Thorwaldsen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Twas a noble craft and a gallant crew That leaved the port that day, The sea was calm and the sky was blue As she sped on her course that day," leaving behind women and babies depending on the crew. The ship is wrecked by a winter storm on its way home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: death drowning commerce sea ship storm wreck family sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 18, 1873 - Schooner _Thorwaldsen_, en route from Newfoundland to Gloucester reported missing (according to the Northern Shipwrecks Database 2002)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 143, "The Thorwaldsen" (1 text)
Roud #17755
NOTES [127 words]: According to Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, Volume III, Creative Publishers, 1995, p. 162, the Thorwalden (their spelling, which I don't trust) was a "Gloucester schooner drifted in bottom up to Dantiz Cover on March 28, 1873 [with] one badly decomposed body in [the] wreck. No name on ship but message found inside an empty firkin gave name of the ship and following message. 'Schooner Thorwalden, Capt. G. Phillips, Gloucester, Mass. Finished loading 6 of February with herring. Went to St. Jacques same evening. Bound for home all well. Ren McEachien Glocesterr Mass. Joseph Frib, Cloucester Mass."
It sounds to me as if this song is a generic wreck song that simply had the Thorwald(s)en plugged into it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrMa143

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