BRUCE O.

I' pretty sure the "Lloyd's" book referred to is about the very fine singer,A.L.LLOYD, and not the "Lloyd's of London, coffee house-shipping underwiters"

JENNIFER

Yes, whaling was a dangerous occupation, but, nowere near as dangerous as commercial fishing, which to this day is the most dangerous occupation there is. If any of you doubt this, just pick up a copy of this week's "National Fisherman",a weekly publication devoted to commercial fishing. Uner "COAST GUARD NEWS" you will find a list of those Lost at Sea, THIS WEEK. Because these losses occurred on the high seas, you usually dont find mention of them in Newspapers, unless you live in a fishing port. Of course the Newport Daily News, (Newport RI) carries stories about commercial fishing losses. But, this is so common, they only publish reports about vessels based in Rhode Island. My son David is a commercial fisherman. I wish he's find some other occupation, but like most of them, he loves his work. He once told me, "Theres something romantic about making your living at sea, and it's very satisfying to know that you are feeding people at a price they can afford". Most of us know that the reason for this loss of life is that fishermen "Fish 'til they drop", because the industry is operated on shares, and the sooner they fill their holds and get back inshore, the more money they make. sometimes they work a 20 hour day, with only an hours sleep every now and then. Tired, sleepy people get careless and make deadly mistakes.

DAN KEDING

Sailors are not, and never have been a cheap commodity. No matter how harsh the conditions, the loyalty of each man to his shipmates and ship, and the loyalty of a captain to his crew are very strong. This is the usual situation. The unusul is the one you read or hear about. Those who don't think that a crew is a very tight, very loyal group have never been to sea. GLOCESTERMAN, you know what I'm saying, don't you?

Pete M.

No, common usage does not take precedent if the common usage is wrong. Education and "Blowing ssmoke up their noses" are two very different things.

EVERYONE.

This song is very easy to follow through the "Folk Process" because in every version I've seen in print, the date is somewhere in the song. The one I sing starts off, "In eighteen hundered and sixty three, on June the 13th day", our gallant ship, her anchor weighed and for Greenland bore away BRAVE BOYS, for Greenland bore away. In my opinion, what the name of the ship is, when it was first written and how technical it gets take second fiddle to how good a song it is, how easy it is for the audience to understand (within the bounds of accuracy) and how much the singer enjoys singing it. In the 17th century English versions I've read the captain isn't too concerned about the loss of his crew and is much more distressed at the loss of money. As the song came across he Atlantic, the captains character changed dramatically. Which leads me to believe that the original version was made up by a landlubber, but, as seamen took the song as their own, The changes they made brought the song into the area of truth. and then there is ,ARS GRATIA ARTIS. Art for the sake of art. So now where are we?

Love and kisses to all.

Jody Gibson Square rig Boatswain, chanteyman and rigger.