Traditional
A Gloucester fishing schooner returning from the Northumberland Strait stopped in at Canso (between Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island) for supplies for the long beat back to the Westward. The captain went ashore and got into the booze and the rest of it is in the song. The description of heading out at dark, getting into a knock down* and the luck and skill involved in getting her out of trouble is a wonderful piece of reportage and poetry.
Gordon – 12-String guitar
In Canso Strait our vessel lay
She'd just returned from out the Bay
A schooner built both stout and strong
And to Gloucester she did belong
We were homeward bound and ready for sea
When our drunken captain got on a spree
He come on board and to us did day
Get your anchors, boy, and fill away
We got our anchors at his command
And with all sail set we left the land
We left old Sand Point on our lee
And header her out against a steep head-sea
The night come on, the dark clouds lower
The wind did howl and the waves did roar
An angry squall† from the angry sky
It knocked her down about half-mast high
Her jib-sheets parted, which eased her some
She come head-to-wind and she rose again
We got our jibs in and new sheet bent
And straightaway aft to our captain went
We kindly asked him to shorten sail
Or we'd be lost in the heavy gale
He cursed and swore that if the wind would blow
He'd show us how his old boat could go
Then up spoke one of our gallant men
"There's twelve of us right here at hand
We'll reef her down and to sea we'll go
And if you refuse you'll be tied below"
The waves did roar, the wind did rave
We hardly thought our lives we'd save
But we reefed her down to her own success
She's like a bird swinging for her nest
She's headed up off the Cape Shore now
She knocks the white foam off her bow
Oh never again will I ever sail
With a drunken captain and a heavy gale
*where the wind slaps the vessel flat on her side in the water – some vessels don't come back from that
†I sang 'wave'
Canso Strait is recorded on the album In Concert