Dear Father, Pray Build Me a Boat- Sheila Smith (Sus) 1952
[From the recording "I’m A Romany Rai," TSCD672D. Recorded by Peter Kennedy at a Gypsy camp along side a house at Laughton near Lewes, Sussex.
The last one and a half stanzas are not standard text.
R. Matteson 2017]
Dear Father, Pray Build Me a Boat- sung by 7 year old Sheila Smith of Sussex in 1952.
Dear father pray build me a boat,
So all on the ocean I'll there go and float,
Every big ship that do pass by,
I will enquire for my sailor boy.
"For what color clothes does your true-lover wear,
What colour was his sweet golden hair?
"He had jacket white and his trousers[1] was blue,
And curly hair and his eyes shining bright."
For you know last night when the wind that blowed high,
I've lost five more besides your soldier boy.
For she sat herself down and wrote her a song,
She wrote it long and she wrote it so neat,
In every verse did she shed a tear,
And every verse did she put "sweet Willie dear."
If I was a blackbird I'd whistle and sing,
I'd follow that vessel till my true love sails in,
On the top rigging I'd there build my nest,
I'd sleep all night long on that lily-white breast.
If I was a scholar and could handle a pen,
One private letter to my true love I'd send.
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1. pronounced "trowses"