Written by Otto P. Kelland, warden of St. John's Penitentiary, but apparently adopted into the tradition of Newfoundland folkmusic. Peggy Day heard it there and taught it to me
many years ago, but recently a friend named Geordie brought me
back a little book by Mills and Peacock called Favorite Songs
of Newfoundland which had a different version than the way
Peggy heard it (or I heard it) and also some other good verses.After all, who wouldn't rather work with friends in a
land he can love and admire ... and wish to die , like Jim Jones,
in his bunk.
*I sing this "Hog-downs" - local reference
** Can be sung "combers," of course. I heard it "cumbers."
Take me back to my Western Boat,
Let me fish off Cape St. Mary's,
Where the hagdowns* sail and the foghorns wail,
With my friends the Browns and the Clearys
In the swells off old St. Mary's.
Let me feel my dory lift
To the broad Atlantic cumbers**
Where the tide-rips swirl and the wild ducks furl
And the ocean calls the numbers ...
In the swells off old St. Mary's.
Let me sail up golden bays
With my oilskins all a-streaming
From the thunder squall where I hauled my trawl
And the old 'Cape Ann' a-gleaming ...
In the swells off old St. Mary's.
- repeat first verse
Additional verses:
Let me view that rugged shore
Where the beach is all a-glisten
With the Caplin spawn where from dusk to dawn
You bait your trawl and listen
To the undertow a-hissin'.
When I reach that last big shoal
Where the ground-swells break asunder,
Where the wild sands roll to the surge's toll;
Let me be a man and take it
When my dory fails to make it.
Take me back to that snug green cove
Where the seas roll up their thunder.
There let me rest in the earth's cool breast
Where the stars shine out their wonder
And the seas roll out their thunder.