The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #172604   Message #4179902
Posted By: Gibb Sahib
25-Aug-23 - 02:51 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
Albert Sonnichsen, _Deep Sea Vagabonds_ (New York, 1903)

Sonnichsen, a San Francisco native, goes to sea in 1896.

In his voyages, he refers to / quotes some items he labels as "old chanty": RIO GRANDE, BANKS OF SACRAMENTO, and ROLLING HOME.

He appears to distinguish "song" and "chanty," because he writes (p125) "There was much work to be done yet in making the ship fast both fore and aft, but gaily we did it, roaring out songs and chanties as we skipped about the windlass."

In April 1897, he is in a British ship headed up the English Channel. Here, he quotes PADDY LAY BACK and calls it a "song." The crew is suffering a bit having to tack so much and their arms freezing with icy water. Pg. 171:

//
We tried hard to take it philosophically, and even sang while we pulled and hauled at the braces the old song, the chorus to which is:

“Oh carry me back,
Heave in the slack,
Take her to the capstan,
Heave a pawl, heave a pawl.
Bout ship, station lads,
be handy
Up tacks, sheets and mainsail haul.”
//