BOLD CARTER
from 'Folksongs Collected By Ralph Vaughan Williams' edited by Roy Palmer pp107-108

Come all you wild young men,
And a warning take by me
And never lead your life astray
Unto bad company.

Bold Carter is my name,
And hard is my intent;
Till I got pressed by a press merchant,
And on board a man of war got sent.

We hadn't sailed long,
Before the first thing that we spied,
It was five French ships came sailing to war,
And at length they were going to draw nigh.

We hoisted our main colours,
Our bloody flag we let fly,
Singing, every man stand to his gun,
For the Lord knows the day we must die.

Our captain got wounded most wonderfully sore,
And so did most of his men;
Our whole ship's rigging got all shot away,
So at last we were forced to give in.

Our decks were all sprinkled with blood,
And the great guns so loudly they did roar;
I wished myself back home again
With my Polly that I left upon the shore.

She's a tall and a handsome girl,
She's a black and roving eye;
And here upon the deck where I lay shot,
For her sweet sake I must die.

Here's adieu to my father and mother,
Crying friends and relations, too,
I never should have crossed the salt seas so wide
If I had been ruled by you.

Under the title of 'The Valiant Sailor', this first appeared in 1744 as one of 'three excellent new songs' in 'The Irish Boys Garland'. Through the long period of oral transmission since then the song has remarkably close to the same powerful text, and has usually been found with fine, soaring tunes. Vaughan Williams obtained this version from Mr J. Whitby, the sexton of Tilney All Saints near King's Lynn. (Palmer's notes). 'Bold Carter' was recorded by Nick Dow on his c1986 LP, 'A Mark Upon the Earth' (OHM 107).