1899[Sept.]        Bullen, Frank T. _The Log of a Sea-Waif._ New York: D. Appleton and Company.

"Being Recollections of the first 4 years of my sea life." = age 12-16. Bullen sailed for 15 (?) years in British ships.

On his first trip out of London, on arrival at Demerara, he describes the chanties of stevedores unloading the cargo. I guess this would be 1869, if that's when Bullen first sailed? His later work says he sailed from 1869-1880 = 11 years. But here he says 15, and these are his first 4 years. Was it that this first 4 he was not a "proper" seaman or something? The date here could then be 1865.

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Streaming with sweat, throwing their bodies about in sheer wantonness of exuberant strength as they hoisted the stuff out of the hold, they sometimes grew so excited by the improvisations of the "chantey man," who sat on the corner of the hatch solely employed in leading the singing, that often, while for a minute awaiting the next hoist, they would fling themselves into fantastic contortions, keeping time to the music. There was doubtless great waste of energy; but there was no slackness of work or need of a driver. Here is just one specimen of their songs; but no pen could do justice to the vigour, the intonation and the abandon of the delivery thereof.

[with score – includes a harmony lines]

Sister Seusan, my Aunt Sal,
Gwineter git a home bime-by – high!
All gwineter lib down shin bone al,
Gwineter git a home bime-by.
Gwineter git a home bime-by-e-high,
Gwineter git a home bime-by.
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Later, at age 13, Bullen is in Mobile Bay, where his ship is being loaded with cotton for Liverpool. Pg. 91:

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A fine fleet of ships lay here, all loading cotton for Liverpool. Nor, in spite of the number of vessels, was there any delay in commencing our cargo, for the next day, after mooring, a gang of stevedores came on board and set to work, with characteristic American energy, to prepare the hold….

Then the cotton began to come in. The great loosely pressed bales, weighing some six hundredweight each, were whipped on board like magic by a single-purchase steam-winch on board the steamer, and tumbled into the hold as fast as they came. Below, operations commenced by laying a single tier of bales, side by side across the ship, on the levelled ballast, leaving sufficient space in the middle of the tier to adjust a jack-screw. Then, to a grunting chantey, the screw was extended to its full length, and another bale inserted. The process was repeated until at last long wooden levers were attached to the iron bars of the screw, and the whole gang "tallied" on until the last possible bale was squeezed into the tier, which was then almost as solid as a beam of timber built into the ship. It was a point of honour among stevedores to jam as many bales into a ship as she could possibly be made to contain, and restraint was often needed to prevent the energetic workers from seriously injuring vessels by the displacement of deck-planks, stanchions, bulkheads, and even beams.
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