Here's a new song inspired by a magazine article of a historical event, one which took place at the mouth of the Kennebec River here in midcoast Maine:

RESCUE OF SHIP'S CAT

(From a true story "The Rescue" by Ken Textor, Down East Magazine, 2002
Adapted by Charlie Ipcar © 2002
Tune: traditional "Doodle Let Me Go")

Chorus:

Them January gales, me boys,
Them January gales,
Let me tell you of a shipwreck
In them January gales.

‘Twas in the year nineteen-o-one,
Joseph Luther she set sail,
To be towed on down the Kennebec,
Into a rising gale.

The steam tug Knickerbocker
Had weathered many a gale,
But the hawser snapped at the river's mouth
And the Luther's fate was nailed. (CHO)

The Luther slipped to windward,
As the waves rushed o‘er the rail,
And she piled high onto Whaleboat Rock
‘Fore her crew could raise a sail.

Captain Francis had the distress flag raised,
For no help could her avail,
And his crew prepared to abandon ship
In a January gale. (CHO)

We Hunnewell Station surfmen.
Responded to their hail;
We launched our surfboat from the beach,
And rowed out through the gale.

We shot a line across her deck;
They secured it to the rail;
They soon were swinging hand-over-hand,
In a January gale. (CHO)

But just when they was safe aboard,
There came a high-pitched wail;
What did we see but the old ship's cat,
Clinging to that schooner's rail.

Now Gussie Hodkins was a surfman
Whose courage never failed;
He deftly swung aboard that ship
In a January gale. (CHO)

He scuttled ‘cross them spray-soaked decks,
Grabbed the cat beside the rail;
He stuffed her deep inside his coat
And returned to tell the tale.

Now that cat enjoys our station life
And with her tale we all regale;
While she sleeps curled up besides the stove,
In them January gales. (CHO)

Cheerily,
Charley Noble