It's such a good tune, but it needed a better story line, something a dyed-in-the-wool folklorist could appreciate. Here it is. Try it out at your next chantey sing and tell them you learned it while song-catching in Port-Aux -Basques, Newfoundland. It'll be a whopper of a lie, but who really cares?

---- Steve



THE MINNOW'S TALE

Tune: "Gilligan's Island" theme song by Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle. First two stanzas from the original.
New words: Stephen L. Suffet © 2002

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip,
That started from this tropic port,
Aboard this tiny ship.
Aboard this tiny ship!

The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure,
Five passengers set sail that day,
For a three hour tour.
A three hour tour!

We were an hour out of port,
When we spied a pirate scow
It ordered us to come about,
And fired 'cross our bow.
And fired 'cross our bow!

But we outgunned those pirates bold,
And sent them to the deep,
Then a mermaid's song our hearts took hold,
As she lulled us all to sleep.
She lulled us all to sleep!

She robbed us of our silver-o,
She robbed us of our gold,
We woke to a fire down below,
There was a dragon in our hold.
A dragon in our hold!

That fiery dragon was no match,
For a full nor'easter gale,
It froze that dragon -- and our starboard watch,
In a blizzard of sleet and hail.
A blizzard of sleet and hail!

Saint Elmo's fire cracked overhead
The swells crashed at our feet,
We could hear the wailing of sailors dead,
Through that blizzard of hail and sleet,
That blizzard of hail and sleet!

At last that blizzard did die down,
But there upon the sea,
We saw approaching from the South,
The Turkish Reverie.
The Turkish Reverie!

Our cabin boy he swam to them,
And sank them in the tide,
For our skipper true had promised him,
His daughter for his bride
His daughter for his bride!

But the skipper lied and the cabin boy,
Back to the tide was tossed,
He did to us like he did to them,
And four passengers were lost.
Four passengers were lost!

Oh, I'm just a humble sailing man,
Who talks with a funny voice,
I could only rescue one of them,
And [pause]... Mary Ann was my choice.
Mary Ann was my choice!

Now my Mary Ann is safe ashore,
And the skipper he's in jail,
And I'm the only son of a whore,
Who can tell the Minnow's tale.
Who can tell the Minnow's tale!