Barrett's Privateers
God damn them all I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold We'd fire no guns, shed no tears Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier The last of Barrett's PrivateersOh Elcid Barrett cried the town Ch: How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now For twenty brave men all fishermen who Would make for him the Antelope's crew The Antelope sloop was a sickening site Ch: How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now She'd list to the port and her sails in rags And the cook in the scuppers with the staggers and jags On the King's birthday we put to sea Ch: How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now Ninety-one days to Montego Bay Pumping like madmen all the way On the ninety-sixth day we sailed again Ch: How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now When a great big Yankee hove in sight With our cracked four-pounders we made to fight The Yankee lay low down with gold Ch: How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now She was broad and fat and loose in stays But to catch her took the Antelope two whole days Then at length she stood two cables away Ch: How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now Our cracked four-pounders made awful din But with one fat ball the Yank stove us in The Antelope shook and pitched on her side Ch: How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now Barrett was smashed like a bowl of eggs And the main truck carried off both me legs Now here I lay in my twenty-third year Ch: How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now It's been six years since we sailed away And I just made Halifax yesterday
Barrett’s Privateers is a song written by Stan Rogers in 1976. Despite being widely adopted into the folk repertoire and frequently performed at maritime music sessions, it is not a traditional shanty. It was composed in a single evening at a songwriting workshop and is entirely Rogers’ own creation.
The song tells the story of a young man who joins a privateer crew aboard the Antelope in 1778, during the American Revolution. The voyage is a disaster from the start: the ship is decrepit, the crew incompetent, and every encounter ends in failure. By the song’s end, the narrator is the sole survivor, maimed and bitter, lamenting that he was ever recruited to sail with Captain Elcid Barrett’s Privateers.
A letter of marque was a government-issued license authorizing a private ship to attack and capture enemy vessels in wartime.
A shallop is a small, light boat, used here to underscore just how unfit the Antelope is for combat.
The song became one of Rogers’ most popular works and has taken on a life of its own in Maritime Canada, where it is sometimes treated as an unofficial anthem, sung with gusto in pubs, at festivals, and aboard tall ships.