The Spirit Song

(Illustration from Down Barnegat Bay,
A Nor'easter Midnight Reader, by Robert Jahn)

On a stretch of Long Beach Island on a win'try afternoon,
a solitary figure walks along.
Between the breakings of the surf she pauses on a dune;
I wonder -- could it be she listens for the spirit song?
'Tis history and legend how the Tolck, a cargo ship,
with Captain Sawyer, wife and child and crew,
was headed to New York from Cuba on a routine trip,
with sugar, when a violent Nor'east storm began to brew.
The Tolck tossed about, as savage winds ripped thru' her sails,
'til finally she caught up on a bar.
The Captain prayed that help would come to save them from the gales;
they'd stranded off the Jersey Coast and aid was not too far.
The beach patrol, alerted to the crippled ship's sad plight,
fired lifelines straight across the choppy seas.
Rescued in pairs from ship to shore, the seamen made their flight,
hauled into port thru' air so cold they feared that they would freeze.
The gallant beach patrol - it was their mission to save life;
they labored hard 'til it became too late.
With one trip left to go 'til dark, the captain and his wife
must choose who'd go - themselves and baby, or the second mate.
The custom was, a captain of a ship must stay behind;
he begged his wife to take the child ahead.
She would not leave her husband's side, she soon made up her mind
and bade the shipmate take her child to safer grounds, instead.
There was no time to argue; they saw she meant to stay.
She pressed her baby in the shipmate's arm.
Kissing her dear daughter's face, she blessed them on their way.
Her last plea was "deliver my little one from harm."
Inside the breakers buoy the child began to cry
tears from apprehension and the cold.
The last thing that the babe heard was her mother's lullaby;
it followed her across the sea to safe shores, we are told.
Captain Sawyer lashed his wife and self on to the mast
to wait for rescue by the morning light.
But, with the dawn the beach patrol returned and were aghast
to find they both had perished as their ship sank in the night.
And even tho' this happened a century ago,
some say the mother's song can still be heard.
It floats above the breakers when Nor'east blizzards blow.
Tradition says the melody is clear, tho' faint the word.
Skeptics say the moaning wind plays tricks on willing ears,
but those who will not question native lore,
still strain to catch the faith song and insist that they can hear
the lyrics "in the bye and bye we'll meet on Heaven's shore."

-Lillian Arnold Lopez "Pineylore"

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