Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer

DESCRIPTION: "Bob Bartlett, born in Brigus, of a bold sea-faring breed, Became a master-mariner as destiny decreed; He won renown... When Peary used his services to the Northern Pole." We are told of the hardships in the arctic, and of the sealing ships he captained
AUTHOR: A. C. Wornell?
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Wornell, Rhymes of a Newfoundlander)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship exploration
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1875-1946 - Life of Robert Abram Bartlett
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 85, "Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer" (1 text)
Roud #V44819
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Bob Bartlett" (subject)
cf. "The Roving Newfoundlanders (I)" (brief mention or Bob Bartlett)
NOTES [181 words]: Robert Bartlett is now remembered mostly as an arctic explorer (Robert Peary took him on three expeditions, and in 1913 Bartlett, as commander of the Karluk, was wrecked, and saved his expedition by a sled trip to Alaska). But it is clear that he was well known in Newfoundland even before that; several of the poems in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, including those written before Peary's explorations, mention him.
It is possible that some of this is by confusion with his uncles Isaac and John Bartlett, who also were sealing captains and connected with the quest for the North Pole.
For more background, see the notes to "Captain Bob Bartlett."
Of the ships mentioned in this song, the Algerine is the subject of "The Loss of the Algerine." The Neptune (one of two) is the subject of "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea." The Bonaventure is perhaps most noteworthy for a 1913 collision with the Beothic which nearly sunk the latter (O'Neill, p. 984); both vessels are also mentioned in "Captains and Ships." Ryan/Drake, p. 39, has a picture of the Bonaventure and the Beothic. - RBW
Bibliography

O'Neill: Paul O'Neill, A Seaport Legacy: The Story of St. John's, Newfoundland, Press Procepic, 1976
Ryan/Drake: Shannon Ryan, assisted by Martha Drake, Seals and Sealers: A Pictorial History of the Newfoundland Seal Fishery, Breakwater Books, 1987

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm085

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