Gallant Brigantine, The [Laws D25]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor and a girl meet. She gives him her address, saying her husband would be glad to meet them. He mentions his wife and newborn son. They go off to her farm hand in hand; sailor, woman, and husband spend dinner and a pleasant afternoon together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: courting husband wife
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws D25, "The Gallant Brigantine"
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 127, "The Islands of Jamaica" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 218-223, "My Gallant Brigantine" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 88, "Jamaica Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 39, "The Gallant Brigantine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 36, "Gallant Brigantine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 142-143, "The Gallant Brigantine" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 27-29, "Henry Orrison" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 50-51, "The Gallant Brigantine" (1 text, 1 tune, consisting of two short texts imperfectly combined)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 46-49, "The Gallant Brigantine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 69, "The Gallant Brigantine" (1 text, 1 tune)
MidwestFolklore, Ivan H. Watson, "Folk Singing on Beaver Island," Volume 2, Number 4 (Winter 1952), p. 246, "The Gallant Brigantine" (reference only)
DT 670, GALLBRIG
Roud #648
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Edward Gallagher, "My Gallant Brigantine" (on MRHCreighton)
Frank Knox, "Captain Howley" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Patrick Rossiter, "My Gallant Brigantine" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Henry Orrison
NOTES [111 words]: For this they wrote a ballad? - PJS
Even more amazing, the thing seems to have been fairly popular. Laws remarks, "This tongue-in-cheek narrative achieves its effect by repeatedly disappointing the listener's anticipation of stock situations of broadside balladry." - RBW
In Mrs. Gallagher's version, the last line is a teaser, leading you to expect that the sailor discovers his wife has run off with another man, but in fact she has had a baby son. - PJS
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick: The final verse changes the tone entirely: "... the girl I loved so dear was the wife of another man, And I really thought my heart would break as I sailed for a foreign land." - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: LD25

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