If the Digital Tradition version is supposed to be a transcription from Creighton's Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, it does have some verses missing and some other mistakes. This is the entire, corrected Creighton version, which, as EBarnacle says, may have been folk-processed.
I took a ferry from Portland, Maine, to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, one stormy night about ten years ago. This song reminds me of that trip, which was a scary adventure for me.
-Joe-
THE MARY L. MacKAY
O come, all you hearty haddockers, who winter fishing go,
And brave the seas upon the Banks in stormy winds and snow
And ye who love hard driving, come listen to my lay
Of the run we made from Portland on the Mary L. MacKay.
We hung the muslin on her, the wind began to hum,
Twenty hardy Nova Scotia men most full of Portland rum,
Mainsail, foresail, jib and jumbo, on that wild December day,
As we passed out Cape Elizabeth and slugged for Fundy Bay.
We slammed her by Monhegan as the gale began to scream,
Our vessel took to dancing in a way that was no dream,
A howler o'er the toprail we steered sou'west away,
O she was a hound for running, was the Mary L. MacKay.
`Storm along and drive along, punch her through the ribs,
Don't mind your boarding combers as the solid green she dips.
Just mind your eye and watch the wheel,' our skipper he did say.
`Clear decks we'll sport tomorrow on the Mary L. MacKay.'
Oh, the seas were looking ugly and the crests were heaving high,
Our vessel simply scooped her till our decks were never dry;
The cook he mouthed his pots and pans and unto us did say,
'You'll get nothing else but mugups on the Mary L. MacKay.'
We laced a hawser to the wreck and caulked the cable box,
We tested all our shackles and our fore and mainsail blocks.
We double gripped our dories while the gang began to pray
For a breeze to tear the bits from out the Mary L. MacKay.
We slammed her to Matinicus, the skipper hauled the log,
`Sixteen knots! Lord Harry, ain't she just the gal to jog?'
The half-canned wheelsman shouted, as he swung her on her way,
`Just watch me tear the mainsail off the Mary L. MacKay.'
The rum was passing merrily and the gang was feeling grand,
Long necks dancing in her wake from where we left the land,
Our skipper he kept sober, for he knew how things would lay,
And made us furl the mainsail on the Mary L. MacKay.
Under foresail and her jumbo we tore wildly through the night,
The foaming, surging whitecaps in the moonshine made a sight,
Would fill your hearts with terror, boys, and wish you were away
At home in bed and not aboard the Mary L. MacKay.
Over on the Lurcher Shoals, the seas were running strong,
The roaring, angry breakers from three to four miles long
And this wild inferno, boys, we soon had hell to pay,
We didn't care a hoot aboard the Mary L. MacKay.
We laced our wheelsman to the box as he steered her through the gloom.
A big sea hove his dory mate right over the main boom,
It tore the oil pants off his legs and you could hear him say,
`There's a power of water flying o'er the Mary L. MacKay.'
Our skipper didn't care to make his wife a widow yet,
He swung her off to Yarmouth Cape with just her foresail set,
And passed Forchu next morning and shut in at break of day,
And soon in sheltered harbour lay the Mary L. MacKay.
From Portland, Maine, to Yarmouth Sound two twenty miles we ran,
In eighteen hours, my bully boys, now beat that if you can,
The gang said `twas seamanship, the skipper he kept dumb,
But the force that drove our vessel was the power of Portland rum.
From Songs and Ballads of Nova Scotia, Creighton
Words apparently by Frederick W Wallace
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:Mary L. Mackay, The
DESCRIPTION: About a voyage by the Mackay from Portland to Yarmouth. Driven by a gale, and handled by uninhibited officers, she ran 220 miles in 18 hours. The singer challenges others to best the mark, but admits the voyage was made on the power of Portland rum
AUTHOR: Words: Frederick W. Wallace
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Canadian Fisherman)
KEYWORDS: ship racing sailor drink storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FSNA 74, "The Mary L. Mackay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 132, "The Mary L MacKay" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARYMKAY*
Roud #1831
Notes: This song is item dD50 in Laws's Appendix II.
According to Creighton, Wallace wrote this poem to describe an experience he had aboard the Effie Morrissey in 1913. She believes her informant, Edmund Henneberry, supplied the tune. - RBW
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