105 - Timber Drogher's Shanty



This was one of the most unclear case to me to investigate, about this piece of musical notation and text Stan Hugill give to us this description: "Whall gives a short variant of this shanty with a different tune. He calls his version a "timber drogher's shanty" (by "this shanty" Stan Hugill means "Highland Laddie" or "Donkey Riding").
So I did go to my shelf where I have a copy of W. B. Whall's "Ships. Sea Songs and Shanties, unfortunately, searched page by page and did not found this song, my copy is a 3-rd edition from 1913. What's going on then? Maybe Stan Hugill gives the wrong reference? Doing research I found in the description only one existing record of this song by Gibb Sheffler, who wrote in the description of his performance, he saw this song in 4 th edition of Walls book, so my track directs me to buy a higher edition than mine. Fortunately, I have been lucky to buy the 6-st edition of Walls book from 1927, and eventually, I Found It! On page 115 I found this:

"Timber droghers would sing--

Was you ever in Quebec,
a launchin' timber on the deck?
Because she was a young thing,
lately left her mammy O!

...end of the story.
To be honest, I didn't found what I hope, means the whole song two or three full stanzas, I found the same piece that prints Stan Hugill. Of course, now I know for sure there is not more than we can find in "Shanties from the Seven Seas", in fact, W. B. Whall's 6 th edition really contains more content, so is a win-win anyway.
"Shanties from the Seven Seas" by Stan Hugill (1st ed p 150).




Timber Drogher's Shanty


Was you ever in Quebec,
a launchin' timber on the deck?
Because she was a young thing,
lately left her mammy O!