George H. Haswell was a passenger on board S.S. Pamaratta, London to Sydney, in the fall of 1879. He noted ten shanties with their melodies as sung during the voyage and published them in the passengers' on-board newspaper, "The Paramatta Sun." Graham Seal transcribed Haswell's work in a booklet called "Ten Shanties Sung on the Australian Run 1879" (Antipodes Press, 1992).

This is an extremely valuable collection because it was made on the spot before much on shanties - or their music - had been published.

Even more interesting, L. A. Smith tells us in "Music of the Waters" (1884) that another Pamaratta passenger had sent her all the shanties Haswell had printed, and she includes them, mostly accurately and complete, in her own book. This is unfortunate because that publication allowed the Pamaratta shanties to influence all post-1884 collectors to some degree when otherwise they would have been a unique standard of comparison for later versions.

Anyway, the following shanties from "Music of the Waters" can be dated definitely to 1879, are entirely authentic, and do not represent lines conflated by a landlubber editor from different versions.

The shanties are:

1. Heave Away, My Johnny
2. Haulin' [sic]the Bowlin'
3. Handy Jim
4. [Away] Haul Away
5. The Dead Horse
6. Bonny [i.e., Boney]
7. Whisky [Johnny]
8. Blow the Man Down
9. Ranzo
10. Good-bye, Fare Ye Well

Had there been more issues of the "Paramatta Sun," there may have been more shanties - but no such luck!