The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173554   Message #4209832
Posted By: Steve Gardham
14-Oct-24 - 06:01 PM
Thread Name: Pamphlet: The Singing Englishman (A.L. Lloyd)
Subject: RE: Pamphlet: The Singing Englishman (A.L. Lloyd)
No problem.
Bert, as you probably know went on a whaling trip to the Antarctic sailing from Hull, in the 50s I think. He claimed to have collected a chanty from a Hull chap Clausen on the same trip. It was a version of 'Heave away, my Johnny'. The first line went 'Fare-ye-well, ye Kingston girls, farewell St Andrews Dock.' Okay, now I have collected chanties in Hull but Hull is not famous for its chanty singing in the heyday of chantying. the west coast is where the main chantying was done. There are no genuine chanties that mention Hull, as opposed say to Liverpool.

But that's not the main reason I think this is one of Bert's concoctions. First of all St Andrews Dock was only built in the 1880s long after the heyday of chanties and it's a fish dock with trawlers. No record of trawlermen ever singing chanties. But far more than that, having lived in Hull all my 77 years, I have never heard of Hull lasses anywhere being referred to as 'Kingston girls'. If Clausen was a Hull man for any length of time he would have been aware that there was no such expression.

That's one example. Do you want more?