055 - A Long Time Ago (E)

This song was very popular in English and American Ships. It was probably, in the nineties of XIX century of the most-used halyard shanty of them all. Even the German and Scandinavians popularized versions in their own tongues. This song was sung as halyard shanty. The stanzas from stanza 6, as suggested in the book (see "Blow the Man Down" and "The Blackball Line"), comes from "Horraw For The Blackball Line" from page 131 (same book 1st edition).
"Shanties from the Seven Seas" by Stan Hugill (1st ed: p 101).



A Long Time Ago (E)

I'll sing ye a song of the Blackball Line,
   - Timme WAY, hay, HO,high ho!
That's the Line where ye can shine
   - Oh a LONG time aGO!

*2*
In the Blackball Line I served me time,
That's the Line where I wasted me prime.

*3*
It's when a Blackballer hauls out of the dock,
To see them poor 'Westers', how on deck they flock.

*4*
There's tinkers an' tailors, an' fakirs an' all,
They've all shipped as A.B.s aboard the Blackball.

*5*
It's fore tops'l halyards the Mate he will roar,
It's lay along Paddy, ye son-o-a-whore!

*6*
Blackball ship are good an' true,
They are ships for me an' you,

*7*
If yer wish to find a real goldmine,
Just take a trip on a Blackball ship.

*8*
Just take a trip to Liverpool,
To Liverpool that Yankee school.

*9*
Yankee sailors ye'll see there,
With red-topped boots an' short-cut hair.

*10*
There's Liverpool Pat with his tarpaulin hat,
An' Paddy Magee the Packet Rat.

*11*
There was once a Blackball ship,
That fourteen knots an hour could slip.

*12*
They'll carry ye along through the ice an' snow,
They'll take ye where the winds don't blow

*13*
I've seen the Line rise an' shine,
An' crossed the line 'em many a time.

*14*
Oh, drink a health to the Blackball Line,
Their ships are stout an' their men are fine.