#00705
The Loss Of The Bay Rupert (Muir, Trickett, Bok) video
#2493: YouTube video by Larry Kaplan
℗2013 ~ Used with permission ~

Now, the Hudson's Bay Company
Runs its ships in the summertime,
And they stock the stores of the Labrador,
And they stock them full for the wintertime;
The Bay Rupert ran in '28,
Bound down for Baffinland,
But to get to Hopedale, don't 'cha know,
You'd be better off by land.

Oh, they got no charts for the Labrador,
All you hear is, "Stay away!"
There's rocks and ice; dark as hell at night,
From old Jack Lane's Way to Bromfield Bay;
There's wooden ships, steaming ships,
They got frozen men below,
There's mountains right beneath your keel,
So for God's sake don't you go!

She had shoes and coffee, boots and tea,
She had butter, pipes and bridles,
Sleeping bags and saddle soap,
And a dozen score of bibles;
She was open wide, pushing thru the tide,
When she hit that granite rock,
With a mighty sound both ends went down,
And her middle opened up.

Oh, they got no charts for the Labrador,
All you hear is, "Stay away!"
There's rocks and ice; dark as hell at night,
From old Jack Lane's Way to Bromfield Bay;
There's wooden ships, steaming ships,
They got frozen men below,
There's mountains right beneath your keel,
So for God's sake don't you go!

It was Sunday when that ship went down,
And the town was all at prayer,
But no missionary minister or the word of God,
Could have kept them there;
"All's lost, all's lost," the captain cried,
"And I'll never sail no more."
"All's found, all's found!" cried the Eskimos,
As they waited by the shore.

Oh, they got no charts for the Labrador,
All you hear is, "Stay away!"
There's rocks and ice; dark as hell at night,
From old Jack Lane's Way to Bromfield Bay;
There's wooden ships, steaming ships,
They got frozen men below,
There's mountains right beneath your keel,
So for God's sake don't you go!

Well, the tide come in and the goods did too,
And they saved them from the sea,
And they said, "It's great doing business,
With the Hudson's Bay Company;
We've got shoes and coffee, boots and tea,
We got butter, pipes and bridles,
Sleeping bags and saddle soap,
But to hell with all them bibles!"

Oh, they got no charts for the Labrador,
All you hear is, "Stay away!"
There's rocks and ice; dark as hell at night,
From old Jack Lane's Way to Bromfield Bay;
There's wooden ships, steaming ships,
They got frozen men below,
There's mountains right beneath your keel,
So for God's sake don't you go!

####.... Variant of The Wreck Of The Bay Rupert by Larry Kaplan ©1990, Winter Harbor Music, BMI ....####

See more Larry Kaplan songs.

This variant was recorded by Gordon Bok, Ann Mayo Muir and Ed Trickett (And So Will We Yet, Folk-Legacy, 1990).

See more Gordon Bok songs.

Liner Notes:
Larry Kaplan found this story in the log of the Arctic schooner Bowdoin, the subject of another song by this singer/songwriter/musician. Kaplan originally titled it The Wreck Of The Bay Rupert.

Bay Rupert is a true story of a Hudson's Bay supply ship trying to get to the Moravian Missionary settlement at Hopedale, which consisted of a couple of Christian missionaries and about twenty Inuit.

From The Montreal Gazette - Jul 22, 1940:
Today In Canadian History - Jul 22, 1927: Hudson's Bay Company's steamer Bay Rupert wrecked on Labrador coast.

From Canada Gen Web Newspaper Transcriptions:
Jul 22 1927 - Hudson's Bay Company steamer, Bay Rupert, ashore, 14 miles North of Cape Harrigan.

From Place Names Of Atlantic Canada by William Baillie Hamilton:
Cape Harrigan (Labrador) - On Nunaksaluk Island, north of Hopedale. The explanation that it 'owes its name to an Irishman named Harrigan' is incorrect. 'Harrigan' is a corruption of 'hurricane', and the pronunciation may be traced to the Devonshire-accented 'harricane'. Thus the descriptive name for the stormy conditions that prevail locally.

From The Canadian Encyclopedia:
Baffin Island, Nunavut - largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Located in the Arctic Archipelago, it is separated from Greenland by Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, from northern Quebec by Hudson Strait, and from the Melville Peninsula by Foxe Basin and the narrow Fury And Hecla Strait. William Baffin, for whom the island is named, charted the east coast in 1616. The island's immensity and bewildering coastline confused early explorers and concealed its geography until recent times. The Anglican Church set up missions at the whaling stations and the Hudson's Bay Company established its first post on the island at Lake Harbour (now Kimmirut) in 1911.

From the Dictionary Of Newfoundland English:
The Labrador - Atlantic coast of the Labrador Peninsula from Cape Chidley to the Strait of Belle Isle.

Note: Jack Lane Bay is located on the central coast of Labrador.

See more NL shipwreck songs.

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