Name: Quays of Belfast - 2:03
Duration: P00H02M06S
Description: John Obe Smith, Glen Haven, Nova Scotia, July 1950.

Quays of Belfast - 2:03

from The Helen Creighton Folklore Society Presents: Songs of the Sea by Varouos tradition bearers and informants

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John Obe Smith, Glen Haven, Nova Scotia, July 1950.

lyrics

Quays of Belfast - John Obe Smith [2:03]
AC: 2282 - MF NO: 289.314

Recorded: Glen Haven, July, 1950.

One bitter cold night in the month of November,
I heard a young widow in grief to deplore,
Saying, “There’s many the other got cause to remember,
A bitter cold night on the Galloway shore.”

“From the quays of Belfast the steamship was sailing,
Was bound down to Liverpool, last Wednesday set sail,
The weather it being clear and the land disappearing,
Our hearts were all merry, delightful and gay.”

“The night it came on, a most dark one and dreary,
The wind it arose to a terrible storm,
Our captain cries out, ‘Boys, look out for a lighthouse,
I’m ‘fraid for tonight we will all suffer harm.’”

“Two boats were launched out all in the foaming ocean,
And in one of them was my infant and I,
But before they reached the shore there was one overwhelmed,
Alas, in the deep forty bodies must lie.”

“Now I am left a poor desolate widow,
Just one year in wedlock, as you plainly see,
To beg for my bread among hard-hearted strangers,
Kind heaven, look down on my infant and me.”

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from The Helen Creighton Folklore Society Presents: Songs of the Sea, released May 24, 2023

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Helen Creighton Folklore Society Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Honoring folklorist Helen Creighton (1899-1989), who collected and published traditional music and lore of Maritime Canada. The mandate of the Helen Creighton Folklore Society is to encourage and promote work that reflects the diverse folk culture of the Maritimes as exemplified by the work begun by Dr. Creighton. For more information visit our website at: www.helencreighton.org. ... more

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