The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126347   Message #2860087
Posted By: Gibb Sahib
09-Mar-10 - 10:32 AM
Thread Name: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
Grog Time / Captains Gone Ashore = pretty damn cool.

To clarify re: Grog Time, I don't know exactly how I've expressed it earlier, but it does not quite fit the "classic" "two-pull halyard" form. The timing is there, just not the "stanza." And we only have it in reference to rowing. (And the similarly formed "Doodle" was ascribed to capstan work.) However, I think it could easily be used for the 2-pull halyard maneuver. It has similarities, but it is not THE typical form.

Just speculating, too, I imagine the rowing would have been well timed to the same points where one might pull on a halyard. If that's the case (we need rowing experts now!), the pacing of rowing songs would vie with the pacing of cotton-screwing (in my estimation) as the possible structural origin of chanties. I know rowing had been discussed earlier. Now I'm wondering if there was a common work-song form that found equal applicability to rowing, jackscrew turning, and halyard hauling.