Sailor's Grave, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our bark was far, oh, far from land, When the fairest of our gallant band Grew deadly pale and pined away." Lacking "costly winding sheets," they wrap the dead man in his hammock and a flag and sadly bury him at sea
AUTHOR: Words: Eliza Cook / Music: John C. Baker
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1845 402000)
KEYWORDS: sea sailor death funeral burial
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Australia
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 68, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 700, "Sailor's Grave" (1 text)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 160-162, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 162-163, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 121-122, "The Sailor's Grave" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 55, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 56, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 155, "A Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 47, "Sailor's Burial at Sea" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 31, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2053, p. 138, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 reference)
DT, SAILGRAV*
Roud #2676
RECORDINGS:
Pat Ford, "The Sailor's Grave" (AFS 4211 B1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3383), "The Sailor's Grave" ("Our bark was far, far from the land"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(27), Harding B 11(4264), Harding B 11(3382), Harding B 11(3383), Harding B 11(3384), Harding B 16(240b), Harding B 26(586), Harding B 11(2745), Firth c.12(445), "The Sailor's Grave"
LOCSheet, sm1845 402000, "The Sailor's Grave" ("Our bark was out far, far from land"), F. D. Benteen (Baltimore), 1845; also sm1845 791150, "The Sailor's Grave" (tune)
NOTES [35 words]: There is a parody of this ballad as broadside NLScotland, L.C.1269(176.a), "Parody On The Sailor's Grave,"Poet's Box (Glasgow?), 1863 - BS
For background on Eliza Cook, see the notes to "Grandmother's Chair." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Wa155

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