Maui: stuns'l booms

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Barry Finn
Date: 12 Sep 06 - 06:24 PM

Those were some long runs in the trades Charlie. Once set they'd roll on for until it nasty & generally in the trades it's fair winds. We traveled a couple thousand nautical miles before the wind died & stayed dead for over 2 weeks.
We were whistling dixie.

Barry

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Sep 06 - 06:16 PM

here they are

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Sep 06 - 05:40 PM

"I'm sure we've pumped this bit before!"

Thanks to Tony Goodenough.

I'm really not convinced that whalers would ever use stun'ls. That was more a clipper ship affectation and according to some captains hardly worth the pain and suffering.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, safe ashore in his armchair

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 12 Sep 06 - 02:44 PM

Nobody minded working to get the ship home, every mile closer was a good mile ;-)

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Dead Horse
Date: 12 Sep 06 - 02:34 PM

The crew WOULD have to go aloft and repair the damage.
No skipper would countenance having his crew paid off while the vessel was left in a mess, or with a bilge full of water either. Thats why the last shanty aboard ship was likely to be a pumping shanty like "Leave her Johnnie".
If the first shanty was also a pumps job, I would jump ship afore the second shanty :-)

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Barry Finn
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 06:40 PM

"Rollin down to ol Maui". Maui is not that far off from the Tropic of Cancer, so depending on the time of year you could catch the 'westerlies trade winds' & head in one direction or catch the 'northeast trade winds' & head in a different direction. The timing also makes a difference. I sailed from Maui around July after the Mendecino Highs set in back in 79 or 80 & we were able to catch the westerlies & rollin down 'from' Maui, into San Diego.
From San Francisco or from farther north you'd follow the northeast trades & it's generaly (depending on other factors including time of year) rollin downhill all the way or rollin down to ol Maui. When following the trades is always downhill or downwind.

Barry

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 05:52 PM

I was just taking a break from reading the very literate and romantic 1886-87 journal of Daniel McNab, a seaman from Malagash, Nova Scotia, when I read (above): "Combined with the slightly affected wording of 'what care we for that sound' ... , perhaps this suggests the song wasn't written by a real sailor, but by someone of a more literary persuasion with a romantic, if fairly well informed, view of the whole business." While perhaps not the norm, there does not seem to have been a real shortage of literate sailors of romantic persuasion. Don't forget, Herman Melville was a whaler before he got into the writing business!

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 05:41 PM

I somehow doubt that there is a pun intended here.

I went back to Colcord's version of this song in her SONGS OF AMERICAN SAILORMEN, pp. 197-198, and found similar wording to that of Hugill for this verse:

Once more we sail with a favororing gale
Toward our distant home,
Our mainmast sprung, we're almost done,
Still we ride the ocean's faom.
Our stun'sail booms are carried away,
What care we for that sound,
A living gale is after us,
Hurrah! We're homeward bound.

My best guess is that the crew's all hoping that the ship will hold together to make it home, even with the "mainmast sprung" and the "stun'sail booms" carried away. The what care we for the sound of them carrying away is pure bravado. Such booms were only used in light winds and if a gale was after them they would have been unshipped anyway. Maybe they're happy not to have to go aloft and do that work, if they've already been ripped away. But they probbly have to go aloft anyway and clean up the mess that's left.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Barry Finn
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 05:40 PM

A Studding Sail. When running with the wind all yards set square & all sails set to squeeze out every breath of push the stuns'l booms
would be set. They're set from the out'er most ends of the yards, the yard arms. They're square light weather sails (they're not used in more than a good breez) & usually only used on a long run, as they're timely & fairly difficult to set, like when you're in the trade winds. No wearimg or tacking, not much reason to change course or your run. In a strong breeze of a good blow kiss 'em good bye. Picture the main sails, then picture sails set port & starboard or directly left & right of that sail hanging outward of the mains yard (or boom). The closest I can think of on a fore & aft rig would be running "wing & wing" & then some.

Barry

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Les from Hull
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 05:39 PM

Surely stuns'l booms only get carried away if the stuns'ls are set. And you would not set stuns'ls in a 'living gale'. Any other explanation form someone with more practical knowledge?

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: ClaireBear
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 04:54 PM

I thought the line was "we care not for that sound" -- more in line with what Kendall says. The meaning of that wording would be suitably ambiguous.

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Skivee
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 04:39 PM

The "what care we for that sound" line is a pun on the word "boom".
It doesn't indicate ignorance of shipatudinalism.

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Crane Driver
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 04:32 PM

I always assumed that, being on the homeward passage and shortly to sign off, no-one cared too much about losing the little stuns'ls, they just wanted to get home. Whalermen only did 'real' sailing work on the journeys out and home, the rest of the time being spent in rowing and butchery work. If the gear got damaged on the journey out to the whaling grounds, someone would have to fix it for the trip home, but damage on the way back would be seen as the next crew's problem. I imagine some skippers would have different views on that!

Combined with the slightly affected wording of 'what care we for that sound' as noted above, perhaps this suggests the song wasn't written by a real sailor, but by someone of a more literary persuasion with a romantic, if fairly well informed, view of the whole business.

Guesswork is cheap - Guinness costs money

Andrew

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: kendall
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 04:10 PM

"You mean on top of everything else this ship is rigged?"
From Stan Frieberg's, History of the United States. One of the funniest things I have ever come across.

I've always thought the line should be, ..."we don't care for that sound"

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Dead Horse
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 02:46 PM

No. The Stun's'l boom is an extension of the yard to which it is attached. So the yard is still the main yard, main upper t'gallant yard, lower t'gallant yard etc.
The "What care we for that sound" phrase is slightly more puzzling, as if the gear had been "carried away", then the poor old matelot would no doubt have to get aloft and sort it out, and in a living gale, no less!
But there are absolutely heaps of incongruities in shanties, so I shouldnt worry too much about it, mate!

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Rumncoke
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 12:26 PM

Strange - someone sang this at Swanage on Saturday and I was struck then by the incongruity.

OK I'm a sailor and have used shanties in ernest - and other places too -

Square rigged sails hang from yards or rather from - no that is too technical - they hang from yards - the wooden or metal cross pieces.

Masts stand almost vertically up from the deck or keel and they have attachment points from which yards hang horisontally.

In very light breezes it is (economically) necessary to spread as much canvas as possible, so the stuns'ls are set on yards which are extensions of the ordinary ones. They can be clipped on, or be attached to rings, or with metal yards they can be pulled out from inside the hollow tubes. They are fixed in place after the sail has been fastened on, and run out. They and their suports are are too flimsy for someone to deploy the sail after the yard is extended.

So it should be stuns'l yards not booms.

Anne

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Lady Hillary
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 11:56 AM

There were/are several ways of rigging stuns'ls. All of them involved rigging extensions on the yardarms so that additional sails could be carried. These sails were only carried when before the wind as they would add more drag and not be efficient going into the wind. As they extended well beyond the beam, rigging bowlines to stiffen the luff of the sail would not have worked.

EBarnacle

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 09:19 AM

Good Job Mack ;-)

Light sails set outside the square sails, on booms rigged out for that purpose. They are only carried with a fair wind and in moderate weather. By increasing sail area, the speed of the ship is improved downwind.

Subject: RE: Maui: stuns'l booms
From: mack/misophist
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 09:15 AM

Some one else will certainly have a more precise explanation than this. The stunsails are smallish sails towards the extreems of the masts; the booms, of course, help hold and position them. The ship is in some bad weather ("a living gale is after us), so the sound must be the gear being ripped away. Seems simple enough.

Note: Stunsail is short for studding sail. See here.

Subject: Maui: stuns'l booms: sound
From: stormalong
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 08:47 AM

In 'Rolling down to old Maui' at

http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=5051

we have the lines:

Our stuns'l booms are carried away
What care we for that sound?

Somebody kindly explained to me what stuns'l booms actually are, but could anyone please explain the exact meaning of these lines?

Stormalong