Tobar an Dualchais - Kist O Riches

Title - The Faithful Sailor Boy
Contributors - Willie Mathieson
Reporters - Hamish Henderson

Summary - In this song, a young sailor leaves his true love on the quayside as his boat puts to sea on a stormy night, with his parting words repeated as a chorus. When his ship returns, the young man's shipmates tell the young woman that her lover died while at sea; they give her a letter that he wrote, in which he bids her farewell and promises that they will see each other in Heaven.

Track Duration (h:m:s) - 00:02:38
Date Recorded - 1952.01
Language - English
Genre - Song
Collection - School of Scottish Studies

Track ID - 2960
Original Tape ID - SA1952.004
Original Track ID - SA1952.04.B4 (B9)
Audio Quality - Good
Audio Format - R2R

Classification - GD66; LK13; R376;


Recording Location:
  County - Aberdeenshire
  Parish - Ellon
  Village - Ellon

Item Notes - Text and music transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 3 verses and choruses of 4 lines (last chorus different).
Willie Mathieson learned the song from Willie Mutch, who was at Drakemyre when Willie was about eight or nine years old.
See:
Willie Mathieson's MS I:231
Greig-Duncan vol. 1, pp. 151-156
'Sam Henry's Songs of the People' (G. Huntington, 1990) p. 89, p. 103
National Library of Scotland, Broadside Ballad collection, L.C.Fol. 70(64a) (1880-1900)

Permanent Link - http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/2960/1


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