Jolly Fisherman

from Alone on the Wide Wide Sea by Craig Edwards

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about

Jolly Fisherman (1870s?)
Collected by Helen Creighton in 1929 from Richard Hartlan of South-East Passage, Nova Scotia and published in her book “Songs and Ballads of Nova Scotia.” Hartlan remembered seeing the schooner Veronia as a boy. The North Atlantic halibut fishery of the late 19th century was terribly dangerous, with many risks being taken for the profits of this high-priced catch. A drogue is a form of “sea anchor”- an heavy object tied to a boat and thrown off the bow to keep the bow pointed into the wind. Sailors continued to use an archaic meaning of the word “jolly,” meaning “bold and daring” rather than “laughs easily,” long after the later meaning became common.

lyrics

Jolly Fisherman

Come, all you jolly fishermen
That does a-fishing go
Beware of the cold nor’westers
And the stormy winds that blow
It was in the winter season
On the western banks we lay
On board of the old Veronia
Oh, I’ll never forget the day

It was stormy in the morning
Just at the dawn of light
When we went out to haul our trawls
We returned again all right
“bait up again, my jolly boys,”
I heard our captain say
“it’s halibut here it’s to be had
We must haul again today

“Oh, three can go in a dory,” said he,
“If it comes the worst do blow
We’ll pay down buoy line astern
Adrift you never can go.”
Oh, three of us went in a dory,
And away us boys did go
The wind southeast a-breezing up
And every sign of snow.

Oh, we got our trawls all right,
And might have reached her, too
But when we got our lights in sight
We broke our oars in two
I overboard the anchor
Thinking to ride it out
But our buoy line soon parted
For I tell you it was not stout.

My dory mate he kept her straight
While the other one kept her free
For if we’d got a-broadside to it
Capsized we would be.
My dory mate he kept her straight
While the other one kept her free
While I rigged a drogue of halibut
And cast it in the sea.

Oh, early the next morning
We took our turn about
And pulling away to leeward
And keeping a sharp lookout
“Sail ho! Sail ho! My jolly boys,
the joyful bells do ring,”
There lay the old Veronia
And to Williams we convened

“Oh, wasn’t you afraid?”
Oh, I guess so. We’re all right at last-
By baling with our sou’westers
We saved our little craft.”

credits

from Alone on the Wide Wide Sea, released August 9, 2022

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Craig Edwards New London, Connecticut

I play American roots music, from Appalachian fiddle and banjo tunes to Zydeco accordion. For nearly four decades i worked as a staff musician at Mystic Seaport Museum, demonstrating the use of chanteys, or sailor work songs, aboard the museum's collection of historic ships. I've plumbed the depths of sailor music, from the African American origins of chanteys to world maritime traditions. ... more

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