Song for the Bowdoin

The schooner Bowdoin, built for Donald MacMillan, made 26 trips to the arctic. Retired to Mystic seaport, she was brought back to Camden in the 1960s. Larry made a song about her (which T.B.M. still sings) called "John", about Capt. John Nugent, who lived aboard her many years and was mostly the one who kept her alive in those hard times. She recently returned to the Labrador under Capt. Andy Chase where children of the original inhabitants there visited her with great joy, fulfilling Larry's vision of her so many years ago.

Larry's version and mine have diverged over the years. You may hear his singing of this and may others on a Folk Legacy album – coming soon.

You sailed the cold waters f the great Northern Bays

The ice in your rigging and your rail in the waves

And the snow in your canvas like a winter-gull's wing

Oh, Lord, all the times you've been through.

And now you've got hard times and now you lie still

And you're fast to the anchor and chain

Broken and tired and the winds pass you by

But you're bound to go sailing again.

You sailed out of Boothbay on the soft Southern swell

Wind on your quarter, your bows rose and fell

So many remember so much more than they'll tell (sic)

of the hardest of times you've been through.

Greenland and Baffin and the white Labrador

In the winds and the terrible snow

When they carried their icepicks just to bring you about

In the light from the lantern below.

And now…

So rest, lady, rest from the fog and the gales,

Let the harbor protect you and the wind dry your sails

And a hundred old sailors tell their foggiest tales

Of all the hard times you've been through.

And we'll see your masts mingle with the spruces and pines

And we'll bow as we all pass you by

for a boat is more patient than a sailor can be

With the sun and the wind in his eye…

And now…

Song for the Bowdoin is recorded on the album Schooners