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“Many A Tall And Gallant Ship”(A Colliers/Conception Harbour Variation of the Song) “Why Don’t My Father’s Ship Return” This page was last modified on Friday, May 6, 2005.
Please Note: This is a variant of an ancient song handed down by word of mouth from person-to person. It was obviously first written in a very colonial minded historical period and some of the phrases and sentiments may appear politically incorrect by modern standards. I merely recorded them as I found them without any alterations for the sake of accuracy and as an example of local folklore, which is disappearing at an alarming rate as older storytellers die off. No disparagement to any group, racial or otherwise, is intended or should be taken.
The lyrics below are a mainland
version of another old folk song that Tony Flynn of Colliers sometimes
sang to our family when I was a boy. The late Pad Cole and Fred
Lewis (both of Colliers), as well as a host of others from
Conception Harbour, knew the full song that (allegedly) “ran for about 35
verses.” This melancholy, but beautiful song has always been referred to in
the Colliers area as “Many A Tall and Gallant Ship (Sails Over Your
Daddy’s Grave)”, but documents obtained by other researchers indicate that
an alternative title was, “Why Don’t My Father’s Ship Return”. It was
also called, “Why Don’t My Daddy’s Ship Return”. The variant below is essentially the
same song (in terms of central theme of loss of a family member at sea) as
the Colliers/Conception Harbour version, although (and I’m probably biased on
this J) I think
our local song was a little nicer. Some of the words and phrases were more
colourful in our version and clearly “customized” to the local environment
specifically mentioning, for instance, that the ship left Newfoundland six
months earlier. The young boy “saw his dad with cap in hand” (which
would have been a physical stance most old time gentleman could relate to).
Also the father brought back not the ubiquitous “things” but “some fruit
he got from a foreign country”. Our chorus went something to the effect
of: “Your Daddy’s Ship, my gentle boy,
lies sunk beneath the waves. And it’s many a tall and gallant
ship, sails over your Daddy’s grave.” Finally, in the absence of the sheet
music, the actual tunes themselves may be different. In any event I have
never been able to find the exact “Colliers/Conception Harbour Version” of
this song in print in any sources. All my potential informants are either,
unfortunately, dead or simply don’t remember the complete lyrics. This is
understandable given the fact it hasn’t been sung in the area in many
decades. I received a copy of the words for this mainland version of “Why
Don’t My Father’s Ship Return” from Ed Gushue of South Carolina in
May of 2005. I’m extremely grateful to Ed who obtained the lyrics via Len
Ryan and Nick Burke (both of Toronto). The valuable help of these three
gentlemen (originally from the Conception and Colliers areas) is very much
appreciated on this project. For those of who have any other
information at all on the haunting song “Many A Tall and Gallant Ship”,
please feel free to contact me. Even if you can only provide a few words or a
verse or two, I’d still enjoy hearing from you on this, or any other folk song
or recitation of Colliers. Dennis Flynn Flynn’s Point, Colliers, NewfoundlandFriday, May 6, 2005
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Why
Don’t My Father’s Ship Return
One evening last summer as I
lay down to sleep. I saw a lad about six years old
at his mothers knee did weep O’ why don’t father’s ship come
in and why don’t he come home While other ships are sailing
in spreading the ocean foam For he said six months he would
be gone leaving you and I alone And through the long dark
winter months six months have passed and gone O’ why don’t my father’s
ship come in o mother come tell me why O’ why don’t my father’s ship
come in what makes you weep and cry My boy your father’s long
voyage is over you’ll never see him no more For he and his tall gallant ship
will never reach the shore For the ship and all her cargo
went down in the ocean deep And the seas are rolling
mountains high o’er the graves where they do sleep If be so dear mother he cried
from the grave they can not come And you and I are left alone
for to lament and mourn How well I do remember when he
took me on his knee And gave me some of the things
he brought from a foreign country My boy you’re the pride of all
my heart as she pressed him to her breast And closed her to heaven above
where the weary ones find rest.
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