1870s

Summary:

Danger ahead! -- Beware that, in trying to construct a narrative, there may be more than usual tendency towards conjecture on my part, in this decade.

I see this as the decade in which chanties became "standard." The word "chanty/shanty" itself has become widely known to and used by the sort of people who hold the privilege of writing. And while we can't say for sure if the word wasn't already very common amongst "common" sailors, the awareness of it by writers suggests to me that the genre itself had reached some stage of "everyday knowledge" -- at least as a concept. Establishing the word and using it in discourse (not just literary) seems to lend a more definiteness to the genre. It all becomes a bit more regular.

That may be reflected by the pieces of repertoire, which doesn't grow much in the decade.

The only reasonably new song mentioned is DEAD HORSE.

A major disclaimer, however, is that this survey has not taken much into consideration the oral sources and testimonies in much later collections (e.g. Harlow) who sailed at this time. 1870s is really the earliest decade about which the John Shorts and Carpenter's singers and people like that could tell us, I think -- Sure, a few were at see in the 60s, but how does one reasonably separate what one may have learned in the 60s from the 70s? And since my division by decade is really somewhat arbitrary, "late 60s" is not necessarily a different "era" from, say, 1974. Add to this an idea -- that the 70s was really the "last" decade for chanties. The early 80s authors already talk about chanties as a by-gone practice. In any case, despite what can be no doubt that some new repertoire was added afterwards (I'd think, especially popular songs during later wars)...It may be possible to say that the 70s was when things "flattened out" (creatively speaking) and chanties began their decline.

Including the later-published and -recorded accounts would certainly yield a higher number, but there is the uncertainty about the authors adding items heard/seen in later decades. Besides, even if we look at Harlow, his "Akbar" shanties add very few title to what would be noted by the 80s. That being said, there is some interesting material in Bullen, or in Hugill (via his West Indian informants), etc., but I cannot consider it at this time.

To make another dramatic statement: Might we say that "chanties as we know them" (as repertoire and as form/usage -- not in terms of performance style, etc.) were a product of the 1870s (or late 60s)? Not in terms of origin, of course, but in terms of the collective body, fully developed, that constituted a named genre.

Sources:

1869 Oct. – 1870

- "I wish I was in Mobile Bay" and " I'm bound for the Rio Grande," [RIO GRANDE] ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/pumping (Nehemiah Adams 1871). [Repeat of RC Adams, though earlier pub. date.]

- "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"[REUBEN RANZO], ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/topsail halyards (Nehemiah Adams 1871).

- "'Way! haul away! haul away! Joe!" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!" [BOWLINE], ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/tacks+sheets (Nehemiah Adams 1871). ]]

[1869 Opening of Suez Canal]

c. 1870s

- "Oh, ho, yes—Oho/ A hundered years ago" [HUNDRED YEARS] and "Starm along, boys—Starm along/ Starm along, Starmy" [STORMY] and "With a heave oh—haul/ And good morning, ladies all" [GOOD MORNING LADIES], memory of work on Black X liners "years ago" (Leslie 1886)

1870

- The leader, a stalwart negro, stood upon the capstan shouting the solo part of the song…they were answered by his companions in stentorian tones at first, and then, as the refrain of the song fell into the lower part of the register, the response was changed into a sad chant in mournful minor key Steamboat, St. Louis > New Orleans (Nichols 1870)

1870, Sept.

- "Whiskey, O Johnnie/ Whiskey for my Johnnie" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] ship, New York> /topsail halyards [fiction] (RIVERSIDE MAGAZINE Sept. 1870)

- "All haul away, haul away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE], ship, New York> /braces [fiction] (RIVERSIDE MAGAZINE Sept. 1870)

c. early 1870s

- "Stand below you coal black rose" [COAL BLACK ROSE], Vera Cruz, Mexico/stevedores discharging cargo [pulling] – possibly contrived (Dixon 1883)

1873

- O whisky, whisky ! / O whisky is for Johnny!" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Lorenzo was no sailor / Renzo, boys, Renzo!" [REUBEN RANZO], Sailors' songs in American vessels/halyards (Jewell 1873)

- "Way, haul away—haul away, Josey/ Way, haul away—haul away, Joe!" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Haul the bowline—bowline haul!" [BOWLINE], Sailors' songs in American vessels/braces (Jewell 1873)

- "Blow, my bully boys, blow!" [BLOW BOYS BLOW], Sailors' songs in American vessels/windlass (Jewell 1873)

1874

- "Whiskey, Johnnie / So whiskey for my Johnnie, O" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Way, haul away, haul away, my Josey / Way, haul away, haul away, my Jo" [HAUL AWAY JOE] [possibly culled from elsewhere] (Brevet, August 1974)

- "Haul the bowline, The bowline haul!" [BOWLINE] Norwegian/tacks (Lie 1874)

- "Aa hal i — aa — i aa —! / Cheer my men!" [CHEERLY] Norwegian/catting anchor (Lie 1874)

- "Good-bye, fare-ye-well!" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL], English merchant ship SEA QUEEN, London > / capstan, "homeward bound chanty" (Symondson 1876)

- "I served my time in the Black Ball Line" [BLACKBALL LINE], English merchant ship SEA QUEEN, off Portland / anchor capstan (Symondson 1876)

- "Ho! and heigho!/ For we're bound to the Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE], English merchant ship SEA QUEEN, > Sydney Harbour / anchor capstan (Symondson 1876)

1874, Jan.

"Then heave away, my bully boys/ Heave away, my Johnnies!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] (Drake 1874)

1875

[[- Harlow]]

1876

- "Oh, Shanadoa, I longs to hear you/ Ha! ha! the rolling water" [SHENANDOAH],
ship PANDORA, Arctic/anchor capstan (MacGahan, 1876)

1876, Nov.

- "Hilo boys, hil-lo!" [HILO BOYS] and "Walk away", rowing a boat off Malaysia [historical fiction?] (CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL, Nov. 1876)

1877

- "Blow the man down in Grangemouth town, hay, hay, blow the man down," [BLOW THE MAN] ship FORSETTE out of Höganäs, Sweden, off Bodo, Norway/catting anchor (Nelson, 1913)

1877, April

- "I'm bound away to leave you/ Good-bye, my love, good-bye!" [GOODBYE MY LOVE], rowing [fiction] (Foot 1877).

1878

- "Aha! I'm bound AWAY/ Across the broad Atlantic!" [SHENANDOAH] and "Do my, Johnny Boker, do!" [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "An' away, my Johnny boy, we 're all bound to go!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo!" [REUBEN RANZO] [fiction, maybe rehashed from RIVERSIDE Apr 1868] (Scudder 1879)

1879, fall

- "Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin', Haul" [BOWLINE] and "Whisky, Johnny!/ O! Whisky for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Wae! Hae! Blow the man down/ Give me some time to blow the man down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO] and "Away, haul away—Haul away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "So handy, me boys, so handy" [HANDY MY BOYS] and "Wae! Hae! Ha!" [BONEY] and "Hand away, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "Good-bye, fare ye well. Good-bye, fare ye well/ Hurrah, me boys! we're bound to go!" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "And we say so, for we know so/ Poor old man" [DEAD HORSE], steamship PARRAMATTA, London > Sydney/ transcriptions of various sailors' chanties (Seal 1992)