The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #171383 Message #4145028
Posted By: Joe Offer
22-Jun-22 - 12:16 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Beaver Island Boys/Lost on Lake Michigan
Subject: ADD: The Gallant Tommy Boyle (Dan Malloy)
THE GALLANT TOMMY BOYLE
(Dan Malloy)
Come all you Beaver Island boys, I hope you will draw near,
To hear my lamentation, I’m sure you’ll drop a tear.
Concerning a young fisherman, he would your hearts beguile,
He was drowned in Lake Michigan, his name was Tommy Boyle.
When his father heard the news, distracted he did run.
Crying, “Neighbors dear, what shall I do? I've lost my darling son!
Like a pilgrim I will wander, and I’ll travel many a mile,
And all my lifetime I will mourn for my own son Tommy Boyle."
The Reverend Father Gallagher, great praise to him is due,
He reconciled his father, and he preached the Gospel true.
He prayed for his salvation, that the angels on him smile,
I hope he’s at rest in Paradise now, that gallant Tommy Boyle.
He was proper, tall, and comely, his age was twenty-three;
He was as fine a young man as you could wish to see.
He was proper, tall, and kind to all, and on his face a smile,
And I hope he’s well rewarded now, that gallant Tommy Boyle.
He was a gallant boatman, and fishing he did know;
And when they were imperiled, to release them he did go.
He saved a crew and his uncle too, and Heaven did on him smile
And I hope he’s well rewarded now, that gallant Tommy Boyle.
Now to conclude and finish, “Dear Jack,” you’ll understand:
“I’m going to meet my mother dear, she’s in that blessed land.
She was always kind and true to me, and I think it but little toil
To sing her praise, God rest her soul, my brother, Tommy Boyle.”
Notes: The Gallant Tommy Boyle
In this song, Dan Malloy focuses on the 1873 passing of Tommy Boyle, one of the unlucky three in the foundering of the Lookout. The song refers to his older brother Jack and an earlier incident in which Tommy had saved his uncle Hughie and two other fishermen when their boat capsized as they were driving net stakes. Pat McDonough recalled this song, except for the second stanza, which came from Mike O’Donnel in 1940.
Source: Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors, by Ivan H. Walton and Joe Grimm, pp 172-174 (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 2002.