Digital Tradition Mirror

The Lady Maria

The Lady Maria
 (Dave Robinson)

 The Maria she started her life in Badalona   (Barcelona?)
 In the great days of sail in fifty eight
 In a hundred and thirty years and seven
 In her favourite bay she met her sad fate

CHO: The Maria Asumpta a grand old lady
     The sea has now claimed her and sad was the day
     This lady of Spain had sailed in from Swansea
     At Rumps Point she foundered in old Padstow Bay

 Cargo she carried from Buenos Aries to Cuba
 Barcelona to Palma, Oran and Tangier
 She was passed on from owner to owner
 In the year nineteen eighty her end it seemed near

 The beautiful brig was to have been a film star
 Alas for The Maria it proved not to be
 She was left lying in the port of Malaga
 To be burnt and her ashes cast out on the sea

 The Maria was rescued and restored in her finery
 To gracefully sail on the oceans again
 With her square rigged sail white on the water
 Once again proud was this lady of Spain

 On every quay-side her admirers would flock
 To gaze on the grand old lady with awe
 Shantymen sang on her scrubbed timbered decks
 Songs she may have heard in the years gone before

 Now on the rocks between Rumps Point and Pentire
 The Lady Maria has a watery grave
 No more will she grace the ports that embraced her
 They can only remember the pleasure she gave


 Copyright Dave Robinson 1995
 Recorded by Baggyrinkle on audio cassette tape "A Pound and a Pint"
 Notes: The Maria Asumpta was the oldest square rigger still sailing. Wrecked
off the Cornish coast Tuesday 30 May 1995
 with the loss of three lives. The owner and skipper, Mark Litchfield, an ex
Royal Navy Lieutenant, received 18 months jail for the manslaughter of Anne
Taylor (51), John Shannon (30) and Emily MacFarlane (19)  It's worth noting that
Mark Litchfield was the owner and skipper of the "Marques" which went down in
1984 with the loss of 19 lives.
MR
oct00

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!

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