Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 20 Oct 25 - 04:06 AM CJB666 wrote There does but appear to be any other sources. Aha - an email elicited the title: "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. Just to people know: The Reed company was busy with popular history sorts of books around 1960, but their level of scholarship is not very high. They are not aimed at the scholarly market. (This doesn't contradict what you way, but I imported several of their books and was... less than impressed.) |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Gibb Sahib Date: 21 Oct 25 - 03:06 AM Kaikopere (I presume J.A.): Thanks for the added ideas! Were you the author of the circa 2002 (?) page about "Wellerman" on folksong.org.nz? If so: What a revision! Good on you. Also: Can you say anything about where the Tommy Wood quotation, via Mike Harding, comes from? It's similar, but not the same as what Mike Harding posted in this thread. Did re-tell the story from Tommy Wood to you or somewhere? Mike Harding, from this thread (paraphrased from remembered speech, or copied from text/email?): In response to the world-wide interest and in preparation for a radio programme on New Zealand folk I contacted Tommy. From the source... 'From memory I came across the poem in a book on NZ sailors and as a folk singer in those days was collecting songs to sing at the clubs. I had mentioned it to Neil Colquhoun, then a fellow club member, who knew about it and hummed a rough guide to the tune. It became my song at the time, singing it at various clubs around until finally singing it on the album 'Songs of a Young Country'...unfortunately I have not got the book anymore. All I can remember was stories connected to whaling, exploring NZ and immigration ships, containing personal letters of life on board these ships, including poems...black and white sketches of ships, sailors etc...it was fairly old then [late 1960s?]! My late wife Margaret was a librarian and she brought it home after it had been removed off the shelves...The Wellerman was an actual poem in the book but not quite in rhyme I had to adjust some of the words to fit the tune that Neil and I managed to put together..'. Mike Harding, from from webpage on _New Zealand Folk Songs?_: ...Mike Harding later spoke to him about it. He told Mike... "I came across the poem in a book on NZ sailors. Unfortunately I have not got the book anymore. All I can remember was stories connected to whaling, exploring NZ and immigration ships, containing personal letters of life on board these ships, including poems... black and white sketches of ships, sailors etc. The Wellerman was an actual poem in the book but not quite in rhyme so I had to adjust some of the words." I'm particularly fascinated by the part in the first quote that says, "I had mentioned it [i.e. the poem I/Tommy found in a book] to Neil Colquhoun, then a fellow club member, who knew about it and hummed a rough guide to the tune." So, Colquhoun knew about this poem, too? Sounds strange if Tommy came across it by chance in a book his wife brought home. And: Who hummed a rough guide to the tune? Neil or Tommy? Without a comma in the sentence, the grammar implies Neil hummed the tune, but commas are pesky things. I guess it was Tommy who hummed a rough tune. Is it the tune Tommy recorded in 1971 on the album? If so, why did Neil sing a different tune in 1969? *** I just edited Wikipedia, incidentally. Someone had recently added to the article the "information" that the song was written "circa 1870." Their cited source was some article in a law journal about whether "viral shanties" can be copyrighted and in which the authors stated, without any source given, that "Wellerman" was "understood" to be 1870. Evidently they thought the facts didn't matter, as they wanted to just make their point about the legal status of hypothetical "shanties" composed in the 1870s. Such articles as this one by the legal scholars were surely part of the fallout after 2021 #shantytok when journalists were jumping to write about the song and simply repeating non-reviewed statements that probably had their ultimate origin in the OLD old folksong.org.nz page. Everyone reading here should note that Kaikopere's page on the site also includes audio of the 1969 NZBC broadcast. Fascinatingly, Colquhoun sings "Wellers' men." (I think that bit was omitted, for understandable reasons, from this Mudcat posting.) Please forgive any mistakes I've made—it's getting hard to keep track of everything at this point! |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 21 Oct 25 - 04:07 AM Gibb Sahib wrote: If so, why did Neil sing a different tune in 1969? For what it's worth, John Roberts, who had better musical sense than I do, suggested to me (in a private communication) that Tommy's tune is basically Colquhoun's done in major (or that Colquhoun's is Tommy's converted to Aeolian, expressed as Dorian in Colquhoun's guitar arrangement). Just another little complication. John Archer's work did reveal one very important point: That Colquhoun's tune preceded "The Lightning Tree." |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,CJB666 Date: 21 Oct 25 - 08:17 AM Does anyone has this recorded … ? Date: 26 Jan 22 - 09:53 AM BBC Radio 2 The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe 19 January 2020 Bristol shanty singers the Longest Johns talk about surfing the recent wave of online shanties, and recording their new album, Smoke & Oakum. 23 days left to listen on BBC Sounds. ==== |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Gibb Sahib Date: 21 Oct 25 - 09:30 AM see also: Michael Brown's blog post: https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/explore-stories/stories/sound/soon-may-the-wellerma |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,CJB666 Date: 21 Oct 25 - 01:47 PM Michael Brown’s blog is wonderful. As well as an early arrangement of Wellerman there are 7 folk song programmes from the NZBC dating from 1969. The only fly in the ointment is a bloody tin whistle played too loud and out of tune. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,Jack Campin Date: 21 Oct 25 - 02:17 PM The name of the ship was the William O'T Is somebody extracting the michael? |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 21 Oct 25 - 02:29 PM Jack Campin wrote: Is somebody extracting the michael? It does sound that way, but the name Billy of Tea is also problematic. The Australian National Dictionary cites only one use of "billy"-as-in-billycan prior to 1849 (although that one use was in New Zealand). The Otago whaling operation shut down in 1841. There is no time for a Weller Brothers to have had a ship called the Billy of Tea. It's an anachronism. Not the biggest problem with the song, to be sure, but if one is going to claim the song as from the Weller Brothers era, it's something that has to be explained. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,CJB666 Date: 21 Oct 25 - 02:29 PM The YouTube links in Michael’s blog post do not work, but all the other links do. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,CJB666 Date: 22 Oct 25 - 09:12 AM Re: Billy - I thought this was jargon for an empty can in which to boil water over an open fire for a brew of tea. But also current in Australia. I read that if tea leaves were in short supply just boiling water within the tea-stained billy can would be enough to create a weak brew. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Gibb Sahib Date: 22 Oct 25 - 11:10 AM Idle speculation is only worth so much, but if I may be allowed some idea chat: Toward the end of hunting a theoretical source text, my current thought is to expect something like this— Two stanzas, which suggested a pattern. First stanza Begins with some variation on "a ship that went to sea / put to sea / was sailing on the sea." Its second line tells the name of the ship, something that rhymes with "sea." This is a common way to begin a "Golden Vanity" rendition, though it narrows things somewhat by eliminating version that open by saying e.g. "there once was a skipper who was boasting on the quay." Second stanza Begins with some form of saying that "they/she/ the ship" "had not been / hadn't been" sailing for but [X length of time]. This narrows it down to another pattern that is consistent in Golden Vanity variations. "Wellerman" follows both of these patterns for its first two stanzas. It could be narrowed further by looking for another pattern, though less common, where the variation forms three rhyming lines, followed by the "Lowlands." The more frequently encountered (in my experience) rhyme pattern has two rhyming lines followed by two lines about Lowlands. To reiterate, "Wellerman" has 1) a stanza about a ship going to sea, followed by a rhyming name of the ship 2) a stanza about the length of time at sea with the characteristic grammar "had not been" 3) sets of three rhyming lines. The third characteristic is a wild card though. The writer(s) of "Wellerman" may have found the sample fragment in a two-rhyming-lines form, then went to references other versions of Golden Vanity, found three-line forms, and adopted that idea. Another helpful earmark could be whether the same text elsewhere plants the idea of a "blow, my bully boys, blow" chorus for mariners' songs. That's another wild card since it's a familiar trope anyway. A an example that fits some, not all, of these criteria, Verrill's _The Real Story of a Whaler_ (1916) begins a chapter with a stanza that, though we recognize it as a verse of Golden Vanity, could just as well appear as a stanza of poetry: There once was a ship in the northern sea, And the name of the ship was the Green Willow Tree. As we sailed in the lowlands, lies so low, And oh, we sailed in the lowlands O. Elsewhere in the book are quotes two variations of "Blow, my bully boys, blow." The text minimally includes other features described by Tommy Wood: stories about whaling and illustrations. It lacks my hoped for criterion of a second stanza and three rhyming lines (each of which, again, could be gathered by cross checking other sources for Golden Vanity). Yet it makes up for this with a poetic rhythm that fits "Wellerman" perfectly. I think it may be useful to search deliberately with variations on the formulation "had not been." More idly, some collected versions of Golden Vanity use a phrase describing how the boy (who went into the water and hoped to drill a hole in the opposing ship) "bowed down," which reminds me of the "Wellerman" line about "her bow dipped down." |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 22 Oct 25 - 11:48 AM CJB666 wrote: Re: Billy - I thought this was jargon for an empty can in which to boil water over an open fire for a brew of tea. But also current in Australia. I read that if tea leaves were in short supply just boiling water within the tea-stained billy can would be enough to create a weak brew. This isn't the issue I'm raising. Yes, this is what a billy is. Witness the use of the term in, for instance, "Waltzing Matilda." But "Waltzing Matilda" was written in 1895, by which time the term was well-established. The Weller Brothers pulled out of Otago in 1841, only two years after the very first attested use of "billy"/"billycan." It is almost certain that no one, in the Weller Brothers period, would have named a ship the "Billy of Tea," because the name wouldn't mean anything. Of course the ship's name could have changed in oral tradition, but its use in a song about the Wellers is an anachronism. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,CJB666 Date: 22 Oct 25 - 02:14 PM With reference to sketches of sailors and whales etc. in the rare children’s book referred to above I’m reminded that the Alexander Turnbull Museum in Wellington actually has the originals. I’ll try and find the reference. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,CJB666 Date: 22 Oct 25 - 02:40 PM https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22267101?search%5Bpath%5D=items&search%5Btext%5D=Whaling+early+new+zealand Whaling in early New Zealand / by A.W. Reed ; illustrations by Conrad Frieboe. Date - 1960 By - Reed, A. W. (Alexander Wyclif), 1908-1979 Series - New Zealand pioneers series Notes - Includes index. Bagnall, R236 Other Titles - Whaling in New Zealand Publisher - Wellington [N.Z.] : Reed, 1960. Format - 31 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. ==== |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,CJB666 Date: 22 Oct 25 - 03:07 PM Conrad Freboe was prolific illustrator of children’s books. Search ‘Conrad Freboe whaling’ … BOOK Whaling in early New Zealand / by A.W. Reed ; illustrations by Conrad Frieboe. Reed, A. W. (Alexander Wyclif), 1908-1979 Wellington N.Z. : Reed, 1960 ==== |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 22 Oct 25 - 03:07 PM CJB666 wrote: Whaling in early New Zealand / by A.W. Reed ; illustrations by Conrad Frieboe. FWIW, when I was researching "Wellerman," I examined a great many books from New Zealand and tried to trace others. My best guess is that the book is not one of the Reed books (most of which are really not reliable) but The First White Born Born in Otago: The Story of TB Kennard by Herries Beattie. Unfortunately, this book is extremely hard to find in the United States, and I don't dare try international ILL these days, but anyone in New Zealand might wish to look. I'm not saying to ignore the Reed book if you can find it easily, but I imported two Reed books (their histories of New Zealand and Otago) and frankly wished I hadn't. They weren't worth the shipping costs. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,CJB666 Date: 22 Oct 25 - 03:12 PM Conrad Frieboe - note spelling. The original illustrations are at the Turnbull. I thought they were online, but maybe not. Maybe Michael Brown can add them to his page. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,CJB666 Date: 22 Oct 25 - 03:21 PM I have to opine that the mention from New Zealander Mike Harding that his late wife found illustrations of shore whaling in an old children’s book seems to indicate this was the Reed book. After all it is a children’s book, it was published in NZ, and Reed did publish such books. Also Conrad Frieboe was a prolific children’s illustrator. It could well be a children’s book discarded from a school’s library. RBW mentions another obscure and rare book The Story of TB Kennard. I would opine that this is not a children’s book at all and its rarity unlikely to be in a school’s library. I don’t think this is a candidate for the tome being researched. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 22 Oct 25 - 04:10 PM Since we're having a qualifications argument here, I will point out that I learned this song in about 1981, from someone who had learned it in New Zealand in the 1970s (very possibly from Neil Colquhoun himself, though there's no way I can test that now), and I started researching "Wellerman" long before it became a hit. And the typical Reed volume is not a children's books, although they targeted schools. Moreover, they are easy enough to come by that if "Wellerman" were in one of them, someone would have spotted it by now. The reason I cited the book I did is because it is cited quite a bit in other New Zealand whaling books. Kennard grew up around the Weller settlement, and (IIRC) he kept a record of poetry and such that he heard. Studying everything I could lay my hands on, it appears that by far the likeliest ultimate source for "Wellerman" is the Kennard book. That is, assuming that (A) there was such a song in the 1840s (dubious), (B) that Tommmy Woods correctly recalled his source after many years (dubious, if one knows anything about human memory), and (C) that all parties are telling the truth. I don't say "Wellerman" is in The First White Boy Born in Otago; I say that if it actually comes from the Weller period, that that is the place you should start looking. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,Wm Date: 22 Oct 25 - 05:58 PM I've placed an ILL request for The First White Boy Born in Otago and will report back here when I have it in hand and had a chance to peruse it. |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 22 Oct 25 - 06:29 PM Wm wrote: I've placed an ILL request for The First White Boy Born in Otago and will report back here when I have it in hand and had a chance to peruse it. Thank you! I'll be very interested in what you learn. All I have, after all, is a chain of logic based on a lot of very low-quality data. :-) |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 22 Oct 25 - 06:40 PM The first white boy born in Otago : story of T.B. Kennard / by H. Beattie is also available in the National Library of Australia. NLA lends to other Australian libraries, but prefers to provide digital copies! I have friends in Canberra, including a few shanty singers & will see if someone can view it. sandra |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST, CJB666 Date: 22 Oct 25 - 10:43 PM Just as an aside the Reed book that I believe Mike Hardings wife acquired is listed in the Turnbull archive as a children’s book. Here’s a link to the sketches … https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.501881 |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST,CJB666 Date: 22 Oct 25 - 10:51 PM Another link to the Conrad Frieboe sketches … https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22785769 |
Subject: RE: Origin: Soon May the Wellerman Come From: GUEST Date: 22 Oct 25 - 11:11 PM The Conrad Frieboe sketches in detail… https://natlib.govt.nz/items?i%5Bcollection_any_id%5D=501881&i%5B-category%5D=Groups Showing 1-15 of 15 results for “” * Filtered by: * Collection: Frieboe, Conra...? * Groups? 1 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Jacky Guard catches whales from off shore. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-009 Description: Illustration shows sealer Jacky Guard, having climbed a cliff at Tory Channel, seeing two right or baleen whales near the shore below him. The illustration was made in preparation for "Whaling in early New Zealand", Reed Publishing Ltd, 1960. Supplied title is taken from that of the corresponding image in the book "Whaling in early New Zealand". Quantity: 1 drawing(s). Physical Description: Ink drawing on card, 378 x 270 mm. 2 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[A day at Jacky Guard's whaling station. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-010 Description: Illustration shows a large whale in the foreground, lying on its side after having been caught by whalers in a dinghy. In the background is Jacky Guard's whaling station at Te Awaiti. SNIP 3 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[The first callers at New Zealand. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-008 Description: Illustration shows a group of whalers standing on the shore at the Bay of Islands, with Maori helping to land the dinghies. SNIP 4 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Whaling in Tory Channel today. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-017 Description: Illustration shows a speedboat in the foreground, with a man standing by a mounted harpoon in its prow. In the left distance is a similar baot, and two whales swimming in the water. SNIP 5 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Whalers in the Pacific. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-003 Description: Illustration shows seven men in a rowboat; one is throwing a harpoon towards a sperm whale. SNIP 6 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Why whales are hunted. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-005 Description: Illustration shows the silhouette of a whale, flanked by products using parts of the whale: margarine, whale meat, perfume, fertiliser, lubricant, whalebone brushes, soap and processed food for livestock. SNIP 7 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Modern whaling. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-016 Description: Illustration shows a whaling ship in the foreground, steaming towards other ships in the distance. The foreground ship is towing three inflated whale carcasses on each side of it, in the water. SNIP 8 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Life on a whaler. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-007 Description: Illustration shows the occupants of a rowing boat in the foreground, being lashed by the tail of a whale they have harpooned. In the distance is their sailing ship, with a second rowing boat approaching from it. SNIP 9 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[The whaler at home. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-013 Description: Illustration shows a whaler seated at a wooden table in his home, while his Maori wife and children, and two older Maori are engaged in domestic activities. A boy helps the whaler wind or tie rope, while the wife and her daughter are engaged in food preparation beside a fire. SNIP 10 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Catching and rendering down at sea. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-006 Description: Illustration shows whalers on the deck of a whaling ship, handling whale carcasses and pouring melted whale oil into moulds. SNIP 11 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[The harpoon gun. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-015 Description: Illustration shows a whaler standing on deck, aiming a harpoon on its stand, towards to sea. At the top of the page are three different items: a older-style harpoon with a barbed tip, a hand-held harpoon gun, and a harpoon that is fired from it (with an explosive tip). SNIP 12 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Different kinds of whales. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-004 Description: Illustration shows scale drawings of five different whale species: blue whale, fin whale, right whale, sperm whale and humpback whale. At the right are a lance and a blubber spade. SNIP 13 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[The value of their catches. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-014 Description: Illustration shows the deck of an American whaling ship, with whalers using blubber spades to cut blubber from a whale carcass. SNIP 14 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[More about the shore whalers. ca 1959-1960] Date: 1959 - 1960 From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-012 Description: Illustration shows a whaler using a blubber spade to cut into the carcass of a whale, at a shore whaling station. In the background a man is preparing a pulley for use to lift whale blubber or carcasses. At the right, others melt down the blubber in a tripot. SNIP 15 Image Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :Early shore whalers and Maori Date: [ca 1959-1960] From: Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Original drawings for "Whaling in early New Zealand", by A W Reed, 1960. ca 1959-1960] Reference: A-407-011 Description: Illustration shows a whaler and two Maori men doing farming work at a shore whaling station, while a group of wahine are seated further away near a cottage. One tane is digging with a ko (wooden foot hoe), while the whaler in the foreground is about to cut grasses with a long-bladed knife. The illustration was made in preparation for 'Whaling in early New Zealand', Reed Publishing Ltd, 1960. Title supplied by Library. Original title was taken from the corresponding image in the book "Whaling in early New Zealand". Quantity: 1 drawing(s). Physical Description: Ink drawing on card, 378 x 270 mm. Processing information: Description updated in December 2024 as part of reparative description work. Previous title" Frieboe, Conrad, d 1989 :[Early shore whalers and the Maoris. ca 1959-1960] ==== |
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