Two Jinkers

DESCRIPTION: The two jinkers of the title are Jimmie Walsh and Steven. Bad luck to have on board, they were only hired here because men are hard to find. Their ship runs aground and Jimmie and Steven are responsible. The perturbed singer plans to quit his job.
AUTHOR: Patrick Kevin Devine (1859-1950)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: ship wreck hardtimes work
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Two Jinkers" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 11 in the 2nd edition, p. 82 in the 3rd, p. 27 in the 4th, p. 56 in the 5th (titled "Two Jinkers or Jimmie Walsh and Stephen" in the 4th and 5th editions)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 34-35, "Two Jinkers" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Farley Mowat, _Wake of the Great Sealers_, with prints and drawings by David Blackwood, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1973, p. 70, "(Sealer's Song") (1 text)
Roud #7315
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22]" (Jonah theme) and references there
NOTES [154 words]: People who are bad luck on ships are referred to as "Jonahs." [After Jonah, in the Bible, whose presence aboard a ship brought on a storm. - RBW] Smaller vessels were usually run on a family basis or by a very close group, which led to intolerance of strangers. For more about Jonahs, consult Horace Beck, Folklore and the Sea (Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1985) 303-304. - SH
The author is named by GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site. - BS
In at least some versions of Newfoundland dialect, a "jinker" ("jinxer") is a stowaway, and stowaways were thought to bring bad luck (see Cassie Brown (with Harold Horwood), Death on the Ice: The Great Newfoundland Sealing Disaster of 1914, 1972 (I use the undated Anchor Canada paperback edition), p. 35).
P. K. Devine, who is believed to have written this song, was Gerald S. Doyle's uncle; the Doyle songsters are likely responsible for its popularity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doy11

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