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Three Score and Ten

[ Roud 16873 ; William Delf]

The Watersons sang Three Score and Ten in 1965 on New Voices, and a year later on the Topic sampler Men at Work. Like all Watersons tracks from New Voices, it was reissued in 1994 on the CD Early Days. Another recording from the soundtrack of the Travelling for a Living BBC TV documentary of 1966 was included in 2004 on the Watersons' 4CD anthology Mighty River of Song. Isla St. Clair sang this too in 1981 for the BBC television series The Song and the Story.

A.L. Lloyd commented in the original album's sleeve notes:

The text was written by William Delph, a Whitby fisherman and song-maker. It commemorates a freak storm in 1889. The song circulated along the Yorkshire coast as a broadside, and the Watersons learnt it from a tape-recording of some Whitby singers.

And Roy Palmer wrote in The Oxford Book of Sea Songs:

“In memoriam of the poor Fishermen who lost their lives in the Dreadful Gale from Grimsby and Hull, Feb. 8&9, 1889” is the title of a broadside produced by a Grimsby [other source: Whitby] fisherman, William Delf [other source: Delph], to raise funds for the bereaved families. It lists eight lost vessels, the last two from Hull: Eton, John Wintringham, Sea Searcher, Sir Fred. Roberts, British Workman, Kitten, Harold, Adventure, and Olive Branch. In addition the names of some of the lost sailors are given, and there is a poem in eight stanzas. This passed into oral tradition, and in so doing lost six verses and acquired a new one (the last, in which an error of date occurs), together with a chorus and a tune. The oral version was noted from a master mariner, Mr. J. Pearson of Filey, in 1957, and has subsequently, with some further small variations, become well known in folk-song clubs.

Louis Killen sang Three Score and Ten on his 1997 CD A Seaman's Garland and in 2002 on the Revels CD Homeward Bound. He commented in the former album's sleeve notes:

Three Score and Ten, also from the fishing community, was first published as a poem in a Grimsby newspaper after the great storm in the 1880's. It was found 70 years later being sung by fishermen in Robin Hood's Bay (collectors: Mary and Douglas Huddleston.)

Lyrics

Mike Waterson on New Voices	Mike Waterson on Travelling for a Living / Mighty River of Song
Methinks I see a host of craft spreading their sails a-lee As down the Humber they do glide all bound for the Northern Sea. Methinks I see on each small craft a crew with hearts so brave Going out to earn their daily bread upon the restless wave.	Methinks I see an host of craft spreading their sails a-lee As down the Humber they do glide all bound for the Northern Sea. Methinks I see on each small craft a crew with hearts so brave Going out to earn their daily bread upon the restless wave.
Chorus (after each verse): And it's three score and ten boys and men were lost from Grimsby town. From Yarmouth down to Scarborough many hundreds more were drowned. Our herring craft, our trawlers, our fishing smacks as well, They long did fight that bitter night and battled with the swell.
Methinks I see them yet again as they leave the land behind Casting their nets into the sea, the fishing shoals to find. Methinks I see them yet again and all on board's all right, With the sails close reefed and the decks cleared up and the sidelights burning bright.	Methinks I see them yet again as they leave the land behind Casting their lead into the deep, the fishing grounds to find. Methinks I see them yet again and all on board's all right, With the sails close reefed and the decks cleared up and the sidelights burning bright.
October's night left such a sight, was never seen before: There was masts and spars and broken yards came floating to the shore. There was many a heart of sorrow, there was many a heart so brave. There was many a hearty fisher lad did find a watery grave.

Acknowledgements

Lyrics transcribed from the singing of The Watersons by Garry Gillard. (“Well, I'd been singing the song for years, having learnt it from Danny Spooner, but to almost the same words as the Watersons sing.”) Thanks to Steve Willis for corrections and to David Boyle for pointing out the differences in the Travelling for a Living recording.

Thanks to Wolfgang Hell for the quotation from The Oxford Book of Sea Songs.