I have two parting songs that are fairly new to my nautical repetoire, both by the early 20th century poet Cicely Fox Smith. The one for leaving ship at the end of the voyage is called "So Long (All Coil Down)" and the other for leaving port is called "Outward Bound." Here are my notes on both of these songs whose lyrics have been discussed in the C. Fox Smith thread here at Mudcat: C. Fox Smith Thread

So Long - A wonderful sea poem by sea shanty collector C. Fox Smith that has been musically arranged by Alan Fitzsimmons in 1998. I first heard this sung by Danny and Joyce McLeod in Maine; you can hear them sing it on NEVER A CROSS WORD, Old & New Tradition, © 2002, ONTCD2021. It's a great farewell to the ship and one's shipmates after a long voyage.

Outward Bound - Another C. Fox Smith sea poem in which I've done some rewording for better singing. My tune is adapted from the traditional "Blow the Candles Out." This is a classic sailortown song where the sailors have "laid around and played around" too long and it's time to ship out.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble