> Folk Music > Songs > The Cruise of the Sun Glory

The Cruise of the Sun Glory

[ Roud - ; Gerald Short]

Muckram Wakes sang The Cruise of the Sun Glory with Roger Watson singing lead in 1973 on their Fellside album A Map of Derbyshire.

Lyrics

Muckram Wakes sing The Cruise of the Sun Glory

Oh, we quitted the land at the end of July
And we pointed our bow for the sea,
With a fair wind and tide and an untroubled sky
For a mariners life wild and free.
What fate had in store, oh, we cared little for
But the captain and crew were so gay.
And we danced and we sang ’til the waterside rang
As we sailed out for Yarmouth that day.

But as evening drew on our fair wind fell away
And we anchored close in by the shore.
All along the dark jetty we soon made our way
To the publican’s beckoning door.
We ordered the best and we gave it the test
As we sailing ship men can do well.
And the ale flowed around ’til we all was near drowned
In that terrible brewery swell.

Chorus:
And its hail, hail, fair wind and gale
Aboard the Sun Glory we rovers did sail

Our captain’s a bastard, he said, “this won’t do,”
As we wait in the morning’s cold air.
For a tricky manoeuvre we’ve got to get through
For to clear all the craft lying there
When a mischievous blast turned us hard by the mast
And straight into a fair ship she flew.
Now its all down the side of our old captain’s pride,
Is a fifteen foot streak of dark blue.

(Chorus)

All across the dark water our stout ship did plough
Until straight ahead in our course
Lay some son of a whore in a long-bearing scow
And we hailed him until we was hoarse.
But that silly old goat, he would not move his boat,
So we rammed him clean in the arse end.
And we had not delay, oh, we soon hauled away
With both gunnels and transom to mend.

“There’s a Jonah aboard us,” the cabin boy wailed
As our ship ran aground on the sand.
And the chart showed no shoal where our proud ship did sail,
Our passage was far from the land.
When we called for a tow, the answer were no,
And the passing ship steered on her way.
Came the cabin boy’s shout, “May your eyeballs drop out
And you manhood soon wither away!”

(Chorus)

With Yarmouth in sight, well we entered the stream
For to steer for our anchorage there,
But that Jonah’s apprentice soon shattered our dreams
Wi’ a dark raging ebb on the Yare.
On our beam ends we lay for the rest of that day
Till the incoming tide set us free.
And still shaking with fright, oh, we moored all that night
Up alongside the sheltering quay.

(Chorus)

Come all you bold seamen who ride the white foam,
Of all Derbyshire sailors keep clear:
For when sons of the soil on the ocean do roam
They’re a terrible hazard to fear.
And if you should hear of a ship drawing near
And they call her Sun Glory by name
You must stow all your gear and get right out of here,
She’s the pride of the Derbyshire line.