The Blue Wave (Collected by Genevieve Lehr and Anita Best

The Blue Wave (Collected by Genevieve Lehr and Anita Best)

Come all ye men that work on land, for little do you know
What we poor fishermen endure when the stormy winds do blow;
It was February in 'fifty-nine, a date I remember well,
When some brave lads were called away out in that heavy gale.

We sailed away from Burgeo, it was on a Sunday morn,
The temperature reading zero as we ran before a storm.
Bill Vardy was our skipper's name, The Triton was our boat;
Our crew was all from Newfoundland, there's no better bunch afloat.

We fished around those Grand Banks five or six days or more,
When a heavy storm it did arise as we headed for the shore.
It wasn't very long afterwards the news we all did know,
A sea struck the Cape Dolphin and she was sinking low.

'Fore ten on Monday morning we received a distress shout,
Coming from the Blue Wave saying that she was hove out;
We tried to run back to her but nothing would she stand.
We brought her to the wind again and we shaped her for the land.

Our captain then gave orders the ice for to beat off.
We beat a load down on her deck, and we beat it from aloft.
We kept beating away the ice, our hearts were filled with fear;
Our captain then gave orders again our lifeboats to keep clear.

Then aeroplanes were soon despatched to search the ocean 'round,
But no sign of their missing boat was anywhere to be found.
A gale of wind was blowing then, while the seas rose mountains high;
The search it was abandoned, and the planes did homeward fly.

To you people of Grand Bank and Fortune I send my deepest sympathy;
Put your trust in God above while toiling on the sea.
Don't fret nor mourn for those brave lads that have been called away;
I know you'll meet in heaven above upon that judgement day.

Now to conclude and finish, I think I have done well.
My name and my birthplace I'm going for to tell;
Grey River is my native home, Jack Lushman is my name
And I sailed with Captain Vardy from Burgeo, Newfoundland.

####.... John (Jack) Lushman, Sr. of Ramea, NL ....####

Collected in 1977 from the composer, Jack Lushman of Ramea, NL, by Genevieve Lehr and Anita Best and published as #9 in Come And I Will Sing You: A Newfoundland Songbook, pp.17-18, edited by Genevieve Lehr (University of Toronto Press © 1985/2003).

Genevieve Lehr noted that the Blue Wave with a crew from Grand Bank and Fortune, NL, was struck in February 1959, by a heavy storm and left to the mercy of the waves. The Triton from Burgeo was sent to her aid, but under such severe and hazardous conditions there was nothing the crew could do. Lehr further noted that the Cape Dolphin mentioned in the song was also in distress, but her crew was rescued and brought safe to land.

The Northern Shipwrecks Database recorded the date as February 9, 1959, and reported both the Blue Wave and the Cape Dauphin [sic] were lost.

Note: Seven years later to the month, on February 17, 1966, the Blue Mist II, sister ship of the Blue Wave, went down with 13 men under similar circumstances with the combined weight of a full cargo of fish and heavy ice caked by freezing spray. Both vessels fished out of Grand Bank, NL, and were owned by Bonavista Cold Storage Ltd.

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