1927        Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy and Mary Winslow Smyth. _Minstrelsy of Maine: Folk-songs and Ballads of the Woods and the Coast_. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin.

[Some question marks due to illegible spots in my copy.]

Deep-Sea Songs:

The Stately Southerner
The Flying Cloud
Tacking Ship Off Shore
The Banks of Newfoundland
Sailors' 'Come-All-Ye'
Old Horse
The Greenland Whale Fishery
The Pretty Mohea
The Sailors' Alphabet

Chanteys:

Contributed by Laura E. Richards of Gardiner, ME, March 1926. Said the verses were learned by her mother in 1852, on board a sailing vessel from Italy to America.

[TOMMY'S GONE]
//
Tom's Gone Away

Oh, Tom he was a darling boy,
        Tom's gone away!
Oh, Tome he was the sailor's joy,
        Tom's gone away!
And hurrah for Jenny, boys,
        Tom's gone away!
And hurrah for Jenny, boys,
//

[HELLO SOMEBODY]
//
Hilo

Arise, old woman, and let me in!
        Way! hi-lo!
Hi-lo, somebody! hi-lo!
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago

I wish I was in Baltimore,
        I-i-i-o!
A-skating on the sanded floor,
        A long time ago;
Forever and forever,
        I-i-i-o!
Forever and forever, boys,
        A long time ago!
//

Mrs. Seth S. Thornton of Southwest Harbor, Maine, Nov. 1926. Said this topsail halliards chantey "used to be sung on board ship in my father's day."

[CLEAR THE TRACK] is the dominant bit of this, but it also has aspects of "Mobile Bay" and "Roller Bowler."
//
Mobile Bay

Was you ever in Mobile Bay?
        A hay! a hue! Ain't you most done?
A-screwing cotton by the day?
        A hay! a hue! Ain't you most done?
Oh, yes, I've been in Mobile Bay
A-screwing cotton by the day;
So clear the track, let the bullgine run,
With a rig-a-jig-jig and a ha-ha-ha,
Good morning ladies all!
//

Contributed by Frank Stanley of Cranberry Isles, Maine, Nov. 1925. Looks like Stanley took all these texts from Clark's _The Clipper Ship Era_.

[LOWLANDS AWAY] [PADDY DOYLE] "Rolling John" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] [WHISLEY JOHNNY]

From Captain J.A. Creighton of Thomaston, Maine, Aug. 192?. Wrote, "This is a chanty the writer has never seen in print but [?-ed] to sing over forty years ago. There must have been fifty verses to this chanty, and it told of a sailor's life from beginning to end and was one of the best chanties the writer ever heard…"

[LIVERPOOL GIRLS]
//
First to California, Oh, Fondly I went

First to California, oh, fondly I went,
For to stop in that country it was my intent;
But the drinking of whiskey, like every damn fool,
Soon got me imported back to Liverpool.

Refrain:
Singing, Row, Row, Row, bullies, Row.
Oh, the Liverpool girls they have got us in tow,
Singing, Row, Row, Row, bullies, Row.
Oh, the Liverpool girls they have got us in tow.

And now we are down and on the line,
The Captain's a-cursing, he's all out of wine,
We're hauling and pulling these yards all about,
For to give this flash packet a quick passage out.

And now we are down and off Cape Horn,
The boys have no clothes for to keep themselves warm,
She's diving bows aunder and the decks are all wet,
And we're going round Cape Horn with the main skysail set.
//

//
Too-li-aye

A negro chantey. Of this and the preceding, Captain Creighton wrote, 'These two chanties do not amount to much without the music, but they never fail to bring down the house when sung by a few old salts that know how to get the funny yodel-like notes that were common in the good old times of the "down-east square-rigger."'

A Yankee ship and a Yankee crew,
Jan Kanaganaga too-li-aye.

Refrain.
Too-li-aye, too-li-aye,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.

A Yankee ship with a lot to do,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.

A Yankee ship with a Yankee mate,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.

If you stop to walk he'll change your gait,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR]
//
…learned by the [??] editor's grandmother, probably considerably over a hundred years ago as she used to hear the sailors singing as they tacked in going up the Penobscot.

What shall we do with the drunken sailor?...
So early in the morning?

Put him in the long-boat and let him bail her;

Ay, ay, up she rises!
//

A "coastwise chantey". Sung by Capt. Rufus H. Young of Hancock Maine, Oct. 1925, 92 years old. Said was favorite for "getting under way". Had 40-50+ verses. Girl is chewing gum (!). So, not until after 1870, maybe not even till after 1890s. Tune is "When Johnny comes marching home."
//
Johnny, Fill Up the Bowl

Johnny and Jenny by the fireside say,
Hoorah! Hoorah!
Johnny and Jenny by the fireside say,
Hoorah! Hoorah!

Johnny and Jenny by the fireside say,
And Johnny saw Jenny's mouth open and shet,
And Johnny saw Jenny's mouth open and shet,
[??..] all drink stone-blind,
Johnny, fill up the bowl!
//

Taken down ca.1904 by WM Hardy of Brewer, Maine, from the singing of Captain William Coombs of Islesboro, Maine. The following 2 are local fishermen's chanteys. Short because the small sails were quickly hoisted.
//
Isle o' Holt (Highland Laddie)

Was you ever on the Isle o' Holt,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie?
Where John Thompson swallowed a colt,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie?
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie;
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie Hielan' laddie.

I opened an orange and found a letter,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie.
And the more I read it grew better and better,
Bonnie Hielan' laddie.
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie,
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie Hielan' laddie.
//

//
Church and Chapel

I rode to church, I rode to chapel,
Pull down!
With a hickory horse and a white-oak saddle,
        Pull down below!
Pull down, pull down, pull down together,
Pull down, pull down, my dandy fellows,
        Pull down!
//

From L.I. Flower of Central Cambridge, New Brunswick, 1926, who thought these were the favorite chanties among guys in the lumber woods.

[SHENANDOAH]
//
Shenandore

Heave her up from down below, boys!
Hooray, you rolling river!
Heave her up and let her go, boys!
Aha! Bound away o'er the wild Missouri.

Shenandore, I long to see you! X2

Shenandore! I love your daughter,
I love the roar of your rushing waters,
//

Only the chorus remembered. This is connected to a Great Lakes song, "The Cruise of the Bigelow," which was probably not a chanety
//
Buffalo

Stop her! Catch! Jump her up in a juba-ju!
Give her the sheet and let her go!
We are the boys can crowd her through.
You ought to have seen her travel, the wind a-blowing free,
On her passage down to Buffalo from Milwaukee!
//

Says the Black Ball Line sailed from Saint John (New Brunswick), and he remembers them from 55 years ago.
//
Blow the Man Down

'Twas in a Black-Baller I first served my time,
To my yo-heave-ho! blow the man down!
'Twas in a Black-Baller I wasted my prime,
O! give me some time to blow the man down!

'Twas when a Black-Baller was leaving the land,
Our captain then gave us the word of command,

'Lay aft,' was the cry, 'to the break of the poop,'
'And I'll help you along with the toe of my boot,'

'Twas when a Black-Baller came home to the dock,
The lad and the lasses around her did flock,
//

From Susie C. Young of Brewer, Main, 1926.
[HIGHLAND]
//
Highland Laddie

Was you ever to Quebec,
Halan' Laddie, bonnie Laddie!
Where they hoist their timber all on deck,
With a Halan' bonnie Laddie?
Heave-O! me heart and soul,
Halan' Laddie, Bonnie Laddie,
Heave-O! me heart and soul,
To me Halan', Bonnie Laddie.

Was you ever to the Isle of France,
Where the girls are taught to dance
//

Young said apparently of Negro/West Indian origin, sung in Orland for several generations. Thinks her grandfather may have learned it at sea.
//
Shove 'er up! Shove 'er up!
Keep shoving of 'er up!
Shove 'er up! Shove 'er up!
Keep shoving of 'er up!
Shove 'er in the gangway!
Shove 'er in the boat!
I'd rather have a guinea than a ten-pound note.
        Though a guinea it will sink
        And a note it will float,
I'd rather have a guinea than a ten-pound note.
//