The Sweet Trinity


"The Sweet Trinity", also known as "The Golden Vanity", "The Golden Willow Tree" or "The Turkish Revelry" is an English folk song or sea shanty. The first surviving version, dated to 1635, was "Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing In The Lowlands ".

Synopsis

A captain of a ship laments the danger it is in; Sir Walter Raleigh complains that it was captured by a galley, but the more common complaint is that it is in danger from another ship, which may be French, Turkish, Spanish, or British. A cabin boy offers to solve the problem. The captain promises him rich rewards, which vary between versions, but often contain land, and the promise that the boy may marry the captain's daughter. The boy swims to the enemy ship, bores holes in its hull with an auger, and sinks it.
He swims back to his ship. Usually, the captain declares that he will not rescue the boy out of the water, let alone reward him. In some variants, the boy extorts the rescue and reward by sinking his ship as well, but usually the boy drowns. In other versions, the crew rescues him, but he dies on the deck. In the variant with Raleigh, Raleigh is willing to keep some of his promises, but not to marry him to his daughter, and the cabin boy scorns him. In the New England version recorded by John Roberts, he sinks both ships but is rescued by another one, thus explaining how the story could have been passed on.

Printings