Number One: Barry. . . where are you from? I grew up on the rocky coast of Maine and lived on the sea. . . but one rarely finds someone with such a plethora of sea knowledge! I'm highly impressed! Course, as an ex-naturalist from a whale watch crew. . . I've always hated the term "dolphin striker" now "dolfin striker" I could cope with. Dolfin. Yum. (Yes! The FISH not the mammal)

Number Two: I thought I'd contribute a little shanty I know, sung last I heard by a group big Downeast, called Schooner Fare:

"Molasses Rum"

Call: "O' the African man cuts the sugar-cane"
Return "O' molasses!"
C: "He works in the sun and he works in the rain"
R: "O' molasses rum!"
C: "Then he loads it up on a wooden ship, and sends it off on a northern trip. Heave 'er!"
R: "O' molasses! O' molasses rum!"

C: "When they fought the war for the colonies."
R: "O' molasses!"
C: "They fought it over New England's tea."
R: "Her old molasses rum!"
C: "When Old king George put a tax on it. . . the colonists nearly took a fit!"
R: "O' molasses! O' molasses rum!"

-chorus-
"Old molasses. . . old New England tea, it killed my grandpa, killed my pa, and it sure as hell is a killin' me! That Old molasses, old molasses rum!"

C: "In the time of the eighteen seventeen war."
R: "O' molasses!"
C: "Molasses sitting on the Boston shore."
R: "O' molasses rum!"
C: "They pumped it in, at twelve degrees, a long winter night in a Boston Freeze!"
R: "O' molasses! O' molasses rum!"

C: "In the mornin' it was thirty-two."
R: "O' molasses!"
C: "Molasses batch split clean in two."
R: "O' molasses rum!"
C: "Ten thousand gallons stuck in the bay, twenty-six people drowned in the flood that day!"
R: "O' molasses! O' molasses rum!"

-chorus-

C: "My grandpa he died cuttin' cane."
R: "O' molasses!"
C: "My pa went down in the great black rain of. . ."
R: "O' molasses rum!"
C: "But I won't die in a black stock flood, no I won't drown in a pool of blood. . . still I'll go down to molasses!"
R: "O' molasses! O' molasses rum!"

-chorus-

Tilell

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HTML line breaks added. -JoeClone 16-Jan-2001.