The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #172056   Message #4163846
Posted By: Gibb Sahib
29-Jan-23 - 06:40 AM
Thread Name: Reuben Ranzo
Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
George Haswell's exposition of chanties in the shipboard newspaper _The Parramatta Sun_, 1879, includes the note (reproduced in LA Smith),

//
Ranzo is suspiciously like a 'crib' from a wellknown old sea-song concerning a certain 'Lorenzo,' who also 'was no sailor.' However the versions of Reuben Ranzo may alter one salient point in each remains, and that is the fact of 'his being no sailor.'
//

What is that well known old sea-song?

I don't have Haswell's full text. These are the lyrics I have:

//
O poor old Reuben [Ruben?] Ranzo
   Ranzo Boys Ranzo
O poor old Reuben Ranzo
   Ranzo Boys Ranzo

[...]

I wish I was old 'Ranzo's' son.
“I'd build a ship of a thousand ton;

I'd give my sailors plenty of rum
Old 'Ranzo' was a good old man,

But now old 'Ranzo's' dead and gone,
And none can sing his funeral song.
//

Thus, it ends with a typical "Stormy" theme.

TUNE:
M/F S F M / R D M - /
/R R R - / M R - /
R/R M F MR / D l s - /
/D M S M / R D - (-)//