I Am a Newfoundlander

DESCRIPTION: "I am a Newfoundlander, I go out to the ice. I'm always in the best of ships.... The man I wish to sail with is Captain Harry Dawe." The Adventure sets out in 1906 and takes 20,000 seal. The singer tells of the voyage, the crew, and an injured Irishman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: ship hunting moniker injury doctor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 89-90, "I Am a Newfoundlander" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #26538
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Logy Bay" (tune)
NOTES [650 words]: The Adventure of this song is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)," and I suspect it is the Ad of "Captains and Ships." She was the first iron-clad sealer (Chafe, pp. 26, 31), and inaugurated a new, if brief, era in Newfoundland sealing, because the steel ships could pound through ice that their wooden sisters could not (Ryan-Ice, p. 187; Winsor, p. 29). She was built in Dundee in 1905, went to the ice for the first time in 1906 (as the song says), and was sold to Russia in 1916 (Ryan/Drake, p. 36). (Most of the steel sealers were disposed of or lost during World War I, and there was little attempt to replace them. They brought in more seals than the wooden ships, but they also cost more, and the sealing companies seem to have unofficially concluded that they just weren't worth it.)
Ryan-Last, pp. 20-21, quotes the Evening Telegram of February 2, 1906 concerning the ship:
"Yesterday a steamer was launched by the Dundee Shipbuilders Co., Ltd., which marks a distinct advance on any of these [earlier sealers], and built as it is for the sealing trade of St. John's, Newfoundland, seems not unlikely to be the forerunner of many vessels of a similar type. The S.S. Adventure, which name has been given to the boat, is especially constructed for ice navigation, but, unlike previous vessels for that trade, she is built completely of steel to Lloyd's highest class, and far in excess of their requirements, her stem, stern post, rudder and steam steering gear being fully twice the weight and power required for vessels of her size.... She is... 265 feet by 88 feet by 21 feet moulded depth, fitted with all the latest appliances for the rapid handling of cargo, and is lighted by electricity.... She will... [have] sufficient power to obtain a speed of twelve knots."
The singer claim that he's "always in the best of ship(s)" thus fits the actual situation; for the first few years of her service, the Adventure was the best ship in the sealing fleet; probably there wasn't a substantially better one until the Florizel was finished four years later.
(Ryan-Last, p. 21, adds after her big success in her first year, the old wooden ships tried harder to fight their way through the ice as well, resulting in the loss of two wooden ships in 1907 and three in 1908. Ironically, the Adventure was one of those sent out to rescue the damaged ships in 1908; WInsor, p. 29)
The Adventure had two slightly smaller sisters, the Bellaventure and the Bonaventure. The latter is mentioned in "Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer"; the former is almost certainly the "Bill" (i.e. "Belle") of "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)," and I believe they are the Belle and Bon of "Captains and Ships."
There were two Captains Henry Dawe; the one in this song, from Bay Roberts, is also mentioned in at least four other songs; see "The Sealer's Song (II)." Chafe, p. 31, agrees that he was a popular captain. He commanded the Adventure from 1906-1910, when he retired (Chafe, p. 90); Jacob Kean commanded the Adventure for the rest of her time as a sealer (Chafe, p. 98).
The second verse, which claims a haul of 20,000 seals, actually under-counts the Adventure's results in her first years; in 1906, she took 30,193 seals, then 24,522 in 1907 and 27,255 in 1908. She took 17,046 and 10,578 in her last two years under Dawe. The tenth verse, which claims 30,000 seals, is more accurate and implies that the song is from 1906.
The last verse appears to me to have floated in from something else, since it hints that the captain could be blamed for some problem, but I'm not sure from what.
There is a picture of the Adventure on p. 36 of Ryan/Drake and p. 187 of Ryan-Ice (the same picture, I believe), and one on p. 56 of Candow. Winsor has one on p. 29. Higgins, p. 21, has a picture of the Adventure, Bellaventure, and Bonaventure together in port. - RBW
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File: RySm089

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