The Name She Bore Poem by Neil Stewart McLeod

Lunenburg's a harbor town
Known for the shipwright's trade,
Beside her wharves and beachhead slips,
Great schooners have been made.
"Blue Nose" and "Fast And Able"
Were launched into her sound,
And though the work is slow these days,
New orders still are found.

The town has many churches,
And many a spire and steeple,
But the bond and love for ships and sea
Is what unites its people.
They can build a sturdy craft
A seasoned tar could handle,
For this to Nova Scotia came
A Scot named Billy Campbell.

On heavy double-sawn wooden frames
In the old time tested way,
The shipwright-mariners built a boat
For Billy day-by-day.
He nailed the final shutter plank,
Splashed a rum tot on her side,
While 'round the whole of Lunenburg
Had gathered to share his pride.

The town came out for her launching,
How their hearts with joy were filled,
The first good ship for thirty years
Took over two years to build.
A sturdy forty-eight footer
Built at The Dory Shop,
And were they reluctant to take her to sea?
-No, my friend, they were not!

She is clean, she is stout, she is tested
Of Lunenburg Schooner fame.
She is named for her skipper's Grandmama,
A Pennsylvania dame.
She plies the Nova Scotian coast
Beside the eastern shore,
And clear as a tern across her stern,
Martha Seabury's the name she bore.