1978        Rosenberg, Neil V. and Deborah G. Kodish, ed. _"Folk-songs of America": The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932_. Library of Congress. LP.

Two major phases of Gordon's work seem of most interest to this topic. One is his collecting in the San Francisco Bay area; the other is his collecting in Georgia. As seen in the 1927 article of his posted above, he connected deepwater chanties with Black folk songs.

From the Introduction of the liner notes:

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…Gordon spent much of his time collecting songs on the Oakland and San Francisco waterfronts, where he won the cooperation of stevedores, sailors, captains, hoboes, and convicts…

During his years in California, 1917-24, Gordon gathered more than one thousand shanties and sea songs, at least three hundred of which he recorded on cylinders, making his the largest collection of maritime songs then in existence. Gordon was not interested in the sheer number of texts; instead he hoped to learn from this large body of data something of the role that Afro-American traditions and popular minstrel show materials played in the development of the sea shanty. He was successful in his fieldwork, but most of his colleagues in Berkeley's English department failed to recognize it. Few of them knew what he was doing on the waterfront, and many expressed the wish that he would spend his time in more orthodox academic pursuits…
//

Here are the relevant items on this album.

Two chanties in Frisco Bay.
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…almost certainly recorded in the San Francisco Bay Area, probably in Oakland, in the early twenties. The singer appears to have been a veteran of sailing ships, for he begins the first song with appropriate instructions to the short-haul crew.
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First, a relative if [ROLL THE WOODPILE], in a sweating-up style.
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…Aside from it's use as a shanty, it has stylistic and historical connections with the minstrel stage. Doerflinger (p.350) dates it from an 1887 songster, Delaney's Song Book No.3, where the words are credited to Edward Harrigan. Sheet music copyrighted in 1887 by William A. Pond & Co., New York, also credits the words to Harrigan, gives the score to Dave Braham, and adds the information "As sung in Edward Harrigan's drama, "Pete"(in Harrigan and Braham's Popular Songs As Sung by Harrigan and Hart, Volume 2, New York: Wm. A. Pond & Co., 1892, pp.51-52)…

HAUL THE WOODPILE DOWN
Gordon cyl.50, ms. Cal. 104B 

Anon,
Bay Area, California,
Early 1920s

Spoken:
Cast her up! Sweat up that weather main brace.
Fetch on there, boys, look to it, come on,
Shake a leg, all together now.

Sung:

Yankee John with his sea boots on,

Haul the woodpile down.

Yankee John with his sea boots on,

Haul the woodpile down.

Way down in Florida,
Way down in Florida,
Way down in Florida,

Haul the woodpile down.
//

[ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT]
//
"Roll the Old Chariot Along" has direct connections with black folk music of the nineteenth century, appearing in most of the standard collections of spirituals (Dett, pp. 192-93; Fenner and Rathbun, pp. 106-7; Johnson, pp. 110-11). Sandburg published a variant (pp. 196-97), and it has also been noted by collectors of shanties, including Hugill (pp. 150-51) and Doerflinger (pp. 49-50, 357). A version of this was sent to Gordon by an Adventure reader (3758) and he collected another text in California (Cal. 243). There were many black sailors on the crews of nineteenth-century vessels. They brought with them traditions of work songs, and their songs, religious and secular, were usually rhythmic and thus suited for the many kinds of gang labor needed on the big sailing ships. Gordon devoted a chapter in Folk-Songs of America to "Negro work songs from Georgia" (pp. 13-19).

ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG
Gordon cyl. 50, ms. Cal. 104A

Anon,
Bay Area, California,
Early 1920s

Roll the old chariot along

And we'll roll the old chariot along

And we'll roll the old chariot along

And we'll all hang on behind.
If the devil's in the way,
We'll roll it over him

If the devil's in the way,
Why we'll roll it over him,

If the devil's in the way,
We'll roll it over him.

And we'll all hang on behind.
//

Continuing Gordon's bio,
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By Christmas 1925, Gordon had been living away from his family for more than a year. The separation was difficult, emotionally and financially, and he decided to move to a field station on the southern coast of Georgia--to Darien, the childhood home of Mrs. Gordon. The reunited family occupied a two-room house, and Gordon resumed work, eagerly setting out to record the Afro-American traditions of the Georgia coast. The rowing songs and the boat songs which he discovered are represented on this record by the performances of Mary C. Mann and J. A. S. Spencer. Mary Mann, a deaconess at a local black church, had organized a school in Darien in which she taught young black women the domestic skills they needed to find employment. Mary Mann had a large repertoire herself, and she encouraged her students and members of her church to contribute their songs to Gordon as well…

In July 1928, Herbert Putnam, the Librarian of Congress, appointed Gordon "specialist and consultant in the field of Folk Song and Literature." Gordon later proposed a title that he thought would appeal more to the imagination of the general public: director of the Archive of American Folk Song.
During the first year of the archive's existence, Gordon remained in Darien collecting the shouts, rowing songs, rags, reels, and turning songs that were of primary importance in the study of American folk song and of special significance in learning how folksongs start and spread….
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One recorded example is a rowing song.
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Mary Mann's second song is, in her words, a "boat song". Such songs are familiar in the Georgia Sea Islands. In "Negro Work Songs From Georgia," Gordon described the rowing songs which he collected. He found them "very close to spirituals—some of them are spirituals slightly made over." …
This song, like Mann's first, shares the non-stanzaic construction noted by Gordon for rowing songs. The contrast between strophic construction found in European folksong and the litany form found in Africa supports Gordon's argument that these songs in Mann's repertoire represent an early stage in the progress from African to Afro-American folksong traditions. Gordon collected several other rowing songs from Mann; he also collected another version of "Finger Ring" from a Darien informant (A285, GA75). Mann's statement at the end refers to Mrs. (Roberta Paul) Gordon, whom Mann had known since childhood.

FINGER RING
Gordon cyl. A345, Item GA122

Mary C. Mann,
Darien, Georgia,
April 12, 1926

I lost mama's finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring,

I lost mama finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring,

I lost my mama finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring.

I lost my mama finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring.

I know how, I know how to row the boat,

I know how, I know how to row the boat,

I know how to row the boat,
I can row the boat just so, finger ring, the finger ring.

I can row the boat just so, finger ring, the finger ring.
I can row, I can row the Bumble Bee,

I can how, I know how to row the Bee,

I know how to row the Bee, Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.
I know how to row the Bee, the Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.

I know how to row the boat, the Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.

I know how to row the boat, the Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.

I lost mama, I lost mama finger ring,

I lost mama, I lost my mama finger ring, finger ring,
the finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring.

I know how to row the boat, Bumble Bee, Bumble Bee.

Spoken:
This is Miss Roberta Paul's, Paul's "boat song" that I have sung just now—the "Finger Ring."…
//

Then come tracks from Georgia of shanties.
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From rowing songs to sea shanties in black song tradition is a logical step, for during the nineteenth-century black seamen and dock workers had an important effect upon shantying traditions.
//

First version of [BLOW BOYS BLOW]:
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J. A. S. Spencer's "Blow Boys Blow" is what Gordon called a "quick time" shanty (Gordon, p. 14) with an unusual text and a familiar refrain. Doboy sound is on the Atlantic coast of Georgia, just north of Darien.

BLOW BOYS BLOW (1)
Gordon cyl. A479, Item GA252

J. A. S. Spencer
Darien, Georgia [?]
 May 11, 1926

The prettiest girl in Doboy town,

Blow, boys, blow.

Her name is fancy Nellie Brown,

Blow, my bully boys, blow.



Heave her high and let her go,

Heave her high and let her blow,


The prettiest girl I ever knew,

She wear the red morraca shoe,

The prettiest girl I ever saw,

She's always riding the white horse,


The prettiest boy in Doboy town,

His name is Little Johnny Brown,

Heave her high and let her go,

Heave her high and jam her low,
//

Second version of [BLOW BOYS BLOW]:
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It is not known where or when Gordon recorded A. Wilkins, who sang good versions of both "Blow Boys Blow" and "Haul Away" in a splendid voice. Adventure correspondents sent Gordon four other versions of this "Blow Boys Blow" (770, 1033, 1642, 2362). …

BLOW BOYS BLOW (2)
Gordon cyl. G100, Item Misc.188

A. Wilkins [?]
Place and date unknown

Oh, blow, my boys, for I love to hear you,

Blow, boys, blow;

Oh blow, my boys, for I long to hear you,

Blow, my bully boys, blow.

Oh, a Yankee ship dropping down the river,

It's a Yankee ship dropping down the river,

Now, how do you know she's a Yankee clipper?

Her spars and decks they shine like silver,
Oh who do you think was the chief mate of her?

Oh, Skys'l Taylor, the Frisco slugger,

And who do you think was the chief cook of her?

Oh big black Sam, the Baltimore nigger,

And what do you think we had for dinner?
A monkey's legs and a monkey's liver,

And what do you think we had for supper?

The starboard side of an old sou'wester,

//

[HAUL AWAY JOE]
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…The testimony of sailors is that this song was one to which improvisation occurred freely, and the verses which Wilkins sings here are a mixture of the familiar (verse one) and the novel (verse two). …Gordon collected a version of this in California (Cal. 249).

HAUL AWAY
Gordon cyl. G100, Item Misc.190

A. Wilkins [?]
Eastern U. S. [?]
1930-32 [?]

Away, haul away, a-haul away, my Rosie,

Away, haul away, a-haul away, Joe.

I wish I was in Ireland, a diggin' turf an' taters,


But now I'm in a Yankee ship, a-pullin cleats [sheets] and braces,


Once I loved an Irish gal and she was double jointed,


I thought she had a double chin but I was disappointed,


Away, haul away, the old man he's a-growlin',


Away, haul away, our oats are growing mouldy;


Away, haul away, the bloody ship is rollin',

//