The Riddle of "The Flying Cloud"

Abstract

P ERHAPS ONE of the most popular of the longer ballads found in America is Flying Cloud. Yet up to the present this old has managed to hold the secret of its origin better than any other ballad of considerable popularity. No one knows its origin, its dates, or the identity of any of the characters concerned. Collectors greet it with more mixed emotions than any other song. Shay refers to it as a song which probably had some popularity in the dives alongshore, but it was not sung aboard ship.1 On the other hand, Rickaby states that at one time the ability to sing this through was a prerequisite to being allowed to work in the Michigan lumber camps.2 Varied, also, are the opinions as to the age of the piece; they range from some time fairly early in the nineteenth century up to the twentieth century. Attempts to identify the characters and ships have not been successful. Creighton states that the name Ocean Queen referred to a fishing vessel lost with all hands at a fairly recent date.3 Because of these conflicting opinions and ideas, I have made an intensive study of the in an attempt to clarify some of the points discussed. There are variants of Flying Cloud from the south, from Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, New England (Maine and Massachusetts), Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and a snatch from Scotland.4 Rickaby to the contrary notwithstanding, the greatest number of variants seems to be from Newfoundland, where at least six versions have been recorded. (Dr. MacEdward Leach of the University of Pennsylvania recorded five variants there in the summer of 1950.) From the dispersal pattern it seems safe to assume that it is an American ballad, and, if sea songs may claim a port as home, it is either from New England, Nova Scotia, or Newfoundland. From internal evidence this area might be localized still further to include only New England. The reader, however, must bear in mind that this preliminary discussion refers only to the as it now stands and not as it was originally. Although the dispersion pattern would indicate that the had an American origin, internal evidence points a finger at Ireland or England as the source of birth. In the first place, the protagonist is an Irishman and the skipper of the