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Ship's Mate David Loweriston and other sealers were left on an island in Open Bay (now Jackson Bay) in Fiordland, New Zealand in 1810.They were there for nearly  4 years before being rescued by the Governor Bligh.                Full story             Oh my name is Davy Lowston, I did seal, I did seal. My name is Davy Lowston, I did seal. Though my men and I were lost, Though our very lives it cost We did seal, we did seal, we did seal 'Twas in eighteen hundred and ten, we set sail, we set sail. 'Twas in eighteen hundred and ten we set sail. We were left we gallant men, Never more to sail again, For to seal, for to seal, for to seal, We were set down in Open Bay, we were set down, were set down We were set down in Open Bay, we were set down T'was on the sixteenth day, Of Feb-ru-ar-i-ay  (summer in Sthn Hemisphere) For to seal, for to seal, for to seal. Our Captain John Bedar he set sail, he set sail. Our Captain John Bedar he set sail "I'll return, men, without fail!" But she foundered in a gale, And went down, and went down, and went down. We cured ten thousand skins for the fur, for the fur. We cured ten thousand skins for the fur. Brackish water, putrid seal, We did all of us fall ill, For to die, for to die, for to die. Come all you sailor lads who sail the sea, sail the sea, Come all you jolly tars who sail the sea, Though the schooner Governor Bligh Took on some who did not die Never seal, never seal, never seal. Tune If you can't play a Bm chord, use a capo on the 2nd fret and play C Am F G chord-shapes. Open Bay It is just south of the Haast River, and now called Port Jackson. The Haast Pass and Mt Aspiring are in the background.              Origins The tune and structure was obviously derived from the old Captain Kidd song series ("My Name is Captain Kidd," "My Name is Samuel Small," "Ye Jacobites By Name," "What Wondrous Love is This?" etc.) For example;- My name is Captain Kidd as I sailed as I sailed My name is Captain Kidd as I sailed My name is Captain Kidd and God's laws I did forbid And most wickedly I did as I sailed My father taught me well to shun the gates of Hell But against him I rebelled as I sailed He shoved a bible in my hand but I left it in the sand As I pulled away from land as I sailed I murdered William Moore and I left him in his gore Twenty leagues away from shore as I sailed And being crueler still, the gunner I did kill Oh his precious blood did spill as I sailed etc.                                      For full details into the origins of this song, read Frank Fyfe's 1970 research paper. The lyrics probably originated on the Sydney waterfront after Loweriston sued the owners of the 'Active' for abandoning his group. The song was then taken to Kororareka in New Zealand, where Yankee whaling crews learnt it and carried the song back to Halifax, where it was eventually collected by John Leebrick. (JA) I tried singing a topical version of Davy Lowston in 1981. I'm Arthur Alan Thomas, I was framed, I was framed, For shooting Harvey Crewe I was blamed, Lies about me they did tell, and I spent 9 years in hell, I was framed, I was blamed, I was maimed For obvious reasons, I never got any requests to sing it again! The Ballad Writers' Toolbox Rebuilding a Classic Other old English songs with echo-lines have been given the same treatment as "Captain Kidd." Thus "Froggie went a courting, he did ride, Huh, ha" re-appeared in the Mississippi delta as "You gotta line, an' I gotta pole, Honey." What can you do with it ? Mail me Performance Davy Lowston is a serious song about great deprivation. Your audience is emotionally affected. When you perform this, it is useful to follow with something humorous to give your audience some emotional relief. For instance, you could follow a couple of standard verses of She'll be Right and then... You've gone sealing in Fiordland; you've been stranded there ten years, and you're eating salty sealmeat, and weeping salty tears, And you'd pay a million dollars for a Big Mac and some beers, Well don't worry mate, she'll be right. She'll be right mate, she'll be right Don't worry mate, she'll be right. Just pull out your old sat-phone, Call a chopper and then fly home, And don't worry mate, she'll be right. Davy Lowston On Record

1964	J C Reid	A Book of New Zealand		anthology
1958	Song Spinners	Song of the Whalers		"Davie Lowston"
1964	J C Reid	A Book of New Zealand		anthology
1965	Val Murphy	My Way of Singing		"Davy Lousten"
1965	Neil Colquhoun (ed)	New Zealand Folksongs		songbook
1967	Martin Carthy, UK	Byker Hill	Spotify	Iceberg version
1967	Bailey & Roth	Shanties by the Way		historical songbook
1970	Frank Fyfe	A Pre-colonial NZ Song		monograph
1972	Hunter Musket, UK	Every Time You Move
1973	Neil Colquhoun (ed)	Song of a Young Country		songbook
1980	June Tabor, UK	A Cut Above	Spotify	NZ version
1982	Graham Wilson	Billy on the Boil	Spotify
1983	Marcus Turner	The Best is Yet to Come
1985	Martin Curtis	Back from the Hills
1987	Phil Garland	Hunger in The Air
1991	Les Cleveland (ed)	The Great NZ Songbook		songbook
1991	Worsfolds & Muggeridges	Colonial Heritage Songs		cassette
1992	Kath & Bill Worsfold (eds)	Colonial Heritage Songs		songbook
1993	Mike Harding	Songs of Local Folk
1994	Pioneer Pog 'n' Scroggin Band	Love of the Land
1995	Martin Curtis	Save the Wilderness
1996	Phil Garland	Under the Southern Cross
1998	Mike Harding	Past to the Present
2000	Maritime Crew	Live at the AFF
2001	Pint & Dale, Seattle	White Horses	on Spotify	Iceberg version
2003	Maritime Crew	Under the Southern Cross
2004	The Prairie Higglers, Ohio	From Door to Door
2005	Pegleg Ferret, UK	Not Fooling Anybody
2006	Westumbria	Stepping Stones
2007	Kitching & Bartley, UK	Rushes	on Youtube	Iceberg version
2008	Michael Rossiter, UK	My Dearest Dear
2008	The Roaring Forties, Aust.	Life of Brine
2010	Neil Colquhoun (ed)	Song of a Young Country		songbook
2011	Paul Carrol, UK	The Road You Take	on Spotify	Iceberg version
2014	Hanz Araki. Maine USA	Foreign shore		Iceberg version