The Golden Vanity (Child 286)
There are dozens of versions of The Golden Vanity, with predictable variations in the names of the two ships (in the North American set I recorded with Gordon Tyrrall, for instance, the ‘Turkish Revelry’ is attacker and ‘Green Willow Tree’ the victim of unprovoked aggression). This one was collected in1928 by James Madison Carpenter, whose search for ballads, shanties, mummers plays and what-have-you took him the length of Britain in his jalopy. In Cardiff docks he met a seaman, Richard Warner, who sang him this version of the ballad – I’ve not tampered with it, and particularly liked the line “Oh no you foolish youngster”, which may be unique to this version. I’m not sure what “dazzled out her lights” means, come to that. In the same location Carpenter heard The Farmer’s Curst Wife sung to the tune and chorus of Blow the Man Down.