Lyr Add: Salcombe Seaman's Flaunt to the Proud...

Subject: RE: Red Flag of Moby-Dick
From: Haruo
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 03:57 PM

Since some Mudcatters may not have memorized the latter pages of Moby-Dick, here are the pertinent passages:

From Chapter 135:
"Heart of wrought steel!" murmured Starbuck gazing over the side, and following with his eyes the receding boat- "canst thou yet ring boldly to that sight?- lowering thy keel among ravening sharks, and followed by them, open-mouthed to the chase; and this the critical third day?- For when three days flow together in one continuous intense pursuit; be sure the first is the morning, the second the noon, and the third the evening and the end of that thing- be that end what it may. Oh! my God! what is this that shoots through me, and leaves me so deadly calm, yet expectant,- fixed at the top of a shudder! Future things swim before me, as in empty outlines and skeletons; all the past is somehow grown dim. Mary, girl; thou fadest in pale glories behind me; boy! I seem to see but thy eyes grown wondrous blue. Strangest problems of life seem clearing; but clouds sweep between- Is my journey's end coming? My legs feel faint; like his who has footed it all day. Feel thy heart,- beat it yet? Stir thyself, Starbuck!- stave it off- move, move! speak aloud!- Mast-head there! See ye my boy's hand on the hill?- Crazed;- aloft there!- keep thy keenest eye upon the boats:- mark well the whale!- Ho! again!- drive off that hawk! see! he pecks- he tears the vane"- pointing to the red flag flying at the main-truck- "Ha, he soars away with it!- Where's the old man now? see'st thou that sight, oh Ahab!- shudder, shudder!"
[…]
Meantime, for that one beholding instant, Tashtego's mast-head hammer remained suspended in his hand; and the red flag, half-wrapping him as with a plaid, then streamed itself straight out from him, as his own forward-flowing heart; while Starbuck and Stubb, standing upon the bowsprit beneath, caught sight of the down-coming monster just as soon as he.

As an aside, I mention the following bit of dialogue from the 1956 movie version with Gregory Peck:

Starbuck, first mate: It is our task in life to kill whales, to furnish oil for the lamps of the world. If we perform that task well and faithfully, we do a service to mankind that pleases Almighty God. Ahab would deny all that. He has taken us from the rich harvest we were reaping to satisfy his lust for vengeance. He is twisting that which is holy into something dark and purposeless. He is a Champion of Darkness. Ahab's red flag challenges the heavens.
Stubb: Well, sir, if it's like that, I don't wonder that you, a religious man, might be a bit downcast. But I don't much see what you can do about it.
Starbuck, first mate: Listen to this.
[He goes over to a bookshelf, picks up a heavy book, opens it, and reads aloud from it]
Starbuck, first mate: "A captain who, from private motives, employs his vessel for another purpose from that intended by the owners, is answerable to the charge of usurpation, and his crew is morally and legally entitled to employ forceful means in wresting his command from him.

Haruo

Subject: Re: Red Flags in maritime ballads and chanteys
From: Haruo
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 03:38 PM

Ffrangcon Lewis wrote me:

Dear Ros,



       Thanks for helping out. I looked at the thread on the site you offered, and the ancestry through 'High Barbary' to an Elizabethan pirate ballad (?) is interesting and helpful. As a complete layman and landlubber, it does seem to me to have a chorus,
and to be, or at least to mimick, a sea-chantey. The book in which I found the version was called 'Solo and Chorus'. On the net, I found the longer and more exciting title, and the poster who said she grew up opposite Salcombe might like to know that golden dinars from North Africa were salvaged from Salcombe harbour in, I think, 1997. Meanwhile, it looks as if this chantey was current in or before Melville's time:
I wonder how many other such sea-chanteys and sea-songs make reference to the 'red flag' in this way? Anyway, thanks again, and yes, I do like real folk music,



best wishes,





Ffrangcon Lewis

On Ishmailites the topic was broached anent the red flag that figures in the closing portion of Moby-Dick, so I have retitled this post "Red Flags in maritime ballads and chanteys" and request more such cases.

FWIW, my personal preference for "chantey" as opposed to "shanty" derives mainly from my desire to avoid confusion with the sort of shanty one might abide in, a ramshackle hut of Québecois provenance.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Salcombe Ship (chantey)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 09:14 AM

It appears to be a very nice rewrite of the eighteenth/nineteenth century foscle ballad "High Barbary," which Stuart Frank in his BOOK OF PIRATE SONGS has traced back to an Elizabethan ballad, circa 1596, entitled "The Sailor's Onely Delight, Shewing the brave Fight between the George-Aloe, the Sweepstake, and certain Frenchmen at Sea" which was quite a mouthful and clearly needed to be shortened if a sailor didn't want to be banned from his turn of singing in the foscle.

Frank goes on to say that while this ballad was most commonly sung in the foscle and the wardroom (of naval vessels), "it was also occasionally used before the mast as a chantey."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Salcombe Ship (chantey)
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 08:43 AM

I grew up opposite Salcombe!!!!

Subject: RE: Salcombe Ship (chantey)
From: Haruo
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 01:45 AM

"Fo'c'sle chantey/shanty" is a term for "forebitter" - such a song needn't have a refrain... Anyhow, how about guesstimates of age (either of "High Barbary" which is the obvious antecedent or of the version cited)? My own guess would be early 19th century for the former and late 19th century for the latter, but I am not the expert here.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Salcombe Ship (chantey)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 08:55 PM

Can I toss a worm into this salad? I'd say it's not a shanty not because it does or doesn't have the chours or in this case a refrain. More so, if you sing it, where does the pull or the haul or the push come in. So, ok, it wouldn't have been used at the pumps (uptown or downtown) nor windlass nor as at the halyards, last shot would be at the capstan. As long winded as it is for anything else other than the capstan just the singing of it in a traditional style I would tend to think of it as a hazard each time you get to get to stepping over the anchor chin or heavy line as one stomps around the capstan espically if the chain is up & down or close to the vessel where the timing would be at a fair pace if not a quick one. The flow of the song in my opinion just does't flow smooth enough for the intended job. Any way there's my 2 cents worth. I'm going out on limb here, knowing both radriano's & anglo's wealth of knowledge & their scholorship, but it's my 2 cents & I'm spending it here.

Now I'd have to fully agree with anglo about MMario assessment of it being a rewrite

Barry

Subject: RE: Salcombe Ship (chantey)
From: Anglo
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 05:27 PM

For once I'm going to disagree with you Radriano, this certainly has a refrain, the same 2nd and 4th lines throughout, which would admirably qualify it as a chantey, whether it was ever so used or not (the latter IMHO).

My best guess would be (agreeing with MMario) that this is a rewrite of High Barbary, in an attempt to make it more suitable for a book of children's poetry - and probably to qualify for author's royalties.

Subject: RE: Salcombe Ship (chantey)
From: MMario
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 04:08 PM

Looks like it's based on "high Barbary" - which most people would call a shanty...and what about forebitters?

Subject: RE: Salcombe Ship (chantey)
From: radriano
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 04:04 PM

Hate to knickpit, but it's a sea song and not a chantey. Chanteys are specifically work songs and, as such, have choruses.

Subject: Lyr Add: SALCOMBE SEAMAN'S FLAUNT TO THE PROUD...
From: Haruo
Date: 01 Mar 06 - 03:05 PM

The following was just posted to "Ishmailites", the Melville Studies Google Group I run — the thread title there is "Red Flag Flies Again" — and I'm posting it here because there may be Mudcatters who can answers Ffrangcon's query (though I don't see this particular chantey in the DT or Forum so far):

Dear Ishmailites,

I came across this sea-chantey today in an elderly book of poems for children, under the title of 'The Salcombe Ship'. Looking unsuccessfully for its date and authorship (if any), I found this version on the net, with a slightly fuller title. I include it for your consideration only because it is new to me, you might be able to date it for me, and because it offers an image of the red flag in defiant extremis, which prompted me to remember Gordon Poole's interest in the red flag at the end of 'Moby-Dick':

THE SALCOMBE SEAMAN'S FLAUNT TO THE PROUD PIRATE

A lofty ship from Salcombe came,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
She had golden trucks, that shone like flame,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"Masthead, masthead," the captains hail,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"Look out and round, d'ye see a sail?"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"There's a ship that looms like Beachy Head,"
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"Her banner aloft it blows out red,"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"Oh, ship ahoy, and where do you steer?"
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"Are you man-of-war, or privateer?"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"I am neither one of the two," said she,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"I'm a pirate, looking for my fee,"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"I 'm a jolly pirate, out for gold:"
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"I will rummage through your after hold,"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

The grumbling guns they flashed and roared,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
Till the pirate's masts went overboard,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

They fired shots till the pirate's deck,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
Was blood and spars and broken wreck,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"O do not haul the red flag down,"
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"O keep all fast until we drown,"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

They called for cans of wine, and drank,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
They sang their songs until she sank,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

Now let us brew good cans of flip,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
And drink a bowl to the Salcombe ship,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

And drink a bowl to the lad of fame,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
Who put the pirate ship to shame,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.
br>

Yours, for what it is worth,

Ffrangcon Lewis

Haruo