Female Warrior, The (Pretty Polly) [Laws N4]

DESCRIPTION: A girl boards ship to learn the sailor's craft. After some years in service, her ship encounters a pirate/raider. The captain is quickly slain, and the girl assumes command. She overcomes the enemy. In some texts she goes to London to be rewarded
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1830
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing battle pirate death ship drink
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(England(Lond),Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws N4, "The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly)"
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "RAINBOW, THE"
Greig/Duncan1 180, "Sweet William" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 261, "Aboard the Resolution" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 433)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 99-100, "As We Were A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 39, "The Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #109, "The Gallant Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune, probably with some floating verses)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #4, "The Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 47, "The Female Warrior" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 85, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 84, "As We Were A-Sailing" (1 text)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 143-144, "The Female Warrior" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 124-125, "The Beauty of Baltimore" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 83, "The Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune, perhaps this piece; see note)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 32, "The Female Warrior (I)" (1 text; #28 in the first edition); 33, "As We Were A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune, #29 in the first edition); 34, "The Female Warrior (II)" (1 text, 1 tune, from Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman; #30 in the first edition)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1749, "Margaret my sweetest, Margaret I must go" (listed as Laws N4 though the description sounds more like N8)
Roud #492
RECORDINGS:
Bob Hart, "A Broadside" (on Voice08)
Cyril Poacher, "A Broadside" (on Voice02)
unidentified, "The Straight Foreign Shore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(93a), "Female Captain," unknown, n.d.; Bodleian, Firth c.13(255), "Down by the Spanish Shore", W. Harris (Birmingham), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Ambree" (plot: lover becomes officer)
cf. "On the First of November" (plot: lover becomes officer)
NOTES [318 words]: The song "The Rainbow" collected by MacColl and Seeger from Nelson Ridley in 1974 has lyrics from this song, and their notes makes it clear they identify it with this piece. Ridley's text is hopelessly confused, with no plot and some repetition of lyrics; Paul Stamler notes that it "almost [sounds] like the 'maid' being referred to is actually the ship." - PJS, RBW
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 2" - 11.9.02: "Frank Kidson noted a Yorkshire set of this song and comments that as it concerns a sea battle between the English and the Spanish, it must be of some considerable age. (Traditional Tunes 1891, pp. 99-100).... Kidson also notes the connection between the ship 'The Rainbow' and one of the same name that is to be found in the ballad of 'Captain Ward'...." [ Kidson's text ends "Good health unto this damsel who fought all on the main, And here's to the royal gallant ship called Rainbow by name."; Cyril Poacher's text for that on Voice02 is slightly different; Bob Hart's text on Voice08 names the ship "The Royal."] - BS
Apart from the pirate, incidentally, this song bears some resemblance to an actual happening -- though the song was first recorded before the event. In 1856, the clipper Neptune's Car was to sail from New York to San Francisco under Captain Joshua Adams Patten -- but which endded up being navigated by his wife; for background, see the notes to "Bound Down to Newfoundland" [Laws D22].
The ending isn't very happy; Joshua Patten, who was barely 30, died in mid-1857, and Mary Ann Patten, not yet 25, had contracted his tuberculosis and died in 1861. But she *had* successfully brought the Neptune's Car around Cape Horn. Possibly the story -- which was widely reported, and which brought Mary Ann Patten a thousand dollar reward from the company insuring the Neptune's Car -- could have helped make this song popular. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: LN04

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