The Murmaid- Douglass (NY) 1841-1856 Thompson
[From: A Pioneer Songster: Texts from the Stevens-Douglass Manuscript; Page 29; c. 1841-1861 by Harold W. Thompson, Edith E. Cutting - 2009. This version is similar to The Forget Me Not Songster's versions. I've added spelling corrections in brackets- probably should be corrected in a separate version. Notes below by Thompson.
R. Matteson 2014]
9. The Mermaid [Child, 289]
This old broadside ballad known to sailors around the world was first recorded in print, according to Child, in "The Glasgow Lasses Garland," tentatively dated 1765. [As pointed out by Bruce Olsen, the earliest known version of the Mermaid, "The Praise of Sailors" c. 1605-1632] Since that time it has become a popular college song, telling a tale of misfortune. To set sail on Friday was unlucky; to sight the mermaid meant that disaster was unavoidable.
The Douglass version is one of the simplest that tells the whole story, having no chorus nor repeated lines. The references to the mother and the wife in New York and Boston, respectively, are natural in a York State version, as the locale changes according to the place where a version is sung. The last stanza, with its "once," "twice," and "third" time around, is unusual; Shoemaker is the only other version that is similar in this respect. In other versions "three times" is repeated. Music to which the ballad is now sung appears on page 96 of Trident and also in Ozark.
The Murmaid [Mermaid]
One Friday morning we set sail,
Not being far from land,
We all espied a fair Murmaid,
With a comb and glass in her hand.
Our boatsman at the helm stood,
And in steering his course right well,
With a tear standing in his eyes,
Saying O how the seas they do swell swell.
Then up spoke the boy of our gallant ship,
And a good lad was he,
Saying I have a mother in fair new york town,
And this night will weep for me.
Then spoke the mate of our good ship,
No braver man than he,
I have a wife in Boston town,
And this night she will a widow be.
Then spoke the captain of our ship,
And a vallant [valliant] man was he,
Saying for the want of a long a boat,
We all shall be drown and sink to the bottom of the sea.
The mon [moon] gave light, the stars gave light,
And my mother was looking for me,
She long may weep with watery eyes,
And blame the rudless [ruthless] sea.
Then once around went our gallant ship,
And twise [twice] around went she,
And the third time around went our gallant ship,
And she sank to the bottom of the sea.