Origin: Shenandoah

Subject: RE: Origin: Shenandoah
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Dec 25 - 07:20 PM

Morning Post (London), Apr. 21, 1862:

"[At Leith, Scotland,] on Thursday, the anchor was weighed by 30 jolly tars, all belonging to the port, who sang at the windlass several sea songs, such as 'The plains of Mexico,' 'Paddy on the railway,' and 'The rolling river.'"

Subject: RE: Origin: Shenandoah
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Dec 25 - 08:27 PM

St. Louis Globe-Democrat (Mar. 4, 1877:

"[In the Aleutian Islands] our men started a stanza of 'Shenandoah I Love Your Daughter;' 'Ten Thousand Miles Away;' 'The Louisiana Lowlands;' 'Old Dog Tray,' etc., to the intense delight of the people, who capered around us after the approved scalp-dance of the North American Indians."

San Francisco Chronicle (Jan. 11, 1891): " 'Sheandoah, I love your daughter,' 'Give me some time to knock a man down,' 'Rio Grande,' and 'Homeward Bound' were the favorite 'shantys' of the old-time tar."

N.Y. Herald (Dec. 17, 1899):

"Oh, Shenandoah, I love your daughter!
H-o-o-ray! the rolling river!
I love her when I hadn't oughter -
Ha! Ha! I'm bound away on the wide Missouri!"

Subject: RE: Origin: Shenandoah
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Dec 25 - 04:19 AM

Good stuff.

I did a survey earlier this year (2025) of all the mentions of chanties in 195 sources between 1839 and 1914. In all there were 908 references to individual chanties. Highly imperfect, naturally, but gives a good rough sense of which songs were best known generally (if only by name—and distinction from which were the most frequently sung).

Once I counted up which ones were mentioned the most, "Shenandoah" came in as the #6 most referenced chanty.