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Sir Patrick Spens

No: 58; variant: 58D

Source: Motherwell's MS., p. 496, communicated by Kirkpatrick Sharpe.

  1. The king sits in Dumferling town, Drinking the blood red wine: O 'Where will I get a good skipper, To sail seven ships o mine?' O Where will, etc'p
  2. O up then spake a bra young man, And a bra young man was he: 'Sir Andrew Wood is the best skipper That ever saild the sea.'
  3. The king has written a bra letter, And seald it wi his hand, And ordered Sir Andrew Wood To come at his command.
  4. 'O wha is this, or wha is that, Has tauld the king o me? For had he been a better man, He might ha tauld a lee.'
  5. As I came in by the Inch, Inch, Inch, I heard an auld man weep: 'Sir Andrew Wood and a' his men Are drowned in the deep''
  6. O lang lang may yon ladies stand, Their fans into their hands, Before they see Sir Andrew Wood Come sailing to dry land.
  7. O laith laith were our Scottish lords To weit their cork-heeled shoon; But ere that a' the play was plaid, They wat their heads aboon.
  8. Nore-east, nore-west frae Aberdeen Is fifty fanthom deep, And there lies good Sir Andrew Wood, And a' the Scottish fleet.