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happy? – Nov 8 ('Union From St. John's')

08 Nov 05 - 07:55 AM (#1599928)
Subject: happy? – Nov 8 ('Union From St. John's')
From: Abby Sale


        Twas the 8th day of November last,
        The heaviest gale came on
        The skies above looked angry,
        And the clouds oercast the sun
        The wind being South by East my boys
        With heavy showers of hail
        The night was as dark as a dungeon
        It was on the lee shore she fell

                "The Union From St. John's" at Frank White's
                Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador

Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
What are Happy's all about? See Clicky


08 Nov 05 - 01:24 PM (#1600074)
Subject: RE: happy? – Nov 8 ('Union From St. John's')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Two dates for the gale:
November 8- version (not credited) at Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador website; correction-Bellows Rock. http://nfldsongs.tripod.com: Newfoundland

November 18- Kenneth Peacock, 1965, "Songs of the Newfoundland Outports," vol. 3, p. 978-979, with music (two tunes), lyrics coll. from Arthur Nicolle, and two partial texts.

Year? No details found.


08 Nov 05 - 01:38 PM (#1600086)
Subject: RE: happy? – Nov 8 ('Union From St. John's')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

? Link by Abby Sale doesn't work.
??My link to Cris Kane site doesn't work either, but it does work from my bookmark and shows as http://nfldsongs.tripod.com

Does anyone have updated links?


09 Nov 05 - 08:25 AM (#1600599)
Subject: RE: happy? � Nov 8 ('Union From St. John's')
From: Abby Sale

My bad. I had actually updated that but neglected to copy it over to here. Thanks for pointing it out. Should be Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador BUT NOT Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador which is a different site and has only a few songs.


09 Nov 05 - 08:59 AM (#1600609)
Subject: RE: happy? � Nov 8 ('Union From St. John's')
From: Abby Sale

Ok, Here's another. And I think it's one one I wanted & used in the first place. It claims to have the actual Frank White material and appears to be the more extensive site. GEST Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador

This one gives the 18th. Of course, there's nothing unusual in this. It's folk song. If it were Florida, I could go to the library and look up the actual date. Sometimes the "actual" date is wrong and sometimes for wind things, there may legitimately be several dates - when the storm was spotted, when it hit land, when it hit land a second time, when it sank the ship, etc. But, as you know, for Happy File purposes the "corrrect" date is the one given in the song. That's the "True" date.

I assume you also know about the Mac Leach site? That would certainly be the most dependable for Newf songs but it doesn't give this one.


09 Nov 05 - 12:25 PM (#1600735)
Subject: RE: happy? – Nov 8 ('Union From St. John's')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

The song (from Peacock vol. 3, coll. from Nicolle) has been posted in thread 86148: Union
This is the version posted by GEST in his excellent website.

The event portrayed in the song has not yet been identified. Peacock gave lyrics for one full version, and two tunes from different versions, giving only the first verse for these two.

"Union" was a common name, used for several Great Lakes, Maritime and Atlantic service vessels in the 19th c.