Cape Race Shanty © Terry Boyle Sept.2025
Row me bully boys row
Row me bully boys row
Through the wind and the rain
Through the fog here we go
Row me bullyboys row
Daniel H. Craig of the Baltimore Sun
Says Gentlemen listen, there’s work to be done
We’ll find sure success if we’re acting as one
Row me bullyboys row
For news from old mother England we wait
For word of the wars and cotton trade
And news waits for no one, or so it is said
Row me bullyboys row ***Row
To spread far and wide across this great land
Mister Morse and his telegraph lines they command
From New York to Boston and then Newfoundland
Row me bullyboys row
Beneath Cabot Strait the line comes ashore
To St. John’s it’s three hundred miles maybe more
Through forests and bogs to Cape Race they must bore
Row me bullyboys row *** Row
From across the Atlantic, the first sight of land
The ironbound coast of Cape Race now it stands
The gate to the new world it sternly commands
Row me bullboys row
Cape Race is a headland of charcoaly shale
Where men wait on watch through fog and through gale
Their contract is firm – to deliver the mail
Row me bullyboys row ***Row
Now Captain Jack Murphy he has a brave crew
Larner, White, Gosney, John Henderson too
In stormy grey waters their newsboat comes through
Row me bullyboys row
With a cod fishing hook Captain Jack and his crew
Sometimes jigging for fish, more times jigging for news
As canisters over the side the ships threw
Row me bullyboys row ***Row
With torches aflame to weld their lids tight
Their flags can be seen with the first morning light
It won’t be long now till the newsboat’s in sight
Row me bullyboys row
With word from the old world now safely on board
That whaler is pointed again for the shore
And a climb to the telegraph hut done once more
Row me bullyboys row ***Row
Here’s a health to Jack Murphy and his gallant crew
Misters Abell and Field and Daniel Craig too
Who brought two worlds closer by trolling for news
Row me bullyboys row
No more will we ever need take to the sea
In search of fresh tales for the NYAP
Hurrah for the march of technology
Row me bullyboys row