The Mermaid

One night as I lay on my bed,

I lay so fast asleep,

When the thought of my true love came running to my head

And poor sailors that sail on the deep.



As I sailed out one day, one day,

And being not far from land,

And there I spied a mermaid a-sitting on a rock

With a comb and a glass in her hand.



The song she sang, she sang so sweet,

But no answer at all could us make,

Till at last our gallant ship she tooked round about

Which made all our poor hearts to ache.



Then up stepped the helmsman of our ship

In his hand a lead and line;

All for to sound the seas, my boys, that is so wide and deep

But to hard rock or sand could he find.



Then up stepped the captain of our ship

And a well-speaking man is he,

He says," I have a wife, my boys, in fair Plymouth town

But this night a widow she will be."



Then up stepped the bosun of our ship

And a well-spoken man was he,

He says, "I have two sons, my boys, in fair Bristol town

And orphans I fear they will be.



And then up stepped the little cabin boy

And a pretty boy was he,

He says, "Oh I grieve for my own mother dear

Whom I shall nevermore see."



"Last night, when the moon shined bright

My mother had sons five,

But now she may look in the salt, salt sea

And find but one alive."



Call a boat, call a boat, my fair Plymouth boys

Don't you hear how the trumpets sound?

For the want of a long-boat in the ocean we were lost

And most of our merry men drowned.



From Penguin Book of English Folk Songs (Williams and Lloyd)

From singing of James Herridge, 1906

See also MERMDFRI

@sailor @wreck

Child #289

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