In eighteen hundred thirty-seven, Captain Jim was sent
To Fortune Bay in Newfoundland, efficiently intent
On catching herring thereabouts, where herring fairly swarmed,
And in the Tiger took one boy, and five men, fully armed.
They did not arm to shoot the fish but hoped on nearby land,
They'd hunt for coveted wild game, not truly contraband.
And so, November twenty-eighth, they sailed in firm belief,
Their ship was indestructible and could not come to grief.
That year was bitter cold up north and when they idly lay
At anchor in the harbor there, they found one sorry day,
Their pinky frozen hard and fast with no chance of escape
Till spring permitted them to sail towards Gloucester and the Cape.
"It can't be helped," the skipper said, "perhaps it might be worse;
We still can fish, though certainly, conditions are adverse.
The British law says Yankee ships can't fish within three miles,
But here we lie all frozen stiff - incurable exiles."
And so they fished and fished and fished through thick Newfoundland ice,
Till Gayden, customs officer, observed them once or twice.
He planned to seize their able ship, as was his lawful right,
And hastened to the enterprise with ill-concealed delight.
The crew had gone ashore to reimburse their slim supplies,
And heard the news of Gayden's scheme with evident surprise;
They hastened back to Captain Jim and lost no time at all
In laying double logs to make a barricading wall.
Their fortress rested undisturbed, till March, when one fine day,
Between Young's Point and Folly Head, five boats approached their way,
And shortly reached the solid ice where thirty disembarked,
And started marching towards their ship, till Captain Jim remarked:
"They cannot come beyond the section where we dug the trench."
Then Gayden shouted angrily, in English and in French,
And ordered Jim emphatically: "Hand me your papers, quick!
Or Gloucester's Jim Patillo'll never make another trip!"
They argued wrathfully till Jim indignantly called out:
"If you will pick your three best men, I'll guarantee to rout
Them one and all in honest fight - I'll follow you ashore."
So saying, in his undershirt, duck pants, and nothing more
He rowed to land with Gayden's men, with papers in his hand,
And handspike to encourage him resist unjust demand.
He gave the papers over when they promised not to fire
Upon his vessel, frozen fast, and gracefully retire.
On April seventeenth, at last, Patillo's ship was free
Of ice, and he and Cavendish, with great agility,
Rowed in to Harbor Briton, fifteen miles, where Gayden lay,
To get Jim's papers back again, before he sailed away.
By then the people of the town had heard of Captain Jim,
And crowds assembled everywhere to frankly look at him;
While Gayden, quivering, denied he had his papers still,
And claimed he'd shipped them to St. John, last week, against his will.
While talking with the customs man, an officer of law
Insulted Jim, haphazardly, and ere he could withdraw,
Patillo calmly knocked him out and neatly laid him low:
"I'll not be carelessly abused. I'd like to have you know."
He told the populace who cheered and took him out to dine
On native fish and apple pie and palatable wine;
And took a vessel of their own to tow the Tiger's dory
Out to the waiting Gloucester ship, enwrapped in greater glory.
But Gayden was dissatisfied and straightway set to sea,
And in his cutter followed them with animosity;
With sixty-five armed men he sailed in hot pursuit of Jim,
Whose future at the moment looked unquestionably grim.
Kind friends again admonished Jim, who lost no precious time
In quickly getting underway to seek another clime.
The Tiger found the wind was high and set so swift a pace,
Eventually the officers gave up the fruitless chase.
And Captain Jim reached Gloucester in the Tiger, with the hold
Chokeful of salted herring which immediately he sold;
And to the record of his skill and ingenuity,
He added further evidence of rare proficiency,
By bringing from Newfoundland's shores, direct to Gloucester Square,
The first salt herring anyone had ever landed there.
Since then salt fish has come to town in quantities, as well
As being salted here at home — you'll notice by the smell!
This tale is just a page of Jim Patillo's daring feats,
Which were discussed in bygone years along our city streets;
A man of strong resourcefulness and dauntless enterprise,
He resolutely carried on until his late demise.
Source: Kitty Parsons, Gloucester Sea Ballads