a verse in the Penguin's Mermaid

Subject: a verse in the Penguin's Mermaid
From: Roberto
Date: 01 Jan 07 - 07:36 AM

From THE MERMAID (Child #289), the version in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, sung by Mr. James Herridge, Hampshire, 1906.

Last night last night when the moon shone bright
My mother she had sons five
But now she may look in the salt salt sea
And find but one alive

Does it mean that there remains just one son alive, or that there remain four, and one, the cabin boy, is the only one lost?

Thanks. R

Subject: RE: a verse in the Penguin's Mermaid
From: Willa
Date: 01 Jan 07 - 09:49 AM

Don't know, Roberto, though I sing this as is. I've wondered if it means that four of the crew, including the cabin boy, were brothers. That would not have been uncommon.

Subject: RE: a verse in the Penguin's Mermaid
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 01 Jan 07 - 10:28 AM

See thread Penguin: The Mermaid for context. The question might better have been asked there.

The verse in question is number eight in Penguin, and didn't come from James Herridge (or Herage) at all; along with verses six and seven, it was added by the editors to bulk out his text. Verse eight, I am pretty sure, actually came from an early print form of the ballad, 'The Seamen's Distress', which appeared as the second part of 'The Glasgow Lasses Garland [composed of some excellent new songs]' (British Museum 11621.c.3(68)): presumed to have been printed in Newcastle, c.1765. Child prints the text as his example 289A.

The verse runs

Last night when the moon shin'd bright
My mother had sons five
But now she may look in the salt seas
And find but one alive.

There is nothing in the garland song to shed light on your question, so any interpretation will have to be a purely personal one. It is worth mentioning, I suppose, that an earlier verse in 289A states that, of a crew of 564, there were 95 survivors.

Subject: RE: a verse in the Penguin's Mermaid
From: RangerSteve
Date: 01 Jan 07 - 11:43 AM

If you're uncomfortable with the verse, there's this alternative, which I found in a book whose name I forgot:

Oh, the moon shines bright and the stars give light,
And my mother will be searching for me.
She may look, she may weep, she may look to the deep,
She may look to the bottom of the sea.

Subject: RE: a verse in the Penguin's Mermaid
From: Gurney
Date: 02 Jan 07 - 12:53 AM

I'd interpret it to mean four of five brothers died. 'But one' is the equivalent of 'only one.'

As Willa said, it was common for brothers to be on one ship, but one of the RN's ships went down, in WW1 I think, with several (4?) brothers drowning, and from then, brothers were no longer allowed to be shipmates in that service.