Fred R. Bechdolt, “Sailors’ Chantys,” San Francisco Sunday Call (June 4, 1911) , Magazine section, p. 5:

“Lively there, lively,” yells the mate, and then hands out a string of impersonal profanity. The sailormen grab hold and settle down. The chanty-man pipes up:

        W-a-a-a-y down in Anjou county!

The bronzed faces tighten along the line, the big chests expand, and then at the end, altogether:

        Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!

…And right heartily the whole crew gives a mighty pull on the halyards together. Far overhead the yard mounts upward answering the tug. They pause, gasping; and the chanty-man sings slowly,

        There lived one Reuben Ranzo.

And then again comes the chorus,

        Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.

Up comes the yard another peg, and so it rises, through the adventures of the Portuguese lad, Lorenzo by his full name, who shipped on a whaler from New Bedford, and for his awkwardness got triced up to the grating and flogged until the captain had taken pity on Reuben and Reuben has learned navigation to become a skipper himself.”