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The Philomena D

Rudy Sunde
words and music © 1985

Musical notation and chords for philomena D. Size = 7K

  1. We left New Bedford in the mist and the rain,
    For the southern seas we sailed away;
    Our wives and sweethearts on the pier,
    Didn't see them again for two full years.

  2. We called in one day to Waitangi Bay,
    Bought some rum and set sail again;
    The skipper got drunk, the bosun too,
    And more than half of the bloomin' crew.

  3. We cruised on the southern seas so cold,
    Looking for the whales that swam below
    The humpback, right whale, sperm whale too,
    We fished them all in the waters blue,

  4. The Philomena D. was a lovely ship,
    Spic and span when we left on the trip;
    Two years at sea had left their mark,
    The once bright paint now dirty and dark.

  5. Now home again, I'll sail no more,
    Never again to a foreign shore
    And near my family sit and dream,
    Of when I sailed in the Philomena D,

 



The Philomena D on Record

The Maritime Crew "Auckland to the Bluff"
July 2005.
The 17 NZ maritime songs on this CD are all written by Rudy Sunde.

CHANTS DE MARINS de l'Irlande au Pacifique,
Sea Shanties: from Dublin to Auckland
Vol 1, 1986, CD, 44 minutes, 18 songs,

The songs are from English, American, and New Zealand.
Leave Her Johnny, South Australia, Orpheus, 10,000 Miles Away, Nick Young, Trumpet Hornpipe, Donkey Riding, Across the Line, Philomena D, Drunken Sailor, Captain Matheson, Talcahuano Girls, Liverpool Joddles, Auckland to the Bluff, Tom's Gone to Hilo, Dead Horse Shanty, Hornpipes, Shore Whalers.




Rudy Sunde

New Zealand's interest in sailing ships suddenly surged in the 1970's, leading to the construction of several sail training ships and a renewed interest in singing shanties.

Rudy Sunde (far right) was the leader of The Maritime Crew, a group of Auckland-based singers of sea songs and shanties who entertained regularly at the Maritime Museum at Hobson harf in Auckland. Their repertoire included fo'c's'le songs, shanties and songs related to the sea and the sea-going life in all its shapes and forms. Rudy wrote this song in the 1970s, in the old sea shanty style.


Thanks

-to Francois Godet from Belgium, for his interest and for supplying information about the CD.

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Published on the web 15 June, 2002, edited May 2018