Sailor's Life- Willie Mathieson (Aber) 1894 REC
[From: School of Scottish Studies; Original Track ID - SA1952.05.A6, recorded by Hamish Henderson in 1952.
R. Matteson 2017]
Bio: Mathieson of Ellon, Aberdeenshire who was born 1879 and died in 1958, worked as a farmservant on various farms in Banffshire. An amateur folksong collector in his own right, he amassed an enormous corpus of songs over his lifetime, which is now deposited in manuscript form in the School of Scottish Studies.
Summary - The young man is press-ganged and the singer asks her father to build her a boat so that she can go in search of him. She meets French sailors and they tell her he is dead. She swears to dress in black, calls for paper to write, and asks that her grave have a marble stone at the head and a white dove at her feet so people will know she died for love.
Item Notes - Text and music transcribed in the School of Scottish Studies. 10 verses. Annie Mathie was maid at East Toddlehills when the contributor was about fifteen.
Listen: http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/play/15733;jsessionid=A781A3747B392D6CA9839884D7420CA5
The Sailor's Life- sung by Willie Mathieson who learned this song from Annie Massie, a maid at East Toddlehills, about 1894.
The sailor's life is an awful weary life,
It's bereaved o' me my heart's delight.
It's left me here in tears to mourn,
To wait for my true love's return.
Where he is I cannot tell,
Nor in whose arms doth my love dwell,
But who enjoys him at this same time
Enjoys the fairest of all mankind.
Oh father, father build me a boat,
It's on the ocean I will float,
And view the King's ships as they pass by,
And make an inquiry about my sailor boy.
She had not sail-ed long on the deep,
When a crew of French ships she chanced to meet,
"Oh sailors, sailors, come tell me true,
Is my dear Willie on board with you?
What kind of clothes does Willie wear?
What's the colour of his hair?
His jacket's blue his trousers white,
Has yellow hair and he's [ ].
"Oh no fair lady he is na here,
He is drowned in the depths, I fear,
It was just last night, as the wind blew high,
It was then we lost a fine sailor boy."
O sailors sailors all dressed in black,
Sailors sailors were right mournfully,
* * * *[unfinished]
With their silken screen on their topmast high,
The wind did blow with a pleasant gale.
This fair maid she went to her home,
She has called for paper, and she has penned this song,
At ilka word she did shed a tear,
And at ilka line cried, "Willie dear!"
As she was walking on the quay,
A row of sailors she chanced to see,
With their jackets blue and their troosers white,
Just mind her on her heart's delight.
She wrang her hands, she tore her hair,
Just like a lover in despair,
Oot owre a rock herself she's thrown,
"How could I live, and my darling gone?"