Cedar Grove, The [Laws D18]
DESCRIPTION: The "Cedar Grove" sails from London to America. She runs aground off Canso because the helmsman cannot violate discipline. The captain, two crew members, and a passenger are lost, and the ship sinks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sea wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 20, 1882 - Wreck of the Cedar Grove off Saint Andrew's Island near Canso, Nova Scotia. She was on her way from London to Halifax
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(NE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws D18, "The Cedar Grove"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 186-187, "The Loss of the Cedar Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 89, "The Cedar Grove" (1 text)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 136-139, "The Cedar Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 9, "The Cedar Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 136-137, "The Cedar Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 687, CEDARGRV
Roud #1959
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid of Timahoe" (tune)
cf. "The Loss of the Albion" [Laws D2]
NOTES [174 words]: Naval discipline dictated that the helmsman could not speak or be spoken to. Normally this was a good idea -- it prevented distractions -- but here it proved disastrous. (For a similar mix-up, see, of all things, Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark.)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman considers this to be derived from "The Loss of the Albion."
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors says that there were 23 aboard the Cedar Grove when she sank, and that the song is right that four of them were lost: Captain Jacob Fritz, two engineers, and a 19 year old passenger, Julia A. Fairall. - RBW
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "The song is said to have been written by James A Dillon, author of the Rescue of the E A Horton." - BS
I have a note (which was included in prior editions of the Index) stating that the song is by Captain Cale Maitland. I can't find my source for this statement, so I have removed the name from the Author field, but presumably I had some reason for putting it there, so I am leaving the author unknown. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LD18
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