1820s

Summary:

The War of 1812 has recently ended; the Black Ball Line as started.

On Euro/American vessels, the fife is still noted to inspire both capstan and halyards. As for texts in that cultural context (and I hope I am not mixing up military versus merchant vessels here), phrases like "yo, heave ho!" and "Haul way, yeo ho, boys!" are remembered. We also get one more elaborate description of, I suppose, what would have been the ad-libbed and incidental (an therefore less liable to be transcribed) parts that came after/between the heave ho's: repeated, non-rhyming phrases (see the 1829 reference). Well, that is for long, heaving tasks. For hauling, we see our first detailed transcription if a "cheerly" chant.

I made the mistake earlier of saying that the French references to "chanter" etc. suggested it was a dying practice. It is at *this* time that the definitions are revised (i.e. from the 1790s ones) to suggest that these were "former" practices.

African-Americans are heard to sing as they row in Virginia, Georgia, and St. Thomas. These songs tend to resemble halyard chanties.

Sources:

1820s

- Send up that drunken fifer, Tom, and let him play Yankee Doodle, ship TRAVELER, New York > Rio, Brazil/capstan (Rural Repository 1836)

- up went the topsail yards to the inspiring tones of the fife, ship TRAVELER, New York > Rio, Brazil/topsail halyards (Rural Repository 1836)

1821

- "It's oh! as I was a walking out, One morning in July, I met a maid, who ax'd my trade" [NEW YORK GIRLS?] and "All the way to Shawnee town/Pull away - pull away!"
Ohio River, Parkersburg,VA/rowing (Hall 1821)

1822[or earlier]

- "Fine time o' day" Saint Thomas/Blacks rowing (Wentworth 1834).

1825

- CHANTER…Vieil usage de faire crier quelques hommes qu'on nommait chanteurs, pour donner le signal de réunion d'efforts àfaire par plusieurs sur une bouline, ou pour toute autre opération qu'on exécute dans les ports et sur les grands bâtimens, and BOULINA-HA-HA! Arrache! Boulina-ha-ha, déralingue! etc. Ancien chant des matelots français pendant qu'ils bâient sur les quatre principales boulines, and HISSA, O, HA , HISSE: chant de l'homme qui donne la voix pour réunir les efforts de plusieurs autres sur un même cordage afin de produire un plus grand effet, French maritime dictionary (Willaumez 1825)

1825, July

- the sailor sent forth his long and slow-toned "yeo— heave — oh!" Brig leaving Quebec/windlass (Finan 1825).

- "Oh, yeo, cheerly" [CHEERLY] Brig leaving Quebec/topsail halyards (Finan 1825)

1826>

- So I seized a capstan bar…And, in spite of sighs and tears, sung out, yo, heave ho!, Dibdin's song, "Tom Tough" (Universal Songster 1826)

c.1826

- "Haul way, yeo ho, boys!" London/Navy sailors in a pub ("Waldie's select circulating library", 1833)

1828, March

- a wild sort of song, Alatamaha River, Georgia/Black rowing (Hall)

1829

- they began their song, one of them striking up, seemingly with the first idea that entered his imagination, while the others caught at his words, and repeated them to a kind of Chinese melody; the whole at length uniting their voices into one chant, which, though evidently the outpouring of a jovial spirit, had, from its unvaried tone and constant echo of the same expression, a half-wild, half-melancholy effect upon the ear. …It had begun with "Yah! yah! here's a full ship for the captain, and a full pannikin for Peytie Pevterson, la— la—lalla—la—leh; but this sentence, after many repetitions, was changed for others of briefer duration and more expressive import, as they coursed after each other with intoxicating rapidity… Fictional whaleship/capstan ("Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean", 1829)