. Collected by Cecil J. Sharp.
There was a rich merchant in Knoxville he dwelt
He had for a daughter a beautiful maid,
She had for a sweetheart a ship carpenter,
She had for a sweetheart a ship carpenter.
He gathered her up, he carried her away,
To some foreign country with her friends for to stay;
He carried her through hollows and valleys so deep,
At length Pretty Polly began for to weep.
Over in them deep hollow her grave she did spy,
Her grave being diggin[1] and the spade standing by.
She wrung her hands for murder she cried,
You poor murdering villian, What have I done?
He pierce Pretty Polly, the blood it did flow,
And into her grave, her body do throw.
He covered her up and hastened on home,
Let none but death and the small birds to mourn.
One day he was laying in his cabin asleep[1],
He thought he heard the voice of Polly so sweet,
Saying, "Rise up false William, rise up and hear,
The voice of your Polly who once loved you dear."
1. The lines about him boarding a ship are missing.