Spanish Captain, The

DESCRIPTION: A Spanish captain and his beautiful wife and daughter, bound for Newfoundland, are killed in a shipwreck near Cape Spear. The singer seems to have been one of the crew and laments the loss of the captain and his family.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: wreck death lament family father mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 14, 1876 - Loss of the Mayaguenzana
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 137, "The Spanish Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Spanish Captain" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 38-39 in the 2nd edition, pp. 63-64 in the 4th, pp. 54-44 in the 5th
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 102, "The Spanish Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 87-88, "The Spanish Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4079
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "The Spanish Captain" (on NFABest01)
Omar Blondahl, "The Spanish Captain" (on NFOBlondahl01)
James Maher, "The Spanish Captain" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [622 words]: There is a formulaic introduction to the song where the Muses are called upon to help the singer and the public is promised not to be delayed too much in the telling. Cape Spear is the most eastern point in North America. - SH
Editor's Nitpick: Technically, the easternmost point in North America (that is, the point with the most eastern longitude) is in Alaska, since it is the only part of North America to be in the eastern hemisphere. Cape Spear is the easternmost point in the Western Hemisphere.
This song is item dD33 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: (viz., Best) In verses 5 and 6 "The smoke lay flying o'er the hills and pitching on the sea .... The Margrietta was our ship's name ...." "The Margrietta referred to is very likely the Mayaquezanna, a Spanish brig lost at Blackhead, near Cape Spear, on 14 August 1876. Both the captain and his wife were drowned." Northern Shipwrecks Database: Mayaquezana/Maguezana stranded in smoke with 2 or 3 lost. - BS
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou's suggestion seems to me a good one, even though the date in the Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland text (August 20) does not match the date of the disaster The song says that the ship had a Spanish captain, that he, his wife, and his daughter were lost, and that there was "no tug to take her in" -- all of which fit the Mayaguenzana (the spelling I find in Power). Also, Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland's informant, Stephen John Lewis, thought the event happened about fifty years earlier, and the song was collected in 1929, 53 years after the loss of the Mayaquzanna. The name of the ship is wrong, but it would be no surprise to find Newfoundlanders corrupting a Spanish name.
Galgay/McCarthy-Shipwrecks, p. 87, reports that the Mayaquzanna (their spelling) was a "Spanish brig, lost at Blackhead 14 Aug 1876. Captain and his wife drowned."
Power, pp. 37-39, has more details. The Mayaguenzana was bringing molasses and sugar from the West Indies to Newfoundland. The ship was approaching St. John's (Blackhead Bay, where she was lost, is about two miles southeast of the Narrows of St. John's Harbour), but visibility was poor because of fires near the town. Four of the ship's crew were lost: Captain Fioll, his wife, his daughter (who was nine years old), and one other member of the crew. The body of the daughter was found April 28; Power never mentions recovery of the bodies of the others. The remaining members of the crew were taken aboard a pilot boat.
Galgay/McCarthy-Olde, p. 75, report of the fire, "On August 14, 1876, and for several days after, the Southside Hill was on fire from Syme's Bridge to the Narrows [i.e. the entrance to St. John's harour]. During the night, the fire attracted thousands of citizens by its wild grandeur. The smoke from the fire, the wind being from the west, filled the bay and in part brought about the wreck of the Spanish brigantine Mayaquezzana."
An investigation was held afterward, which found that two pilot boats were supposed to be on duty at the time the Mayaguenzana went aground -- but that one of them had simply sat in the harbour, leaving only one actively at sea. The latter had seen the Mayaguenzana, and could have put a pilot aboard (he had two available), but the boat's skipper decided to devote all his energies to bringing in another boat, resulting in the loss of the Mayaguenzana. The captain of the latter pilot boat was suspended for three months; the captain of the one which just sat in port received a six month suspension (on the grounds that, if it had done its duty and been available, the other captain wouldn't have had to decide whether to divide his crew or not). - RBW
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File: Doy38

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