Lyr Req: Merchantmen (C.Fox Smith)

Subject: Lyrics request: Merchantmen(C.Fox Smith)
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 08:52 AM

Hi there.
I've got a great tape cassette of a group called 'Pinch o' salt'(all members of the Keelers I think). On the cassette there's a song called 'Merchantmen' about the many ordinary seaman and fishermen that gave their lives in the wars.

Does anyone have the words? I've been listening carefully but can't quite make out all the words, and would love to learn it to sing. it's a great song.
Hope you can help
Chris

Subject: RE: Lyrics request: Merchantmen(C.Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 09:02 AM

Chris-

"Merchantmen" was published in SAILOR'S DELIGHT, pp. 138-140. I haven't typed up the lyrics yet from my copy. If you post what you have written down so far, I would be happy to fill in what is missing.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: ADD: Merchantmen (C.Fox Smith)
From: KJ
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 02:57 AM

This is the poem from Sea Songs & Ballads 1917-22 C.Fox Smith.

MERCHANTMEN

All honour to merchantmen & ships of all degree
In warlike dangers manifold who sail & keep the sea
In peril of unlitten coast & death-besprinkled foam
Who daily dare a hundred deaths to bring their cargoes home

A liner out of Liverpool, a tanker from the Clyde
A hard-run tramp from anywhere, a tug from Merseyside
A cattle-boat from Birkenhead, a coaler from the Tyne
All honour to the merchantmen while any star shall shine

All honour to the merchantmen & ships both great & small
The swift & strong to run their race & smite their foes withall
The little ships that sink or swim & pay the pirate's toll
Unarmoured save by valiant hearts & stong in nought but soul

All honour to the merchantmen so long as tides shall run
Who gave the seas their glorious dead from rise to set of sun
All honour be to the merchantmen while Englan'd name shall stand
Who sailed & fought & dared & died & served & saved their land

A liner out of Liverpool, a tanker from the Clyde
A hard-run tramp from anywhere, a tug from Merseyside
A cattle-boat from Birkenhead, a coaler from the Tyne
All honour to the merchantmen while any star shall shine

Subject: RE: Lyrics request: Merchantmen(C.Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 08:47 AM

Interesting, KJ, but a different poem than the one Pinch o' Salt are singing on their SEA BOOT DUFF & HAND SPIKE GRUEL CD which ends with the last line "Men that went down in the War!"

Chris, are you still there?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyrics request: Merchantmen(C.Fox Smith)
From: KJ
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 01:13 PM

That's the original poem by C.Fox-Smith in Sea Songs and Ballads 1917-22 published in 1923 by Methuen & Co Ltd. Like most of us that set poetry to music they've probably altered the words slightly, not too much I hope because she's a cracking writer. Some of the stuff reminds me of Masefield.

Subject: RE: Lyrics request: Merchantmen(C.Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 04:51 PM

Easy does it, KJ. There's clearly more than one poem by C. Fox Smith by the same title and Pinch o' Salt's Danny McLleod prides himself on only making the most minimal changes to the sea poems when arranging them for singing.

I do hate typing and I wish that Guest Chris would have the courtesy to check his request for the lyrics.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: MERCHANTMEN (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 05:08 PM

Here's the other Merchantmen sea poem:

MERCHANTMEN-2

(Words by C. Fox Smith, SAILOR'S DELIGHT, © 1931, pp. 138-140; for the Mercantile Marine Memorial in Trinity Square)

These were the ships that kept on going
When the seas were thick with the War's black sowing –
Great ocean liners in white paint and gold,
Shabby little colliers, all grime and green mould,
Up-to-date- cargo boats ugly as sin,
Old seven-knotters with their plates rusted thin,
Has-been clipper-ships, laid up for ages,
Fitted out and rigged new and sent to earn their wages,
Coal-ships and cotton –ships,
Sound ships and rotten ships
From Thames and Clyde and Merseyside that fetched their ports no more –
Tyne ships and Humber ships,
Grain-ships and lumber-ships-
Ships that went down in the War!

These were the men that knew no shirking
The hungry waters where death lay lurking –
Grizzled old skippers that had grown grey in ships,
Young brassbounders with the down on their lips,
White-faced black squad and tanned A.B.'s
In oil-stained boiler-suits and torn dungarees,
That dropped beside the wheel on the deck all bloodied,
That drowned in the darkness when the stokehold flooded,
That froze on the rafts in the bitter Atlantic,
That drifted in boats till the thirst drove them frantic,
Some with wives and youngsters to cry their eyes red,
Some with neither chick nor child to care that they were dead.

Not reckoned greatly daring men,
But every-day seafaring men,
Who stood their trick and earned their whack and took their fun ashore,
Until on every tide for us
They took their chance and died for us –
Men that went down in the War!

Another fine poem!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merchantmen (C.Fox Smith)
From: KJ
Date: 01 Apr 03 - 03:42 AM

True right Charley.Now I've got another one to work on. It's so difficult to get hold of her books, unless you can afford to go to specialist book shops & pay a lot. I got sea-songs & ballads from the stacks at Hull library, prior to me no-one had loaned it since 1951! That's why Mudcat is such an invaluable resource, people sharing their intersts & information.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merchantmen (C.Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Apr 03 - 08:56 AM

KJ-

I've generally had good luck securing working copies of C. Fox Smith's major sea poem books on websites such as www.bookfinder.com, for about $25 US. There's also a wealth of information in the major C.Fox Smith thread here at Mudcat that I started some time ago; I'll refresh it for you and anyone else who would like to review it.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merchantmen (C.Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Apr 03 - 08:47 AM

Guest Chris! Are you out there somewhere?

Charley Noble, who gets pissed at people who request songs and then fail to acknowledge the help provided.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merchantmen (C.Fox Smith)
From: GUEST,Guest, Chris
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 07:24 AM

Sorry Charley Noble!!
Did'nt mean to do it. My current job (i'm working for a year in Vietnam) requires me to go off to 'the field' a lot. I wrote that message the night before I left.

yeah, its the second one I was after with the last line 'ships that went down in the war!'. Thanks alot. It's a really great song, and now I can learn it to sing when I go home to the UK, in July. I'm really glad to have the mudcat while i'm here- it keeps me intouch with other folkies, and allows me to get lyrics for songs I want to learn.
Many thanks again
Chris

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Merchantmen (C.Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 08:51 AM

Chris-

Glad you checked in. Your appreciation makes a happier end to this thread. Enjoy learning the song.

I really admire C. Fox Smith's work and have arranged several of her other sea poems for singing (see main C. Fox Smith thread).

Cheerily,
Charley Noble