Terrible Privateer, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's ship Terrilble sails from Plymouth and is intercepted by the Valance. The fight continues until "our captain and our men being slain, We could no longer the fight maintain." Twenty-seven are held in prison until "the Cartel did fetch us away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (AStton-Sailor)
KEYWORDS: battle prison rescue death sea ship sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #30, "The Terrible Privateer" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 45, "A Sea Song" (1 text)
Roud #9381
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(18)[some words illegible], "The Terrible Privateer" ("You sailors all of courage bold"), printer barely legible but probably J. Pitts, Seven Dials, (n.d. but if it is by Pitts it must be from before 1844)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Death" (subject)
cf. "Captain Coulston" (plot)
cf. "Warlike Seaman (The Irish Captain)" (plot)
cf. "The Dolphin" (plot)
cf. "The French Privateer" (plot)
NOTES [225 words]: There seem to have been at least two songs about this incident, this one and one called "Captain Death." Both appear on the same semi-legible Bodleian broadside, and they are printed together in the Publications of the Navy Records Society by C. H. Firth available on Google Books (p. 204 in the print copy; p. 335 of the Google Books PDF file). Logan, The Pedlar's Pack, prints another text of "Captain Death" on pp. 30-31.
According to the online book How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves, by W. H. G. Kingston, this refers to an incident of the Seven Years' War. The Terrible, 26 guns, commanded by Captain Death (really! -- though his true name seems to have been "Osborn"), had already taken one prize, but had suffered in the fight and was defeated by another privateer, the Vengeance of St. Malo; Death and half his crew were killed in the battle.
The story of the Terrible so aroused the British that a subscription was raised which eventually bought the freedom of the remaining privateers.
Logan's version of the legend is even more amazing than that of the broadsides: The Terrible "was equipped at Execution Dock, commanded by Captain Death. The appellation of his Lieutenant was Devil, and the surgeon's name was Ghost.." Logan does note that Ritson thought this catalog of coincidences "entirely void of foundation." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: BdTerPri

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