Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND (2)
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 06:50 PM

Here's a different version of The Banks of Newfoundland than is already in the DT.

THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND (2)

Me bully boys o' Liverpool, I'd have you to beware;
When ye sail in a packet ship, no dungaree jumpers wear,
But have a big monkey jacket all ready to your hand,
For there blows some cold nor'westers on the banks of Newfoundland!

CHORUS:
We'll scrape her and we'll scrub her
With holystone and sand,
And we'll think of them cold nor'westers
On the banks of Newfoundland.

There was Jack Lynch from Ballynahinch, Mike Murphy and some more,
I tell ye well, they suffered like hell on the way to Baltimore.
They pawned their gear in Liverpool, and they sailed as they did stand,
And there blows some cold nor'westers on the banks of Newfoundland.

(chorus)

The mate, he stood on the fo'cslehead, and loudly he did roar:
"Now rattle her in, me lucky lads! We're bound for America's shore!
"Go wash the wash the mud off that dead-man's face, and heave to beat the band,
"For there blows some cold nor'westers on the banks of Newfoundland!"

(chorus)

So now it's reef and reef, me boys, with the canvas frozen hard,
And it's *MOUNTAIN PASS every mother's son on a ninety-foot tops'l yard.
"Never mind about boots and oilskins, but haul or you'll be damned!"
For there blows some cold nor'westers on the banks of Newfoundland!

(Chorus)

And now we're off *THE HOOP, me boys, and the land's all white with snow,
But soon we'll see the pay table, and have all night below.
And on the docks come down in flocks, them pretty girls will stand,
Sayin', "It's snugger with me than it is at sea on the banks of Newfoundland."

Last Chorus:

So we'll scrape her and we'll scrub her,
With holystone and sand,
For while we're here we can't be there
On the banks of Newfoundland!

* The expressions in all caps, "MOUNTAIN PASS" and "THE HOOP" are phonetically rendered. If anyone knows what these expressions should be, chime in, please, so that the Harvesting Elves can get it right.

From the singing of Ewan McColl and A.L. Lloyd, on Blow Boys Blow, Tradition label.

DRO

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 07:50 PM

See also

THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND (3)  Transcribed from a Yetties record; no traditional source named.
BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND  No source named.
Lyr & Tune add: Banks of Newfoundland  English set with tune, Nova Scotia text, plus two unrelated song texts that happen to share the title.

Mountain Pass is sometimes haul and pass; The Hook is usually Sandy Hook, which is in Long Island Sound. There's already a  THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND (2),  but that's a completely different song, as is   LYR ADD -- Banks of Newfoundland # 4, which is in the DT as  THE EASTERN LIGHT

Did MacColl and Lloyd identify their source?  There's a set with the same opening line in MacColl's Singing Island, but I don't have that and can't check just now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: GUEST,Dave (the ancient mariner at work)
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 08:08 PM

Each Mountain pass and off the hook aka Sandy Hook NY

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 08:49 PM

DaveTAM, I get the reference to Sandy Hook now. But I don't know what you mean by "Each Mountain pass". 'Splain, please.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: Note to Elves
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 08:52 PM

From the above, it's clear to me that the words "mountain pass" are all right (although I still don't understand what it means), but should be made lower case.

"THE HOOK" I think should be "the Hook", with an initial cap for Hook.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 12:02 AM

Dave O.. its a reference to waves not knocking off the Topmen, or could be Mount and Pass meaning to go out on the yard (the rope is called a stirrup hence the "mount") and pass canvas as its reefed up. I'm not sure of the origin but believe its a reference to waves and sing it as such myself. Its one of my favourites.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 04:58 AM

bunt?

just a thought.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: curmudgeon
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 08:15 AM

The phrase is "mount and pass." The text MacColl sang is in The Singing Island. Lloyd has an almost identical set in "Folk Sing in England, where hs cites the source as Ted Howard of Barry, recorded in 1954.

The versions in Doerflinger and Palmer leave out that verse, but both, in the last verse refer specifically to "Sandy Hook" prior to being taken by tug into New York.

Smooth sailing - Tom

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: Amos
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 01:36 AM

Haul and pass also makes sense, considering that the work was reaching down for a reef of cold hard canvas, bringing it up and passing the reeflines into a knot.

Does anyone know whether this song goes any earlier than Ewan MacColl collecting it from Ted Howard as cited above?

Many thanks,

A

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND (from R Palmer)
From: radriano
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 11:43 AM

Here's a version of Banks of Newfoundland that's in Oxford Book of Sea Songs. It's similar to the fourth song Malcolm mentions but does have some different lyrics and the book mentions where the song was collected:

THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND
Words from John Henry Macaulay, Bog Oak Shop, Ballycastle
[From "The Oxford Book of Sea Songs," edited by Roy Palmer]


Oh may you bless your happy lot that lies secure on shore
Free from the billows and the blast that round poor seamen roar
It's little you know the dangers that we were forced to stand
For fourteen days and fourteen nights on the Banks of Newfoundland

Our good ship never crossed before the stormy western seas
The raging seas came tumbling down, soon beat her into staves
She being of green unseasoned wood, little could she stand
For the hurricane had met us on the Banks of Newfoundland

Our captain and mate including with twelve of the ship's crew
Ten passengers we had on board, made up just twenty-two
Some had their wives and families on their dear native strand
Intending soon to cross again the Banks of Newfoundland

But we were all benumbed with cold from the day we left Quebec
Except that we had walked about we were frozen to the deck
But we were all hardy Irishmen that our good ship manned
Our captain doubled each man's grog on the Banks of Newfoundland

The tempest blew from the sunset to the cold wintry dawn
When she fell on to leeward two of her masts were gone
Our captain says: 'My brave boys, we must inventions plan
For to hoist a signal of distress on the Banks of Newfoundland'

If you had seen our doleful state your hearts would have been oppressed
It blew a most tremendous gale with the wind from the south-west
Some of our men jumped overboard, said they would rather swim to land
But alas, it was five hundred miles from the Banks of Newfoundland

We fasted for three days and nights when our provisions they ran out
And on the morning of the fourth we sent the lots about
The lot fell on the captain's son and you may understand
We spared him for another day on the Banks of Newfoundland

No sails appeared. Reluctantly, we ordered him prepare
We gave him just another hour to offer up a prayer
But providence was always kind, kept blood from every hand
When an English vessel hove in sight on the Banks of Newfoundland

When we were taken off the wreck we were more like ghosts than men
They clothed us and they used us well and brought us home again
But four of our brave Irish boys ne'er saw their native land
And our captain lost his legs by frost on the Banks of Newfoundland

Of all the gallant seamen was of our brave ship's crew
There live but five to tell the tale, and passengers but two
For them their friends may shed salt tears on their dear native strand
The mountain waves run o'er their graves on the Banks of Newfoundland

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: Amos
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 11:51 AM

While that one clearly has the same title it doesn't seem to be a cognate to the one addressed to western ocean laborers, or bully boys from Liverpool as the case may be. The one that choruses:
So we'll scrape her and we'll scrub her,
With holystone and sand,
For while we're here we can't be there
On the banks of Newfoundland!

Anyone know if the chanty has earlier antecedents than mentioned?

Many thanks,


A

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 01:30 PM

It's unrelated to the other Banks of Newfoundland (see my earlier post). Although Sharp described the version of the latter he got from Henry Perrey as "a capstan shanty", it seems mostly to have been used as a forebitter. The "holystone" chorus occurs in some versions only.

To add a little to Radriano's post, that set was taken from the Sam Henry Collection (see Huntington and Herrmann, Sam Henry's Songs of the People, 1990, 112). Only verses 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 came from Mr McCauley; the others have been added by Palmer from a broadside edition (Madden Collection 21/425). The source of the tune given by Henry is not known.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: Amos
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 02:54 PM

Malcolm and curmudgeon:

Yes, thanks. Curmudgeon above refers to versions in Doerflinger and Palmer, which I do not have. Do you   know if either of them have any earlier fixes on the "donkey jacket" version of the song?

Many thanks --


A

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 03:45 PM

There is a fragment in Edith Fowke, ed., Sea Songs and Ballads from Nineteenth Century Nova Scotia, 1981, 18, belonging to somewhere in the last 30 years of the 19th century. Holystone but no monkey jacket. Palmer prints the Henry Perrey set, noted 1915, and refers to mid-nineteenth century broadside editions issued by Hodges of London and Ross of Newcastle. There don't appear to be copies of these at the Bodleian. The song is probably based on the slightly earlier transportation song Van Dieman's Land.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 04:12 PM

Peacock notes that the "ballad is a localized version of "Van Dieman's Land," an English ballad which dealt with the transportation of convicts to Tasmania. In its present form it has been found in England, Ireland, North America and Scotland ("Come all you gallant poachers that ramble free from care")."

Thus originally a landsman's song?

The version collected in Peacock, sung by Alan MacArthur of Upper Ferry, speaks of "dungeon jumpers" rather than dungaree jumpers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banks of Newfoundland (2)
From: Amos
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 05:45 PM

Thanks kindly for all the work, gentlemen. The form is recognizable back to the middle of the nineteenth then...that makes more sense to me.

A