Time to do some more work on this song. One of my nautical music friends kindly pointed out that if Captain Bailey were sailing from Boston downeast to Lubec, Maine, he would not intentionally head south toward Nantucket. In fact it was actually Cape Ann that he skillfully sailed around. Here's the revised song (copy into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords):

By Charles Ipcar, © 2001
Tune by Ian Robb, The Old Rose and Crown, © 1977

Captain Bailey's Mistake


C-------------------------------G---C---G7-------C
Good friends gather round, and the truth I'll relate,
------------------------------F-C----------G-----C----G
How a cove near Lubec be-came Bai-ley's Mis-take;
--------C-----------------------------G------C---F---C
There was a bold captain whose name was Bai-ley,
------F---C----G--C--F--C-------G----C---G7---------C
And his ship end-ed up where 'twas not s'posed to be.


Chorus:

C-------------------------------------G7----------C
So here's to our captain, where e'r he may be,
-----------G-C-------------------G----C--G
A friend to the sailor on land and on sea;
C-------------------F------C--G-----C--F--C
Ye mariners all, weigh the risks that ye take,
F----C---G--C-F-----C------G---C--G-----G7-C
Lest you be re-mem-bered like Bai-ley's Mis-take.

He set sail from Boston, Downeast for Lubec,
With a cargo of lumber piled high on the deck;
He skirted Cape Ann with nary a fear,
And our crew gave a cheer as the Maine coast drew near. (CHO)

As we closed on Lubec, we was socked in by fog,
But continued to sail by compass and log;
As our ship ghosted in, "Look sharp!" Bailey said,
"You'll soon see the narrows off West Quoddy Head." (CHO)

But, alas, for poor Bailey, no narrows we found,
And in a large cove our ship ran aground;
Said Bailey, "As sailors, there's no way we can win;
Let's unload the lumber, build homes and move in." (CHO)

So here's to our captain, who sailed the salt sea,
'Till his ship ended up where 'twas not s'posed to be;
He'd be sailing still could he just navigate,
But he's doing quite well selling prime real estate!

Notes:

For years I wondered about the name of a cove, Bailey's Mistake, on the nautical chart of far Downeast Maine. I finally got the bones of the story from a 1995 newspaper article by Bruce Kyle. There was indeed a Capt. Bailey in the early 1800's and he did wreck his ship, with a load of lumber near Lubec. The song practically wrote itself but the tune is borrowed from Ian Robb's fine drinking song The Old Rose and Crown, © 1977 SOCAN.

My wife and I did some follow-up research in 2005, nosing around the cove of Bailey's Mistake. We than paid a visit to the Quoddy Times newspaper office in Eastport to see what else we could dig up. That's where we got the name of one of their retired feature writers Shirley Morong. She provided us a reference to an 1810 map deposited in the Library of Congress which identifies the cove in question as "Bailey Mistake." The story, however, as it is periodically retold states that the incident happened one dark and stormy night in 1830! No doubt the local historians got their dates mixed up. Charts never lie!

Recorded by Charles Ipcar on More Uncommon Sailor Songs, © 2005.

Here's a direct link to my new website to hear an MP3 sample: click here and search for MP3 Sample!

We had fun singing this song at a special event at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Maine last weekend, located in the home town of Joanna Colcord. Nice folks and interesting exhibits.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble