The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126347 Message #2832891
Posted By: John Minear
08-Feb-10 - 10:50 AM
Thread Name: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
I've just about finished my look into what I would call "shanties sung on board the whalers". Once again, the information seems to be a bit scarce. I want to begin by distinguishing the following four categories:
1. Songs sung on board of the whaling ships
2. Shanties that mention whaling
3. Whaling songs used as shanties (maybe on the whalers?)
4. Other shanties that *may* have been sung on the whalers
5. Shanties that are actually documented as having been sung on the whalers
Since I am still focusing on the period leading up to and immediately following the voyages of the "Julia Ann" in 1853-1855, I'm primarily interested in whaling shanties that come before that period, and could have been current among the ships' crews in San Francisco and Sydney, as well as Melbourne, Newcastle, Tahiti, and Honolulu. Shanties from the twenty or thirty year period after the wreck of the "Julia Ann" may obviously reflect an earlier period and may have been sung in an earlier period.
I will deal with the first category of "songs sung on board the whaling ships" - other than shanties - first. One only has to look at Gale Huntington's book SONGS THE WHALEMEN SANG, to know that there was a *lot* of singing going on aboard the whalers. His collection not only comes mostly from the first half of the 19th century, but it is historically documented because it is taken from actual logs and journals from that time period. But as far as I can see, he doesn't list a single shanty and doesn't even mention shanty-singing on board the whalers! [Please correct me if I am wrong here.]
Apparently some of these songs that were popular among the whalemen were adapted for shanty use, at least on ships other than whalers, and may also have been used as such by the whalers themselve. I'll return to this category later. But, for now, "songs sung..." are not the same as shanties.