[PW] Marshall Dodge Downeast Humor query

[don wittig]

      I’m trying to locate either a sound recording or a print version of a particular Bert and I story which may have been included in a television broadcast in the 1970s and could possibly have been filmed before a college-age audience. The shermans.com website refers to a recording it once marketed, now sold out, entitled: “Bert & I On Stage”, featuring Marshall Dodge. This is described as “The last of the Bert & I recordings featuring Marshall Dodge in performance at the University of Maine in the fall of 1977”. The story I’m seeking may have been among those Downeast tales presented in this televised production.
   
              The story’s protagonists are Mr. Symes, the first mate on a Maine whaling ship, and Captain Symes, the master of the vessel, but no relation to the mate, as the mate makes clear as the story develops. A whale is sighted, and Mr. Symes asks permission of the captain to lower boats and pursue. The captain allows as how the weather is too severe to make chase and says: “It’s blowing a might pert and ‘taint fitting for to lower” (pronounced as “flower”), thus denying the mate’s request. Nonetheless, the whaling vessel still tracks the whale, and Mr. Symes again entreats the captain to allow him to lower boats and chase the whale, and again, Captain Symes refuses, based on his assessment of the severe weather. The pursuit continues, Mr. Symes asks Captain Symes a third time to be allowed to go after the whale. The exasperated captain, remonstrating with Mr. Symes that he has already refused permission twice previously owing to the stormy seas, finally capitulates
 and gives grudging permission to the mate, saying to him, “Lower away and be damned!”
   
              Despite the fretful weather, Mr. Symes makes a successful kill of the whale (He, being the harpooner, observes of himself: “I darted the iron, and by God, it took!”) and returns with it to the ship, where he is greeting magnanimously by the formerly choleric, raspy captain, who says to the mate that his determination and skill in capturing the whale, in spite of the foul weather, are commendable. The captain, realizing he may have been a trifle peevish, attempts to ingratiate himself with his mate by saying: “Mr. Symes, in my cabin are a box of fine, Havana cigars (pronounced “see-gars”) and a keg of Barbados rum---they are at your service (pronounced “sar-viss”). Mr. Symes, somewhat nonplussed at the captain’s abrupt change of heart, replies: “Captain Symes, I don’t want your Havana cigars, and I don’t want your Barbados rum. All I want is a little Christian civility (pronounced “see-vility”) and Goddamned little of that.” Mr. Symes then goes forward and
 stands his watch. End of story.
   
              There are several recordings and a book of Downeast stories, available from the two sources listed following *: Bert and I, More Bert and I , The Return of Bert and I, Bert and I Stem Inflation, and Bert and I On Stage. There is, however, no listing on the websites of story titles or content in these items. E-mails to both sites have not gotten any response. Can you help in identifying a source for this tale?
   
  * http://www.bertandi.net/
  * http://www.shermans.com/Humor/
   
     I'm not presently subscribed to the list, so any responses should come to my e-mail address. Many thanks for any assistance you can provide.
   
   
   
   
   

       
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