The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173634   Message #4210985
Posted By: cnd
04-Nov-24 - 04:14 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Oh, When I Breath'd a Last Adieu
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Oh, When I Breath'd a Last Adieu
I was finally able to access the version from Huntington's Song's the Whalemen Sang (1964), pp. 255-256 (link). The lyrics are nearly identical to those produced above already, though minus some of the contractions (for scansion/dialect, it appears).   There's also some sheet music for anyone interested in making an ABC or reading the dots.

Huntington's version comes from the Cortes, which was described as follows --
Name of vessel: Ship Cortes
Home port at time of voyage: New Bedford [Massachusets]
Year in which voyage began: 1847
Repository in which journal or logbook may be found: (A manuscript book of songs collected by William Histed.)

The book also includes the brief description: "Perhaps the more common name for this song is "The Emigrant." I haven't been able to find out very much about it. Although the words seem literary it is sometimes hard to tell with Irish songs. The melody is almost surely traditional, and it has a sweet haunting quality."