Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
The Golden Vanity / The Lowlands Low / The Sweet Trinity (Child No. 286) - Sung by Mrs. Martha "Peasie" Johnstone (Martha Reid), a Traveller of Birnam, Perthshire, Scotland. She learned the song from her grandmother Martha MacKenzie of Strathpeffer Wells. Recorded by Hamish Henderson on March 19th, 1957 for the School of Scottish Studies.
Note by Kevin W.:
A really good version, I have to say. Martha was very fond of this song. Unusually the little cabin boy dies at the end. More commonly he makes it back alive and threatens to sink their own ship in the same way, causing the captain to relent and give him the promised rewards.
Martha's text closely resembles Child 286 Version C:
http://71.174.62.16/Demo/LongerHarvest?Text=Child_d28603
Martha Johnstone learned the old songs from her grandparents and from older Travellers. We're indebted to her for sharing her songs with people and to Maurice Fleming and Hamish Henderson in the 1950s, Peter Shepheard in the 1960s and Linda Williamson in later years for visiting and recording her.
Martha told Linda Williamson how she tried to teach The Golden Vanity to her grandchildren, to get them interested in the old songs, but they had more interest in television than singing. Most singers, and especially Travellers felt regret at not being able to pass their songs on to a new generation. A song wasn't only a song, it was a living memory of their parents, their forebears. While singing there was a strong emotional connection with the person the song was learned from. When that person passed their memory lived on whenever the song was sung.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/16504?l=en
A biography of Martha Johnstone along with many further sound recordings can be found here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/2719?l=en
Linda Williamson's thesis on Scottish Traveller singing can be read here, it is well worth your time if you are interested in Martha Johnstone's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
Song transcription:
I have a ship in the North Country
She goes by the name of The Golden Vanity
I'm afraid she'll be taken by some Turkish galleree
As she sails along the Lowlands Low
Up steps a little cabin boy
Saying what will you give me if the galley I destroy
Will you give me of your store if you sink the galleree
If you sink her in the Lowlands Low
I will give you gold I shall give you of my store
My daughter you will marry when I come to the shore
If you sink the Turkish ship to the bottom of the sea
If you sink her in the Lowlands Low
The boy bent his breast he jumped all in the sea
Taken with him an auger from The Golden Vanity
For he swam till he came to the Turkish galleree
As she lay along the Lowlands Low
The boy with his auger he bored the holes in at thrice
While some where playing cards and others playing dice
He let the water in and it dazzled in their eyes
And he sank them in the Lowlands Low
The boy swam back to the Golden Vanity
Saying master pick me up from all perils we are free
I have sunk the Turkish ship to the bottom of the sea
I have sent her with the Lowlands Low
I will not take you up or give you of my store
My daughter you'll not marry when I come to the shore
I will kill you I will shoot you I will drown you in the sea
I will send you with the Lowlands Low
The boy swam back to the starboard side
Saying shipmates take me up I'm a-drowning in the tide
They laid him on the deck and also he died
So they sent him with the Lowlands Low
The Golden Vanity / The Lowlands Low / The Sweet Trinity (Child No. 286) - Sung by Mrs. Martha "Peasie" Johnstone (Martha Reid), a Traveller of Birnam, Perthshire, Scotland. She learned the song from her grandmother Martha MacKenzie of Strathpeffer Wells. Recorded by Hamish Henderson on March 19th, 1957 for the School of Scottish Studies.
Note by Kevin W.:
A really good version, I have to say. Martha was very fond of this song. Unusually the little cabin boy dies at the end. More commonly he makes it back alive and threatens to sink their own ship in the same way, causing the captain to relent and give him the promised rewards.
Martha's text closely resembles Child 286 Version C:
http://71.174.62.16/Demo/LongerHarvest?Text=Child_d28603
Martha Johnstone learned the old songs from her grandparents and from older Travellers. We're indebted to her for sharing her songs with people and to Maurice Fleming and Hamish Henderson in the 1950s, Peter Shepheard in the 1960s and Linda Williamson in later years for visiting and recording her.
Martha told Linda Williamson how she tried to teach The Golden Vanity to her grandchildren, to get them interested in the old songs, but they had more interest in television than singing. Most singers, and especially Travellers felt regret at not being able to pass their songs on to a new generation. A song wasn't only a song, it was a living memory of their parents, their forebears. While singing there was a strong emotional connection with the person the song was learned from. When that person passed their memory lived on whenever the song was sung.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/16504?l=en
A biography of Martha Johnstone along with many further sound recordings can be found here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/2719?l=en
Linda Williamson's thesis on Scottish Traveller singing can be read here, it is well worth your time if you are interested in Martha Johnstone's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
Song transcription:
I have a ship in the North Country
She goes by the name of The Golden Vanity
I'm afraid she'll be taken by some Turkish galleree
As she sails along the Lowlands Low
Up steps a little cabin boy
Saying what will you give me if the galley I destroy
Will you give me of your store if you sink the galleree
If you sink her in the Lowlands Low
I will give you gold I shall give you of my store
My daughter you will marry when I come to the shore
If you sink the Turkish ship to the bottom of the sea
If you sink her in the Lowlands Low
The boy bent his breast he jumped all in the sea
Taken with him an auger from The Golden Vanity
For he swam till he came to the Turkish galleree
As she lay along the Lowlands Low
The boy with his auger he bored the holes in at thrice
While some where playing cards and others playing dice
He let the water in and it dazzled in their eyes
And he sank them in the Lowlands Low
The boy swam back to the Golden Vanity
Saying master pick me up from all perils we are free
I have sunk the Turkish ship to the bottom of the sea
I have sent her with the Lowlands Low
I will not take you up or give you of my store
My daughter you'll not marry when I come to the shore
I will kill you I will shoot you I will drown you in the sea
I will send you with the Lowlands Low
The boy swam back to the starboard side
Saying shipmates take me up I'm a-drowning in the tide
They laid him on the deck and also he died
So they sent him with the Lowlands Low
