I’m sure I’m one of thousands of once expatriated Canadians with a “Barrett’s Privateers” story. The first time I even heard of Stan Rogers was in 1980 in the small African town of Siteki, Swaziland. We were a group of young volunteer teachers with WUSC (World University Service of Canada) gathered together after long dusty bus rides for a weekend party. After many bottles of local beer and very cheap, very good South African wine, some of us were starting to get weepy and homesick. Things picked up when a couple of Martimers got up to do a two-step while the crowd sang a rousing version of “Farewell to Nova Scotia,” but we became spellbound when Stu from Whitehorse, Jane from Glace Bay and Glenda from Halifax began a stirring round of “Barrett’s Privateers.” Of course, we all joined in to shout the chorus whether we knew all the words or not and ended with a huge drunken group hug, leaving our Swazi friends a bit bemused. To this day when I hear the song, along with pirates and sailing ships, I think of Swazi beer, geckos on the ceiling and the warm African night with special friends from my youth.

—Julie Holder