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HISTORICAL REFERENCES: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

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

The Ballad Index Copyright 2024 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.