Subject: Lyr Add: Blow, Nelson (Trinidad)
From:
Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 01:02 AM
BLOW, NELSON
Traditional, Trinidad
De mornin' of de fire,
Lord Nelson come down,-
An' he set he soldiers in a line,
To blow de ice-house down
old woman run out
in her long night-gown,
When he set he soldiers in a line,
To blow de ice-house down.
Blow, Nelson, blow, Nelson,
blow de ice-house down.
Blow, Nelson, blow, Nelson,
blow de ice-house down.
An' he set he soldiers in a line,
To blow de ice-house down. An down.
Blow, Nelson, blow, Nelson,
blow de ice-house down.
Blow, Nelson, blow, Nelson,
blow de ice-house down.
Blow, Nelson, blow, Nelson,
blow de ice-house down.
Nelson set he soldiers in a line
To blow de ice-house down.
Chorus:
Blow, blow, blow de ice-house down.
Blow, blow, blow de ice-house down.
Blow, blow , blow de ice-house down.
etc.
With musical score, guitar and bass lines included.
Edric Connor, 1958, "Songs From Trinidad," Oxford Univ. Press, pp. 66-67.
Greg Stephens, in a thread for Trafalgar Night, mentioned that the tune resembled that of the dance Varsoviana.
Connor appends a partly fictional note about Nelson and Trinidad: "........While he was hunting the famous French sailor Villeneuve in the Caribbean he decided to put in at Port-of-Spain to re-victual his ships. They made such an impressive sight on the north coast of Trinidad (the most recently acquired British territory) that the Officer-in-Charge of the fort at Las Cuevas, fearing it might be the French fleet, set fire to the fort and retreated to Port-of-Spain. The ice-house fire took place while Nelson and his men were in port. The "ice-house" is still one of the largest hotels in Port-of-Spain."
In 1797, General Sir Ralph Abercromby and his squadron (seven ships of the line and thirteen smaller vessels) sailed through the Bocas and anchored off the coast of Chaguaramas, Trinidad, blocking four Spanish ships under Admiral Apodaca. Seeing no escape, the Spanish set their ships on fire. British seamen captured and extinguished the fire on the San Damasio.
British troops were landed and advanced on Port-of-Spain. Only a few shots were exchanged with a Spanish reconnoitering group. An officer was sent by Abercromby under a flag of truce to the Cabildo. Governor Chacon accepted the surrender terms, and on February 18, 1797, the island became a British possession.
Colonel Picton was left as governor, but the population was strongly divided among groups hostile to each other. He tried to execute Spanish law as he was instructed, but he ran into trouble (that's another story).
The French population had settled there at the invitation of the Spanish, and were dominant economically and politically at the time, hence the French element of the French-English patois among the slaves and workers that persisted into the 20th c. The English settlers came in following the formal cession of the island in 1802.
In 1808, there was a serious fire that destroyed the Cabildo and the notable buildings of the time. The 'ice-house' that became a hotel has not existed for many years. It seems never to have been a 'fort,' as suggested in another thread.
There are several histories on line; perhaps the most interesting and readable summary appeared in "Stark's guide-book and history of Trinidad: including Tobago, .....," published in c. 1897.
http://www.archive.org/details/starksguidebookh00staruoft
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