Cruel Ship's Carpenter- Stockton (TN) 1916 Sharp B
[From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; Volume I; 1917 and 1932. Collected by Cecil J. Sharp and Olive Dame Campbell. Edited by Maud Karpeles. The 1932 notes follow.
One of the rare US versions similar to early The Gosport Tragedy broadsides. The ballad is identified as similar to The Deming Broadside/Forget-Me-Not Songster version by the name Mary in stanza 2 and stanza 9 which is not in the Roxburghe. The last line in stanza 5 is from Roxburghe (Aa).
R. Matteson 2016]
No. 49. The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (1932 notes)
Texts without tunes:—Broadsides by Pitts, Jackson & Son, and Bloomer (Birmingham). Ashton's A Century of Ballads, p. 101.
Texts with tunes :—Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, ii. 99. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i. 172. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 83 (published also in English Folk Songs, Selected Edition, i. 4, and One Hundred English Folk-Songs, p. 4). Cox's Folk Songs of the South , pp. 308 (see also further references) and 528. Wyman and Brockway's Twenty Kentucky Mountain Songs, p. 110, and Lonesome Tunes, p. 79. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xx. 262.
B. The Cruel Ship's Carpenter- Sung by Mr. T. JEFF STOCKTON at Flag Pond, Tenn., Sept. 4, 1916
Hexatonic. Mode 4, b (with sharpened 7th).
1. In London sweet city a fair damsel did dwell,
Her wealth and her beauty no tongue could I tell.
She was courted by sail or for to be his dear,
And him to his trade was a ship's carpenter.
2 He says: My Miss Mary, if you will agree,
If you will consent and go along with me,
I will ease you from trouble or sorrow and fear,
If you will but marry a ship's carpenter.
3 Through 'braces and kisses they parted that night,
She started next morning for to meet him by light.
He led her through ditches and valleys so deep,
Till at length this fair damsel begin for to weep.
4 She says: My sweet William, you've led me astray
On purpose my innocent life to betray.
He says: My Miss Mary, you have guessed right,
For I was digging your grave all last night.
She turned her head and her grave she there spied,
Saying: Is this the bright bed for which me you've provide?
5 O pardon, sweet William, and spare me my life.
Let me go distressed if I can't be your wife.
For pardon sweet William is the worst of all men,
For the Heavens will reward you when I am dead and gone."
6 No time for to weep nor no time for to stand.
He instantly taken his knife in his hand.
Into her bright body his knife he there stole,
And the blood from her body like a fountain did flow.
7 He covered her all up, straight home he returned,
Left no one to mourn but the small birds alone,
And pled forth the paymount[1] for to plough the whole sea.
8 The captain then summoned his whole-y ship crew.
He said: My brave boys, I'm afraid some of you
Have murdered some damsel before we came away,
That will cause us to be hate upon the whole sea.
9 And he that did do it the truth he'll deny.
We'll hang with God in yon gallows so high;
But he that confess it his life we'll not take,
But we'll leave him on the very next island we'll meet.
10 Poor William, poor William then fell to his knees,
The blood in his veins with horror did freeze.
And no one did see it[2] but this wicked wretch,
And he went distracted and died that same night.
1. And sped forth from Plymouth
2. the "it" refers to Polly's ghost, her appearance was left out or not remembered.