The Ship that Never Returned

1884 sheet music cover by S. Brainard's Sons

The composer Henry Clay Work in a W. S. B. Matthews engraving.

"The Ship that Never Returned" is an 1865 song written by Henry Clay Work, about a ship that left a harbor and never came back. A reason for the ship not returning is not given in the lyrics. However, the line "and their fate is yet unlearned" implies that the reason is unknown.

The song became so popular that Carl Sandburg's collection American Songbag recorded an adaptation from the Kentucky mountains. The tune formed the basis of "Wreck of the Old 97", about a 1903 train wreck; recorded by Vernon Dalhart in 1924, and many others afterward, the song became the first million-selling country music hit.

Later, the melody was adapted in "Charlie on the MTA", created in 1948, as a campaign song for Walter A. O'Brien about a man unable to alight from a Boston subway train because, rather than change all the turnstiles, the M.T.A. added an exit fare—Charlie did not have the extra nickel to get off the train. The Kingston Trio recorded the song in 1959 (as "M.T.A.") and had a hit with the recording in the same year.

Composition

Original lyrics ^[1]

On a summer's day, when the wave was rippled
By the softest gentlest breeze,
Did a ship set sail with a cargo laden
For a port beyond the seas.
There were sweet farewells there were loving signals
While a form was yet discerned;
Though they knew it not, 'twas a solemn parting
For the ship, she never returned.

CHORUS
Did she never return? She never returned,
Her fate, it is yet unlearned,
Though for years and years there were fond ones watching
Yet the ship she never returned.

Said a feeble lad to his anxious mother,
"I must cross the wide, wide sea,
For they say, perchance in a foreign climate,
There is health and strength for me."
'Twas a gleam of hope in a maze of danger
And her heart for her youngest yearned,
Yet she sent him forth with a smile and blessing
On the ship that never returned.

(CHORUS)

"Only one more trip," said a gallant seaman,
As he kissed his weeping wife,
Only one more bag of the golden treasure
And 'twill last us all through life.
Then I'll spend my days in my cosy cottage
And enjoy the rest I've earned;
But alas! poor man! For he sail'd commander
Of the ship that never returned.

(CHORUS)