69 - Our captain cried all hands / Fountains Flowing
There are many versions of this old farewell song to the tune of The Blacksmith. This slightly reordered version of June Tabor's rendition contrasts the fatalism of the sailor with the bitterness of the lover left behind, who vows to love women in future.
Our captain cried all hands we sail tomorrow,
Leaving us poor girls behind in grief and sorrow.
“Dry off your briny tears and cease your weeping,
It’s happy we shall be at our next meeting.”
“I’d roll you in my arms, my dearest jewel,
So stay at home with me and don’t be cruel.
What makes you go abroad, fighting for strangers
When you could stay at home, free from all dangers?”
“Farewell my dearest friends, father and mother,
I am your only child, I have no brother.
So it’s vain to weep for me for I am going
To where there’s lasting joy and fountains flowing.”
“When I had gold in store you did invite me,
But now I’m low and poor, you mean to slight me."
She fell down on the floor like one was dying;
This house was filled with grief, crying and sighing.
“You courted me a while just to deceive me,
But now my heart you’ve won, you mean to leave me.
I’ll put no trust in men, not in my own brother,
So maids, if you would love, love one another.”