Three Score and Ten
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legacy / lyric song
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Standard Notation
Mandolin Tablature
Song Sheet
William Delf
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
Methinks I see a host of craft
Spreading their sails alee.
Down the Humber they do glide
All bound for the Northern Sea.
Me thinks I see on each small craft
A crew with hearts so brave
Going out to earn their daily bread
Upon the restless wave.
Chorus:
And it's three score and ten
Boys and men were lost from Grimsby town.
From Yarmouth down to Scarboro
Many hundreds more were drowned.
Our herring craft, our trawlers,
Our fishing smacks, as well
They long defied that bitter night
And battled with the swell.
Methinks I see them yet again
As they leave this land behind.
Casting their nets into the sea
The herring shoals to find.
Me thinks I see them yet again
They're all on board all right
With their nets rolled up and their decks cleaned off
And the side lights burning bright.
Chorus
Me thinks I've heard the captain say,
"Me lads we'll shorten sail,
With the sky to all appearances
Looks like an approaching gale".
Me thinks I see them yet again
And midnight hour is past,
The little craft abattling there
Against the icy blast.
Chorus
October's night brought such a sight
Twas never seen before.
There were mast and yards and broken spars
A washing on the shore.
There were many a heart in sorrow,
Many a heart so brave,
There were many a fine and hearty lad
That met a watery grave.
Chorus
The great storm of 1889 caused much loss of life all <br> along the east coast - as the song says, from Yarmouth <br> down to Scarborough. (The seaman of East Anglia always <br> talk of 'down' for north and 'up' for south).<br> John Conolly, of Grimsby, writes of this song: <br> "In the 1880's, a series of great gales wrecked hundreds <br> of fishing boats along the East coast of Britain, and <br> many men were lost. William Delf was a Grimsby fisherman <br> who tried to help the widows and orphans by writing poems <br> about these disasters and selling copies of them, the <br> proceeds going to the dependents of the men lost at sea. <br> The "Threescore and Ten" poem was one of his better <br> efforts, but nobody seems to know how it acquired a <br> tune and a chorus. <br> The song as it is now known was discovered by a Yorkshire <br> collector, Mr. Nigel Hudlestone. He recorded it as sung by <br> some fishermen at Filey, on the Yorkshire coast about 100 <br> miles north of Grimsby."<br> It is listed in the Roud Index as #16873.<br> It was recorded by Louis Killen, The Watersons, The Clancy Brothers,<br> Bok, Muir & Trickett and others.<br> I learned it first from The Clancy Brothers and later from<br> Bok, Muir & Trickett's Turning toward the Morning album.<br>
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