Lyr Add: Seafarer (Tom Lewis?)

Subject: Lyr Add: SEAFARER
From: Marion in Cornwall
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 03:37 AM

Keith from Hertford was looking for a song on a previous thread with lines similar to those in the last verse of this one.

SEAFARER
Anonymous

Shanghaied in San Francisco
We brought up in Bombay
Where they put us afloat in an old Leith boat
That steered like a stack of hay.

We've sweltered in the Tropics
When the pitch boiled through the deck--
And saved our hides and little besides
In an ice-cold North Sea wreck.

We've drunk our rum in Portland
And we've thrashed through Bering Strait--
And we've toed the mark on a Yankee barque
With a hard-case Down-east mate.

We know the streets of Santos
And the loom of the lone Azores--
We've eat our grub from a salt-horse tub
Condemned from the Navy stores.

We know the quay of Glasgow
And the river at Saigon--
We've drunk our glass with a Chinese lass
In a house-boat at Canton.

We know the road to Auckland
And the light on Sydney Head--
And we've crept close-hauled when the leadsman called
The depth of the Channel bed.

They pay us off in London
And it's "O for a spell ashore!"
But again we ship for the Southern trip
In a week or hardly more

For-- it's "Goodbye Sally and Sue"
And-- "It's time to get afloat--"
With an aching head and a straw-stuffed bed,
And a knife and an oil-skin coat.

Sing-- "Time to leave her, Johnny!"
Sing-- "Bound for the Rio Grande!"
When the tug turns back you follow her track
For a last, long look at land.

Then the purple disappears--
And only the blue is seen--
That will take our bones to Davy Jones
And our souls to Fiddler's Green.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Seafarer
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 05:43 AM

Stan Hugill's "Shanties from the Seven Seas" contains a version of this shanty entitled "Away, Susanna!"

There are slight variations in some of the verses.

The shanty can be found on Stan's LP "Aboard the Cutty Sark".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Seafarer
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 07:59 AM

Marion-

Thanks for posting this! It looks familiar and I'm sure I've run across it somewhere else than Hugill.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: NEW YORK GIRLS (from Tom Lewis)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 10:41 PM

As recorded by Tom Lewis on "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Singer."


NEW YORK GIRLS

Shanghaied in San Francisco, we fetched up in Bombay,
They set us afloat in a *leasehold boat that steered like a bale of hay.
Chorus:
Away you Santee, my dear Annie,
Oh you New York girls, you love us for our money.

We know the track to Auckland, the light at the *Kinsale Head,
We've crept close-hauled while the leaderman bawled the depth of the Channel bed.

We've panted in the tropic, while the pitch boiled up on deck,
We saved our hides, little else beside, from an ice-cold North Sea wreck.

We know the quays of Glasgow, the boom of the lone Azores,
We've had our grub from a salt-horse tub condemmed by the Navy stores.

We've drunk our rum in Portland, we've thrashed through the Behring Strait,
We've toed the mark on a Yankee barque, with a hard-case Down-East mate.

We know the streets of Santos, the river at Saigon,
We've had a glass with a Chinese lass in a houseboat in Canton.

They'll pay us off in Liverpool, then after a spell ashore.
Again we'll ship on a southern trip in a week or barely more.

So, goodbye Sal and Lucy, it's time we were afloat,
With a straw-stuffed bed and aching head, a knife and an oilskin coat.

Sing "Time for Us to Leave Her," sing "Bound for the Rio Grande,"
As the tug turns back we'll follow her track for a last long look at land.

As the purple disappears and only the blue is seen,
Commend our bones to Davy Jones, our souls to Fiddler's Green

*an old Leith boat ? *Old Kinsale Head, Ireland

Tom Lewis: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Singer. Borealis ASM 104D.
Ex-British Navy, Lewis lives in Salmo, B. C. Canada. Several of his recordings of sea songs are out-of-print.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Seafarer
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 10:56 PM

Merry.ON - SOURCE PLEASE????

Don't try to corn-wail us into believing this is your own original material

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Seafarer
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 10:58 PM

Thank you Mr. Q, your a scollop and a germyman.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Seafarer
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Nov 06 - 08:31 AM

Thanks, Q, for correlating this one with Tom Lewis. That's why it seemed more familiar to me.

Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: SEAFARERS
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Feb 10 - 02:42 PM

While I was doing some research on sailor songs in Victoria, British Columbia, last year I ran across this variant of "Seafarers" aka "Deep Sea Sailor" reprinted (twice) in the daily newspaper. This is certainly a very well put together song and I still wonder what it's origin was. This song certainly became a favorite of deep-water sailors:

Seafarers

Shanghaied in San Francisco,
And we fetched up in Bombay;
They set us afloat on an old Leith boat,
That steered like a stack o' hay.

We panted in the Tropics,
When the pitch boiled up on deck,
And we saved our lives and little besides,
From an ice-cold North Sea wreck.

We have drunk our rum in Portland,
We have thrashed up Bering Strait --
We have toed the mark on a Yankee bark,
With a hard-case Down-East mate.

We know the streets of Santos,
And the loom of the lone Azores,
And we found our grub in a salt-horse tub
Condemned from the navy stores.

We know the track of Auckland,
And the light on Sydney Head;
We have crept close-hauled while the leadsman called
The depths of the channel's bed.

We know the quays of Glasgow,
And the river at Saigon,
And have drunk our glass with a Chinese lass
In a house-boat at Canton.

They pay us off in London
It's "O for a spell ashore!"
And again we ship for the Southern trip
In a week, or hardly more.

It's "Goodbye, Sally and Sue"
For it's time to get afloat,
With an aching head and a straw-stuffed bed,
And a knife and an oilskin coat.

Sing, "Time to leave her, Johnnie!"
Sing, "Bound for the Rio Grande!"
When the tug turns back, we follow her track,
For a long last look at land.

Then the purple disappears,
And only the blue is seen,
That will send our bones down to Davy Jones
And our souls to Fiddler's Green.

Notes:

From VICTORIA DAILY COLONIST, British Columbia, Canada, May 24, 1910, p. 3.

Also titled "Deep Sea Sailor" as printed in VICTORIA DAILY COLONIST, British Columbia, Canada, March 22, 1918, p. 8.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Seafarer
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Feb 10 - 05:26 PM

See the online booklet, "Shanghaied in San Francisco," Bill Pickelhaupt, 1996. Charley Noble praises it in a previous thread.
Damn interesting summary.
Shanghaied

Can't find anything beyond Lewis.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Seafarer
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Feb 10 - 06:15 PM

Q-

Yes, there's a new edition of Shanghaied in San Francisco out as well, reprinted in cooperation with Mystic Seaport, © 2007. It's got even more pictures and a new introduction.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Seafarer
From: GUEST,amber
Date: 06 Feb 22 - 02:33 PM

This is very interesting, and I know i am 15 years late to the conversation, but my husband's grandfather was attributed with writing this song. There is a newspaper clipping form Australia I believe in the 1920s maybe with his name on it. his family in denmark have copies and are very proud of it. When I took a look online, it appears the song most probably was around before that time. He was born in 1895, so I am just trying to figure out when it was originally written to try to settle this family story once and for all.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Seafarer
From: Lighter
Date: 05 Nov 24 - 06:02 PM

The full text of "Seafarers" appears in the "Bangor [Me.] News," October 24, 1906.

It was reprinted as "Men Who Follow the Sea" in the "Syracuse [N.Y.] Herald-Journal," February 28, 1908 and a few other U.S. papers.

It is credited only to "Taiwa, in Nomads."

"Nomads" is presumably a book or periodical, but I haven't tracked it down. The identity of "Taiwa" is a mystery.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Seafarer
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 12 Nov 24 - 08:04 PM

Here's a couple of pages identifying Taiwa as D.H.Rogers.

AT SEA (John Smith AB)) Words: D.H. Rogers (1904)
The Bulletin
The entries in ships’ logs, listing only the time and place of a sailor lost at sea, are the basis of this song, published in The Bulletin under the pen-name of Taiwa M.L. (taiwa means ‘spud’ or ‘foreigner’ in Maori & M.L. is Maori Land.)
Rogers was a Dunedin accountant, writing for Sydney papers at the same time as Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson.   

https://40degrees-south.com/cds/crossing-the-line/song-notes-lyrics/#19

&
David Hunter Rogers was born in Edinburgh in 1865. He came to Dunedin in 1870 when his parents migrated from Scotland by a memorable voyage on a windjammer, and from the ages of 15 to 35 he gained considerable experience in the mercantile marine, but working on shore, as an accountant for the Union Steam Ship Company! As a young man he would have undoubtedly been been told many stories by the old windjammer sailors, and these influenced him greatly in later life.

He joined a shipping company because he loved the speedy windjammers, but 1870-1900 was a time of rapid change when wooden ships with sails and small auxiliary steam engines gave way to to more efficient steel tramp steamers, and as a shipping company's accountant, he had to sit at board meetings and present figures showing why sailing ships could no longer be used.

In 1894 he married Eliza Jane Nimmo, a school teacher aged 29, and they had 2 children. Later he was an accountant/secretary for various Otago companies, and as the aches and pains of an ageing body in a cold, damp came to him, the verses (such as Homeward Bound, Chanties, Seafarers, Hulks, and Seabirds) mostly published in The Bulletin under the pseudonym of Taiwa ('potato' in dialect Maori) show a romantic yen for the life of those windjammer sailors:- of high adventure on a story ocean, and a sudden painless death in the prime of life.

He became ill at the age of 60, resigned his secretaryships of the St John's Ambulance, Navy League, DIC, etc, made a visit to London with his wife and daughter, and in 1933 he died at his hilltop home 12 Pacific St, Dunedin, aged 68. His wife died in 1946.


https://folksong.org.nz/john_smith_ab/index.html

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D.H. Rogers - info from John Archer on the mudcat 'Homeward Bound' thread.
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=70177#4104166

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printed as Seafarers in
The X'MAS Bulletin Vol. 26 No. 1348 (14 Dec 1905)
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-690626012/view?partId=nla.obj-690645234#page/n27/mode/1up
>image 28