There was ten men hauling on the lee fore brace
In the rain an' the drivin' hail,
An' the mile-long graybeards chargin' by,
An' the thunderin' Cape Horn gale.
(That dark it was, you scarce could see
Your hand before your face;
That cold it was, our fingers froze
Stiff as they gripped the brace.
An' "Christ!" says Dan, "for a night in port
An' a Dago fiddler's tune,
An' just one whiff o' the drinks again
In a Callao saloon!")
There was ten men haulin' on the lee fore brace
When the big sea broke aboard;
Like a stream in spate, a foaming flood
Right fore an' aft it poured.
The ship, she staggered an' lay still —
So deep, so dead lay she,
You'd think she could not rise again
From such a weight of sea.
There was ten men haulin' on the lee fore brace . . .
Seven when she rose at last;
The rest was gone to the pitch-dark night,
An' the sea, an' the ice-cold blast.
An' one of them was Dago Pete,
An' one was Lars the Dane,
An' the third was the lad whose like on earth
I shall not find again.
An' I'll heave an' haul an' stand my wheel,
An' reef an' furl wi' the rest . . .
For winds an' seas go on the same,
When they've took an' drowned the best.
An' it ain't no use to curse the Lord,
Nor it ain't no sense to moan,
For a man must live his life the same,
An' keep his grief his own.
An' I'll drink my drink an' sing my song,
An' nobody'll know but me
A lump o' my heart went down with Dan
That night in the wild Horn sea!
From SEA SONGS AND BALLADS 1917-22, edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, US, © 1924, pp. 92-93.
Life on board of an old time sailing ship was no pleasure cruise. Hours of hard, back-breaking and often dangerous work interspersed with short rests asleep (if you were lucky) below decks for days on ends and then short, calmer spells where you had to work just as hard cleaning and repairing.
This long exposure to shared danger created strong bonds of friendship and brotherly love between mariners. And the loss of a such a friend was at least as sad as the loss of a wife or parent.
Here the poet describes with chilling accuracy the loss of Dan from such a point of view. The frequent use of the name in her poetry makes me think she had a specific Dan in mind which makes the second half of the poem particularly moving.
This description of the incident displays her uncanny familiarity with shipboard life as hauling on the lee fore brace is one of the most dangerous jobs in a storm, with the bow plunging and rolling in mountainous seas.
"Mile-long greybeards" are large foam topped waves stretching wide across the ship's course.
"Brace" is one of the many thick ropes used to adjust the yards.
"Callao" is the largest and most important port in Peru.
This poem was adapted for singing in 1995 by Alan Fitzsimmons, as recorded on SEABOOT DUFF & HANDSPIKE GRUEL by Pinch o' Salt in 2000; an alternative musical setting was composed by Charles Ipcar as recorded on MORE UNCOMMON SAILOR SONGS in 2005.
The header graphic is by maritime artist Anton Otto Fischer, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, © 1947, p. 31, and shows a crew hauling on the lee fore brace.
Jim Saville
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