From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?

Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
From: John Minear
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 11:57 AM

My apologies to Ruaidhri for making B.F. Pond "Captain" of the "Julia Ann" a bit prematurely in my St. Patrick's Day posting above. Ruaidhri is absolutely right that it was C.B. Davis who was the "Captain" of her on the second voyage, which was the one that brought John Mitchel to San Francisco. On the first two voyages, Pond traveled as "super cargo" (is that the proper term?) representing the owners. He is listed as "Master"/"Captain" on the third and fourth voyages. In addition to the reference above in Mitchel's Jail Journal, which says,

"We were made as comfortable on board the Julia Ann as the narrowness of the accommodations and crowd of passengers admit Capt. Davis, of Newport, Rhode Island, is our commander; and owner, Mr. Pond, of New York,is also on board." (p. 197),

here are two links to early postings in this thread where I made this a little more clear:

thread.cfm?threadid=126347&messages=650#2808140

thread.cfm?threadid=126347&messages=650#2810350

[This discussion continues in subsequent postings following the one above.]

Welcome to our ongoing discussion Ruaidhri. We are very glad and honored to have a direct descendent of Captain Davis as a participant. My first question to you is, of course, do you know of any chanties being sung on board the "Julia Ann" on that second voyage? Or, do you know of any chanties being sung at all in the first half of the 1850's in either California or Sydney? And, do you have any family history that talks about any chanties being sung on any of Captain Davis' voyages? We are looking for all of these things here.

Your question about the ship's name is a new one. I think if you follow the links in the early postings on this thread they will document that it was the "Julia Ann" on the Mitchel voyage and on the later shipwreck voyage. I don't have a good explanation for the apparent discrepancy. It does seem probable that we are talking about one and the same ship and set of voyages. Here is a link to a previous posting that sums up the latest information I have about these four voyages:

thread.cfm?threadid=126347&messages=650#2872740

I look forward to hearing more from you.

Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 08:12 PM

The posts from 4 February of last year referring to the embargo are a specific reference to the American embargo on the importation of slaves. The United States had a small fleet of gunboats on the slave coast, many of which were built locally built. To the best of my knowledge, the last one was still in existence in the late 1980's and took part in New York's OPSail '86 as Stargate, registered in the Carolinas.

After being sold out of the service, she was converted to a merchant ship and worked for 86 years, until she was driven ashore in a storm and silted in.

Shane Granger rescued her from the sand bank in the late 70's or early 80's and fixed her up, sailing her from Dakar, Senegal to Brazil, thence to the US.

My understanding is that she was finally run up a creek and abandoned. This is despite the fact that she was built of African mahogany and rosewood, which would have sold for a significant amount as recycled timber at the time.

Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
From: John Minear
Date: 31 May 11 - 10:27 AM

About a year before the final voyage of the "Julia Ann", on December 3 of 1854, at Ballarat, in Victoria, Australia, the gold miners rebelled at the Eureka Stockade. Here is some history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Rebellion

And here is a fine song, "The Cross of the South", sung by John Thompson commemorating the event:

http://ozfolksongaday.blogspot.com/2011/05/cross-of-south.html

Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
From: GUEST,Bob Walser
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 12:27 PM

Re: Meacom, FYI: The New England Historical and Genealogical Register lists him thus: Capt. George Meacom, sea captain, born 6 June 1839 in Beverly, Mass. Died 28 Nov. 1908 in Dorchester. Mass.

click here - Google Books

I wonder if anyone has located the original publication of this letter in the _Boston Transcript_. It would likely predate his 1908 demise and Whidden's book of the same year - but by how much?

Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
From: John Minear
Date: 02 Nov 11 - 08:44 AM

If you have found your way to, and through(!) this thread then you are definitely interested in sea chanties and their history. I want to recommend to you a new blog from our friend, Gibb, called "Wild Chants With Doggerel Words":

http://shantiesfromthesevenseas.blogspot.com/

It looks like this blog is going to bring together the fantastic collection of sung/performed chanties from Stan Hugill's collection that Gibb has been doing on YouTube over the last several years, and his in depth historical research that he has been doing here on Mudcat, on this thread, but especially on his "Advent and Development" thread, along with a bunch of others. This looks like another huge project, so check it out and give him your support.

Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
From: John Minear
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 09:25 AM

Here's a good song sung by John Tompson from his blog "An Australian Folk Song a Day." It's called "Old Sydney Town."

http://ozfolksongaday.blogspot.com/2011/12/old-sydney-town.html

Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 11:56 AM

John-

Thanks for the update. Gibb is definitely doing some heavy lifting when it comes to researching the origin of shanties and deserves everyone's support. I've been quite impressed with his dedication and research skills, not to mention his singing.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
From: John Minear
Date: 03 Oct 14 - 08:58 AM

It's been a couple of years since this thread has been aired. Here is some interesting news about Captain B.F. Pond and his ship the "Julia Ann". Martin Andersen has made a movie of the shipwreck of the "Julia Ann" and the subsequent rescue of the survivors. Here is what he says on his Face Book page:

"It is official. My film, "DIVINE PROVIDENCE:The Wreck and Rescue of the Julia Ann" will premier in one week on BYUTV at 5pm Mountain time Sunday October 5. Please tune in. It tells the story of Capt. B.F. Pond and the passengers on his ship who miraculously lived through a shipwreck in the middle of the Pacific in 1855.
Watch it on cable or Satellite TV, or catch it live on the internet at byutv.org."

There has also been a book written about this by Fred Woods. The book and a DVD are available from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Providence-Wreck-Rescue-Included/dp/1462113656

And here is a bit of background on these projects, with a picture of a painting of "The Wreck of the Julia Ann" by a descendent of Captain Pond, and (finally!) a picture of Benjamin Franklin Pond himself.

http://mormonhistoricsites.org/a-divine-providence-the-wreck-and-rescue-of-the-julia-ann/

I have not yet seen either the movie or the book. I doubt if any chanties will show up in either of these or that there will be any new information about chanties that might have been sung on board the "Julia Ann" in the early 1850's before she was shipwrecked in 1855.

This is an open and ongoing thread and I am still very much interested in any new information that anyone might have about any chanties that can be documented as being sung on sailing ships out of San Francisco bound for Sydney, Australia between 1850 and 1855. You will have to scroll up a bit to see what our conclusions were in the previous research done on this thread. The documented evidence was very scant to non-existent. But that doesn't mean that it is not out there yet to be discovered!