Handsome Harry
Jack McNally, Stacyville ME 5/9/1942
Helen Hartness Flanders Collection
Transcription © 2016 Julia Lane
Tune available upon request

I am a sailor by my right
And on the seas take great delight!
Two pretty fair maids I did beguile
Until I had them both with child.

I promised I'd be true to both
And bound them safe all with an oath.
To marry both it was not right
So I made but one my wedded wife.

The other being left alone
She says “You false and deluded man
On me you've done a wicked thing
A public shame on you I'll bring!

Now you've proved false, I will prove just
And on this earth you'll have no rest!”
And as she spoke it grieved him so
That to the seas he was forced to go.

This fair one went down to the grove,
While public shame or public show;
She hung herself upon a tree
And two men sporting did her see.

Oh, they went up and cut her down
And in her breast a note was found.
This note was in letters large
“Oh bury me not, I do you charge!

Here on the ground let my body lie
So's all young men who pass me by
That them by me a warning take
And mark what follows when it is too late!"

As he was sitting on the top mast high
A little small boat he chanced to spy
Saying “Captain, captain, be my defense
There's a mighty spirit coming hence!”

The little small boat it drew ‘long side
She was arrayed just like a bride
Saying “Captain, Captain, tell me true
Does Handsome Harry sail in your crew?”

“Now love-lye creature, he is not here
For he has died I do declare!
It was in Havana where he died
It was in Havana his body lies.”

“O captain, captain, that is not so!
He's alive and well in your ship below!
Captain," said she, "You must and can
With speed help me to find the man.

And if you do stand in his defense
A mighty storm I will send hence!
It will cause your sailors all to weep
And send them slumbering in the deep.”

Down to the cabin the captain goes
He brings him up to face his foe;
On him she cast her eyes so grim
It made him shake in every limb!

The little boat sailed up 'long side
And he was placed in with his bride.
The boat went up in a flame of fire
Which caused the sailors her to admire!

So, come all you boys to the seas belong
And listen to my mournful song
And you by me a warning take
And mark what follows when it is too late!

The precedent to this song, "The Sailor and the Ghost", also called “The Deceitful Young Man” or “The Dreadful Ghost”, was published as a moralistic broadside in 1805. The lurid subject matter and the dramatic ending explain its appeal to the ballad singer and audience. Similar abandonment and ghostly visitations appear in another ballad, called “The Gosport Tragedy”, as well as the seduction element of "The House Carpenter", collected by Francis Child. Although McNally's song follows the original British one very closely, this is an American version with Havana being substituted for St Helen’s. The lines in italics are from the 1805 song. Another Maine variant, conveyed by Mrs. Susie Carr Young of Brewer, is more similar to that in the "Forget-me-not Songster" of 1840.