T’was November of twenty nine me boys
In good old St. John’s town
When ten or so of schooners made
Ready for the outport bound

They all left port on that fine day
Bound for their native home
Along the east Atlantic coast
One hundred miles alone

Well off St. John’s the wind blew fair
And voyage safe was their intent
But suddenly mad storm blew up
With winds of force three spent

Job Barbour’s good ship “Neptune Two”
Ran bare poles to the wind which blew
Aboard the craft eleven souls
The skipper, four passengers and six crew

Pierce Barbour, mate, John Norman, cook,
Peter Humphries bosun, and wife from ashore
Passengers George Bungay and William Norris
Edward Gill, Harold Koates and more

The vessel was of Danish make
Nine year three master of one twenty feet
One of a number of vessels bold
Of the Barbour family’s Newtown fleet

Six vessels lost at sea that time
“Gander Deal” and” “Northern Light”
The “Jeanie Blackwood" and “Merry Widow”
“George K” and “Catherine B” in plight

All crews removed alive at sea
By steamships passing away some miles
But two, “Water Sprout” and “Lloyd Jack”
Made safely ashore under their own wiles

A’fore the wild Atlantic gales
Meanwhile the “Neptune” drifted oft
Long days of hunger and of thirst
Of cold and injury instant wrought

Made land on Scotland’s Scilly Isles
After forty eight days of perilous plight
Rescued by good ship ”Hesperus” bound
While anchored near Ardnamurchan light

Eight hundred miles across the sea
All crew now safe and sound
After perilous voyage with all sail gone
Arriving now on solid ground

“Neptune” and her heroic crew
Meanwhile created quite a stare
Amongst the curious Scottish folks
And papers widely reported the affair

The Captain then had engine installed
And off she sailed across the brine
And reached home port of Newtown safely
In April nineteen twenty nine.

The captain he was dined and toasted
For a month by all as planned
Then joined SS Newfoundland for his home in Newtown
On the faraway isle of Newfoundland


A poetic account of the most famous and heroic shipwreck voyage in Nov. 1929 of the ill-fated Barbour schooner “Neptune II” across the Atlantic during a severe winter gale. It serves to exemplify the true nature of the hardy Newfoundland mariner race. Events were adapted from a book entitled “Forty Eight Days Adrift” by Capt. Job Barbour. Breakwater Books, 1981. Canadian Atlantic Folklore and Folklife Series, Vol. 8
  Submitted By: John Cornick