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Nantucket Girls

from Crossing the Line by Forty Degrees South

/

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Songs of the southern oceans - 22 tracks

    Comes in cardboard sleeve with printed 8 page booklet

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    Includes unlimited streaming of Crossing the Line via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

A whimsical look at the lives of sailors’ wives from the journal of Eliza Spencer Brock. Eliza’s husband was the master of the Nantucket ship Lexington on a Pacific whaling voyage (1843-56). The words were written by Martha Ford, wife of Dr Samuel Hayward Ford, the first surgeon in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.

lyrics

I have made up my mind now to be a Sailor’s wife,
With a purse full of money and a very easy life,
For a clever sailor husband is so seldom at his home,
That his wife can spend the dollars with a will that’s all her own
His wife can spend the dollars with a will that’s all her own

Then I’ll haste to wed a sailor, and send him off to sea,
For a life of independence is the pleasant life for me,
Though, every now and then, I should like to see his face,
Because it always seems to me to beam with manly grace
Because it always seems to her to beam with manly grace

With his brow so nobly open, and his dark and kindly eye,
Oh my heart beats fondly towards him whenever he is nigh,
But when he says “Goodbye my love, I’m off across the sea”
First I cry for his departure, then I laugh because I’m free
First she cries for his departure, then she laughs because she’s free

Yet I’ll welcome him most gladly, whenever he returns
And share with him so cheerfully the money that he earns
For he is a loving husband, though he leads a roving life
And well I know how good it is to be a Sailor’s Wife.
And well she knows how good it is to be a sailor’s wife.

I have made up my mind now to be a Sailor’s wife,
With a purse full of money and a very easy life,
For a clever sailor husband is so seldom at his home,
That his wife can spend the dollars with a will that’s all her own
His wife can spend the dollars with a will that’s all her own

credits

from Crossing the Line, released July 9, 2021
Eliza Spencer Brock 1855
Tune trad. ‘Lachlan Tigers’

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all rights reserved

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about

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Forty Degrees South Sydney, Australia

A Sydney folk group known from 1988 for their powerful impact when singing unaccompanied traditional songs.

Strong individual singers, the interplay of their combined voices makes for a distinctive sound.

Sea shanties and other songs of maritime and industrial history and union songs feature large in their repertoire, songs with a robust quality that tell of real people, their lives and work. ... more

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