“The Alarmed Skipper (The Nantucket Skipper)”
Description
Claims that Nantucket skippers were able to tell where their ships are by tasting the sounding lead. A sailor plays a trick by running the lead through a box of parsnips; the skipper thinks that Nantucket has sunk and they're sailing over a garden.
Notes
Definitely not a folk song; it's included in a couple of song collections as a gag. But it is a popular poem; _Granger's Index to Poetry_ lists the piece in three anthologies apart from Shay. - RBW
References
- Harlow, pp. 192-194, "The Nantucket Skipper" (1 text)
- Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 198-199, "The Nantucket Skipper" (1 text)
- ADDITIONAL: Scientific American, volume 1, number 4 (1845), "The Ballad of the Alarmed Skipper" (1 text)
- Roud #9172
- BI, ShaSS198