The Queen Of May

I was born in Fleetwood, Lancashire, which at the time of my birth was a thriving fishing town. I grew up listening to stories of the sea, and how I came from a line of trawler skippers on one side, and Yorkshire coal miners on the other. Stories that always stuck in my head were of ships lost and of families and sweethearts who would stand on the promenade waiting for boats to come in - some of which never did. These stories always had an otherworldly quality to me - and the Queen of May is an imaginary name. However Annie's dream is very real, and happened as I tell it - I had it at first hand. I changed the name - but anyone reading of the plight of a vessel such as Goth - lost at sea off Iceland, December 16 th 1948 with all hands - will know that what seemed to a childs imagination otherworldly was an all too real peril of the fishing industry.

They never heard the cries
As the sailors died
That wild December day

When the Queen of May went down
When the Queen of May went down

The wind it screamed so wild
Whipped the waves up high
Came on so fast that day

When the Queen of May went down
When the Queen of May went down

And though they lit a flare
No rescue could have dared
The storms eye that day

When the Queen of May went down
When the Queen of May went down

So she was smashed and breached
By the foaming frenzied sea
That black bedevilled day

When the Queen of May went down
When the Queen of May went down

Annie had a dream
That the captain knelt and prayed
That heaven took him in
And all his crew were saved
So at first light on land
She took the widows cheerless hand
And she spoke their names
Said that they weren't lost in vain
That heaven has its haul
And we all live in thrall

They never found the wreck
Never brought the bodies back
So we just mark the day

When the Queen of May went down
When the Queen of May went down
When the Queen of May went down
When the Queen of May went down

Music & Lyrics by Paul Cartledge

Artist: The Big Stone