The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126347 Message #2859332
Posted By: Charley Noble
08-Mar-10 - 01:43 PM
Thread Name: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
The more I look at the photo of cotton screwers in Galveston, Texas, the more clear it seems that the four stevedores do not shift their relative positions as they work, and that they heave and haul in turn as the bars rotate. The space is much too cramped for much other movement. So maybe the chant works like this:
Lift him up and carry him along (repositioning), FIRE (heave), Maringo, FIRE (haul) him away! Lay him in the hold where he belong (repositioning), FIRE (heave), Maringo, FIRE (haul) him away!
Every other stevedore would be heaving or hauling at any one time, then shifting operations.