Barrett's Privateers

"Barrett's Privateers" is a modern folk song in the style of a sea shanty, written and performed by Canadian musician Stan Rogers, having been inspired after a song session with the Friends of Fiddler's Green at the Northern Lights Festival Boréal in Sudbury, Ontario.[1] Although Barrett, the Antelope and other specific instances mentioned in the song are fictional, "Barrett's Privateers" is full of many authentic details of privateering in the late 18th century.

"Barrett's Privateers"
Song by Stan Rogers
from the album Fogarty's Cove
Released1976 (1976)
RecordedSeptember 23–24, 1976
GenreSea shanty, folk song
Length4:18
LabelBarn Swallow
Songwriter(s)Stan Rogers
Producer(s)Paul Mills

The song was released on the album Fogarty's Cove in 1976 and has since gained popularity as a drinking song, with cover versions by many bands. It also appears on later Stan Rogers live albums Home in Halifax and Between the Breaks ... Live! The song makes use of mixed meter, regularly switching back and forth from 2
4 to 3
4 time. It is regarded as one of the Royal Canadian Navy's unofficial anthems, the unofficial anthem of Atlantic Canada and also often heard sung at many Atlantic universities including (west to east) Acadia University, University of New Brunswick, Mount Allison University, Dalhousie University, Saint Mary's University, University of King's College, St. Francis Xavier University, Cape Breton University, and Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Plot

"Barrett's Privateers" is sung from the point of view of a young fisherman who, in 1778 at the age of 16,[note 1] enlisted on Elcid Barrett's ill-fated Antelope, with the promise that the resulting trip would be a pleasure cruise with no violence. The Antelope is described as the "scummiest vessel [he'd] ever seen", and the song describes the many faults of the decrepit sloop, which had just received a letter of marque from George III to operate as a privateering ship.[note 2]

The sloop leaves on June 4 (the king's birthday) and takes three months to make it to Montego Bay, Jamaica. After a five-day layover, the Antelope returns to sea and encounters an American merchant ship loaded down with gold. Because of the poor state of the sloop, it takes the Antelope two days to come within firing distance of the American vessel, which ultimately turns out to be far more heavily armed than they are. The Antelope is capsized with one volley from the American vessel, and the narrator witnesses Barrett's gruesome death, when he is crushed like a bowl of eggs. The rest of the crew also dies in the wreck; only the singer, who loses use of both his legs when the truck of the mainmast carries them off, survives.

The closing verse moves ahead to 1784, as the survivor has only the day prior returned to Nova Scotia, still bitter at having been lied to and lying broken on a pier in Halifax, longing to return to his (notably anachronistic) home of Sherbrooke.[note 3]

Cover versions

The popularity of "Barrett's Privateers" has inspired cover versions by many bands, such as the pirate metal band Alestorm on their third album, Back Through Time. This cover also features a guitar solo by Heri Joensen from Týr.

The Australian band Weddings Parties Anything and the folk group Schooner Fare also covered this song.

Covered by Canadian folk band the Irish Descendants on their 1994 album Gypsies & Lovers.

Covered by Fisherman's Friends on their 2002 album Home From the Sea.

Covered by the Corries and released on their 2006 album Barrett's Privateers. In this version, the line "I wish I was in Sherbrooke now" is replaced with "I wish I was in Edinburgh now".[3]

Covered by Blackbeard's Tea Party on their 2011 album Tomorrow We'll Be Sober.

In 2012 the Kingston Trio recorded an a cappella version on Born at the Right Time and Celtic punk band the Real McKenzies covered it on Westwinds.

Notes
  1. The final verse notes that six years after departing, he was in his 23rd year—i.e., 22 years old.
  2. Sloops, single-masted fore-and-aft–rigged vessels, were mainly used by short range privateers in Atlantic Canada and fared poorly in West Indies cruises.[2]
  3. Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia was not founded until 1805. Less likely, the survivor may refer to Sherbrooke, Quebec - also founded after the song's events (in 1793).

References
  1. "Stan Rogers: 10 Years Gone". Ottawa Citizen, July 11, 1993.
  2. Conlin, Dan "Sloop Frances Mary" Canadian Privateer Homepage Archived May 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Barrett's Privateers, The Corries Official Website". www.corries.com. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
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