Lyr Add: Lumber (C. Fox Smith)

Subject: Lyr Add: LUMBER (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 03:56 PM

Notes: Britisher Cicely Fox Smith was based in Victoria, British Columbia, for much of the time that she was on the West Coast of Canada, roughly 1904 to 1913. She described in vivid detail walking the docks, watching the sunsets, admiring the ships, listening to the yarns of ship-keepers and other sailors, and nosing around the waterfront. She also evidently spent some time in neighboring Richmond at the Steveston Mill, now the location of the Brittania Heritage Shipyard, watching the crews load lumber aboard the ships at the dock.


Words by Cicely Fox Smith ©
In ROVINGS, Elkin Mathews, London, © 1921, p.p. 33-34

LUMBER

If I'd got to choose alone
One of all the freights I've known –
All my cargoes live and dead,
Bacon pigs and pigs of lead,
Cattle, copra, rice and rails,
Pilgrims, coolies, nitrates, nails,
Lima beans and China teas –
What do you think my pick would be?

If I'd got to name the best –
Take just one and leave the rest
Out of all the ports I've known –
Coral beaches white as bone,
All the hot lands and the cold,
Nights of stars and moons like gold,
Tropic smells and Spanish wine,
Whispering palm and singing pine,
All the isles of all the sea –
Where do you think I'd want to be?

Loading lumber long ago
In a ship I used to know,
With the bow-ports open wide
In her stained and rusted side,
And the saws a-screaming shrill
At the Steveston lumber-mill;
Where the Fraser floods and flows
Green and cold with melting snows,
And the tow-boats' wailing din,
As the booms come crawling in,
Fills the echoing creeks with sound,
And there's sawdust all around,
Deep and soft like drifted snow;
Nowhere much a man can go,
Nothing much to see or do,
Mouldiest burg you ever knew…

But I'd give the years between –
All I've done and all I've seen,
All the fooling and the fun,
All the chances lost and won,
All the good times and the bad,
All the memories sweet and sad,
Far and near, by shore and sea,
I would give them all to be
Loading lumber years ago
With the lads I used to know –
Loading lumber all day long
Stacks of scented deals among –
Loading lumber at the mill
Till the screaming saws were still,
And the rose-red sunset died
From the mountains and the tide,
And the night brought out its stars,
And the wind's song in the spars
Of that ship I used to know –
Loading lumber, long ago.

Now in adapting this poem for singing it seemed to me that the first verse fit well to a traditional Irish tune. However, some of the other verses had extra lines. So I brutally cut them out. I also dropped out the entire 2nd verse which is nice in itself but not necessary for this song, which is already long. But feel free to sing the whole thing as originally composed!

LUMBER (Steveston, BC)

(Original words by Cicely Fox Smith ©
In ROVINGS, Elkin Mathews, London, © 1921, p.p. 33-34
Adapted by Charles Ipcar ©2005; Traditional Irish tune after "The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone")

If I'd got to choose alone
One of all the freights I've known –
All my cargoes live and dead,
Bacon pigs and pigs of lead,
Cattle, copra, rice and rails,
Pilgrims, coolies, nitrates, nails,
Lima beans and China teas –
What do you think my pick would be?

Loading lumber long ago
In a ship I used to know,
With the bow-ports open wide
In her stained and rusted side,
And the saws a-screaming shrill
At the Steveston lumber-mill;
Where the Fraser floods and flows
Green and cold with melting snows.

And the tow-boats' wailing din,
As the booms come crawling in,
Fills the echoing creeks with sound,
And there's sawdust all around,
Deep and soft like drifted snow;
Nowhere much a man can go,
Nothing much to see or do,
Mouldiest burg you ever knew.

But I'd give the years between –
All I've done and all I've seen,
All the fooling and the fun,
All the chances lost and won,
Far and near, by shore and sea,
I would give them all to be –
Loading lumber long ago
With the lads I used to know.

Loading lumber at the mill
Till the screaming saws were still,
And the rose-red sunset died
From the mountains and the tide,
And the night brought out its stars,
And the wind's song in the spars
Of that ship I used to know –
Loading lumber, long ago.

I'm planning to nose around the Vancouver area myself, come this August. I'll see if I can find any clues to C. Fox Smith's residence there.

I understand there is also a Thursday Shanty Sing at the Murakami Boathouse in the Brittania Heritage Shipyard in Richmond; be nice to sing this song there.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lumber (C. Fox Smith)
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 04:03 PM

Thank you Charlie!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lumber (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 05:16 PM

MMario-

Any time! It's really magical, sometimes, when a poem comes to life as a song.

Say, would you consider running down to join me at the April 16 Chantey Sing at the Seaman's Church at the South Street Sea Port. I'll be singing there in between visiting old friends and relatives. Things start at 8 pm.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lumber (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 08:21 AM

Here's a direct link back to the main C. Fox Smith thread: Click here

Are there any Vancouver, BC, area lurkers who could comment on this thread? A Dave McArthur is supposed to be the one coordinating the shanty sings at the old Steveston shipyard/mill.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lumber (C. Fox Smith)
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 08:44 AM

Charlie - I'd consider the Chantey Sing - but I'd be crazy to do it! (it'd be about a 16 hour round trip driving and I have to leave for work at 7 am on the 17th....)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lumber (C. Fox Smith)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 01:29 PM

Found a little copy of "A Sea Chest" in a used book store. In the adv. are listed eight more of her books of the sea. Interesting woman. "A Sea Chest" is a gem.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lumber (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 06:37 PM

Q-

A SEA CHEST is definitely a keeper. That's where I dug up a traditional version of Ratcliff Highway for another thread. I also like the poem about the Chinese Junk but can't quite figure out what to do with it.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lumber (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Apr 05 - 06:07 PM

Here's the promised MP3 sample of this song from my website: Click here!

I'm now in contact with Dave McArthur of Steveston Village and we're planning a special music gathering to try this song out at the old lumber mill/shipyard museum there. There will be additional songs aswell.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lumber (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Oct 05 - 12:24 PM

I need to correct some of my notes to this thread now that I've been to Steveston Village in BC and nosed around in C. Fox Smith fashion. There is no record of a Steveston Lumber Mill there, or anywhere else in BC. There were Salmon canneries in Steveston by the dozen but no major lumber mill. The Brittania Heritage Shipyard, referred to above, was never a lumber mill although there was probably plenty of wood being sawed there. This is curious because CFS also refers to Steveston as a port for shipping out "deals" (inexpensive planking) in another of her poems "Port o' Dreams." Maybe Danny McLeod can shed some light on this question, given his recent travels and research in the Vancouver, BC, area.

CFS also wrote the poem "Hastings Mill" which was focused on a well documented major lumber mill in neighboring Vancouver. However, she was resident in Victoria, BC, for much of her stay in the early 1900's and may have only visited the Vancouver area briefly.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble