Lyr Add: Aboard the Henry Clay

Subject: Lyr Add: ABOARD THE 'HENRY CLAY'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Aug 22 - 01:59 PM

I’m not sure whether this book is meant to be a memoir or a novel—I suspect it should be treated as the latter—but in any case, this chantey is embedded in the narrative, and verses 6 and 7 are said to be improvised.

Wikipedia says: “Lubbock is not regarded as a completely reliable source as a historian. His books had no footnotes or bibliographies, as was common at the time. He relied on correspondence and interviews with captains and crew members, rather than documents and fact-checking. He sometimes confused the names of ships and captains, or gave incorrect dates. However, Lubbock’s correspondence and interviews are themselves a unique source. Some of his books are still in print and their contents are often quoted by others.”

From Basil Lubbock, Deep Sea Warriors (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1910), page 247ff:


ABOARD THE “HENRY CLAY”

[1] Masthead that yard, it ain’t too hard
To run the capstan round, boys,
Haul in the slack an’ don’t hang back,
Or the mate’ll comb your hair, boys.
Chorus—Or the mate’ll comb your hair, boys!

[2] Oh, make her spring, and I will sing
A chanty unto you, boys,
Of a limejuice jay, who was once too gay
Aboard the Henry Clay, boys.
Chorus—Aboard the Henry Clay, boys!

[3] We was just to sea, with the Hook on our lee,
Still crazy with the drink, boys.
And the mate weren’t riled, when that half-baked child
Went off into a fit, boys.
Chorus—Went off into a fit, boys.

[4] For he’d been on the tear, an’ weren’t all there;
But the mate he raised his boot, boys,
And lifted him slick with the hell of a kick
Right off of the fo’c’sle-head, boys.
Chorus—Right off of the fo’c’sle-head, boys!

[5] And that lime-juice jay went down to stay,
He never cum up no more, boys;
But the mate didn’t care, he’d got men to spare
Aboard the Henry Clay, boys.
Chorus—Aboard the Henry Clay, boys!

[6] We’d a Tenderloin tough and a Whitechapel rough,
Who swore they no work would do, boys.
They went for the greaser, but he was a teaser
And beat them until they were blue, boys.
Chorus—And beat them until they were blue, boys!

[7] So they went for the mate, an’ got up against fate,
A thing it ain’t wisdom to do, boys;
For he picked up the pair by the roots of their hair
And precious near tore them in two, boys.
Chorus—And precious near tore them in two, boys!

[8] That night in the dark, we found the mate stark
With a knife in the small of his back, boys.
You say he’s a blower and might ha’ gone slower,
The mate was a joskin* once, boys.
Chorus—The mate was a joskin once, boys.


* Joskin is an American seafaring term for the embryo packet-rat, a first-voyage greenhorn, who had probably been shanghaied aboard.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Aboard the Henry Clay
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Aug 22 - 02:14 PM

The above song, ABOARD THE HENRY CLAY, also appears, with musical notation for the melody line, in:

Frederick Pease Harlow, Chanteying Aboard American Ships (Barre, MA: Barre Gazette, 1962), page 207.

Harlow doesn’t cite a source, but I suspect it is Lubbock. Harlow has only 6 verses, omitting 6 and 7, but otherwise, his text is nearly identical to Lubbock.