This version was collected by Cecil Sharp from Alfred Emery of Othery, Somerset in 1908. Sharp published a piano arrangement in his One Hundred English Folk Songs For Medium Voice, a fine collection of songs still in print from Dover Publications.

Now, I had a ship in some foreign country,
She was called after the Golden Vanity,
I armed her and I manned her, I sent her out to sea,
But I fear that she'll be taken by some foreign enemy
As she's sailing in the Lowlands low,
Lowlands low,
As she's sailing in the Lowland sea.

Now the first spoken up was a little cabin boy
"Master, what will you give me
If her I do destroy?"
"Oh, I will give you gold,and I will give you store,
And you shall have my daughter when I return to shore
If you sink her in the Lowlands low,
Lowlands low,
If you sink her in the Lowland sea.

So the boy jumped overboard, and he swam to the ship's side
Some was playing cards, others playing dice,
He took two augers in his hands, he bored two holes at once,
The water flowed so strong that they couldn't use the pumps,
And he sank her in the Lowlands low,
Lowlands low,
And he sank her in the Lowland sea.

So the boy swam back unto the starboard side,
"Master, take me up for I am drifting in the tide."
Oh, I'll not take you up again," the captain he replied,
"And you shan't have my daughter all for to be your bride,
And I'll sink you in the Lowlands low,
Lowlands low,
I'll sink you in the Lowland sea."

So the boy swam round unto the larboard side,
"Messmates, take me up for I am drifting in the tide."
His shipmates took him up on deck, but on the deck he died,
So they threw his body overboard to sink all in the tide,
And they sank him in the Lowlands low,
Lowlands low,
They sank him in the Lowland sea.

© Golden Hind Music