when I set out to sail the sea
my mother cheered hooray!
Then prayed I’d stay away,
so glad she’d been set free.
When I set out to sail the sea
my mother cheered hooray!
What would I find across the sea
if fate or fortune smiled
on her unwanted child?
Would God provide for me?
What would I find across the sea
if fate or fortune smiled?
When I wrote home across the sea
my letters lay unread.
To her, I’d long been dead,
no longer family.
When I wrote home across the sea
my letters lay unread.
When I returned from o’er the sea
with pockets full of gold,
my mother, poor and old,
had missed me terribly
when I returned from o’er the sea
with pockets full of gold.