Dick


do you not think it possible that shanties were created spontaneously,that new verses were added as the work was being performed.

Yes.

I was greatly entertained by Stan Hugill's account of the origin of Hullaballo-Balay:

P484 Shanties of the Seven Sea

Hugill met a collector called Taylor-Harris who had been commissioned to produce 6 shanties. In his search he had run to earth an aged seaman called Woodward and got 5 shanties from him. After sometime he got one verse and the tune so Taylor-Harris made up the rest.

I have to say I think it's a good song and I enjoy singing it and telling the story.


I feel sure that most people agree with what you say about Bert but he did willfully deceive us about the origin of quite a few songs - it's just dishonest, that's all really