Lyr Add: The Dreadnaught Mutiny (Jerry Bryant)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Dreadnaught Mutiny
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Jul 22 - 12:44 AM

As Debra Cowan says, Arrrgh!
Thanks a lot, Jerry.

-Joe-

Subject: Lyr Add: The Dreadnaught Mutiny
From: JWB
Date: 12 Jul 22 - 08:26 PM

A kind request from Joe to post the lyrics of this song of mine has brought me back to the 'cat after a long absence. The reason for the request is that Abby Sale, some years back, quoted from this song for his July 12 Happiness calendar entry.

I based the song on an incident recorded in Basil Lubbock's book The Western Ocean Packets. I recorded it on my CD The Ballad of Harbo and Samuelsen a long time ago, but it's still got some legs: you can stream it on Spotify, etc., etc. There's a link to purchase the physical CD on my website JerryBryantSings.com.

Stan Hugill said after hearing me perform the song, "You got everything right, but you left out the dog!"

THE DREADNAUGHT MUTINY
(Jerry Bryant)

The North Atlantic packet ships could eat a man alive
‘Tween their brass-bound skippers and their hard-case crews.
But when you’re on that westward run, fighting to survive,
It takes a rugged mob to pull her through.
The packet rats of Liverpool will give it all they’ve got
Before the wind or driving through a gale.
The gang they call the Bloody Forty is the toughest of the lot,
And no bucko mate has ever made them quail.

CHORUS
Well I’ve known the hardest captains and sailed with the toughest crews,
And I’ve shipped aboard my share of blood boats, matey.
But I’ve never seen as big a row in all my years at sea
As when Captain Samuels met the Bloody Forty.

Samuels sailed the Dreadnaught for the Red Cross Line;
She was the smartest packet of her day.
He sailed her from New York to Liverpool in record time,
But he drove his men like oxen all the way.
Many a poor sailor has toiled beneath his lash --
You could give your all and still he’d ask for more,
And if you dared to cross him you could never win that clash:
The Bloody Forty looked to even up the score.

The Dreadnaught needed crewmen for the run back to New York
And the Bloody Forty signed on to a man.
The magistrate warned Samuels they were up to evil work,
But he said, “I mean to break ‘em if I can.”
Finnegan and Sweeney were the leaders of the gang,
And tougher men I swear I’ve never met.
They meant to steal the vessel as soon as eight bells rang,
But the Old Man wasn’t daunted by the threat.

The ship was just off Queenstown when the mutiny began
And the crew refused to haul the weather brace.
Finnegan pulled out a knife and cursed at the Old Man,
Calling him a coward to his face.
Samuels, with a pistol, called the sailors’ bluff:
He stood alone, a rock against the tide.
His officers soon proved that they were made of weaker stuff:
The second mate alone stood by his side.

“Kill him now!” cried Sweeney, “And send him straight to hell!”
As the Bloody Forty surged to the attack.
But just then a band of emigrants leapt forward with a yell
And with iron bars they held the Forty back.
The sound of blows and cursing filled the summer’s night
As the mutineers fell into the trap.
They didn’t know that Samuels was ready for a fight
And he’d armed two dozen Dutchies for the scrap.

The mutiny was over and the captain had prevailed,
But Finnegan alone would not repent.
It took ten hours in the sweatbox before his spirit failed
And he begged for mercy, beaten down and spent.
The remainder of the voyage Samuels preached the holy word,
And his sermons brought those hardened men to tears.
And when the Dreadnaught docked it was the strangest thing I’ve heard --
The Bloody Forty gave the Old Man three big cheers!

Jerry Bryant recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh_Vk-oD7uE

Debra Cowan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFxkaOH4RVs