"Barrett's Privateers" is a modern folk song in the style of a
sea shanty
A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term ''shanty'' most accurately refers to a specific st ...
, written and performed by Canadian musician
Stan Rogers
Stanley Allison Rogers (November 29, 1949 – June 2, 1983) was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter.
Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and ...
, having been inspired after a song session with the
Friends of Fiddler's Green
Friends of Fiddler's Green is a Canadian folk music group based in Toronto founded in 1971 and still active as of 2018. The members of the group at the time of its first recording, 1981's ''This Side of the Ocean'', were Alistair Brown, Tam Kea ...
at the
Northern Lights Festival Boréal
Northern Lights Festival Boréal is an annual summer music festival in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. It is one of Canada's oldest music festivals in continuous operation, having been staged every year since 1972 until the Covid-19 pandemic.
in
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sudbury Reef, Queensland
Canada
* Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes)
** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
. Although Barrett, the ''Antelope'' and other specific instances mentioned in the song are fictional, "Barrett's Privateers" is full of many authentic details of
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
ing in the late 18th century.
The song was released on the album ''
Fogarty's Cove
''Fogarty's Cove'' is a 1977 folk music album by Stan Rogers.
The CD was one of several Stan Rogers albums reissued in 2011 by Borealis Records
Borealis Records is a Canadian record label, founded in 1996 by four Canadian musicians. It is not ...
'' in 1976 and has since gained popularity as a
drinking song
A drinking song is a song sung while drinking alcohol. Most drinking songs are folk songs or commercium songs, and may be varied from person to person and region to region, in both the lyrics and in the music.
In Germany, drinking songs are c ...
mixed meter
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...
, regularly switching back and forth from to time. It is regarded as one of the
Royal Canadian Navy
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack subma ...
's unofficial anthems, the unofficial anthem of Atlantic Canada and also often heard sung at many Atlantic universities including (west to east)
Acadia University
Acadia University is a public, predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level. The enabling legislation consists of the Acadia ...
,
University of New Brunswick
The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick, Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public un ...
,
Mount Allison University
Mount Allison University (also Mount A or MtA) is a Canadian primarily undergraduate liberal arts university located in Sackville, New Brunswick, founded in 1839.
Like other liberal arts colleges in North America, Mount Allison does not par ...
,
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus in Saint John, New Brunswick. Dalhousie offer ...
University of King's College
The University of King's College, established in 1789, is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.Roper, Henry. "Aspects of the History of a Loyalist College: King's College, Windsor, and Nova Scotian Higher Education in the Nineteenth Century." Anglic ...
,
St. Francis Xavier University
St. Francis Xavier University is a public undergraduate liberal arts university located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a member of the Maple League, a group of primarily undergraduate universities in Eastern Canada.
History
St. Fra ...
"Barrett's Privateers" is sung from the point of view of a young fisherman who, in 1778 at the age of 16, enlisted on “El Cid” Barrett's ill-fated ''Antelope'', with the promise that the resulting trip would be a pleasure cruise with no violence. The ''Antelope'' is described as the "scummiest vessel e'dever seen", and the song describes the many faults of the decrepit
sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
to operate as a privateering ship.
The sloop leaves on June 4 (the king's birthday) and takes three months to make it to
Montego Bay, Jamaica
Montego Bay is the capital of the parish of St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth-largest urban area in the country by population, after Kingston, Spanish Town, and Portmore, all of which form the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area, h ...
. After a five-day layover, the ''Antelope'' returns to sea and encounters an American merchant ship loaded down with gold. Because of the poor state of the sloop, it takes the ''Antelope'' two days to come within firing distance of the American vessel, which ultimately turns out to be far more heavily armed than they are. The ''Antelope'' is capsized with one volley from the American vessel, and the narrator witnesses Barrett's gruesome death, when he is crushed like a bowl of eggs. The singer, who loses use of both his legs after they are struck by the truck of the mainmast, survives.
The closing verse moves ahead to 1784, as the survivor has only the day prior returned to Nova Scotia, still bitter at having been lied to and lying broken on a pier in Halifax, longing to return to his (notably
anachronistic
An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...
) home of
Sherbrooke
Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional cou ...
.
Cover versions
The popularity of "Barrett's Privateers" has inspired cover versions by many bands, such as the pirate metal band
Alestorm
Alestorm are a Scottish heavy metal band formed in Perth, Scotland. Their music is characterised by a pirate theme, and as a result, they have been dubbed a "pirate metal" band by many critics and their fanbase. The group currently consists o ...
on their third album, ''
Back Through Time
''Back Through Time'' is the third studio album by Scottish heavy metal band Alestorm. It was released on 3 June 2011 by Napalm Records and is the first Alestorm recording to feature Gareth Murdock on bass and Peter Alcorn on drums.Heri Joensen from
Týr
(; Old Norse: , ) is a god in Germanic mythology, a valorous and powerful member of the and patron of warriors and mythological heroes. In Norse mythology, which provides most of the surviving narratives about gods among the Germanic peoples, ...
The Men They Couldn't Hang
The Men They Couldn't Hang (TMTCH) are a British folk punk group. The original group consisted of Stefan Cush (vocals, guitar), Paul Simmonds (guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, keyboards), Philip "Swill" Odgers (vocals, guitar, tin whistle, melodic ...
does a rousing solo version after learning the words and melody from Weddings Parties Anything backstage over a few beers at Mariposa Folk Festival 1989. It's become a firm live favourite ever since.
Covered by Canadian folk band
The Irish Descendants
The Irish Descendants are a folk group from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. All the members, born of Irish emigrants, were workers in the Newfoundland fishing industry before forming the band in 1990 out of the remnants of two fo ...
on their 1994 album ''Gypsies & Lovers''.
Covered by Fisherman's Friends on their 2002 album ''Home From the Sea''.
Covered by
the Corries
The Corries were a Scottish folk group that emerged from the Scottish folk revival of the early 1960s. The group was a trio from their formation until 1966 when founder Bill Smith left the band but Roy Williamson and Ronnie Browne continu ...
and released on their 2006 album ''Barrett's Privateers''. In this version, the line "I wish I was in Sherbrooke now" is replaced with "I wish I was in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
now".
Covered by Blackbeard's Tea Party on their 2011 album ''Tomorrow We'll Be Sober''.
In 2012
the Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
recorded an a cappella version on ''Born at the Right Time'' and Celtic punk band the Real McKenzies covered it on ''Westwinds''.
As part of a comedy bit on
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second ite ...
in July, 2022, both the host and
Jack White
John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...
sang the first verse together, neither of them knowing that the other knew the song. Stephen Colbert had sung the song before in March, 2022 with
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé ( ; born September 9, 1975) is a Canadian singer. A four-time Grammy Award winner, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songb ...