The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #88032   Message #1648954
Posted By: Charley Noble
15-Jan-06 - 03:26 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Shipmates-1914 (C. Fox Smith)
Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: SHIPMATES 1914 (C. Fox Smith)
Well, my wording has changed somewhat, as expected. Here's how I'm singing it today (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords):

Poem by Cicely Fox Smith, 1914, from SONGS & CHANTIES: 1914-1916,
edited by Cicely Fox Smith, pub. by Elkin Mathews, London, © 1919, pp. 25-26
Adapted by Charles Ipcar 1/15/06
Tune: after the chorus of Gina Dunlap's version of "River Lea"
Key: F (5/C)

Shipmates (1914)


F-----C---------G------C------------------------F-----C------G
Good-bye and fare ye well, for we'll sail no more to-geth-er,
C--------------------------------G-C-----F----C---------G
Up and down the deep seas, in fair or foul-est weath-er:
-------C------------------------G-C-----------F-C--G
We'll sail no more together, in foul weath-er or fine,
-----C----G--C----F----------C--G--F
And you'll go your way, and I'll go mine,
-----C----G--C---F-----------C--G--F
And you'll go your way, and I'll go mine.

Oh the seas are very wide, and there's never any knowing –
The countries we'll be seeing, or the ports where we'll be going;
All around the wide world, back across the Line,
And you'll go your way, and I'll go mine,
And you'll go your way, and I'll go mine.

Good-bye and fare ye well – but maybe we'll be meeting,
In some foreign city, where we'll shout each other greetings;
Back from deep sea roving, back from wind and weather –
You and me from cross the seas, two shipmates together,
You and me from cross the seas, two shipmates together!

You'll blow up from Eastward, and I'll blow in from the West,
And of all the times we ever had, it's then we'll have the best;
We'll raise a glass and sing our songs, and all things will be fine –
Then you'll go your way, and I'll go mine,
Then you'll go your way, and I'll go mine.

So good-bye and fare ye well: may naught but good attend ye,
All around the wide world, where sailor's luck may send ye;
Up and down the deep seas, back across the Line –
And you'll go your way, and I'll go mine,
And you'll go your way, and I'll go mine!

And here's a link to my website where you can access a MP3 sample of the 1st two verses: Clink here!

The photographs with the song by the way were taken by Alan Villiers aboard the four-masted barque Parma in 1933 and feature one of the female sailor apprentices Elisabeth Jacobsen, not Cicely Fox Smith.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble