The Sea Captain- Tobin (NL) 1930 Karpeles D
[From Maud Karpeles, “Folksongs from Newfoundland” 1934, version D- recited, no music, titled The Sea Captain or The Maid on the Shore.
R. Matteson 2014]
The ‘Lost Voices’ of Maud Karpeles, “Folksongs from Newfoundland”
by Glenn Colton
In September 1929, Maud Karpeles of the English Folk Dance and Song Society arrived in Newfoundland for the first of two pioneering expeditions. A disciple of Cecil Sharp and friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Karpeles was a central figure in the British folk revival and later co-founder of the International Folk Music Council. She had initially planned to visit the island with Sharp as early as 1918, however that trip was cancelled due to funding concerns and Sharp’s untimely death foiled similar plans seven years later. Undaunted, she undertook the challenge alone, notating more than 200 tunes from singers in forty outport communities in one of the earliest Newfoundland folksong expeditions of its kind.
D. "The Sea Captain." Recited by Miss Agnes Tobin at Ship's Cove, Cape Shore, Placentia , 7th July 1930. The tune was not noted.
It's of a fair maiden that lived on the shore,
She lived alone on the shore O.
No pleasure could find for could comfort her mind,
But she were all alone on the shore, shore, shore,
But she were all alone on the shore.
It's of a sea captain that ploughs the salt seas,
Let the wind it blow high or blow low, low,
I'll die, I'll die, the sea captain he cries,
If I don't get that maid from the shore.
I have lots of silver, I have lots of gold,
And I have lots of costly ware O,
And that I'll divide between my ship's crew
If you get me that maid from the shore.
Twenty-six seamen jumped into one boat,
Let the wind it blow high or blow low, low;
The seas were soon calm but a short change of wind,
And they soon got that maid from the shore.
By long persuading they got her on board,
Here's adieu to all sorrow and, care O.
They gave her a seat in the cabin beneath,
Where she sat and she sang in despair.
She sang there so neat, so sweet and complete,
She sang captain and sailors to sleep.
she robbed them of silver, she robbed them of gold,
And robbed them of costly ware O.
with a captain's broadsword that she used. for an oar
She paddled away to the shore.
Your men must be crazy, your men must be drunk,
Or your men must be deep in despair O
To let that fair maiden with colour so gay
Go roam all alone on the shore.
My men were not crazy, my men were not drunk,
My men were not deep in despair O.
She saluted my sailors as well as myself,
She left men in despair on the shore.