A song sung by whalermen of St. Vincent and the Grenadines was presented (with musical score) by Roger Abrahams in _Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore_ (1974) as "Little Boy Lonzo." Abrahams doesn't make clear what task (if any) the song was put to, but I suppose it may have been to pull a boat out of the water.

Pp. 96-7

Oh, me Lonzo
>Little boy Lonzo

Oh, me Lonzo
>Little boy Lonzo

Oh, me Lonzo
>Big man Lonzo

Here come Lonzo
>Little boy Lonzo

The stanzas continue with little variation. Abrahams notes 16 in total, followed by "etc." After the first six, the choral response is consistently "Lonzo, Lonzo."

Though I've spaced the stanzas as Abrahams did, each repetition of the melody comprises two such stanzas. In other words, the true musical verse is: solo-chorus-solo-chorus.

The tempo is 96 BPM—one reason to suppose that, at that speed, it may have been a hauling song rather than a rowing song. The score is marked "Very rhythmic," which is helpful in that the rhythm noted probably is, as a result, a very good representation of the sung rhythm, as compared to some of the whalermen's other songs (which I know, for example, from hearing them perform live on two occasions), which are sung rather rubato or unmetered and which Abrahams struggled to notate precisely.

I suppose Abrahams audio recorded the whalermen's performance (and his presentation represents a transcription of that recording), but I haven't looked into finding the recording. I did, to aid envisioning the song, attempt a performance of it from the score. (No attempt was made to follow the lyrical text verbatim, as I assumed it was not fixed, and inserted my own ad-libs. Somehow I neglected to vary the chorus lyrics. I guess I found it weird that a group of singers would know how to be together on randomly shifting lyrics.)

https://youtu.be/rECWqv3hCaI

Some friends associated with the chanty performance group Pressgang Mutiny have been working, with the facilitation of Dan Lanier, with some of the folks who inherited St. Vincent's song traditions, and I look forward to what they might share if this song came up in their experience. Nevertheless, I've never heard it outside of my own feeble attempt to render the score.