Young Monroe

Lyrics courtesy of www.sailorsongs.com

Come all you true-born shanty boys
Wherever you may be
Come sit you on the deacon seat
And listen to me
I'll sing the jam on Gerry's Rock
And a hero you should know
The bravest of all shanty-boys
The foreman Young Monroe

It was on a Sunday morning
As you will quickly hear
Our logs were piled mountain high
We could not keep them clear
Our foreman said Come cheer up lads
With heart relieved of fear
We'll break the jam on Gerry's Rock
And for Saginaw we'll steer

Now some of them were willing
While others they were not
For to work on jams on Sunday
They did not think we ought
But six of our Canuck boys
Did volunteer to go
And break the jam on Gerry's Rock
With the foreman Young Monroe

They had not rolled off many logs
When they heard his clear voice say
I'd have you lads on your guard
For the jam will soon give way
These words were hardly spoken
When the mass did break and go
And it carried of those six brave lads
And their foreman Young Monroe

When the rest of our shanty boys
The sad news came to hear
In search of their dead comrades
To the river they did steer
Some of the mangled bodies
A-floating down did go
While crushed and bleeding near the bank
Was that of Young Monroe

They took him from his watery grave
Smoothed back his raven hair
There was one fair girl among them
Whose sad cries rent the air
There was one fair form among them
A maid from Saginaw town
Whose moans and cries rose to the skies
For her true lover who'd gone down

For Clara was a nice young girl
The riverman's true friend
She with her widowed mother dear
Lived near the river's bend
The wages of her own true love
The boss to her did pay
And the shanty-boys for her made up
A generous purse next day

They buried him with sorrow deep
'Twas on the first of May
Come all you brave shanty-boys
And for your comrade pray
Engraved upon a hemlock tree
That by the grave did grow
Was the name and date of the sad fate
Of the foreman Young Monroe

Fair Clara did not long survive
Her heart broke with her grief
And scarcely two months later
Death came to her relief
And when this time had passed away
And she was called to go
Her last request was granted
To rest beside Young Monroe    

Come all you brave shanty boys
I would have you call and see
Those two green mounds by the riverside
Where grows the hemlock tree
The shanty-boys cleared off the wood
By the lovers there laid low
'Twas handsome Clara Vernon
And our foreman Young Monroe

Lyrics courtesy of www.sailorsongs.com