Ship Ahoy! (Benjamin Jepson)

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• (Posted 2023-11-02)  CPDL #76898:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-11-02).   Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 397 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Ship Ahoy!
Composer: Benjamin Jepson
Lyricist: Thomas Moore
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1889 American Book Company
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

When o’er the silent seas alone,
For days and nights we’ve cheerless gone,
Oh they who’ve felt it know how sweet,
Some sunny morn a sail to meet.

Sparkling at once is ev’ry eye.
“Ship ahoy!” “Ship ahoy!” our joyful cry;
While answ’ring back we faintly hear,
“Ship ahoy!” “Ship ahoy!” What cheer? what cheer?

When sails are back’d, we nearer come,
Kind words are said of friends and home;
And soon, too soon, we part in pain,
To sail o’er silent seas again.

Then o’er the ocean’s dreary plain,
With toil her distant port to gain,
Our gallant ship has near’d the strand,
We claim our own, our native land.

Sweet is the seaman’s joyous shout;
“Land ahead!” Look out! look out!
Around on deck we gaily fly,
“Land ahead!” with joy we cry.

Yon beacon light directs our way;
While grateful vows to heaven we pay;
And soon our long lost joys renew,
And bid the boisterous main adieu.

Some verses do not appear in published versions of Moore’s poem.