Captain Ward and the Rainbow, or Ward the Pirate, is
Child ballad 287. It recounts a tale of the
pirate
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
Captain Ward, likely
Jack Ward
John Ward or Birdy ( 1553 – 1622), also known as Jack Ward or later as Yusuf Reis, was an English- Ottoman pirate who later became a Barbary Corsair for the Ottoman Empire operating out of Tunis during the early 17th century.
According ...
.
Synopsis
The king sends a ship, the ''Rainbow'', after Captain Ward. In one variant, the ship carries 500 seamen, in another it carries 1,300. Ward defeats the ''Rainbow'' and sends taunts back to the king, "If he reign king of all the land, I will reign king at sea."
In many variants, Ward claims to have never harmed an English ship.
Lyrics
Come all you gallant seamen bold,
All you that march to drum,
Let's go and look for Captain Ward,
Far on the sea he roams;
He is the biggest robber
That ever you did hear,
There's not been such a robber found
For above this hundred year.
A ship was sailing from the east
And going to the west,
Loaded with silks and satins
And velvets of the best,
But meeting there with Captain Ward,
It proved a bad meeting;
He robbèd them of all their wealth
And bid them tell their king.
O then the king provided a ship of noble fame,
She's call'd the "Royal Rainbow,"
If you would know her name;
She was as well provided for
As any ship could be,
Full thirteen hundred men on board
To bear her company.
'Twas eight o' clock in the morning
When they began to fight,
And so they did continue there
Till nine o' clock at night.
"Fight on, fight on," says Captain Ward,
"This sport well pleases me,
For if you fight this month or more,
Your master I will be."
O then the gallant "Rainbow"
She fired, she fired in vain,
Till six and thirty of her men
All on the deck were slain.
"Go home, go home," says Captain Ward,
"And tell your king from me,
If he reigns king on all the land,
Ward will reign king on sea!"
See also
*
List of the Child Ballads
The Child Ballads is the colloquial name given to a collection of 305 ballads collected in the 19th century by Francis James Child
Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, ...
*
Scottish mythology
*
English folklore
English folklore consists of the myths and legends of England, including the English region's mythical creatures, traditional recipes, urban legends, proverbs, superstitions, and folktales. Its cultural history is rooted in Celtic, Christia ...
Musical adaptations
* The song was set for
four-part chorus (
TT
B B) by
Ralph Vaughan Williams in ''Folk Songs from the Eastern Counties'' (1912). Williams had previously (1906) made use of the melody in his ''
Norfolk Rhapsodies
The ''Norfolk Rhapsodies'' are three orchestral rhapsodies by Ralph Vaughan Williams, drafted in 1905–06. They were based on folk songs Vaughan Williams had collected in the English county of Norfolk, in particular the fishing port of King's Ly ...
''.
References
External links
''Captain Ward and the Rainbow''
Child Ballads
Border ballads
Northumbrian folklore
Anglo-Scottish border
Year of song unknown
Songwriter unknown
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