The Advent and Development of Chanties

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 07:31 AM

Odd little bits and pieces but interesting as usual.

I haven't run into "shanter"but doesn't "chanter" harken back to Nordhoff, or at least to one edition of his book? My edition, The Merchant Vessel (1895), actually has "chanty-man."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 06:09 AM

1893        Barra, E.I. A Tale of Two Oceans. San Francisco: Eastman & Co.
PDF

"An Account of a Voyage from Philadelphia to San Francisco, Around Cape Horn, Years 1849-50, calling at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and at Juan Fernandez, In the South Pacific."

The first chanty is cited from aboard a ship "Sweden" bound out of Boston for California. Feb. 1849. It's only our second appearance (i.e. since Olmsted 1841) of HAUL HER AWAY. It certainly seems authentic to the period (along with the parody of "Oh! Susanna"):

//
The mate sung out to the men aloft, "Drop the bunts of the fore and main top-sails." Then to the men on deck—"Sheet home!" "Now man the halyards and hoist away!" "Aye, aye, sir!" "Give us a shanter, somebody," sung out the men, at which one of the sailors struck up a hoisting song:

"Nancy Banana she married a barber!"
CHORUS."Haul her away, boys! Haul her away!" 

"She married a barber who shaved without lather!"
CHORUS. "Haul her away, boys! Haul her away!"

When the top-sails were mastheaded, the pilot sung out to cast off the bow line. "Now run up your jib, Mr. Mate. Now ease away on your spring line;" and the vessel began to move from the wharf. Then the pilot sung out, "Let go your spring and stern lines!" Then the good ship began to forge ahead; and the last cord that held the ship tied to the land was cast off and she was as free as the bird that flew around her masthead. Just then a number of the passengers mounted the quarter-deck and struck up a song that was then quite in vogue in minstrel exhibitions, changing a few words of the chorus to suit the occasion. It ran thus:
"I dreamt a dream the other night when everything was still; 

I dreamt I saw Susanah, a coming down the hill. 

She had a pancake in her mouth ; a tear was in her eye; 

Says I, ' O Susanah, dear; Susanah, don't you cry.'"
CHORUS. "O! Susanah, don't you cry for me! 
 For I'm bound to California with my washbowl on my knee."
//

Next, the narrator is on the packet ship "Samson" out of Philadelphia (Oct '49). The ship had been in the cotton trade. In Dec. 1849, they were anchored off Rio de Janeiro. They hoist a boat to another "old" chanty, BOTTLE O:

//
We furled the sails, and then rigged the tackles to hoist the longboat, as she was large and heavy. When everything was ready, the mate sang out, ''Hoist away!" As the tackles were drawn taut, the men called to Stanwood: "Give a shanter, old boy ! " And he sang the following hoisting song, which was chorused by the men:
"The ladies like Madeira wine, 

The gents they like their brandy oh! 

So early in the morning— 

The sailor likes his bottle oh! 

His bottle oh! his bottle oh! 

The sailor likes his bottle oh!
CHORUS.
So early in the morning—

The sailor likes his bottle oh!"

The longboat was lowered into the water…
//

A curious thing about this text is the word "shanter." Certainly the author, by 1893, had access to the "standard" term "shanty"—yet he does not acknowledge it. I can't help but think, despite the time gap, his "shanter" reliably reflects *something* historical about the term in 1849-50.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 04:55 AM

1900[1899]        Hains, T. Jenkins. _Mr. Trunnell: Mate of the Ship Pirate._ Boston: Lothrop Publishing.

Another work of fiction by Hains.

At some point, the off-duty crew is singing 'to the tune of "Blow a man down,"'.

Interesting to see how BLOW THE MAN DOWN starts becoming one of the most well-known chanties to landlubbers. Growing up, "Blow the Man Down" was central to my idea of a chanty.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 04:21 AM

1899[1894]        Hains, T. Jenkins. _The Wind-jammers._ Philadelphia & Lond: J.B. Lippincott.

A work of fiction, ascribes the following verse to use at windlass:

//
"A Bully sailed from Bristol town, 

Singing yo, ho, ho, oh, blow a man down; 

A Bully sailed, and made a tack, 

Hooray for the Yankee Jack, 

Waiting with his yard aback, 

Soo-aye! Hooray! Oh, knock a man down."
//

Seems contrived.

http://books.google.com/books?id=l9AYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA125&dq=%22blow+a+man+down%22&

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 04:00 AM

1898        Oscar, Alan. "A Messenger from the Dead." _Chambers's Journal_ 18(1) (April 1898): 284-7.

This work of fiction has as its setting a ship "Armenian" going from Liverpool to Halifax. A French Canadian is aboard. It seems to give –made up, or once heard?—a French version of SACRAMENTO:

//
Vannes, who was said to be a French Canadian, …He was a favourite amongst the seamen on account of his simplicity and good nature, and also because he had a fund of French songs, some of which the rough fellows had turned into chantys or hauling choruses, by adding an uncouth burden of their own. One in particular appeared to be a favourite, and in constant use when the topsails were to be hoisted:

Joliette, ma Joliette—
   And a hoodah, and a hoodah;
Qu'elle est belle, ma Joliette— 
   
   And a hoodah, hoodah day.

And so forth.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 03:39 AM

1897        Carstensen, A. Riis. _Over Viden Strand._ Copenhagen: Gad.

The book is in Danish.

As far as I can tell, it is 1868 and the U.S. frigate (?) LADOGA is sailing from Copenhagen to New York. On leaving, the narrator hears (sings at?) the anchor being raised to the lyric from CLEAR THE TRACK:

//
»A high rig a jig and a low beggar

»Oh clear the track let the bullgine run.«
//

http://books.google.com/books?id=4IkBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA69&dq=%22let+the+bullgine%22&

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 03:09 AM

1894[1889] No author. _More Maritime Melodies._ Second edition. San Francisco: Commercial Publishing Co.

I believe only the Second edition of this is available. However, the first, it seems, had no chanties, anyway. The preface explains:

//
In 1889, as a Christmas greeting to the friends of the Commercial News and the Commercial Publishing Company, Maritime Melodies, edition 1,000 copies, was launched. The demand exceeded the supply, as is usually the case when good things are given away, and this Christmas a new edition, entirely changed, and it is hoped, improved, is put forth, and a copy sent you with the compliments of the season.
//

It is mostly sea-related poetry, though it also contains a version of "The Dreadnaught" (pp.21-23). The Appendix conatins a section called "Chanties" with texts (pg. 60ff).

The blurb is interesting for its positive assertion that chanties originated with Black cotton-stowers and that, moreover, they were French (i.e. Creoles). Was this something "generally known" at the time, or did the author read of it? Alden (1882) did give a statement that connected chanties to cotton stowers, and L.A. Smith repeated that. I believe that, if anywhere in print, this is where the author would have gotten the idea from. S/he mentions an English chanty collection, which may have been Smith's or Davis/Tozer's—I'd guess Smith's, for this reason. But now where does the French/Creole idea come in? Is it conjecture based on the presumed French etymology of 'chanty'? Or did this author, closer to the historical events, have some better sense than we do nowadays that the cotton-stowers may have actually been Creoles?

Interesting that it uses both (ch/sh) spellings of shchanty.

It quotes a verse from SACRAMENTO, the exact form of which does not show up previously.

//
IT WAS the intention to give in this edition of "Maritime Melodies" a number of chanties, but without the music, the action and the very spirit of the sea, words are feeble.

The "Chanty," a corruption of the French verb to sing, came from New Orleans, where the French darkies made up songs to suit the occasion as they loaded the Yankee clipper ships with cotton. The Yankee sailor in turn "caught on" and calling their songs "Shanties," made rhymes and fitted them to music that assisted in heaving anchor, setting and furling sails, pumping out the ship, etc. And now the "motif" is explained.

With the decadence of the American marine since "the late unpleasantness" between the brethren North and South, who, before and since that episode have dwelt together in unity, it has been an unfortunate fact that the American Mercantile Marine is more of a theory than a condition. With the ship, the American sailor has also disappeared. But the Shanty remains. Listen. The fine 100 AI British ship California, a good ship with a good name, but flying the flag of Great Britain, instead of the Stars and Stripes, officered and manned by lusty Britons, good fellows all, but unfortunate in not being born here: The fine ship California is leaving the State for w hich she is named, and on the order to heave up. anchor, the Chanty man starts in:

"As I was walking down the street,
   Hoodah, to my Hoodah; 

A charming girl I chanced to meet,
   Hoodah, Hoodah day.

Blow ye winds, heigho,
        For California, O,
There's plenty of gold,
       So I've been told,
On the banks of Sacramento.

While there is much about the Yankee skipper, the Yankee clipper, the famous Black Ball line, in every chanty sung aboard any ship, American or foreign, the only collection of Chanties is an English edition in which these references are generally eliminated, while as sung aboard ship, there is so much that while forcible is hardly polite, it is impossible to reprint those particular chanties having reference to the past glories of American shipping. Therefore Chanties cut no further figure in this book, but songs with the sea for their subject are again used in Maritime Melodies.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 02:20 AM

1876        Warner, Charles Dudley. _My Winter On the Nile, Among the Mummies and Moslems._ Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company.

Preface dated Oct. 1875. Warner is on a sail-boat on the Nile in December 1874. Some of the chants of Egyptian boatmen are mentioned, e.g. "Yah! Mohammed!" In one of the descriptions, he indicates that the English would refer to the singer as "shanty man." It would seem that he heard this in use; it is possible he also read the term in an earlier work—though only N. Adams (1971) had previously used that orthography.

Pp153-154:

//
The morning finds us still a dozen miles from Asioot where we desire to celebrate Christmas; we just move with sails up, and the crew poling. The head-man chants a line or throws out a word, and the rest come in with a chorus, as they walk along, bending the shoulder to the pole. The leader—the "shanty man" the English sailors call their leader, from the French chanter I suppose—ejaculates a phrase, sometimes prolonging it, or dwelling on it with a variation, like "O ! Mohammed!" or "O! Howadji!" or some scraps from a love-song, and the men strike in in chorus: "Ha Yalesah, ha Yalesah," a response that the boatmen have used for hundreds of years.
//

http://books.google.com/books?id=mFYoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA153&dq=sailors'+%22chants%22&

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 05:48 PM

Thanks, John M. neglected to note, too, that the song *with score* was in Mather's book.

(Scroll up a page or 2:)
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZKQcAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=%22louisiana+lowlands%22

From the score, one can see that it did indeed go to the tune (or at least one of the well known tunes) of the "Golden Vanitee" ballad.

***

On another note --
I have decided to keep going with this thread to round out at least the 19th century -- I have an itch for some kind of "completion" like that. From me you'll most likely see more published references through the 1890s (I have a load of them to follow up on in my notes, which I've not yet read). Then, I will probably shift to trying to work in the recorded or other archived info. As usual, any and all contributions (don't mind my own, somewhat arbitrary structure) are welcome.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 02:01 PM

Don't stop now!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 12:33 PM

Gibb, I found some references to "In the Louisiana Lowlands". It appears to have been minstrel song that was popular with the Northern troops during the Civil War. Here are the lyrics from SONG-BOOK OF THE COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA (1902):

http://books.google.com/books?id=LMYVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA24&dq=%22In+the+Louisiana+lowlands%22&hl=en&ei=EP5XTfDcDIjrgQerwaCWDQ&sa=X&oi

And here is a reference to it in relation to the war - 1882 (scroll up a page for the beginning }:

http://books.google.com/books?id=2JIvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA310&dq=In+the+Louisiana+Lowlands,+lowlands,+low&hl=en&ei=FgxYTdK_IonEgAel76Wf

Here is a parody using "In the Virginia lowlands low" (1893 & 1864):

http://books.google.com/books?id=UsESAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA96&dq=%22In+the+Louisiana+lowlands,+lowlands,+low%22&hl=en&ei=ogtYTaKIFIndgQe

and,

http://books.google.com/books?id=ND09ZBPerW8C&pg=PA14&dq=In+the+Louisiana+lowlands,+lowlands,+low&hl=en&ei=sAxYTaeMM4L2gAfgjJnHD

And another parody using "In the Shenandoah lowlands, low" (1886):

http://books.google.com/books?id=_tbNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA562&dq=%22In+the+Louisiana+lowlands,+lowlands,+low%22&hl=en&ei=bgtYTfrkLoyr8A

And finally, a mention of the song in the context of a campfire sing around in Florida. Here the song is being sung by local (?) black folks (1882). I'm not clear if this was being sung also as a rowing song or a chanty.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Cs3UAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA64&dq=%22In+the+Louisiana+lowlands%22&hl=en&ei=rf5XTcrEH4LagAfcw7nUDA&sa=X&oi

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 07:21 AM

DH, I'd love to find some instances of "White" Appalachian influence on the advent and development of sea chanties. This could be dance tunes (fiddle & banjo), ballads, "love songs", work songs, and religious songs. So far as I know and can remember, we've not had any examples of this kind of influence. I am talking here about influence moving from the mountains to the sea, rather than vice-versa. Or, possibly, just shared material.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Dead Horse
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 06:41 AM

Duh! Last 'Guest' was me, without noticing that cookie had been filched.

The stuff collected in Louisiana particularly interested me as Cajun music is my favourite genre after shanties. Mebbe I could now combine the two with "Heave away, ma Jolies" :-)
The wife dances Appalachian flatfooting so I am often called upon to sing some really fast stuff for her to hoof to.
You aint lived til you have heard "Johnny come down to Hilo" or "South Australia" sung at a speed that would enable the off duty crew to go water skiing to........

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 03:58 AM

1898        Whitmarsh, H. Phelps. _The World's Rough Hand._ New York: The Century Co.

Author born 1863. Clipper ship Bosphorus bound out of London to Adelaide ca. 1884.

"Singing-out" is decribed, Pg 5:

//
When I reached the pierhead, it was nearly high water; the dock gates stood wide open; and the Bosphorus, with a gang of riggers aboard, was hauling briskly through the still water of the basin toward the river. Upon her forecastle-head, a bunch of men, bending almost double over the bow line, surged rhythmically back and forth to the quaint, nautical "singing out" of the leader; and the rope plashed in the water ahead of them after each pull.
The hauling-song began something like this: "Way-ho!" (jerk), "Way-ho-hu!" (jerk), "O-le-obo-ho!" (jerk), increasing in sound, volume, and power as it progressed; then running into a wordless chant,—a vowel song,—which, with a pulling emphasis, and a melody as weird as a Gaelic psalm-tune, rose and fell like the song of the shrouds when the wind pipes strong.
//

They haul out of the dock to HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES at the capstan, pg7:

//
The gangway was withdrawn, the lines cast off, the order given to "Heave away on your capstan!" and we hauled slowly through the gates to the tune of the favorite outward-bound chantey:

Sometimes we 're bound to London town, 

Sometimes we 're bound to France,
Chorus: Heave away, my bullies, heave away.
But now we 're bound to Adelaide, 

To give those girls a chance!
Chorus: Heave away, my bully boys; 
         
We 're all bound to go.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 03:11 AM

1900        Mather, Fred. _In the Louisiana Lowlands: A Sketch of Plantation Life, Fishing and Camping Just After The Civil War, and Other Tales._ New York: Forest and Stream.

The narrator is on a steamboat journey down the Red River at Natchitoches, Louisiana in 1860. He has come upon a White banjo player in the saloon. A song called "The Lowlands" is requested: (pg 9)

//
I was not surprised when I saw a young white man at the end of the saloon just winding up an obligate and retiring for a rest. But he was vociferously recalled and "The Lowlands" was demanded. The air was a singular one, with a refrain that began slowly and ended fast; it was:

"In the Louisiana lowlands, lowlands, lowlands, In the Louisiana lowlands, low."

And from this song the title of this sketch was chosen.

Later in the night at a landing for wood I heard one of the negro roustabouts singing of old Gen. Andrew Jackson:

"Gen'el Jackson mighty man—
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away!
He fight on sea an' he fight on lan'—
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away!

"Gen'el Jackson find de trail—
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away!
He make a fort wid cotton bale—
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away!"

There was more of it, for all these songs are spun out to cover the time of wooding up or of heaving up the levee. A livelier song was sung in the morning as we rounded to. It had a refrain of:

"Heave away! heave away!
I'd rather court a yallow gal
Dan work fo' Henry Clay!"
//

"Louisiana Lowlands" is a local or parody variation of the "Golden Vanitee" ballad. The work-songs are of more interest here. First is MARENGO, then the relative of HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES. The account is supposed to be based on the author's notes on the journey. Both songs are problematic, however, because they appeared in comparable versions in print earlier. The first was as early as 1855 and the second was in Allen's SLAVE SONGS from 1867. So I can't tell if he is making it up, or if he is using published material to refresh the memory.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 12:15 AM

GUEST -- You're always welcome!

*****

I was just rereading over some sources and kind of struck by the similarity in phrasing here. Probably means little, but still interesting.

So, a 1775 essay "On Musical Time" states,

Seamen at the windlass, and on other occasions, sing, that they may all act together.

Then Dana in 1840 (I forget wish edition exactly) says,

Sailors, when heaving at a windlass, in order that they may heave together, always have one to sing out.

I can't help but think that, even if Dana had not read (and unconsciously paraphrased) the first, these two statements support each other -- Specifically, they support the idea that was was being done at the windlass in those times was certainly a "sing-out," not a "song" (or chanty). It's interesting because Dana of course talks about his "songs for capstan and falls," but nothing for windlass. Anyways, if anyone cares :) I am thinking about this in terms of the role the *new* windlass (brake/pump style) may have had in the development of chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:30 AM

"John - Big thoughts! Too bad not too many of the "general" folk music people are reading this (I'm sure we lost them long ago...the posts are too long, and there is not enough bickering :) ). Otherwise you'd be blowing their minds, ha!"

That's not to say we aint reading it all, rather that we aint got nothing constructive to post and maybe we dont want to muddy the waters for them what has. :-)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 03:42 PM

Thanks, Snuffy. That's exactly the kind of info that I, for one, am looking for!...or *will* be looking for when I get far enough along to critique Carpenter's singers. Unfortunately I've been overloaded with masses of data so far yet in the recently-published material through the 1880s. I can't wait, however, to study the Carpenter stuff more closely and see how it might fit. We do have one published source, albeit from the 1880s, that also attributes "Bully in the Alley" to the 50s, which is great corroboration. I do maintain, however, that it is *generally* difficult to trust the shanty knowledge of someone interviewed in the 1920s, even if they went to sea in the 50s/60s, that the shanties they know weren't necessarily learned afterwards. In this case, the date they *left* the trade becomes equally important. The exception is when they do specify when they learned the song, as in the examples you provided.

John - Big thoughts! Too bad not too many of the "general" folk music people are reading this (I'm sure we lost them long ago...the posts are too long, and there is not enough bickering :) ). Otherwise you'd be blowing their minds, ha!

Leadfingers-- Uh, yeah? What's more, all the posts have been substantial. Thanks for giving the old "Mudcat blessing" of a one-word random post! ;D

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 06:16 AM

500 ??

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:45 AM

Gibb, I've been puzzling over these transitions from occasional, mostly random notices of chanty singing to the early "collections" in magazine articles to the later "published collections". I'm thinking off the top of my head here, but roughly speaking, the history seems to move from "actual practice in working situations" to a much more "literary" enterprise of "collecting". And the "literalizing" (?) of the genre roughly coincides with the phasing out of "actual" use in the workplace.

We've wondered why there were not more instances of mention of these chanties earlier on (say from 1840 to 1860) in the various accounts of the day. It seems that it is only when they become a literary phenomenon that things pick up. I was struck by your use of the phrase "the sort of people who hold the privilege of writing". This seems to signal the establishment of a "genre" for secondary interests. And of course there is also a feedback loop wherein the new published information can re-impact the original chanty singers. Surely we see that happening in someone like Harlow.

But what is occurring to me this morning is this. Is the process that we are observing with regard to "sea chanties" that runs roughly through the second half of the 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th century really any different from the same or a similar process that happened in relation to other genres of "traditional folk music". Child published his "collection" of ballads between 1882 and 1898. These were primarily if not exclusively drawn from literary sources. Child seemed to think that actual living oral sources no longer existed or weren't worth seeking out. He certainly ignored the oral situation in America! It wasn't until Cecil Sharp came along in the early 20th century (following the lead of Olive Dame Campbell and others) that the American oral traditions began to be tapped and recorded. What kinds of literary evidence do we have in the 19th century for the "ballads"? I am aware of the Broadside dimension. But what about the worksongs and play party songs, etc. that were being sung throughout the 1800's? Are they any more noted than were the sea chanties? Has anybody even done the kind of re-searching for these sources for other folk songs that you have been doing with the chanties?

In other words, what happens when we place "the advent and development of chanties" in the larger historical context of the "advent and development" of "folk" music in general throughout the 19th century and go looking for the published remains for other "folk" songs? Could we learn anything about the process that affected the mentioning and collecting of sea chanties? And would this possibly highlight how they might have been unique (for instance they were supposedly "never sung ashore" or were "too obscene")?

When I've gone looking for the "origins" of a particular folksong, I have never gone behind or beyond the early collections. It will be interesting in the future to apply the "Google book search" method to this process and see what comes up. My guess is that it is going to be about as scarce as it has been for sea chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:32 AM

Hi, Snuffy.

Robinson's repertoire would be especially interesting, since he was at sea (though we don't know where) during the Gold Rush era.

If shantying was well-established in the late '40s, he would presumably have learned most of his shanties (though we don't which)in his first year before the mast.

Mark Page's repertoire would be equally worthy of investigation. I do know he sang "The Hog-Eye Man" for Carpenter.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Snuffy
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 09:24 AM

1870s is really the earliest decade about which the John Shorts and Carpenter's singers and people like that could tell us, I think -- Sure, a few were at see in the 60s, but how does one reasonably separate what one may have learned in the 60s from the 70s? And since my division by decade is really somewhat arbitrary, "late 60s" is not necessarily a different "era" from, say, 1974.

With Carpenter's informants, at any rate, I think that we may safely set the parameters back 20 years before your cut-off date. Many of them were at sea in the 1850's and some even in the late 1840's: it was not unusual to have 12-year-old lads on board.
* Edward Robinson - born 1834 - to sea 1846
* Mark Page - born 1835 - to sea 1849
* James Forman - born 1844 - to sea 1856. Forman claimed that Bully in the Alley was "learned as a boy before going to sea", and also gave Carpenter a song "learned when seven or eight years old; sung in 'guysens' (serenading, with faces blacked) on New Year's Day; did not celebrate Christmas"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 06:55 PM

1870s

Summary:

Danger ahead! -- Beware that, in trying to construct a narrative, there may be more than usual tendency towards conjecture on my part, in this decade.

I see this as the decade in which chanties became "standard." The word "chanty/shanty" itself has become widely known to and used by the sort of people who hold the privilege of writing. And while we can't say for sure if the word wasn't already very common amongst "common" sailors, the awareness of it by writers suggests to me that the genre itself had reached some stage of "everyday knowledge" -- at least as a concept. Establishing the word and using it in discourse (not just literary) seems to lend a more definiteness to the genre. It all becomes a bit more regular.

That may be reflected by the pieces of repertoire, which doesn't grow much in the decade.

The only reasonably new song mentioned is DEAD HORSE.

A major disclaimer, however, is that this survey has not taken much into consideration the oral sources and testimonies in much later collections (e.g. Harlow) who sailed at this time. 1870s is really the earliest decade about which the John Shorts and Carpenter's singers and people like that could tell us, I think -- Sure, a few were at see in the 60s, but how does one reasonably separate what one may have learned in the 60s from the 70s? And since my division by decade is really somewhat arbitrary, "late 60s" is not necessarily a different "era" from, say, 1974. Add to this an idea -- that the 70s was really the "last" decade for chanties. The early 80s authors already talk about chanties as a by-gone practice. In any case, despite what can be no doubt that some new repertoire was added afterwards (I'd think, especially popular songs during later wars)...It may be possible to say that the 70s was when things "flattened out" (creatively speaking) and chanties began their decline.

Including the later-published and -recorded accounts would certainly yield a higher number, but there is the uncertainty about the authors adding items heard/seen in later decades. Besides, even if we look at Harlow, his "Akbar" shanties add very few title to what would be noted by the 80s. That being said, there is some interesting material in Bullen, or in Hugill (via his West Indian informants), etc., but I cannot consider it at this time.

To make another dramatic statement: Might we say that "chanties as we know them" (as repertoire and as form/usage -- not in terms of performance style, etc.) were a product of the 1870s (or late 60s)? Not in terms of origin, of course, but in terms of the collective body, fully developed, that constituted a named genre.

Sources:

1869 Oct. – 1870

- "I wish I was in Mobile Bay" and " I'm bound for the Rio Grande," [RIO GRANDE] ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/pumping (Nehemiah Adams 1871). [Repeat of RC Adams, though earlier pub. date.]

- "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"[REUBEN RANZO], ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/topsail halyards (Nehemiah Adams 1871).

- "'Way! haul away! haul away! Joe!" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!" [BOWLINE], ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/tacks+sheets (Nehemiah Adams 1871). ]]

[1869 Opening of Suez Canal]

c. 1870s

- "Oh, ho, yes—Oho/ A hundered years ago" [HUNDRED YEARS] and "Starm along, boys—Starm along/ Starm along, Starmy" [STORMY] and "With a heave oh—haul/ And good morning, ladies all" [GOOD MORNING LADIES], memory of work on Black X liners "years ago" (Leslie 1886)

1870

- The leader, a stalwart negro, stood upon the capstan shouting the solo part of the song…they were answered by his companions in stentorian tones at first, and then, as the refrain of the song fell into the lower part of the register, the response was changed into a sad chant in mournful minor key Steamboat, St. Louis > New Orleans (Nichols 1870)

1870, Sept.

- "Whiskey, O Johnnie/ Whiskey for my Johnnie" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] ship, New York> /topsail halyards [fiction] (RIVERSIDE MAGAZINE Sept. 1870)

- "All haul away, haul away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE], ship, New York> /braces [fiction] (RIVERSIDE MAGAZINE Sept. 1870)

c. early 1870s

- "Stand below you coal black rose" [COAL BLACK ROSE], Vera Cruz, Mexico/stevedores discharging cargo [pulling] – possibly contrived (Dixon 1883)

1873

- O whisky, whisky ! / O whisky is for Johnny!" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Lorenzo was no sailor / Renzo, boys, Renzo!" [REUBEN RANZO], Sailors' songs in American vessels/halyards (Jewell 1873)

- "Way, haul away—haul away, Josey/ Way, haul away—haul away, Joe!" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Haul the bowline—bowline haul!" [BOWLINE], Sailors' songs in American vessels/braces (Jewell 1873)

- "Blow, my bully boys, blow!" [BLOW BOYS BLOW], Sailors' songs in American vessels/windlass (Jewell 1873)

1874

- "Whiskey, Johnnie / So whiskey for my Johnnie, O" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Way, haul away, haul away, my Josey / Way, haul away, haul away, my Jo" [HAUL AWAY JOE] [possibly culled from elsewhere] (Brevet, August 1974)

- "Haul the bowline, The bowline haul!" [BOWLINE] Norwegian/tacks (Lie 1874)

- "Aa hal i — aa — i aa —! / Cheer my men!" [CHEERLY] Norwegian/catting anchor (Lie 1874)

- "Good-bye, fare-ye-well!" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL], English merchant ship SEA QUEEN, London > / capstan, "homeward bound chanty" (Symondson 1876)

- "I served my time in the Black Ball Line" [BLACKBALL LINE], English merchant ship SEA QUEEN, off Portland / anchor capstan (Symondson 1876)

- "Ho! and heigho!/ For we're bound to the Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE], English merchant ship SEA QUEEN, > Sydney Harbour / anchor capstan (Symondson 1876)

1874, Jan.

"Then heave away, my bully boys/ Heave away, my Johnnies!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] (Drake 1874)

1875

[[- Harlow]]

1876

- "Oh, Shanadoa, I longs to hear you/ Ha! ha! the rolling water" [SHENANDOAH],
ship PANDORA, Arctic/anchor capstan (MacGahan, 1876)

1876, Nov.

- "Hilo boys, hil-lo!" [HILO BOYS] and "Walk away", rowing a boat off Malaysia [historical fiction?] (CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL, Nov. 1876)

1877

- "Blow the man down in Grangemouth town, hay, hay, blow the man down," [BLOW THE MAN] ship FORSETTE out of Höganäs, Sweden, off Bodo, Norway/catting anchor (Nelson, 1913)

1877, April

- "I'm bound away to leave you/ Good-bye, my love, good-bye!" [GOODBYE MY LOVE], rowing [fiction] (Foot 1877).

1878

- "Aha! I'm bound AWAY/ Across the broad Atlantic!" [SHENANDOAH] and "Do my, Johnny Boker, do!" [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "An' away, my Johnny boy, we 're all bound to go!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo!" [REUBEN RANZO] [fiction, maybe rehashed from RIVERSIDE Apr 1868] (Scudder 1879)

1879, fall

- "Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin', Haul" [BOWLINE] and "Whisky, Johnny!/ O! Whisky for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Wae! Hae! Blow the man down/ Give me some time to blow the man down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO] and "Away, haul away—Haul away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "So handy, me boys, so handy" [HANDY MY BOYS] and "Wae! Hae! Ha!" [BONEY] and "Hand away, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "Good-bye, fare ye well. Good-bye, fare ye well/ Hurrah, me boys! we're bound to go!" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "And we say so, for we know so/ Poor old man" [DEAD HORSE], steamship PARRAMATTA, London > Sydney/ transcriptions of various sailors' chanties (Seal 1992)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Jan 11 - 05:59 AM

1860s

Summary: The American Civil War is on, and the shanties that we know are finally starting to pop up everywhere. Is it because so many chanties were being created/adapted then? Or, were they perhaps being reconstituted in some way that made them more "notable"? Or, is the preponderance of chanties just an illusion having to do with the legacy of written works and those who wrote them? Previously, I had the notion that most of the chanties were done being created by the Civil War. However, the queer lack of references to much repertoire in the 1850s does not support that.

If I'm not mistaken, all the vessels referred to here were America, though that may not necessarily mean anything, what with transatlantic runs and mixed nationality crews.

Here's a rough idea of what new was added to the repertoire for the 1860s -- and this list only includes reasonably contemporary references:

SHENANDOAH
RIO GRANDE
SACRAMENTO
SANTIANA
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES
TOMMY'S GONE
REUBEN RANZO
WHISKEY JOHNNY
BLOW BOYS BLOW
BLOW THE MAN DOWN
BONEY
HAUL AWAY JOE
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND
BUNCH OF ROSES
BOWLINE
JOHNNY BOWKER
GOOD MORNING LADIES
Nancy Bell
Sally in the Alley"
True blue, I and Sue/And England's blue for ever"
LOWLANDS AWAY
Oceanida"
BLACKBALL LINE
SLAPANDER
HANDY MY BOYS
Land ho, boys, Land ho"
HILO BOYS
JOHN CROW

Sources:

ca.1861-1880s

- "Shenandoah" [SHENANDOAH] and "Sally Brown" [SALLY BROWN] and "Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE] and "Dixie's Isle" [OH SUSANNA?] and "Blow for California" [SACRAMENTO] and Santa Ana [SANTIANA] and "Mister "Stormalong"" [MR. STORMALONG] and "Maid of Amsterdam" [A-ROVING] and "Homeward Bound" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "Heave Away, Lads" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "The Dreadnought" [DREADNOUGHT] and "Ten Thousand Miles Away" [TEN THOUSAND MILES], gen. discussion, remembered by ex-sailor from U.S./windlass (Coast Seamen's 1909)

- "Tom is Gone to Ilo" [TOMMY'S GONE] and "'Ranzo, Boys, 'Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO] and "Whiskey, Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Blow, Boys, Blow" [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Blow the Men Down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN" and "John Francois" [BONEY], gen. discussion, remembered by ex-sailor from U.S./topsail halyards (Coast Seamen's 1909)

- "Johnny Bowker" [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "Haul on the Bowline" [BOWLINE] and "Haul Away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE], gen. discussion, remembered by ex-sailor from U.S./sheet shanties (Coast Seamen's 1909)

- [PADDY DOYLE], gen. discussion, remembered by ex-sailor from U.S./bunt shanty (Coast Seamen's 1909)

- "Miss Rosa Lee" and "Somebody Told Me So" and "Yankee John, Storm Along" [YANKEE JOHN STORMALONG], gen. discussion, remembered by ex-sailor from U.S./timber stowing ascribed to Blacks in South (Coast Seamen's 1909)

1861, April

- "On the plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] Battle of Fort Sumter, Charleston/hauling up guns onto fort w/ capstan (THE UNITED SERVICE, May 1884)

1862

- "Sally Brown, the bright mulatter" [SALLY BROWN] Ship SPLENDID New York > China/windlass (Sauzade 1863)

- "Hurrah Santa Anna!/All on the plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] Ship SUSAN HINKS, Boston > Calcutta/capstan (FIFTY-THREE YEARS, 1904)

- "O, dey call me Hangman Johnny!" [HANGING JOHNNY] South Carolina/Freed slaves in Union Army coming in from picket duty (Higginson 1867).

1865

- "I'm Gwine to Alabamy, Ohh..../Ahh..." Slaves' songs collection Mississippi steamboat song (Allen 1867)

- "Shock along John, shock along" Slaves' songs collection, Maryland/corn-shucking (Allen1867)

- "Ho, round the corn, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] slaves' songs collection/corn-shucking (Allen 1867)

- "Heave away, heave away!/ Heave away, Yellow gal, I want to go!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES], Savannah/firemen's song (Allen 1867)

c.1865-66

- "Paddy on the Railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and "We 're Homeward Bound" [OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND?] Schooner (?) NASON, out of Provincetown/windlass (Clark 1867)

- A chanty gang was engaged to hoist out the cargo, Zanzibar/stevedores (Clark 1867)

c.1866

- when the sugar began to roll in, the crew found I was at the head of the rope, and a "chanty man." We rolled the sugar upon the stages, over the bows, and at every hogshead I gave them a different song, American schooner, St. Jago, Cuba/ working cargo (Clark 1867)

c.1865-1869

- "Come down you bunch o' roses, come down" [BUNCH OF ROSES] and "Sally Brown's a bright Mulatto"[SALLY BROWN] Ship (all Black crew) DUBLIN Boston > Genoa/ topsail halyards (Adams 1879)

- "Walk along my Sally Brown," [WALKALONG SALLY] and "Hoist her up from down below" Ship (all Black crew) DUBLIN Boston > Genoa/ working cargo (Adams 1879)

- "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul" [BOWLINE] and "Way, haul away; O, haul away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Do, my Johnny Boker, do."[JOHNNY BOWKER] Barque ROCKET/ tacks and sheets (Adams 1879)

- "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO] and "Shantyman and Sally Brown" [SALLY BROWN] and "Blow, boys, blow!/Blow, my bully boys, blow!" [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Away, hey way!/John Francois" [BONEY] and "Hurrah, you high low/My Tommy's gone a high low" [TOMMY'S GONE] and "Hurrah, you rolling river/Ah hah, I'm bound away o'er the wild Missouri" [SHENANDOAH] and "Whiskey Johnny/ Whiskey for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Way, hey, knock a man down/ This is the time to knock a man down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] Barque ROCKET/ halyards (Adams 1879)

- "And away you Rio! Oh, you Rio!/ I'm bound away this very day, I'm bound for the Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE] and "Oh, poor Paddy come work on the railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] Barque ROCKET/ capstan or windlass (Adams 1879)

- continuous running solo of " way-hey he, ho, ya,"…accompanying the hand-over-hand hoisting of jibs and staysails, and for short "swigs" at the halyards…"hey lee, ho lip, or yu" and the more measured "singing out," for the long and regular pulls at the braces, Barque ROCKET/sing-outs (Adams 1879)

1867

- "Dere ain't but one more river to cross", Af-Amer gospel-cum-boat song (Higginson 1867)

1867, July

- "Away, away, blow a man down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], Steamer CALEDONIA, NY > Glasgow/ halyards (Daily Courier 1867)

1868

- "What boat is that my darling honey?, Oh, oh ho, ho ay yah yah-ah!/Ah a... yah a...ah!"
Steamboats /Black firemen (McBRIDE'S 1868)

1868, April

- "Away, you rollin' river!/Ah ha! I'm bound away/On the wild Atlantic!" [SHENANDOAH] Atlantic, capstan (Riverside Magazine 1868)

- "Heave away, my Johnny, heave away!/An' away, my Johnny boy, we're all bound to go!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] Atlantic/ ?? (Riverside Magazine 1868)

1868, Aug.

- "cheerily men" [CHEERLY]
journal article/braces (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- "Good-bye, fare you well/ Hurrah, brave boys, we're outward bound" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "There's plenty of gold in the land, I'm told/ On the banks of Sacramento" [SACRAMENTO] and "Then fare you well, my pretty young girls/ We're bound for the Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE] and "Valparaiso, Round the Horn" [PADDY LAY BACK] and "Hurrah, Santa Anna/ All on the plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] and "Good morning ladies all" [GOOD MORNING LADIES] and "Nancy Bell" [HURRAH SING FARE YOU WELL?] and "Sally in the Alley" and "True blue, I and Sue/And England's blue for ever" and "Lowlands" [LOWLANDS AWAY] and "Oceanida" and "Johnny's gone" [TOMMY'S GONE?] and "The Black-ball Line" [BLACKBALL LINE] and "Slapandergosheka" [SLAPANDER] journal article/capstan (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- there is the hand over hand song, in very quick time, journal article/ hand over hand (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- "So handy, my girls, so handy/So handy, my girls, so handy" [HANDY MY BOYS] journal article/halyards (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul" [BOWLINE] and "Land ho, boys, Land ho" and "Haul away, my Josey" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Oh, Boney was a warrior, away a yah/John Francivaux" [BONEY] journal article/ single pull hauling (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

1869

- "Hoojun, John a hoojun" [HOOKER JOHN] Brig WILLIAM, Portland, Maine, possible fiction/ hoisting molasses (Kellogg 1869)

- "O, stow me long/ Stow me long, stow me" [STORMY] Fictional American vessel/ windlass (Kellogg 1869)

- "Hand ober hand, O/ Scratch him/Hand ober hand, O" Fictional American vessel/ hand over hand (Kellogg 1869)

- "Ho-o, ho, ho, ho/ Fire down below" [SAILOR FIREMAN] Fictional American vessel/ walk-away (Kellogg 1869)

- "Bonny laddie, Highland laddie/ My bonny Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] Fictional American vessel/no context (Kellogg 1869)

- "Hilo, boys, a hilo" [HILO BOYS] Fictional American vessel/ topgallant halyards (Kellogg 1869)

- "Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes/O, my poor sailor-boy, heave and she goes" Fictional American vessel/ capstan (Kellogg 1869)

- ''John, John Crow is a dandy, O" [JOHN CROW] Fictional American vessel/ studding-sail halyards (Kellogg 1869)

1869 Oct. – 1870

Don't tally: Repeat of RC Adams, though earlier pub. date.[[- "I wish I was in Mobile Bay" and " I'm bound for the Rio Grande," [RIO GRANDE] ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/pumping (Nehemiah Adams 1871).

- "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"[REUBEN RANZO], ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/topsail halyards (Nehemiah Adams 1871).

- "'Way! haul away! haul away! Joe!" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!" [BOWLINE], ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/tacks+sheets (Nehemiah Adams 1871). ]]

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 07:48 AM

It is always exciting to find another new/old source, and one with such detail. Thanks shipcmo for the "Amy Turner" and thanks Gibb for unpacking all of that information. Your comprehensive list for the 1880's is impressive. There are some indications that some of these chanties had been around for awhile, maybe even thirty or forty years. But if Briggs can be so interested in 1880, why didn't we find such interest back in the '50's, if such chanties were around then? I know I keep asking the same question, but it intrigues me. Was there some kind of change in reporting styles or literary styles or just plain consciousness? What happened between Dana and Briggs? We know folks were keeping all kinds of journals about sea voyages during those many decades. But such rare mention of sailors singing.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 07:47 AM

About 86 "unique" (this number is quite subjective) new references were discovered for the 1880s.

About 15 (quick count) of the 101 items in the list were *first* to be cited in reference to the 1880s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 07:13 AM

The following is the updated "set list" of shipboard work-songs claimed to have existed up through the 1880s. Re: number of appearances, I have made an effort to excluded from the tally any citations that were clearly repetitions of prior text sources. There are 101 chanties here. The usual disclaimers about vague references, subjectivity in tally, etc. apply. Remember, these are only ship-board songs.

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (4)
A-ROVING (2)
And England's blue for ever"
Baltimore Bell"
Black although she be"
BLACKBALL LINE (4)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (5)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (9)
BONEY (4)
BOTTLE O (1)
BOWLINE (9)
BULLY IN ALLEY (1)
BUNCH OF ROSES (1)
Captain gone ashore!"
Cheerily she goes"
CHEERLY (13)
CLEAR THE TRACK (1)
DEAD HORSE (3)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (2)
FIRE FIRE (2)
GOLDEN VANITY (1)
GOOD MORNING LADIES (2)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (7)
GOODBYE MY LOVE (2)
GROG TIME (1)
Hah, hah, rolling John" (1)
Hand ober hand, O"
HANDY MY BOYS (2)
HANGING JOHNNY (3)
HAUL AWAY JOE (8)
Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes"
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (6)
Heave her away"
Heave him up! O he yo!"
Heave round hearty!"
Heave, to the girls!"
HIGHLAND (2)
Highland day and off she goes"
HILO BOYS (3)
HILONDAY (1)
HOGEYE (1)
Ho, O, heave O"
HOOKER JOHN (1)
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (1)
HUNDRED YEARS (3)
Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
Jack Cross-tree,"
JOHN BROWN'S BODY (1)
John, John Crow is a dandy, O"
JOHNNY BOWKER (3)
Johnny's gone"
Land ho"
Largy Kargy"
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (2)
LOWLANDS AWAY (3)
Miranda Lee"
MOBILE BAY (1)
MONEY DOWN (2)
MR. STORMALONG (6)
Nancy Bell"
Nancy oh!"
NEW YORK GIRLS (2)
O ee roll & go"
O! hurrah my hearties O!"
Oceanida"
Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne"
OH RILEY (1)
Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!"
ONE MORE DAY (1)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (3)
PADDY DOYLE (3)
PADDY LAY BACK (1)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (5)
Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
REUBEN RANZO (9)
RIO GRANDE (6)
ROUND THE CORNER (3)
RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN (3)
SACRAMENTO (3)
SAILOR FIREMAN (1)
SALLY BROWN (6)
Sally in the Alley"
SANTIANA (9)
SHALLOW BROWN (1)
SHENANDOAH (8)
SLAPANDER (1)
Sing, Sally, ho!"
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (1)
STORMALONG JOHN (1)
STORMY (9)
STORMY ALONG (2)
TALLY (2)
Time for us to go!"
TOMMY'S GONE (3)
Up a hill"
Walk away"
WALKALONG SALLY (1)
When first we went a-waggoning"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (10)
Whisky for Johnny!"
YEO HEAVE HO (1)

The most frequently appearing items overall are:

CHEERLY (13)
WHISKEY JOHNNY (10)
STORMY / BOWLINE / BLOW THE MAN DOWN / REUBEN RANZO / SANTIANA (9) SHENANDOAH / HAUL AWAY JOE (8)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 12:13 AM

Briggs, cont.

I'm enjoying the fresh lyrics of some of these chanties.

Next is two versions of REUBEN RANZO -- great to have such an example of two person's variations from the same ship.

//
A hoisting and windlass shanty frequently heard in bad weather was:

RANZO

Solo: Oh Ranzo was no sailor, boys—
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!
Solo: Oh Ranzo was no sailor, boys—
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!

He shipped aboard a whaler, boys—

And he could not do his duty—

Oh, they took him to the gangway,

And they gave him one-and-twenty.

Oh, the Captain was a good man,

And he took him to the cabin,

And he taught him navigation.

Oh, the Captain had a daughter,

And she loved poor Reuben Ranzo—

Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo!

Oh, he now sails captain of her,

And he thinks of the times he used to have

While he hugs the Captain's daughter.

Three cheers for Young Reuben Ranzo!

And I'll bid adieu to the girl I loved—

Adieu to the girl with the red topped boots

We touch our glass with a good-bye lass—

(These words are as copied for me by a sailor. The last two lines are apparently improvised and difficult to fit to the tune.)

Another version of the same shanty was written for me by Lawrence, an old sailor of our crew.

ORENSO

Solo: Orenso was no sailor—
Chorus: Orenso, boys, Orenso!
Solo: Orenso was no sailor—
Chorus: Orenso, boys, Orenso!

He was apprenticed to a tailor—

And he did not like his master—

So he thought he'd be a sailor,

And he shipped on board, a whaler—

He shipped as able seaman.

And he could not do his duty.

The Mate he was a bad man;

He lashed him to the capstan,

And he gave him six-and-thirty.

The Captain was a good man;

He took him to the cabin,

And he learned him navigation;

And he had a only daughter—

Orenso used to court her.

Now he's married the Captain's daughter.

Now he sails the South Seas over.

He is captain of a whaler,

And when he gets a sailor

That can not do his duty,

He takes him down the cabin

And learns him navigation.
//

Then, HAUL AWAY JOE. I'm not sure what to make of the many verses, in light of the idea that not many were needed for this. Does Brigg's transcription represent a single performance (actual or ideal), or is it a compilation of verses?

//
        The shanty we most often heard when boarding a main tack or hauling aft the fore sheet was:

HAUL AWAY, JOE

Solo: Once I had a yaller gal—I kept her like a lady—
Chorus: Way, haul away, haul away, Joe!
Solo: Once I had a yaller gal—I kept her like a lady—
Chorus: Way, haul away, haul away, Joe!

Now I've got an Irish girl, she's dirty, fat and lazy—

You'd better sell your fiddle and buy your wife a gown—

I wouldn't sell my fiddle for all the wives in town.

Now I'm sparking a Spanish lass—She almost sets me crazy—

Oh, thence, boys, I'll never give her up for Miss Long-legs-Daisy.

O boys, I'll pass the grog around when i marry the Spanish lady—

O, my boys, she's the lass—She'll court you nice and easy—
//

Next, BLOW BOYS BLOW, with a few fun and original verses. "Monkey's nuts" is interesting!

//
Another shanty frequently heard was:

BLOW, MY BULLY BOYS, BLOW

Solo: Holler, my boys, I long to hear you—
Chorus: Blow, boys, blow!
Solo: Holler, my boys, I long to hear you—
Chorus: Blow, my bully boys, blow!

Blow today and blow tomorrow—

A Yankee ship goes down the river—

Then how do you know she's a Yankee packet?

She fired a gun and I heard a racket.

Where do you think that she was bound to?

For Hongkong, and that's in China.

And what do you think we had for cargo?

Doll's eyes and fly paper.

Who do you think was captain of her?

Old Tom Jones, the big Kanaka.

Who do you think was Chief Mate of her?

Jimmy Brown, the big-bellied sinner.

And who do you think was steward of her?

A long-tailed Chinaman who spoiled the dinner.

What do you think we had for dinner?

Monkey's nuts and baboons' liver—
//

And, WHISKEY JOHNNY:

//
        But the most popular shanty, sung on our bark during the fiercest gales was:

WHISKEY FOR MY JOHNNY

Solo: Whiskey is the life of man—
Chorus: Whiskey, Johnny!
Solo: Whiskey is the life of man—
Chorus: Whiskey for my Johnny!

Whiskey made me a drunken man—

Whiskey made me what I am.

Whiskey drove me to the sea.

Whiskey gave me a broken nose.

Whiskey made me pawn my clothes.

Whiskey made go to prison.

Whiskey killed my poor old dad.

Whiskey drove my brother mad.

Whiskey and me, us do agree.

I drink whiskey when I can.

Now, whiskey gone, my song goes too.

        The shanties for hauling the fore and main sheets are the most ancient.
//

Briggs goes on another voyage in late 1882. The AMY TURNER is off Cape Cod, and they need to get the anchor up in a storm. The 70-yr. old chanteyman gives one of the older chanties, SANTIANA:

//
It was not easy to work the capstan in such a gale and John Miller, of East Boston, the ship-keeper, nearly 70 years old, who had spent many years on the United States Ship "Ohio", started a shanty, of which he sang the verses, while the sailors joined in the chorus and pulled with a will. I took down the words, as follows:

SANTA ANNA ON THE PLAINS OF MEXICO

Santa Anna gained the day—
        Hurrah, Santa Anna!
Santa Anna gained the day—
        All on the plains of Mexico.

He gained the day at Monterey.

He sailed away one fine day—

Oh, that creole gal, she's the gal for me!

She wears red-top boots and her hair does shine—

She's just the girl to make them pine—

We're bound to have her in the black-ball line—

Oh, was you ever in Mobile Bay?

Screwing cotton by the bale—

'Tis there you'll find the boys to shine—

But the girls are all of the blackest kind—

Now we sail from Mobile Bay—

We are bound for Liverpool town—

Oh, there you'll see the girls come down—
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 10:11 PM

Thanks to shipcmo for introducing "Around Cape Horn..." to this discussion. I am going to give some more details from it, now that I have my hands on a copy.

1926[1925]        Briggs, L. Vernon. _Around Cape Horn to Honolulu on the Bark "Amy Turner" 1880_. Boston: Charles E. Lauriat Co.

Bark leaves Boston in July 1880, for Honolulu. Briggs had a copy of "Two Years Before the Mast" with him, though he does not make any comparisons re: shanties that I can see.

Shantying or singing-out is ascribed to the officers. Pg. 84

//
We often heard the "Haw-haw" and the call of the Mate in pulling at the sheets, but the songs or shanties on our vessel were reserved for use in bad weather to inspire the men to put forth their best efforts after long hours of duty or when their task was unusually difficult.
//

Pg. 85

//
During the four weeks that we were off Cape Horn we heard the shanties every time the men were able to get on deck and pull at a rope. Such songs as "The Ship Neptune", "Here Comes Old Wabbleton a-Walking the Deck", "Wey, Hey, Knock a Man Down", "Whiskey for My Johnny" or "Orenso was no Sailor, Boys", encouraged the sailors to lay out twice their usual strength. The men would take hold of the sheet in a sort of half-hearted way—their clothes had been wet for days, their hands were sore and they had had no hot food to eat. In a few minutes the Second Mate or one of the crew with a good voice would start a favorite shanty. Immediately the sailors would brace themselves, grip the rope with a firmer hold and, remaining in position until the line or verse was finished, would heave their bodies with a tremendous movement and bend all their strength to the rope, as they sang the refrain "Pull, ye devils, pull!"—varying it between the verses with "Pull, ye landlubbers, pull", "Pull, ye hellions, pull!", "Pull, ye seadogs, pull!" and other variations which would not look well in print.
        Many of these shanties (or "chanteys") are quaint and very old. Their verses are legion and vary on every ship. I will give some of the words sung on the "Amy Turner", which I have taken down or had written for me by the sailors.
        There are several kinds of shanty: the capstan or hoisting shanty, sung when at the capstan, warping or weighing anchor or hoisting topsails; the halyard shanty, sung when the topsails and topgallantsails are being mast-headed; and the sheet-tack and bowline shanty, used when the fore, main and other sheets are hauled aft and the bowlines made taut. There is also the bastard shanty, so-called; it is a runaway chorus, sung by all hands as they race across the deck with a rope; you hear it in tacking ship. It is sung to a vigorous tune, in quick time and increasing in volume. One of the most popular bastard shanties is the following:

WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH A DRUNKEN SAILOR?

What shall we do with a drunken sailor? [X3]
        Early in the morning.

Wey, hey, there she rises!
        Early in the morning.

Chuck him in the longboat till he gets sober.
        Early in the morning.

Wey, hey, there she rises!
        Early in the morning.
//

I believe that's only the second reference so far to DRUNKEN SAILOR in this thread.
In the following note, Briggs seems to imply that BLOW THE MAN DOWN was also a stamp 'n' go, however, he later states its use for halyards. I suppose he was just noting that the "way hey" is similar. The theme of this is a bit of "The Black Ball Ship" and "The Dreadnought" combined.

//
        In the shanties with a "Wey, hey" chorus, the men pound the decks with their feet when they say "Wey, hey", as in the following shanty:

THE SHIP "NEPTUNE"

Solo:--Now the "Neptune" is bound out on a float
        Chorus: Wey, hey, knock the man down!
Solo:-- Now the "Neptune" is bound out on a float
        Chorus: Oh, give me some time to knock the man down!

Oh! The "Neptune"'s a hard one—Oh, Lord let her go![x2]

Oh! Don't you see Wabbleton walking the poop? [x2]

Oh! Here's to the "Neptune" and her officers too—[x2]

Oh! Along comes the Mate with his big sea boots on—[x2]

If you don't be aware he'll alight you along—
With the toe of his boot he'll alight you along—

Next come the greaser, the pride of the day—[x2]

He'll sing out, "Lay aft, one—Lay aft one and all!" [x2]

For right over your head there flies the black ball—[x2]

Oh, there is a crew here—Oh, guess who was there!—[x2]

There was butchers and bakers and tinkers and Quakers—[x2]

There was soldiers and sailors and horse-hair braiders [x2]

Oh, the "Neptune"'s arrived, she's in Liverpool town—[x2]
//

It's almost all "stringing-out". I wonder how that practice might be mapped. In which eras or places, or amongst which crews, was it more common? Why did some sailors seem capable of creating rhymes while others stretched out "bachelor" lines? I understand the reasons for why one would "string-out". What I am wondering is if there was any observable shift towards that practice as a *general* style or trend that we might see. because its not so common in the earlier references -- leaving aside the possibility that the chanties were *written down* in couplet form to be more interesting or save space.

Next comes another BLOW THE MAN DOWN. It's solo themes resemble "Paradise street" and "flying fish sailor" ones.

//
Another hoisting shanty with the same chorus was:

AS I WAS A WALKING UP DENNISON STREET

Oh, as I was a walking up Dennison Street—
        Wey, hey, blow the man down!
Oh, as I was a walking up Dennison Street—
        Oh, give me the[/some] time to blow the man down!

Oh, it was a young jaunt that I chanced to meet—[x2]

Oh, she says, "Young man, can't you stand treat?"[x2]

"Oh, yes, young dame, at the head of the street"—[x2]

So we entered the alehouse, so snug and so neat—[x2]

With contentment and pleasure the time passed away—[x2]

And I never did leave her until the next day—[x2]

As I was a walking up Waterloo Road—[x2]

I met with a damsel and these words she said—[x2]

Oh, she say, "Young man, where are you from?" [x2]

"I'm a flying fish sailor—I'm just from Hongkong"—[x2]

Then she says, "Young man, oh give us your arm!" [x2]

"For I'm one of the posies—I'm just on the town!" [x2]

Chock up to the sheave hole this yard it must go—[x2]
//

continued...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 09:04 AM

My impression is that sailors sang ordinary songs at the capstan, as the spirit moved them, even in the 18th C. I don't know, however, if it was an established practice, as shantying became in the 19th C.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Jan 11 - 09:45 PM

A comment: Interesting to see, up to this point, how very little overlap there seems to be between chanties and so-called forebitters. If one looks at the picture presented of the shanty repertoire by Stan Hugill --in part because his aim was to be so inclusive-- we see that very many of the items are songs that were generally understood to be non-chanties but which had supposedly been "used as chanties" at one time or another. However, in the 19th century references we have not really seen that. I will be interested to see at what time that might have started happening more, and/or what writers may have started mixing them (e.g. the situation that Bullen may have been responding to in 1914 when he had to be firm about excluding certain kinds of songs from his collection).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Jan 11 - 03:14 AM

Here's an article from The New York Times, 27 Jan. 1884 (pg. 10).

It contains a text of SHENANDOAH that has not yet featured in this thread. Much of what I've cut is redundant waxing about the "wild" and "plaintive" qualities and affects of the songs.

//
MINSTRELSY ON THE SEA.
SONGS WHICH THE REAL SAILOR
SINGS AT HIS WORK.
GOOD MUSIC AND DOGGEREL WORDS WHICH
OFTEN DELIGHT THE HEARERS AND
HELP JACK'S LABORS VERY MUCH.

... The words and music of the majority of the sea songs now in
use were composed gonerations ago. ... The words are, as a rule, mere doggerel,
but there is a wild beauty about many of the airs that leads to the conviction that their
composers were gifted with a rude sort of musical
inspiration. ...
Jack is very proud of tIle songs which he has inherited
from his predecessors, but he rarely sings
them except on shipboard. ... The sea airs have
had very little chance to become popular
on shore, owing to the fact that comparatively
few landsmen have ever heard them....
The genuine sea songs do not abound
with poetic sentiments. They consist largely of
matter-of-fact remarks and rude legends, with
an occasional rhyme thrown in to give a flavor
to the words....
The most popular of the sea songs are known
as "shanties." Whether this is an original word
or is a corruption of "chants" it would be difficult
to say. Whenever the sailors heave up the
anchor, or man the pumps, or undertake some
difficult operation which requires the use of the
capstan they are apt to indulge in "shantying."...
The "shantyer," or soloist,
chants one or two rude Iines and is followed by
his comrades in a brief chorus. In nearly all
shanties there are two choruses, which are sung
alternately.
//

Interesting, the use of the word "shantyer."

//
The following is a portion of one of
the most popular of the shanties:

Shanadore is my native valley,
Chorus--Hurrah, rolling river,
Shanadore I love your daughters,
Chorus -Ah-ha, bound away 'cross the wild Missouri.
For seven long years I courted Sally,
Hurrah, rolling river,
Seven more and I could not get her,
Ah-ha. bound away 'cross the wild Missourl.
Seven long years I was a 'Frisco trader,
Hurrah, rolling river,
Seven more I was a Texas ranger.
Ah-ha, bound away 'cross the wild Missourl.
//

Next is MR. STORMALONG described.

//
...
Another beautiful sea air is known as "Storm-along."
... In the words of the librettist
of the song which immortalized him,
Storm-along "gave his sea boys plenty of rum."
The shantyer's face invariably glows with enthusiasm
when he reaches this line, while the
chorus of "Aye, aye, aye, Mr. Storm-along,"
which follows is given with a will. ...
//

And LOWLANDS AWAY

//
A very touching sea air is known as "Lowlands Away." The choruses
of this are "Lowlands Away, my John," and "My dollar and a half a day." ...
//

The next part is interesting because it seems to suggest that the Civil War era MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA, contrary to what we'd probably assume, has only recently become a shanty.

//
One or two land songs have of late years been
transformed Into shantys. "Marching Through
Georgia" is becoming a great favorite with Jack,
although the air of this does not compare with
those of several of his shantys. The song in
which a young man meets a pretty maid, who,
upon being cross-examined, informs him that her
face is her fortune, and in a very pert and forward
manner says: "Nobody asked you, Sir" when he announces his disinterested Intention of
marrying her, has, after some alterations and
renovations been transformed into a shanty,
with the following somewhat irrelevant chorus:
"I was bound for the Rio Grande."
//

The last was RIO GRANDE, with the Mother Goose-y "milkmaid" theme that Harlow also documented.

And LEAVE HERE JOHNNY.

//
There is however, one shanty the words of which were very appropriate. This is rarely sung except by the crew of some sinking vessel who are about to abandon her. Those who have heard it under these circumstances say that it Is very touching. It begins as follows:

She's a gallant ship with a gallant crew,
Chorus.-Leave her, jollies, leave her.
She's a gallant ship. so's her Captain, too,
Chorus.-Oh! It's time for us to leave her.
//

The next section seems to be describing "sweatin' up" chants or sheet shanties. However, the author, possibly, gets mixed up when s/he puts HANGING JOHNNY and WHISKEY JOHNNY in the category.

//
There are a number of songs which sailors sing
while hauling on the ropes which are not called
shantys, but are in many respects similar to the
latter. The soloist chants a line, and his comrades
follow with a chorus, at the last word of which they give the rope a terrific tug. One of
these songs is known as "Hanging Johnny." Although the air is singularly sweet
the words breathe forth a most diabolical
spirit. The soloist, in somewhat plaintive
tones, announces the fact that he Is
called "Hanging Johnny." His comrades
encourage hIm by exclaiming: "Hurrah,
heigho!" He then states that his acquaintances
conferred upon him the title mentioned for the
reason that he has hanged a large number of persons.
A fit of hanging enthusiasm seizes the
members of the chorus, who yell: "Hang, boys, hang." 'The soloist then proceeds to relate a few of his achievements in the hanging line. He
states unblushingly that after hanging his poor
old father by the neck until he was dead,
he strung up his venerable and sainted
mother. He then turned his attention
to his kinsmen and friends, whom, by
the aid of a noose artistically handled,
he succeeded in jerking from this world into the
next. He afterward in the same manner cut
short the days of an estimable young woman
whom he mentions rather tenderly as "sweet
Nelly."

Another rope-hauling song begins with
the announcement that "Whisky is the life
of man," and points out the numerous
advantages which may be obtained from
a Iiberal consumption of corn juice.
When seamen are called out on a cold night
to make sail, one of them is apt to start the
whisky song. They all smack their lips occasionally
by way of a hint to the Captain, and the
line, "I drink whisky when I can," is given with
emphasis.
//

PADDY DOYLE, with a fairly unique (?) lyric:

//
There are a number of similar songs
which are rarely used except when the seamen
are hauling on the ropes.
When seamen furl one of the larger sails it
requires their united efforts to roll the canvass
up on to the yard. For the final effort they stimulate
themselves by a brief chant at the last word
of which all pull together. In the selection of
the two sets of words which Jack has set to
this chant he has displayed his love of
honesty and truthfulness. One version of
the yard-arm chant is "Wea-hay-hay; we
will pay Paddy Doyle for his boots."
The composer of these words undoubtedly owed
a man named Patrick Doyle for a pair of boots,
and he took a public occasion for announcing
his intention of paying for them like an honest
man. The other version of the chant is "Wea-hay-
hay; oh, my wife she's a devil for gin." The
composer of this sentiment was doubtless thinking
of his wife when he first gave utterance to
the immortal line. He wanted to say somethillg
about his life partner, but as he could relate
nothing good of her, and being a truthful man
he mentioned the peculiarity which he deemed
most characteristic of her.
//

Brief mention of forecastle songs, with "The Dreadnaught" as an example:

//
There are a few songs which Jack reserves for
forecastle use, but he only indulges in these on
rare occasions. There is one quite popular ballad,
the words and music of which were composed
by a foremast hand on the famous packet ship
Dreadnaught which ran between this port
and Liverpool a number of years ago. The song Is
descriptive of one of the Dreadnaught's voyages
from Liverpool to New-York. ...
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Jan 11 - 01:36 AM

John,
I must admit that even after looking back over this material I feel unsatisfied (or at least less satisfied than I expected). The condensed summaries are too vague to see the picture...and the detailed texts too much info to hold in the brain at once... I'm jumping back and forth, but I haven't yet quite felt like "Ah, that must be it; that's how it all probably happened." I am even still on the fence about whether "modern" chanties generally came in in the 30s, 40s, or even later!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 20 Jan 11 - 08:40 AM

Gibb, I appreciate this summary for the decade of the '50's. There's actually quite a lot of material there in the bits and pieces. The musical silence of the California Gold Rush with regard to chanties continues to mystify me.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Jan 11 - 04:35 AM

1850s

Summary:

The Gold Rushes have happened. Before these, as far as shipboard-related items are concerned, we've seen no more than maybe 10 songs that we might know today. The rest is in the order of "heave ho" and lost ditties. Chanties have indeed arrived, but we don't get the sense there was necessarily much repertoire in the deepwater trade. It was the cotton-stowers who had "endless" songs--"chants." However, the Gold Rush(s) is a time when we expect to see lots of new repertoire.--right?

Non-shipboard songs in this decade include:

Mississippi and Alabama firemen's songs, Patting juba and other plantation songs in Louisiana and Maryland, and allusions to more rowing and corn-shucking in Georgia. They suggest the origins of such themes as "Hilo," "Hog-eye," and "Haul Away Joe."

"Cheer'ly" and yo heave hos are still being noted.

"Stormy" has emerged as a major theme, and its use at halyards on what must have been a British ship to Melbourne, in 1852, is notable.

Many of the references to actual chanties are unsatisfying as they are written at a much later time from when they were supposed to have existed. However the first focused expositions on chanties (but still not calling them such) come out. The two articles really bring home the "recently" acquired importance of chanties. One makes a very dramatic comparison between chanties and African songs. The other would become one of the text sources to be mined by later authors.

For interest's sake, if one is to note the known shipboard chanties that are mentioned *only* in *contemporary* sources up to this point (i.e. not looking back from much later dates), we have:

up through 1829

"yo, heave ho"
CHEERLY
'Sally Brown, oh, ho"

up through 1839

"Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
"Pull away, my hearty boys—pull away so cheerily,"
"Then pull away strongly, boys, and sing Sally-ho!"
"Oh! Sally Brown"
"Heave, to the girls!"
"Nancy oh!"
"Jack Cross-tree"
"Heave round hearty!"
"Captain gone ashore!"
"Time for us to go!"
ROUND THE CORNER
"Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"

Up through 1849

HIGHLAND LADDIE
DRUNKEN SAILOR
"Nancy Fanana, she married a barber/Heave her away, and heave her away"
"Then walk him up so lively/ Ho, O, heave O!"
GROG TIME

Up through 1859/start of Civil War

STORMY
HUNDRED YEARS
BOWLINE
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN
MONEY DOWN
"Highland day and off she goes"
"Heigho, heave and go/Heigho, heave and go''
"Hurrah! we're homeward bound"

Strictly speaking, then, the evidence for the times really doesn't show us too many familiar chanties even before the Civil War. Of course that doesn't mean they weren't there -- but a lot of the familiar stuff is appearing on "shore". And remember, the songs have yet to be called "chanties" by observers.

Sources:

c.1850s

- "Johnnie, come tell us and pump away" [MOBILE BAY] and "Fire, fire, fire down below/fetch a bucket of water/Fire down below" [FIRE FIRE] and "Only one more day" [ONE MORE DAY] Ship BRUTUS (American)/pumping (Whidden 1908)

- the wildest and most striking negro song we think we ever listened to…one dusky fellow, twirling his wool hat above his head, took the lead in singing, improvising as he sang, all except the chorus, in which the whole crew joined with enthusiasm Steamboat, Alabama river/boatmen (Hundley 1860)

- "Haul away the bowline/ Way haul away, Haul away, Joe!" [HAUL AWAY JOE] clipper ship (ideal) / sheets (Clark 1912)

- "Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO] clipper ship (ideal) / halyards (Clark 1912)

- "Way, yay, way, yay, yar/ Oh, run with the bullgine, run" [RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN] clipper ship (ideal) / pumps (Clark 1912)

c.1851>

- "Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne" Ship > Sydney w/ gold seekers/pumping (Craig 1903)

- "When first we went a-waggoning" Ship > Sydney w/ gold seekers/pumping (Craig 1903)

1851, July

- "Fire on the bow/Fire down below!" [FIRE FIRE] Mississippi steamboat/Black firemen ("Notes and Queries" 1851)

1851, Sept.

- "old stormy long" [STORMY], packet barque, Baltimore > Liberia/no particular work mentioned (Fuller 1851)

1852, Jan.

- that sturdy fellow there who plies his pickaxe to the tune of "Oh, Sally Brown!", central California during the Gold Rush/sailors mining (Marryat 1852)

c.1852

- the ruder throats of a party of our own Anglo-Saxon seamen, who, with "Yo, heave ho!'' or some such capstan or windlass chorus, outside Melbourne, Australian Gold Rush/musical activities of diggers (Sherer 1853)

1852, late

- "cheerymen" [CHEERLY] and "Hurra, and storm along/ Storm along, my Stormy" [STORMY] Packet ship, Gravesend > Melbourne/topsail halyards (Tait 1853)

c.1853 [or earlier]
- "Hog Eye!/Old Hog Eye/And Hosey too!" [HOG EYE] and "Hop Jim along/Walk Jim along/Talk Jim along" Louisiana/patting juba (Northup 1855)

1853
- "Oahoiohieu" [SAILOR FIREMAN] and "Oh, John, come down in de holler/Ime gwine away to-morrow" [JOHNNY COME DOWN HILO] Red River, LA/ steamboat hands (Olmsted 1856)

1854, early
- "Haul the bowline, the Black Star bowline, haul the bowline, the bowline HAUL!" [BOWLINE] Packet ship PLYMOUTH ROCK, Boston > Melbourne /sheet-style chanty adapted as entertainment (Note: text contains tunes to three other possible shanties) (Peck 1854)

1854, Nov.
- the "yo heave-ho!" of the men at the capstan who are warping her into dock, London/ general reference (Leisure Hour 1854)

1855, Jan.
- "Whaw, my kingdom, fire away" [MARINGO] Imagined Georgia/Blacks rowing (PUTNAM'S 1855)
- "Hey, come a rollln' down/Good morning ladies all" [GOOD MORNING LADIES] Imagined Georgia/corn-shucking (PUTNAM'S 1855)

1855, Aug.
- "Storm along, Stormy" [STORMY] general reference in fiction to how a crew might sing that song (Farnsworth 1855)

1856

- [Titles:] "Santy Anna," [SANTIANA] "Bully in the Alley," [BULLY IN ALLEY] "Miranda Lee," "Storm Along, John," [STORMALONG JOHN] Clipper ship WIZARD, NY > Frisco/Downton pump, with bell ropes (Mulford 1889)

- "Hi yi, yi, yi, Mister Storm roll on, Storm Along, Storm Along,"[MR. STORMALONG] and "All on the Plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] and "Aha, we're bound away, on the wild Missouri" [SHENANDOAH] Packet ship, Liverpool > NY (Fisher 1981)

1857

- "Hilo! Hilo!/ Hilo! Hilo!" [HILO?] Maryland/slave song (general reference) (Long 1857).

1857?

- "Row, bullies, row!/Row, my bullies, row!" [BLOW BOYS BLOW?] Rowboat to frigate, New York (KNICKERBOCKER, 1857)

1857, November

- "Oh, poor Paddy works on the railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] Ship RED JACKET, Liverpool/brake windlass (Chatterton 2009)

- "Whiskey for my Johnny/Whiskey, Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] Ship RED JACKET, Liverpool/topsail halyards (Chatterton 2009)

c.1857-58

- "Cheer'ly Man" [CHEERLY] and "Come along, get along, Stormy Along John" [STORMY ALONG] John Short of Watchet

1858

- "Hilo, boys, hilo! Hilo, boys, hilo!" [HILO BOYS] Barque TYRER, Casilda, Cuba > London / topsail halyards (Bloomfield 1896)

1858, July

- "Oh, the bowline, bowline, HAUL!" [BOWLINE] Ship, trans-Atlantic/braces (THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY 1858)

- "Pay me the money down!/Pay me the money down!" [MONEY DOWN] and "And the young gals goes a weepin'" [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN] and "O long storm, storm along stormy" [STORMY] Ship, trans-Atlantic/brake pump (The Atlantic Monthly 1858)

- "Highland day and off she goes/Highland day and off she goes." [HILONDAY?] Ship, unknown/topsail halyards (Atlantic Monthly 1858)

1858, Dec.

- "Heigho, heave and go/Heigho, heave and go'' and "Hurrah, storm along!/Storm along my stormies"[STORMY] and "Hurrah! we're homeward bou-ou-ound!/Hurrah! we're homeward bound" [OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND] Brake windlass (Allen 1858)

- "Oh haulee, heigho, cheeryman!" [CHEERLY] topsail halyards (Allen 1858)

- "Heigh Jim along, Jim along Josey, Heigh Jim along, Jim along Jo!" Blacks rowing (Allen 1858)

c.1858-1860

- "Whiskey for Johnny!" Packet ship MARY BRADFORD, London > NY/ to "pull round the yards" (Real Experiences 187?)

1859, Feb

- the "A-a-b'la A-a-b'la!" "E-e-cha! E-e-cha!" of the caldron-men crying to the stokers, and the high, monotonous chant of the gangs filling the wagons or the trough, a short, improvisated stave, and then the chorus;—not a tune, like the song of sailors at the tackles and falls but a barbaric, tuneless intonation, Cuba, sugar plantation/non-maritime work-singing of slaves (Dana 1859)

c.1859-60

- "O, Riley, O" [OH RILEY] and "Whiskey for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Storm along, my Rosa"[STORMY] Barque GUIDE Boston > Zanzibar/ brake windlass (Clark 1867)

c.1860-61

- "Rolling River" [SHENANDOAH] and "Cheerily she goes" and "Oh, Riley, Oh" [OH RILEY] and "Carry me Long" [WALK HIM ALONG] Clipper ship, Bombay > NY/raising anchor (Clark 1867)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Jan 11 - 05:36 AM

1840s

Summary:

African-American songs of many types. Just one rowing song, in Georgia (perhaps this practice was becoming obsolete?). However, fireman songs come in as a possible influence. Corn-sucking songs in South Carolina, with proto-chanty themes. Perhaps most profound are the cotton-stowing references at Mobile and New Orleans, especially because they directly share shipboard themes as the prior "Highland Laddie" and coming "Stormy." This work is most significant as a place where two different working cultures met: Black shoreside work gangs, with their concept of the dedicated chanty-man, and Euro/American sailors, who moved between professions.

"Grog Time" appears again as a stevedore's song -- and appears as one of the first clear examples of a modern halyard chanty when used on a run by a brig out of New York.

The Black songs seem to have fed the minstrel genre to some degree. Songs connected to or resembling "Tally," "Blow Boys Blow," "Stormy," and "Fire Down Below" are all ones for which we could make a good case had inspired, rather than were inspired by, their minstrel cognates.

While the "Blow Boys Blow" lyrics have a downhome Southern touch about them, we also see the possibility that "Row, Billy, Row" was a transformation of an old style heaving song.

Speaking of which, the old yo-ho's and "cheerl'y" are still plentiful. Among them, songs that stand out as "modern" chanties are "Hundred Years Ago," "Stormy," "Across the Briny Ocean." Their symmetrical (or binary, balanced) form certainly is well suited to the brake windlass, and, when specified, they seem most applied to that function. I am not seeing any other (except Grog Time) explicitly named as a halyard song.

The phrase "roll and go" appears for the first time, twice in this decade.

*I am leaving out the last (Clark) reference; I don't trust it as a reliable source for this period.

Sources:

c.1840s

- "grog time o' day." [GROG TIME] Clipper-brig CURLEW, New York >Hamburg/ halyards (Rice 1850)

- "yeo, heave ho", Clipper-brig CURLEW, New York>Hamburg, [spoke?] windlass

- "Oh-ye-hoy" brigantine, M--, "the Downs" [English Channel]/ windlass (Chapman 1876) [1840]

- "Cheerily, men!" [CHEERLY], brigantine, M--, "the Downs" [English Channel]/catting anchor (Chapman 1876) [1840]

- all hands clapped on to the weather main topsail brace, and hauled on it with a will, and with a "Yo— he—hoy!" and clap on a rope and sing out, "Oh—heave—hoy !" brigantine, M--, Melbourne/braces (Chapman 1876) [1840]

1840, Feb.

- The usual cry is "Ho! Ho! Hoi!" or "Ho! Ho! Heavo!" Whaler, New London > Pacific/hauling (Olmsted 1841).

- "Ho! Ho! and up she rises/Ear-ly in the morn-ing" [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and "Nancy Fanana, she married a barber/Heave her away, and heave her away [HAUL 'ER AWAY]
halyard

- "O! hurrah my hearties O!" short haul to extract whale tooth

1841

- "Grog time o' day/Oh, hoist away" [GROG TIME] New Orleans/stevedores loading a steamboat (THE NEGRO SINGER'S OWN BOOK ca1843-45; THE ART OF BALLET 1915)

1842, February

- casting huge sticks of wood into the mouths of the row of yawning furnaces beneath the serried boilers,accompanying their labor by a loud and not unmusical song, steamboat, Ohio River/Black fireman (THE BALTIMORE PHOENIX AND BUDGET 1842)

1842, April

- "Cheerily, oh cheerily," [CHEERLY] Ship HUNTRESS, New York > China/ hoisting guns from hold (Lowrie 1849)

1842, Sept.

- "O ee roll & go/O ho roll & go" [SALLY BROWN?] whaleship TASKAR/song in diary (Creighton 1995)

1842, October

- "Heave him up! O he yo!" Canary Islands/spoke windlass (Browne 1846).

c. 1843[or earlier]

- "A darkey band and a darkey crew, Tally ya ha higho!" [TALLY] rowing song, minstrel collection (Negro Singer's 184x)

- "Oh, ah, oh, ah/Dah, da, tiddle dum de da," lyrics evoke "Blow Boy, Blow," minstrel collection (Negro Singer's 184x)

1843, March

- "Oh hollow!/Oh hollow!" [HILO?] and "Jenny gone away," [TOMMY'S GONE?] and "Dan, dan, who's the dandy?" [the monkey-song] and "John John Crow/ John John Crow" [JOHN CROW] South Carolina/corn-shucking (Duyckinck, 1866)

1843-1846

- the firemen struck up one of those singularly wild and impressive glees which negroes alone can sing effectively, Steamboat, Mississippi valley (Illinois)/Black firemen (Regan 1859)

1844

- "Oh, the captain's gone ashore/Hie bonnie laddie, and we'll all go ashore" [GROG TIME?] Mobile Bay/cotton-stowing (Hill 1893).

- "Cheerily men, ho!" [CHEERLY] Port Adelaide/remembering a ship's song (Lloyd 1846)

1844, August

- "Round the corner, Sally!" [ROUND THE CORNER] Society Islands/local imitation of sailor's song (Lucett)

1844-45

- The crew was made up of the hardest kind of men; they were called "hoosiers,"
working in New Orleans or Mobile during the winter at stowing ships with cotton, and in the summer sailing in the packet ships. They were all good chantey men; that is, they could all sing at their…we could reef and hoist all three topsails at once, with a different song for each one, Packet ship TORONTO, NY > London/re: cotton-stowing (Low 1906)

- "Roll and go for that white pitcher, roll and go," London/unloading cargo w/ capstan

1845, Feb.

"Ho, O, heave O" heaving anchor (American Journal of Music and Musical Visitor 1845)

- "Row, Billy, row," [BLOW BOYS BLOW?] American sailor returned from Mediterranean/rowing

1845, Sept.

- "Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] and "Fire, maringo, fire away" [MARINGO] Ship CHARLES CAROL, New Orleans/cotton-stowing (Erskine 1896)

1845, Dec.

- rowed by six negroes, who were singing loudly, and keeping time to the stroke of their oars, Alatamaha river, GA/Black rowing (Lyell 1849)

c.1845-1851

- "Carry him along, boys, carry him along/ Carry him to the burying-ground" [WALK HIM ALONG] and "Hurrah, see—man—do/Oh, Captain, pay me dollar" and "Fire, maringo, fire away" [MARINGO] and "Bonnie laddie, highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] many of the screw-gangs have an endless collection of songs, Mobile Bay/cotton-stowing (Nordhoff 1855)

- "Tally hi o you know" [TALLY] Whaleship/weighing anchor (Brewster & Druett 1992)

c.1846-1852

- "Oh sailors where are you bound to/Across the briny ocean" [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN] Packet ship, Liverpool > Philadelphia/ pump windlass (Nordhoff 1855)

1848

- "O! bullies, O!/A hundred years ago!" [HUNDRED YEARS] and "storm along, stormy!" [STORMY] Hawai'i/non-working, whaling territory (Perkins 1854)

- "Round the corn, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Clear the way when Sambo come" corn-shucking, general (AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, July 1848)

- "Storm along Stormy" [STORMY] minstrel song collection (White 1854)

- "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!/Fire down below" [SAILOR FIREMAN] minstrel song collection (White 1854)

- "Fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire/Den tote dat bucket ob water, [boys?]/Dar's fire down below" [FIRE FIRE] minstrel song collection (White 1854)

[1848-1855: California Gold Rush]

1849, March

- "O, yes, O!/ A hundred years ago" [HUNDRED YEARS] Steamer OREGON, Panama > San Francisco/ at the capstan and windlass (Thurston 1851)

1849 (ideal look back)

- "We'll kill Paddy Doyle for his boots" [PADDY DOYLE] clipper ship, New York harbor (ideal) / walking away with slack (?) of halyards (Clark 1912)

- "Whiskey, Johnny/Whiskey for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] clipper ship, New York harbor (ideal) / topsail halyards (Clark 1912)

- "Lowlands, lowlands, hurra, my boys/My dollar and a half a day" [LOWLANDS AWAY] clipper ship, New York harbor (ideal) / anchor capstan (Clark 1912)

- "Hah, hah, rolling John," clipper ship, New York harbor (ideal) / catting anchor (Clark 1912)

- "Oh, poor Paddy works on the railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] clipper ship, New York harbor (ideal) / brake windlass (Clark 1912)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 09:38 PM

Dibdin's reference to "yo, heave ho!" at the capstan dates from 1798.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 08:56 PM

1830s

Summary:

Quite a significant increase in references to this decade. The brake/pump windlass comes into existence in this decade.

African-American worksongs:
Rowing in North Carolina, Georgia, Guyana, Maryland, Florida (twice), and on the Ohio River. We also see phrases from corn shucking and cotton stowing songs that match rowing ("Jenny Gone Away") and bear similarity to chanties. The riverboat firemen also sing "wild" songs, The stevedores' songs at the capstan in Guyana are "never-ceasing."

More texts of capstan songs in British vessels. They don't seem to have much by way of choruses. "Cheerly" continues to be used for hauling in deepwater vessels, along with the various yo-heave-ho's. A reference from the English Channel from as late as 1840 suggests that this was still basically the "system" in British vessels.

Pointing the way, I think, to the chanties as we would come to know them, a U.S. ship uses a capstan song "Bonny laddie, Highland laddie." Note, however, that while this march-like song is quite consistent with many later chanties, the ship was still using "Cheer'ly" for hauling. It's possible that at this time "halyard chanties" (double-pull form) had not yet come into general use.


"Grog time" and "Off to Georgia" themes continue in the Black songs.
"Sally" is a part of different songs across the board. There is a "ho! Sally, ho!" and "Roun' de corn, Sally!" for rowing. Dana used "Round the corner, Sally" for driving hides in California. There's a "and sing Sally-ho!" for halyards crossing the Atlantic. The latter phrase seems to have been picked up as a model for the Norwegian poet Wergeland's capstan songs. And at the brake windlass in America there is "Oh! Sally Brown."

Two references are particularly illustrative. Weston 1836 shows a ship on a translatlantic voyage at a time when, I would argue, chanties had still yet to hit the scene. It is great because it does note chants for halyards, heaving, braces, and even holystoning. Some kind of singing-out had become a definite need in packet ships, therefore. However, the hauling chants are the already established "Cheer'ly" and "Sally-ho!", and the heaving was the familiar "yo heave ho." What is fascinating is that the observer of these ends up at a minstrel performance in New York, where songs like "Coal Black Rose" (later adapted as a chanty) were performed. One could imagine a scenario whereby, in the 1830s, chanting has become useful on ships and where minstrel songs were about to become a major influence.

The second, more familiar reference is Dana. Writing about the same time, I submit that the scene he describes is quite comparable to Weston. We again get the sense that singing-out had become standard for various tasks, but that the cries are of the older sort, with the rudimentary "heave round hearty" phrases. Also, Dana's comment about how the Italians sang while rowing while his people had not yet learned that technique, is striking. What I think most jumps out of Dana, by way of pointing towards chanties, are the titles "Captain gone ashore!", "Time for us to go!", and "Round the corner, Sally". The first and last might very well be connected to the "Grog Time" and "Round the Corn" songs that had previously been noted only among African-American workers. (**Also, "Tally hi O" should be in there somewhere -- I may have to revise my list to reflect the various Dana editions.)

Also notable in the last regard are the alleged references to Tahitians having picked up the sailor songs of "Round the Corner," "Bottle O," and "Tally," as the first two, again, can be traced to Black rowing songs -- which we might imagine had been adopted by deepwater men.

Sources:

1830s

- "Oh, Jenny gone away" [TOMMY'S GONE?] Virginia/corn-shucking ("The Family Magazine" 1835)

1830

- "Sally was a fine girl, ho! Sally, ho!" Cape Fear River, North Carolina/Blacks rowing (Cecelski 2001)

1831

- "De neger like the bottley oh!" [BOTTLE O] and "Velly well, yankee, velly well oh" Guyana/Blacks rowing (Alexander, 1833)

- their never-ceasing songs, as they walked round the capstan, or when "screwing" or "swamping" sugars in the hold, schooner CLEOPATRA, Georgetown, Guyana/Blacks loading sugar+molasses [fiction?](THE LOG OF MY LEISURE HOURS, 1868)

[1832: Invention of Dobinson's pump windlass]

1832[or earlier]

- "Pull away now, my Nancy, O!" and/with "To the Greenland sea/ Black although she be" East India Company ship/capstan (THE QUID 1832)

1832

- "I'm gwine to leave de ole county (O-ho! O-ho!)/I'm sold off to Georgy! (O-ho! O-ho!)" and "Roun' de corn, Sally!" [ROUND THE CORNER] Maryland/Blacks rowing (Hungerford 1859)

1832-33

- the wild song of the negro fire-men, Ohio River/steamboat firemen (Latrobe 1835)

1833

- "'Tis grog time o' day!" [GROG TIME] rowing on ocean ("Waldie's Select Circulating Library," Dec. 1833)

1833, July

- "Pull away, my hearty boys—pull away so cheerily," ship JOHN DENNISON, Greenock (Scotland) > New York/warping out (hauling – hand over hand?) (Weston 1836)

- "Then pull away strongly, boys, and sing Sally-ho!," ship JOHN DENNISON, Greenock (Scotland) > New York/halyards (Weston 1836)

- The windlass went cheerily round with the assistance of the emigrants, who lent a willing hand. The words "Yo heave "ho!" were sung cheerily by one of the seamen at the bar, ship JOHN DENNISON, Greenock (Scotland) > New York/windlass (capstan?) (Weston 1836)

- The yards were braced round to catch the wind, accompanied by songs of various metres, according to the length of the pull and the number pulling, ship JOHN DENNISON, Greenock (Scotland) > New York/braces (Weston 1836)

- The seamen were put to holystone the deck, and as they rubbed, one of them sung a song, rubbing and keeping time, ship JOHN DENNISON, Greenock (Scotland) > New York/holystoning (Weston 1836)

- "O rose, de coal-black rose!" [COAL BLACK ROSE], New York/minstrel performance (probably T.D. Rice) attended by sailors (Weston 1836)

1834, Feb.

- Their extemporaneous songs at the oar, St. Johns River, FL/Blacks rowing (Brown 1853)

1834, Aug-1836

- "singing out" at the ropes in their hoarse and peculiar strains, brig PILGRIM

- "Heave, to the girls!" and "Nancy oh!" and "Jack Cross-tree," brig PILGRIM/ songs for capstans and falls

- "Heave round hearty!" and "Captain gone ashore!" and "Time for us to go!" and "Round the corner, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!" brig PILGRIM, California coast/driving in the hides (pull)

- the loud cry of "Yo heave ho! Heave and pawl! Heave hearty ho!" brig PILGRIM/spoke windlass

- Sailors, when heaving at a windlass, in order that they may heave together, always have one to sing out; which is done in a peculiar, high and long-drawn note, varying with the motion of the windlass

- "Cheerily, men!" [CHEERLY] brig PILGRIM/catting anchor

- lightening their labors in the boats by their songs, Italians rowing (Dana 1840ff)

1835

- A line was sung by a leader, then all joined in a short chorus; then came another solo line, and another short chorus, followed by a longer chorus, Jacksonville, FL/Blacks rowing (Kennard 1845)

- Our sailors at Newcastle, in heaving their anchors, have their "Heave and ho! rum-below!", English author speaking gen. of work-songs throughout the ages (Disraeli 1835)

1835, September

- "Ho! cheerly" [CHEERLY] US ship PEACOCK, the Gulf of Mazeira [coast of Arabia]/ as they marched round the capstan, or hauled in the hawser by hand (Howland 1840)

- "Bonny laddie, Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] capstan (Howland 1840)

1837, April

- "Oh! Sally Brown" (peculiarly musical, although not refined) [SALLY BROWN] Ship QUEBEC, Portsmouth >New York/pump windlass (Marryat 1837)

1838-39

- "Jenny gone away" [TOMMY'S GONE?] and "Fare you well, and good-by, oh, oh!/oh, oh!" Altamaha River, Georgia/Blacks rowing (Kemble 1864)

1838, June

Brief: 1838, June - The fall was manned, the song rose cheerily on the morning air, whaling ship HUDSON, Brazil/ halyards (Hazen 1854)

1838, December

- "Fire the ringo, fire away!" [MARINGO] Mobile/cotton-screwing (Gosse 1859)

1838-1843

- "Sing, Sally! Oh!" and "Singsallijo!/ Singsallijo! / Hurra! Hurra! for Singsallijo!", composed, published Sjömandsviser (sailor songs) for Norwegian sailors by Henrik Wergeland/mainly for capstan? (Wergeland 1853)

1839, Sept.

- "Fire down below!" [SAILOR FIREMAN] Dramatic scene in a steamboat/Black fireman (BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY 1839)

- "So early in the morning the Sailor loves his bottle oh," [BOTTLE O] and "Round the corner, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Tally Ho, you know" [TALLY] & a dozen others, Tahiti/local women singing sailor songs (Reynolds and Philbrick)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 07:03 PM

1820s

Summary:

The War of 1812 has recently ended; the Black Ball Line as started.

On Euro/American vessels, the fife is still noted to inspire both capstan and halyards. As for texts in that cultural context (and I hope I am not mixing up military versus merchant vessels here), phrases like "yo, heave ho!" and "Haul way, yeo ho, boys!" are remembered. We also get one more elaborate description of, I suppose, what would have been the ad-libbed and incidental (an therefore less liable to be transcribed) parts that came after/between the heave ho's: repeated, non-rhyming phrases (see the 1829 reference). Well, that is for long, heaving tasks. For hauling, we see our first detailed transcription if a "cheerly" chant.

I made the mistake earlier of saying that the French references to "chanter" etc. suggested it was a dying practice. It is at *this* time that the definitions are revised (i.e. from the 1790s ones) to suggest that these were "former" practices.

African-Americans are heard to sing as they row in Virginia, Georgia, and St. Thomas. These songs tend to resemble halyard chanties.

Sources:

1820s

- Send up that drunken fifer, Tom, and let him play Yankee Doodle, ship TRAVELER, New York > Rio, Brazil/capstan (Rural Repository 1836)

- up went the topsail yards to the inspiring tones of the fife, ship TRAVELER, New York > Rio, Brazil/topsail halyards (Rural Repository 1836)

1821

- "It's oh! as I was a walking out, One morning in July, I met a maid, who ax'd my trade" [NEW YORK GIRLS?] and "All the way to Shawnee town/Pull away - pull away!"
Ohio River, Parkersburg,VA/rowing (Hall 1821)

1822[or earlier]

- "Fine time o' day" Saint Thomas/Blacks rowing (Wentworth 1834).

1825

- CHANTER…Vieil usage de faire crier quelques hommes qu'on nommait chanteurs, pour donner le signal de réunion d'efforts àfaire par plusieurs sur une bouline, ou pour toute autre opération qu'on exécute dans les ports et sur les grands bâtimens, and BOULINA-HA-HA! Arrache! Boulina-ha-ha, déralingue! etc. Ancien chant des matelots français pendant qu'ils bâient sur les quatre principales boulines, and HISSA, O, HA , HISSE: chant de l'homme qui donne la voix pour réunir les efforts de plusieurs autres sur un même cordage afin de produire un plus grand effet, French maritime dictionary (Willaumez 1825)

1825, July

- the sailor sent forth his long and slow-toned "yeo— heave — oh!" Brig leaving Quebec/windlass (Finan 1825).

- "Oh, yeo, cheerly" [CHEERLY] Brig leaving Quebec/topsail halyards (Finan 1825)

1826>

- So I seized a capstan bar…And, in spite of sighs and tears, sung out, yo, heave ho!, Dibdin's song, "Tom Tough" (Universal Songster 1826)

c.1826

- "Haul way, yeo ho, boys!" London/Navy sailors in a pub ("Waldie's select circulating library", 1833)

1828, March

- a wild sort of song, Alatamaha River, Georgia/Black rowing (Hall)

1829

- they began their song, one of them striking up, seemingly with the first idea that entered his imagination, while the others caught at his words, and repeated them to a kind of Chinese melody; the whole at length uniting their voices into one chant, which, though evidently the outpouring of a jovial spirit, had, from its unvaried tone and constant echo of the same expression, a half-wild, half-melancholy effect upon the ear. …It had begun with "Yah! yah! here's a full ship for the captain, and a full pannikin for Peytie Pevterson, la— la—lalla—la—leh; but this sentence, after many repetitions, was changed for others of briefer duration and more expressive import, as they coursed after each other with intoxicating rapidity… Fictional whaleship/capstan ("Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean", 1829)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 06:24 PM

1810s

Summary:

A plethora of African-American worksongs are noted. Rowing songs in Antigua, Virgin Islands, South Carolina (twice), and Maryland or Virginia. "Going Away to Georgia" has so far been a repeated theme.

Black Americans in Georgia are noted to sing while stowing cotton.

And stevedores in Jamaica sing while working the capstan. One of their songs, "Grog Time of Day," is shared with boat rowers.

In European ships, we get reference to the fife and drums accompanying the capstan.

Perhaps significantly, the European/Euro-American observers of the African-American songs have not made comparison to any shipboard songs from their tradition.

Sources:

1811

- "Grog time of day" [GROG TIME] Jamaica/stevedores at capstan (Hay 1953)

- "Oh, huro, my boys/Oh, huro boys O" Jamaica/stevedores at capstan (Hay 1953)

[1812-1815 : War of 1812]

c.1812-1839

- "Fire! in the main-top/Fire! down below" [FIRE FIRE] USS CONSTITUTION/out of context (not a work song), poss. War of 1812 log (GENTLEMEN'S MAGAZINE, Oct. 1839)

c.1814-15

- "Grog time a day" [GROG TIME] Antigua/Blacks rowing (SERVICE AFLOAT, 1833)

- "Heigh me know, bombye me takey" Virgin Islands/Blacks rowing (SERVICE AFLOAT, 1833)

- the drums and fifes merrily play, Round the capstan we dance; We soon hear the song,
"Heave, heave, my brave boys, and in sight." Poem/capstan (1825)

[1816: Start of the Blackball Line]

1816, mid

- "Going away to Georgia, ho, heave, O!/ho, heave, O!" Maryland or Virginia/Blacks rowing (Paulding 1817)

1818

- the negroes' song while stowing away the cotton, Savannah, GA/cotton-stowing (Harris 1821)

1819, June

– the galley-slaves all singing songs in chorus, regulated by the motion of their oars, Charleston SC/Blacks rowing (Faux 1823)

c.1819-1835

- "Hi de good boat Neely/Ho yoi!", plantation near Charleston, SC/Black rowing (Gilman 1838)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 04:24 PM

To me, Falconer's "sort of song" suggests more than a sing-out, less than a fully developed melody.

Think of vendors' street cries: "sort of" songs.

I am with you.

Something with three or four distinguishable notes perhaps. "Little Sally Rackett" may be a little more primitive melodically than the related "Cheer'ly Man." Maybe an abbreviated "LSR" with a "Cheer-i-lee Man" chorus?

Your comment reminds me that I wanted to elaborate on what I am imagining re: how "cheerly" and "sally brown oh ho" possibly refer to more or less the same chant.

My proposal is that instead of connecting the "sally brown" in these references to later "Sally Brown" chanties (i.e. about the "bright mulatto," etc.), it may just be part of "Cheer'ly." The name of "Sally Brown" may have functioned just like "Sally Racket," "Polly Riddle," etc. Compare to Hugill's "Oh Sally Racket, hi o! -- cheerly man!"

The found phrases "Sally Brown, oh, ho," and "Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!" are, arguably, appreciably distinct from the sort of "way hey roll and go" or "spend my money on Sally Brown" that we'd expect to find in the Sally Brown chantey form.

However, in time, Marryat's windlass song "Oh! Sally Brown," which has the "bright mulatto" theme and which has a similarly primitive and yet wholly distinct form from Cheer'ly kind of messes up that theory!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 03:02 PM

To me, Falconer's "sort of song" suggests more than a sing-out, less than a fully developed melody.

Think of vendors' street cries: "sort of" songs.

Something with three or four distinguishable notes perhaps. "Little Sally Rackett" may be a little more primitive melodically than the related "Cheer'ly Man." Maybe an abbreviated "LSR" with a "Cheer-i-lee Man" chorus?

Sheer conjecture is fun even when groundless.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 05:25 AM

1800s

Summary: The African-American rowing songs continue to appear, in Surinam and Georgia.

We get the idea that the common cry for heaving capstan or windlass on ships was "Yo heave ho."

It's possible that by this decade (if not 2 decades later), two hauling phrases/chants/songs existed. One is CHEERLY and the other uses "Sally Brown oh!" These are possibly related or one and the same (cf. the Sally Racket style song).

Sources:

c.1800s-1820s

- "Cheerly men" [CHEERLY] (conjecture based on comment of "time out of mind," in UNITED SERVICES JOURNAL 1834)

1805

- eight stout negroes, who sing in chorus all the way, Surinam/Black rowing (Sack 1810)

c.1805-1820s

- "Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!" Possibly, British war ship (Robinson 1858)

c.1806

- "Aye, aye/ Yoe, yoe" Savannah River, Georgia/Blacks rowing (Lambert 1810)

1806, June

- "Yo, heave ho!" as if heaving at the capstan or windlass, Jamaica > NY (European Magazine 1807)

c.1808-1826

- a common sailors' chant in character, having a sort of 'Sally Brown, oh, ho,' chorus; and requiring the action of pulling a rope, London stage (Clason 1826)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 05:16 AM

I will be making an effort, now, to take stock of the references up through the 1880s as included here. Because there is so much material now, I will make an effort to summarize (roughly) each decade as I go.

18TH CENTURY (1750s-1790s)

Summary: British and French vessels had a practice of singing or chanting or howling cries to coordinate their labor during certain tasks. This goes back until at least about the 1750s. "Ve'a" and "Voix" (French) are given as tow terms for this in the 1770s-80s. The texts of these cries are not noted. By the 1790s, "chanter" was a French verb referring to the act of these cries, and "chanteur" referred to the lead crier. The French sources give the sense that the practice (though not necessarily the terms) were old and had more recently declined, e.g. under military influence.

From the 1770s, African-American rowing songs are noted in South Carolina (twice) and Guyana. They are improvised, traditional, plaintive.

Here are the listings:

1750s-1760s

- a sort of Song pronounced by one of the number, Europeans/spoke windlass (Falconer 1784)

1775

- Seamen at the windlafs, and on other occafions, fing, that they may all act together, incidental mention in an essay in British journal (GENTLEMAN'S 1775)

- Ve'a…The cry made by failors when they pull or heave together, dictionary entry (Ash 1775)

1777

- singing their plaintive African songs, in cadence with the oars, Georgetown, SC/Black rowing (Watson 1856)

1780

- Voix…The fong employed by failors, as in hauling hoifting, heaving, &c, French-English dictionary (Boyer 1780)

1792

- Chanter…To song…cris de convention, pour donner le signal , de l'instant ou plusieurs hommes employés à une même operation, and Chanteur…Ouvrier qui agissant concurremment avec d'autres, leur donne le signal, par un cri de convention,
French maritime dictionary (1792 Romme)

1790s

- "gnyaam gnyaam row" Demerara River, Georgetown, Guyana/Blacks rowing (Pinckard 1806).

c.1790s-1800s

- canoe-rowing songs, partly traditionary, partly improvised Charleston, SC/Black rowing (as per Grayson)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 03:14 AM

"Yo, heave ho!" -- as a phrase -- has been noted numerous times. I think we've generally seen that it constituted a sort of chant in the pre-"chanties" days. It's still not totally clear to me if it was at all more like a song, if it had more complicated texts, etc. But I have a few more references, to add to the picture.

1807 "A Gentleman Lately Returned from the West Indies." "Descriptions, Remarks, Anecdotes, and Sentiments, during a Voyage from the West Indies to North America, and from thence to England, and during the Author's Rambles in the two latter Countries." _The European Magazine and London Review_ 51 (Feb. 1807). pp110-

It's a voyage in June 1806 from Jamaica to New York.

//
About two o'clock P.M. our poor cook died; and soon after, having read the funeral service over him, his body was committed to the deep. An affecting circumstance of him [ cannot forbear here to relate. In the morning he was extremely weak, and some what delirious. The Captain went to see him, and asked him how he was. The poor fellow said he was "Pretty well," and began to sing out " Yo, heave ho!" as if heaving at the capstan or windlass; but soon feeling, as it were, the hand of death already on him, he called out, "Come my boys, heave away bv yourselves, for I can't any longer lend you a hand."
//

***

Dibdin's song, "Tom Tough." This taken from an anthology, _The Universal Songster_ Vol. 3 (London: John Fairburn, 1826).

//
...   
    So I seized a capstan bar.
    Like a true honest tar,
And, in spite of sighs and tears, sung out, yo, heave ho!
//

***
1854 Unknown. "Down the River." _The Leisure Hour_ 149 (2 Nov. 1854). pp. 698-700.

Musings on the Thames and the Port of London.

//
One moment it is the roaring of our captain to some self-willed coal-barge a-head, which has strayed into our track, and threatens us with a sudden stoppage or a collison—then it is the rattling crash of some cataract of Wall's-end into a lighter—then it is the shrill cry of the sailor-boy at the mast-head of some tall ship, or the "yo heave-ho!" of the men at the capstan who are warping her into dock, where she will discharge her cargo...
//

***

1853 Sherer, John, ed. _The Gold-Finder of Australia_.London: Clarke, Beeton, & Co.

Vignettes of the Australian Gold Rush. Preface dated July 1853. Author left England in fall of 1851 on the MARY ANN. Goes to Melbourne. The musical activities of the encamped gold diggers is described. pg. 75

//
In my opinion, life in any situation is always apt to degenerate into monotony, unless it is diversified by both physical and mental exertion— at least, so have I ever found it; and even the diggings, with all their excitement, would have engendered ennui, had other resources than gold-seeking not opened themselves, of a more ideal or intellectual character. These were found in the music, the dancing, and the literature of the diggers, all of which were of such a mixed and various kind that their quality might readily be mercifully dealt with, in consideration of the variety which they offered to the gratification of the senses. The musical instruments consisted chiefly of accordions and flutes; here and there a stray fiddle might be heard within the precincts of some Irish tent, or a cornet-a-piston blowing mellowly from the lips of some German, who sent its notes swelling over the ranges or amongst the woods with a sweep that transported the ear far beyond the sounds of the cradle or the pick. A German hymn, sung in chorus, would occasionally relieve this, which again would be lost in the ruder throats of a party of our own Anglo-Saxon seamen, who, with "Yo, heave ho !'' or some such capstan or windlass chorus, would rend the air as one would think they were endeavouring to do their lungs from the stentorian force with which, every now and then, they would commence the first note of the burden of their song. All this was, more or less, to be heard nightly; but it was on Saturday evening, when the end of the week had brought to a close the toils of the labourer, that enjoyment was more particularly on the wing...
//

http://books.google.com/books?id=F80NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA75&dq=%22yo,+heave,+ho%22+cap

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 01:33 AM

1885        Runciman, James. Skippers and Shellbacks. London: Chatto and Windus.

Son of coastguardsman Walter Runciman. Also a journalist; may have been familiar with some shanty articles. These are short stories, some of which mention shanties.

In "The Chief Mate's Trouble." Set in 1870. A barque leaving port. A chorus from RIO GRANDE.

//
There was plenty for me to do without thinking of sentiment; yet, sweating and breathless as I was, I had time to feel sad when the shanty-man struck up, "Away down Rio." The chorus goes:

Then away, love, away,
Away down Rio.
O, fare you well, my pretty young girl,
We're bound for the Rio Grande.

We were giving her the weight of the topsails, and all the fellows were roaring hard at the shanty, when I saw what I wanted to see. My bonny was out on the end of the jetty....
//

In "An Old Pirate." Set after 1878.

//
I guessed what Tom meant, and a few minutes afterwards I hummed the shanty—

"So where they have gone to, there's no one can tell—
   Brandy and gin and a bottle of rum;
But I think we shall meet the poor devils in hell,
   Brandy and gin and a bottle of rum."

Tom turned sharp.
"You know it, do you 1 Many's the time I've heard that for an hour on end when we was having idle time, and the stuff was plenty. Know any more V
I sang—

"We went over the bar on the 13th of May,
   Brandy and gin and a bottle of rum;
The Galloper jumped, and the gale came away,
   Oh ! brandy and gin and a bottle of rum."

"You ain't got it right. You've heerd it aboard a collier, maybe?"
I had heard the wicked shanty on board a collier brig, as it happened, but my version was corrupt. The gruesome song which Mr. Louis Stevenson lately printed is also corrupt. In fact, Mr. Stevenson's verse is so artistically horrible that I rather fancy he composed it himself.
//

I assume he's referring to "yo ho ho and a bottle of rum." He may be fanciful in calling this a "shanty."

In "Lancelot Hinhaugh's Long Voyage."

//
...Then he starts singing again one of the ordinary capstan songs with a chorus, and you could hear the hum of his voice all over, for there was no wind to speak about. He climbs into the boat, and I went by him careless like, and he says, "Damn the thing! I can't get it right. Here, you, tell the carpenter this is his job; and so he gets the only man near out of the way. Then, with his back to me, he sings rather low:

"Look out to-night in the middle watch—
    Roar, my boys, I like to hear you;
Oh ! keep your eye on all the lot,
   And, my Way-O, we'll make her ring.'

You would have thought he was only going through a common shanty, as the men will do at their work; but I heard the words plain, and I knew the time was come for me. Before the man came back from the carpenter, the sailor went on:

"Keep your eye on Donovan—
Cheerly, men in the Quebec Line;
He's got the rope to throw round your arms—
I-oh, cheerly men, cheerly men.
I'll stand by as long as I can—
Cheerly men, why don't you sing?
But there's just me and Jimmy to face the gang—
I-oh, cheerly men, cheerly men."
//

Using chanties to send messages! Well, the second is similar to CHEERLY, but it may be all made up.

In "A Chapter of Accidents." Ship bound for Boston.

//
The second mate was a fine young chap, and a good seaman, but the trouble unmanned him and he lost his senses. He began to try singing shanties, and his hoarse shrieks were awful to hear in the pauses of the gale. With chattering teeth and contorted face, he yelled:

"Now, my bully boys, all get ready,
   We'll be stiff when the sun shall rise;
And here's to the dead already,
   And hurrah for the next that dies."

Then they heard him sing:

"The standards was gone and the chains they was jammed—
   With a heigh-ho, blow the man down;
And the skipper, says he, 'Let the weather be damned—
    Oh, give me some time to blow the man down.'"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 12:42 AM

I also see Smith may have been influenced from reading James Runciman's _Skippers and Shellbacks_. I'll dig that one out in a bit.

***

Smith's _Music of the Waters_ was reviewed in _The Musical Times_ Vol. 30 for 1 July, 1889. Here are some excerpts.

The water music, however, with which Miss Smith has to deal is of a particular sort, and is primarily confined to those songs known as "chanties" (pronounced shanties, probably from the French chanter), which are sung by the sailors of the mercantile marine at their work, at the fo'c'sle head or during the dog watches.

"Chanty" was obviously not entirely common, and the author got it mixed up.

The fact that a large number of sailors' songs are primarily employed to regulate their movements in the performance of some manual labour, may prepare us for the apparently meaningless and perfunctory nature of the words attached to them. No doubt there is a substratum of sense somewhere, but one has to dive very deep to discover any coherence in the literature of the capstan-bar. Take, for example, "Old Stormy," of which the following lines may serve as a sample :—
...
The foregoing lines are decidedly difficult to construe —almost as difficult as the astounding English versions set to Brahms's new Part-songs (Op. 104), by Mrs. John P. Morgan, of New York. There are, of course, some good songs—from the literary point of view—in the repertory of the sailor, whether blue jacket or merchant manner, but they are few and farbetween. "Home, dearie,home," given on page 25, is a touching and pathetic ballad; but Miss Smith has erred in imagining it to be an old established favourite, and beguiled some of her reviewers into the same error; the words being really an admirable imitation of the old style from the clever pen of Mr. W. E. Henley. Miss Smith has a superabundance of enthusiasm, but she is conspicuously bereft of all critical instinct....

This want of arrangement pervades the whole book and deprives it of all value as a work of reference. Furthermore, the musical illustrations are almost invariably characterised by blunders of the grossest order. For example, on page 255, the Russian National Anthem is given with no less than eight solecisms—an inexcusable proceeding when one reflects that Miss Smith could have found it correctly given in at least a dozen collections. But we can almost forgive Miss Smith anything in our gratitude for the delightful bull which she has perpetrated on the following page. ...

;-D

Now there is a good deal to admire in this strange scrap-book of Miss Smith's—notably her enthusiasm in her subject. But it would be idle to pretend that she has fulfilled her aim. That aim, as we said at the outset, is an admirable one, but it has not been achieved by Miss Smith. Only a scholar and a musician could do justice to such a subject, and she unfortunately is neither.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 11:16 PM

Thank God I'm finally done logging in the chanties from L.A. Smith's MUSIC OF THE WATERS! Now to summarize its contents.

The following are the shanties named or described, and where I think they most probably came from. I am only noting songs offered as chanties (though sometimes it is ambiguous), so for example I am not including "Spanish Ladies," which Smith quotes from Chappell's old work and not as a shanty. I name the chanties according to their "tag" titles that I have been using fairly consistently.

1. 1858 Atlantic Monthly:

BOWLINE
"Highland day and off she goes"
PAY ME THE MONEY DOWN

The first two were also in the 1869 Chambers's article, however, because I don't locate "Pay Me the Money Down" anywhere else (?), I feel Smith must have read this article, too.

2. 1869 Chambers's Journal:

OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND
SACRAMENTO
PADDY LAY BACK
SANTIANA
"Oceanida"
"Johnny's Gone"
"The Black Ball Line"
SLAPANDERGOSHEKA
HANDY MY BOYS

This means Smith cannibalized essentially all the material in that article.

3. 1872 Bennett, William Cox. "Songs for Sailors" London: Henry S. King & Co. (??):

YEO HEAVE HO

Not sure about this one. I think Smith got it from a text, and this text does have it in the same lyrical version. However, Bennett did not give a tune though Smith supplied one. There may be another little source for this, as I honestly don't think Smith collected it in the field.

4. 1879 Parramatta Sun:

BOWLINE
WHISKEY JOHNNY
BLOW THE MAN DOWN
REUBEN RANZO
HAUL AWAY JOE
HANDY MY BOYS
BONEY
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL
DEAD HORSE

These are all of the Haswell chanties.

5. 1882 Alden:

LOWLANDS AWAY
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN
STORMY ALONG
MR. STORMALONG
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY
BONEY
HILONDAY
CLEAR THE TRACK
SHENANDOAH
SHALLOW BROWN.
SHENANDOAH (2)
RIO GRANDE

So, most of what was in Alden.

6. 1886 Leslie (Sea Painter's Log):

STORMY
HUNDRED YEARS

7. Probably collected by Smith in the field:

RIO GRANDE
JOHNNY BOWKER
MR. STORMALONG
BLOW THE MAN DOWN
REUBEN RANZO
UP A HILL
CHEERLY
RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND
TOMMY'S GONE AWAY
BLOW BOYS BLOW
JOHN BROWN'S BODY
SALLY BROWN
SOUTH AUSTRALIA

8. Unknown:

RIO GRANDE
CHEERLY
GOLDEN VANITY
WHISKEY JOHNNY

One of my main reasons for doubting these were collected by Smith is that Smith's others consist of music notation (where applicable) without the words directly under the notes. I think these may have come from other sources like correspondence (perhaps with Clark Russell?) and minor articles.

I hope I haven't forgotten or confused anything, though it's likely I probably have.

Smith does not seem to have been influenced by either Adams' or Luce's notable prior works.

What I am seeing here in terms of historiography goes something like this: The Atlantic Monthly 1858 provided a model and some material, greatly expanded, for the 1868 ONCE A WEEK article. For whatever reason, that one was not reference so much afterwards, but the 1869 CHAMBERS'S article is mostly a copy, and it is the one to later feed Smith. Smith was also fed by Alden's 1882 article in HARPER'S. Another stream is represented by Adam's and his replicators, including Luce who cleaned up his notation. These streams are separate at the time of Smith's publication, though Luce's revised version does then reference Smith. I am not sure at this point how Davis/Tozer might fit in. Much of the early 20th century chanty references seem to rely on Smith (or a predecessor in her lineage). In any case, these are the foundational shanty sources. My guess is that Whall would be the next big contributor to how shanty repertoire is perceived, but before his 1910 publication, much in print would rehash the widely-read (attractively packaged and accessibly titled) Smith.

Thoughts?

Subject: Lyr Add: BURYING THE DEAD HORSE
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 06:35 AM

The last English chanty bit in L.A. Smith comes later on in the volume:

//
The following extract is from "A Land-Lubber's Log," in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle:—

BURYING THE DEAD HORSE.

Auctioneer.—"A poor old man came riding by.
   Chorus.—And they say so, and they hope so.
Auctioneer.—A poor old man came riding by.
   Chorus.—A poor old man,
               A poor old man came riding by.
Auctioneer.—They say, old man, your horse will die.
If he dies I will tan his hide,
And if he lives I will ride him again;
I'll have his hide to make my shoes.
We'll drag him along to his burial-place,
O pull, my boys, and make a noise.
You, poor old horse, what brought you here,
After carrying turf for many a year
From Bantry Bay to Ballyack,
When you fell down and broke your back?
You died from blows and sore abuse,
And were salted down for the sailor's use.
The sailors they the meat despise,
They turned you over and (ahem'd) your eyes,
They ate the meat and picked the bones,
And gave the rest to Davy Jones;
And if you don't believe it's true,
Go look in the harness cask, and find his shoes."

"The music to this extraordinary song," says the writer, "was strange and crude, but marked by a weird, mournful melody, recalling what one has read of the caoine that was formerly sung by the Irish over their dead. . . . Each line was sung twice over by the auctioneer, and the crew followed in chorus with the alternate refrain." The ceremony of " Burying the Dead Horse" is now almost an obsolete one, and is rarely witnessed save on Australian bound passenger-ships. As to its origin I cannot find any authentic information, the custom is certainly confined to the British mercantile service. "The Dead Horse" is typical of one month's pay advanced on shore, and which, after twenty-eight days, has been worked out. The horse's body is made out of a barrel, and his extremities of hay or straw, covered with canvas, the mane and tail of hemp, or still better, of manilla; the eyes consist of two ginger-beer bottles, which are sometimes filled with phosphorus. When the horse is completed, he is lashed to a box, which is covered by a rug and then drawn along, in Egyptian fashion, on a grating.

A very humorous description of this ceremony, and another set of lines and music known as "The Dead Horse," I had sent me, in a copy of The Parramatta Sun (a serio-comic magazine, issued fortnightly, during the voyage of the ship Parramatta from London to Sydney, September 9th, 1879, to December 8th, 1879).

BURYING THE DEAD HORSE.

"On Thursday, October 2nd, lat. 7-32° N., long. 25-20° W., Mr. Richard Tangye, the well-known judge and buyer of blood stock, attended the Parramatta sale, and purchased the animal which was too celebrated to need mention by name. At about eight o'clock a vast multitude of those interested in the turf were assembled on the poop, anxiously waiting to catch a glimpse of the noble animal as he emerged from his stable in the fore part of the ship. His jockey having mounted him, proceeded to the main-deck amidst a crowd of the ship's crew, singing as they did a song which would have deterred anybody with less spirit than Mr. Tangye from bidding. It appeared that the horse was a victim to fate, and that his dirge was being sung :—

"Oh! now poor horse your time is come,
       And we say so, for we know so.
Oh! many a race I know you've won:
         Poor old man.
2. I have come a long, long way,
       And, &c.
To be sold upon this day.
       Oh, poor old man.
3. I have made Fordham's heart jump with joy,
And, &c.
For many a long time he tried a Derby to win,
4. But I was the moke to carry him in.
So I hope I shall fetch plenty of tin.
5. Oh! gentlemen, walk up and speculate;
   If I go cheap, my heart will break.
6. So now, Mr. Auctioneer, you can begin.
And, &c.

"Put up, therefore, he was before the poop, the auctioneer introducing him to the public by narrating his past and prosperous career, and quickly inducing them to make spirited bids. The bidding commenced at five shillings, and speedily ran up to six pounds ten shillings, each person being answerable for the amount of his or her bid. The horse and jockey being knocked down, the crew sang the following requiem, the melody being the same as that for the dirge :—

"Now, old horse, your time is come,
       And we say so, for we know so.
Altho' many a race you have won.
         Oh, poor old man.
2. You're going now to say good-bye,
       And, &c.
   Poor old horse you're going to die.
       Oh, &c.

"The procession moving forward, the horse and jockey were attached to a rope and hauled up to the main-yardarm, and were then, amid plenty of blue fire (stay, the jockey, who happened to be alive, was spared) committed to the deep. The crew then sang:—

"Now he is dead and will die no more,
    And we say so, for we know so.
It makes his ribs feel very sore,
      Oh, poor old man.
He is gone and will go no more,
    And we say so, &c.
So good-bye, old horse!
    We say good-bye!"

[score]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 06:19 AM

LA Smith goes on to give a few of Haswell's chanties.

First, HANDY MY BOYS:

//
"Handy Jim," a long-rope hauling chanty, I am told is a Portsmouth favourite:—

[score]

Solo.—" I'm Handy Jim from Caro-line,
Chorus.—So handy, me boys, so handy."
(The chorus is throughout the same, and follows each line of the solo.)
Solo.—"I courted a girl named Sarah Jane,
    So handy, me boys, so handy.
Sarah Jane was a kitchen maid,
And ofttimes into her kitchen I strayed,
And had a good blow-out of something hot.
But one fine night, through my good luck,
The missus came home—in the copper I got;
But the missus had come the clothes for to wash.
The fire being lit the copper got hot,
And the missus she came to stir up the pot,
And out I jumped, all smoking hot,
The missus she fainted, and cried ' Stop thief!'
But I was off like a shot of a gun.
When the missus came to there was an awful row;
Poor Sarah, she got the sack next day,
Then she came to me straightway, and said,—
'I've lost my character, place likewise.'
Says I,' My dear, now never you mind,
Next Sunday morn' we'll go and get wed ;'
Next Sunday morn' I was at sea instead.
So now, my boys, when courting you go,
If the missus turns up, in the copper don't go,
If you're handy there, you're handier here.
One more pull, and up she will go,—
The mate cries ' Belay!' so below we will go."
//

Then, BONEY. Funny though how she doesn't seem to recognize it as "Boney," though she has already given another version of it (??).

//
The following "Bonny" is another hauling chanty, somewhat after the style of " Whisky Johnny."

1. Oh, Bonny was a warrior,
Chorus.—Wae! Hae! Ha!
2. Oh, Bonny was no Frenchman,
    Wae! Hae! Ha!
3. Bonny beat the Rooshins,
4. The Prooshians, and the Osstrians,
5. At the Battle of Marengo.
6. Bonny went to Moscow,
7. Moscow was o'foyre.
8. Bonny lost his army there,
9. Bonny retreated back again.
10. Bonny went to Elbow,
11. And soon he did come back again.
12. Bonny fought at Waterloo;
13. There he got his overthrow.
14. Bonny went a cruising,
15. In the Channel of Old England.
16. Bonny was taken prisoner,
17. On board the Bella-Ruffian {"Bellerophon")
18. Bonny was sent to St. Helena,
19. And never will come back again.
   Wae! Hae! Ha!

[score]
//

//
The following are both good capstan songs:

HEAVE AWAY, MY JOHNNY.

[score]

As I was going out one day, Down by the Clarence Dock;
    Heave away my Johnny, Heave away...
As I was going out one day, down by the Clarence Dock,
    Hand away, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go.

2. I overheard an emigrant conversing with Tap Scott
I overheard an emigrant conversing with Tap Scott.

3. "Good-morning, Mr. Tap Scott." "Good morning, sir," said he.
"Have you got any ships bound for New York, in the States of Amerikey?"

4. "Oh, yes! I have got packet-ships. I have got one or two,
I've got the Josey Walker, besides the Kangaroo.

5. I've got the Josey Walker, and on Friday she will sail,
With all four hundred emigrants, and a thousand bags o' mail."

6. Now I am in New York, and I'm walking through the street,
With no money in my pockets, and scarce a bit to eat.

7. Bad luck to Josey Walker, and the day that she set sail!
For them sailors got drunk, broke into my bunk, and stole out all my meal.*

8. Now I'm in Philadelphia, and working on the canal,
To go home in one o' them packet-ships, I'm sure I never shall.

9. But I'll go home in a National boat, that carries both steam and sail,
Where you get soft tack every day, and none of your yellow meal.

In this song each line is repeated, so that the anchor may be up ere it is finished.
//

And, GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL, set to the "Dreadnought" ballad theme:

//
GOOD-BYE, FARE YE WELL!

This is the last of the English chanties I shall quote. It is also a capstan song:—

[score]

Solo.—It's of a flash packet, a packet I've seen,
Chorus.—Good-bye, fare ye well. Good-bye, fare ye well.
Solo.—She's a hearty flash packet—the Dreadnought's her name.
Chorus.—Hurrah, me boys! we're bound to go!

2. She sails to the westward, where stormy winds blow,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

3. It's now we are hauling right out of the dock,
Where the boys and the girls on the pier-head do flock.

4. They give three loud cheers, while the tears downward flow,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

5. Oh, now we are lying in the River Mersey,
Waiting for the tug-boat to take us to sea.

6. She tows us round the black rocks where Mersey does flow,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

7. It's now we are sailing on the wild Irish shore,
Our passengers all sick—and our new mates all sore.

8. The crew fore and aft—all round to and fro,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

9. Oh, it's now we've arrived on the banks of Newfoundland,
Where the water is green and the bottom is sand.

10. Where the fish of the ocean swim round to and fro,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

11. Now we are running down Long Island shore,
Where the pilot does "board " us, as he's oft done before.

12. Then back your main top-sail—rise your main tack also,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

13. It's now we've arrived at New York once more,
Where I'll see my dear Polly, the girl I adore.

14. I'll call for strong liquors, and merry will be,
Here's a health to the Dreadnought, where'er she may be.

15. Here's a health to the captain and all his brave
crew, Here's a health to the Dreadnought and officers too.

16. And this song was composed when the watch went below,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.
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