All for to sail on the salt sea.
The words of the ballad described the anguished feelings of the forlorn and broken-hearted girl, who wanders about her old haunts in the village in a half demented state—for never a word does she hear from her cruel and heartless lover.
There is, it would appear, very good reason for this, for the ship in which the young man sailed foundered at sea, and Jack was cast upon a tropical island, where he remained for three years.
At the expiration of that time he was taken on board a passing vessel, and returned home to find his Sall dead beneath the turf in the village churchyard.
The pathetic ditty concludes thus. The young sailor is supposed to be addressing some villagers assembled in the churchyard:—
Says this ere Jack, with deep emotion,
“In this world there’s now no rest for me;
My poor Sall’s heart I’ve surely broken,
All through my sailing on the salt sea.”
It was evident enough that old Nat must have had at one time a sweet and sympathetic voice, and even in his decline there was something of it remaining.