The Flowers of Bermuda
(Stan Rogers)
Chorus
cho: He was the captain of the Nightingale
Twenty-one days from Clyde in coal
He could smell the flowers of Bermuda in the gale
When he died on the North Rock shoal
Just five short hours from Bermuda's isle
In a fine October gale
O there came a cry, " Oh, there be breakers dead ahead
From the collier Nightingale
No sooner had the captain rought her round,
Then came a rending crash below
Hard on her beam ends groaning, went the Nightingale
And overside her mainmast goes
"O captain are we all for drowning,"
Came a cry from all the crew
"The boats be smashed! How are we all then to be saved?
Tthey are stove in through and through
O are ye brave and hardy colliermen
Or are you blind now and cannot see
O the captain's gig still lies before ye whole and sound
And it shall carry all of we away
But when the crew was all assembled (there)
And the gig (was) prepared for sea
'Twas seen there were but eighteen places to be manned
And nineteen mortal souls were we
But cries the captain," now do not delay
Nor do you spare a thought for me
My duty is to save you all now
Save ye all now if I can see ye return quick as can be
Oh, there be flowers in Bermuda
Beauty lies on every hand
And there be laughter ease and drink there for every man
But there is no joy for me
For when we reached the wretched Nightingale
What an awful sight was plain
O the captain, drowned, was tangled in the mizzen chains
Smiling bravely beneath the sea
Copyright Fogarty's Cove Music
Note: Rogers says the only factual part is that there was a collier
"Nightingale" sunk off North Rock at Bermuda in the late 1880's. All
details are his invention. AJS
AJS
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!