Bob: Thanks. But I just say a lot about them. It's Barry Finn that actually knows a lot about them. (Him sing good, too.) Also, as suggested, buying the two Boarding Party tapes from Camsco is a solid one-year course in sea songs.I'm trying to think back - didn't we use a hamburger-hauling chantey on inputting supplies?
Here's another (below) - also in the database. The Abrahams book is very good & I much recommend it. The rowing chanteys intrigue me much. The savants are reluctant to see anything as a "chantey" not strictly associated with work-time-setting on the great sailing ships. The argument is good and consistant among several whose opinions I respect. The legit rowing chantey (say, for rowing up to wind) seems a grey area. But not being a savant, or a professional of any kind, I have no trouble seeing, say, "C'est L'Aviron" as a chantey.
The Caribbean rowing songs are generally 1) derived from tall ship sailors 2) derived from, based on or in the style of known chanteys & 3) used to set time at sea. But the really important part of this (regardless of definitions) is the image/reality of a boatload of rowers on the open sea & going after large fish and even regularly after whale. These were gutsy guys. Or: Hey fellers, let's just row over to St. Thomas and see the girls ("Fine Time of Day").
They are still known and used in building construction!
Oh, My Rolling River^^^
All through the rain and squally weather
Oh, my rolling river
All through the rain and squally weather
We are bound away from this world of miseryMisery, I come to tell you
All through this rain and wind all squallySalambo, I love your daughter
Salambo, this white mulattaSeven long years we toiled the ocean
Seven long years I never wrote herAll through the rain and squally weather
All through this rain and windy squallyMisery, my captain cry out
Solid fas', my bowman cry outI courted Sally, no pen no paper
I courted Sally with foolscap paper^^^From Roger Abrahams's Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore.