Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Captain's Apprentice (Norfolk)
Collected (and set with a Piano accompaniment) by Ralph Vaughan Williams, from the collection Folk Songs from the Eastern Counties. For solo voice with Piano accompaniment.First sung to R. Vaughan Williams by James 'Duggie' Carter, a King's Lynn fisherman, the song tells the story of the death of a young boy aboard a ship. According to comments from RVW himself, "The ballad was probably called forth by a particularly brutal case of ill treatment, similiar to that narrated in it, which occurred some twenty or thirty years ago".Lyrics:One day a poor boy to me was bound apprentice,Because of his being fatherless;I took him out of St.James? workhouse,His mother being in deep distress.One day this poor boy unto me offended,But nothing to him I did say,Up to the mainmast shroud I sent him,And there I kept him all that long day.All with my gasket I misused him,So shamefully I can?t deny,And by my barbarous cruel entreatment,The very next day this poor boy died.You captains all throughout the nation,Hear a voice and a warning take by me;Take special care of your apprenticeWhile you are on the raging sea.
