The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #8445   Message #204994
Posted By: Joe Offer
01-Apr-00 - 03:52 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Lovely Ann/Loss of the Ship Union
Subject: ADD Version: Sweet Charming Ann
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

Lovely Ann

DESCRIPTION: The singer's friends take him to Belfast to sail to America on the Union and leave Ann behind. The ship hits a rock off Rathlin in a storm. All passengers reach shore in boats. He decides to stay home with Ann rather than try to sail to America again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (chapbook by James Smyth, Belfast, according to Leyden)
KEYWORDS: emigration reunion separation sea ship storm wreck America
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1822 - The _Union_ out of Belfast, bound for St Andrews, New Brunswick, is wrecked on Rathlin Island. The passengers were rescued and returned to Belfast (source: Leyden).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig #108, pp. 2-3, "Sweet Charming Ann" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 24, "Sweet Charming Ann" (1 text)
Leyden 34, "Lovely Ann" (1 text)
Logan, pp. 56-58, "Lament for the Loss of the Ship Union" (1 text)

Roud #5804
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 5, "Lovely Ann ("When I was young and in my prime"), T. Batchelar (London), 1828-1832; also Harding B 11(2221), Harding B 11(2222), "Lovely Ann"; Harding B 11(4087), "Lovely Anne"
Murray, Mu23-y1:032, "Lovely Ann," James Lindsay Junr(Glasgow), 19C

ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Loss of the Ship Union
Notes: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v2, p. 17 lists this as an 1822 wreck without further details; his source is Tommy Cecil, The Harsh Winds of Rathlin. Leyden has details from the News Letter and notes that "many of the details in the song contradict those reported in the News Letter." - BS
File: Leyd034

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2007 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.


Here's the Greig-Duncan version:

SWEET CHARMING ANN

1 When I was young and in my prime.
To the seas I had to rove:
My parents dear they did combine
To part me and my love.

2 They marched me off to Belfast town,
Without any more delay:
And on board the Union my passage paid
Bound for America.

3 I bade farewell to Shamrock shore
And the bonnie banks o’ Bann,
And to the lassie I adore,
My own sweet charming Ann.

4 At twelve o’clock on the third night
We received a sudden shock.
The ship she struck with all her might
Against some unknown rock.

5 The raging seas ran mountains high
And dismal was the skies,
No light nor land could we espy
And horrid was our cries.

6 All night we lay till break o’ day,
Describe our state who can!
I to myself these words did say
Adieu sweet lovely Ann.

7 As soon as ever the day did break,
The boats we did employ.
And to the shore away we bore,
Our hearts did leap for joy.

8 And Providence proved kind to us,
His name we will adore,
Not a soul of us was left behind,
We all got safe to shore.

9 I’ll go and see my bonnie lass,
Down by the banks of Bann,
And all my days with her I’ll pass.
She’s my own sweet charming Ann.

Source: Miss. Bell Robertson
Collected by Gavin Greig, April 1980

Greig-Duncan Collection Volume 1 p.61