Music Monday: Nantucket Girl's Song - Susan Berman

​The Nantucket Girl's Song is a witty poem found in the journal kept by Eliza Brock, wife of Peter C. Brock, master of the Nantucket ship Lexington on a whaling voyage from May 1853 to June 1856. It sums up how many women felt about their husbands being off on whaling voyages for years at a time. Verse attributed to Martha Ford Russell, Bay of Islands, New Zealand, February 1855. Susan J. Berman, songwriter and interpreter at the Nantucket Historical Association, has set this poem to music and added a verse of her own

NANTUCKET GIRL’S SONG - LYRICS
By Susan J Berman

(verse)
Well I’ve made up my mind now to be a sailor’s wife,
Have a purse full of money and a very easy life.
For a clever sailor husband is so seldom at his home,
That a wife can spend the dollars with a will that’s all her own.

(chorus)
So I’ll haste to wed a sailor and I’ll send him off to sea,
For a life of independence is the pleasant life for me.
Oh but every now and then I shall like to see his face,
For it always seems to me to beam with manly grace.
With his brow so nobly open and his dark and kindly eye,
Oh my heart beats fondly whenever he is nigh.
But when he says goodbye my love I’m off across the sea,
First I’ll cry for his departure, then I’ll laugh because I’m free.

(verse)
I will welcome him most gladly whenever he returns,
And share with him so cheerfully the money that he earns.
For he is a loving husband, though he leads a roving life,
And well I know how good it is to be a sailor’s wife.

(chorus)
So I’ll haste to wed a sailor and I’ll send him off to sea,
For a life of independence is the pleasant life for me.
Oh but every now and then I shall like to see his face,
For it always seems to me to beam with manly grace.
With his brow so nobly open and his dark and kindly eye,
Oh my heart beats fondly whenever he is nigh.
But when he says goodbye my love I’m off across the sea,
First I’ll cry for his departure, then I’ll laugh because I’m free.

(verse)
So Nantucket girls please hear me and join in with this song,
Hold fast to the tradition of great women brave and strong.
For the women steer this island quite well there is no doubt
And do the things most other girls can only dream about.

(chorus)
So I’ll haste to wed a sailor and I’ll send him off to sea,
For a life of independence is the pleasant life for me.
Oh but every now and then I shall like to see his face,
For it always seems to me to beam with manly grace.
With his brow so nobly open and his dark and kindly eye,
Oh my heart beats fondly whenever he is nigh.
But when he says goodbye my love I’m off across the sea,
First I’ll cry for his departure, then I’ll laugh because I’m free.
Oh yes,  First I’ll cry for his departure, then I’ll laugh because I’m free.

Source: https://susanjberman.com/track/1456721/the-nantucket-girl-s-song

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