Davy Lowston
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Summary
Davy Lowston was among a group of sealers set down on the Open Bay Islands (off the west coast of the South Island) in 1810. The ship that was to pick them up sank in a storm, and the men were marooned for four years. Their story is the basis of one of the earliest folk songs in New Zealand.
Lyrics
Oh my name is Davy Lowston, I did seal, I did seal,
Oh my name is Davy Lowston, I did seal.
Now my men and I were lost,
Though our very lives it cost
We did seal, we did seal, we did seal.
’Twas in eighteen hundred and ten, we set sail, we set sail.
’Twas in eighteen hundred and ten we set sail.
We were left we gallant men,
Never more to sail again,
For to seal, for to seal, for to seal.
We were set down in Open Bay, were set down, were set down,
We were set down in Open Bay, we were set down.
We were left, we gallant men,
Never more to sail again,
For to sail, for to sail, for to sail.
Our captain John Bedar, he set sail, he set sail,
Yes, for Port Jackson he set sail.
“I’ll return, men, without fail!”
But she foundered in the gale
And went down, and went down, and went down.
We cured ten thousand skins, for the fur, for the fur,
Yes we cured ten thousand skins for the fur.
Brackish water, putrid seal,
We did all of us fall ill,
For to die, for to die, for to die.
Come all you lads who sail upon the sea, sail the sea,
Come all you lads who sail upon the sea,
Though the schooner “Governor Bligh”
Took up some who did not die,
Never seal, never seal, never seal.
