Old Mayflower, The

DESCRIPTION: Mayflower runs ashore with its cargo of dry fish and ale. After the cargo is stolen we take the pail, jars, kettle, and, finally, the wood. "And that was the end of the old Mayflower"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck humorous theft
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 87-88, "The Old Mayflower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9954
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Nellie Musseau, "The Old Mayflower" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mariposa" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Middlesex Flora" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Irrawaddy" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "Loss of the Anglo-Saxon" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Wrecker's Song" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Hoban Boys" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Wreck of the Torhamvan (The Wreck of the Toravan)" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Teapots at the Fire" (theme of salvaged items although not wreckers)
NOTES [524 words]: I find myself wondering if Stan Rogers didn't have this or one of the other songs in the cross-references somewhere in the back of his mind when he wrote "The Wreck of the Athens Queen." It's interesting to see how many songs on the theme of, shall we say, extremely rapid and perhaps premature salvage come from Newfoundland.
As Ben Schwartz notes, citing Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast, "The general attitude toward wrecks was summed up for me by one man, who said, 'If the good Lord sees fit to wrack a vessel, we hope it'll be hereabouts; we can use anything on board.'"
Which is not to say that there weren't other places where wreckers worked. "The Old Mayflower" and "Loss of the Anglo Saxon" and "Mariposa" and "The Hoban Boys" and "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh" and "The Wreck of the Torhamvan (The Wreck of the Toravan)" are from Newfoundland and Labrador, but "The Middlesex Flora" and "The Irrawady" are about a ships wrecked in Ireland, And Vivian offers a whole book about Cornish wreckers, although he cites no songs.
Vivian, p. 5, writes, "The term ''wrecking' covers a wide range of misdemeanors, ranging from inshore piracy to the relatively innocuous gathering of flotsam and jetsam cast up by the sea after a storm. The wrecker of legend, who ured ships to destruction by exhibiting false lights on the coast, and murdered the hapless sailors as they struggled ashore, has, happily, been quite extinct for a very long time now; but the stripping of wrecked vessels still sometimes occurs; so that one can say that this ancient craft, unlike others far worthier which are now extinct, still flourishes in a restricted way. A good instance is that of the American steamer Bessemer City, lost near St. Ives in 1936, which provided many local inhabitants with tinned salmon, fruit, and other good cheer for the Christmas season."
Powers, p. 15, writes, "For centuries, the rugged coastlines of Europe and England -- particularly Cornwall with its treacherous rocks and strong winds -- were a haven for wreckers and smugglers, and these activities reached a peak in the eighteenth century. Seizing the opportunity to ease their miserable lives a little, ordinary folks and even a few clergy plundered wrecked ships to smuggle the 'saved' goods with unchecked enthusiasm. When one man interrupted a Sunday service to shout that a ship had just wrecked on the nearby rocks, the vicar was said to have begged his congregation to remain seated until he could take off his cassock 'to that we can all start fair.'"
The right of salvage is ancient, and so is its abuse. According to Gillingham, pp. 70-71, we find the English King Henry II rescinding the right of salvage at certain points along the Atlantic coast in the 1170s (to protect wine merchants, whose products floated and so could be re-collected even if their ship sank). Gillingham also mentions that the merchants thought he should have extended it even farther -- to Brittany, where the locals had a tradition of living off the proceeds of wrecks.
"The Hoban Boys" mentions the looting of a ship Mayflower. Whether they are the same ship I do not know. - RBW
Bibliography

Gillingham: John Gillingham, Richard the Lionheart, Times Books, 1978
Powers: Dennis M. Powers, Taking the Sea: Perilous Waters, Sunken Ships, and the True Story of the Legendary Wrecker Captains, American Management Association, 2009
Vivian: John Vivian, Tales of the Cornish Wreckers, Tor Mark Press, 1969

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Pea087

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