Tobar an Dualchais - Kist O Riches

Title - Andrew Ross
Alternate Title - Andrew Rose
Contributors - Ethel Findlater
Reporters - Elizabeth Neilsen
Item Person - Rose, Andrew [Ross, Andrew]; Rogers, Henry

Summary - In this gruesome ballad, Orkney sailor Andrew Rose is tortured horribly by Captain Rogers onboard the 'Martha Jane': he is savaged by dogs, dragged in the water, beaten, whipped, stabbed with an iron bar, and finally suspended in the air with ropes. When the ship docks at Liverpool, the captain is found guilty of murder and is executed.


Track Duration (h:m:s) - 00:04:53
Date Recorded - 1961
Date of Content - 1857.04 to 1857.09
Language - English, Scots
Genre - Song
Collection - School of Scottish Studies

Track ID - 46827
Original Tape ID - SA1961.088
Original Track ID - SA1961.88.A6
Audio Quality - Good
Audio Format - R2R

Classification - GD6; R623;


Recording Location:
  County - Orkney
  Parish - Birsay and Harray
  Island - Orkney Mainland


Item Location:
  County - Orkney

Item Notes - 16 verses of 4 lines. Seaman Andrew Rose was tortured to death by Captain Henry Rogers between April and June of 1857, as their ship returned from Barbados. When the ship reached Liverpool, Rogers was tried and sentenced to death; his execution on 12th September the same year drew a crowd of tens of thousands.
See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 1, p. 7
'A Ballad History of England from 1588 to the Present Day' (R. Palmer, 1979) pp. 138-139

Permanent Link - http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/46827/1


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