The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #69631 Message #1218267
Posted By: Bob Bolton
02-Jul-04 - 08:33 AM
Thread Name: Concertina
Subject: RE: Concertina
G'day Foolestroupe,
There's a lot of argument about whether or not sailors of the sail era played concertinas. There aren't any photographs ... and no first hand survivors - but cheap German (or otherwise European) concertinas ... usually 20-key, push-pull German system boxes, typically with brass reeds, were available all over European ports. English-made instruments were also available with brass reeds as an option in the cheaper ranges.
German concertinas certainly (vide Holtermann Collection photographs, Turon Goldfields, NSW - 1872-3) reached the Australian Goldfields ... obviously by sail. Maybe they didn't last long at sea - but they probably cost less than what was most on the mind of sailors grabbing a bit of shore leave! (And, as least a concertina was something they could carry away ... reference to old sailors' refrain:
Hey! Hey! Why should we pay ... For what we can't carry away!