Along the Coast of High Barbary- Fish (NH) pre1942 Flanders D
[There is less resemblance broadsides in this version.
Flanders has 7 versions in her Ancient Ballads books published in 1966 with notes by Coffin. Coffin (and Laws before him)apparently took Frank Shay's word that Charles Dibden (actually Dibdin) wrote a similar ballad based on the "George Aloe" which developed into "Coast of Barbary/High barbaree" songs. So far none has been found and apparently it's a mix-up because one of Didbin's songs is titled "Blow High Blow Low" - which is a completely different song.
I'm also wondering what rare US or Canadian ballad has the "George Aloe" in it- since none have been found.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Coast of Barbary
(Laws K33, related to Child 285)
"George Aloe and the sweepstake" (Child 285), which the jailer's daughter sings in The Two Noble Kinsmen, is extremely rare in America and is not found in the Flanders Collection at all. However, the common sea ballad "The Coast of Barbary" telling a similal stoly is known widely in the States and to some extent in England. This song places back to a piece written for the British Navy by Charles Dibden (1745-1814). Dibden based his composition on "George Aloe and. the Sweepstake" but retained little of his model beyond the plot outline and the "Barbary" refrain. In songs based on Dibden's original, the man-of-war defeats a pirate or privateer, although the merchantman, George Aloe, originally conquered a French naval vessel. The Flanders texts follow the usual songster versions known in New England. Flanders A, very close to the A text in Phillips Barry's Britislt Ballads from Maine, 413, is also like The American Songster (New York) version, as are the Flanders E and F fragments. Flanders B and C follow The Forget-me-not Songster (Turner and Fisher, Philadelphia) text, which in turn is like an old American broadside now in the Massachusetts Historical Society library and given as Barry D.
See Coffin, 152-3, for American bibliography to "George Aloe" and to the "Coast of Barbary." Laws, ABBB, 157-8, and Dean-Smith, 58, list the latter song. The tunes for Child 285 are related, but not closely, with the exception of the Kneeland and Delano tunes. Tunes for this ballad are exceedingly rare in the standard American collections.
D. Sung by Mrs, Lena Bourne Fish of East Jaffrey, New Hampshire, as learned, from an old man who was a sailor when she was a young girl. M. Olney, Collector; July 16, 1942
Structure: A B Cb D (4,4,4,4); Rhythm D; Contour: arc; Scale: largely Aeolian; t.c. C.
Along the Coast of High Barbary
A ship sailed from the Downs, and a worthy ship was she;
Sail high and sail low, as along sailed we.
She was as fine a ship, boys, as ever sailed the sea,
And we steered for the coast of High Barbary.
"Aloft there, aloft," our bos'n [1] cried, said he;
Blow high and blow low as along sailed we.
"Look ahead and look astern, look a-weather and look alee,
And look along the coast of High Barbary."
"There's nothing on the stern and there's naught upon the lee,"
Blow high and blow low as along sailed we.
"But there's a ship to windward a-sailing fast and free,
Sailing down along rhe coast of High Barbary."
"Oh, hail, there, oh, hail," our captain said, said he;
Blow high and blow low as along sailed we.
"Are you a man-o'-war or a trading ship?" said he,
Sailing down along the coast of High Barbary.
"Oh, I'm not a man-o'-war or a trading ship," said he;
Blow high and blow low as along sailed we.
"I'm just a high sea pirate a-looking for my fee
As I sail along the coast of High Barbary."
'Twas broadside to broadside a long time lay we;
Blow high and blow low as along sailed we,
Till a sailor shot the mast of the pirate's ship, did he,
As we sailed down the coast of High Barbary.
Said the captain of the pirate ship, "Have mercy on me";
Blow high and blow low as along sailed we;
But we left them to the mercy of the cruel raging sea
As we sailed along the coast of High Barbary.
1. boatswain (senior crewman)