I Drew My Ship (arr. Bernard Hughes)

This English folksong was first collected in 1882 in Northumbrian Minstrelsy, a collection of ballads, melodies and small pipe tunes of Northumbria, edited by John Stokoe and the Rev John Collingwood Bruce, and also published in 1893 in John Stokoe’s Songs and Ballads of Northern England, with no source mentioned. In form and content it is similar to ‘I Will Put My Ship in Order’, collected in 1876 in Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs.

Bernard Hughes’s gorgeous upper-voice arrangement really brings the story of this song to life. Perfectly balancing the simple honesty of the traditional folk song with rich harmony, this is an evocative and moving piece that your singers will cherish, and your audience will remember.