The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #67513   Message #1127959
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
02-Mar-04 - 04:48 PM
Thread Name: DTStudy: The Bigler's Crew (Bigler's Cruise?)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: The Bigler's Crew (Bigler's Cruise?)
"The Timber Drogher Bigler" is recorded on a cd included in "Windjammers, Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors," track 8, sung by Asa M. Trueblood, with Ivan Walton interview, Sept. 7, 1938. Track time 3:19.

The schooner John Bigler was built by James M. Jones, 344 gross tons, at Detroit in 1866 for J. Currier, "primarily to carry waneys from the Upper Lakes to the head of the St. Lawrence River. From there, logs were rafted downriver to Quebec and salt water.The Bigler foundered in 1884 off Marquette, Michigan.

Lyrics, story and sheet music in "Windjammers,...." pp. 129-134.

waney: logs on which the butt ends were squared to more easily fit aboard lumber vessels- Glossary, in "Windjammers..."
ju-ber-ju: a play on the words jib boom but seems to come from the French 'gibre,' the extension of the stem or knee piece of a vessel to which the bowsprit is attached. On some vessels, bow rails ran all the way to the gibre, giving sailors a foothold. The line of the verse also is rendered "Look out for her old jib-boom." The jibboom is a spar extending forward beyond the bowsprit of a ship from which a head sail or jib is set.

"A William Head of Pictou, Ontario, sailed aboard the Bigler for several seasons and said that at 126 feet long by 26 feet by 10 feet, the Bigler ...fit snugly through the old Welland locks and had the lines of a shoebox. He added that the Bigler had an extra long jibboom and caried more than the usual amount of canvas for a two-master, but its blunt bow made it slow ...and a man-killer to steer." The Bigler generally carried coal up the lakes and and squared timbers down.... when Head sailed on her. As the song in some versions states, the drougher also entered the late-season grain trade.

The song is full of jargon. Joe, 'sight' in the first verse- your first version- should be 'site,' meaning a position on the crew. 'Give her the sheet' means to allow the sheets- the lines that control the booms- to run out, permitting the sails to swing out nearly to right angles with the keel to take full advantage of a following wind. 'Courses' are the large, heavy sails immediately above the deck. The courses are said to be 'wing 'n wing' when the foresail is extended at near right angles to the keel over one side of the vessel and the mainsail is extended out over the opposite side. 'Full and by'- vessel tacking into the wind and the vessel's direction is as close to that of the wind as possible with its sails still full and pulling. The 'dummy' was a decommissioned light. 'Eau' of some versions is Rondeau, Ontario.
Pointe aux Barques is the correct spelling, but often rendered Point Aback. Mackinaw of course is spelled Mackinac.

See "Windjammers..." for more. The main version has 13 verses plus chorus.