The Mary Ellen Carter

Written by the famed Stan Rogers, this song was intended as a motivational song and is credited with having saved at least one life. It has become a folk standard, performed in varying arrangements by numerous artists, and chronicles the sinking of the fictional ship *Mary Ellen Carter* somewhere in the North Atlantic.

Robbie led the band in singing *The Mary Ellen Carter* from memory in their September 2019 live stream. It was released as track 8 on  Smoke + Oakum.

### Factoids

In February 1983, the coastal cargo vessel *Marine Electric* capsized in a violent storm off the coast of Virginia. 59-year-old chief mate Robert Cusick was trapped in the deckhouse as the vessel sank. He managed to swim clear of the ship and after an hour, reached a swamped lifeboat and pulled himself aboard. Alone in freezing temperatures and with huge waves crashing over the boat, as the effects of hypothermia were setting in, he says the last refrain of "The Mary Ellen Carter" came into his mind; he began repeating the lyrics in his head, and shouting them out loud when he resurfaced after each wave, which gave him the strength to keep going until he was spotted by a helicopter at daybreak. He later commented, "I firmly believe that if it wasn't for that...I just was in the position where I couldn't have come through, and that song made the difference." This story is told by Cusick himself in the Stan Rogers documentary *One Warm Line.*

There are a number of candidates for the location Rogers chose for the sinking of the ship, but the two most likely are Three Mile Rock, a small coastal community on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland, or (more likely) Three Mile Rock, a known nautical hazard just off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

It has been speculated that, based on the details mentioned in the song, the ship would most likely have been a 65' coastal fishing trawler of a type common to the 1970s Canadian North Atlantic (conclusion drawn from cost and crew size); however, Rogers' biography *Unfinished Conversation* suggests that *Mary Ellen Carter* was supposed to have been a freighter.

To **dog** here means to fasten down an object with an item known as a "dog". There are various kinds of dog; one common type is a large iron staple that can be hammered on and later easily pried off.

## Lyrics

Lyrics as provided in the *Smoke + Oakum* album sleeve. Rogers' original lyrics can be found here.

>
> Oh, she went down last October in a pouring, driving rain
>
> The skipper, he'd been drinking and the mate, he felt no pain
>
> Out close to Three Mile Rock, and she was dealt a mortal blow
>
> Then the Mary Ellen Carter settled low
>
>
>
> There were just us four aboard her when she finally was awash
>
> We worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost
>
> But the groan she made as she went down, it caused us to proclaim
>
> That the Mary Ellen Carter'd rise again
>
>
>
> {Chorus 1}
>
> Rise again, rise again
>
> May her name not be lost to the knowledge of men
>
> All those who loved her best and who were with her 'til the end
>
> Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again
>
>
>
> Well, the company wrote her off; not a nickel would they spend
>
> She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end
>
> But insurance paid the loss to us, said let her rest below
>
> Then they laughed at us and said we had to go
>
>
>
> But we talked of her all winter, sometimes days around the clock
>
> She's worth a quarter million, a-floating at the dock
>
> And with every jar that hit the bar, we swore we would remain
>
> And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again
>
>
>
> {Chorus}
>
>
>
> All spring now, we've been with her on a barge lent by a friend
>
> Three dives a day in hard-hat suit and twice I've had the bends
>
> Thank God it's only sixty feet and the currents here are slow
>
> Or I'd never have the strength to go below
>
>
>
> So we patched her rents, stopped her vents
>
> Dogged hatch and porthole down
>
> Put cables to her, 'fore and aft, and girded her around
>
> Tomorrow, noon, we'll hit the air and then take up the strain
>
> And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again
>
>
>
> {Chorus}
>
>
>
> Well we couldn't leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale
>
> She'd saved our lives so many times, fighting through the gale
>
> And the laughing, drunken rats who led her to a sorry grave
>
> Well they won't be laughing in another day
>
>
>
> And to you, for whom adversity has dealt its mortal blow
>
> With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
>
> Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
>
> And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.
>
>
>
> {Chorus 2}
>
> Rise again, rise again
>
> Though your heart it be broke and your life about to end
>
> No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend
>
> Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again
>
>
>
> {Chorus 2}
>
>
>
>

## Recordings

#### Streaming/Purchase

* Amazon Music
* Apple Music/iTunes
* Deezer
* Pandora
* Spotify

#### YouTube Videos

* Music Video
* 360 Video Under the SS Great Britain
* Tuesday Folk People

#### Gig Videos

* Shrewsbury Folk Festival (27 Aug 2021)
* Shrewsbury Folk Festival (28 Aug 2021)
* Old Songs (25 Feb 2022)
* Le Poisson Rouge, NYC (27 Feb 2022)
* Exeter Phoenix (26 April 2022)
* Kraków, Poland (26 Feb 2023)
* Cursus Festival (26 May 2023)
* Beardy Folk Festival (16 Jun 2023)

#### Full Band Streams

* The Longest Johns Streamtember (4 Sep 2019)
* The Longest Johns Early Octobermas (2 Oct 2019)
* TLJ Christmas Party!! (18 Dec 2019)
* The Longest Johns Save the Day! Or maybe just sing and chat... (29 Apr 2020)
* It's hot! Stream was a bad choice... Or was it? (24 Jun 2020)
* 100k Subscriber Thank You Stream (19 Aug 2020)
* It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Streams-mas (16 Dec 2020)
* I Stream, You Stream, We all Scream for Live Stream (20 Jan 2021)
* Boulevard of Broken Streams (17 Feb 2021)
* We're Going to Wellermania! (14 Apr 2021)
* All Aboard the Stream Locomotive (2 Jun 2021)
* Be Stream And Not Heard (6 Oct 2021)
* Desert Bus 2021)
* THE SING ALONG! JINGLE JAM 2021 - DAY 6! w/ The Longest Johns (9 Dec 2021)
* Ex-Stream Sports (15 Feb 2022)
* Heinz Baked Stream (14 Sep 2022)
* Sega Streamcast (15 Feb 2023)
* Jingle Jam 2023 | Day 4 (4 Dec 2023) (Lead by Dr. Simon Clark)
* JINGLE JAM DAY 8! The Longest Johns Live Jingle Jam Concert (8 Dec 2023)

#### Chill Streams

* More chilled than a sack of penguins with Andy & JD - 27/04/2020
* It's music stream time, everybody loves music stream time... - 11/05/2020

#### Gaming Streams

* Sail & Sing! Lets get damp and sing shanties! - 08/06/2020
* Sea of Sings on a Friday evening, oh what a salty sight to sea - 03/07/2020
* Sea of Sings: Sing harder! - 06/07/2020
* Sea of Sings. Tonight we sink to the low C's... - 13/07/2020
* Musical larceny on the big blue wet thing - 10/08/2020
* 4 Sloops 4 Furious - 04/09/2020
* Super Monday Afternoon Singing Time On The Sea! - 07/09/2020
* DROPS! Sea of Sings! with BehavingBeardly! SHANT! - 30/10/2020
* Sea of Sings! with Captain\_Falcore! SHANT! - 2/11/2020
* Sea of Sings! with KroTukk! SHANT! - 3/11/2020
* Sea of Sings! Welcome to the Shantydome! - 6/11/2020
* Shants on the sea! - 16/11/2020
* Sea of Adventure with BehavingBeardly - 27/11/2020
* Sea of Joviality with KroTukk and KHARITES\_ - 28/11/2020
* Sea of Good Tidings - 30/11/2020
* Let's do a sing and get in the sea !drops - 11/12/2020
* Music and boats and stuff - 13/12/2020
* Let's get splashy - 14/12/2020
* Sea of Sings, ye scurvy dogs! - 4/01/2021
* Sea of Sings in the morning! - 11/01/2021
* Sea of Sings! Pirate malarkey afoot! - 15/01/2021
* Virtual Pirate Concert with Krotukk - 16/01/2021
* Boo! Surprise Sea of Sings! - 21/01/2021
* It's yarr time! Sea of Sings! Set sails to 100% - 22/01/2021
* Sea of Sings! Yarr? - 01/02/2021
* Sea of Sings with Azuki and HappyKrakenX - 08/02/2021
* Sea of Sings with Teachcourage and TheSneakyBeagle - 09/02/2021
* Sea of Sings LIVE
* Sea of Sings! Boats and stuff! - 15/02/2021
* Sea of Sings - It's boat time - 22/02/2021
* Sea of Sings! With Dave, JD and @Krotukk - 05/03/2021
* Sea of Sings! With JD, Dave, Robbie and WIREDmag! - 08/03/2021
* Give it away, give it away, give it away now! | Sea of Sings - 15/03/2021
* Singing and Sailing with BehavingBeardly and KroTukk - 21/03/2021
* We give you drops, we give pirates treasure, we give you GIVEAWAYS! - 22/03/2021
* Singing and Sailing in Sea of Thieves! With @RobRaven - 29/03/2021
* Season 2 of Sings! - 19/04/2021
* Streamy time sails with friends and song! - 23/04/2021
* How many pirates does it take to change THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AS WE KNOW IT?!? - 07/05/2021
* Safe and sound at home again, let the waters roar, chat! - 24/05/2021
* Roll on up, roll on down. We all get songs in Streaming Town - 31/05/2021
* A Stream! Ho! Stream away, we'll Sea of Thieves together, with Kharites - 04/06/2021
* Sea of Sings LIVE
* Something something pirate pun - 26/07/2021
* Set feet, Kro! Set feet, Kro! Set feet, Kro! Set feet, Kro! - 03/09/2021
* STREAM Stream stream... - 27/09/2021
* To the boatmobile! There's DROPS! - 01/10/2021
* SING OF THIEVES! JINGLE JAM 2021 - DAY 14! - THE LONGEST JOHNS (17 Dec 2021)
* Bananas! Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew... - 25/10/2021
* We're Back!! First Sing & Sail of 2022 - 10/01/2022
* New things?!? Well, new to us anyway. Now with added Spammals!! - 28/03/2022

1. ↑ https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=35924&threadid=35924
2. ↑ https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=8054#652628