Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth

Subject: Cruisin'round Yarmouth
From:
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 04:16 AM

I am looking for the lyrics of Ewan MacColl's "Cruisin'round Yarmouth"

Can anyone send me the lyrics to [e-mail]

thanks in advance folks

---

Messages from multiple threads combined.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: ADD: Cruising 'round Yarmouth ^^
From: Matthew Bram
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 06:33 AM

I have 2 or 3 versions, but I don't know which version (if either) belongs to him.

CRUISING 'ROUND YARMOUTH


While cruisin' Round Yarmouth one morning in May,
I spied a flash clipper, her sails blowing free.
"I'm a fast going packet, ah me kind sir" said she.
"I'm ready for cargo for me hold is quite free," singing

Chorus:
    Fal de ral laddie, rye fal de ral dey
    Fal de ral laddie, rye fal de ral dey

Now what country she come from, I cannot tell much,
But by her appearance I took her for Dutch.
Well her flag wore its colors; her masthead was low.
She was round in the quarter and bluff in the bow, singing
(Chorus)

So I threw her a rope and I took her in tow,
And yardarm to yardarm a-towin' we go.
Well we both towed together to the Swan With Two Hay.
We both towed together through Trafalgary Bay, singing
(Chorus)

Then she took me upstairs and her tops'ls she lowered.
In her neat little parlor, she soon had me moored.
Well she laid in her fores'ls, her stays'ls and all,
With her lily white hand on me reef tackle fall, singing
(Chorus)

Well I says, "Pretty fair maid, it's time to give o'er,
For betwixt wind and rapture, you've run me ashore,
For me shot locker's empty; me powder's all spent,
And I can't fire a shot for I'm choked at the vent, singing
(Chorus)

Here's a luck to the girl with the long, curly locks.
Here's a luck to the girl who runs Jack on the rocks.
Here's a luck to the doctor who eased all his pain.
He's squared his main yard; he's a-cruisin' again, singing...^^

Subject: RE: Cruisin'round Yarmouth
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 06:18 PM

For what it's worth department: My business partner in Folk-Legacy Records, namely Lee Haggerty, had an uncle (an admiral in the US Navy) who sang (?) an American version of this that I have never seen printed. He knew it as "Cruising 'Round Norfolk." Unfortunately, he could remember only a small part of it and, like my partner, he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. I'm curious if any of you experts out there have run across the Norfolk version anywhere.

Sandy

Subject: Lyr Add: CRUISING ROUND YARMOUTH
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 24 Dec 99 - 07:51 AM

CRUISING ROUND YARMOUTH

While Cruising round Yarmouth one day for a spree,
I met a fair damsel- the wind blowing free.
I'm a fast going clipper-- my kind sir said she,
I'm ready for cargo my hold it is free.

Chorus: Singing fal the ral laddie right fal the ral day
fal the ral laddie right fal the ral day

What country she came from I could not tell such,
by her appearance I thought she was Dutch.
Her flag wore rich colours- her masthead was low,
She was round in the quarter and bluff at the bow.
Chorus

I gave her the rope and I took her in tow,
From yardarm to yardarm a-towing we go.
We towed on together till we came to the head,
We both towed together through Trafalgary bay.
Chorus

We towed on till we came to the House of Expire,
we gave her old horse with plenty of ire,
I lift up her hatches found plenty of room,
and into her cabin I stuck my jib- boom.
Chorus

She took me upstairs and her topsails she lowered,
in a neat little parlour she soon had me moored,
She laid in her foresails her staysails and all,
with her lily white hand on my reef tackle fall.
Chorus

I said pretty fair maid it's time to give o'er,
betwixt wind and water you've run me ashore.
My shot lockers empty and powders all spent,
I can't fire a shot cause it's choked at the vent.
Chorus

Here's luck to the girl with the black curly locks,
here's luck to the girl who run Jack on the rocks,
Here's luck to the doctor who eased all his pain,
he's squared his mainyards- he's a cruising again.........

Check the date time for these songs to make sure they were popular in the late 1700's because most were used in a variety of forms over the years. Let us know the book or story mate, we would like to view the finished product, Yours-Aye.
Cordially. Dave ^^

Subject: Cruisin round Yarmouth
From: DADGAD
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 08:18 PM

Please - anyone got the words to this - I recall beginning - 'While criusing round Yarmouth one day for a spree, I met a fresh packet the wind blowing free . . .etc Thanks, Gerry Forrester Devon

Subject: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 07:38 PM

I sang this song many years ago and have long since forgotten the words. Tried finding it to no avail. All I can rem. is: While cruising round Yarmouth one day for a spree I met a fresh packet the wind blowing free . . .

etc etc

Anyone out there recall this please.

Bests - Gerald Dunoon Scotland

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: breezy
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 07:54 PM

Im a fast going clipper and that you can see, I'm ready for cargo me hold is quite free, ch--sing fol the rol laddie sing fol the rol day ,sing fol the rol laddie sing fol the rol day.,,
. Im sure some one will help us out with this little gem that could do with a revival, lets get it up again!Help

Subject: ADD: Cruising Round Yarmouth^^
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 08:06 PM

Here's how Curmudgeon sings it:

CRUISING 'ROUND YARMOUTH

While cruisin' 'round Yarmouth one day for a spree
I met a fair damsel, the wind blowin' free.
"I'm a fast going clipper, me kind sir," says she,
"I'm ready for cargo; me hold is quite free."

Chorus: And I falderal laddie, I falderal day, Falderal laddie, I falderal day.

The country she come from I couldn't tell which.
By her appearance I thought she was Dutch.
Her flag bore her colours, her masthead was low,
She was round at the quarter and bluff at the bow.
Chorus

I gave her me hawser and took her in tow
And yardarm to yardarm a towin' we'd go.
She laid in her mains'l, t'ga'n's'l and all
With her lily white hand on me reef tackle fall.
Chorus

I said, "Pretty fair maid, it's time to give o'er
For twixt wind and water, you've run me ashore.
Me shot locker's empty, me power's all spent.
I can't fire a shot for I'm choked at the vent.
Chorus

Good luck to the girl with the black curly locks,
Good luck to the girl who ran Jack on the rocks,
Good luck to the doctor who eased all his pain,
He squared his main yard, he's a cruisin' again.
Chorus ^^

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Snuffy
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 08:12 PM

I've heard most of them verses sung to Blow The Man Down.

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 11:06 PM

We have three texts now, but no provenance for any, and not a single tune!  The only traditional sets I know of were sung by Sam Larner and Harry Cox, but I don't know whether or not any of these derive from them.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 07:02 PM

The version by Louis Killen (c. 1965) I have is very close to the lyrics posted by Bat Goddess above. However, I can't find out which album it comes from, and therefore don't have any notes. All I know is, It isn't from the album 'Ballads and Broadsides', nor from any Topic album. Can anyone help, perhaps, and lead us to the notes?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST,Gerald - Scotland
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 08:42 PM

Ah thanks much Bat Goddess - that's the one. I have the tune and now the words again. Old friends reunited. Many thanks for this. Cyril Tawney taught it to me in the 60's in Devonport and is good to recall it again. It is a good song - bawdy but in the best possible taste. Thanks again friend. Gerald.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 11:12 PM

Bert (A.L.) Lloyd was the one I first heard doing this song on one of the several great albums of whaling soings he did with Ewan MacColl. Mr. Lloyd was rarely on pitch---but his renditions of so many songs are the ones I will always remember best and carry on with me. And he did some great versions of Aussie songs---as that was where he hailed from. He and Ewan did the wonderful series for Riverside Records (later on Washington Records) of Child's British Ballads collections. Many LPs that I doubt have been re-issued on CD yet.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST,Charley Noble in Oz
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 11:27 PM

"Blow, Boys, Blow" with A.L. Lloyd and Ewan MacColl has been re-issued as a CD and should be easily found; it includes a version quite close to Curmudgeon's version of "Crusin' Round Yarmouth."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 11:38 PM

That's pretty much the one I got from "Will" PRIEST of Baltimore, MD.

The tune was not "Blow the Man Down", although I can see some similarities I suppose. His version had a few variances in the lyrics as well -

".. What Country she hailed from I couldn't tell much: By the set of 'er Colors I'd say she was Dutch; 'Er tops'l hung slack an' 'er stays'l 'ung low; She was round at the counter an' bluff at th' bow..." (I like to use a few select hand gestures with the delivery of this particular line };^{)~ )

Will admonished that this one was not to be sung "With little ears about", and we suppose that in gentele' society we would do well to excersize appropriate discretion. I have similarly been asked to refrain from the practice of stomping the deck with my sea-boots on in time to such a lustilly-bellowed Chantey while at tea-parties and the like. Somehow Mrs. Clarke finds such behavior to be rather embarrassing to her, although I can't imagine why. It does tend to rattle the china a bit, we suppose.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST,Ian
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 04:19 AM

The version I learned gave verse three as:

I threw her a line and I took her in tow
Yard arm to yard arm I'd tow and we'd go
I towed her that night and through the next day
I towed her all round Trafalgar bay

In a neat little harbour she soon had me moored
And like a good sailor this jack went aboard
She laid in my fore sail me mainsail and all
With a slip of her hand made my reefs take a fall

and a penultimate verse

Here’s a curse on the girl with the dark wavy hair
Here’s luck to the girl who taught jack how to swear
He all in for refit laid up in dry docks
New mainsail and rigging new tackle and blocks.

HTML line breaks added --JoeClone, 24-Dec-01.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: curmudgeon
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 10:38 AM

i've been singing this fine old forebitter for nigh on forty years now, thus explaining the possible shifts a song can take on over a perriod of time I first got it from "Blow Boys Blow", MacColl and Lloyd, as pointed out by Art. But is was sung by MacColl rather than Lloyd.

However, Bert did the notes wherein he points out that this song originated with the "flying fish" sailors of the East India trade. He further asserts that the song was later taken up by Western ocean packet sailors who made it into a shanty, "Blow the Man Down." He concludes, "The present version, which pulls no punches, is from one of the best of English folk singers, Harry cox of Catfields, Norfolk."

Next, turn to The Singing Island, MacColl-Seeger. The version here printed is the same song, but with a different tune and slightly different lyrics. In the list of credits, this song is cited as, "From the singing of Sam Larner, Winterton, Norfolk - 1958."

The tune I use is the one MacColl recorded. op cit., and is an incestuously close cousin to Logie O' Buchen.

Cheer'ly Men, and Ladies too -- Tom

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 03:07 PM

We just recently caught the tune proximity to "Logie o' Buchan". I decided to trot the song out again in an attempt to make it a permanent part of the repertoire, and gave Tom a concertina break between verses. We sort of looked at each other in recognition at the same time. I finished the song and we marvelled at the sudden connection. I mean, Tom's been singing "Cruising 'Round Yarmouth" for 40 years and I've been doing "Logie o' Buchan" off and on for about 10.

Linn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 05:43 PM

Art, as far as I know Bert Lloyd was as English as they come, although he spent several years in Australia and may have started collecting there.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST,scarykitty
Date: 06 Mar 08 - 01:26 PM

Mike Stanley does a nice version on "Songs of the Sea: The National Maritime Museum Festival of the Sea." (And generally in tune!) The tune is not any version of "Blow the Man Down" I know, though there are some similarities. I'm not sure where you can buy this cd, but if you're on Rhapsody Music Service, you can listen to it in its entirety. :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: r.padgett
Date: 07 Mar 08 - 11:24 AM

She took me upstairs and invited me in
In her neat little parlour she soon had me moored
She lowered her for'sls her stay'sls and all
Her lily white hand on me reef tackle fall

The watch being ended I said May give o'er
Betwixt wind and water youve run me ashore
Me shot lockers empty me powders all spent
i cant fire as shot cos its choked at the vent

Here's good luck to the girl with the dark curly locks
Here's luck to the girl who ran Jack on the rocks
Here's ahealth to the doctor who eased all his pains
He's squared his main yard now he's cruising again

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Snuffy
Date: 07 Mar 08 - 01:13 PM

Compare and contrast:

While cruisin' Round Yarmouth one morning in May,
I spied a flash clipper, her sails blowing free.
"I'm a fast going packet, ah me kind sir" said she.
"I'm ready for cargo for me hold is quite free," singing
Chorus:
Fal de ral laddie, rye fal de ral dey
Fal de ral laddie, rye fal de ral dey

--------------------------------------------
As I was a-cruisin' down Paradise Street,
To me way hey, blow the man down
A Liverpool packet I happened to meet.
Gimme some time to blow the man down

"I'm a fast moving clipper, me good sir" said she.
To me way hey, blow the man down
"I'm ready for cargo: me hold it is free,"
Gimme some time to blow the man down

---------------------------------------------

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST,John the Gardener
Date: 31 Aug 11 - 05:37 AM

Hey Snuffy
Years ago, back in the 60s, I had an old Topic Folk Sampler L.P. which included your second version (set in Liverpool instead of Yarmouth). It was sung by, of all people, Harry H. Corbett, the actor who played Harold Steptoe, and a jolly fine job he made of it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Aug 11 - 07:23 AM

Not it, Harry H sang ' Blow The Man Down ' on the topic album, and a better version you won't find.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: reynard
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 09:24 AM

I learned this from Harry Cox but his words need a bit of renovation. Reading the above I'm convinced that "parlour" should be "harbour". This is my shot at that verse:

She took me upstairs and her topsail she lowered.
In a neat little harbour she soon had me moored.
I lift up her hatches, found plenty of room,
And into her bilges I stuck my jib-boom.

Subject: Lyr Add: CRUISING ROUND YARMOUTH (from Harry Cox)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 11:17 PM

This is nearly the same as CRUISING ROUND YARMOUTH (3) in the DT, but I have listened carefully to the recording and made a couple of corrections, which I have boldfaced. There are a couple of lines that don't make sense to me, although I don't know how to improve them; they are marked with "(?)".


CRUISING ROUND YARMOUTH
As sung by Harry Cox on "Sea Songs & Shanties: Traditional English Sea Songs & Shanties from the Last Days of Sail"

1. While cruising round Yarmouth one day for a spree,
I met a fair damsel, the wind blowing free.
"I'm a fast-going clipper, my kind sir," said she.
"I'm ready for cargo; my hold it is free."

CHORUS: Singing fal-the-ral-laddie, right fal-the-ral-day.
Fal-the-ral-laddie, right fal-the-ral-day.

2. What country she came from I could not tell which.
By her 'pearance I thought she was Dutch.
Her flag wore rich colours; her masthead was low.
She was round at the quarter and bluff at the bow.

3. I gave her the rope and I took her in tow.
From yardarm to yardarm a-towing we go.
We towed on together till we came to the head.
We both towed together through Trafalgary Bay.

4. We towed till we came to the House of Expire(?).
We gave her old horse with plenty of ire(?).
I lift up her hatches, found plenty of room,
And into her cabin I stuck my jib boom.

5. She took me upstairs and her topsail she lowered.
In a neat little parlour she soon had me moored.
She laid in her foresails, her staysails and all,
With* her lily-white hand on my reef-tackle fall.

6. I said, "Pretty fair maid, it's time to give o'er.
Betwixt wind and water you've ran me ashore.
My shot locker's empty and powder's all spent.
I can't fire a shot for it's choked at the vent."

7. Here's luck to the girl with the black curly locks.
Here's luck to the girl who ran Jack on the rocks.
Here's luck to the doctor who eased all his pain.
He's squared his main yards; he's a-cruisin' again.

[* sic. "Let" would make more sense here.]

[Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd sing nearly the same lyrics, but they omit verse 4 altogether. I'm guessing it's because they couldn't make sense of lines 1-2 either. Or maybe line 4 was a bit too graphic.]

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Dec 13 - 06:57 PM

We towed on together till we came to the head,
We both towed together through Trafalgary bay.

We towed on till we came to the House of Expire,
We gave her old horse with plenty of ire.

Every one of these consecutive lines is somehow balled up.

I doubt they went arm in arm to the "head" (lavatory). More likely it was to a pub called "The Head." Similarly, they may have gone on "to the Trafalgar Bay," possibly another pub. (The historical pronunciation, TRAFlgar, would scan even better. Compare J. E. Carpenter's song, "The Launch of the 'Trafalgar'" (1841):

"For still old England, on the deep, holds sov'reign sway afar,
And proudly keeps the name and fame she won at Trafalgar—
    She won at Trafalgar,
    She won at Trafalgar;
And proudly keeps the name and fame she won at Trafalgar."


"The House of Expire" is meaningless, but "House of" at least suggests a third resort. "The house of 'The Spire'"? At least it's conceivable.

I can suggest nothing for "gave her old horse with plenty of ire," though "plenty of fire" might have figured in somehow. If "fire" (wink   wink) was involved, perhaps the whole couplet is misplaced, belonging with the action to come or its medical sequel.

Perhaps others have suggestions? Or folkified versions?

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 12 Dec 13 - 03:36 AM

A somewhat coy version of this became popular in 1950 recorded by popular singer Guy Mitchell under the title 'One of the Roving Kind' – almost certainly the earliest broadcast version of the song.
Authorship was claimed by "Jessie Cavanaugh" and "Arnold Stanton" (both names are pseudonyms used by music publisher The Richmond Organisation), but is obviously a straight lift from the original with the 'dirty bits' taken out.
It reached the top ten in the hit parade in both Britain and America.
Jim Carroll

One of the Roving Kind
As I cruised out one eve-e-ning upon a night's career
I spied a lofty clipper ship and to her I did steer
I heisted out my sig-a-nals which she so quickly knew
And when she saw my bunting fly she imme-diately hove to-woo-woo

(She had a dark and a-rovin' eye-uh-eye and her hair hung down in ring-a-lets)
(She was a nice girl, a proper girl but one of the rovin' kind)

I took her for some fish and chips and treated her so fine
And hardly did I realize she was the rovin' kind
I kissed her lips, I missed her lips and found to my surprise
She was nothin' but a pirate ship rigged up in a dis-guy-eye-ise

(She had a dark and a-rovin' eye-eye-eye)
And her hair hung down in ring-a-lets
(She was a nice girl, a proper girl but one of the rovin' kind)

So, come all ye good sailor men who sail the wintry sea
And come, all ye apprentice lads, a warnin' take from me
Beware of lofty clipper ships, they'll be the ruin of you
For 'twas there she made me walk the plank and pushed me under, too-ooh-ooh

(She had a dark and a-rovin' eye-uh-eye and her hair hung down in ring-a-lets)
She was a nice girl, a proper girl but one of the rovin' kind

(She was a nice girl, a proper girl but)
One of the rovin' kind (yo-ho!)

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Dec 13 - 09:45 AM

Similar theme, Jim; quite distinct song.

Comparable songs go back to the 17th century. The two forms in question are from the 19th.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 12 Dec 13 - 05:56 PM

There was indeed a pub called the Trafalgar Tavern in Yarmouth, in Victoria Road, and the King's Head situated in Row 139 (rows being narrow streets between fishermen's cottages in the old part of the town) Both pubs are now closed. There were over a hundred pubs there at the time of this song.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 12 Dec 13 - 05:59 PM

...and the Two-Necked Swan used to be in Market Place.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Dec 13 - 06:48 PM

Splendid info, Eliza. Thanks so much!

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST,Dennis Lawther
Date: 20 Nov 16 - 11:54 AM

Jim Dixon "with her lily white hand on my reef tackle fall" makes sense because a fall is the hauling end of a tackle (Ashley Book of Knots) (ie fall is a noun not a verb.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 20 Nov 16 - 02:24 PM

MacColl recorded Sam Larner and this song appears in his Singing Island song book

Ray

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST,Jim McLean
Date: 25 Jul 24 - 10:06 AM

Susanne (skw) Just come across this post and no doubt by now you know the song was recorded by Louis Killin on the 1963 LP Hootenanny recorded in May in London during an overnight special recording for Decca. I was there.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: meself
Date: 25 Jul 24 - 11:50 AM

Back to the term 'head' - also, of course, a coastal geographical feature, as well as a possible reference to a pub, or both.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 Jul 24 - 03:45 PM

THE song was not Ewans, as far as i recollect it was collected from the fine traditional singer Harry Cox
" We towed till we came to the House of Expire(?)."
We gave her old horse with plenty of ire(?"
should be "we gave her old house plenty of fire"

it makes plenty of sense,
its a reference to entering her vagina[ the house of expire] and giving her a dose of fire[ clap V. D.]
MacColl AND Lloyd possibly did not understand HIS NORFOLK ACCENT, this song is a double entendre song

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 Jul 24 - 04:19 PM

the reference to fire aka venereal disease, is subsequently born out in a later verse which mentions [good luck to the doctor who eased all his pain, hes squared his mainyards and his cruising again]

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Jul 24 - 10:51 AM

Not the "origin" of the familiar song, but the earliest instance I've seen of sex described in terms of a naval battle. Even the vocabulary is similar.

From Richard Head's picaresque "The English Rogue, Part I" (London, 1665), still worth reading for its details of English vagabond life in the 17th century:

“I went to Whetstone-Park, where I saw my Mad-dame standing at the door: her frequent trading, and those many shots she had received between wind and water in the service, had so altered her countenance, and disproportioned her body, that I knew not whether this Frigat was English or Flemish built: but at last, hailing whence she was, I boarded her, and made her lawful prize: mistake me not, I rummag'd not in her Hold, fearing she was a Fire-ship.”

More notes to come.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Aug 24 - 03:31 PM

Perhaps the earliest known lines in English (well, Scots) to employ, in detail, the metaphor of a woman as a ship (not the other way round) are those of satirist Robert Sempill entitled "The ballat maid vpoun Margaret flemyng callit the flemyng bark In Edinburt," most likely written in the 1560s.

Sempill's target, Margaret Fleming, Countess of Atholl, was a member of the court of Mary, Queen of Scots. Born around 1530, she was the considerably older sister of Mary Fleming, one of balladry's "Four Marys." Sempill's poem claims she was notoriously promiscuous and mercenary.

The poem extends to 64 lines. Sempill describes in not-always coherent detail as an older but still desirable "bark" needing men to board and control her and keep her afloat.

Here's a sample (my prose translation):

"See that her hatches are handled right,...and she'll sail a whole winter's night without heeling over....Bring your tackle smartly to her stern: she will not fail to lay your mast....But if she leaks, get men of skill to plug the holes low in her hull."

However, the poem contains no battle imagery and no diseases. That differentiates it from the later Richard Head and the "fireship" balladists.

More later.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Aug 24 - 08:48 PM

My on take on this lovely old song, updated for the port city of Portland, Maine:

Words by Charlie Ipcar ©2002
Tune: traditional "Cruisin' Round Yarmouth"

Widgery Wharf

G------------C----G-----------Em
While cruisin’ ’round Portland one day for a spree,
-G---------------------------------D
I spied a fair damsel the wind blowin’ free;
-G-------------------Em
I buttoned me jacket and hove way me chew,
---C-------------------G
And drew along side, her bunting to view.

Chorus:

G--------------------------Em
Sing fal-de-ral, lad-dies, sing fal-de-ral-day,
----G------------C---G---D--------G
Sing fal-de-ral, lad-dies, sing fal-de-ral-day!

I said, “Pretty fair maid, where are you bound?”
She replied with a wink “The Old Port of Town;
To Widgery Wharf where me Friendship Sloop bides,
If you’d like to board her, I’ll lay you ’longside.” (CHO)

She tossed out a line and took me in tow,
To Widgery Wharf like a shot we did go;
We clewed up our tops’ls and rounded up neat,
And moored fore and aft, below Union Street. (CHO)

Now that sloop sure looked sharp, her fiddlehead neat,
And I admired her lines as I trimmed all her sheets;
She was round in the counter and broad at the beam,
Such a weatherly craft I seldom had seen. (CHO)

I checked out her cuddy and found lots of room,
And there deep inside I stowed me jib-boom;
We rode out the weather, the waves breaking free,
Hove to in her harbor, as snug as could be. (CHO)

Now, Widgery Wharf is a place I know well,
Since I’ve swallowed the anchor, in a bait shack to dwell;
Where I spend all me days a-mending fish gear,
But all of me nights in the arms of me dear. (CHO)

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Aug 24 - 09:02 PM

Thanks, Charley. I added it to my locker full of texts it when you first posted it long ago. Good job!

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Aug 24 - 04:43 PM

I was thinking that I added it about when I composed it but I thought it fit in well with this tread too.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 08 Aug 24 - 10:02 AM

The earliest inkling we have of an actual song describing a female pickup as a boat of some kind is a mere title. Samuel Rowlands's satirical pamphlet "A Whole Crew of Kind Gossips" (1609) gives a list of "baudy songs" known to a real or imagined friend of his, who Rowland claims learned them from prostitutes. Among these is a song called "The Pinnace rigd with silken saile."

A "pinnace" was a boat used to carry messages, supplies, etc., from ship to ship or ship to shore. It became a slang term for a prostitute, possibly because a pinnace sailed around the harbor all day and was available for public hire.

Regrettably no copy of "The Pinnace" survives. (A text circulated in the mid-nineteenth century by the Shakespearean critic John Payne Collier has proved to be Collier's forgery.)

Several surviving songs related to the "Yarmouth" theme appeared during the seventeenth century, though none is really the "same song."

Stay tuned.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Aug 24 - 12:30 PM

A tune called "Watton Town's End" was mentioned in 1662. It appeared for the first time in the third edition of Henry Playford's "English Dancing Master," which suggests it was either recent or recently popular.

The extant broadsides of the following are later, dated to 1685, but as it's the only song titled "Watton Town's End," it seems likely to have been published after 1660 (not 1610 or 1612 as is sometimes said). Of course, the song might have been suggested by the title of the tune - as the broadside suggests.

A "frigate" in the seventeenth century was any sort of armed warship. As a synonym for "streetwalker" or "woman" it survived into later songs, as will be seen.

This is the earliest song of the group to involve naval metaphors and venereal disease, as in the contemporaneous prose passage from Richard Head (1665).

"Effigies" (singular) meant a portrait or likeness. The broadside features a picture of a gentleman, but he looks quite healthy. The use of the latinate word suggests an educated audience for the song.

“Watton” is in Norfolk, but Watton-at-Stone and Harpenden are just north of London, about six miles apart, .

All spelling errors are in the original:

Watten towns-end, Or, A Nosegay of Pleasure which grew in the garden of Venus tune is Watten towns end, or lame leg next the wall.                                

As I came up to Arpendeen and straight to Watten Town
And there I met a prety wench, that look’d like Lay me down.
At Watten Towns-end, at Watten Towns end,
At every Door there stands a Whore, at Watten Towns end.

The Frigat's Name was Thunder-Bolt, her Sailes were all of Silk;
Her Tacklen was of Silver twist, her colour like the Milk.
At Watten Towns end, &c.

Her Planks were all of Ivory, her Bottom beaten-Gold:
Her Deck was Alabaster pure, she looked brisk and bold.
At Watten Towns end, at Watten Towns end,
At every Door there stands a Whore, at Watten Towns end.

HEr Head was guilded o're and o're, her Wanton Flag did flye:
And I was mad to be on Board, so much a Fool was I,
At Watten towns end, at Watten towns end,
At every Door there stands a Whore, at Watten towns end.

She seem'd a stately Pleasure-Boat, with tempting good attire:
But little knew that (under Deck) her Gun-Room was in Fire.
At Watten towns end.

I lodg'd with her, I laid her down, I slept with her all night:
I supp'd upon a Coney-Fatt, whose Gravey was delight
At Watten Towns end, &c.

She gave to me a Syrrup sweet, was in her Placket-Box;
But e're three Minutes went about, it proved the French-POX.
At Watten towns end, &c.

This Fire-Ship she did blow me up, as my Effigies shows,
And all may read upon my Face the loss of Teeth and Nose,
At Watten towns end, &c.

Now as I walk along the streets, they gaze upon my face,
And every one that looks at me, salutes me with disgrace
At Watten towns end, &c.

By me beware then Gentlemen, From King to Country Clown,
And when you see a pretty Wench, Remember Lay me down.
At Watten towns end, at Watten towns end,
At every door, there stands a Whore, at Watten towns end.

                     FINIS

Printed by P. Brooksby, at the Golden-Ball, in Pye-Corner.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Aug 24 - 11:21 AM

Probably the next in line was "The City Caper: Or, The WHETSTONES-PARK Privateer," printed like "Watten towns-end" for Philip Brooksby, some time in the 1670s. (All spelling oddities are as in the original.)

Several songs of the period were written to the tune of "Captain Digby's Farewell."

A "caper" is an escapade and a "pickaroon" is a pirate. "Mobled" means "muffled." Whetstone Park, in the borough of Camden, was notorious for gambling and prostitution:

          The City Caper: Or, The WHETSTONES-PARK Privateer

Being a true relation how a small she Pickaroon lately sail'd from the park, and Crusing abroad in the night, seiz'd on a rich Marchant-man, whom she tempted to board her, and then she disabl'd his Ship, took all his Cargo, spoil'd his Tackle, and burnt his Rudder, &c.

Tune of, Captain Digby's farewel.

The Jenny a small Pickaroon in the Park
Last night went a Crusing abroad in the dark,
Her impudence was her commander in chief,
Her haven is Lust, and her Pilot a Thief:
As swift as a fish she did glide by the Strand,
well rig'd and well trim'd but she lackt to be man'd
In her mouth a whole teer of Damme's there lies,
Granadoes were shot out of her rowling eyes.

The rustling silk of her Petticoat Sails
The wind had full blown with it's wantoning gales
that wind which their meeting with contrary wind
Sometimes doth create hurricanes behind:
Carreen'd and new painted most curiously,
Her uppermost Deck did appear to the eye,
The curls of her Tower so like streamers do wave
Men of War to engage her they seem far to brave.

But look on her Stern, she is right for the trade,
Her Lading betwixt wind and water was laid,
A Loof and a Loof and most stedy she steard,
Yet often to alter her courses apear'd,
To Star-board and Lar-board, a baft and before
She glances an eye and she creeps by the shore,
To look what unconvoyed Vessels there came,
That might help to add to her pilfering game.

At length from her main-top she gladly espies
A merchant-man far a head passing her by,
Or'e fraighted was he, and ready to sinck,
His Hull was so much over-stowed with drink
She strait makes all Sails she was able, and plies
Her Oars to come up to so welcome a prize,
Though's head was so light, she was lighter than he
And had in an instant brought him by the Lee.

Her mobled hood she turn'd up for a Flag,
Sometimes she shears off & sometimes she doth lag
She hauld him with horns, but the dulpated Owl,
Would not understand her, unless she fell foul:
At last a salute with a Gun, in its poures,
Your servant she cry'd and he answering yours:
She boldly bore up, and for sometime they ride,
Yard-arm to Yard-arm, and each side by each side.

The battel between them now warmer was grown,
And the grapling Irons were mutually thrown,
She gave him her broad-side of kisses so strong,
There was no hope left of his holding out long:
Yet on her design better colour to lay,
She pretended to tack, as if stearing away,
Then seeming disabled to bear up again,
She offers her self unto him to be tane.

He sees her lye by, and then grows the more bold,
To venture aboard, and to rumidge her hold,
She freely receives him astern and invites,
Him for to taste of her Cabin delights:
From prow unto poop he did grope her all or’e,
And finding her Gun to be full Cannon bore,
For his Amunition he swore was at large,
And threatned to give her forthwith a due charge,

She flung off her Glove as a Flag of defiance,
And scorn’d to accept of his terms of complyance,
Come bully, quoth she, I will stand thy fierce shot
For already I've taken full many a knock,
With that below Deck then he thundred in,
And she for to tumble and toss did begin,
As if that a tempest had rocked her pillow,
And danced her vessel aloft on a billow.

A calm then succeeded this storming her honour,
He soon had unladed his Cargo upon her,
Before hand he gave her his contracted Guinies,
And thought he ne'r sail’d in so pleasant a Pinnace,
But quickly that fancy he curst when he found,
How damnable deep she had run him on ground,
For just in the fury and heat of the job,
He ransackt Placket, she rifled his Fob.

With Watch, Gold and jewels she slipt out of door
Poor Voyager ne'r was so jilted before,
His Cargo was lost, and his main-mast was torn
His Tackling she spoil'd, and his Rudder did burn
Hence learn you young gallants that venture to see
The danger of such Pickaroons for to flee,
For vessels rich guilded with proud Silken Sails,
Oft Fire ships do prove & bear death in their tails.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Aug 24 - 10:39 AM

From the mid to late 1670s comes "The Gentlemans Song that he sent his Lady into the Country." The heart of it is as follows:



I steering my coast one night in the dark
I met with a Frigot that saild towards the Park
She hoisted up sail and away she did run
I see her cast Anchor at the Prince in the Sun.

I gave her a Guinny to enter her Fort
She presently yielded to come to the sport,
But finding me lasie strait bid me begone
I gave her a shot, but she fird my Gun.

And thus I was conquerd and forct to retire
For she gave me a Clap against my desire,
she makes me go stradling with swelling my eggs
you may drive a wheel-barrow between my 2 legs.


All spelling [sic]. "Fort" might make more sense as "Port," but the black-letter text is unusually clear.

These verses are much more modern in style and spirit.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Aug 24 - 09:41 AM

Between 1680 and 1682 there appeared "The Seaman's Frolick, or A Cooler for the Captain." Despite the raucous choruses This is explicitly advertised as a morally instructive tale for sailors:

                You Seamen bold that plough the Ocean Main
                To read this Song do not at all disdain:
                But rather learn thereby how to avoid,
                The whores increase which many hath destroy’d.
                To a New Tune; Or, Come no more there, etc.

"Increase" means increase in numbers, and a "cooler" is anything that dampens one's ardor.

The elaborate refrains suggest a stage or street performance origin. Stanza 1 in full (all spelling sic):

                Captain Robert is gone to Sea
                         And I lov’d him well, and I lov’d him well,
                With all his merry, merry company
                        Ther’s them can sing and say                  
                Captain Robert is gone to Sea,
                The Girls for his return doth pray :
                And shall we never, never while we live
                        come no more there,
                We’l come no more there brave boys                     
                        we’l come no more there :                          
                And we shall never, never, while we live
                        come no more there.

The most relevant lines are:

                Our Captain did a small pinnace board...
                While we his merry men sung and Roar'd....

                She did abide him many a shot...
                But under deck she proved too hot....

                It prov'd to him a sad mishap...
                For by report he got a clap....

                Therefore brave Seamen all beware...
                All that you meddle with such ware....

                When as as [sic] you desire to range,...
                Cast Anchor in no harbor strange....

To be continued.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 14 Aug 24 - 04:04 PM

' Fort' is fine, Jon. More usually associated with land battle euphemisms but it works here as well because sailors often assailed forts.

Captain Roberts, as I'm sure you know, continued being reprinted with other Captain names and went into oral tradition as 'The Bold Benjamin-o' 'Brave Admiral Benbow's gone to sea, oh, me boys, oh.'

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Aug 24 - 11:37 AM

Thanks for that, Steve. But if I were a 17th century rakehell, I'd probably sing "port."

In "The Seamans Wives ranting Resolution, OR,
Make use of time, while time serves" (1681), an adulterous wife gloats over putting cuckold's horns on her seafaring husband's head. There isn't much naval imagery, but here it is:

Little thinks my own Good-man,
that my Sails are spread Jo,
Little thinks my own Good-man
that my Sails are spread Jo,
We will do the best we can                                 
In the Rear and in the Van.
Couragio, etc.

It's no accident that such songs began to proliferate during the new literary freedom of the Restoration.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Aug 24 - 03:03 PM

"Betwixt wind and water" was a naval phrase from the 16th century that referred to the area of a ship's side just above the water line. Because of the rocking of the ship, a shot placed there was especially effective.

It lent itself to rather obvious anatomical metaphor.

The earliest example:

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Aug 24 - 03:23 PM

Lording Barry, "Ram-Alley, or Merrie Trickes" (1611):

"Con[stantia,disguised as a man]. Now I will fall a boord the wating maide.

Adr[iana]. Fall a boord of me, dost take me for a ship.

Con. I ["Aye"]. And will shoote you betwixt wind and water.

Adr. Blurt [a sound of contempt made with the lips] maister gunner your linstock's too short."


There was another sense as well, first defined by "The Dictionary of the Canting Crew" (1698-1699) as "Shot twixt wind and water. Clapt, or Poxt."

Francis Beaumont, "Phylaster" IV i (1611): He lookes like an olde surfeited stallion after his leaping,...: see how he sinckes, the wench has shot him betweene wind and water, and I hope sprung a lake.

Sir John Denham, "Poems" (1668): "You have been an old Fornicater, / And now are shot 'twixt wind and Water.”

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Aug 24 - 11:30 AM

Fire-ships have been employed since antiquity, but the purpose-built fire-ship, designed to be abandoned by its crew and to ram an enemy vessel, was an innovation of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). The song seems to have been inspired by English participation in the Nine Years' War (1688-1697), perhaps especially as a defiant response to the French victory over the English and Dutch at Beachy Head (July 10, 1690).


An Excellent New SONG,
ENTITULED,
A Hot Engagement
Between
A French Privateer, and an English Fire-Ship.

I'M a Prize for a Captain to fall on,
my Name it is Sea faring Kate:
My Sails they are Top and Top Gallon,
a Friggot that's of the First Rate.
With a fa la la, etc.

A French-Man came lately to Press me,
which was not a very hard thing,
And swore that he first wou'd embrace me,
And Loaden me then for the King,
With a fa la la, etc.

Last Summer he Saild from the Shannon,
and long at an Anchor had red,             [sic: “rode”?
On his Mid Ship he had a good Cannon,
which was all the great Guns that he had.
With a fa la la, etc.

His Main Yard he hoized, and Steered
his Course; and gave me a Broad Side:
My Poop and my Starn Port sheered,               
betwixt the Wind, Water, and Tide.
With a fa la la, etc.

Still under his Lee I did hover,
with all the force I could affo[r]d,
But as he had been a rank Rover,
he briskly did lay me on Board.
With a fa la la, etc.

He looked for some hidden Treasure,
And fell to his doing of Feats,
But found me a Fire-ship of Pleasure,
When he enter'd the mouth of the Straits,
With a fa la la, etc.

It was a high Tide, and the Weather
With an easterly Gale it did blow:
Our Frigats were foul of each other,
And could not get off, nor ride to,
With a fa la la, etc.

My Bottom was strongly well planked,
My Deck could a Tempest endure,
But ne'er was poor Dog in a Blanket
So tossed, as was the Monsieur,
With a fa la la, etc.

No near, than his Course he still steered, [sic
and clap'd his hand down to his Sword;
But as his Love ta[c]kle he cleard,
I brought down his Main Top by the Board,
With a fa la la, etc.

Then he feared to burn a Sea-Martyr,
for my Gun-Room was all in a Fire,
And I blew up my second Deck Quarter,
just as he began to retire,
With a fa la la, etc.

I pepper'd him off the Centre,
Monsieur was ne'er serv'd so before;
I burn his Main Yard at a venter,
So that he will press me no more,
With a fa la la, etc.

Then Monsieur got off, and was grieved,
and cursed the English first Rates,
But till then he could never believe it,
That Strumbulo lay in the Straits,
With a fa ca la, etc.                         [sic


Printed by T. Moore, for S. Green. 1691.

The meanings of most of the (mixed) metaphors are obvious; others are a little unclear.

"Strumbolo" is the Mediterranean island of Stromboli, known for an active volcano that is frequently in eruption.


Told unusually from the predatory female's point of view. The broadside unusually prints a tune, and you can hear it sung here:

https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/22208/

To a modern ear, the tune fits the song rather awkwardly.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Aug 24 - 05:25 PM

There seems to be few musical examples of the fireship theme for many decades. Around 1765, however, there appeared - probably in Newcastle - "The Frigate Well Mann'd" (ROUD 21847) Not much happens in it. The speaker is initially attracted to a well-dressed streetwalker, soon determines she's not a "Virgin Dove,", and beats a hasty retreat.

The text is from a printing of about 1770. The words reappeared in Glasgow in 1802 with a few inconsequential changes. It was published in Stirling about fifteen years later. The only important 1802 differences are the replacement of the nonsensical "Pumb" with the reasonable "pomp" and "Shift" with "skiff."



                               The
                        FRIGATE WELL MANN'D

                It blows a soft and pleasant Gale,
                  Into the South, near the Strand;
                I met a Frigate under Sail;
                  Still she wanted to be mann'd.

                With swelling Sails and Streamers spread,
                   So sweetly in the Wind her Course she steer'd,
                She sail without Wind, Line, or Lead;
                   into the Western Port she bore.

                Instead of having Canvas Wings,
                   Her Sailes were of Satten fine;
                Her Ropes were Silk, her Bolts Gold Rings;
                   She strove fair Flora to outshine.

                Then I saluted her with a Gun,
                   And at the Time she did the like!
                She vaunted like the rising Sun,
                   And in her Pumb was loath to strike.

                O then I Boarded her straightway,
                   And on her Quarter-deck I came.
                She sigh'd and said, be not cruel, Sir,
                   And I will let you know my Name.

                My Name it is the Virgin Dove,
                   I'm lately come from Plymouth Town,
                My loading is the Charms of Love,
                   And I am for fair Venus bound.

                O then I view'd her every Part,
                   Main-top, main,-cabbin, Head and Stern;
                But by her false deluding Tongue,
                   I could no more of her discern.
                
                I built myself a very Shift,
                   To get on shore, when the Tide was low:
                I turn'd my Frigate 'bout a drift,
                Now she is gone and let her go.


Surprisingly, Baring-Gould heard the rather insipid song sung in 1892 by the elderly Robert Hard of South Brent. Hard advised him the fifth line of each stanza - a simple repetition of the fourth - should be "trumpeted with the mouth." he heard Hard's 4/4 tune played in 6/8 perhaps twenty miles away on Dartmoor.

Baring-Gould (1895) printed in six-line stanzas a text partly of his own making.

Martin and Shan Graebe with Keith Kendrick recorded Hard's "A Frigate Well Manned" on their 2008 album "Dusty Diamonds."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Aug 24 - 04:25 PM

Let's go back in time a little, thanks to my disarrayed "filing system."

A song called "Come, Brave Boys, to the Carping Trade," appeared on a broadside around 1699. The Bodleian copy
http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/25000/24945.gif
is undated, but includes a song from George Farquhar's comedy "Love and a Bottle" (1698), sung by the actress Margaret Mills.

I've been unable to determine the precise meaning of the phrase "carping trade"; Oxford is silent.

The song must have been rather popular, for a textually unrelated song directed to be sung to the same tune appeared in William Hyland's drama "The Ship-Wreck" (1746).

The verbose "Come, Boys, to the Carping Trade" contains sixty-four lines of the sort of nautical mixed metaphors and double entendre we've become used to. The woman in the case, called both a "Frigate" and a "Pinnace," even gets a ship's name: "The Bonaventure" ("good fortune"). This "warlike Ship of Fame...from the Coast of Venus came," the names "Venus" and "Venice" being virtual homophones in the 17th century. She is "Well-mounted in her Upper-tier,/ The Quarter-deck and Gun-room clear." The speaker boards her with a "Blunderbus/ And two small Hand-Granado's."

The song ends with the sea-going speaker lamenting the loss of his "store of powder":

"My Ammunition is spent and gone,
My little, little Gun, not half a foot long,
And my two small Balls will make but one,
That I no more can board her."

But we're still a long way from "Cruising Round Yarmouth."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Aug 24 - 08:45 PM

We come slightly closer with "The Sailor's Meeting," an undated broadside in the Madden Collection. The woodcut block, however, is identical right down to the marred right-hand frame to that of "British Tars Rewarded," which seems to have been written in response to the Spithead Mutiny of 1797:

                         THE SAILOR'S MEETING

                AS I was a sailing down Frances-street,
                A lofty frigate I chanced to meet,
                She was rigg'd and fit for sea,
                And all that she wanted was company.

                I asked then her place of abode,
                She told me it was in Blackfriars Road,
                And if by chance I came that way,
                As the Blue Anchor she would stay.    [sic                              

                I asked her if she would yield
                To let me sport in Cupid's field ?
                That very night she sent me word
                That I was welcome to come on board.

                I am a ship carpenter by trade,
                I forc'd my mainmast into her tail,
                And as it happen'd so it fell,
                Fired was she up to the hill.      [sic                                          

                Come all you sailors, I'd have you beware
                How you enter a man of war,
                I'd have you beware before you go
                Whether your ships are fired or no.

Francis [sic] Street, a short thoroughfare by Regents Square, was renamed Seaford Street in 1865. Blackfriars Road in Southwark was laid out as Surrey Street in the 1760s.

The broadside appears to be later than an earliar, longer, and possibly oral version. I'll post it next time.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 27 Aug 24 - 01:51 PM

Timothy Connor was an American privateersman who was captured at sea by the RN in 1777. He spent two years in Forton Prison, Portsmouth.

During that time he wrote down the words to songs that he knew. His version of "The Sailor's Meeting," however, is not. He wrote it out in 1778. Even if the broadside predates this text, the Connor's is almost certainly from oral tradition - fuller too:

                               A TAR'S SONG        

                As I was walking through Francis Street
                A lovly Frigate I changed for to meet,
                She was well fitted for the Sea,
                And all he wanted was company.
                                foldrol etc -

                2
                I asked where was her place of abode
                She told me in black Squirs road,
                And at that night she'd send me word
                That I was welcome to come on board.
                                foldrol etc -
                                                        
                3
                I boarded her the truth I'll tell
                Because the Boatswain had sign'd her so well
                With her tacks and her sheets and bobins too
                With her collours flying both red and blue
                                foldrol etc -

                4
                Her sails was of the Sattin fine
                Her ropes was of the hollow twine
                But when I entered her cabin fine
                I found her to be Venous Wine

                5
                I called for my lead and line
                To plum her depth was my design
                I called for her line and lead
                I stopt her ebb and I stem'd her flood

                6                
                All you young men I would have you be where
                When first you enter a Man of War,
                I would have you all be sure for to know
                Whether she be a fine [sic] ship or know
                                        foldrol etc -

                7
                For if she be a fine [sic] ship bold
                By you she'l scorn to be control'd
                For first she'l fire and then she'll run
                O then my boys you are all undone
                                        foldrol etc -

                8
                I ask'd her when she would sail
                She told me seamen did her fail
                For by misconduct and miscast
                For the want of Seamen she sprung her mast
                                        foldrol etc -
                

Francis Street in London, a short thoroughfare by the post-1829 Regent Square, was renamed Seaford Street in 1865. Blackfriars [sic] Road was laid down as Surrey Street in the 1760s. I'm not sure when the name was changed.

"Venous" is, again, "Venice," with a possible play on words. Stanza 8 may be misplaced.

Connor's singular collection was published by George G. Carey in 1976.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Aug 24 - 01:57 PM

A second "folk version" of "The Sailor's Meeting" was unearthed by John Halstead Mead in 1973. It was recorded in 1865-1866 in the journal of Captain F. T. Powers, master of the clipper ship "Peruvian," which made trips between New York and San Francisco.

The language is a little more modern, but there's still something archaic about the song. I've divided the text into stanzas. Spelling and punctuation are Powers's:

                       Song "THE LOFTY FRIGATE"

                As I went a cruising St. Frances Street
                a lofty Frigate I chanced to meet
                She was well rigd and fit for sea
                and all she wanted was her company

                I asked her if I could go to sea on board
                That verry same day she sent me word
                That I was welcom that night on board

                I boarded her the truth I tell
                I found her bosen had rigd her well
                and when I entered her cabin fine
                I found her lined with good Venus wine

                her riging was made of silken twine
                her sales were of satten fine
                then I called for a led and line
                to sound her well was my design

                I sounded twice found the chanel good
                I stept my mark and stemed the flood
                it was by misfortune or else by chance
                our ship she drifted in to france

                it was by misfortune as I am told
                our ship took fire down in the hold
                come all you sailors that cruise those street
                beware of this frigate you may oft times meet

                for she is but a fire ship in disguise
                and if she don’t burn you then dam my eyes.


The opening couplet of this song resembles that of "Blow the Man Down." The pub name "Blue Anchor" in the broadside was a common one.
It too appears in some texts of "Blow the Man Down" - and in the late 19th century "Yarmouth"-style words were often sung as a chantey to that tune.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 02 Sep 24 - 02:38 PM

The 36-gun Royal Navy frigate "Venus" was launched in November, 1758, and subsequently was engaged in at least a dozen naval actions in the next few years. Its name inspired the following, dated by the Bodleian to "ca1770" (spelling, punctuation sic):


                 The Venus Frigate,

        You Lovely Frigits,
        That strole Fleet street
        And trudge it in the Cold and wet
        When at the Corners you do stand
        We know you want for to be man’d.        

        These Frigits tho’ so neat and trim,
        With si[l]ken Robes and painted skin
        Then some good hands pray get on Board
        Before that she can give th[i]s Re[w]ard.

        A Captain fi[r]st to give Command
        A Pilot to Guide her from Rocks & Sand
        Where his lead with pleasure he may sound
        Least the Frigate she should run on Ground.

        A ship Carpenter next good hand
        In her deck his main mast firm m[ay stand?]
        But first she must their treasure [tell?]
        Before she will with Pleasure Sail.

        When our whole ships Crews on Board
        and her Ca[r]go is well stor[‘]d
        On Venus Craft they with Pleasure [s]ail,
        Tho she caries Fire in her tail
                
        These Verses first when they were Lanch’d      [sic; vessels?]
        They was sent from the Cost of France
        Thou fair without they’re foul within,
        All those that has boarded her can tell.

        What need her whole Ships Crew Complain
        Since she gives such pleasure on the Main,
        Since in Venus Frigits they delight
        She has charms enough for to invite.

        Our Friget can no more be us’d
        Her M[a]rriners they must her loose
        On Venus Rock th[e]y broke her Keel
        And all in P[i]eces there she fell.

This is the only member of the song family that has the "fire-ship" done in by customers she has "burned."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Sep 24 - 03:05 PM

Great stuff, Jon. Are you going to publish anytime? I have a long-term project on a mammoth undertaking of all ballads that include sexual euphemisms. It probably would make sense to split it into several volumes, Maritime being one of them. If I ever get round to it I'll come knocking on your door.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 02 Sep 24 - 05:13 PM

If that was you, Steve, thanks! And I'd be happy to help!

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 03 Sep 24 - 03:10 PM

Fire-ship aficionados may find diversion in the following riddle, found in" The Merry Andrew: Being the smartest collection ever yet published, of elegant repartees, brilliant jests, ridiculous bulls, comical tales, [etc.], by "Fernando Funny" (1759).

Here the literal fire-ship is personified as, er, non-binary:


                                
        They who first form’d me, were within my Womb,
        In Fight I’m vanquish’d when I overcome.
        The Mistresses I court are very shy,
        And, Parthian like, would kill me as they fly.
        Yet ne’er was Swain so constant as I am,
        No Breast e’er harboured so unfeign’d a Flame;
        For the End of my Pursuit and my Desire
        Is, clasp’d in their Embraces to expire;
        And then Life from me does in Transports fly;
        For I ne’er truly live, but when I die.


Just as interesting is the pre-Cockney (?) rhyme of "I am" with "flame."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Sep 24 - 09:18 AM

At this point it might be worthwhile to mention another song, which over the years has come to resemble "Cruising 'Round Yarmouth" and its immediate predecessor - or sibling - "Ratcliffe Highway" or "Polly of Portsmouth."

That other song is the one now often called "The Roving Kind," though before 1951 it was usually "The Fireship" or "A Dark and Rolling Eye."

I'll take up this branch of the family at /mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=1239#2698904

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Sep 24 - 05:10 PM

And now we come to the "modern" age.

Perhaps the earliest record of a direct predecessor of Cox's and Larner's now familiar "Cruising Round Yarmouth" are the words published by Frederick Pease Harlow (1856-1952) in his "Chanteying Aboard American Ships" (published posthumously in 1962).

Most chantey books are something of a hodgepodge, and Harlow's is no exception. It begins with a narration of Harlow's voyage to the East Indies aboard "Akbar" in 1876, interspersed with chanteys he heard (and sang) during that trip. It isn't clear just when Harlow wrote the book's manuscript, possibly at around the time he was writing his memoir, "The Making of a Sailor" (1928). "Chanteying" eventually drifts into pages of material taken from secondary sources, sometimes without acknowledgment. The book actually seems to have been unfinished.

Some of Harlow's lyrics sound rather literary, and how many of them - if any - were taken down in 1876 and how many recollected (perhaps with gaps filled as best he could) is unknown.

Harlow's texts are occasionally more forthright than those of other collectors, though there's still been bowdlerization and expurgation.

The verses he gives for one version of the chantey "Blow the Man Down," however, are what we're interested in here. One or two stanzas are evidently deleted, but it generally sounds authentic. Harlow could not have taken it from print.

        Come listen to me and a story's my aim,
                And away, hey, blow the man down.
        It's of an adventure I met with a dame,
                Give me some time to blow the man down.

        While cruising around, and out for a spree,
        I met a flash packet, the wind blowing free.

        What country she hailed from. I couldn't tell which,
        But from her appearance she looked like a witch.

        Her flag was three colors, her mastheads were low,
        She was round in the counter and bluff in the bow.

        I fired my bow chaser, the signal she knew;
        She backed her main topsail and quickly hove to.

        I spoke her in English, her tongue very loose,-
        "I'm from the 'Blue Anchor', bound for Paddy's 'Gray Goose.'"

        "What is your cargo, my sweet pretty maid?"
        "I'm sailing in ballast, kind sir," she said.

        "I'm as neat a young skipper as ever was seen."
        "I'm just fit for cargo; my hold is swept clean."

        I gave her my hawser. She took me in tow,
        And yardarm to yardarm, down street we did go.

        We jogged on together, so jolly and gay,        
        Till we came to an anchor in Ratcliffe Highway.

        Then, hoisting our topsails, and away we both bore,
        For a sailor's snug harbor, for a berth and to moor.

        She brailed in her spanker, her stuns'ls and all,
        I rigged in my jib boom and gun tackle fall.

        I've fought with the "Rooshians", the "Proosians" also,
        I've fought with the Yankees and Johnny Crapeau;

        But of all the strange dames that I ever did see,
        She beat all the stinkpots of heathen Chinee.
.
"Paddy's Goose" was a pub in Ratcliffe Highway before 1842, and many others were called "The Blue Anchor." It is an ancient name: Ben Jonson mentioned a "Blewe Anchor Tavern by Billingsgate" in 1605. A "Blue Anchor" appears in other texts as well, including the 18th century "The Sailor's Meeting."

A "stinkpot," says Oxford, was a "A hand-missile charged with combustibles emitting a suffocating smoke, used in boarding a ship for effecting a diversion while the assailants gain the deck.”

“The heathen Chinee” is a phrase popularized in Bret Harte’s once familiar poem, “Plain Language from Truthful James,” published in San Francisco's "Overland Monthly" in 1870.

It was a common practice to put the words of forebitters into chanteys, and this seems to be no exception.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Sep 24 - 11:35 AM

"Johnny Crapeau" is the French. ("Crapaud" = toad.)

A common naval term in the 19th century.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Sep 24 - 04:53 PM

Allusions and texts of the song's silings begin to appear in the 1890s.

From "The Pilot" (Boston, Mass.) (Aug. 30, 1892):

         "As Jack was a walking down Ratcliffe Highway,
         A fair pretty maiden he chanced to espy;
         But when he did see her most beautiful face,
         Why, he hoisted his topsails and to her gave chase.
                  To me ‘ow di – ‘ow derry way.

"After relating the sailor’s adventures with this damsel, the song goes on to point its moral:

       "Now all you young sailors take warning by me,
       Avoid the highway when you go on a spree;
       And all you young maidens take warning I pray,
       Don’t rattle your rigging down Ratcliffe Highway."

The refrain suggests this example was sung to a "derry, derry down" tune."

To "rattle the rigging" sounds injurious here, but it literally means to affix or make taut the ratlines on standing rigging, as on a rope ladder.

"Cruising Round Yarmouth" is more widely known as "Ratcliffe Highway."

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 09:22 AM

The song in in one modern form or another must have been widely known by about 1900.

Incredibly Isabel Anderson, an English writer, included stanza one in her children's fantasy "The Great Sea Horse" (1909). Perhaps it was the only part of the song she'd heard. A few words were changed to fit the book's plot:

        As Jack was a-coming, fine beach up and down,       [sic
        He forgot pretty Polly of fair Bedford town.
        As soon as he spied Betty's beautiful face
        He set his three royals and to her gave chase!



In 1912 the American ornithologist Robert Cushman Murphy recorded the following aboard the whaling brig "Daisy":

"[O]ur forty-barrel bull is the talk of the ship. . . .The men were in fine fettle during the cutting-in, and the lusty strains of ‘Sally Brown,’ ‘Whiskey Johnny,’ and ‘Blow the Man Down’ rang out for hours across the empty ocean.

        As I was awalkin’ down Paradise Street -
                Away, ay, blow the man down-
        A flash-lookin’ packet I chanced for to meet.
                Give me some time to blow the man down.

        I hailed her in English, she answered me clear –
                Away, ay, etc.
        “I’m from the Black Anchor bound to the Shakespeare”
                Give me, etc.

        I tailed her my flipper and took her in tow,
        And yardarm to yardarm away we did go.

        I clewed up her courses, to’gans’ls and all –

- but I can write no more without peril of having Anthony Comstock bar my manuscript from the mails!”

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Oct 24 - 08:03 PM

Captain Patrick Tayluer (1856-1948) sang the following for William Main Doerflinger in New York City in 1942. Tayluer went to sea around 1870:



Now, come all you young sailors and listen to me,
Sure I'll tell you a story all about the 'igh sea.
Well, it ain't very short nor it's not verylong,
It's of a flying-fish sailor bound 'ome from Hong Kong.

    With your fol the diddle lol diddy, fol the diddle lol diddy,
    Fol the diddle lol diddy, hay hay, hay,
    Fol the diddle lol diddy, fol the diddle lol diddy,
    Fol the diddle lol diddy, hood le dum day!

Now, as we went a-walking down Rat'liffe Highway,
Well, a flash-lookin' packet we chanced for to see.
She was bowling along with the wind blowing free,
And she clewed up her courses and waited for me.

Now, she 'ad up no colors, no flags did she show;
She was round in the counter and bluff in the bow.
Where she did 'ail from I could not tell,
But I threw out my flipper and we're both bound to hell!

Now, into a snug little corner, oh, soon we did moor,
Just be'ind the little table around the door.
We eat there and drank till we nearly did bust,
Then she let out first with her Irishman's roar, etc.

I'll bring you silk dresses and all that I know,
Fine gold rings and stones from the islands, you know.
I'll bring you home plenty of money to spend,
If you'll only wait till I do return.

The "etc." means that Doerflinger suppressed "certain stanzas unsuitable for printing."

A "flying-fish sailor" sailed mainly in the central and wetsern Pacific.

The final stanza is unique.

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Oct 24 - 01:14 PM

Doerflinger recorded the following fragment from William Laurie, also in NYC:

Oh, as I went a-walking down Ratcliffe Highway,
I spied a flash packet, 'er wind blowing free.
She 'ad up no colors, no flag did she fly.
I could tell she was Dutch by the cut of 'er jib.

    Singing tu-re-lye-laddie, tu-re-lye-laddie,
    Sing tu-re-lye-laddie, I-tu-re-lye-lay.

I hailed her in English; she answered me so:
"I'm from the Blue Anchor bound to the Brown Bear."
I tipped her my flipper, I took her in tow,
And it's yardarm to yardarm together we go.

Oh I've fought with the Russians, the Prussians also,
I've fought Johnny Bull and Johnny Crapaud,
But of all the sights that I ever did see -
She beat all the sights of the heathen Chinese. [sic


Laurie's melody for the stanzas is much like "The Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee." The refrains recall "Tom Sherman's Barroom"!

Subject: RE: Origins: Cruising round Yarmouth
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 01:02 PM

The earliest collected full version was sent to Robert Gordon about 1928 from a reader of his column in Adventure Magazine. Though no tune is given, the chorus suggest the "Bonnie Dundee" tune used by William Laurie. Ed Cray printed the text in 1969:

                THE GUN TACKLE FALL

Just listen to me and a story I'll tell,
About an adventure that did me befall      
As I was out cruising the town for to spree
I met a fair lass goin' wing and wing free.

    Singin' fal-diddle-laddidie,
    Fal-diddle-laddidie
    Folderol-day, di-doodle-die-day.         

Now the country she came from I couldn't tell which,        
But judged by her appearance I think she was Dutch,
For she flew the tricolor; her masts they were low;
She was round in the counter and bluff in the bow.

    Singing, etc.
        
"Oh, what is your cargo, fair maiden," I cried,
"I'm sailing in ballast, kind sir," she replied,
"And I'm as fast-going clipper as ever was seen,
And I'm just fit for you for my hold is swept clean."

    Singing, etc.

So I handed me hawser and took her in tow,
And yardarm in yardarm away we did go.          [sic
We chaffed on so lightly, so frisky and gay
Till we came to an anchor down Ratcliffe Highway.

    Singing, etc.

She took me upstairs into a snug room,
And into her parlor I run my jib-boom.        
She took down her topsails, her staysails and all,
Clapped her lily-white hand on me gun-tackle fall.

    Singing, etc.

Then I fired away at her all to me desire,
And all the night long I kept up a sharp fire.
My shot-locker got empty and me powder was spent,
And me gun it wanted spongin' for 'twas choked in the vent.
   
    Singing, etc.

Says I, "Fair Lass, now it's time to give o'er,
For between wind and water I've sculled you ashore."
And I never before saw shots fired so well,
But she had a hole in her counter to sink her to -- Jerusalem!

    Singing, etc.

In this version, so far from being a victim, the singer gloats over having "sunk" the woman.

"Wing-and-wing" is a 19th century phrase meaning sailing "directly before the wind, with the foresail hauled over on one side and the mainsail on the other." "Free" is added for the sake of rhyme.

"Dutch" usually meant German. In that case the tricolor was black, white, and red. Here it may refer to a fancy bonnet, facial makeup - or nothing in particular. One of Gordon's correspondents apprised him of a sailors' proverb, "Swedish matches, Norway sailors, German whores."

"In ballast": laden with ballast only and no cargo.

"Yardarm and yardarm": sailing so close that the ends of yards touch or cross.

"Gun-tackle fall": the loose end of a rope belonging to the tackle used for moving a ship's gun.