Old Salem at Sea in Ballad and Song

The first edition of Old Salem at Sea in Ballad and Song contained 89 songs and ballads recalling Salem and reflecting Salem’s rich maritime history and its relationship to the sea. Many songs found were documented in shipping logbooks, broadsides, songbooks, or periodicals. Some of these ballads will be familiar, while some may be new or slightly different to the reader. Most of the material in this book comes from public domain sources. In this second edition of Old Salem at Sea in Ballad and Song, we published a larger format for ease of reading, added the Roud Folk Song Index numbers, and included forty-five additional songs. Over time, folk music enthusiasts became aware of my project, and more ballads and songs surfaced and needed inclusion in the new edition.

* Folk singer, researcher, and entrepreneur Lisa Null suggested a song from her youth called Old Salem Town Once More. Lisa’s family sang the song to her as a child in the 1950s while living in Worcester, Massachusetts.

* Irish ballad singer Michael O’Leary introduced me to Salem-born George Edward Clark, aka Yankee Ned, who had four songs published in the book called Fisherman’s Ballads and Songs of The Sea.

* Peter Marston sang a version of the Ghostly Crew at the Monday night Shanty Sing in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The song is about how the fishing schooner the Charles Haskell and its deadly collision with the Andrew Johnson out of Salem on the George’s Bank and how the crew of the Andrew Johnson haunted the Charles Haskell, working their regular nightly shift before going overboard and heading back to Salem.