I recently transcribed this song from the Flanders collection. It will appear in my new upcoming book of over 150 transcriptions of Bygone Ballads of Maine vol 1-Songs of the Sea Ships and Sailors

THE NIGHTINGALE
Jack McNally, Stacyville ME 5/10/1942
Helen Hartness Flanders Collection
Middlebury College, Middlebury VT
Transcription © 2017 Julia Lane

*Cl0B07 31:16, D23Bl6 8:23

Compiled by Julia Lane from the two recordings with some additional lyrics from the Forget-me-not songster

My love he was a rich farmer's son
His come-lye person my heart had won
When I think on him my courage fails            
Since my love was lost in the Nightingale

My parents were of a high degree
And my true love not so rich as they
They sent a press gang who did not fail      
For to press my love in the Nightingale   

Oh the Nightingale was a vessel stout
Well rigged, well manned and well fitted out
With fifty guns the truth to tell
Five hundred on board of the Nightingale

On the eighteenth day of November last
The wynds they blew a tremendious blast
We lost our spars likewise every sail
What a dismal wreck was the Nightingale

Then a sea o'er-whelmed us both fore and aft
Not many men on our decks was left
Her sides stove in and her timbers-failed
To the bottom went the brave Nightingale

And the very night that my love was lost
He appeared to me in a frightful ghost
He appeared to me being cold and pale
Just as he was lost in the Nightingale

These words he spoke with lamenting cries
In the Bay of Biscay my body lies
Saying Nancy, Nancy you may bewail (dear love)
For your love is lost in the Nightingale

To the mountain green I will make my way (McNally chooses for her to seek Nature's solace)
To the lonesome seaside myself I'll take
And every time that I see a sail            
And my heart will bleed for the Nightingale