All Gone

DESCRIPTION: "Gone are the days of the canvas jumper," "old time sealing skippers," "Petty Harbour whaleboats," "boats of Ferryland," "the old boat 'Ellen,'" ... "Gone are those days and the actors with them We ne'er shall see the same again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: commerce fishing ship work nonballad sailor whaler
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #29060
RECORDINGS:
John Conway, "All Gone" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [219 words]: All the references are to the days of the Newfoundland fishing fleets and sailors, and the way of life gone with them. - BS
I find it interesting that this was collected in 1951. That was just one year after the last of the old sealing steamers, the Eagle, had been scuttled (see "The Ice-Floes"; also "The Last of the Wooden Walls"). The Terra Nova, the most famous of them all, had been lost in 1943 (see "The Terra Nova"). The Neptune, which took more seals than any other sealer, also sank in 1943 (see "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea"). The Ranger, which had the longest career of any, gave up the ghost in 1942 (see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912").
Captain Abram Kean, the greatest sealer of them all, died in 1945 (see "Captain Abram Kean"). Robert Bartlett, a poor sealing captain but better known outside Newfoundland than any other sealer, died in 1946 (see "Captain Bob Bartlett"). William Winsor Jr., the last of the great clan of sealing captains named Winsor, died in 1949 (see again "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912").
Thus I think it all but certain that this was written in 1945 (when Abram Kean died) or after. It was clearly collected soon after it was written. One suspects the author could have been identified if anyone had tried in 1951. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ML3AllGo

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