Lyrics

1 Come all you people far and near, come listen to my song,
In language I’ll explain to you, it won’t delay you long;
Come hear about Captain La Fosse who lately took command,
In the schooner call the Danny from New Harbour, Newfoundland.

2 Sailing away from New Harbour, to the western shores did go,
To risk their lives in dories, through frost and wind and snow;
Saying good-bye to friends at home, and all whom they adore ,
Never dreaming that they’d meet their doom upon the western shore.

3 It was on a Monday morning they got her underway,
The sixth day of December, a fine, cold winter’s day;
She carried a crew of six fishermen, and dories she had two,
And the Danny being a noble boat, all builded over new.

4 On Rose Blanche banks that morning, ’twas there he brought her to,
He lowered away his dories as he oft-times used to do;
Before those trawls were taken back a heavy sea did rise,
It was a hard and a trying time for those poor sailor boys.

5 The wind veered from the east-south-east and bitterly did blow;
The sea was rolling mountains high, a blinding drift of snow.
No doubt he may have come to land, all under close-reef sails,
Or perhaps he got disabled in the terrible winter’s gale.

6 A captain from another boat, those words we heard him say:
‘He did not have his dories when we got underway.
He may not have had his dories we do not understand,
Perhaps he got them safe on board and shaped her for the land.’

7 To come to land that evening through blinding sleet and snow,
Our captain being a stranger and those harbours did not know;
No doubt he may have come to land or he may have run ashore,
Perhaps he drifted far out to sea to never return no more.

8 There’s five poor widows left behind who bitterly will cry,
All thinking of their loved ones who in the deep do lie;
Their wives and little children they’ll never see no more,
Who now gave up all hopes to die upon the western shore.

9 The blow was hard for friends at home, the sad news for to tell,
The loss of sons and husbands, the ones they loved so dear;
Likewise their aged mothers who bitterly will cry;
Saying: ‘There’s some leaving their homes wishing them all good-bye.’

10 So now my song is ended I have nothing more to say.
Trying to earn a living those boys were called away.
Their wives and their little children they’ll never see no more,
Who now gave up all hopes to die upon the western shore.

Citation: Lehr, Genevieve. Come and I Will Sing You, p.44-45.