THE STATELY SOUTHERNER
(Forebitter)

She was a stately Southerner
And flew the Stars and Bars:
The whistling wind from the west-north-west
Blew through her pitchpine spars.
And like an eagle swiftly on
She flew before the gale,
Till late that night she raised a light,
The Old Head of Kinsale.

No thought was there of shortening sail
By him who trod the poop,
Though by the weight of her ponderous jib
The boom bent like a hoop.
The groaning chess-trees told the strain
That bore the stout maintack,
But he only laughed as he gazed abaft
At her bright and silvery track.

It was a fine and cloudless night,
The breeze held steady and strong,
As gaily o'er the shining deep
Our good ship bowl'd along:
In foam beneath her trampling bows
The mounting waves did spread,
As stooping low her breast of snow
She buried her lee cathead.

The mid-tide met in the channel waves
That rolled from shore to shore,
The mist lay thick along the land
From Featherstone to Dunmore.
Yet gleamed the light at Tuskar Rock
Where the bell still tolled the hour,
But the beacon light that shone so bright
Was quenched on Waterford Tower.

The canvas that our good ship bore
Was topsails fore and aft,
Her spanker too and standing jib,
For she was a stiffish craft.
Then "Lay aloft," the captain cried,
"Loose out your light sails fast!"
And to'gal'n's'ls all and royal sails small
Soon swelled upon each mast.

What looms upon the starboard bow?
What hangs upon the breeze?
'Tis time the packet hauls her wind
Abreast the old Saltees.
For by her mighty press of sail
That clothed each ponderous spar,
That ship we spied on the misty tide
Was a British man-of-war.

"Out booms! Out booms!" our skipper cried,
"Out booms and give her sheet!"
And the swiftest ship that ever was launched
Shot away from the British fleet,
As 'midst a murderous hail of shot,
His stunsails hoisting away,
Down channel clear Paul Jones did steer
Just at the break of day.

Notes by CFS, p. 86:

When he (the sailor) did sing a sea song, it had, above everything else, to be correct – its seamanship like Caesar's wife, its use of technical terms beyond cavil…"The Stately Southerner" meets the most critical requirements in this respect, and it is also a jolly good rousing ballad and goes to a stirring tune…

Mr. Prosser, who sang the song for me, could only recall the words of the first two verses, so I have completed it from other sources. It appears without the music in the late Mr. J. E. Patterson's "Sea Anthology," and with the music, in Miss Joanna Colcord's American collection.