Bold McCarthy (The City of Baltimore) [Laws K26]

DESCRIPTION: Bold McCarthy sails from Liverpool (as a stowaway) on the City of Baltimore. An argument with the mate turns into a fight, and the Irishman handily defeats the mate (and several others). The captain appoints McCarthy an officer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: sea fight rambling
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws K26, "Bold McCarthy (The City of Baltimore)"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 128-129, "The City of Baltimore (Bold McCarthy)" (1+ texts, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, p. 183, "Earlly in the Morning or City of Baltimore" (1 fragment, probably this although too short to be certain)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 174, "Bold McCarthy" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 860-861, "Bold McCarthy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 46, "The City of Baltimore" (1 fragment)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 58, "City of Baltimore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 54-55, "The City of Baltimore" (1 text, 1 tune)\
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 187-189,242, "Bold McCarthy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 62, "The City of Baltimore (Bold McCarthy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 109, "The City of Baltimore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p.56, "Bold MacCartney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 96-97, "Bold McCarty" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
DT 408, CITYBALT* CITYBAL2
Roud #1800
RECORDINGS:
John Connors, "City of Baltimore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
George Hatfield, "City of Baltimore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [182 words]: The Inman line of steamers, active starting in 1850, had a history of naming ships "The City of X," e.g. the City of Philadelphia, the City of Manchester, Brinnin, pp. 208-209. Many of these became notorious; Inman line ships seem to have become famous mostly for spectacular wrecks. But the City of Baltimore seems to have had a quiet and efficient career (e.g. Fox, p. 186, notes an instance of her beating some of competitor Cunard's transatlantic boats); she was in service in the late 1860s. The line as a whole was at its peak from about 1855-1880.
To give the Inman Line its due, one of its primary goals was the relatively efficient transportation of steerage passengers emigrating from Ireland to America. This meant that its ships had to be operated on a relatively low budget and had to carry a lot of passengers (Fox, pp. 174-181). The inevitable result was that, if a wreck happened, it killed a lot of people. At least they crossed the ocean faster than the emigrant sailing ships they replaced, so there were far fewer deaths by disease than on the sailing vessels. - RBW
Bibliography

Brinnin: John Malcolm Brinnin, The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic, 1986 (I use the 2000 Barnes & Noble edition)
Fox: Stephen Fox, Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isumbard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships, Harper Collins, 2003

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK26

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