On a brig loaded with timber headed for the north Maine coast,
|
They took on some rough seas.
|
The captain and his slave fought back the heavy waves,
|
But they were threatening to break her up so badly.
|
|
See two days before they left the outer banks,
|
And made good time up to Boston.
|
But just north of Essex the sky grew dark,
|
He missed his mark he was making,
|
And life can change so fast.
|
|
The captain had seen many a day,
|
When the winds blew and the waters raged.
|
But it was just a part of the life he made for himself,
|
Running the coast of New England.
|
|
The ship heaved and cracked,
|
Threw the men on their backs as the water came rushing in.
|
The captain fought hard yet.
|
He yelled above the splintering wreck, I have done you wrong son.
|
I should be forsaken for what I have done.
|
|
But Ben reached a timber to stay afloat.
|
He grabbed the captain¡¯s braided coat.
|
He swam him to the nearest shore.
|
Dragged him up ¡®til he couldn¡¯t pull no more,
|
And left him breathin¡¯, yeah left him breathin¡¯ dry.
|
|
The captain said in all my days,
|
I have never seen anybody save the very person who kept him enslaved.
|
God dam it Ben, you should have your freedom
|
For what you have done.
|
|
And I should be forsaken for what I have done.
|
|
Somewhere off the Maine coast,
|
At the mouth of the New Meadows River there¡¯s an island,
|
Where a marooned man lived out his life quietly under tied and sky.
|
Never forgetting when the sea rose up so high.
|
|
The captain said in all my days,
|
I have never seen anybody save the very person who kept him enslaved.
|
God dam it Ben, you should have your freedom
|
For what you have done.
|
|
-----------------
|
The Story Of Benjamin Darling, Part 1
|
State Radio |