Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Aug 24 - 03:03 PM

"Betwixt wind and water" was a naval phrase from the 16th century that referred to the area of a ship's side just above the water line. Because of the rocking of the ship, a shot placed there was especially effective.

It lent itself to rather obvious anatomical metaphor.

The earliest example:

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Aug 24 - 03:23 PM

Lording Barry, "Ram-Alley, or Merrie Trickes" (1611):

"Con[stantia,disguised as a man]. Now I will fall a boord the wating maide.

Adr[iana]. Fall a boord of me, dost take me for a ship.

Con. I ["Aye"]. And will shoote you betwixt wind and water.

Adr. Blurt [a sound of contempt made with the lips] maister gunner your linstock's too short."


There was another sense as well, first defined by "The Dictionary of the Canting Crew" (1698-1699) as "Shot twixt wind and water. Clapt, or Poxt."

Francis Beaumont, "Phylaster" IV i (1611): He lookes like an olde surfeited stallion after his leaping,...: see how he sinckes, the wench has shot him betweene wind and water, and I hope sprung a lake.

Sir John Denham, "Poems" (1668): "You have been an old Fornicater, / And now are shot 'twixt wind and Water.”

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Aug 24 - 11:30 AM

Fire-ships have been employed since antiquity, but the purpose-built fire-ship, designed to be abandoned by its crew and to ram an enemy vessel, was an innovation of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). The song seems to have been inspired by English participation in the Nine Years' War (1688-1697), perhaps especially as a defiant response to the French victory over the English and Dutch at Beachy Head (July 10, 1690).


An Excellent New SONG,
ENTITULED,
A Hot Engagement
Between
A French Privateer, and an English Fire-Ship.

I'M a Prize for a Captain to fall on,
my Name it is Sea faring Kate:
My Sails they are Top and Top Gallon,
a Friggot that's of the First Rate.
With a fa la la, etc.

A French-Man came lately to Press me,
which was not a very hard thing,
And swore that he first wou'd embrace me,
And Loaden me then for the King,
With a fa la la, etc.

Last Summer he Saild from the Shannon,
and long at an Anchor had red,             [sic: “rode”?
On his Mid Ship he had a good Cannon,
which was all the great Guns that he had.
With a fa la la, etc.

His Main Yard he hoized, and Steered
his Course; and gave me a Broad Side:
My Poop and my Starn Port sheered,               
betwixt the Wind, Water, and Tide.
With a fa la la, etc.

Still under his Lee I did hover,
with all the force I could affo[r]d,
But as he had been a rank Rover,
he briskly did lay me on Board.
With a fa la la, etc.

He looked for some hidden Treasure,
And fell to his doing of Feats,
But found me a Fire-ship of Pleasure,
When he enter'd the mouth of the Straits,
With a fa la la, etc.

It was a high Tide, and the Weather
With an easterly Gale it did blow:
Our Frigats were foul of each other,
And could not get off, nor ride to,
With a fa la la, etc.

My Bottom was strongly well planked,
My Deck could a Tempest endure,
But ne'er was poor Dog in a Blanket
So tossed, as was the Monsieur,
With a fa la la, etc.

No near, than his Course he still steered, [sic
and clap'd his hand down to his Sword;
But as his Love ta[c]kle he cleard,
I brought down his Main Top by the Board,
With a fa la la, etc.

Then he feared to burn a Sea-Martyr,
for my Gun-Room was all in a Fire,
And I blew up my second Deck Quarter,
just as he began to retire,
With a fa la la, etc.

I pepper'd him off the Centre,
Monsieur was ne'er serv'd so before;
I burn his Main Yard at a venter,
So that he will press me no more,
With a fa la la, etc.

Then Monsieur got off, and was grieved,
and cursed the English first Rates,
But till then he could never believe it,
That Strumbulo lay in the Straits,
With a fa ca la, etc.                         [sic


Printed by T. Moore, for S. Green. 1691.

The meanings of most of the (mixed) metaphors are obvious; others are a little unclear.

"Strumbolo" is the Mediterranean island of Stromboli, known for an active volcano that is frequently in eruption.


Told unusually from the predatory female's point of view. The broadside unusually prints a tune, and you can hear it sung here:

https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/22208/

To a modern ear, the tune fits the song rather awkwardly.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Aug 24 - 05:25 PM

There seems to be few musical examples of the fireship theme for many decades. Around 1765, however, there appeared - probably in Newcastle - "The Frigate Well Mann'd" (ROUD 21847) Not much happens in it. The speaker is initially attracted to a well-dressed streetwalker, soon determines she's not a "Virgin Dove,", and beats a hasty retreat.

The text is from a printing of about 1770. The words reappeared in Glasgow in 1802 with a few inconsequential changes. It was published in Stirling about fifteen years later. The only important 1802 differences are the replacement of the nonsensical "Pumb" with the reasonable "pomp" and "Shift" with "skiff."



                               The
                        FRIGATE WELL MANN'D

                It blows a soft and pleasant Gale,
                  Into the South, near the Strand;
                I met a Frigate under Sail;
                  Still she wanted to be mann'd.

                With swelling Sails and Streamers spread,
                   So sweetly in the Wind her Course she steer'd,
                She sail without Wind, Line, or Lead;
                   into the Western Port she bore.

                Instead of having Canvas Wings,
                   Her Sailes were of Satten fine;
                Her Ropes were Silk, her Bolts Gold Rings;
                   She strove fair Flora to outshine.

                Then I saluted her with a Gun,
                   And at the Time she did the like!
                She vaunted like the rising Sun,
                   And in her Pumb was loath to strike.

                O then I Boarded her straightway,
                   And on her Quarter-deck I came.
                She sigh'd and said, be not cruel, Sir,
                   And I will let you know my Name.

                My Name it is the Virgin Dove,
                   I'm lately come from Plymouth Town,
                My loading is the Charms of Love,
                   And I am for fair Venus bound.

                O then I view'd her every Part,
                   Main-top, main,-cabbin, Head and Stern;
                But by her false deluding Tongue,
                   I could no more of her discern.
                
                I built myself a very Shift,
                   To get on shore, when the Tide was low:
                I turn'd my Frigate 'bout a drift,
                Now she is gone and let her go.


Surprisingly, Baring-Gould heard the rather insipid song sung in 1892 by the elderly Robert Hard of South Brent. Hard advised him the fifth line of each stanza - a simple repetition of the fourth - should be "trumpeted with the mouth." he heard Hard's 4/4 tune played in 6/8 perhaps twenty miles away on Dartmoor.

Baring-Gould (1895) printed in six-line stanzas a text partly of his own making.

Martin and Shan Graebe with Keith Kendrick recorded Hard's "A Frigate Well Manned" on their 2008 album "Dusty Diamonds."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Aug 24 - 04:25 PM

Let's go back in time a little, thanks to my disarrayed "filing system."

A song called "Come, Brave Boys, to the Carping Trade," appeared on a broadside around 1699. The Bodleian copy
http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/25000/24945.gif
is undated, but includes a song from George Farquhar's comedy "Love and a Bottle" (1698), sung by the actress Margaret Mills.

I've been unable to determine the precise meaning of the phrase "carping trade"; Oxford is silent.

The song must have been rather popular, for a textually unrelated song directed to be sung to the same tune appeared in William Hyland's drama "The Ship-Wreck" (1746).

The verbose "Come, Boys, to the Carping Trade" contains sixty-four lines of the sort of nautical mixed metaphors and double entendre we've become used to. The woman in the case, called both a "Frigate" and a "Pinnace," even gets a ship's name: "The Bonaventure" ("good fortune"). This "warlike Ship of Fame...from the Coast of Venus came," the names "Venus" and "Venice" being virtual homophones in the 17th century. She is "Well-mounted in her Upper-tier,/ The Quarter-deck and Gun-room clear." The speaker boards her with a "Blunderbus/ And two small Hand-Granado's."

The song ends with the sea-going speaker lamenting the loss of his "store of powder":

"My Ammunition is spent and gone,
My little, little Gun, not half a foot long,
And my two small Balls will make but one,
That I no more can board her."

But we're still a long way from "Cruising Round Yarmouth."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Aug 24 - 08:45 PM

We come slightly closer with "The Sailor's Meeting," an undated broadside in the Madden Collection. The woodcut block, however, is identical right down to the marred right-hand frame to that of "British Tars Rewarded," which seems to have been written in response to the Spithead Mutiny of 1797:

                         THE SAILOR'S MEETING

                AS I was a sailing down Frances-street,
                A lofty frigate I chanced to meet,
                She was rigg'd and fit for sea,
                And all that she wanted was company.

                I asked then her place of abode,
                She told me it was in Blackfriars Road,
                And if by chance I came that way,
                As the Blue Anchor she would stay.    [sic                              

                I asked her if she would yield
                To let me sport in Cupid's field ?
                That very night she sent me word
                That I was welcome to come on board.

                I am a ship carpenter by trade,
                I forc'd my mainmast into her tail,
                And as it happen'd so it fell,
                Fired was she up to the hill.      [sic                                          

                Come all you sailors, I'd have you beware
                How you enter a man of war,
                I'd have you beware before you go
                Whether your ships are fired or no.

Francis [sic] Street, a short thoroughfare by Regents Square, was renamed Seaford Street in 1865. Blackfriars Road in Southwark was laid out as Surrey Street in the 1760s.

The broadside appears to be later than an earliar, longer, and possibly oral version. I'll post it next time.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 27 Aug 24 - 01:51 PM

Timothy Connor was an American privateersman who was captured at sea by the RN in 1777. He spent two years in Forton Prison, Portsmouth.

During that time he wrote down the words to songs that he knew. His version of "The Sailor's Meeting," however, is not. He wrote it out in 1778. Even if the broadside predates this text, the Connor's is almost certainly from oral tradition - fuller too:

                               A TAR'S SONG        

                As I was walking through Francis Street
                A lovly Frigate I changed for to meet,
                She was well fitted for the Sea,
                And all he wanted was company.
                                foldrol etc -

                2
                I asked where was her place of abode
                She told me in black Squirs road,
                And at that night she'd send me word
                That I was welcome to come on board.
                                foldrol etc -
                                                        
                3
                I boarded her the truth I'll tell
                Because the Boatswain had sign'd her so well
                With her tacks and her sheets and bobins too
                With her collours flying both red and blue
                                foldrol etc -

                4
                Her sails was of the Sattin fine
                Her ropes was of the hollow twine
                But when I entered her cabin fine
                I found her to be Venous Wine

                5
                I called for my lead and line
                To plum her depth was my design
                I called for her line and lead
                I stopt her ebb and I stem'd her flood

                6                
                All you young men I would have you be where
                When first you enter a Man of War,
                I would have you all be sure for to know
                Whether she be a fine [sic] ship or know
                                        foldrol etc -

                7
                For if she be a fine [sic] ship bold
                By you she'l scorn to be control'd
                For first she'l fire and then she'll run
                O then my boys you are all undone
                                        foldrol etc -

                8
                I ask'd her when she would sail
                She told me seamen did her fail
                For by misconduct and miscast
                For the want of Seamen she sprung her mast
                                        foldrol etc -
                

Francis Street in London, a short thoroughfare by the post-1829 Regent Square, was renamed Seaford Street in 1865. Blackfriars [sic] Road was laid down as Surrey Street in the 1760s. I'm not sure when the name was changed.

"Venous" is, again, "Venice," with a possible play on words. Stanza 8 may be misplaced.

Connor's singular collection was published by George G. Carey in 1976.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Aug 24 - 01:57 PM

A second "folk version" of "The Sailor's Meeting" was unearthed by John Halstead Mead in 1973. It was recorded in 1865-1866 in the journal of Captain F. T. Powers, master of the clipper ship "Peruvian," which made trips between New York and San Francisco.

The language is a little more modern, but there's still something archaic about the song. I've divided the text into stanzas. Spelling and punctuation are Powers's:

                       Song "THE LOFTY FRIGATE"

                As I went a cruising St. Frances Street
                a lofty Frigate I chanced to meet
                She was well rigd and fit for sea
                and all she wanted was her company

                I asked her if I could go to sea on board
                That verry same day she sent me word
                That I was welcom that night on board

                I boarded her the truth I tell
                I found her bosen had rigd her well
                and when I entered her cabin fine
                I found her lined with good Venus wine

                her riging was made of silken twine
                her sales were of satten fine
                then I called for a led and line
                to sound her well was my design

                I sounded twice found the chanel good
                I stept my mark and stemed the flood
                it was by misfortune or else by chance
                our ship she drifted in to france

                it was by misfortune as I am told
                our ship took fire down in the hold
                come all you sailors that cruise those street
                beware of this frigate you may oft times meet

                for she is but a fire ship in disguise
                and if she don’t burn you then dam my eyes.


The opening couplet of this song resembles that of "Blow the Man Down." The pub name "Blue Anchor" in the broadside was a common one.
It too appears in some texts of "Blow the Man Down" - and in the late 19th century "Yarmouth"-style words were often sung as a chantey to that tune.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 02 Sep 24 - 02:38 PM

The 36-gun Royal Navy frigate "Venus" was launched in November, 1758, and subsequently was engaged in at least a dozen naval actions in the next few years. Its name inspired the following, dated by the Bodleian to "ca1770" (spelling, punctuation sic):


                 The Venus Frigate,

        You Lovely Frigits,
        That strole Fleet street
        And trudge it in the Cold and wet
        When at the Corners you do stand
        We know you want for to be man’d.        

        These Frigits tho’ so neat and trim,
        With si[l]ken Robes and painted skin
        Then some good hands pray get on Board
        Before that she can give th[i]s Re[w]ard.

        A Captain fi[r]st to give Command
        A Pilot to Guide her from Rocks & Sand
        Where his lead with pleasure he may sound
        Least the Frigate she should run on Ground.

        A ship Carpenter next good hand
        In her deck his main mast firm m[ay stand?]
        But first she must their treasure [tell?]
        Before she will with Pleasure Sail.

        When our whole ships Crews on Board
        and her Ca[r]go is well stor[‘]d
        On Venus Craft they with Pleasure [s]ail,
        Tho she caries Fire in her tail
                
        These Verses first when they were Lanch’d      [sic; vessels?]
        They was sent from the Cost of France
        Thou fair without they’re foul within,
        All those that has boarded her can tell.

        What need her whole Ships Crew Complain
        Since she gives such pleasure on the Main,
        Since in Venus Frigits they delight
        She has charms enough for to invite.

        Our Friget can no more be us’d
        Her M[a]rriners they must her loose
        On Venus Rock th[e]y broke her Keel
        And all in P[i]eces there she fell.

This is the only member of the song family that has the "fire-ship" done in by customers she has "burned."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Sep 24 - 03:05 PM

Great stuff, Jon. Are you going to publish anytime? I have a long-term project on a mammoth undertaking of all ballads that include sexual euphemisms. It probably would make sense to split it into several volumes, Maritime being one of them. If I ever get round to it I'll come knocking on your door.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 02 Sep 24 - 05:13 PM

If that was you, Steve, thanks! And I'd be happy to help!

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 03 Sep 24 - 03:10 PM

Fire-ship aficionados may find diversion in the following riddle, found in" The Merry Andrew: Being the smartest collection ever yet published, of elegant repartees, brilliant jests, ridiculous bulls, comical tales, [etc.], by "Fernando Funny" (1759).

Here the literal fire-ship is personified as, er, non-binary:


                                
        They who first form’d me, were within my Womb,
        In Fight I’m vanquish’d when I overcome.
        The Mistresses I court are very shy,
        And, Parthian like, would kill me as they fly.
        Yet ne’er was Swain so constant as I am,
        No Breast e’er harboured so unfeign’d a Flame;
        For the End of my Pursuit and my Desire
        Is, clasp’d in their Embraces to expire;
        And then Life from me does in Transports fly;
        For I ne’er truly live, but when I die.


Just as interesting is the pre-Cockney (?) rhyme of "I am" with "flame."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Sep 24 - 09:18 AM

At this point it might be worthwhile to mention another song, which over the years has come to resemble "Cruising 'Round Yarmouth" and its immediate predecessor - or sibling - "Ratcliffe Highway" or "Polly of Portsmouth."

That other song is the one now often called "The Roving Kind," though before 1951 it was usually "The Fireship" or "A Dark and Rolling Eye."

I'll take up this branch of the family at /mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=1239#2698904

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Sep 24 - 05:10 PM

And now we come to the "modern" age.

Perhaps the earliest record of a direct predecessor of Cox's and Larner's now familiar "Cruising Round Yarmouth" are the words published by Frederick Pease Harlow (1856-1952) in his "Chanteying Aboard American Ships" (published posthumously in 1962).

Most chantey books are something of a hodgepodge, and Harlow's is no exception. It begins with a narration of Harlow's voyage to the East Indies aboard "Akbar" in 1876, interspersed with chanteys he heard (and sang) during that trip. It isn't clear just when Harlow wrote the book's manuscript, possibly at around the time he was writing his memoir, "The Making of a Sailor" (1928). "Chanteying" eventually drifts into pages of material taken from secondary sources, sometimes without acknowledgment. The book actually seems to have been unfinished.

Some of Harlow's lyrics sound rather literary, and how many of them - if any - were taken down in 1876 and how many recollected (perhaps with gaps filled as best he could) is unknown.

Harlow's texts are occasionally more forthright than those of other collectors, though there's still been bowdlerization and expurgation.

The verses he gives for one version of the chantey "Blow the Man Down," however, are what we're interested in here. One or two stanzas are evidently deleted, but it generally sounds authentic. Harlow could not have taken it from print.

        Come listen to me and a story's my aim,
                And away, hey, blow the man down.
        It's of an adventure I met with a dame,
                Give me some time to blow the man down.

        While cruising around, and out for a spree,
        I met a flash packet, the wind blowing free.

        What country she hailed from. I couldn't tell which,
        But from her appearance she looked like a witch.

        Her flag was three colors, her mastheads were low,
        She was round in the counter and bluff in the bow.

        I fired my bow chaser, the signal she knew;
        She backed her main topsail and quickly hove to.

        I spoke her in English, her tongue very loose,-
        "I'm from the 'Blue Anchor', bound for Paddy's 'Gray Goose.'"

        "What is your cargo, my sweet pretty maid?"
        "I'm sailing in ballast, kind sir," she said.

        "I'm as neat a young skipper as ever was seen."
        "I'm just fit for cargo; my hold is swept clean."

        I gave her my hawser. She took me in tow,
        And yardarm to yardarm, down street we did go.

        We jogged on together, so jolly and gay,        
        Till we came to an anchor in Ratcliffe Highway.

        Then, hoisting our topsails, and away we both bore,
        For a sailor's snug harbor, for a berth and to moor.

        She brailed in her spanker, her stuns'ls and all,
        I rigged in my jib boom and gun tackle fall.

        I've fought with the "Rooshians", the "Proosians" also,
        I've fought with the Yankees and Johnny Crapeau;

        But of all the strange dames that I ever did see,
        She beat all the stinkpots of heathen Chinee.
.
"Paddy's Goose" was a pub in Ratcliffe Highway before 1842, and many others were called "The Blue Anchor." It is an ancient name: Ben Jonson mentioned a "Blewe Anchor Tavern by Billingsgate" in 1605. A "Blue Anchor" appears in other texts as well, including the 18th century "The Sailor's Meeting."

A "stinkpot," says Oxford, was a "A hand-missile charged with combustibles emitting a suffocating smoke, used in boarding a ship for effecting a diversion while the assailants gain the deck.”

“The heathen Chinee” is a phrase popularized in Bret Harte’s once familiar poem, “Plain Language from Truthful James,” published in San Francisco's "Overland Monthly" in 1870.

It was a common practice to put the words of forebitters into chanteys, and this seems to be no exception.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Sep 24 - 11:35 AM

"Johnny Crapeau" is the French. ("Crapaud" = toad.)

A common naval term in the 19th century.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Sep 24 - 04:53 PM

Allusions and texts of the song's silings begin to appear in the 1890s.

From "The Pilot" (Boston, Mass.) (Aug. 30, 1892):

         "As Jack was a walking down Ratcliffe Highway,
         A fair pretty maiden he chanced to espy;
         But when he did see her most beautiful face,
         Why, he hoisted his topsails and to her gave chase.
                  To me ‘ow di – ‘ow derry way.

"After relating the sailor’s adventures with this damsel, the song goes on to point its moral:

       "Now all you young sailors take warning by me,
       Avoid the highway when you go on a spree;
       And all you young maidens take warning I pray,
       Don’t rattle your rigging down Ratcliffe Highway."

The refrain suggests this example was sung to a "derry, derry down" tune."

To "rattle the rigging" sounds injurious here, but it literally means to affix or make taut the ratlines on standing rigging, as on a rope ladder.

"Cruising Round Yarmouth" is more widely known as "Ratcliffe Highway."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 09:22 AM

The song in in one modern form or another must have been widely known by about 1900.

Incredibly Isabel Anderson, an English writer, included stanza one in her children's fantasy "The Great Sea Horse" (1909). Perhaps it was the only part of the song she'd heard. A few words were changed to fit the book's plot:

        As Jack was a-coming, fine beach up and down,       [sic
        He forgot pretty Polly of fair Bedford town.
        As soon as he spied Betty's beautiful face
        He set his three royals and to her gave chase!



In 1912 the American ornithologist Robert Cushman Murphy recorded the following aboard the whaling brig "Daisy":

"[O]ur forty-barrel bull is the talk of the ship. . . .The men were in fine fettle during the cutting-in, and the lusty strains of ‘Sally Brown,’ ‘Whiskey Johnny,’ and ‘Blow the Man Down’ rang out for hours across the empty ocean.

        As I was awalkin’ down Paradise Street -
                Away, ay, blow the man down-
        A flash-lookin’ packet I chanced for to meet.
                Give me some time to blow the man down.

        I hailed her in English, she answered me clear –
                Away, ay, etc.
        “I’m from the Black Anchor bound to the Shakespeare”
                Give me, etc.

        I tailed her my flipper and took her in tow,
        And yardarm to yardarm away we did go.

        I clewed up her courses, to’gans’ls and all –

- but I can write no more without peril of having Anthony Comstock bar my manuscript from the mails!”

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Oct 24 - 08:03 PM

Captain Patrick Tayluer (1856-1948) sang the following for William Main Doerflinger in New York City in 1942. Tayluer went to sea around 1870:



Now, come all you young sailors and listen to me,
Sure I'll tell you a story all about the 'igh sea.
Well, it ain't very short nor it's not verylong,
It's of a flying-fish sailor bound 'ome from Hong Kong.

    With your fol the diddle lol diddy, fol the diddle lol diddy,
    Fol the diddle lol diddy, hay hay, hay,
    Fol the diddle lol diddy, fol the diddle lol diddy,
    Fol the diddle lol diddy, hood le dum day!

Now, as we went a-walking down Rat'liffe Highway,
Well, a flash-lookin' packet we chanced for to see.
She was bowling along with the wind blowing free,
And she clewed up her courses and waited for me.

Now, she 'ad up no colors, no flags did she show;
She was round in the counter and bluff in the bow.
Where she did 'ail from I could not tell,
But I threw out my flipper and we're both bound to hell!

Now, into a snug little corner, oh, soon we did moor,
Just be'ind the little table around the door.
We eat there and drank till we nearly did bust,
Then she let out first with her Irishman's roar, etc.

I'll bring you silk dresses and all that I know,
Fine gold rings and stones from the islands, you know.
I'll bring you home plenty of money to spend,
If you'll only wait till I do return.

The "etc." means that Doerflinger suppressed "certain stanzas unsuitable for printing."

A "flying-fish sailor" sailed mainly in the central and wetsern Pacific.

The final stanza is unique.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Oct 24 - 01:14 PM

Doerflinger recorded the following fragment from William Laurie, also in NYC:

Oh, as I went a-walking down Ratcliffe Highway,
I spied a flash packet, 'er wind blowing free.
She 'ad up no colors, no flag did she fly.
I could tell she was Dutch by the cut of 'er jib.

    Singing tu-re-lye-laddie, tu-re-lye-laddie,
    Sing tu-re-lye-laddie, I-tu-re-lye-lay.

I hailed her in English; she answered me so:
"I'm from the Blue Anchor bound to the Brown Bear."
I tipped her my flipper, I took her in tow,
And it's yardarm to yardarm together we go.

Oh I've fought with the Russians, the Prussians also,
I've fought Johnny Bull and Johnny Crapaud,
But of all the sights that I ever did see -
She beat all the sights of the heathen Chinese. [sic


Laurie's melody for the stanzas is much like "The Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee." The refrains recall "Tom Sherman's Barroom"!

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 01:02 PM

The earliest collected full version was sent to Robert Gordon about 1928 from a reader of his column in Adventure Magazine. Though no tune is given, the chorus suggest the "Bonnie Dundee" tune used by William Laurie. Ed Cray printed the text in 1969:

                THE GUN TACKLE FALL

Just listen to me and a story I'll tell,
About an adventure that did me befall      
As I was out cruising the town for to spree
I met a fair lass goin' wing and wing free.

    Singin' fal-diddle-laddidie,
    Fal-diddle-laddidie
    Folderol-day, di-doodle-die-day.         

Now the country she came from I couldn't tell which,        
But judged by her appearance I think she was Dutch,
For she flew the tricolor; her masts they were low;
She was round in the counter and bluff in the bow.

    Singing, etc.
        
"Oh, what is your cargo, fair maiden," I cried,
"I'm sailing in ballast, kind sir," she replied,
"And I'm as fast-going clipper as ever was seen,
And I'm just fit for you for my hold is swept clean."

    Singing, etc.

So I handed me hawser and took her in tow,
And yardarm in yardarm away we did go.          [sic
We chaffed on so lightly, so frisky and gay
Till we came to an anchor down Ratcliffe Highway.

    Singing, etc.

She took me upstairs into a snug room,
And into her parlor I run my jib-boom.        
She took down her topsails, her staysails and all,
Clapped her lily-white hand on me gun-tackle fall.

    Singing, etc.

Then I fired away at her all to me desire,
And all the night long I kept up a sharp fire.
My shot-locker got empty and me powder was spent,
And me gun it wanted spongin' for 'twas choked in the vent.
   
    Singing, etc.

Says I, "Fair Lass, now it's time to give o'er,
For between wind and water I've sculled you ashore."
And I never before saw shots fired so well,
But she had a hole in her counter to sink her to -- Jerusalem!

    Singing, etc.

In this version, so far from being a victim, the singer gloats over having "sunk" the woman.

"Wing-and-wing" is a 19th century phrase meaning sailing "directly before the wind, with the foresail hauled over on one side and the mainsail on the other." "Free" is added for the sake of rhyme.

"Dutch" usually meant German. In that case the tricolor was black, white, and red. Here it may refer to a fancy bonnet, facial makeup - or nothing in particular. One of Gordon's correspondents apprised him of a sailors' proverb, "Swedish matches, Norway sailors, German whores."

"In ballast": laden with ballast only and no cargo.

"Yardarm and yardarm": sailing so close that the ends of yards touch or cross.

"Gun-tackle fall": the loose end of a rope belonging to the tackle used for moving a ship's gun.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 03 Nov 24 - 09:03 AM

Stan Hugill gives "Ratcliffe Highway" in "Shanties from the Seven Seas," with a "Bonnie Dundee" tune but deleted two bawdy stanzas. He published these in "Spin" in 1969; this is the full version, learned "1925-26":

        Now I wuz a-walkin' down Ratcliffe Highway,
        A flash lookin' packet I chanct for to say,         [sic               
        Of the port that she hailed from I cannot say much,
        But by her appearance I took her for Dutch.
        
                Singin' too-relye-addie, too-relye-addie,
                Singin' too-relye-addie, Aye, too-relye-ay!

        Her flag wuz three colours, her masthead wuz low,
        She wuz round at the counter an' bluff at the bow.
        From larboard to starboard and so sailed she;
        She wuz sailing at large, she wuz runnin' free.

        She was bowlin' along wid her wind blowin' free,
        She clewed up her courses an' waited for me,
        I fired me bow-chaser, the signal she knew,
        She backed her main-tops'l an' for me hove to.

        I hailed her in English, she answered me clear,
        I'm from the Black Arrow, bound to the Shakespeare,
        So I wore ship an' with a 'What di'ya know?'
        I passed 'er me hawser an' took 'er in tow.

        I tipped her me flipper an' took her in tow,
        An' yard-arm to yard-arm away we did go,
        She then took me up her lily-white room,             [sic      
        An' there all the evening we drank an' we spooned.

        She clewed up her courses, we had much sea-room,
        I raked her from forward with a shot from me gun;
        I manned me stern-chaser and caught her at large,
        Fired into the stern-gallery a hefty discharge.

        We closed alongside, boys, I hauled in me slack,
        I busted me bobstay and then changed me tack;
        Me shot-locker's empty, me powder's all spent,
        Me gun needs repairin', it's choked at the vent.

        She then dropped her courses, I lashed up and stowed,
        I gave her some shillings 'fore I left her abode,
        But it 'twarn’t quite enough, boys, she wanted some more,
        She cursed me an' called me a son-o'-a-whore.

        She blazed like a frigate, at me she let fire,
        An' nothing could stem, boys, that Irish tart's ire;         
        She kicked me an' cursed me an' stove in me jaw,
        An' I beat a retreat through her open back door.

        I've fought wid the Russians, the Prussians also,
        I've fought wid the Dutch an' with Johnny Crapo;
        But of all the fine fights that I ever did see,
        She beats all the fights [sights] o' the heathen Chinee. [sic      

        Now all ye young seamen take a warnin' I say,
        Take it aisy, me boys, when yer down that Highway;
        Steer clear o' them flash gals, on the Highway do dwell,
        They'll take up yer flipper an' yer soon bound ter Hell!

Hugill adds "An alternative way of singing verse 5" is:
        
        In a snug little tavern, oh, soon we did moor,
        I bought me some rum for this young Highway whore,
        She told me her fancyman wuz at sea for a spell,
        So I gave her me flipper an' we wuz both bound to Hell.


Hugill recorded stanzas 1-5 for the BBC in 1954. They are sung by Paul Clayton and the Fo'csle Singers on Folkways "Fo'csle Songs and Shanties" in 1959.

Besides my suggestion that her "flag" refers to a fancy bonnet, it might instead refer to a parasol - if anything.

James M. Carpenter collected versions of "Blow the Man Down" in the 1920s that end with Hugill's "spooned" line.

"masthead" here = height

"counter":the curved part of a ship's stern

"bluff in the bow": having not much slope in the bows; "Dutch" ships were often "bluff in the bows."

"at large": freely

"clewed up her courses": raised the lower edge of the foresail and mainsail preparatory to furling; here, slowed down. (Later on, lifted her skirts.)

"bow-chaser": a gun positioned to fire at an enemy ahead, sometimes used for signaling.

"backed her main-tops'l": positioned the main-topsail to allow the wind to blow directly at its front, thus slowing the ship; here = slowed down.

"hove to": brought the ship to a standstill

"wore ship": brought the ship's stern into the wind, increasing its speed; here, hurried up to her.

"the Black Arrow": a pub, possibly named for Stevenson's 1888 novel; earlier songs have "the Blue Anchor"; cf. the use of "hefty," a late 19th century word.

"tipped her me flipper": offered her my hand

"sea-room": room for unobstructed maneuver at sea

"raked": swept with gunfire

"stern-chaser": a gun positioned to fire at an enemy astern

"stern-gallery": a platform around the stern of a wooden ship

"busted my bobstay": the bobstay is a rope that secures the bowsprit in its proper position; if the bobstay is severed, the projecting bowsprit will spring out of place upward.

"changed my tack": changed my direction

"shot locker": a compartment for storing a war-ships's cannonballs

("Irish": not Dutch after all)

"Johnny Crapo": the French (from "crapaud," a toad); cf. Harlow's 1876 text of "Blow the Man Dowwn."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Nov 24 - 08:51 PM

Norfolk fisherman Sam Larner (1878-1965) sang this version for Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in 1958. Unfortunately it's incoherent in spots:

As I was got walking one morning in May,
I met a fair damsel these words she did say:
“I’m a fast going clipper, and that you can see,
I’m ready for cuttering to my own country’s free.

Chorus:
Singing fal the ral laddy, right fal the ral day,
Fal the ral laddy right fal the ral day.

Which country she came from I can’t tell you which,
But by her appearance I thought she was Dutch;
Her flags flew in colors, her mastheads were low,
She was round at the quarters and bluff at the bow.

Chorus

Now I gave her my hawser, I took her in tow,
Yardarms to yardarms together we’d go.
She lowered her tops’l, t’gans’ls and all,
Her lily-white hand on my reef-tackle fall.

Chorus

And now my fair woman, it’s time to give o’er,
For in her snug parlor she soon had me moored;
She opened her hatches with plenty of room;
Right into her cabin I shoved my jib-boom

Chorus

And now my fair woman it’s time to give o’er,
Betwixt wind and water you’ve land me on shore.
My shotbag is empty, my powders are all spent,
And my old [inaudible] is choked at the vent.


The meaning of "cuttering" is obscure.