This folk song was written by Otto P. Kelland, who titled it “Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary’s”, and it has been covered by a number of folk singers.
The song is a nostalgic love-song for a particular place, but it’s also a reflection on life and death. The songwriter talks about different parts of...
Take me back to my western boat
Let me fish off Cape St. Mary's
Where the hog-down sail
And the Fog horns wail
With my friends the Browns and the Clearys
Let me fish off Cape St. Mary's
Let me feel my dory lift
To the broad Atlantic combers
Where the tide rip swirls
And the wild ducks whirl
And old Neptune calls the numbers
'Neath the wild Atlantic combers
Let me sail up Golden Bay
With my oilskins all a-streaming
From the thunder squalls when I hauled my trawls
And my old Cape Ann a-gleaming
With my oilskins all a-streaming
And let me view that ragged shore
With the beaches all a-glisten
With the caplin spawn
Where from dusk till dawn
You bait your trawn, and you listen
To the undertow a-hissin'
And when I reach that last big shoal
Where the groundswells break asunder
Where the wild sands roll to the surge's toll
Let me be a man and take it
When my dory fails to make it
Oh take me back to that snug green cove
Where the seas roll up their thunder
There let me rest
In the Earth's cool breast
Where the stars shine out their wonder
And the seas roll up their thunder