"The Black Velvet Band" (Roud number 2146) is a traditional folk song collected from singers in Ireland, Australia, England, Canada and the United States describing how a young man is tricked and then sentenced to transportation to Australia, a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century. Versions were also published on broadsides. The Dubliners released a popular version of the song in 1967 based on a version sung by the traditional English singer Harry Cox. Synopsis The narrator is bound apprentice in a town (which varies in different versions). He becomes romantically involved with a young woman. She steals a watch and places it in his pocket or in his hand. The apprentice does not try to stop this from happening, which is speculated to be out of his love for the girl. However the man does wish bad luck towards the woman, as seen in the line "Bad luck to the black velvet band". The apprentice appears in court the next day, and is sentenced to seven years penal servitude in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania, seen right) ; as at this point in time Australia was being used as a prison colony. In the broadside versions the young woman's motivation is more obvious - she has met a sailor and wants to get rid of her lover. In the broadsides the action takes place in Ratcliffe Highway, a street in the East End of London, but in collected versions various locations are mentioned - London, Belfast, Tralee, a town in Bedfordshire, and in Dunmanway, Co. Cork. Versions The Roud Index has 98 entries for this song, comprising broadside ballads, versions collected from traditional singers, and field recordings. It was published as a broadside ballad by Swindells of Manchester some time between 1796 and 1853, and by H. Such of London sometime between 1863 and 1885. Versions of the song have been collected from Dorset, Co. Durham, Hampshire, London, Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex, Isles of Scilly, and Worcestershire in England, from Belfast, Co. Antrim, and Co. Cork in Ireland, from Western Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales in Australia and from Ontario, Canada, and Maine, USA. The earliest collected version listed was collected by George Gardiner from Alfred Goodyear of Axford, Hampshire, England in July 1907. Both Alfred Goodyear's version and one collected by Clive Carey from Mrs Terry of Chithurst, Sussex, in 1911 (and set in Belfast)