Traditional
A Gloucester fishing schooner returning from the Northumberland Strait stopped in at Canso (between Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island) for supplies for the long beat back to the Westward. The captain went ashore and got into the booze and the rest of it is in the song. The description of heading out at dark, getting into a knock down* and the luck and skill involved in getting her out of trouble is a wonderful piece of reportage and poetry.
Gordon – 12-String guitar
In Canso Strait our vessel
lay
She'd just returned from
out the Bay
A schooner built both
stout and strong
And to Gloucester she did
belong
We were homeward bound and
ready for sea
When our drunken captain
got on a spree
He come on board and to us
did day
Get your anchors, boy, and
fill away
We got our anchors at his
command
And with all sail set we
left the land
We left old Sand Point on
our lee
And header her out against
a steep head-sea
The night come on, the
dark clouds lower
The wind did howl and the
waves did roar
An angry squall† from the angry sky
It knocked her down about
half-mast high
Her jib-sheets parted,
which eased her some
She come head-to-wind and
she rose again
We got our jibs in and new
sheet bent
And straightaway aft to
our captain went
We kindly asked him to
shorten sail
Or we'd be lost in the
heavy gale
He cursed and swore that
if the wind would blow
He'd show us how his old
boat could go
Then up spoke one of our
gallant men
"There's twelve of us
right here at hand
We'll reef her down and to
sea we'll go
And if you refuse you'll
be tied below"
The waves did roar, the
wind did rave
We hardly thought our
lives we'd save
But we reefed her down to
her own success
She's like a bird swinging
for her nest
She's headed up off the
Cape Shore now
She knocks the white foam
off her bow
Oh never again will I ever
sail
With a drunken captain and
a heavy gale
*where the wind slaps the vessel flat on her side in the water – some vessels don't come back from that
†I sang 'wave'
Canso Strait is recorded on the album In Concert