O The Raging Sea- Fulmiller (VA) 1918 Sharp D
[Fragment with music from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Vol 2 by Cecil J. Sharp and Maud Karpeles; 1932 edition.
My title, Sharp used the generic title, The Mermaid for all four versions, no local titles supplied. They were collected in 1917 or 1918 so they could not have been published in his first 1917 book. This version is has the chorus only and that text is poor. Below are his notes.
R. Matteson 2014]
No. 42. The Mermaid.
Texts without tunes: Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 289. A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, p. 84. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs of Nova Scotia, No. 16. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 172 (see also further references). Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxvi. 175.
Texts with tunes: Journal of the Folk-Song Society, iii. 47. Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Times, ii. 742. Tozer's Fifty Sailors' Songs, p. 92. British Ballads from Maine, p. 363. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 521 and 602. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii. 136. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 46.
D. "O The Raging Sea." Sung by Miss LULU FULMILLER at Blue Ridge Springs, Va., June 2, 1918 Hexatonic (no 4th).
O the rag ing sea it rolls, rolls, rolls,
And the stormy winds do blow,
And some poor sailors were dripping in the deep,
And some were lying down below.