The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #137375 Message #3142061
Posted By: MGM·Lion
25-Apr-11 - 12:16 PM
Thread Name: Sea Shanty - 19th century Brit Lit?
Subject: RE: Sea Shanty - 19th century Brit Lit?
Moby Dick has only one or two shanty refs ~~ in particular in ch 22, where, tho Captain Bildad had forbidden the singing of profane songs on board, "the hands at the windlass ... roared forth some sort of chorus about the girls in Booble Alley with hearty good will" -- surely "Haul Away For Rosie".
The description of the singing of "15 Men" with Long John Silver as shantyman at beginning of ch 10 of Stevenson's Treasure Island accords precisely with descriptions of how shanties were sung & used; tho this song seems to have been made up by RLS himself, & the period [a few years after after the battle of Fontenoy 1745, in which one of the main characters, Dr Livesey, had fought] a bit early.
~Michael~