NOTES ON SIR PATRICK SPENS.
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* * * * _To send us out at this time of the year_,_To sail upon the sea_?--P. 8, v. 3. By a Scottish act of parliament, it was enacted, that no ship shouldbe fraughted out of the kingdom, with any staple goods, betwixtthe feast of St. Simon's day and Jude and Candelmas.--_James III.Parliament 2d, chap._ 15. Such was the terror entertained fornavigating the north seas in winter. _When a bout flew out of our goodly ship_.--P. 10. v. 5. I believe a modern seaman would say, a plank had started, which musthave been a frequent incident during the infancy of ship-building. Theremedy applied seems to be that mentioned in _Cook's Voyages_, when,upon some occasion, to stop a leak, which could not be got at in theinside, a quilted sail was brought under the vessel, which, beingdrawn into the leak by the suction, prevented the entry of more water.Chaucer says, "There n'is no new guise that it na'as old." _O forty miles off Aberdeen_,--P. 11. v. 3. This concluding verse differs in the three copies of the ballad, whichI have collated. The printed edition bears, "Have owre, have owre to Aberdour;" And one of the MSS. reads, "At the back of auld St. Johnstowne Dykes." But, in a voyage from Norway, a shipwreck on the north coast seemsas probable as either in the Firth of Forth, or Tay; and the balladstates the disaster to have taken place out of sight of land.
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