Rutzebeck’s tune, like Haswell’s, is recognizably the “same.” I haven’t found my copy of Sampson’s “Seven Seas Shanty Book,” but I’m confident that it also is the “same.”

Here is Haswell’s full text - reprinted by Graham Seal from the “Paramatta Serio-Comic Sun” in “Ten Shanties Sung on the Austraian Run 1879” (1992).


                   RANZO

Oh! poor old Reuben Ranzo!
Ranzo, boys! Ranzo.        

He sold his plough and harrow….

Ranzo was no sailor….

He shipped on a Yankee whaler….

He could not do his duty….

He could not furl a “Royal.”…

The “Mate” he was a bad man….

The Captain was a good ‘un….

They took him to the gangway….

And gave him six and thirty….

He was taken in the cabin….

And there had wine and brandy….

And they taught him navy-gation….

Now, he’s skipper of a whaler….

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….

[Note:] Ranzo is suspiciously like a “crib” from a well-known old sea song concerning a certain “Lorenzo”, who also “was no sailor.” -Mus. Ed.


****
I too have looked in vain for that "old sea song" about "Lorenzo," allegedly known to Mark Twain or Bret Harte. (Maybe it was in the pre-Civil War song book where Whall saw “Shannadore.” Yeah, right.)

The anonymous author of "Man Overboard" may have had a muddled understanding of the difference between a "chantey" and a "fore bitter."

(Compare William Fender's chantey chorus recorded by Carpenter in the '20s:

"To me way, hey-ay-ay-ay, high low man!")

"Orlonzo" now lets us speculate that the real Ranzo was named Orlando Ranzo, which sounds more likely than Reuben Lorenzo. (Just messin' with your mind.)