Deckie Learner                                Anon/Ron Baxter

It was there 'neath the Bear Island Island
Where most of the fishing was done.
It was there that a poor deckie learner
Lay down and died under the sun.

They were twenty-one days out of Fleetwood
When the gilsun it gave such a crack;
The rope it did break and the strands they flew out,
And hit that poor lad 'cross the back.

O they lifted his head from the pound-boards,
With the blood from his wounds running red;
They lifted his head to the Skipper,
And these were the last words he said.

"Don't bury me out on the ocean,
Don't bury me out on the sea;
Just take me on ice back to Fleetwood
For all of me family to see".

"And when you get back to dear Fleetwood
And you're drinking your whisky and rum -
Remember the poor deckie learner
Who lay down and died under the sun."

So when they got back to dear Fleetwood
In "Deaduns" they all had a round.
They drank to that poor deckie learner
Who died on the Bear Island ground.

Yes when they got back home to Fleetwood,
In "Deaduns" they all had a "crack".
They drank to that poor deckie learner
Who sailed out but never came back.

Sung by Mike Huntington.

Collected by Ron Baxter and Dick Gillingham from a fisherman (name unknown) in the Strawberry Gardens pub, Poulton Road, Fleetwood.

Vicki Lewis sang a song at the Moorbrook (Preston) session about a year ago which had very similar roots to this song.

"I'll tell you a tale of Benghazi,
Where most of the fighting was done:
And where a poor British Tommy
Lay down and died under the sun."

She had the song from her father, who had heard it during WW2. There are equivalent songs featuring dying airmen, seamen and others, mostly with a similar structure. I thought I had added Vicki's song to the Benghazi thread, but it's not there and I can't find it in my files - possibly lost in my old laptop?