Loss of the Shamrock, The

DESCRIPTION: James Murray's mother asks him to delay sailing but he won't wait. He sails on Friday, September 18. The ship is seen on Saturday, then lost. Thomas Ridgeley might have saved two of those lost but he did not and is scorned for it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: sailor death mother wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 19, 1846 - the Shamrock is lost in a gale off Cape St Mary's (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 963-964, "The Loss of the Shamrock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9816
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "The Loss of the Shamrock" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Tom Ferrier, "Torbay Song" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Mike Molloy, "Shamrock" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [122 words]: The 1846 wreck described in the HISTORICAL REFERENCES is not the only disaster involving a Newfoundland ship named "Shamrock" in September. On September 15, 1906, the schooner Shamrock, owned and sailed by captain Paul Ezekiel, was attempting to ride out the storm when the Margaret Dawe, which had broken her anchor chains, plowed into the Shamrock. The Shamrock drifted ashore and was wrecked, but due to the bravery of her crew and a Captain Mercer who lived in the area, all survived (see Captain Joseph Prim and Mike McCarthy, The Angry Seas: Shipwrecks on the Coast of Labrador, Jesperson Publishing, 1999, pp. 79-81). That wreck obviously is not the one in the song, but it might have helped keep the song live. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Pea963

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