Lukey's Boat

DESCRIPTION: A song describing Lukey and his boat. The boat is "painted green... the finest boat you've ever seen," etc. Lukey observes that his wife is dead, but "I don't care; I'll get another in the fall of the year."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice)
KEYWORDS: ship humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 126, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 46-47, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 71 in the 2nd edition; p. 40 in the 3rd; p. 43 in the 4th; p. 53 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 44-45, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 127, "Loakie's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 42-43, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 28-29, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, p. 127, "Uncle Lukey's Boat" (1 excerpt)
ST FJ046 (Partial)
Roud #1828
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Lukey's Boat" (on NFOBlondahl05)
NOTES [475 words]: [According to Blondahl, Doyle attributes this to] Mr Roberts, and others, Mrs Ira Yates, Mr Andrew Young, Twillingate, 1929. - BS
George Allen England gives only one verse of this, "Lukey's boat was painted green, De finest boat dat was ever seen...." But it's clearly this song, and it seems to be the earliest mention of it. And he too has an authorship claim: one of the sealers with whom he sailed supposedly told another of the sealers, "Joe," "You know dat song ahl to pieces, an' why wouldn't ye, in 'gard of ye makin' it up in de first place?" England (probably not seriously) claimed that "Joe" had 57 verses. England is not overly free with surnames, but I think the "Joe" referred to is a man named Joe Stirge. Not that I believe the claim of all those verses (though I'm sure there were many.)
Creighton's informants said that the subject of the song lived in Lunenburg. But the song seems much more strongly associated with Newfoundland.
Philip Hiscock's notes to this song in West, p. 55, has perhaps the best folklore of all. In Wesleyville, famous as a home of sealing families, it is said that this was about a local fisherman named Luke "Lukey" Gaulton. The legend says the words were written by Virtue Hann Kean. Gaulton struck back with his own verse:
'Twas Virtue Kean made up the song,
RIght fa la, a diddle diddle die doe,
VIrtue Kean made up the song,
She sleeps with the doctor all night long....
I can't say whether Gaulton was real, but Virtue Hann Kean most definitely was. She was the wife of Captain Job Kean (for whom see also "Captains and Ships" and "The Sealer's Song (II)"), who was the nephew of Captain Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean"). As Hiscock notes, Job Kean was not a doctor, so this verse was an insinuation about Virtue Kean's character.
It's a nice legend, but pretty unlikely. First, Virtue Kean married into the Kean family, who were a bunch of stiff-necked prigs who would never have produced such a piece. Second, Virtue Kean, according to Kean, p. 23, had been the local schoolteacher before marrying Job Kean. So she would likely have been held in high regard.
And, remember, England said he heard this song on the Terra Nova, Abram Kean's own ship, in the 1920s. (And it would have been hard for him to find it anywhere else; it wasn't in print yet.) Can you imagine what Abram Kean's reaction was had there been a song floating around impugning the virtue of his niece? He'd probably have thrown the singer overboard! So I think the folklore came later.
There is an 1899 photo of Captain Job Kean, along with other sealing stalwarts such as Abram Kean and Arthur Jackman, on p. 25 of Winsor.
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland say that the form of the stanza is the same as "A-Rovin'." True, but the tune I've heard is different. I don't think they're related. - RBW
Bibliography

Kean: Abram Kean, with a foreword by Sir Wilfred Grenfell, Old and Young Ahead, 1935; I use the 2000 Flanker Press edition edited and with a new Introduction (and new photographs) by Shannon Ryan
West: Eric West, Sing Around This One: Songs of Newfoundland & Labrador Vol. 2, Vinland Music, 1997
Winsor: Naboth Winsor, Stalwart Men and Sturdy Ships: A History of the Prosecution of the Seal Fishery by the Sealers of Bonavista Bay North, Newfoundland, Economy Printing Limited, 1985

Last updated in version 6.0
File: FJ046

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography