Run Come See

DESCRIPTION: "It was in nineteen hundred and twenty nine, I remember that day pretty well...." The singer describes the great storm that threatened the Ethel, Myrtle, and Praetoria, sinking the last. The Captain, George Brown, calls on the passengers to pray
AUTHOR: claimed by "Blind Blake" Higgs
EARLIEST DATE: 1940s (recording, Blake Higgs)
KEYWORDS: religious ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1929 - The Bahamas are devastated by a hurricane with little or no advance warning. Three boats, the Ethel, Myrtle, and Praetoria, bound for Andros, are caught in the storm; the Praetoria sinks, and thirty-three are lost.
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 58, "Run Come See" (1 text)
DT, RUNCOME
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 131-137, "The Singing of the Pytoria" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Run Come See Jerusalem" (on WIHIGGS01)
John Roberts & group, "Pytoria (Run Come See Jerusalem)" (on MuBahamas2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Great Storm Pass Over" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Run Come See Jerusalem
NOTES [28 words]: John Roberts claims to have composed this song within four days of the ship's sinking, rather than Blake Higgs. On reading his account, I'm inclined to believe him. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: FSWB058

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