"Pretty Polly", "The Gosport Tragedy" or "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (Roud 15, Laws P36) is a traditional English-language folk song found in the British Isles, Canada, and the Appalachian region of North America, among other places.
Fowler found evidence that a ship's carpenter on the Bedford by the name of John Billson died at sea on 25 September 1726, and that there was a Charles Stewart among the crew members at the time, as noted in some versions.
[7] First printed in about 1727, the ballad tells the tale of Billson's murder of his pregnant girlfriend and his flight aboard the ship MMS Bedford.
According to the story, a haunting turn occurred when a ghost confronted seaman Charles Stewart in the dark hold of the ship with a baby in her arms.
American versions of the song, such as those of B.F. Shelton and Dock Boggs, tend to begin in the first person ("I courted Pretty Polly...") and switch to the third person for the murder ("he stabbed her to the heart"); Jean Ritchie's 1963[10] recording as well as Judy Collins' 1968 recording featured alternating verses switching back and forth between Polly and Willie's perspectives.