REUBEN RANZO
(Halliard Shanty)

Oh poor old Reuben Ranzo –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Oh poor old Reuben Ranzo –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

Oh Ranzo was a tailor –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Oh Ranzo was no sailor –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

Oh Ranzo was a tailor ––
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
He shipped on board a whaler –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

Oh Ranzo took a notion –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
To sailk upon the ocean –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

He shipped on board the "Beauty" –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
And did not know his duty –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

They set him holystoning –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
And did not mind him groaning –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

They said he was a lubber –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
And made him eat whale-blubber –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

They gave him lashes twenty –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
He thought it more than plenty –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

The captain gave him whiskey –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Which made him rather frisky –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

He taught him navigating –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
And gave him extra rating –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

He made him the best sailor –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Sailing in that whaler –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!

Ranzo now is skipper –
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Of a China Clipper –
Ranzo, bo-oys, Ranzo!


Notes by CFS, p. 46:

But who really was Reuben Ranzo?

The obvious answer is that he was a "Dago," by name Lorenzo, a view to which the description of his personal habits lends likelihood. But then obvious solutions are seldom correct, as careful perusal of detective fiction effectually demonstrates, and a closer consideration suggests several objections to this one. In the first place, Reuben isn't a Dago name at all: and secondly, who ever heard of a Dago tailor? If he had been an ice-cream merchant or an organ-grinder, now – but a tailor, no! My own private idea is that Ranzo was one of the small and select band, of which the Marquess of Reading is the most eminent representative, of Jews afloat. He may have been a Russian or Polish Jew named Ronzoff or something of the kind, in which case he would very likely be a tailor, and the fact of his presence in the whaler would be sufficiently remarkable to be worth making a shanty about. It may also be observed that he displays the characteristic national tendency to get on in the world…Anyhow, whoever and whatever Reuben Ranzo may have been, his name will endure as long as the shanty which celebrates his misfortunes and never was topsail yard hoisted to a more rousing chorus!

X:1
T:Reuben Ranzo
C:C. Fox Smith 'A Book of Shanties' p 47
M:2/4
L:1/16
K:F
z6c2|A2 c2 B2 A2|G4A4|G2 G2 (G2 F2)|
w:Oh poor old Reu-ben Ran-zo Ran-zo, boys,_
A2 G2 z3G|F2 G2 F2 D2|F4C4|F2 A2 (c2 A2)|G4F2
w:Ran-zo! Oh poor old Reu-ben Ran-zoRan-zo, boys,_ Ran-zo!

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