Glen Hunter - The Cedar Grove

This song is about a steamship, The Cedar Grove, which wrecked 30th Nov 1882 off Canso, NS on a journey from London to St John, NB with a cargo of liquor.

Lyrics as transcribed from this recording:

There lies a noble steamer The Cedar Grove by name,
to cross the briny ocean from London city came.

They started out one stormy night too dark to see the land,
and by some miscancellation [?] near Canso they did strand.

The sailor at the helm, he knew and he could tell.
He knew that they were near the land, by the heaving of the swell.
He wished to give a warning but knew it not his place,
 Our captain must be up! he cried, Whatever be the case.

The night being dark and stormy, the lookout at his post,
the first he saw of danger were breakers on the coast.
The orders then was given, the engine to reverse.
 Starboard your helm the captain cried, Our ship she s off her course .

Oh then we were in deep water, and then her fate was sealed,
The seas began to wash her deck and on her side she reeled.
the cabins they began to fill and also down below,
and in the upper department and down our boat did go.

the saddest of my story and it does yet remain
we had a lady passenger Miss [Ferra?] was her name
to visit some relation in the city of St. John
ventured out upon that stormy deep, but now she s dead and gone.

A sailor said he saw her at a cabin door stand by,
he said it grieved him to the heart to hear her mourn and cry.
He offered to console with her, and said you won t be lost,
but that tender-hearted maiden on the billow soon was tossed.

The same thing took our captain and they were seen no more.
through stormy winds and darkness our boats they lingered near.
two engineer and firemen with many others drown,
but the body of that lady had never yet been found.

Our cargos was for Halifax and the city of St. John,
And to the foreign [court?] our good ship did belong.
She was strongly built on the banks of the Clyde, ten thousand tons or more.
But her strength it proved to no avail on the rocks of Canso shore.
This song is song with guitar accompaniment.

This song appears elsewhere in the Manny collection as (011-02) and (090-01).

The recorded version above omits an entire stanza that is present in Edward Ives published version of the song which tells of the captain's bravery. There are several other minor variations throughout as well.

1957

## Sources and Info

The song appears in Louise Manny and James Reginald Wilson eds. Songs of Miramichi Brunswick Press Fredericton, N.B. pg. 70 and also in Edward Ives ed. Folksongs of New Brunswick Goose Lane Editions Ltd., Fredericton pg. 136.

005-03

folktrax-archive.org gives the following citation with a number of other printed/recorded sources:

> "**CEDAR GROVE, THE** - "*O there lies a noble steamer, the CG by name"*- the helmsman knows the ship is too close to the shore but dares not say so - the look-out's warning comes too late and the ship is on the rocks, she backs off and sinks - Passenger, Miss Fareell, captain and 2 engineers lost - captain's disfigured body recovered later - LAWS #D-18 (NAB 1050/64 pp169-170) - ROUD#1959 - Wrecked 30th Nov 1882 off Canso, NS from London to St John, NB with cargo of liquors - McKENZIE BSSNS 1928 pp 236-7 Harry Sutherland NS (w/o) - DOERFLINGER SAS 1951 p186 11v/m - IVES FSNB 1989 pp136-9 James Brown, NB 1963"
>
>

An 1882 American Railroad Journal gives some details regarding the wreck of this ship (top left of page 990).