Cruel Sister
Album - 1970 - Debaser id 55676

It was homeward bound one night on the deep
Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep
I dreamed a dream and I thought it true
Concerning Franklin and his gallant crew.

With one hundred seamen he sailed away
To the frozen ocean in the month of May
To seek a passage around the pole
Where we poor seamen do sometimes go.

Through cruel hardships they mainly strove
Their ship on mountains of ice was drove
Only the Eskimo with his skin canoe
Was the only one that ever came through.

In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow
The fate of Franklin no man may know
The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell
Lord Franklin along with his sailors do dwell.

And now my burden it gives me pain,
For my long lost Franklin I'd cross the main
Ten thousand pounds I would freely give
To say on earth that my Franklin do live.

There lived a lady by the North Sea shore
(Lay the bent to the bonnie broom)
Two daughters were the babes she bore
(Fa la la la la la la la la la)

As one grew bright as is the sun,
So coal black grew the elder one.
A knight came riding to the lady's door,
He'd travelled far to be their wooer.
He courted one with gloves and rings,
But he loved the other above all things.
Oh sister will you go with me
To watch the ships sail on the sea?
She took her sister by the hand
And led her down to the North Sea strand.
And as they stood on the windy shore
The dark girl threw her sister o'er.
Sometimes she sank, sometimes she swam,
Crying, "Sister, reach to me your hand!
"Oh Sister, Sister, let me live,
And all that's mine I'll surely give."
"(It's) your own true love that I'll have and more,
But thou shalt never come ashore."
And there she floated like a swan,
The salt sea bore her body on.
Two minstrels walked along the strand
And saw the maiden float to land.
They made a harp of her breastbone,
Whose sound would melt a heart of stone.
They took three locks of her yellow hair,
And with them strung the harp so rare.
They went into her father's hall
To play the harp before them all,
But when they laid it on a stone
The harp began to play alone.
The first string sang a doleful sound:
"The bride her younger sister drowned."
The second string as that they tried,
In terror sits the black-haired bride.
The third string sang beneath their bow,
"And surely now her tears will flow."