A song written in 1961 by Hughie Jones of Liverpool folk group The Spinners. (Hughie Jones is, of course, still an active part of the Liverpool folk scene; he runs the Everyman Folk Club, which due to the refurbishment of the Everyman met for a while in the Fly and the Loaf but has now moved to a new venue on the corner of Oldham Street and Roscoe Street.) This song commemorates the loss of the SS Ellan Vannin, which sank in 1909.
The SS Ellan Vannin was an iron paddle steamer with the Isle of Man Steam Packet company, and was built in Glasgow in 1860. In the early hours of 3 December 1909, the Ellan Vannin set sail from Ramsey for Liverpool with passengers, cargo, and mail, but during the journey weather conditions deteriorated. By the time Ellan Vannin had reached the Mersey Bar lightship, the waves were over 25 feet high, with winds of 80 miles per hour. The ship sank, and all 21 crew members and 15 passengers drowned.
The image above is a depiction of the disaster drawn by Arthur Burgess and printed in The Graphic newspaper of December 25 1909 - I found it on The Wreck Site, an online database of shipwrecks.
I've heard this song announced as traditional, and my pointing out who it was written by did not down well.
ReplyDeleteHeard quite a few times its been thought of as 'trad' - I guess that's a tribute to Hughie Jones? (don't know if he'd see it that way, but I think I'd probably like it if a song became part of common currency like that)
DeleteI have to say, to me it definitely has the sound of a modern song rather than a traditional one, both in the tune and the words, especially seeing as the rhythm kind of demands a kind of accompaniment (that's not a feature of a lot of traditional song). However, at some points it does read very like a broadside telling of the tragedy (kind of like 'three score and ten')
Richard Hawley does his version of this here http://open.spotify.com/track/3B6PW4DdWHM2V9TaUqTIFX
ReplyDeleteThanks... I've been told a couple of times that his was a good version, but I hadn't got around to listening to it before
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