The Advent and Development of Chanties

Subject: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 12:33 PM

Recently there has been some good discussion and research on the emergence of chantey (shanty) forms in the 19th century. Much of it has been going on in this thread:

From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?

Because that thread has other specific goals and because it is just getting too large due to the related but more general, theoretical discussion of chantey origins, I am initiating this one.

By focusing on some of the aspects of chanties that have not been considered much before, and by digging deep into the now-more-than-ever available references, we are getting a more detailed picture of how chantying may have emerged.

Please note that the focus here is not on the ancient origins of work-songs, shipboard or otherwise. It is not on the origins or earliest references to singing/chanting to coordinate labour at sea.

Rather, it works from a hypothesis that at some point in the first half of the 19th century, a distinguishably new paradigm for maritime work-songs appeared or was developed. This paradigm corresponded most closely to what was to be known by a new term, "chanty." Factors such as the demographics of workers on ships and in port cities, labour flow (especially with regards to geography, like rivers, plantations), and the advent of new kinds of labour or new needs in style of conducting pre-existing labour (e.g. the need to run large packet ships with square sails, quickly, but with small crews) all look to have played a role in the advent of a new-ish method of work-singing. The idea is that, though singing at work aboard ship existed prior, at this time a huge new body of repertoire, of a particular form, was introduced/developed. Moreover, while it was introduced over a certain period of time, and then developed for another, within the span of a few decades it also stabilized. After that "generative period," the notion of chanties had perhaps become very broad and mixed, and few new songs were developed of the same form. The earlier-developed chanties were perpetuated, while new songs adopted/adapted for sea labour tended to be of a different form. The latter were "chanties," to be sure, but according to an expanded concept.

I hope it is obvious that the preceding are only my views (while nonetheless piggybacking on others'). People who have been and who would like to discuss this will definitely have others; perhaps they will refute the hypothesis altogether. However, it was necessary for me to lay out some working model to begin this thread and give a sense of the focus.

One of the methodologies has been to take stock of and analyse the known references to various instances of chanties and chantying. With this detail, I feel confident that a picture will emerge that shows the changes decade by decade.

Most likely, we will have to add links to or copy-paste from some of the other postings, to this thread, in order to get discussion rolling, but I just wanted to get it started. Plus, my slow Internet/browser at work doesn't like loading up that ginormous other thread -- which is particularly inconvenient when I am trying to skylark from my paid duties for a quick peek.

Happy discussing! And please: spell "schantee" any way you like! (Sometimes I try to use all the different spellings in one post.)

Gibb

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 01:35 PM

Thanks, Gibb. This gives me the chance to blather on.

The real mystery of the rise of shantying is probably the invention of the halliard shanty. Any song could be sung at the capstan, and the short-haul and bunt shanties could easily have developed from a single chanted line followed by a single syllable indicating the pull. Such "songs" would not have been noted by writers because they were just one trivial line repeated no more than once or twice.

As for the halliard shanty, here's my theory:

A sailing vessel large enough to require a crew of at least a dozen or so men is preparing to leave port in the year 1820 or so. One group is heaving anchor at the capstan, singing some song or another that has a chorus. The paractice of singing at the capstan is not universal but is not considered odd or peculiar either.

While one team heaves the anchor, another team is pulling on halliard to raise sail. It is usual for there to be a leader in such a group who calls out something trivial, like "One! Two! Three! Haul!", the sort of cry that no writer would consider to be of the slightest interest.

At some point, the leader of the halliard gang gets tired of "One! Two! Three! Four!" and starts to call out something arbitrary but amusing because it isn't just counting, something like, "Sally Brown, O Sally Brown O!" and everybody hauls at the end.

Because the capstan gang is singing, the leader at the halliards decides at some point to sing too. He sings something like "Sally Brown, O Sally Brown O!" to a simple rising and falling tune, almost the simplest possible. At some point, maybe that day, maybe the next time a yard or sail had to be handled, during a pause for breath between hauls, somebody else decides to chime in with a line like "Way-ay-ay-ay!" Eventually the leader develops his tune a little further and eventually a second refrain gets added.

Just why that should have happened is not clear, but if it hadn't, maybe the halliard shanty would still be thought of as a mere "chant." The four-line structure could have encouraged the development and importation of more or less stable verses as the "chant" became a real "song."

By the end of the voyage, at least one shanty has been composed. The chants of cotton-screwers may have inspired the first shanty or not: they certainly contributed to the practice.

This could easily have happened more than once in a period when more than one gang had to work at once so as to get a big clipper underway. That polygenesis would help explain the rather sudden rise of shantying and the rapid rate at which individual shanties seem to have appeared. An important contributing factor was the singing that was already semi-customary at the capstan. Thus the first halliard shanty developed in the spirit of a singing contest.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 01:56 PM

I guess many sailors came from a community in which singing was much more common than today. Most people leading or driving some kind of work on board would have access to a store of songs and tunes on which to draw?

L in C

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 11:23 PM

Ooh, this is fun! -- So, we start off, not with the nitty-gritty evidence, but with some sketches of how we might imagine it all happening. I am in total agreement with Lighter's opening statement,

The real mystery of the rise of shantying is probably the invention of the halliard shanty. Any song could be sung at the capstan, and the short-haul and bunt shanties could easily have developed from a single chanted line followed by a single syllable indicating the pull. Such "songs" would not have been noted by writers because they were just one trivial line repeated no more than once or twice.

and with some of what immediately follows. However, here is my imagined scenario of the rest.

First, I'd push it forward into at least the 1830s. There may be evidence I al overlooking that says it would have had to have been earlier. However, I want to argue that that may have been reflecting some of the earlier work-singing ("cheerly man" era, during which, yes, maybe a "Sally Brown" chant had also come into use). In my scenario, it was an *adoption* of chanties, followed of course by further development -- as opposed to an initial development. I don't think the halyard chantey was invented so much as revolutionized by a new method.

In my scene, I envision a small crew in the 1830s, one with a Black watch.   This was a high point for African-Americans in the merchant service; after the Civil War, their numbers had greatly declined. When confronted with the halyard hoisting, the hands found it only natural to raise a song. On shore, these men would never have done labour without a song, which was as much an inseparable tool of work as anything else. In light of the constant labour experience through slavery, work had developed in a way where pacing and coordinated exertion were particularly important. Men were familiar with the technique of working in gangs, as in the cotton-screwing gangs, and they knew with their familiar method they could make short work of this task.

One man, perhaps an ex-cotton hoosier "chantyman," called out, "Stowmy's gawn, that good ol' man...!" To which the others instinctively responded, "WAY storma-LONG john!," giving two coordinated pulls, steadily. The chantyman called "Oh Stowmy's gawrn, that good ol' man!" And again they pulled, "WAY hey mister STORMalong, john."

It quickly came apparent that this was a superior method for raising halyards, and the many previously created songs that fit this style of work -- whether from rowing, cotton-screwing, or loading up steamboat furnaces -- were called into play.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 12:42 AM

In addition to these sort of hypothetical mock-ups -- that we can test as the evidence is presented-- I have an idea how to move forward. I propose we trace the trajectory of chanties by presenting information from each decade. We could start with the 1810s (although there will be very little). Confining ourselves to that decade, we cite references to chantying generally, specific songs, etc., perhaps along with relevant details of geography, demographics, and technology of merchant sailing.

To start off the 1810s:

LANDSMAN HAY, though not published until 1953 (?), consists of the memoirs of one Robert Hay, 1789-1847. In them, Hay is supposed to have reported seeing/hearing stevedores in Jamaica in 1811. To me the reference (which I've not seen first-hand) is vague, but it seems like they are using a capstan to work cargo. Hay notes their in chanty-like song "Grog time of day," which turns out to have been a popular song associated with the Caribbean region through the early 19th century.   

Grog time of day, boys
Grog time of day,
CH: Huro, my jolly boys,
       Grog time of day

[I don't know if the chorus marking is in the original. I've taken this from Hugill. In other references to this song, this whole bit makes up the chorus]

It's possible that such a form was at that time distinct (or fairly distinct) to either the specific region or the specific ethnic group (Afro-Caribbeans). I say this because the way in which it is described, it is as if only "others" (with respect to the author) were engaged in the practice.

For some framing context, the packet ship trade began after the War of 1812 (I don't have specific dates), with the Blackball Line for example starting in 1816. The packet ships are thought (e.g. Hugill) to have necessitated a different way of handling work with smaller crews.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 11:01 AM

Excellent work, lads!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: doc.tom
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 12:06 PM

Just to help set the context, may I quote from the Short, Sharp Shanties presentation that BB & I have been doing - quoting greater authorities than us!

"Hugill tells us that: 'the cessation of the American War of 1812 and of the Napoleonic Wars brought about a great impetus in merchant shipping. The early packet ships, not clippers by any means, began to come to London. They carried, in the main, emigrants to the New World'."

"The wooden walls of the Napoleonic period were now obsolete. America built faster, new design ships, and peace led to an economic boom as trade expanded world-wide. And with it the great period of the development of shantying had begun".

"According to Kinsey, the most creative period of shanty-singing was between 1820 and 1850. Doeflinger agrees, saying that: 'Most seem to have originated between about 1820 and 1860. They were the product of a revival in shantying in the peaceful decades between the war of 1812 and the Civil War which saw the swift rise of the United States to leadership in the deep-water shipping trade.'"

"But the British soon caught up, building ships with hardwoods rather than softwoods. Ships that would outlive the Yankee packets by decades! The glorious years of shantying were actually very short-lived. Cicely Fox-Smith points out that: - 'Shantying was at its best roughly between 1850 and 1875.' Hugill that: - 'It can safely be said that from 1860 onwards the production of new shanties ceased completely', and Whall says: 'Since 1872 I have not heard a Shanty or Song worth the name.'

The other Shanty Short heard in Québec was Cheer'ly Man. He told Cecil Sharp it was – "One of the first shanties ever invented - and the one I learned first." Hugill does not disagree, saying: 'Cheer'ly Man is only just faintly removed from singin'- out and is probably the most primitive, and one of the oldest shanties'."

Great thread - let's carry on!

TomB

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 01:03 PM

Thanks for that important context, TomB.

I have been finding that the statements of Hugill and Doerflinger about a "creative period" (or what I called "generative period" etc) are supported by the evidence. So I am hoping to take that as a starting point, and see how it is born out as we look at the evidence again and find more. In addition, I'd like to break down that "creative period" into chunks to really see the trajectory.

If anyone can speak specifically to the mechanics of sailing at specific moments, that contribution would be most welcome. I myself am unclear whether the shift in sailing methods -- specifically with respect to raising yards -- was a matter of new vessels or of new conditions aboard those vessels. In other words, did the packet ships in and of themselves (in their design) require/inspire a different approach to raising yards (e.g. due to size)? Or was it the conditions aboard them: smaller crews and the need for speed? And, in which years precisely did this kind of shift begin? I realize that generally it is after the War of 1812, and that 1815 is often a date used to mark the beginning of this new "Golden Age." However, specifics would be helpful. I think it is quite probable that when Robert Hay heard the Jamaican stevedores sing "Grog time of day," there was not yet any precedent aboard ship with which to compare it.

To add to the 1810s:

I forgot to note the other Jamaican stevedore song from 1811, in HAY:

Two sisters courted one man,
CH: Oh, huro, my boys
And they live in the mountains,
CH: Oh, huro boys O.

Next,

In SERVICE AFLOAT (published 1833), a British sailor describes observations from during his service during the Napoleanic Wars. So, 1815 or earlier (probably not much earlier). In Antigua, he observed a song for rowing. It was another version of "Grog time of Day," showing that that song was spread through the West Indies. His transcription gives a better idea of the complete form of this work song:

Massa lock de door, and take away de key
Hurra, my jolly boys, grog time a day
CH: Grog time a day, my boys, grog time a day,
       Hurra, my jolly boys, grog time a day

To give a sense of how that form MAY have worked, I've created this example (no melody was given, but I set it to the matching tune of "Doodle Let Me Go":

Grog Time of Day

And in the Virgin Islands, the same author observed another boatmen's song:

Jenny go to market for buy me yarrow prantin,
Heigh me know, bombye me takey.
      Chorus—Heigh me know &c.
               Heigh me know &c.

Me nebur know before Jenny bin a bad gal,
Heigh me know, bombye me takey.
    Chorus—Heigh me know, &c.
             Heigh me know &c.

Remarking on the practice of New World Blacks, the author has this commentary. Note that he describes the basic call and response format of a chantey, though he does not compare it to anything in his own tradition.

Some of their airs are exceedingly plaintive, and the manner of singing in chorus evinces no small degree of natural taste : rowing in boats or other kind of labour, when a simultaneous effort is required, they have generally a song formed of extempore verses, the improvisatore being the stroke oar, the driver, or one supereminent among the rest for the talent. He in a minor key gives out a line or two in allusion to any passing event, all the rest taking up the burthen of the song, as a chorus, in a tenor, and this produces a very pleasing effect.

Note also the emphasis on improvisation. This is important to note re: the aesthetic of this music as well as something to remember when looking for references.

It would be great to find more references to work-songs (maritime, or, of similar form) in the 1810s. With the slim evidence so far, my contention would be that work-songs of this type had not yet found their way aboard ships in the early 1810s. It doesn't say much, but is notable nonetheless, that the British Naval officer does not compare the songs to practice on his ships even by the time of publication, 1833.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: mikesamwild
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 01:23 PM

When I worked in Sierra Leone in the 1960s I lived by a beach near Freetown and when the village was hauling in nets which stretched right across the bay they sang call and response'shanties'.I wish I'd had a portable tape recorder


In the 1950s I heard some railway workers near sheffield shifting steel rails and they were singing a work song . I wonder if any railway shanties got to sea?

I've lawaysthought a lot of shantioe shave tunes reminiscent of Irish Polkas from the Cork area e.g. Yellow Girls


Could it have been a fusion of cultures?

All I've seen about 'shanties' from earlier English times were songs like Cheerly Men and Off She Goes

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 05:21 PM

Hi,
Excellent thread. Keep it going. As soon as I get some time I'll look out my early articles on the history of shantying. You might already have them but I'll offer them anyway. I know I have a series printed in 'Mariners Mirror' somewhere, and some articles in Sea Breezes. They may or may not be useful. I often come across snippets in Victorian nautical novels, such as those by W H G Kingston. In Hull, Yorkshire where I am I've spent a lot of time in local history records
and the Maritime Museum, though have not come across any shanties or references, some bits and pieces of ballads though and things to do with whaling customs.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 08:33 PM

Bullies, I will go out on a limb to say that no earlier commentator, including the great Hugill, Whall, Colcord, and Doerflinger, knew anything significant about shantying before the 1830s (its rise or anything else) that we have not already covered on the "SF to Sydney 1853" thread.

Even Whall and Robinson were far too young to have observed the early years of shantying-as-we-know-it. The same goes for Sharp's and Carpenter's singers. Dana might have learned something useful at second hand if he'd thought to ask.

Everything they say about it is hypothetical. (Which is not to say it is necessarily wrong.) When Doerflinger writes of a "revival of shanty-singing" after the War of 1812, he's making the unwarranted assumption that shanties (songs, not singouts, made specifically for shipboard work) were well-known before the war - a statement for which we have no evidence at all. I believe these authorities were placing too much significance on the scattered references to sailors chanting or singing in ancient and medieval times.

Patterson (who gives some unique and therefore questionable info)claimed that "Whisky, Johnny" was originally sung in Elizabethan times as "Malmsey, Johnny." He gave no evidence, and there doesn't seem to be any.

Hugill showed that while the "anatomical ptogression" of the bawdy "A-Roving" did appear as a song in Heywood's "Rape of Lucrece," Heywood's song wasn't presented as a sea song and there's no reason to assume that it was. The song itself is not identical to "A-Roving."

Gibb, my placement of the dawn of the shanty around 1820 may well be a few years too early, but shanties seem to have been frequent enough on the brig Pilgrim in 1834. With no media coverage, telephones, or downloads, it must have taken at least a few years for the practice to become a custom. My guess is that that happened during the mid to late 1820s, but admittedly that's just a guess based on insufficient evidence.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 08:59 PM

Great to have a lot of voices here.

A couple things I encourage here:

1) Though I am very often guilty of "vagueing up" my statements, particularly when I'm unsure... let's to to specify time period when we talk about things, when possible. A couple decades in either direction could make a huge difference (e.g., a couple decades ago, I wasn't using the Internet). I personally I looking for "Ground Zero" of what I think was a "new" phenomenon --post-Cheerly Man. Perhaps it was not, but still I've got to "zoom in" to see.

2) Let's use previous writers' thoughts as springboards or reference points, but not accept their assumptions. Let the evidence speak fresh.

mikesamwild--
By "Yellow Girls" do you mean the shanty AKA "Doodle Let Me Go"? That may be something to pursue.

And I am sure it was a fusion, but then again, what is not? The tunes may very well be of Irish derivation. The challenge will be distinguishing what precedents are most relevant to the historical context. The melodic influences on, say Jamaican stevedores, may have included Irish polkas, since what is "Jamaican culture" --or any culture-- but a fusion of past influences?   This influences become relevant when they suggest something of significance at that historical moment.

In my working sketch, the most important aspect of it all at this "moment" was a paradigm for singing while working. The non-Black commenters have remarked on Black work-singing as if it were a practice distinct from their own. My contention is that there was something culturally remarkable about African-American work-song practice. One aspect, for example, was the feature whereby a gang of workers might have an individual who *only* sings (and gets paid for it!). Another aspect is the specific *form* of these songs.

So I've an open bias towards looking to African-American work-singing for some answers, at this point. This does not mean I think "chanteys are African"; on the contrary, I think they are fusion. However, my hypothesis is that the "new phenomenon" of "chanties" was based in what at the time was a work-song practice of the African-American community.

Looking for antecedents --in a different world than The Complaynt of Scotland -- we have for example the account (published 1800) of Scotsman Mungo Park, who visited the area of Africa that is now Mali in the 1790s. He observed of the people there that, "They lightened their labour by songs, one of which was composed extempore, for I myself was the subject of it."

That was in Africa. Here's an observation from the New World a decade later, on the island of Martinique, in BELL'S COURT AND FASHIONABLE MAGAZINE, May 1806:

"The negroes have a different air and words for every kind of labour; sometimes they sing, and their motions, even while cultivating the ground, keep time to the music."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 09:14 PM

Lighter,

Our posts crossed a bit.

my placement of the dawn of the shanty around 1820 may well be a few years too early, but shanties seem to have been frequent enough on the brig Pilgrim in 1834.

I follow. My present belief is that the worksongs on the Pilgrim may not have been of the "new" (later to be called "chanties") type. So for that reason, that date is not as significant to me just yet; I am leaning towards the 1830s cotton-stowing observations as indications that things had not come together yet ship-board. But that is also why I think it may be fruitful to review and search the hell out of the 1810s-20s-30s!

If we've not any more 1810s stuff for now, we can move onto the more plentiful 1820s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Mar 10 - 09:12 AM

Here is another reference to add to the possible context from which these chanty forms emerged.

It is John Lambert's TRAVELS THROUGH CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES...VOL. III, published in 1810.

The event referred to, I believe, happened in 1806. The narrator is going by boat down the Savannah River.

We started from Purrysburgh about two o'clock and were rowed by four negroes, for canoes are not paddled here as in Canada. They seemed to be jolly fellows, and rowed lustily to a boat song of their own composing. The words were given out by one of them, and the rest joined chorus at the end of every line. It began in the following manner:

Chorus.

" We are going down to Georgia, boys,
CH: Aye, aye,

To see the pretty girls, boys ;
CH: Yoe, yoe.

We'll give 'em a pint of brandy, boys,
CH: Aye, aye.

And a hearty kiss besides, boys.
CH:Yoe, yoe.            
&c. &c.

The tune of this ditty was rather monotonous, but had a pleasing effect, as they kept time with it, at every stroke of their oars. The words were mere nonsense ; any thing, in fact, which came into their heads. I however remarked, that brandy was very frequently mentioned, and it was understood as a hint to the passengers to give them a dram.

Note again the incidental nature of the text. It is impossible to identify this as the progenitor to any one specific chantey, however the basic form is that of a chantey and the ad-libbed nature is also in keeping with the tradition. Again, no analogy is made to other work-song practices in the author's own tradition or aboard sailing vessels.

More boat/rowing references to come, as that seems to be where these sorts of songs were used at this point in time.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 22 Mar 10 - 09:34 AM

A great discovery. In form it looks indistinguishable from a halliard shanty. Such rowing songs almost certainly influenced shanty development. The transference of such songs to halliard work as needed may have been inevitable and must have happened independently a number of times.

Interesting that these early travelers found the rowing songs notable despite the unanimous comments that they were unmelodious, with improvisational and trivial lyrics.

It certainly does support the idea that call-and-response rowing songs were not native to Britain and were presumably an African holdover.

One can move plausibly from African call-and-reponse work songs to New World call-and-response rowing songs to cotton-screwers' chants to halliard shanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 22 Mar 10 - 11:20 AM

See the end of my last post to the "SF to Sydney" thread.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Morris-ey
Date: 22 Mar 10 - 11:41 AM

Call-and-response goes back to ancient Greek theatre: it is, as a form, very old.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Mar 10 - 09:03 PM

More descriptions from the decades before I allege the "new chanties" came in.

The first reference is not very insightful re: chanties, however, such early references to African-Americans singing during work are hard to locate, so I give it FWIW. It comes from "Abridgment of the Minutes of the Evidence Taken Before a Committee of the Whole House," including depositions from 1789. In one passage, the following bits of info are given with respect to African slaves working sugar cane fields in Grenada.

The cutting of canes is not very hard, tying them easy; the feeding the mills and sires are the most laborious. The rest of the work is very easy. On the whole, thinks the negroes are most healthy in, and like the crop best. Never knew them complain of work then. The mill- gang commonly sing all night. Certainly labour in crop is the hardest, as 1/2 their time, out of crop, is weeding. Holing is the most severe work out of crop.
...They often give holers weak grog twice a-day. Holing does not occasion sickness. Negroes seem fox'd of it, and commonly sing at at.

Of course, the assumption that the slaves were having fun --more so because they were singing-- was probably misguided. (Many years later, Frederick Douglas attempted to correct this assumption, arguing that the singing was not to express joy but rather to overcome sorrow.)

Next reference is to another rowing song reference. It is interesting for what seems to have been a transitional part-English/part-African dialect singing, and for the spread of this practice throughout the African Diaspora.

NOTES ON THE WEST INDIES... VOL. 3, by George Pinckard, pub. 1806.

The author's observations appear to be from the English West Indies Expedition of the 1790s.   He is traveling by boat down the Demerara River towards Georgetown (then known as Stabroek). Black slaves are manning the oars. Here is the passage, pg. 322:

Observing that they rowed with languor, and that we made but little progress, the cockswain was desired to exchange the helm for an oar, and to enliven his comrades with a song, encouraging them to join in chorus, and to pull together in musical time. This operated with magic effect. Every slave was inspired, and forgetting all sense of fatigue, they again pulled with unwearied vigour. We were not more pleased with the result of the expedient, than amused by ihe ready ingenuity with which our wizard cockswain composed his appropriate song, and gave it all the effect of enchantment. Resigning the helm to the weakest slave, he placed himself amidst the crew in the centre of the boat, and pulling his oar stronger than the others, he invented extempore lines for a favorite African tune, finishing each stanza with "gnyaam gnyaam row" "gnyaam gynaam row" in which all were to join by way of chorus; and we found that " gnyaam gnyaam row," never failed to give additional force to the oar—and consequent head-way to the boat.

The names of the slaves, their wives, their food, drink, and all their pleasures were introduced in song, and tuned to the pulling of the oar : likewise the names of each of the party whom they were rowing, their professions, qualities, and occupations, and their several intentions towards the crew, all made a part of this inspiring air, which, however ridiculous in the words and music—in its effect succeeded even to a wonder. The pulling of the oar, the directing of the helm, even the position of the slaves in the boat, and the compensation each might expect as the reward of his exertions were all adroitly included, and "gnyaam gnyaam row" accompanied each stretch of the oar in chorus. Led on by these persuasive themes, each seemed to emulate the exertions of the all-animating cockswain, and, throwing off the heavy marks of fatigue, they conducted us merrily and speedily to "Garden-Eden."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Mar 10 - 09:22 PM

A NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO SURINAM.., by Albert Sack, pub. 1810. Translated from German notes.

The place is Surinam, 1805.

We continued our journey very easily. The tides in these rivers
flow, five hours and a half, and ebb six hours and a half. The
spring tides are twice a month, at the new and full moon; the
tide runs at the rate of about seven miles an hour, and as we only
pursued our course by it, our boatmen in these short stages were
not in the least fatigued: they are eight stout negroes, who sing in
chorus all the way.

In the following decades, more rowing references will come.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Mar 10 - 09:51 PM

In tracing the advent of the "chanties," it is important to distinguish the songs used for halyards from those used for capstan. For as a chantey designed for halyards, with modifications, might work for capstan, it rarely goes the other way. The forms are different. Halyards required quite a strict form; most of those chanties are of uniform...er, form. Capstan work could use material from many sources. This is what makes halyard chanties distinctive and potential revealing with respect to their origins. The form of the rowing songs appears to lend itself better to halyards this was the song format that appeared relatively new to the scene, from the perspective of the Euro-American commenters.

Capstan songs, on the other hand, had been around longer, though I cannot say specifically what their form may have been like from one period to the next.

I suggest we maintain a distinction between the songs for capstan and the ones potentially used for halyards, lest we muddle the stream of development of these different kinds of work-songs.

Here is a reference to singing at the WINDLASS from the beginning of the 19th century.
It is found in an edited volume of a poem THE SHIPWRECK by a sailor, William Falconer. This edited edition is from 1806; seems the first edition was probably 1803. It is a footnote reference to the old spoke windlass, in which one must continually remove and replace one's handspike.

As the Windlass is heaved about in a vertical direction, it is evident that the effort of an equal number of men acting upon it will be much more powerful than on the Capstan. It requires, however, some dexterity and address to manage the Handspec, or Lever, to the greatest advantage; and to perform this the Sailors must all rise at once upon the Windlass, and, fixing their bars therein, give a sudden jerk at the same instant; in which movement they are regulated by a sort of Song pronounced by one of the number. The most dexterous managers of the Handspec in heaving at the Windlass, are generally supposed to be the Colliers of Northumberland; and of all European Mariners, the Dutch are certainly the most awkward, and sluggish, in this manoeuvre.

[Was the action anything like cotton-screwing?]

For an illustration of this kind of windlass (not sure just how realistic?) see here, at 2:40:
old fashioned windlass

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Mar 10 - 10:15 PM

That is it for my 1810s and earlier references, for now. I am moving on to the 1820s. Please join in! I imagine many of these will be pilfered from the Sf-Sydney thread, including one that Lighter mentions a few posts up.

The first rowing reference comes from TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICAN IN THE YEARS 1827 AND 1828, by Basil Hall. It's March 1828, and the author has headed into the interior of Georgia from the sea islands area.

On reaching Darien, a neat little village on the left bank of the gigantic Alatamaha, one of the largest rivers in America, but the name of which I had never even heard of before, we were met by a gentleman we had formerly known, and at whose invitation we were now visiting this part of the country. Under his escort we proceeded down the current in a canoe some thirty feet long, hollowed out of a cypress tree. The oars were pulled by five smart negroes, merry fellows, and very happy looking, as indeed are most of their race, in spite of all their bondage. They accompanied their labour by a wild sort of song, not very unlike that of the Canadian voyageurs, but still more nearly resembling that of the well-known Bunder-boatmen at Bombay.

Interesting comparisons: "Canadian voyageurs" and "Bunder-boatmen at Bombay."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 22 Mar 10 - 10:23 PM

This is great stuff, Gibb! I like the approach and am rowing fast to catch up. I'm afraid I wasn't paying attention and you got launched without me realizing it. Thanks for doing this and for keeping this very important discussion alive and well.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: doc.tom
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 05:28 AM

Just chuck this in to test others' opinions - it derives from analysis of dear old John Short's repertoire (which he aquired between 1855 and 1875): The capstan/windlass stuff seems to tend (yes, deliberately imprecise) to utilise shore-song narratives (often Anglo-Irish except where they derive from contemporary American popular song) whereas the shorthaul stuff seems to use much more discontinuous texts deriving from hoosier/river sources (the latter also being the opinion of Short himself given to Sharp).

We're also currntly having fun with the fact that A Hundred years Ago and Tommy's Gone Away effectivly use the same tune. And have you noticed that Santy Anna, Whip Jamboree and the Irish tune King of the Fairies (A-phrase) all share a majority of melodic phrases too!

TomB

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: mikesamwild
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 06:17 AM

The song I mentioned, Yellow Girls is the Doodle let me go one.

'It's of a Captain's daughter belonged to Callao etc'

I have been struck by the similarity of some shanty tunes to Irish polkas which came in during the mid 19th century boom of Quadrilles across society worldwide. London, Bristo, Liverpool and Cork could be jumping off points


Dan Worrall has just produced a good book (2 vols)on the Anglo Concertina which explores playing in various comunities amongst which is the work on black African players who use songs as an essential part of all aspects of life.


He has done a lot of work , based in Texas.using digital archives . The section on the concertina at sea is excellent ( no evidence of concertina accompaniment to shanties but used in 'forebitters')

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 09:16 AM

Next reference from the 1820s. I am suspending my judgement as to how "Cheerly Man" fits into all this! Where did it fall along the hypothetical "transition"? It was used for halyards, and had the "extempore" quality, yet its form was not like later halyard chanties. Had it really been around a VERY long time, or was it perhaps among the earliest of the newer songs? Are there any earlier references (i.e. that I'm overlooking) for "Cheerly Man"?

The text is JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO QUEBEC IN THE YEAR 1825, by P. Finan.

The narrator is leaving Quebec in a brig in July 1825.

A ship getting under weigh displays a lively, active scene. "Man the windlass !" was the first order of the mate: the windlass was quickly manned, and the seamen commenced weighing the anchor—and, as the great chain cable clanked along the deck, and the sailor sent forth his long and slow-toned "yeo— heave — oh!" the sounds reached the ear with more important meaning than merely that the anchor was raising from the bottom.

...

"Man your topsail sheets, and overhaul your clue-lines and buntlines!" cried the mate; the seamen sprang to their places with the greatest alacrity, and the command was soon executed. The topsail haliards, or rope by which the topsail is hoisted, was next ordered to be manned, and the hoisting was accompanied by a lively song, the words of which, being the extemporary composition of the seaman who led, afforded me a good deal of amusement.— One.man sung, and the rest joined lustily in the chorus. The following is a specimen:—

Oh rouse him up, .
Chorus—Oh, yeo, cheerly ;
Newry girls,
Oh, yeo, cheerly;
Now for Warrenpoint,
Oh, yeo, cheerly;
Rouse him up cheerly,
Oh, yeo, cheerly;
Oh.mast-head him,
Oh, yeo, cheerly;
Oh, with a will,
Oh, yeo, cheerly;
Cheerly men,
Oh, oh, yeo,
Oh, yeo, cheerly ;
Oh, yeo, cheerly.

I'm not sure if I have parsed the verse/chorus structure as intended. See the original on pg. 329, HERE

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 12:32 PM

Another early rowing reference that I think is really important --perhaps the earliest setting so far-- is one I've discovered in this article:

http://www.jstor.org/pss/895685

(I don't have access to read it all. If someone else does, perhaps they'd like to scan it for other gems.)

It refers to observations by W.J. Grayson (born 1788) of South Carolina, who "from his boyhood" --1790s or 1800s-- remembers African-American oarsmen that would bring people to Charleston. He describes their call and response canoe-rowing songs as "partly traditionary, partly improvised" and goes on to relate their incidental themes, as have the other authors.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 02:58 PM

The most significant "gem" follows. I'm taking it directly from its original appearance in James Kennard, Jr.'s article, "Who Are Our National Poets?" (Knickerbocker, Oct. 1845, p. 338):

"One day during the early part of the Indian war in Florida [i.e., 1835] we stepped into a friend's boat at Jacksonville, and with a dozen stout negro rowers, pushed off, bound up the St. Johns with a load of muskets, to be distributed among the distressed inhabitants, who were every where flying from the frontier before the victorious Seminoles. As we shot ahead, over the lake-like expanse of the noble river, the negroes struck up a song to which they kept time with their oars; and our speed increased as they went on, and become [sic] warmed with their singing. The words were rude enough, the music better, and both were well-adapted to the scene. A line was sung by a leader, then all joined in a short chorus; then came another solo line, and another short chorus, followed by a longer chorus, during the singing of which the boat foamed through the water with redoubled velocity. There seemed to be a certain number of lines ready-manufactured, but after this stock was exhausted, lines relating to surrounding objects were extemporized. Some of these were full of rude wit, and a lucky hit always drew a thundering chorus from the rowers, and an encouraging laugh from the occupants of the stern seats. Sometimes several minutes elapsed in silence; then one of the negroes burst out with a line or two which he had been excogitating. Little regard was paid to rhyme, and hardly any to the number of syllables in a line: they condensed four or live into one foot, or stretched out one to occupy the space that should have been filled with four or five; yet they never spoiled the tune. This elasticity of form is peculiar to the negro song."

In other words, a halliard shanty without the halliards. Such rowing songs must have been just as important to shanty development as were the cotton-screwing chants.

I'll revise my theory of shanty creation. Regardless of how later shanties were "composed," the first "halliard shanty" may have been nothing more than a rowing song sung in a new context. And maybe "Cheerly Man!" was that song!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 04:03 PM

Okay, I've managed to get time to start looking at some of my references. One interesting and tantalising reference I have comes from the Times Aug 15th 2008. It refers to a sailor's journal up for auction, George Hodge, and covers the period 1790 to 1833. Apparently he was in the RN from 1790 to 1815 then joined the MN. Quote 'It includes everything from the lyrics of sea shanties to a picture of the first ship on which he served.' The auction was at Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the whole collection of his memorabilia was estimated to fetch about $50,000. I didn't manage to find out anything further, but Googling might bring up something. It would be great if the journal had been published???? or was on its way to being published.
Anybody else spot this one or know what happened to the journal?

I must add that journalists and those with a passing interest often mistake sea songs for shanties, so it may be a red herring. Even if it is it would be interesting to see what the sea songs were.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 04:43 PM

Here is a link to Dena Epstein's book. Only parts of it are on line, but if you scroll down to Chapter 9, you will find that it is on "Worksongs" and has many of the quotes and references that we have been working with so far.

http://books.google.com/books?id=WUHaLYzhiSoC&pg=PA68&dq=Worksongs&cd=5#v=onepage&q=Worksongs&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 04:59 PM

With regard to Steve's note on "George Hodge", I came across this on Google Books. However, the very page referred to is "not available". Perhaps someone has this book and can take a look.


ENTER THE PRESS-GANG: NAVAL IMPRESSMENT IN EIGHTEENTH -CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE‎ - Page 140
Daniel James Ennis - Literary Criticism - 2002 - 219 pages
"The case of George Hodge, as related in his unpublished diary, is instructive.
... By the late eighteenth century, the Royal Navy began showing signs of ..."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 05:10 PM

I just Googled Hodge but all that came up were references to the auction, nothing on what happened to it after the auction. I doubt if the Ennis mentions give any detail on what's in the diary. It seems to be dwelling on impressment and his time in the RN which would not include refs to shanties. It's the 1815-33 period refs that would be of most interest.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 06:26 PM

Just been rereading the articles by L G Carr Laughton in Mariner's Mirror for 1923 Vol 9 No 2. He sets out an excellent case for the slaves' shanties origin and the whole custom originating with the cotton ships coming across from the southern states post 1815 to Liverpool and then it spreading from there into the packet ships. He mentions several examples of 'Cheerly men' in use as possibly the earliet example. He also postulates there may be something more to Stevenson's 'Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest' it being a Caribbean island. I assume you have the references from the United services Journal for 1834 which give the account of shantying on a revenue cutter. Here 'Cheerly men' as with Dana is given as an example. The author claimed then that CM had been attached to revenue cutters 'for time out of mind', 'and sometimes the burden is not celebrated for its decency'.
Later Carr Laughton suggests the approximate order of development for the shanty being, the cotton trade as already mentioned; then the Packet service; the emigrant ships to America; the California gold rush round the Horn; the Blackwall East Indiamen; the tea clippers, and finally the Colonial clippers. he then goes on to link individual shanties with particular periods, largely according to their origins and content.
In a later article (1952) another writer puts forward an extremely strong case for the development of the word 'shantying' from the French in New Orleans, quoting 2 contemporary accounts. I can post this if required.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 07:40 PM

Steve, I for one would love to read the etymological conjecture on "shantying."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 08:58 PM

1820s, continued.

Capstan shanty description!

Fiction, from 1829: "Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean" -- excerpts discovered in THE LADY's MAGAZINE. Full context not given; a whaling vessel. :

Our visitors were particularly animated in their extemporaneous effusions, and ran round the capstan rapidly, to words signifying their hope of soon sharing an allowance of spirits; a luxury of which our prudential regime had deprived them whilst we remained beset, occasionally varying their exclamations with anticipations of the other benefits which they expected to obtain by the deliverance of the vessel from her icy fetters. The limit of the choral expression is always marked by the velocity with which the leader of the band, that is, the individual who first gives out the stave, completes a circle on the deck as he heaves round his bar, and he recommences his chant at the same spot at which it was begun. Hence, when the circumvolutions of the performers are quickened by the yielding of the obstruction to the winding-in of the warp, and the velocity of the turns will not allow the repetition of the canticle first set up, the choir break into a more brief outcry, suited to their movements; and at times, especially when reinforced by an accession of hands, they whirl round the capstan with the utmost swiftness, shrieking, laughing, dancing, and flinging out their heels, like a company of savage revelers capering about some object of convivial worship with extravagant demonstrations of mental and bodily excitement. Such was the glee of our Hialtlandmen, when they found the Leviathan, so long immovable, and consequently unprofitable, now gliding onward with increasing speed toward freedom and the possibility of exercising her whale-capturing functions. No sooner had they got the ship under weigh, and felt her yield to the impulse of their warp, as if she gradually awoke from a deep lethargy, and slowly resumed her suspended faculty of motion, than they began their song, one of them striking up, seemingly with the first idea that entered his imagination, while the others caught at his words, and repeated them to a kind of Chinese melody; the whole at length uniting their voices into one chant, which, though evidently the outpouring of a jovial spirit, had, from its unvaried tone and constant echo of the same expression, a half-wild, half-melancholy effect upon the ear. The foreign accent of the singers contributed not a little to invest their music with a strange imposing character, while the strong contrast between the import of their exclamation and its somewhat dirge-like accompaniment of voice, gave their stave a serio-comic air, well illustrated by the ludicrous display of joyous feelings depicted on the habitually grave and simple countenances of the performers. As the vessel advanced, the momentum she had received from the previous exertions of the capstan-heavers, and the strain upon the warp, yielding readily to the increasing resolution of the men, allowed them to run round with their bars at a more soulstirring pace, and the song grew fast and furious. It had begun with "Yah! yah! here's a full ship for the captain, and a full pannikin for Peytie Pevterson, la— la—lalla—la—leh; but this sentence, after many repetitions, was changed for others of briefer duration and more expressive import, as they coursed after each other with intoxicating rapidity; their steps grew frolicsome, and their voices were elevated till they cracked with energy; they shouted, shrieked, and capered ; and at length they wanted nothmg requisite to make them true representatives of a troop of roaring bacchanalians but old Silenus perched upon the drumhead of the capstan, and some of that good liquor whose very expectation had thus inspired them with frantic mirth.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 10:39 PM

There are several interesting ideas brought in here so far that I want to pursue. I will be traveling soon, however, so please don't mind me if I seem dis-engaged while just adding a boatload of historical references. I am try to get them up while I still have my "bookmarks" handy!

Here is a poem supposed to have been written aboard a frigate during the tail end of the Napoleonic Wars (i.e. pre 1815). (from an 1825 publication.) Though we know this from elsewhere it serves to reinforce the common use of fife (and drum?) rather at the capstan in that era. There is a line that also might have belonged to a chantey.

"Sailor's Song"

When the topsails are set, and the bars are all shipp'd,
And the drums and fifes merrily play,
Round the capstan we dance, till our anchor is tripp'd,
When the Boatswain bawls, "Heave and away!"
To the fife's shrill sound,
While the joke goes round,
We step with a pleasing delight;
Dry nippers clapp'd on,
We soon hear the song,
"Heave, heave, rny brave boys, and in sight." [ETC.]

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 11:08 PM

Continuing with 1820s, here are examples already dredged up by folks on the SF-Sydney thread, which I'd like to file here. We begin with another Afro-Caribbean rowing song.

WEST INDIA SKETCH BOOK, vol 1, by Trelawney Wentworth (Published 1834 or earlier?). It appears to refer to events possibly of 1822 or earlier. They are headed for the island of Saint Thomas.

For some distance they had pulled at an easy rate and in silence, as if made unconscious of the work they were engaged in, by the absorbing interest of the passing scenes, but at length they were roused to activity by the word of preparation for a song having been passed among them, and the negro pulling the oar nearest to us, began a singular prelude which sounded between a grunt and a groan, like a paviour's accompaniment to his labour, or the exordium of a quaker, when " the spirit" begins to move. He became more energetic with each succeeding stroke of the oar, which produced a corresponding ardour, and greater precision in pulling among the other rowers, and when this was effected, another negro, whose countenance bore
the stamp of much covert humour and sagacity, and who appeared to be a sort of improvisatore among them, commenced a lively strain which accorded exactly in time with the motion of pulling, each line of the song accompanying the impetus given to the boat, and the whole crew joining in chorus in the intervals between every stroke of the oars. The subject matter of the song was as discursive and lengthy as Chevy Chase; and it showed an aptitude at invention on the part of the leader, as well as a tolerable acquaintance with the weak side of human nature, on the score of flattery: a small portion of it will suffice.

Hurra, my jolly boys
CH: Fine time o' day
We pull for San Thamas boys
CH: Fine time o' day
Nancy Gibbs and Betsy Braid
CH: Fine time o' day
Massa come fra London town
CH: Fine time o' day ETC
Massa is a hansome man,
             Fine time o' day.
Massa is a dandy-man,
             Fine time o' day.
Him hab de dollar, plenty too,
             Fine time o' day.
Massa lub a pretty girl,
             Fine time o' day.
Him lub 'em much, him lub 'em true,
             Fine time o' day.
Him hunt 'em round de guaba bush,
             Fine time o' day.
Him catch 'em in de cane piece,
             Fine time o' day.

It includes musical notation. Incidentally, Roger Abrahams reprinted the score in his whalers' shanties book, and Finn & Haddie used that, I presume, to work up this interpretation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DwR-ADStXQ

****

Back in the United States, this 1820s rowing reference is courtesy of Lighter on 22 March, 2010. [copy/pasted]

*SNIP*
From James Hall, "Letters from the West: Letter III," The Port Folio, XII (Sept., 1821), p. 446. Judge Hall made a trip down the Ohio from Pittsburgh to Shawneetown, Ill. This comes from a letter about Parkersburg, Virginia:

"To the admirers of the simplicity of Wordsworth, to those who prefer the naked effusions of the heart, to the meretricious ornaments of fancy, I present the following beautiful specimen verbatim, as it flowed from the lips of an Ohio boatman:

"It's oh! as I was a wal-king out,
One morning in July,
I met a maid, who ax'd my trade,—
Says I, 'I'll tell you presently,'
'Miss, I'll tell you presently!'"

Obviously the first stanza of a predecessor of the capstan shanty "New York Girls/ Can't You Dance the Polka?"

When Hall revised his article for book publication in 1828, he added a second stanza:

And it's oh! she was so neat a maid,
That her stockings and her shoes,
She toted in her lilly [sic] white hands
For to keep them from the dews, &c., &c.

So it isn't quite "New York Girls." And that unfortunately is that.

Except that Hall also quotes "the words which the rowers are even now sounding in my ears as they tug at the oar,

Some rows up, but we row down,
All the way to Shawnee town
Pull away - pull away!"

I believe Hall makes the earliest reference to the "Shawneetown" rowing song. Its form and the "pull away" chorus brings it very close to the apparently soon-to-evolve halliard shanties.
*SNIP*

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 11:17 PM

More 1820s...

*SNIP*
"Waldie's select circulating library", Volume 1 (12 March 1833)

It's an account of an Italian visitor to London, observing sailors singing in a pub, circa 1826, I believe. Apparently they were singing this idly or for fun. The impression is made that it was a work song. However, it does seem a bit highly developed for that. And the lyrics say "haul," whereas such a long form suggests to me a task like capstan work. It may have been that this was a hauling song, just not a timed-pull one -- i.e. it was a stamp 'n' go. Quite probably these were navy men, as the sentiments suggest.

Here's the first verse.

British sailors have a knack
      Haul way, yeo ho, boys!
Of pulling down a Frenchman's jack,
    'Gainst any odds, you know, boys
Come three to one, right sure am I
If we can't beat 'em, still we try
To make old England's colours fly,
    Haul away, yeo ho boys

The rest can be found here, pg. 133
*SNIP*

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 11:23 PM

And from Lighter again. The publication date is 1826, but Lighter's biographical info suggest the singer might have learned this Sally Brown "sailors' chant" anytime between 1808 and then.

*SNIP*
Isaac Starr Clason, "Horace in New-York," 1826, p. 46: "The present Manager of the Chatham Garden Theatre, was formerly a Lieutenant in the British Navy. He was afterwards on the boards of the Norwich Company in England. He was principally applauded for singing a common sailors' chant in character, having a sort of 'Sally Brown, oh, ho,' chorus; and requiring the action of pulling a rope, spitting upon the hand, and the accompaniment of a horrid yell. In private life, both Mr. and Mrs. Wallack were much respected."

Clason's use of the word "chant" is almost as significant as "Sally Brown," "pulling a rope," and "a horrid yell." This could be the earliest clear reference to a "sea shanty as we know it," complete with Hugill-style "hitch"!
*SNIP*

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Mar 10 - 11:53 PM

That does it for the references I have, at present, to "shanty sightings" attributed to the 1820s and a few decades earlier. More could turn up if one searches creatively with different criteria. I realize it is not a lot to go on, but I would be interested, at this point, to try to think about the scene only based on the available evidence (there must be a bit more I am overlooking?), and try to block out our later impressions. Pretend the 1830s have not happened yet. What do we have?

1780s-90s:

General references to African and New World Black work-songs, from Mali, Grenada.

1800s:

General references to African-American work-songs and their style, from Martinique;
Rowing songs from Georgia, South Carolina, Guyana, Surinam;
Windlass songs, aboard vessels with sailors incl. from Northumberland and Holland.

1810s:

2 stevedore songs from Jamaica that resemble chanteys;
African-American rowing songs from Antigua, Virgin Islands;
Singing and fife-playing at the capstan on a British war ship.

1820s:

Rowing songs, from Georgia, Virginia, St. Thomas;
A version of "Cheerly Men" for topsail halyards on a brig near Quebec;
Fictional capstan shantying in the Arctic; capstan (?) song of British tars in London; chant for pulling known to an ex-British navy man. [I've also seen another reference to the phrase "British capstan song" from 1825.]

Anything more, strictly from these time periods?
Analysis to come later! ;)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: IanC
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 04:58 AM

Not sure why people don't read the previous threads here (and there are a lot of good ones about shanties). Here's an entry from then 1540s.

Complaynt

;-)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 06:45 AM

Here is some excellent and extended bibliography in AFRICAN-AMERICAN TRADITIONS IN SONG, SERMON, TALE, AND DANCE 1600s - 1920, by Southern & Wright:

   http://books.google.com/books?id=GQC7pBjAsCAC&pg=PA45&dq=Aaron,+The+Light+and+Truth+of+Slavery&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=Aaron%2C%20T

This link gives you the beginning of the section on "The Song", which includes many references to worksongs.

The title of Dena Epstein's book, referred to above is SINFUL TUNES AND SPIRITUALS: BLACK FOLK MUSIC TO THE CIVIL WAR. See Chapter 9.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 09:08 AM

Here's a reference to singing of Black cotton-stowers in Savannah, in a letter from 1818. No detail, just that,

No business being done in Savannah during the summer, or sickly months, it is now all activity; nothing is heard near the water but the negroes' song while stowing away the cotton...

REMARKS MADE DURING A TOUR THROUGH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA...(1817-1819), published 1821, by William Tell Harris, pg. 69

So at least we know that as early as the 1810s, the singing whilst cotton-stowing was going on, albeit nothing of its form.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 09:21 AM

Last post was me, sorry.

John M. -- Thanks for that link to Epstein's book. The section on worksongs that you referenced gives nice context to these late 18th/early 19th sightings of New World Black work-songs. It also provides even earlier references that are very similar. At this point, I don't feel the urge to reproduce any more from these years (unless they have lyrics or great detail.) In fact, they are amazingly consistant (redundant!?). And I don't think I've ever seen the word "extempore" used so many times!

The "extempore" quality was clearly (to my reading) something foreign (or at least very notable) to the observers. I wonder if, in the coming decades, when non-Blacks adopted some of the Black songs/practices, this *aesthetic* was transfered as well. We know there was much *variation* in the chanties shared by later sailors, but was it quite to this degree? Did the process of petrification of verses begin only in the 20th century revivals, or had a sort of standardization already begun as soon as the genre crossed cultures? Something to think about when looking at later 19th century examples of chanties.

John, thanks also for the Southern & Wright volume. I'd found that one earlier, and I've been gradually breaking out the various relevant bits, which I will try to sort by decade as they come.

Gibb

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: mikesamwild
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 09:22 AM

I've just been reading 'Origins of the Popular Style' about popular music by Peter van der Merwe, Oford Clarendon press, 1989


He gives some interesting links to Arab and African worksong and also seesm to think that the middle eastern influence would have spread widely in Europe and Africa and he thinks older Hebridean work songs woud be tied ino that tradition.


So when indentured Irish and Scottish 'servants' met African slaves in the camericas there could have been fertile ground for work songs.

Does anyone remember work songs when Michael Palin was on that Slow Boat from Arabia to India?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 05:25 PM

Gibb,
See my post above. It would appear that the revenue cutters were using 'Cheerly Men' for 'time out of mind' prior to 1834. I interpret that to be at least as far back as 1800.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 05:34 PM

Jonathan,
I just typed out the first paragraph of the MM article, wisely posted it and it vanished. I'll try once more and if it vanishes again I'll have to email it to you.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 05:39 PM

Shanty term origins.
Letter by John Lyman in MM vol 38 (1952) answering the query of 1911.

This query asked for info. on the source of the word and the date of its first use for a working song afloat. the NED's oldest example is 1869 but Capt Whall recalled its use from his first going to sea in 1861. in vol 9 of MM L G Carr laughton traced the development of shantying to the Gulf cotton trade in the period 1830-60, but was forced to accept rather unconvincing connexions with shanty in the sense of a crudely built house or tavern as the origin of the term.


Fingers crossed!!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 05:45 PM

Okay so far, next paragraph.

One of the arguments against deriving shanty as a song from the French 'chanter' is the change in pronunciation; another is the difficulty of explaining how a French word could have crossed the channel as alate as 1830. However, shanty as a houseis from the French 'chantier' (timberyard), via the wood-choppers' cabins in Fr-Canadian logging camps, so there need be no doubts about French 'ch-' becoming English 'sh-'. Mencken, in 'The American Langiage', derives shanty as song from French 'chanter' but calls it 'not American', and the word is not in the 'Dictionary of American English'.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 05:46 PM

Thanks, Steve, that is useful to have it stated with that phrase, vague though it may be. I have been assuming, too, from other secondary sources, that "Cheerly Men" is "older." However, I would like to build up a picture from the ground, too. I am trying to hold both things in play: intuitive sense of how old things might be, and corroborating evidence.

No doubt as I turn to more literature from later decades there will be additional suggestive phrases such as "time out of mind" that add to the "intuitive sense" side. As for the hard evidence side, I am at least pleased so far to the 1825 reference with lyrics to "Cheerly" which e.g. does not appear in Hugill's work.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 05:55 PM

I wonder how that article by Lyman compares with his later one:
"Chantey and Limey"
Source: American Speech, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Oct., 1955), pp. 172-175. It may be more accessible on-line, FWIW

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 06:33 PM

P3
The two principal Gulf cotton ports from 1830 to 60 were New Orleans and Mobile, both settled by the French; both still celebrate Mardi gras. I have not found any accounts of loading at New Orlaeans in this period, but there are two of Mobile that illustrate clearly both the source of the term and the circumstances of its transfer to a working song afloat. the first is from 'Twenty Years at sea, by F S Hill (1893), describing a visit to Mobile in 1844;

'the cotton....was now to be forced into the ship, in the process of stowing by the stevedores by very powerful jackscrews, each operated by a gang of four men, one of them the 'shantier', as he was called, from the French word 'chanteur', a vocalist. this man's sole duty was to lead in the rude songs, largely improvised, to the music of which his companions screwed the bales into their places....
'A really good shantier received larger pay than the other men in the gang, although his work was much less laborious. their songs which always had a lively refrain or chorus, were largely what are now called topical, and often not particularly chaste.'

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 06:55 PM

I'll assume it's still worth giving the full letter even though we have a later article by him.

The second account is by Charles Nordhoff in 'The Merchant Vessel' (1855) of loading at mobile about 1848:
'Five hands compose a gang, four to work the screws, and one to do the headwork.....The foreman begins the song, and at the end of every two lines the screw is forced to make one revolution, thus gaining perhaps two inches. Singing, or 'chanting', as it is called, is an invariable accompaniment to working in cotton, and many of the screw- gangs have an endless collection of songs, rough and uncouth, both in words and melody, but answering well the purpose of making all pull together, and enlivening the heavy toil. the foreman is the 'chanty-man' who sings the song, the gang only joining in the chorus, which comes in at the end of every line, and at the end of which again comes the pull at the screw handles. One song generally suffices to bring home the screw, when a new set is got upon the bale, and a fresh song is commenced.
'The 'chants', as may be supposed, have more rhyme than reason in them. the tunes are generally plain and montonous, as are most of the capstan tunes of sailors....The men who yearly resort to Mobile Bay to screw cotton are, as may be imagined, a rough set. they are mostly English and Irish sailors, who, leaving their vessels here, remain until they have saved a hundred or two dollars, then ship for Liverpool, London, or whatever port may be their favourite, there to spree it all away, and return to work out another supply.'

Thus, in 1844, Hill recognised 'shantier' as a french word; in 1848 Nordhoff found the term as 'chanty-man'; neither used 'shanty' for the song itself, although Nordhoff commented on the similarity of the screw-gang songs to the capstan songs afloat. By 1861 the shanty-man's song had become the shanty. the word 'shantyman' and ;shanty' are ceretainly American in origin, and belong in the 'Dictionary of American English'.                         JOHN LYMAN

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 07:05 PM

Thanks, Steve. The article by Lyman that Gibb cites is pretty well known (well, to some people). Presumably it incorporates some later thoughts.

So far as it relates to "shanty/ chantey," Lyman's later article chiefly reports his discovery of the word "chantey-man" in Nordhoff. He offers only two bits of evidence to support a French derivation. First, "chantey-men" were known to Nordhoff in N.O. at the same time as the hoosiers were singing their own chants. (N.O. makes a French influence conceivable.) Second, Frederick S. Hill in 1893 recalls that fifty years earlier, in Mobile, the singing cotton-screwers were led by a man they called the "shantier," which Hill derives from

It is possibly significant that the first English appearance of "shanty/ chantey" is in the apparent compound "chantey-man" rather than standing by itself, but with so little evidence available it may mean nothing.

It would be much more impressive if there existed a French word in use in N.O. or the Gulf or Caribbean area that sounded something like "chanteyman" or "chantey gang" and also meant something vaguely related or relatable. In that case, "chantey" could have been a back formation from, say, "chanteyman." But there seem to be no candidates.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 07:25 PM

Damn! That got away from me in the middle of an important sentence! While I was revising it too!

Hill recalls that in 1843 the soloist among cotton-screwers was called the "shantier," which he derives "from the French word chanteur, a vocalist."

The more I think about this, the better it sounds. (Disregard the final paragraph of my last post as needlessly hypothetical.) *If* Hill is right about "shantier" in Mobile in 1843, and *if* the word "shantier" came from N.O. (I don't know how many French speakers were screwing cotton in Mobile in the 1840s - presumably very few), an anglicization of "chanteur" might be the source.

In that case, "shanty" would be a back formation from "shantier," on the assumption that a "shantier" was one who "shanties" and that the special songs he sings are properly called "shanties."

That would neatly explain the troublesome sound change from "ch" to "sh," and would replace the improbable idea that English-speaking seamen would have mysteriously adopted a French command to "Chantez!"

Lyman doesn't explicitly endorse the "chanteur" etymology, which is why I missed it the first time through. But yes, I think "shanty" could have come from "chanteur" through "shantier." (Hill seems to be the only writer to use "shantier," but since "chanteur" is indeed French for a male singer, the etymology of to "shanty," etc., is quite plausible.)

Case closed? It's tempting to say so.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 07:39 PM

Case NOT closed in my books. :)

But I don't wish to get into it just now, ha ha!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 10:08 PM

Stan Hugill, who had taken stock as well of his shanty-collecting predecessors, too, had turned up no shipboard work-song accounts from the 18th century. However by the beginning of the 18th century, we might suppose sailing vessels with European crews were singing songs at the capstan, though this work was also done to fife-playing. The earliest references I have seen to that is the supposedly 1810s mention of the phrase "Heave, heave, my brave boys, and in sight," from the poem, "Sailors' Song." However, work at the spoke windlass to a song is referenced even earlier, 1803-ish, in which the European crews "fixing their bars therein, give a sudden jerk at the same instant; in which movement they are regulated by a sort of Song pronounced by one of the number."

Actually "singing" at halliards may have been less frequent. Elsewise it was just shouting, chanting, or otherwise too "primitive" to inspire mention. The first I am seeing may well be the "Cheerly" reference from Quebec, 1825. I also put stock in the claim from the UNITED SERVICES MAGAZINE, 1834, piece mentioned by Steve, which claims "Cheerly Men" was a hauling song in use for some time. Rather than assume that this means there was a repertoire of "halliard shanties" (plural(, I am inclined to believe that "Cheerly" was one of only very few chants that were standard material for this operation, e.g. aboard war ships of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars era. Let us not assume that "halyard shanties" as a class necessarily even existed yet. There may have only been "sing outs," for hand-over-hand hauling, or fife and drum playing for the stamp and go maneuver.

My contention is that "halyard chanties" constituted a major, new class of work-song. It was one that added tons of repertoire to shipboard worksongs AND, I think, probably inspired the paradigm by which one was expected to customarilly sing whilst doing any work aboard ship -- i.e. "chanties." I think this particular kind of shanty, which is clearly distinct from capstan songs and perhaps even from the "barely removed from a sing-out" style of "Cheerly Men," was introduced concurrently with the term "chanty" and, as I said, with this new notion of songs as an essential "tool" of sailing. With that paradigm in place, the repertoire of songs continued to grow until it flattened out and, finally, shanties were killed by steam.

So while they were preceded by the distinctly different heaving songs of capstan and windless, and, I believe presently, also distinct from the few standardized hauling chants, the halyard chanties (which I like to call "chanties, proper")came about later. The aim here is to discover when / how/ from where they came about. The sense it that the time period was early 19th century, so I am trying to steer this course from he early end of that.

So far, it is African Diaspora rowing songs that are shaping up as closest progenitors to "chanties, proper" in this time period and geographic setting. However, because of my prejudices, I may be turning up more links to those.

If anyone has any other references from this time period, 1800s-1820s, from a likely geographic area, that could suggest *immediate* progenitors to the new halliard chanties, I would love to see them. So far, with respect to pulling chanties from this period, I only see definite references to "Cheerly Men" and to the "Sally Brown, oh, ho." In my opinion at this point, those may not represent the classic halyard chanty forms that were to emerge. According to another interpretation, they may be among the very earliest, which were to develop as time went on. (As I stated earlier, I tend to think that at this point in history, the new halyard chanty form did not so much evolve as it was taken over wholesale from another work activity. And for that reason, I don't feel a need for continuity between "Cheerly" and the later songs.) Incidentally, "Cheerly" and "Sally Brown" -- considering that we've no basis to assume the Sally Brown of this reference was the latter-day chanty -- may be closely related. "Cheerly" (along with "Haul Her Away," "Nancy Fanana" etc) mentions nam

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 10:13 PM

cont...

...women's names as per its custom. It could have been "O Sally Brown, oh oh, CHEERLY MAN!" "Oh Polly Walker oh oh, CHEERLY MAN!"

Let's move on to the 1830s and see how the picture evolves. Again, I don't think we can say for sure that the new halliard shanties were there yet (i.e. as per my criteria). We are yet in the realm of interpretation, where common sense suggests that something must have been around "a while" before it is mentioned in literature. Still, let's see what the literature has to say...with respect to 1830s now.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 12:05 AM

errata:

"However by the beginning of the **19th** century, we might suppose sailing vessels with European crews were singing songs at the capstan..."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 08:20 AM

Here is a reference to a rowing song from Fanny Kemble's JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE ON A GEORGIA PLANTATION IN 1838-1839:

http://books.google.com/books?id=w34FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA128&dq=%22Jenny+gone+away&cd=3#v=onepage&q=%22Jenny%20gone%20away&f=false

The setting is a boat trip across the Altamaha River from the Georgia coast to the St. Simon's island. Kemble gives a detailed description of the boat, the process of rowing and of the singing, and offers these words:

"Jenny shake her toe at me,
   Jenny gone away;
Jenny shake her toe at me,
   Jenny gone away.
Hurrah! Miss Susy, oh!
   Jenny gone away;
Hurrah! Miss Susy, oh!
   Jenny gone away."

A bit further on she quotes a fragment from another song:

   "Fare you well, and good-by, oh, oh!
   I'm gin' away to leave you, oh, oh!"

The "Jenny gone away" reminds me of the song "Ginny's Gone to Ohio". Here is another reference to the "Jenny" song from a little later (sorry to jump the gun a bit) in 1843, on the occasion of a corn-shucking. Here you have a good description of a "corn-shucking shantyman"! (my label) :

http://books.google.com/books?id=cYAAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA244&dq=Jenny+gone+away&cd=6#v=onepage&q=Jenny%20gone%20away&f=false

And here's a footnote about the reference to Jenny "shaking her toe":

http://books.google.com/books?id=bFLiWrJo5_MC&pg=PA261&dq=Jenny+gone+away&lr=&cd=11#v=onepage&q=Jenny%20gone%20away&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 09:15 AM

Thanks, John M., for starting off the 1830s with such an appropriate quote. It connects nicely to Basil Hall's reference to rowing in the same part of Georgia from 1828. And now we've lyrics -- plus a connection to the similarly-paradigmed (my notion) corn-shucking.

I am going to file in another rowing reference from the 1830s.

This is the one from TRANSATLANTIC SKETCHES (1833) by JE Alexander, in which a river trip in Guiana in 1831 is described )(cf. Pinckard's 1790s observation, above). There is a rowing song which is a variation of what is now known as "The Sailor Likes His Bottle O".

    De bottley oh ! de bottley oh !
    De neger like the bottley oh !
Right early in the marning, de neger like the bottley oh !
    A bottle o'rum, loaf a bread,
    Make de neger dandy oh!
Right early in de marning, de neger like de bottley oh !

The passage seems to also refer by title to "Velly well, yankee, velly well oh" , which may be the "Bear Away Yankee," which Abrahams
collected in the Caribbean in the 1960s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 12:30 PM

Also from the early 30s is this reference:

"Waldie's Select Circulating Library," II (Dec.
24,1833), p. 581:

"The pirates pulled merrily for their schooner, singing in chorus the
well known West Indian canoe song:

"The captain's gone ashore;
The mate has got the key;
Hurrah! my jolly boys,-
'Tis grog time o' day!"

This "Grog Time of Day" is the song sung by the Jamaican stevedores in 1811. John M. has just demonstrated an instance of the same work-song being used for both rowing and corn-shucking. Here, there is something important, I think: a song being used for rowing and also for loading cargo. The next step in the "chain" may have been using such a song aboard ships.

In the 1811 Jamaica case, the capstan in vaguely alluded to. However, I am unclear why the stevedores would be using a capstan to load cargo. I can imagine it working, but, unless it was extremely heavy, that would seem less efficient than hauling the cargo to a height, in halyards fashion. In point of fact, another reference I've seen (it may come later) talks about loading in this hauling/hoisting fashion. And, even better, Lydia Parrish has a photo of chantey-singing stevedores from her Georgia Sea Islands community performing such an action, just as one would haul halyards on a ship.

It would be "nice" to imagine the 1811 stevedores were also doing that when singing "Grog Time", as it would establish a firmer link between the idea of a rowing action and a halyard-hauling action. However, I'm not sure that can be established. If the stevedores were singing "Grog Time" at the capstan, then it would not indicate any necessary or special "timed action" section to the song that helped it to jump from one similar task to another. No, it would just be a song, perhaps especially associated with work among West Indians, and with a steady rhythm to be sure, but not necessarilly bound to specific jobs. Of course, as has been noted, a song with special "timed points" is nonetheless easily adapted to capstan, regardless.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 01:41 PM

Would the French, Metis, Iriquois, Hawaiian etc. voyageurs made any contribution?

What about the Irish slaves in Jamaica in 1600s? Intermarried and sadly purposly bred with other slaves. But music was supposed to have merged back then. mg

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 04:12 PM

'In the 1811 Jamaica case, the capstan is vaguely alluded to'
How vaguely? Was the word 'capstan' used? Could the writer be confusing it with some sort of windlass, crab winch or even a type of cotton screw?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 05:23 PM

Thanks, Steve, I was intending to revisit the passage to see what had struck me as unclear. I don't have the text with me, so I am entering here the passage as cited in Hugill's SfSS:

Our seamen having left the ship, the harbour work was performed by a gang of Negroes. These men will work the whole day at the capstan under a scorching sun with almost no intermission. They beguiled the time by one of them singing one line of an English song, or a prose sentence at the end of which all the rest join in a short chorus. The sentences which prevail with the gang we had aboard were as follows...

It can be fairly assumed that their songs were sung at the capstan, however it does not say explicitly. (For example, they may have used a capstan but along with other tools, too.) To be honest, I would assume the men working working the cargo by means of a capstan and whilst singing the songs. My only hang-up is the dissonance between the use of capstan here and what seems like a more sensible use of simple hauling on a rope as cited in similar cases (e.g. the excellent photo in Parrish's book). The cargo must have been very heavy, as for example in the sketch of loading timber through the bow-port, by capstan, that appears in Hugill's book. But I can't really say; can only accept with slight disappointment :) that, yes, it was a capstan they were using!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 05:31 PM

Caroline Gillman, in her "Preface" to RECOLLECTIONS OF A SOUTHERN MATRON (1852) says,

"The "SOUTHERN MATRON" was penned in the same spirit, and with the same object, as the "New England Housekeeper" - to present as exact a picture as possible of local habits and manners. Every part, except the "love passages," is founded in events of actual occurrence."   Charleston, S.C., 1837 (p. iii)

On page 76, she gives an account of a boat trip and the singing of a rowing song called "Hi de good boat Neely", with three verses:

"Hi de good boat Neely?
She row bery fast, Niss Neely!
An't no boat like a' Miss Neely,
        Ho yoi'!

Who gawing to row wid Miss Neely?
Can't catch a' dis boat Neely -
Nobody show he face wid Neely,
        Ho, yoi?

Maybe Maus Lewis take de oar for Neely,
Bery handsom boat Miss Neely!
Maus Lewis nice captain for Neely,
        Ho, yoi!

Here is the link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=1bJOTh_yVBcC&pg=PA76&dq=Hi+de+good+boat+Neely&cd=4#v=onepage&q=Hi%20de%20good%20boat%20Neely&f=

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 06:41 PM

Using a capstan and some sort of jib-boom like a crane with heavy cargo would certainly make sense. If it was just the men pulling on the rope through pulley blocks it could slip back. On the other hand it just says 'harbour work' which could easily mean warping large vessels around the docks from one berth to another.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 07:27 PM

A contemporaneous reference to rowing song style in Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1834.

"But from each and all proceeded the rower's song. No negro spins his canoe through the water without a melody, and, if he be not alone, without the long wild chorus. All sing; and on the rivers of these glowing climes, where all is genial and laughing, as the song breaks upon his ear, the traveller forgets to be a critic. The voices may be harsh when near, the words uncouth, the artists terrible to look upon, the music startling from contempt of all artificial rule ; but, as the simple cadence comes floating over the water, and the strong chorus is mellowed by distance, when the unities of time and place are remembered, there is something inexpressibly affecting in the strange song; at least I found it so.

...

The words of these songs are generally extempore. My captain interpreted several for me. The prevailing subjects were love and irony; occasionally, as will be seen in the sequel, revenge and war formed the theme. A stanza is sung in a loud sostenuto recitative by a single voice ; and at its conclusion the whole crew rush into a stormy chorus, at the same instant springing at their oars with renewed vigour. Several of their effusions amused themselves highly; and, as the extempore verse concluded with some pungent and unexpected idea, shouts of laughter delayed their chorus."

THE WHITE MAN'S GRAVE (1836), by FH Rankin.pp199-201.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 07:40 PM

A much later, auxiliary reference to the last. Here the foreign observer is on the Gabon River. RH Milligan writes this in THE JUNGLE FOLK OF AFRICA, 1908.

Their singing, like their instrumental music, has not much "tune" to it, but there is always a stirring rhythm and a certain weird and touching quality, which impressed me the more because I could never quite understand it,—the same elusive charm that characterizes the singing of the negroes of the Southern States. I do not refer to the negro songs composed by white men, which are entirely different, but the melodies that the negro sings at his work. The native songs are of the nature of chants, and turn upon several notes of a minor scale. But it is not quite our minor scale. There is one prominent and characteristic note, which I confess defied me, though it may have been a minor third slightly flat. I found it very difficult to reduce their songs to musical notation.

He seems to refer to "blue" notes. Also raises the issue of what much earlier observers meant when they described "plaintive minor melodies" -- and the issue of interpreting their musical notations nowadays.

The words of most of the songs are improvised by the leading voice, and have a regular refrain in which all join. But if they wish to sing in chorus, as in their dance-songs, any words will serve the purpose and the same sentence may be repeated for an hour. "Our old cow she crossed the road " were luminous with propriety and sentiment in comparison with the words that they will sometimes sing in endless repetition. " The leopard caught the monkey's tail," "The roots grow underneath the ground," are samples of their songs. Their canoesongs I like best of all. The rhythm is appropriate and one almost hears the sound of the paddles. They sing nearly all the time as they use the paddle or the oar, and on a long journey they say it makes the hard work easier. If they should take a white man on a journey and, not being his regular workmen, should expect a "dash"—a fee, or present, in African vernacular—the leading voice will sing the white man's praises on the journey, alluding in particular to his benevolence, while the others all respond, seeking thus by barefaced flattery 'and good-natured importunity to shame the meanness out of him.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 07:57 PM

Another 1830s rowing song. I am taking the liberty of copying this from Lighter's post elsewhere on Mudcat.

*SNIP*

Not quite "Sally Brown," but sung by slave boatmen while rowing on the
Cape Fear River in North Carolina and written down (with a very simple
tune) in 1830. From David S. Cecelski, "The Waterman's Song" (2001):

Sally was a fine girl, ho! Sally, ho!
Sally was a fine girl, ho! Sally, ho!

The "collector," Moses A. Curtis, noted: "repeated ad infinitum and
accompanied by a trumpet obligato by the helmsman."

*SNIP*

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 08:20 PM

From the Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, pub. 1856. The author relates a scene from 1777 (!) in South Carolina.

As evening closed in, we embarked in a good ferry-boat, manned by four jolly, well-fed negroes, to cross Winyaw Bay, a distance of four miles. The evening was serene, the stars shone brightly, and the poor fellows amused us, the whole way, by singing their plaintive African songs, in cadence with the oars. We reached Georgetown in the evening.

"plaintive" again :)

Anyway, this is interesting to note how at the earlier date they were "African" songs (presumably not in English language?). See upthread for Pinckard's 1790s expedition and the rowing song chorus that had seemingly African-dialect words mixed with English. Later it is all English. What I'm hoping to establish is the idea that the style of rowing songs current in parts of West Africa was maintained among African-American rowers in the New World. All this is by way of setting up ONE ASPECT of the work-song context from which "chanties" may have emerged: distinctly African-styled practice of singing while rowing. This is not to say that the melodies, for example, were necessarily maintained "from Africa," but that the paradigm and form persisted.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 08:40 PM

Interesting that although the writers like to use words like "plaintive," none seems to choose the words "minor" (or even "modal"). Once again, this may be an artifact of too few accounts, but it is certainly more consistent with Gibb's idea that "blue" notes were used rather than not. If some later shanty tunes are considered (I'm thinking of one or two of the "Sally Brown" tunes), the early writers could have meant "modal," but my guess is that musical education in the early 19th C. at least mentioned that modes existed or "used to" exist. Maybe a musicologist knows more about that likelihood.

If we had a hundred characterizations instead of just a handful, we might be able to draw a sounder conclusion.

OTOH, if the "blues" scale really is an African importation (is it for sure?), it would be perverse of African-descended rowers not to use it two hundred years ago.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 08:55 PM

Those are my rowing songs for 1830s. Now, some firemen's songs from that decade. I am not sure of the exact nature of work of the (mainly Black) "firemen" on river steamboats. Were they shoveling in coal, as on a locomotive? Was it logs they threw into a furnace, down below? More info, please! Whatever the case, the environment evokes the phrase, "Fire down below."

THE RAMBLER IN NORTH AMERICA, 1832-1833, Vol 2., by CJ Latrobe, 1835.

Of a steamboat on the Ohio River, mentions "the wild song of the negro fire-men." (pg 281).

Next, a dramatic scene in BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY, vol 4, New York, Sept. 1839,
taking place in a steamboat. Here's the song.

"THE STOKER'S CHAUNT.
The ebben tide ib floating past,
Fire down below!
The arrival time ib coming fast.
Fire down below!
Racoon cry in de maple tree,
Fire down below!
The wood ib on fire, and the fire a sea,
Fire down below!
Oo a oo oh ! fire down below!"

A chaunty? It appears to be related to a "fire down below" chantey that will continue to appear in the 19th century. Here is a rendition of the chantey as culled by Hugill, if one would like to fit the above lyrics to the framework:

The Sailor Fireman

Incidentally, Hugill cited it as a possible source for the melody to the chantey "Sacramento."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 09:06 PM

Lighter, the SERVICE AFLOAT reference uses "minor." I swear there are more, but I don't want to look for them, right now. In any case, I have been reading "minor" as some interpretation of listeners who aren't sure where to "file" the blue notes. They are between "major" and "minor," and I figure that, like when one does when he hears a phoneme contrast that doesn't exist in his own language, he files it as one with which he is familiar. I don't think 19th century writers had a clue how to file in "blue notes." The author from 1908, above, shows the beginnings of at least recognizing something that is to be considered on its own. If memory serves, Arnold, in Bullen's collection of 1914, also begins to take "note" of this tonality!

"Plaintive" suggests "minor" to me, even if they are not using the latter word. And I find that at odds with the fact that very few chanties as they have come down to us today are in minor modes. One possible explanation is that, again writers did not have a category for blue notes, and they just notated the songs as if they were in major modes (I realize this contradicts what I just said about "filing as minor," but I think there are different issues between notating and the lay-observers descriptions.) Or, possibly, when such songs were adopted by White sailors, the "blue note" tonality was not maintained; they became tunes in major.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 09:32 PM

Another one of my posts didn't make it through the ether. To sum it up:

"Minor" is more likely to entail "plaintive" than "plaintive" is to entail "minor." "Plaintive," at least as I understand it, could cover minor, modal, and (hypothetically) blusey.

Guesswork: an early 19th C. writer hearing a blues scale and perceiving it as systematic rather than accidental (i.e., sung by someone with a tin ear) would have used words like "weird," "wild," or "savage" to describe it. Otherwise the words would be more like "out of tune," "off-pitch," "flat," "discordant," etc. ISTR "wild" being used in at least one description, though I suppose it could just as easily refer to timing as to tonality.

How far back does the blues scale go? Did it originate in Africa before 1800? Or do we know?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 09:42 PM

Mention of the singing of cotton-stowers/screwers occured in Savannah the 20s, above. Now in the 30s, we get an actual lyric.

John M.'s intro:

*snip*

And here is another early reference, that can be dated as December
31,1838. Phillip Henry Gosse, in his LETTERS FROM ALABAMA (1859), also
mentions the cotton-screwing shanty, "Fire the ringo" (page 305-306,
at the very end of his book):

*snip*

On the Alabama River, here is the passage:

I have been amused by observing the crew stowing the cargo. After what I said of the way in which the cotton is screwed into the bales, you would suppose that these were incapable of further compression. But it is not so. When the stowed bales in the hold are in contact with the upper deck, another layer has to be forced in. This is effected, bale by bale, by powerful jack-screws, worked by four men. When you see the end of the bale set against a crevice, into which you could scarcely push a thin board, you think it impossible that it can ever get in; and, indeed, the operation is very slow, but the screw is continually turned, and the bale does gradually insinuate itself.

The men keep the most perfect time by means of their songs. These ditties, though nearly meaningless, have much music in them, and as all join in the perpetually recurring chorus, a rough harmony is produced, by no means unpleasing. I think the leader improvises the words, of which the following is a specimen; he singing one line alone, and the whole then giving the chorus, which is repeated without change at every line, till the general chorus concludes the stanza:—

"I think I hear the black cock say,
    Fire the ringo, fire away !
They shot so hard, I could not stay;
    Fire the ringo ! fire away !
So I spread my wings, and flew away;
    Fire the ringo ! &c.
I took my flight and ran away ;
    Fire, &c.
All the way to Canaday;
    Fire, &c.
To Canaday, to Canaday,
    Fire, &c.
All the way to Canaday.
    Ringo ! ringo ! blaze away!
   Fire the ringo ! fire away!"

Sometimes the poet varied the subject by substituting political for zoological allusions. The victory over the British at New Orleans — that favourite theme with all Americans—was chosen. Thus:—

" Gin'ral Jackson gain'd the day ;
   Fire the ringo, &c.
At New Orleans he won the day;
    Fire the ringo, fire away!"

I wonder about the possible relationship between the cotton-screwing chants and the steamboat stoker's "chaunt" -- the chorus of "FIRE", on the proper beat, being the connecting feature.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 09:45 PM

re: Blues scale

Sorry, I don't know. I am sure someone had written about its "history." My hunch is that that history would have been established in exactly the way you and I are doing -- i.e., in the absence of recordings and adequate notations, by going by the descriptions of observers.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 10:07 PM

It looks like the current learned opinion is that
"blues scale(s)" are an African-American innovation. Acc. to James Lincoln Collier in the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed.:

"[West African music] used scales roughly similar to European ones, but they tended to be pentatonic and seem to have avoided half-steps, either by skipping over them or by the raising or lowering of one of the pitches to widen the interval; pitches were frequently inexact by the standards of European music....

"[J]ust as some African tribal musicians seem to have avoided half-steps, so the slaves tended to adjust the diatonic scale to similar effect by lowering the third, seventh, and sometimes fifth scale degrees microtonally, thereby creating the so-called blue note...."

I assume this means that nobody found blue notes in Africa before the advent of commercial blues-playing radio. That would have been well into the anthropologically sophisticated 20th C., so if nobody noticed them it would be strong, though not conclusive, evidence for an American origin.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 10:52 PM

So much for rowing, cotton stowing, and firemen's songs of the 1830s (i.e. that I've turned up so far). Now to the shipboard work-songs attributed to that time.

These references are well know, so I will try to be brief.

Here is John M.'s intro to Marryat's text

*snip

April 3, 1837, the ship "Quebec" hoisted her anchor
in the harbor at Portmouth and sailed to New York. At the [windlass] the
crew sang "Sally Brown", according to an eye-witness, Captain Marryat,
a passenger, who recorded the words and the ongoing dialog in his book
A DIARY IN AMERICA, p.38-44.

*snip*

The crew were working at a pump windlass. Dobinson's invention had just been patented in 1832!

patent

I don't know if that was just an "improvement" or if it was *the* new pump style windlass altogether; from Marryat's surprise, it sounds like the latter. The earlier spoke windlass, pictured in the Moby Dick clip up-thread, is the one that required removing and replacing of handspikes into slots after each turn. The pump windlass chanteys tend to be akin to halyard chanties.

Here's the extended passage:

//
10, A. M.—" All hands up anchor." I was repeating to myself some of the stanzas of Mrs. Norton's " Here's a Health to the Outward-bound," when I cast my eyes forward I could not imagine what the seamen were about; they appeared to be pumping, instead of heaving, at the windlass. I forced my way through the heterogeneous mixture of human beings, animals, and baggage which crowded the decks, and discovered that they were working a patent windlass, by Dobbinson—a very ingenious and superior invention. The seamen, as usual, lightened their labour with the song and chorus, forbidden by the etiquette of a man-of-war. The one they sung was peculiarly musical, although not refined ; and the chorus of "Oh! Sally Brown," was given with great emphasis by the whole crew between every line of the song, sung by an athletic young third mate. I took my seat on the knight-heads—turned my face aft— looked and listened.

" Heave away there, forward."
" Aye, aye, sir."
" ' Sally Brown—oh! my dear Sally."' (Single voice),
" ' Oh ! Sally Brown.'" (Chorus)
" ' Sally Brown, of Buble Al-ly.'" (Single voice).
" ' Oh ! Sal-ly Brown.'" (Chorus).
" Avast heaving there; send all aft to clear the boat."
" Aye, aye, sir. Where are we to stow these casks, Mr. Fisher ?"
" Stow them ! Heaven knows ; get them in, at all events."
" Captain H.! Captain H. ! there's my piano still on deck; it will be quite spoiled—indeed it will."
" Don't be alarmed, ma'am ; as soon as we're under weigh we'll hoist the cow up, and get the piano down."
" What! under the cow? "
" No, ma'am; but the cow's over the hatchway."
" Now, then, my lads, forward to the windlass."
" ' I went to town to get some toddy-' "
"' Oh! Sally Brown."
" ' T'wasn't fit for any body.' "
" ' Oh ! Sally Brown.' "—
" Out there, and clear away the jib."
" Aye, aye, sir."
" Mr. Fisher, how much cable is there out ?"
" Plenty yet, sir.—Heave away, my lads.'"
"' Sally is a bright mulattar.'"
" ' Oh ! Sally Brown.' "
" ' Pretty girl, but can't get at her.' "
" ' Oh! '"—
" Avast heaving; send the men aft to whip the ladies in.—Now, miss, only sit down and don't be afraid, and you'll be in, in no time.— Whip away, my lads, handsomely ; steady her -with the guy; lower away.—There, miss, now you're safely landed."
" Landed am I ? I thought I was shipped.«' " Very good, indeed—very good, miss ; you'll make an excellent sailor, I see."
" I should make a better sailor's wife, I expect, Captain H."
"Excellent! Allow me to hand you aft; you'll excuse me.—Forward now, my men ; heave away !"
" ' Seven years I courted Sally.'"
" ' Oh! Sally Brown.'"
" ' Seven more of shilley-shally.'"
"'Oh! Sally Brown.'"
" ' She won't wed "—
" Avast heaving. Up there, and loose the topsails ; stretch along the topsail-sheets.—Upon my soul, half these children will be killed.— Whose child are you ?"
" I—don't—know."
" Go and find out, that's a dear.—Let fall ; sheet home; belay starboard sheet; clap on the larboard; belay all that.—Now, then, Mr. Fisher."
" Aye, aye, sir.—Heave away, my lads."
" ' She won't wed a Yankee sailor.'"
"'Oh! Sally Brown.'"
For she's in love with the nigger tailor."_
"'Oh! Sally Brown.'"—
" Heave away, my men ; heave, and in sight. Hurrah ! my lads."
" ' Sally Brown—oh ! my dear Sally !'"
"' Oh! Sally Brown!'"
" ' Sally Brown, of Buble Alley.'"
" 'Oh! Sally Brown."'
" ' Sally has a cross old granny.'"
" Oh ! ' "—
" Heave and fall—jib-halyards—hoist away." " Oh! dear—oh! dear." " The clumsy brute has half-killed the girl! —Don't cry, my dear.''...

//

Note that this "Sally Brown" has the simple call-response-call-response form of a halyard chantey. No "chorus" was needed, though what I call a "mock chorus" (having the same structure as the rest of the song) could be there for this job (it's not in this case).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 11:10 PM

The famous (i.e. due to being cited by Doerflinger as his earliest chantey reference) passage in THE QUID (1832), containing observations of a passenger in an East India Company ship, is as follows:

//

All who have been on board ship must recollect heaving at the capstan. It is one of the many soul-stirring scenes that occur on board when all hands are turned up; the motley group that man the bars, the fiddler stuck in a corner, the captain on the poop encouraging the men to those desperate efforts that seem, to the novice, an attempt at pulling up the rocks by the root. It's a time of equality; idlers, stewards and servants, barbers and sweepers, cooks' mates and cooks-mate's ministers, doctors' mates, and loblolly boys; every man runs the same road, and hard and impenetrable is that soul that does not chime in with the old ditties, "Pull away now, my Nancy, O!" and the long "Oh!" that precedes the more musical strain of

"Oh her love is a sailor,
His name is Jemmy Taylor,
He's gone in a whaler,
To the Greenland sea:"

or

"Oh! if I had her,
Eh then if I had her,
Oh! how I could love her,
Black although she be."

//

The fiddle player is notable. The singing appears to be "for fun."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: doc.tom
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 07:24 AM

Apropos describing scales:
An untrained ear would not have had an appropriate language to describe out-of-the-ordinary scales - modal, blue, un-tempered or variable - their ear would only have understood the 'normal' contemporary major/minor 'classical' tempered structures which transfered into the likes of Santy Anna, Dixie, etc. Even trained musicians had problems - one classically trained musician reportedly said to Cecil Sharp "I simply do not believe that a peasant singer can sing in the Dorian mode when most musicians don't even know what it is." (!)
TomB

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 08:46 AM

Here is a selection of cotton loading and boat rowing songs (I think), with music, that I haven't come across before now. It's in a piece from 1918, in a larger collection called JAZZ IN PRINT (1856-1929): AN ANTHOLOGY OF SELECTED EARLY READINGS IN JAZZ, by Karl Koenig (2002). The songs seem earlier.

http://books.google.com/books?id=sol334hPuRoC&pg=PA125&dq=cotton+loading+songs&lr=&cd=25#v=onepage&q=cotton%20loading%20songs&f=

It does introduce a genre of songs we haven't really looked at but which are also "call/response" songs, namely religious songs. The author of this article says, "the songs the Negro seems to prefer while working are the religious ones."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 11:58 AM

I'm familiar with the comment, but I believe that the idea that trained musicians were unfamiliar with modal scales in Sharp's day is nonsense. Maybe the commentator meant that many couldn't identify them by name if asked.

My understanding is that trained musicians knew exactly what "modal" meant and more or less what the scales sounded like from the study of music history, but thought they were "primitive" and thus largely unsuitable for "modern" music.

But the question is relatively moot. There are few modal shanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 12:35 PM

Also, another word they could easily have used for hypothetically modal or bluesy melodies was "indescribable."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: mikesamwild
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 03:08 PM

A lot of trad tunes that went into odd notes were often called 'Chinese' for similar reasons

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 03:39 PM

Gibb,
Re the Doerflinger reference, I think the use of the phrase 'old ditties' is descriptive enough. I think Doerflinger was clutching at straws. I don't think the East India Company would have been your average merchant vessel, more like RN, being described complete with fiddler. No mention of any sort of worksong!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: shipcmo
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 04:33 PM

Gibb,
Think there is any connection between: here is another early reference, that can be dated as December 31,1838. Phillip Henry Gosse, in his LETTERS FROM ALABAMA (1859), also mentions the cotton-screwing shanty, "Fire the ringo" (page 305-306,at the very end of his book):
and: "Fire Maringo"?
Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Geo

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 04:36 PM

Here is an account from 1852 of a voyage from San Francisco to New York by way of Panama and Jamaica. While in Jamaica, the ship took on a load of coal in Kingston. There is a description of about 50 men and women carrying coal in tubs on their heads and marching back and forth to load the ship and singing "an old plantation song" the whole time. It is the last paragraph just above the heading "Again on the deep":

http://cdnc.ucr.edu/newsucr/cgi-bin/newsucr?a=d&cl=search&d=SDU18921020.2.28&srpos=11&e=-------en-logical-20--1-byDA---capstan+s

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 05:50 PM

Here are a few references to rowing songs down in Brazil somewhat in the general time frame. I've not had a chance to follow up on any of them.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Om1tx6ZR0hYC&pg=PA49&dq=rowing+songs+1840s&cd=5#v=onepage&q=rowing%20songs%201840s&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 07:44 PM

To finish out what I have for the 1830s, there is the best known source of all, RH Dana's TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST.

Dana shipped as a common sailor in the brig PILGRIM, Aug 1834-Sept1836.

In the various editions of his text, 1840, he mentioned "sailor's songs."

There is a lengthy thread dedicated to Dana's songs HERE

Dana mentioned several songs by name, and also made reference to work-singing generally.

Here are passages.

First is to the elementary "sing-outs:

The wind was whistling through the rigging, loose ropes flying about; loud and, to me, unintelligible orders constantly given and rapidly executed, and the sailors "singing out" at the ropes in their hoarse and peculiar strains.

The following is frustrating because it does not clearly distinguish (for my taste, at least) the songs for capstan versus the ones for hoisting yards. The reference to "falls," one would assume, is to halyards and not just lighter lines that could be handled with "sing outs." This is important because, up to this point, there are actually few references to singing songs at halliards. Dana groups all the songs (without specifying use) under a certain form, a sort of call and response. This is vague because capstan chanties as we know them today do often have that quality, though they are then followed by a grand chorus (not mentioned by Dana). Because he does not mention it does not mean it was not there and, indeed, the "old ditties" from the THE QUID (thanks, Steve) and earlier are not what one would usually call a call and response type song (i.e. though they may have a soloist followed by chorus). Also, the short "sweating up" chants could also fall under Dana's description, and they are different from later halliard chanties. My opinion is that, given what else we know from the time period, the halliard songs he would have been describing were like "Cheerly Man". A single pull coincides with the chorus' "response," and the form of the "verses" does not have the sane verse form that most halliard chanties have. It sounds to me like Dana is still describing the old-style capstan songs and an old-ER kind of song for halliards, however, that is my interpretation only. Again, it is frustrating because, for example, he names a song with "heave" in the title, but he refers to pulling. Perhaps this is not just negligence; maybe the functions of the songs did not become so clearly demarcated yet. Here's the passage:

The sailor's songs for capstans and falls are of a peculiar kind, having a chorus at the end of each line. The burden is usually sung, by one alone, and, at the chorus, all hands join in,—and the louder the noise, the better. With us, the chorus seemed almost to raise the decks of the ship, and might be heard at a great distance, ashore. A song is as necessary to sailors as the drum and fife to a soldier. They can't pull in time, or pull with a will, without it. Many a time, when a thing goes heavy, with one fellow yo-ho-ing, a lively song, like "Heave, to the girls!" "Nancy oh!" "Jack Cross-tree," etc., has put life and strength into every arm. We often found a great difference in the effect of the different songs in driving in the hides. Two or three songs would be tried, one after the other; with no effect;—not an inch could be got upon the tackles—when a new song, struck up, seemed to hit the humor of the moment, and drove the tackles "two blocks" at once. "Heave round hearty!" "Captain gone ashore!" and the like, might do for common pulls, but in an emergency, when we wanted a heavy, "raise-the-dead" pull, which should start the beams of the ship, there was nothing like "Time for us to go!" "Round the corner," or "Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"

Significantly, Dana talks about how important all this singing and chanting was by that time.

The next passage makes clear that they were using the spoke windlass (cf. the pump windlass that, a couple years later, came into use of Marryat's vessel). It doesn't sound like they were using songs, just shouts of encouragement there. If they had a windlass for the anchor. And with "Cheerly Men" being used to cat anchor, it confirms the sense of its form that we have today: a sort of jazzed up equivalent to what was basically "one, two, three, PULL!" (i.e. not the same as later halyard chanteys).

Where things are "done with a will," every one is like a cat aloft: sails are loosed in an instant; each one lays out his strength on his handspike, and the windlass goes briskly round with the loud cry of "Yo heave ho! Heave and pawl! Heave hearty ho!" But with us, at this time, it was all dragging work. No one went aloft beyond his ordinary gait, and the chain came slowly in over the windlass. The mate, between the knight-heads, exhausted all his official rhetoric, in calls of "Heave with a will!"—"Heave hearty, men!—heave hearty!"—"Heave and raise the dead!"—"Heave, and away!" etc., etc.; but it would not do. Nobody broke his back or his hand-spike by his efforts. And when the cat-tackle-fall was strung along, and all hands—cook, steward, and all—laid hold, to cat the anchor, instead of the lively song of "Cheerily, men!" in which all hands join in the chorus, we pulled a long, heavy, silent pull, and—as sailors say a song is as good as ten men—the anchor came to the cat-head pretty slowly. "Give us 'Cheerily!'" said the mate; but there was no "cheerily" for us, and we did without it. The captain walked the quarterdeck, and said not a word. He must have seen the change, but there was nothing which he could notice officially.

Work songs of Hawai'ians are there, too. It seems as though the singing of "Mahannah" was a novel scenario that juxtaposed two cultures' practices. In any case, the reference is to singing-out at the windlass, not to songs, per se.

At twelve o'clock the Ayacucho dropped her fore topsail, which was a signal for her sailing. She unmoored and warped down into the bight, from which she got under way. During this operation, her crew were a long time heaving at the windlass, and I listened for nearly an hour to the musical notes of a Sandwich Islander, called Mahannah, who "sang out" for them. Sailors, when heaving at a windlass, in order that they may heave together, always have one to sing out; which is done in a peculiar, high and long-drawn note, varying with the motion of the windlass. This requires a high voice, strong lungs, and much practice, to be done well. This fellow had a very peculiar, wild sort of note, breaking occasionally into a falsetto. The sailors thought it was too high, and not enough of the boatswain hoarseness about it; but to me it had a great charm. The harbor was perfectly still, and his voice rang among the hills, as though it could have been heard for miles.

In lieu of Dana's early characterization of singing as fairly ubiquitous, this next passage is puzzling. If, as we have seen, African-Americans just did not row without a song...and if he is claiming that "Americans" rarely did so...is it possible to infer that the hypothetical African-American influence on shipboard worksongs had not yet occurred? I think this passage is particularly significant.

The Italian ship had a crew of thirty men; nearly three times as many as the Alert, which was afterwards on the coast, and was of the same size; yet the Alert would get under weigh and come-to in half the time, and get two anchors, while they were all talking at once—jabbering like a parcel of "Yahoos," and running about decks to find their cat-block.

There was only one point in which they had the advantage over us, and that was in lightening their labors in the boats by their songs. The Americans are a time and money saving people, but have not yet, as a nation, learned that music may be "turned to account." We pulled the long distances to and from the shore, with our loaded boats, without a word spoken, and with discontented looks, while they not only lightened the labor of rowing, but actually made it pleasant and cheerful, by their music.

I think this final passage is significant for its *lack* of mention of any chanteying besides the old standard "Cheerly men". What's more, at the time, Dana is on a larger brig the CATALINA, which one would think "needed" shanties more -- that is, if they were available.

and, this morning, preparations were made for getting under weigh. We paid out on the chain by which we swung; hove in on the other; catted the anchor; and hove short on the first. This work was done in shorter time than was usual on board the brig; for though everything was more than twice as large and heavy, the cat-block being as much as a man could lift, and the chain as large as three of the Pilgrim's, yet there was a plenty of room to move about in, more discipline and system, more men, and more good will. Every one seemed ambitious to do his best: officers and men knew their duty, and all went well. As soon as she was hove short, the mate, on the forecastle, gave the order to loose the sails, and, in an instant, every one sprung into the rigging, up the shrouds, and out on the yards, scrambling by one another,—the first up the best fellow,—cast off the yard-arm gaskets and bunt gaskets, and one man remained on each yard, holding the bunt jigger with a turn round the tye, all ready to let go, while the rest laid down to man the sheets and halyards. The mate then hailed the yards—"All ready forward?"—"All ready the cross-jack yards?" etc., etc., and "Aye, aye, sir!" being returned from each, the word was given to let go; and in the twinkling of an eye, the ship, which had shown nothing but her bare yards, was covered with her loose canvas, from the royal-mast-heads to the decks. Every one then laid down, except one man in each top, to overhaul the rigging, and the topsails were hoisted and sheeted home; all three yards going to the mast-head at once, the larboard watch hoisting the fore, the starboard watch the main, and five light hands, (of whom I was one,) picked from the two watches, the mizen. The yards were then trimmed, the anchor weighed, the cat-block hooked on, the fall stretched out, manned by "all hands and the cook," and the anchor brought to the head with "cheerily men!" in full chorus.

I'm of the present opinion that the chanteying in Dana's experience was yet of the older sort. I think "Cheerly Man" belonged to that world, and was probably not cut from the cloth of African-American work-songs. With Marryat a few years later --and the pump windlass-- there is possibly a newer kind of chantey. On the other hand, the form of that particular version of a "Sally Brown" is not far from Cheerly Man.

Whereas my hypothesis is that a new paradigm for work-singing -- roughly corresponding to halyard songs, or "chanties," as they came to be known -- was borrowed from African-American practices, I don't feel confident, from these 1830s references, that that borrowing had yet occurred on a large scale. That is, the Afr-American forms existed (rowing, cotton stowing, and fireman's songs), but had yet to be widely incorporated on large sailing vessels.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 07:58 PM

Geo-- YES!

I've been being a big bully, however, and trying to keep things confined to up-to-1830s until now.

But let the 1840s now fly!-- Fire away, my Ringo, Mr. Marengo, you dear old Mandingo of my Kingdom! It's cotton-screwing season!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Mar 10 - 10:13 PM

"Maringo!"

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 27 Mar 10 - 07:07 AM

Here is one more little snippet from Dana, where he mentions "a set of new songs for the capstan and fall" from the crew of the "California".

"The next day, the California commenced unloading her cargo; and her boats' crews, in coming and going, sang their boat-songs, keeping time with their oars. This they did all day long for several days, until their hides were all discharged, when a gang of them were sent on board the Alert, to help us steeve our hides. This was a windfall for us, for they had a set of new songs for the capstan and fall, and ours had got nearly worn out by six weeks' constant use. I have no doubt that this timely reinforcement of songs hastened our work several days."

Here is the Google Books link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=dS6jsZLYWNAC&pg=PA336&dq=capstan+songs+1840s&lr=&cd=12#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 27 Mar 10 - 07:31 AM

Here is a reference to the singing of "Highland Laddie" at the capstan in an effort to move the grounded ship "Peacock" into deeper water on April 22nd, 1835, near the Gulf of Mazeira.

http://books.google.com/books?id=LW_XAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA396&dq=capstan+songs+1840s&lr=&cd=25#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 27 Mar 10 - 07:38 AM

And here is a reference to the adaptation of "the lively songs sung by seamen when heaving at the capstan" by Society Islanders on the island of Raiatea, which was visited by a whaling vessel on a voyage around the world from 1833 to 1836, recounted by Frederick Debell Bennett in his NARRATIVE OF A WHALING VOYAGE ROUND THE GLOBE, Vol. I (1840).

http://books.google.com/books?id=xo89AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA141&dq=capstan+songs+1840s&lr=&cd=38#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 27 Mar 10 - 04:28 PM

. 'What's more, at the time, Dana is on a larger brig the CATALINA, which one would think "needed" shanties more -- that is, if they were available.,'

Gibb, I may be wrong here but I would have thought the reverse would apply. The larger the ship, the more hands, the less need for shanties. If I remember rightly in the heyday of shantying they came into their own on the clippers and packets notorious for being undermanned.

'yet there was a plenty of room to move about in, more discipline and system, more men, and more good will.'

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 27 Mar 10 - 05:08 PM

Gibb,
Have you looked through the old thread currently refreshed 'Origin of sea chanteys'
Look at Barry Finn's post of 25th may 01 at 04.05
particularly the Robert Hay references for the early 1800s. You may have this of course.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 09:06 AM

Here is a reference from 1838 to singing "that good old song 'O! storm along!" from NA MOTU: OR, REEF-ROVING IN THE SOUTH SEAS, by Edward T. Perkins, published in 1854.

http://books.google.com/books?id=1zxCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA99&dq=Storm+along+Stormy&lr=&cd=46#v=onepage&q=Storm%20along%20Stormy&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 10:28 AM

In the 1854 publication of CHRISTY AND WHITE'S ETHIOPIAN MELODIES, in the section entitled WHITES NEW ILLUSTRATED ETHIOPIAN SONG BOOK, there is a version of "Storm along Stormy", as sung by "J. Smith, of White's Serenaders, at the Melodeon." (p. 71) Here is the link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=W2ZCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA3-PA71&dq=%22Storm+along+Stormy%22&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22Storm%20along%20Stormy

According to Google Book Search, Charles White's NEW ETHIOPIAN SONG BOOK was published in 1848.

http://books.google.com/books?id=n6xRQAAACAAJ&dq=White's+New+Illustrated+Ethiopian+Song+Book&source=gbs_book_other_versions

These little booklets went through many publications and re-publications and combinations at that time. I think there is a good chance that this version of "Storm along Stormy" was around in this blackface minstrel version in the late 1840s.

In his original posting of this song to the "From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?" thread, Gibb said, "I am surprised to find this amongst minstrel songs. It would appear that it was taken from the work song repertoire into popular song; usually (I'd guess) it is the other way around."

thread.cfm?threadid=126347&messages=483#2864123

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 01:03 PM

In THE PRIVATE JOURNAL OF WILLIAM REYNOLDS: UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION, 1838-1842, by William Reynolds, Nathaniel Philbrick, and Thomas Philbrick, there is mentioned, on page 97 (Penguin Edition), that

        "Many of the girls at Point Venus [Tahiti] have learned the chorus songs common with sailors in heaving up the Anchor & other work...Their voices were good, and the ditties of "So early in the morning the Sailor loves his bottle oh," "Round the corner, Sally," "Tally Ho, you know" & a dozen others were often heard along the beach for half the night." (sometime between September 18th & 24th, 1839)

Here is the link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=4fUTBBP6xRwC&pg=PA97&dq=%22Round+the+corner,+Sally%22&lr=&cd=18#v=onepage&q=%22Round%20the%20co

Two of these songs are also mentioned by Dana: "Round the corner, Sally," and "Tally Ho, you know".

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 01:25 PM

Here is a somewhat similar account from 1844, from Edward Lucett's book ROVINGS IN THE PACIFIC, FROM 1837 TO 1849. The event is recorded for August 19, 1844 at Huaheine, in the South Pacific. Lucett says,

        "I was desirous of procuring the original [words], and took a person well skilled in the language to write them down for me; when, to my great surprise, I discovered that both the words and the air were a beautiful modulation of our sailors' song of "Round the corner, Sally!" (p. 82)

Here is the link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=XyQ9oaSfaMwC&pg=PA82&dq=%22Round+the+corner,+Sally%22&lr=&cd=20#v=onepage&q=%22Round%20the%20co

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 04:06 PM

Excellent stuff, John.
Do we have any words/tune for 'Tally ho, you know'?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 04:56 PM

John
I think the 'Stormy' song is very significant. It obviously refers to 'stowing or screwing' cotton. The important question arises, is it derivative or imitative/parody/burlesque. In my experience almost all of the early minstrel songs were imitative/parody/burlesque rather than derivative. In other words it wasn't an actual song used for stowing cotton, but using perhaps some of the words and referring to some of the tasks done by the slaves. In which case the possibility arises of yet another shanty derived from a minstrel song.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: meself
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 05:00 PM

FYI: I've started a thread on "Chinese Work/Sea Songs/Shanties", inspired by this thread.

Subject: Lyr Add: TALLY-I-O
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 06:08 PM

Steve, the retired seaman James Wright sang the following for James W. Carpenter about 1928. The recording is awful and what's in brackets is solely my conjecture:

                              TALLY-I-O

                Tally-I-O was a jolly old soul,
                        Tally-I-O! Tally-I-O!
                Tally-I-O was a jolly old soul,
                        Come tally-I-O, you know!        

                What should I do with my rum, Tally-O?
                        Tally-I-O! Tally-I-O!        
                What should I do with my rum, Tally-O?
                        And sing tally-I-O, you know!

                We'll tell [?them we're sober] O Tally-O!
                        Tally-I-O! Tally-I-O!        
                We'll tell [?them we're sober], O Tally-O!
                        And sing tally-I-O, you know!

                Tally-I-O was a [?drunken] old soul,
                        Tally-I-O! Tally-I-O!        
                Tally-I-O was a [?drunken] old soul,
                        And sing tally-I-O, you know!

I think I posted this earlier, but it doesn't hurt to reprise it here.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 07:25 PM

. 'What's more, at the time, Dana is on a larger brig the CATALINA, which one would think "needed" shanties more -- that is, if they were available.,'

Gibb, I may be wrong here but I would have thought the reverse would apply. The larger the ship, the more hands, the less need for shanties. If I remember rightly in the heyday of shantying they came into their own on the clippers and packets notorious for being undermanned.

'yet there was a plenty of room to move about in, more discipline and system, more men, and more good will.'

You may be right, Steve. I missed the part about "more men," though that doesn't necessarily mean that on this brig there was a better ration of men:size than there was on the brig PILGRIM. However, you suggest another idea. If, say, the emergence of such shanties was very closely tied to packets specifically (clippers were not yet existing, as far as I know), then it may be that Dana is not so great a source. Though it is one of the few sources for its time period, it may be that more stuff of interest was going on elsewhere, which we don't see.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 08:01 PM

With regard to the NA MOTU reference that I posted above, I forgot that there was another reference to "Stormy" on p. 97. Here is what Lighter had in a note that first called this to my attention:

1854 Edward T. Perkins, "Na Motu, or Reef-Rovings in the South Seas" p. 97 [ref. to 1848; Perkins had served on an American whaling ship]:

         I dug his grave with a silver spade;
                O! bullies, O!
       And I lowered him down with a golden chain,
                A hundred years ago!


P. 99: "I jumped onto a rock, swung my tarpaulin, and sung that good old song—

                'O ! storm along !
                O! my roving blades, storm along, stormy!'"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 08:17 PM

(oops, messed up the HTML in my last post.)

In my reading of Dana, from a few days ago, I did not feel confident that what I envision to have been a new class of shipboard work songs (i.e. chanties) had necessarily been adopted (not developed, as per my hypothesis) -- not at least from the evidence of Dana -- in a major way, if at all.

Whereas my hypothesis is that a new paradigm for work-singing -- roughly corresponding to halyard songs, or "chanties," as they came to be known -- was borrowed from African-American practices, I don't feel confident, from these 1830s references, that that borrowing had yet occurred on a large scale. That is, the Afr-American forms existed (rowing, cotton stowing, and fireman's songs), but had yet to be widely incorporated on large sailing vessels.

However, I forgot to acknowledge the two songs mentions which there is some good reason to believe had African-American roots. One is "Round the Corner, Sally," which, as will be seen in later decades, was used by Black Americans for rowing and corn-shucking. There is no proof of where it originated, but, as I said, some good reason to associate it with that culture. The other song is "Grog Time a Day." Thanks to John M.'s critical inquiries and Lighter's scholarship, we know that Dana's original manuscript was supposed to have included "Grog Time of Day" (and not just "Round the Corner," but "Round the Corner, Sally). We have already fairly established "Grog Time" as a song popular through the Caribbean and performed by Blacks. I offer this possible reasoning for why the existence of "Grog Time" does not contradict my earlier interpretation.

"Grog Time" seems to have been widely known across cultures as, perhaps, a popular song in those days. My evidence for this is that a play, TELEMACHUS, OR, THE ISLAND OF CALYPSO (a play, republished in 1879) was first performed in 1834, which gives a stage direction for: "Music – Grog time of day, boys" Set off the coast of "a West India island." It is followed by newly composed lyrics follow. The song's appearance in another fictional work, TAR BRUSH SKETCHES by Benjamin Fiferail, 1836. (FWIW, Lighter says elsewhere, "Given the date, one can probably assume that "Fiferail's" is the song Dana heard. If so, it doesn't seem to have been a one-line, one-pull shanty. I suppose it would have belonged to capstan work.")

So, I argue, "Grog Time" had entered the sphere of "popular music," by then, as opposed to being just a "folk" song that one would only pick up from hearing a "folk" from Culture X singing it. As for "Round the Corner," I don't know. It is mainly Dana's description of the format of these songs, along with some of what he doesn't mention (i.e. whereas otherwise he is very descriptive) that leaves me skeptical that "chanties, proper" had by then a wide spread among seamen.

I don't have the figures at hand -- so please take this with salt for now -- but I seem to remember from the book BLACK JACKS (there are tables/stats in the appendix) that 1820s-1830s were some of the peak years for Blacks in the Euro-American sailing trade. I still think this must have had some bearing on how chanties came to be adopted. However, if the available evidence so far is not showing great influence of African-American songs on the shipboard work-songs, then perhaps either: 1) The idea is overstated or 2) references to the proper contexts are just not available -- In other words, these Black seamen may have brought their musical influence to the (fully rigged) packet ship trade, especially via Gulf Coast ports rather than to Boston-California brigs like Dana's!

I have to check out the since-added 1830s references, now, to see what they add to the picture.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 09:36 PM

John Minear has added some 1830s references. Here (and following) is more commentary.

Here is a reference to the singing of "Highland Laddie" at the capstan in an effort to move the grounded [United States] ship "Peacock" into deeper water on [September] 22nd, 1835, near the Gulf of Mazeira. [coast of Arabia]

It's from an officer's journal. Here's the passage:

"On Tuesday morn, the 22d, the work of lightening was continued, and we saw, with feelings of regret, one half of our guns cast into the sea. The ship was lightened aloft by sending down the upper spars, and unbending the sails; and, on renewing our efforts, we had the pleasure to find that the ship moved and got into rather deeper water. The moment she began to move, new life was infused into all hands, and the men broke forth in a song and chorus, to which they kept time as they marched round the capstan, or hauled in the hawser by hand.
" ' Heave and she must go,' sang one as a leader in a high key, and all the men answered in chorus, in deep, manly tones ' Ho! cheerly.'
" ' Heave, and she will go.'
"'Ho! cheerly.'
" When she moved more easily, those at the capstan, sang to the tune of the ' Highland Laddie,'
"' I wish I were in New York town,'
    Bonny laddie, Highland laddie,' &c.

The shouts of "heave and go" sound like what Dana and others have described. This is exciting, however, in being the earliest (?) such reference to "Highland Laddie." Notably, the lyric uses the "places round the world" lyrical theme that turns out to be of major importance in chanties. This is a really significant piece of evidence! It foreshadows the appearance of "Highland Laddie " as a cotton-screwing chant. It sounds like they started singing Hieland Laddie once the load got lighter and they were able to shift to a march-like tempo.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 09:58 PM

In THE PRIVATE JOURNAL OF WILLIAM REYNOLDS: UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION, 1838-1842, by William Reynolds, Nathaniel Philbrick, and Thomas Philbrick, there is mentioned, on page 97 (Penguin Edition), that

       "Many of the girls at Point Venus [Tahiti] have learned the chorus songs common with sailors in heaving up the Anchor & other work...Their voices were good, and the ditties of "So early in the morning the Sailor loves his bottle oh," "Round the corner, Sally," "Tally Ho, you know" & a dozen others were often heard along the beach for half the night." (sometime between September 18th & 24th, 1839)

Great to have corroborating evidence that "Round the corner, Sally" and "Tally Ho" were shipboard songs of the 1830s! Too bad it is vague, i.e. "in heaving up the Anchor & other work" -- i.e. were these capstan "ditties"? (The "Round the Corner" handed down via Hugill is a halyard chanty, but I am not getting a strong sense of that from these mentions.)

The other correspondence to note is between the 1831 Guyanese rowing song, "Right early in the marning, de neger like the bottley oh!" and this 1839 ship-transmitted "So early in the morning the Sailor loves his bottle oh."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 29 Mar 10 - 09:13 AM

Here is what may be a crossover between "Round the corner, Sally" and "Cheerily, Men". It comes from ETCHINGS OF A WHALING CRUISE, by John Ross Browne, and is dated 1846. The events described take place in October of 1842 (I think). The song is being used at the windless. (pp. 133-134)

        "Heave him up! O he yo!
                Butter and cheese for breakfast
        Raise the dead! O he yo!
                The steward he's a makin' swankey.
        Heave away! O he yo!
                Duff for dinner! Duff for dinner
        Now I see it! O he yo!
                Hurrah for the Cape Cod gals!
        Now I don't. O he yo!
                *Round the corner, Sally!*
        Up she comes! O he yo!
                Slap-jacks for supper!
        Re-re-ra-ra-oo-we ye yo ho! Them's 'um!"

http://books.google.com/books?id=AmtGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA134&dq=%22Round+the+corner,+Sally%22&lr=&cd=27#v=onepage&q=%22Round%20the%20c

Here is some discussion of "Cheerily, Men" as used by Melville, and there seems to be a connection between the song above and "Cheerily", at least in Melville.

http://books.google.com/books?id=I4fBI3yuj7MC&pg=PA22&dq=%22O+he+yo!%22&cd=9#v=onepage&q=%22O%20he%20yo!%22&f=false

The other interesting thing about this song is the phrase "O he yo!" A Google Book Search will lead you to seeing this as "O-hi-o".

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Mar 10 - 11:30 AM

Here's an oddity of a shanty:

From Black Hands, White Sails, by Patricia C. McKissack & Frederick L. McKissack, published by Scholastic Press, New York, US, © 1999, p. 85.

Hi Ho My Dandy-oh

Oh a dandy ship and a dandy crew,
Hi Ho My Dandy-oh!
A dandy mate and a skipper too,
Hi Ho My Dandy-oh!

Oh what shall I do for my dandy crew?
Hi Ho My Dandy-oh!
I'll give them wine and brandy too,
Hi Ho My Dandy-oh!

Notes:

From a whaling ship's log (date unknown) transcribing the singing of the Black cook "Doctor" while the crew were "cutting out" a whale, according to the historian A. Howard Clark.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Mar 10 - 02:30 PM

Trying to summarize a bit, so far....

1780s-90s:

General references to African and New World Black work-songs, from Mali, Grenada.

1800s:

General references to African-American work-songs and their style, from Martinique;
Rowing songs from Georgia, South Carolina, Guyana, Surinam;
Windlass songs, aboard vessels with sailors incl. from Northumberland and Holland.

1810s:

2 stevedore songs from Jamaica that resemble chanteys;
African-American rowing songs from Antigua, Virgin Islands;
Singing and fife-playing at the capstan on a British war ship.

1820s:

Rowing songs, from Georgia, Virginia, St. Thomas;
A version of "Cheerly Men" for topsail halyards on a brig near Quebec;
Fictional capstan shantying in the Arctic; capstan (?) song of British tars in London; chant for pulling known to an ex-British navy man. [I've also seen another reference to the phrase "British capstan song" from 1825.]

1830s:

African-American rowing songs in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Guyana, and "West Indies"
African-American firemen's songs on the Ohio and in general
Cotton stowing songs in Mobile Bay
"Ditties" at the capstan on an East India Company ship
A song at the pump windlass on a transatlantic voyage
Songs "for capstan and falls" and for catting anchor, on brigs off the coast of California
A capstan song on a ship off the coast of Arabia
The adoption of capstan songs and sailors' "ditties" by locals of Tahiti and the Society Islands

Summary:
Through the 1830s, references to African-American work-songs for rowing continued to appear. Since the 20s and continuing through the 30s, cotton-stowing had work-songs. The work-songs of the Black firemen/stokers in steamboats emerge in the 1830s. These all seem share some features, though it is difficult to say how similar they actually were; some songs crossed occupations.

At the same time, there is increasing reference to the songs/ditties for capstan. Though the practice was older, new songs were being added, some of which were probably popular songs of the time, for example "Grog Time of Day," which crossed cultures. By the end of the 30s, there were songs for the pump windlass that may have shared a form with what is ow thought of as a halyard chanty form. At least one instance of the jump from Black rowing songs to (perhaps from?) deepwater sailors' songs --and then to Pacific Islanders! -- is found at the end of this period in "Bottle O." "Round the Corn/er" is another song that seemed to float around between cultures and occupations; it is quite unclear to me whether it had any sort of definite form at all, or if it was a common catch-phrase.

I still wonder if, by the 1830s, the African-American style work-songs that would come to typify much of the "chanty" repertoire had yet any significant influence on the deepwater sailors.

I'd love to hear more opinions on this subject -- on whether one feels that the sort of chanty forms typified by "Roll the Cotton Down" and "Blow the Man Down" and "Whiskey Johnny" and "Hanging Johnny" etc etc had entered the scene by the 1820s or 1830s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: mikesamwild
Date: 29 Mar 10 - 03:33 PM

i think the melodeon mentioned in one reply on Stormy was a harmonium type instrument not a squeezebox and not sung at sea anyway ( neither with concertinas)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: mikesamwild
Date: 29 Mar 10 - 03:38 PM

Has anyone gone into any real detail on the impact of minstrel show music. It seems to have a massive impact on popular music in its day
and likely into shanties

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 29 Mar 10 - 03:55 PM

Hi Mike,
Yes I agree the impact of the minstrel stuff from about 1844 onwards is dramatic. They were the Beatles songs of their day and had enormous influence both at sea and on land.

Gibb,
Am in complete agreement on the later arrival of halyard shanties.

'Round the Corner Sally' comes from the minstrel influence. Lady of easy virtue. see Hugill p389. Its use as a reference to Cape Horn, if ever used in that way, probably came later.

Charley, what evidence is there to suggest that the cook's song was a shanty?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 29 Mar 10 - 03:59 PM

Gibb,
What I meant to imply by the 'Round the Corner, Sally' statement is that it is a well-worn phrase with a meaning and is used elsewhere other than shanties so if its name crops up at random it doesn't necessarily mean it is anything to do with the shanty of that name.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 29 Mar 10 - 04:12 PM

See this note and the one that follows it for more on "Round the Corner Sally":

thread.cfm?threadid=126347&messages=488#2874274

I think that it is unclear which way the influences went on this song. It could just as easily have gone from chanty to blackface minstrel. Emmett wrote his song "Ole Aunt Sally", which contains the single line in the chorus about "round the corner, Sally", in 1843, and we have at least one earlier reference to the chanty (1839) that assumes that it has been out there for a while (Reynolds).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 29 Mar 10 - 06:36 PM

Absolutely, the direction of influence between the different sources is a minefield. In most cases I would imagine influences were flying back and forth between the different genres at quite a rate. Some channels of influence are more obvious than others.

African-American culture parodied/utilised in minstrel genre.
Land-based work song on water-based worksong.
Once the minstrel craze took off - universal influence.
To mention but a few.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 02:34 PM

I'd like to begin pulling together the references to stuff going on in the 1840s. This means culling from posts already made. Well, here goes a start.

To begin with rowing songs again.

This was posted by Lighter, 1 March 2010. I hope my copy-pasting is not objectionable; I prefer to do that rather than link, here, so we can see all the texts in one place.

//
The American Journal of Music and Musical Vistor (Feb. 25, 1845), p.
53, gives what may be the earliest ex. of an American shanty printed
with its tune. After several verbosely chatty paragraphs typical of
the period, the anonymous writer offers "Heaving Anchor. A Sailor
Song. Furnished by N. C.," a "lad who, several years since, used to
fold our papers" and who has "recently returned from a voyage to
Smyrna, up the Mediterranean." The text:

Then walk him up so lively,
Ho, O, heave O,
Then walk him up so lively, hearties,
Ho, O, heave O.

I'm Bonny of the Skylark,
Ho, O, heave O,
Then walk him up so lively, hearties,
Ho, O, heave, O.

I'm going away to leave you,
Ho, O, heave O,
Then walk, &c.


The writer then notes that in "rowing, the words are slightly altered,
as follows":

Then walk him up so lively,
Row, Billy, row,
Then walk him up so lively, hearties,
Row, Billy, row.

I'm Bunny of the Skylark,
Row, Billy, row,
Then walk, &c.

I'm going away to leave you,
Row, Billy, row,
I'm going, &c.

Sorry I can't reproduce the modal tune, but it isn't much. Its shape
resembles that of "Bounty was a Packet Ship," but I wouldn't say
they're clearly related. The solo lines, "Then walk him up so lively,
hearties" interestingly fit the meter of Dana's "Heave Away, My Hearty
Bullies!" (Plus the word "hearty" appears, FWIW.)

What I think is more important than a possible connection to any of
Dana's shanties is the sheer primitiveness of this. Of the various
shanties "N.C." presumably heard on his voyage to Smyrna, why would he
remember this one? Or to put it another way, if tuneful shanties with
interesting lyrics were being sung (like "Rio Grande" and
"Shenandoah"), why report only this one? Surely the editor of the
magazine would have preferred to print a better song. The magazine
appeared several years before the possible "shanty boom" of the
California Gold Rush, though that too may mean nothing.

It doesn't pay to overinterpret, but one does get the feeling that
"Ho, O, Heave O" (which almost sounds like a Hebridean waulking
song)may be close in form to one of the earliest sea shanties "as we
know them," and that Dana's lost shanties may have been not much
better (a possible explanation of why he didn't offer any lyrics).
//

I want to call attention between the alleged shift (whichever direction) between rowing and capstan songs. The shape of the lyric is like a typical halyard chantey. That that makes sense for rowing, too. It is not "typical" for capstan, however, due to the nature of capstan work, it is no less likely IMO. FWIW, the song strikes me (without having seen the tune) as similar to "Blow, Boys, Blow." In support of that impression, I offer this rowing text recently discovered by John M.

Row, bullies, row

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 02:39 PM

The firemen's songs continued in the 1840s, too.

THE BALTIMORE PHOENIX AND BUDGET, 1(11), Feb 1842, carried a story with this line in reference to a steamboat on the Ohio:

"The half-naked negro firemen busily casting huge sticks of wood into
the mouths of the row of yawning furnaces beneath the serried boilers,
accompanying their labor by a loud and not unmusical song;"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 03:07 PM

And, of course, stevedore songs continued. One might suppose there was a flow of these songs between the firemen on the steamboats and the stevedores that loaded those boats. The following is a description of the songs of stevedores loading a steamboat in New Orleans in 1841. The "extempore" text makes topical reference to two Austrian ballet dancers that were in town at the time.

from, THE ART OF BALLET (1915)

"Fanny [one of the dancers] was an especial favourite, and when the
sisters left New Orleans, some niggers, who were hoisting freight from
the hold of an adjacent steamboat—and niggers are notoriously apt at
catching up topical subjects—thus chanted, as the vessel bearing the
dancers left the wharf:

Fanny, is you going up de ribber?
       Grog time o' day
When all dese here's got Elssler feber?
       Oh, hoist away!
De Lor' knows what we'll do widout you,
       Grog time o' day
De toe an' heel won't dance widout you.
       Oh, hoist away!
Day say you dances like a fedder
       Grog time o' day
Wid t'ree t'ousand dollars all togedder.
       Oh, hoist away!"

It is "Grog time of Day" appearing again, however, the form really does not match the previously seen versions. My belief is that the phrase "Grog time of Day" had become a free floating one (perhaps like "round the corner, sally") and separated from the tune and framework of the widespread "West Indian" song. Here, actually, the form is much more like a halyard chantey (cf. the 1811 Jamaicans, probably at the capstan). And from the words "hoist away," one imagines that they were using a hauling technique for loading. Personally, this, too, looks like a close fit to the "Blow, boys, blow" framework, but that match is not so significant, because very many songs fit that mold.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 03:26 PM

In the interest of getting the actual texts into this thread, here is the information on the "rowing text" that Gibb refers to above. My transcription in the other thread is skewed and has been corrected here.

"Here is a version of "Row, Bullies Row" from 1857. It is in THE KNICKERBOCKER, VOL L., 1857, in an article entitled "The Life of a Midshipmen", by "John Jenkins" (?).

http://books.google.com/books?id=ybXPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA11&dq=%22O+Shenandoh+my+bully+boy%22&lr=&cd=10#v=onepage&q=&f=false

He is at the Brooklyn Naval Yard and is being rowed out to his first assignment on board the US Frigate "Shenandoah". It is presented as a rowing song:

"Oh! I do love that good, old bottle!
   Row, bullies, row!
Oh! I do love that good, old bottle!
   Row, my bullies, row!
Why do you love that good, old bottle?
    Row, bullies, row!
Why do you love that good, old bottle?
   Row, my bullies, row!
I love it 'cause it suits my throttle!
   Row, bullies, row!
I love it 'cause it suits my throttle!
    Row, my bullies, row!

   After singing five more verses in the same elegant strain, we happened to pass a bum-boat, in which were seated a fat, old white woman and a negro boy, whereupon the singers roared out with great glee, and in a higher key than before:

'Yonder sits a dear old lady!
   Row, bullies, row!
Yonder sits a dear old lady!
   Row, my bullies, row!
How do you know she is a lady?
   Row, bullies, row!
How do you know she is a lady?
    Row, my bullies, row!
I know her by her nigger baby!
    Row, bullies, row!
I know her by her nigger baby!   
    Row, my bullies, row!"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 03:39 PM

Let's segue from that sort of stevedore-ing to another: the cotton-stowers. Charley Noble, on 16 Feb. 2010, shared the source SOME RECOLLECTIONS by Captain Charles P. Low, 1906.

The author had shipped as a seaman in a packet ship TORONTO from New York to London circa 1844-1844.

Here is a passage noting the connection between "hoosiers", deepwater sailors, and singing chanties:

The Toronto was double the size of the Horatio and every spar and sail was heavy, so as to stand the heavy weather of the North Atlantic. She was fitted to carry one hundred cabin passengers and three or four hundred in the steerage. In those days there were no steamers and as every one had to go to Europe in these packets the cabins were beautifully furnished and the fare was as good as at any hotel in New York. We had a crew of thirty seamen and four ordinaries, no boys. The crew
was made up of the hardest kind of men; they were called "hoosiers,"
working in New Orleans or Mobile during the winter at stowing ships
with cotton, and in the summer sailing in the packet ships. They were
all good chantey men; that is, they could all sing at their work and
were good natured and could work hard, but they did not care much
about the officers and would not be humbugged or hazed. Besides this
large crew, we had as steerage passengers twenty men from the ship
Coromandel, an East India ship that had come home from a two years'
voyage, who were going to London on a spree. The steerage passage cost
only "fifteen dollars and find themselves." They were also a jolly set
of fellows and when we reefed topsails or made sail they all joined in
with us, so that our work was easy and we could reef and hoist all
three topsails at once, with a different song for each one. In the dog
watch, from six to eight in the evening, they would gather on the
forecastle and sing comic songs and negro melodies. There were two or three violins and accordions with them, and the time passed very much more pleasantly than on board the Horatio, where gambling was the order of the day; besides, after being on short allowance for two months I had as much as I could eat.

Whilst unloading cargo in London:

The sailors discharged the cargo and hove the sling
loads up by a winch at the mainmast. If very heavy we took the load to
the capstan; and while we were heaving away, at eleven in the morning,
the sailors struck up "Roll and go for that white pitcher, roll and
go," and the steward would come up with a great pitcher filled with
rum, and give each of us a drink. The same thing was repeated at four
in the afternoon. This was varied when we were taking in cargo, which
consisted of a great deal of railroad iron and we had to pass it in
from a lighter alongside and then down the hold. It was terribly hard
work, and instead of the rum, a quart of beer from the tap room was
brought to each one at eleven in the morning and four in the
afternoon. I do not think we could have held out without it.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 04:16 PM

Time now, then, to add the hoosier / cotton-stower song references about the 1840s.

About the first, John Minear says this:

"There is a book by Charles Erskine entitled TWENTY YEARS BEFORE THE MAST - WITH
THE MORE THRILLING SCENES AND INCIDENTS WHILE CIRCUMNAVIGATING THE
GLOBE UNDER THE COMMAND OF THE LATE ADMIRAL CHARLES WILKES 1838-1842.
This book was not published until 1896, but it would seem to record
events that happened much earlier. Erskine is in New Orleans on board
the ship "Charles Carol". I think that this was sometime in September
of 1845 (scroll back up several pages until you come to Erskine's
departure from New York and there you will find a date - I realize
there is a discrepancy between the title and this date). He gives two
cotton-screwing songs: "Bonnie Laddie" and "Fire Maringo". The overlap
with Nordhoff [BELOW] is interesting."

It is perhaps the most personal account of cotton-screwing, and underscores the flow between occupations of sailor and stevedore. Erskine had arrive on a ship at New Orleans. Here is the passage, with song texts.

///
The day after our arrival the crew formed themselves into two gangs and obtained employment at screwing cotton by the day. We accepted the captain's offer to make the ship our home, and slept in the forecastle and ate our grub at the French market. As the lighter, freighted with cotton, came alongside the ship in which we were at work, we hoisted it on board and dumped it into the ship's hold, then stowed it in tiers so snugly it would have been impossible to have found space enough left over to hold a copy of The Boston Herald. With the aid of a set of jack-screws and a ditty, we would
stow away huge bales of cotton, singing all the while.
The song enlivened the gang and seemed to make
the work much easier. The foreman- often sang this
ditty, the rest of the gang joining in the chorus:

"Were you ever in Boston town,
Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie?
Yes, I've been in Boston town,
Where the ships sail up and down,
My bonnie Highland laddie, ho !

"Were you ever in Mobile Bay,
Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie?
Yes, I've been in Mobile Bay,
Screwing cotton by the day,
My bonnie Highland laddie, ho 1

"Were you ever in Miramichi,
Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie?
Yes, I've been in Miramichi,
Where you make fast to a tree,
My bonnie Highland laddie, ho !

"Were you ever in Quebec,
Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie?
Yes, I have been in Quebec,
Stowing timber on the deck,
My bonnie Highland laddie, ho!'

At another time we would sing:

"Lift him up and carry him along,
   Fire, maringo, fire away;
Put him down where he belongs,
   Fire, maringo, fire away;
Ease him down and let him lay,
   Fire, maringo, fire away;
Screw him, and there he'll stay,
   Fire, maringo, tire away;
Stow him in his hole below,
   Fire, maringo, tire away;
Say he must, and then he'll go,
   Fire, maringo, fire away.
In New Orleans they say,
Fire, maringo, fire away,
That General Jackson's gained the day,
   Fire, maringo, fire away! "

I found stowing cotton in a ship's hold to be the most exhausting labor I had ever performed. We wore nothing but trousers, with a bandana handkerchief tied over our heads. The hold was a damp, dark place. The thermometer stood at nearly one hundred, not a breath of air stirred, and our bodies were reeking with perspiration. This was more than my frail body could endure. When I was paid, Saturday evening, with eight silver Spanish dollars for my four days' labor, I came to the conclusion that they were the hardest eight dollars I had ever earned, and that there would be no more screwing cotton by the day for me.
////

The scene also drives home the fact of what must have been a sharing of songs/work between Black and White labourers. The 1820s cotton-screwing reference was to Blacks singing songs in Svannah. Gosse's 1838 reference in Alabama says that "the crew" stowed the cotton, which to me suggests that by then, non-Black labourers may have already begun the work, too. The song, "fire the ringo," however, sounds *to me* as something distinctly African-American. By early 1840s, via Low's account, we know that non-Black "hoosiers" had emerged. And by mid 1840s, via Erskine, this is confirmed. "Fire Maringo" seems to have remained a customary song of the trade, while now "Hieland Laddie" --very originally, Scots -- is added. An 1835 reference off the coast of Arabia had put Hieland Laddie as a capstan song. We may have evidence of the "shanty mart" (i.e. Hugill) exchange here, where a song such as "Hieland Laddie" was brought by European sailors to the cotton-stowing context before being further molded. Then again, it is possible that "Hieland Laddie" was taken from the cotton-stowers (having been borrowed much earlier from Euro sources) by that mid 1830s date -- if by then (re: Gosse) the multi-ethnic labour had already begun. (For now, I am thinking the latter scenario less likely).

cont...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 04:51 PM

...cotton-screwing cont.

Nordhoff's THE MERCHANT VESSEL, 1855

Nordhoff observed cotton-stowers in Mobile Bay (loading for Liverpool), sometime around 1845-1852. His account is famous for being the first (?) to clearly label this sort of work-song genre as "chant" and the lead singer as "chanty-man". Here is what he says:

////

All was now bustle and preparation. Numberless matters were to be attended to before the ship was really ready to take in cotton—the ballast was to be squared, dunnage prepared, the water-casks, provisions and sails to be lugged on deck, out of the way of cargo, the nicely painted decks covered with planks, on which to roll cotton, topgallant and royal yards crossed, and tackles prepared for hoisting in our freight. We had scarcely gotten all things in proper trim, before a lighter-load of cotton came down, and with it, a stevedore and several gangs of the screw men, whose business it is to load cotton-ships. Screwing cotton is a regular business, requiring, besides immense strength, considerable experience in the handling of bales, and the management of the jack-screws.

Several other ships had " taken up" cargo at the same time we did, and the Bay soon began to wear an appearance of life—lighters and steamboats bringing down cotton, and the cheerful songs of the screw-gangs resounding over the water, as the bales were driven tightly into the hold. Freights had suddenly risen, and the ships now loading were getting five-eighths of a penny per pound. It was therefore an object to get into the ship as many pounds as she could be made to hold. The huge, unwieldy bales brought to Mobile from the plantations up the country, are first compressed in the cotton presses, on shore, which at once diminishes their size by half, squeezing the soft fiber together, till a bale is as solid, and almost as hard as a lump of iron. In this condition they are brought on board, and stowed in the hold, where the stevedore makes a point of getting three bales into a space in which two could be barely put by hand. It is for this purpose the jack-screws are used. A ground tier is laid first; upon this, beginning aft and forward, two bales are placed with their inner covers projecting out, and joining, leaving a triangular space vacant within. A hickory post is now placed against the nearest beam, and with this for a fulcrum, the screw is applied to the two bales at the point where the corners join, and little by little they come together, are straightened up, and fill up the triangular space. So great is the force applied, that not unfrequently the ship's decks are raised off the
stancheons which support them, and the seams are torn violently asunder.

Five hands compose a gang, four to work the screws, and one to do the headwork—for no little shrewd management is necessary to work in the variously sized bales. When a lighter-load of cotton comes along side, all hands turn to and hoist it in. It is piled on deck, until wanted below. As soon as the lighter is empty, the gangs go down to the work of stowing it. Two bales being placed and the screws applied, the severe labor begins. The gang, with their shirts off, and handkerchiefs tied about their heads, take hold the handles of the screws, the foreman begins the song, and at the end of every two lines the worm of the screw is forced to make one revolution, thus gaining perhaps two inches. Singing, or chanting as it is called, is an invariable accompaniment to working in cotton, and many of the screw-gangs have an endless collection of songs, rough and uncouth, both in words and melody, but answering well the purposes of making all pull together, and enlivening the heavy toil. The foreman is the chanty-man, who sings the song, the gang only joining in the chorus, which comes in at the end of every line, and at the end of which again comes the pull at the screw handles. One song generally suffices to bring home the screw, when a new set is got upon the bale, and a fresh song is commenced.

The chants, as may be supposed, have more of rhyme than reason in them. The tunes are generally plaintive and monotonous, as are most of the capstan tunes of sailors, but resounding over the still waters of the Bay, they had a fine effect. There was one, in which figured that mythical personage "Old Stormy," the rising and falling cadences of which, as they swept over the Bay on the breeze, I was never tired of listening to. It may amuse some of my readers to give here a few stanzas of this and some other of these chants. " Stormy" is supposed to have died, and the first song begins:
      
    Old Stormy, he is dead and gone,
Chorus—Carry him along, boys, carry him along,
      Oh! carry him to his long home,
Chorus—Carry him to the burying-ground.
      Oh! ye who dig Old Stormy's grave,
Chorus—Carry him along, boys, carry him along,
       Dig it deep and bury him safe,
Chorus—Carry him to the burying-ground.
       Lower him down with a golden chain,
Chorus—Carry him along, boys, carry him along,
          Then he'll never rise again,
    Chorus—Carry him to the burying-ground.
Grand Chorus—Way-oh-way-oh-way—storm along,
Way—you rolling crew, storm along stormy.

And so on ad infinitum, or more properly speaking, till the screw is run out.
There was another in praise of Dollars, commencing
thus:

       Oh, we work for a Yankee Dollar,
Chorus—Hurrah, see—man—do,
       Yankee dollar, bully dollar,
Chorus—Hurrah, see—man—dollar.
         Silver dollar, pretty dollar,
Chorus—Hurrah, see—man—do,
          I want your silver dollars,
Chorus—Oh, Captain, pay me dollar.

Another, encouraging the gang:

Lift him up and carry him along,
Fire, maringo, fire away,
Put him down where he belongs.

Fire, maringo, fire away.
Ease him down and let him lay,
   Fire, maringo, fire away,
Screw him in, and there he'll stay,
Fire, maringo, fire away.
Stow him in his hole below,
Fire, maringo, fire away,
Say he must, and then he'll go,
Fire, maringo, fire away.

Yet another, calling to their minds the peculiarities of many spots with which they have become familiar in their voyagings:

       Were you ever in Quebec,
Chorus—Bonnie laddie, highland laddie,
       Stowing timber on the deck,
Chorus—My bonnie highland laddie, oh.
       Were you ever in Dundee,
Chorus—Bonnie laddie, highland laddie,
       There some pretty ships you'll see,
Chorus—My bonnie highland laddie, oh.
       Were you ever in Merrimashee.
Chorus—Bonnie laddie, highland laddie,
       Where you make fast to a tree,
Chorus—My bonnie highland laddie, oh.
       Were you ever in Mobile Bay,
Chorus—Bonnie laddie, highland laddie,
       Screwing cotton by the day,
Chorus—My bonnie highland laddie, oh.

These samples, which might be continued to an almost indefinite extent, will give the reader an idea of what capstan and cotton songs, or chants, are. The tunes are the best portion, of course, in all such rude performances. But these are only to be heard on board ship.

The men who yearly resort to Mobile Bay to screw cotton, are, as may be imagined, a rough set. They are mostly English and Irish sailors, who, leaving their vessels here, remain until they have saved a hundred or two dollars, then ship for Liverpool, London, or whatever port may be their favorite, there to spree it all away—and return to work out another supply. Screwing cotton is, I think, fairly entitled to be called the most exhausting labor that is done on ship board. Cooped up in the dark and confined hold of a vessel, the gangs tug from morning till night at the screws, the perspiration running off them like water, every muscle strained to its utmost. But the men who follow it prefer it to going to sea. They have better pay, better living, and above all, are not liable to be called out at any minute in the ni":ht, to fight the storm, or worse yet, to work the ship against a headwind. Their pay is two dollars per day, and their provisions furnished. They sleep upon the cotton bales in the hold, but few of them bringing beds aboard with them. Those we had on board, drank more liquor and chewed more tobacco, than any set of men I ever saw elsewhere, the severe labor seeming to require an additional stimulus. Altogether, I thought theirs a rough life, not at all to be envied them.

Four weeks sufficed to load our barque, and the last key-bale was scarce down the hatchway, when "Loose the topsails, and heave short on the cable," was the word, and we proceeded to get underweigh for Liverpool. Our new crew had come on board several days previously, and proved to be much better than the average to be obtained in cotton ports, places where sailors are generally scarce, and the rough screw-gangs mostly fill their places.
/////


Nordhoff gives so much detail --though much still is unclear to us, today-- that I think this bears a close reading and lots of discussion. I think what Nordhoff describes might have been some sort of turning point (no pun intended). What do you guys think?

I am going to break for now, but re-reading this with the earlier references clearly established before it, I am starting to think new things about the directions of "flow" of this sort of songs.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 01:17 PM

"the cheerful songs of the screw-gangs resounding over the water..."

Hmm, not "plaintive"? Not minor? Not "wild"?

But then,

"The tunes are generally plaintive and monotonous,..."

Ah, OK. There we go.

"...many of the screw-gangs have an endless collection of songs, rough and uncouth, both in words and melody, but answering well the purposes of making all pull together, and enlivening the heavy toil."
"One song generally suffices to bring home the screw, when a new set is got upon the bale, and a fresh song is commenced."

Sound like there had to have been a lot of songs. Perhaps a whole repetoire, like the body of songs that seems to have appeared rather quickly aboard ships around/after this time? Funny, though, that if there were so many songs, we see the repetition of a few.

"the foreman begins the song, and at the end of every two lines the worm of the screw is forced to make one revolution, thus gaining perhaps two inches."
"The foreman is the chanty-man, who sings the song, the gang only joining in the chorus, which comes in at the end of every line, and at the end of which again comes the pull at the screw handles."

We've discussed (speculated) before about the method and style of the action of cotton-screwing -- still, as I see it, with no definite answers. Pushing? Pulling? Both (i.e. depending on one's position)? But leaving that aside for the moment, there is still the question of WHEN the "timed effort" occurred, i.e. in relation to the song texts.

I have wanted to imagine a pattern like that of typical halyard chanteys. If "Fire Maringo" were a halyard chanty, that pattern would go like this (CAPITAL letters means the time when the effort occurs):

Lift him up and carry him along,
FIRE, maringo, FIRE away,
Put him down where he belongs.
FIRE, maringo, FIRE away.

However, "at the end of every two lines the worm of the screw is forced to make one revolution." Which are the "2 lines"? Is it the whole rhyming (not necessarily) stanza as above? Or is it just, e.g.

Lift him up and carry him along,
FIRE, maringo, FIRE away,

?
Is the "one revolution" -- assumed to be literally 360 degrees-- accomplished through 1 pull? 2 pulls (FIRE,...FIRE)? 4 pulls (the whole "stanza")?

Based on this usage of "line"..."the chorus, which comes in at the end of every line, and at the end of which again comes the pull at the screw handles"... it sounds as though "two lines constitute" the whole stanza. So, 2 or 4 pulls, probably. But which is it? This sentence implies one pull per chorus. That is different than the typical halyard pattern, above. Perhaps the work was really too hard to manage 2 pulls. And WHEN did the pull occur? "At the end." What? Are we to imagine a Cheerly Man / old-school pulling sort of pattern, like

Do me Johnny Bowker, come roll me in the clover
CH: Do me Johnny Bowker DO!

?

That could work for "Fire Maringo":

Lift him up and carry him along,
Fire, maringo, Fire a-WAY,

But it is awkward for "Hieland Laddie":

Were you ever in Quebec,
Bonnie laddie, highland LAD-die,

Perhaps the timing of the pull was like in a halyard chanty, but with the second pull of each refrain, only, e.g.

Lift him up and carry him along,
fir, maringo, FIRE away,

That would sort of put it "at the end."

Why the need for a "grand chorus" in one of the songs? In shipboard chanties, grand choruses generally only occurred (or so we now believe) in capstan (or pump) songs, where much time was to pass, but no specific "timed exertion" was an issue. So,

"The tunes are generally plaintive and monotonous, as are most of the capstan tunes of sailors..."

Is he implying that these songs were a shared repertoire with capstan songs (if so, why does he not say so earlier, and why does he seem to particularize them as "chants")? Or is he just saying they are similar? Should we be looking to imagine the cotton-stower songs as more like capstan songs? -- in which case the "timed pull" issue gets very confusing indeed (there being no timed pull in a capstan chantey). Or, is it possible that the body of halyard chanties was not there yet -- to which Nordhoff could have made a comparison if it was -- and that capstan songs were just the closest thing? And since when were the capstan tunes of sailors "plaintive"? That doesn't sound like the character of the "ditties" like "Heave and Go my Nancy O"! Was something long in effect by this point -- or just not in existence at all?

"These samples, which might be continued to an almost indefinite extent, will give the reader an idea of what capstan and cotton songs, or chants, are. The tunes are the best portion, of course, in all such rude performances. But these are only to be heard on board ship."

OK, so now "capstan songs" are "chants"? Still unclear how the work action of screwing cotton may have transfered to capstan (or vice versa). Perhaps the songs were exceedingly slow (but he says "cheerful"?), which leads to that sort of ambiguity of "Shenandoah" type songs, in which there is not necessarily any strong or regular pulse. In another current thread, VirginiaTam is asking about the function of "Shallow Brown" -- that is another that has the "look" of a halyard chantey, but may have been used, in lugubrious fashion, for capstan.

"There was one, in which figured that mythical personage "Old Stormy"..."

This does not suggest that he was familiar with any popular minstrel version of "Stormy."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 31 Mar 10 - 02:14 PM

This is really late and not in your time frame at all, but I think it is interesting for a more contemporary comparison with regard to rowing songs. It is an article from SCRIBNERS MAGAZINE, VOLUME LXVIII, July-December, 1920, entitled "The Trail to Kaieteur", which is in British Guiana, by Eleanor Beers Lestrade (with photos).

"Sunday, May 11 (1919?)

        We, and our men and supplies were loaded into a thirty-foot boat that was to take us to the next falls at Amatuk, and we left Kangaruma soon after sunrise. The bowman stood or squatted in the bow, then came four pairs of paddlers, then Jones half asleep, then the four of us, and in the stern three paddlers and the captain, who steered. The men had short paddles that threw the water high in the air with every stroke, and clicked in unison on the gunwales of the boat.
        There was a tremendous current, and even keeping as close to the bank as we did, our progress was very slow. When we watched the water that raced past us, it seemed as if we were flying, but when we watched the bank we saw that we scarcely moved.
        One of the paddlers called out, "Water me, water me." Another splashed some water with his paddle. This meant that the first paddler had a song that he could not rest until he had sung, and the other by splashing the water showed that he was waiting with the greatest impatience to hear the song and join in the chorus. These songs, or chanteys, were very simple and monotonous in words and music, but wonderfully melodious when sun by a dozen happy, lusty blacks paddling up a tropical river. The men clicked their paddles on the gunwales in time to the chantey, and paddled much better when they sang.
        Sometimes we could understand and make sense out of the words, but more often not. The chantey-man would sing the first line of the song, and the others would join in the second line. If it was a pretentious song with more than two lines, the chantey-man would sing the third line, and the chorus would wind up the verse. This would be repeated over and over again, until the chantey-man was tired, or thought of a new song he would rather sing. Then he would call, "Compliment! Compliment!" and we would clap, and tell him we were enchanted with his performance.
        As it was Sunday, they interspersed the programme with "Sunday chanteys." One of these ran something like this:

        "David mourning for his son, Absalom;
                (Chorus) Son Absalom, son Absalom.
        David mourning for his son, Absalom;
                (Chorus) Absalom, Absalom, Absalom."

        I remember the chorus only of the other Sunday chantey, which ran:
        
        "Fire burning down below, hey ho!
        Fire burning down below!"

        Our favorite chantey, the words of which almost made sense, was: "Blow de man down." The man was to be blown down with a bottle of rum or a bottle of gin, or anything that wasn't prohibition, and he was to be blown down to Amatuk, Waratuk, or Kaieteur Falls, or anywhere the chantey-man wanted him blown. With this range of variations to choose from, this song could be kept up much longer than the others." (pp. 566-570)

http://books.google.com/books?id=814AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA568&dq=chantey&lr=&cd=35#v=onepage&q=chantey&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Apr 10 - 12:26 PM

To complete the cotton-stowing song references of (attributed to) the 1840s, I must enter in the source already mentioned by Steve Gardham above, in the discussion of Lyman's ideas on the etymology of "chantey."

It's TWENTY YEARS AT SEA, by F.S. Hill, pub. 1893. Hill describes cotton-stowers as he saw/heard them in Mobile Bay in 1844, as follows:

////
However, the first lighter laden with cotton soon came down from Mobile, and with it a gang of stevedores who were to stow this precious cargo. At that time freights to Liverpool were quoted at " three half - pence a pound," which represented the very considerable sum of fifteen dollars a bale. So it was very much to the interest of our owners to get every pound or bale squeezed into the ship that was possible.

The cotton had already been subjected to a very great compression at the steam cotton presses in Mobile, which reduced the size of the bales as they had come from the plantations fully one half. It was now to be forced into the ship, in the process of stowing by the stevedores, with very powerful jackscrews, each operated by a gang of four men, one of them the " shantier," as he was called, from the French word chanteur, a vocalist. This man's sole duty was to lead in the rude songs, largely improvised, to the music of which his companions screwed the bales into their places. The pressure exerted in this process was often sufficient to lift the planking of the deck, and the beams of ships were at times actually sprung.

A really good shantier received larger pay than the other men in the gang, although his work was much less laborious. Their songs, which always had a lively refrain or chorus, were largely what are now called topical, and often not particularly chaste. Little incidents occurring on board ship that attracted the shantier's attention were very apt to be woven into his song, and sometimes these were of a character to cause much annoyance to the officers, whose little idiosyncrasies were thus made public.
One of their songs, I remember, ran something like this —

"Oh, the captain's gone ashore,
For to see the stevedore.
Chorus : Hie bonnie laddie, and we'll all go ashore.

"But the mate went ashore,
And got his breeches tore,
    Hie bonnie laddie," etc.
////

The improvised and topical nature of the songs is consistent with what we have read of Black American work-songs, though we know from earlier that non-Blacks were also involved in this work by this time.

"Hieland Laddie" as a lyrical theme is here again, but it appears to be a different song (i.e. different "framework") than in the other references. This one has the phrase "captain's gone ashore," which had been cited by Dana. It was also a phrase in "Grog time of Day," and the lyrical structure of this "Hie bonnie laddie" is similar to "Grog Time":

The captain's gone ashore;
The mate has got the key;
Hurrah! my jolly boys,-
'Tis grog time o' day!

VS.

The captain's gone ashore,
For to see the stevedore.
Hie bonnie laddie,
And we'll all go ashore.

The "Hie bonnie laddie" part is also reminiscent of the chantey "Pull Down Below."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Apr 10 - 03:01 PM

Cotton-stowing references:

1818 Savannah (Harris): "songs"
1838 Mobile Bay (Gosse): "Fire the ringo"
1844/5 Mobile Bay/New Orleans: reference to cotton-stowing with respect to chantey-men
1844 Mobile Bay (Hill): "Hie Bonnie Laddie"
1845 New Orleans (Erskine): "Fire Maringo," "Bonnie Laddie, Highland Laddie"
1845-1852 Mobile Bay (Nordhoff): "Fire Maringo," "Bonnie Laddies," "Stormy...Carry him along," "Yankee Dollar...see man do,"

Of these cotton-stowing songs, Hieland Laddie had earlier turned up as a capstan song in 1835. "Stormy" and it's lyrical theme turned up:

1) In Hawai'i, 1848, as if learned from seamen:

From above -- quoting John M....

////
1854 Edward T. Perkins, "Na Motu, or Reef-Rovings in the South Seas" p. 97 [ref. to 1848; Perkins had served on an American whaling ship]:

         I dug his grave with a silver spade;
                O! bullies, O!
       And I lowered him down with a golden chain,
                A hundred years ago!


P. 99: "I jumped onto a rock, swung my tarpaulin, and sung that good old song—

                'O ! storm along !
                O! my roving blades, storm along, stormy!'"
////

2) In Charles White's NEW ETHIOPIAN SONG BOOK, published in 1848. It looks like this minstrel version was inspired by the cotton-stowers' "traditional" song.

So, by the late 1840s, cotton-stowers' chants were well established.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 04 Apr 10 - 08:07 PM

Here's another reference to "The Captain's gone ashore"/ "Grog time of day" that I don't think has been mentioned. It is from THE EVERGREEN, OR GEMS OF LITERATURE FOR MDCCL (1850), ed. by Rev. Edward A. Rice. The first "gem" is entitled "Quarter-Deck Yarns; or, Memorandums From My Log Book", by "An Old Salt". The setting is the "clipper-brig Curlew" in the New York Harbor, ready to sail for Hamburgh. During the night a favorable wind came up and and "the outward bound vessels were busied with preparations for getting under weigh."

The Curlew's anchor "had been hove short under the forefoot, her staysail and trysail were triced up, foresail dropped, mainsail hanging in the brails; and the topsails' loosened from their confining gaskets, were curtaining the caps with their snowy folds. When our boat came within hailing distance, the halliards were manned, and the good-humored crew run the yards up to the chorus of

   "The captain's gone ashore, but the mate is aboard,
   Hurrah! my jolly boys, grog time o' day."                         (pp, 10-11)

Here is the link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ueQsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA11&dq=%22the+captain's+gone+ashore+%22&lr=&cd=7#v=onepage&q=%22the%20captain'

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Apr 10 - 12:08 PM

Thanks, John, for that very timely last reference. I can't find a date, but if it was published in 1850, one assumes the "log book" refers to 1840s or earlier. On the other hand, the word "clipper" is used, which I believe must make it no earlier than the late 1830; 1840s seems reasonable. It is interesting because, I think, it is the first time we've seen "Grog Time" being used at halliards.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Apr 10 - 01:06 PM

I've yet to visit/re-visit shipboard worksong references for the 1840s.

Olmsted's INCIDENTS OF A WHALING VOYAGE (1841).

Olmsted was in the whaler "North America," sailing out of New London (CT) to Tahiti and Hawai'i. Here's what he says, for 1840:

////
Tuesday. Feb. 11. I have often been very much amused by the cries and songs of the men, when engaged in hauling away upon the rigging of the ship. The usual cry is " Ho ! Ho ! Hoi !' or " Ho ! Ho ! Heavo !" which is sung by some one of them, while the rest keep time. It has a rather dolorous cadence, and a wildness that sounds like a note of distress when rising above the roar of the gale at dead of night....

[Sounds like "singing-out"]

...But there are many songs in common use among seamen, of a very lively character, which though bereft of all sentiment and sense in many instances, are performed with very good effect when there is a long line of men hauling together. Mr. Freeman usually officiates as chorister, and with numerous demisemiquavers, strikes up the song, while all the rest join in the chorus. Sometimes they all sing together as I have endeavored to represent, although it must appear very tame without the attendant circumstances. One of the songs is as follows:—

Ho ! Ho ! and up she ris - es
Ho ! Ho ! and up she ris - es
Ho! Ho ! and up she ris - es,
Ear-ly in the morn-ing.
[with music, tune shape is "Drunken Sailor"]

And another song, accompanied with the chorus, which vies with the song of the troubadours in poetic sentiment.

Nan. cy Fan - an - a, she mar - ried a bar - ber,
CH: Heave her a - way, and heave her away
Hurrah, hurrah, for Fancy Fa-na - na.
CH: Heave her a - way ! and Heave her a - way !
[with music, in 6/8 and very similar in shape to Hugill's "Haul 'er Away," though the tune is different, it seems to be a variation.]

There are many other songs that might be very easily mentioned, which, however, like a good proportion of our parlor songs are rather insipid without the music. The songs of sailors, when sung with spirit and to the full extent of their fine sonorous voices, add new vigor to their exertions, as the heavy yards and sails are mounting upwards....

[On a later occasion:]

...The teeth of the sperm whale vary from four to five inches in length, and are imbedded more than two-thirds in the lower jaw. They are susceptible of a very high polish, and are beginning to be valued as an article of merchandize, which has induced sperm whalers to collect all the teeth of their captured whales, as constituting a part of the profits of the voyage. The extraction of the teeth is the practice of dentistry on a grand scale. The patient, i. e. the lower jaw, is bound down to ring bolts in the deck. The dentist, a boatsteerer, with several assistants, first makes a vigorous use of his gum lancet, to wit, a cutting spade wielded in both hands. A start is given id the teeth, while his assistants apply the instrument of extraction to one end of the row, consisting of a powerful purchase of two fold pulleys, and at the tune of "O! hurrah my hearties O!" the teeth snap from their sockets in quick succession.

[The pulley arrangement rigged appears in an illustration. The men are hauling in a downward direction.]

////

These chanties look like they are probably the "older" ones. If we are to assume "Drunken Sailor" one was a walk-away, then one could imagine that as a continuation of that practice since, for example, Navy days. "Nancy Fanana" smacks of "Cheerly Men." It does have a possible "stanzaic" structure, that would lend itself to the "double pull" halyard maneuver. On the other hand, there is no description of that, and it is possible that it was timed like Cheerly Men. On the other hand, the command is "heave," and it is not explicitly connected to halliards, so it could have been for another task. I am really not sure.

The song for pulling whale teeth, "O! hurrah my hearties O!," to which we've seen songs with similar generic phrases before, looks like it may have had the form of a sing-out or of a Cheerly Man type deal, i.e. with the pull on the last "O!" I say that because of the nature of the action being described, which involves a stiff downward pull (e.g. as in sweating up).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 05 Apr 10 - 01:57 PM

Gibb,
It makes no mention of a capstan but clearly states 'add new vigor to their exertions, as the heavy yards and sails are mounting upwards....' Of course this might be done using a windlass.

BTW what's your earliest description of task and actual named shanty in references to British ships, excepting capstan and 'Cheerly Man'?
Regardless of where they originated I still feel strongly they were well established on any reasonable scale on American ships before it became standard practice on British ships. I know there's this 'mid-Atlantic' idea that seamen and ships were all one, but all the main impetus and input seems to come from American customs.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Apr 10 - 05:19 PM

Steve,

BTW what's your earliest description of task and actual named shanty in references to British ships, excepting capstan and 'Cheerly Man'?

Fascinating question. I, for one, don't have my sources all "in order" at this point. However, so far in *this* thread -- where I am attempting to acknowledge just about every shantying reference that has been collectively dug up...so far, into the 1840s...I am not finding anything that fits your criteria -- unless the count the 1820s London stage reference to the guy spitting on his hands and imitating a sailor's chant with "Sally Brown" chorus. Not having scoured the 1850s yet, I'd say that that could be the earliest period, but we'll see...

Others' thoughts?

Gibb

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Apr 10 - 05:41 PM

Continuing 1840s shipboard,

We have this reference, courtesy of Lighter, to a song in a whaleman's diary, Sept. 11, 1842.

       The Taskar is the thing to roll
       O ee roll & go
       Her bottom's round as any bowl!
       O ho roll & go

The author was aboard the whaleship TASKAR. (Reproduced in Margaret S. Creighton's "Rites and Passages," 1995, p. 178).

It is not indicated (?) whether this was a work-song, but it certainly looks like a chantey form. There are relly not enough details to contextualize it, though the "roll and go" may connect it to known chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Apr 10 - 06:02 PM

Continuing, I'd like to re-direct attention to a references cited above by John M., for this time period (1842) and context (whaling ship).

*snip*

It comes from ETCHINGS OF A WHALING CRUISE, by John Ross Browne, and is dated 1846. The events described take place in October of 1842 (I think). The song is being used at the windless. (pp. 133-134)

       "Heave him up! O he yo!
                Butter and cheese for breakfast
       Raise the dead! O he yo!
                The steward he's a makin' swankey.
       Heave away! O he yo!
                Duff for dinner! Duff for dinner
       Now I see it! O he yo!
                Hurrah for the Cape Cod gals!
       Now I don't. O he yo!
                *Round the corner, Sally!*
       Up she comes! O he yo!
                Slap-jacks for supper!
       Re-re-ra-ra-oo-we ye yo ho! Them's 'um!"

*snip*

They are off the Canary Islands. The windlass is the old-fashioned spoke windlass. And the song looks old-fashioned, too. Definitely not a "chantey" as we've come to know them today. This is old technology.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 07 Apr 10 - 03:12 PM

Gibb, If I may be allowed to step backwards to earlier in the century, Jonathan's intriguing reference to a performance at a NYC theatre c1826 has inspired me to ask a friend of mine who is something of a theatre historian to throw some light on it. He sometimes contributes to Mudcat as Billy Weekes. The reference is to post 23rd March at 11.23.
John's reply came mainly from the National Dictionary of Biography.
'The Wallacks were a theatrical family/dynasty of several generations with established reputations on both sides of the Atlantic. Henry Wallack (the one referred to) was born in England in 1790, ret. from the stage in 1852 and died in 1870. From c1825 was lead and in 1826 manager of The Chatham Theatre NYC. There is no mention of any RN career.

John's opinion was that the RN Lieutenant bit might have been invented to give authority to performance. It wouldn't be too difficult for one of our Naval historians to check whether there was indeed a Lieutenant Henry Wallack. John is not aware of any biography of Wallack.

Even if this is so and Wallack was imitating something he had read or even observed, what was it that he observed? We know the revenue cutters of the RN allowed some chanteying. Certainly the bigger ships didn't. Intriguing!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 08:02 AM

Here are several references to "Cheerily Men" from the 1840's. First of all from the MEMIORS OF THE REV. WALTER M. LOWRIE: MISSIONARY TO CHINA, ed. Walter Lowerie, 1849, perhaps talking about 1842. The occasion is the hoisting of guns out of the hold to be mounted.

http://books.google.com/books?id=eotjAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA110&dq=Cheerily,+Men&lr=&cd=139#v=onepage&q=Cheerily%2C%20Men&f=false

A second reference comes from A VISIT TO THE ANTIPODES: WITH SOME REMINISCENCES OF SOJOURN IN AUSTRALIA, by E. Lloyd, "A Squatter", 1846, perhaps referencing events in 1844. The location is Port Adelaide, and the author is reflecting on an abandoned ship and imagining the song "Cheerily men, ho!".

http://books.google.com/books?id=X8MNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA77&dq=Cheerily,+Men&lr=&cd=138#v=onepage&q=Cheerily%2C%20Men&f=false

The next reference comes from MCDONALD OF OREGON: A TALE OF TWO SHORES, by Eva Emery Dye, 1906. The biography is "based on personal statements and letters of McDonald...", etc. (p. v). The events take place in the harbor of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1849. The song "Cheerily, men, oh!" is mentioned several times in different settings, one of which is a rowing scene. There may be some question about whether this is an historical "reconstruction".

http://books.google.com/books?id=1dUVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA250&dq=Cheerily,+Men&lr=&cd=99#v=onepage&q=Cheerily%2C%20Men&f=false

And here is a reference to "Haul her away!", from Ezekiel I. Barra's A TALE OF TWO OCEANS, published in 1893, but perhaps referencing 1849.

http://books.google.com/books?id=v6oqQ1CiaGYC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22Haul+Her+Away%22&source=bl&ots=mdCKZL6pkZ&sig=kQ14HcLcH8QKA

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 05:41 PM

Had a look at 'Cheerly O' in Lawson which comes from United Services Journal 1834. I'm sure I've seen refs to this version above somewhere but a quick scan through couldn't find it. Has this 4 stanza version been posted yet or shall I enter it here?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 06:52 PM

No the UNITED SERVICES text has not been entered. Please, do, Steve!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 03:18 PM

Naval Ballads & Sea Songs, Selected and Illustrated by Cecil C P Lawson, London: Peter Davies: 1933.

Excerpt from the intro by Commander Charles N Robinson, R.N.
'Mr Lawson's collection would not have been complete without a specimen of the chanty. the one he has chosen was, according to a Naval officer who described it in the United Services Journal for January 1834, used on board a revenue cruiser for want of music in order to encourage the men to pull together. On the other hand , on board a weell-disciplined man-of-war only the officers were allowed to speak during the performance of an evolution, and in place of the old-time song used to lighten the work, a fiddle, the bagpipes, or a fife played some favourite tune.

p72, Cheerly O

O, haul pulley, yoe,
    Cheerly men.
O, long and strong, yoe, O,
    Cheerly men.
O, yoe, and with a will,
    Cheerly men.
Cheerly, cheerly, cheerly, O!

A Long haul for Widow Skinner,
    Cheerly men.
Kiss her well before dinner,
    Cheerly men.
At her, boys, and win her,
    Cheerly men.
Cheerly, cheerly, cheerly, O!

A strong pull for Mrs Bell,
    Cheerly men.
Who likes a lark right well,
    Cheerly men.
And, what's more, will never tell,
    Cheerly men.
Cheerly, cheerly, cheerly, O!

O haul and split the blocks,
    Cheerly men.
O haul and stretch her luff,
    Cheerly men.
Young Lovelies, sweat her up,
    Cheerly men.
Cheerly, cheerly, cheerly, O!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 06:56 PM

In my personal "hunt" for the emergence of "chanties", I am still moving...slowly...through the 1840s. So here is more detail on a maritime work-song reference from the end of that decade. It's

S.R. Thurston's CALIFORNIA ND OREGON, OR, SIGHTS IN THE GOLD REGION (first edition, 1851). The events described by Thurston happened in 1849.

Leaving Panama, headed for San Francisco, on the US steamer OREGON, he writes,

Roused at daybreak by the sailors' song at the windlass, we gazed from our state-room window at the beauty of the dawn on the distant mountains, and with watch in hand, at 5 a. m., on the morning of the 13th of March, noted the first revolution of the wheels toward the El Dorado of our hopes...

Then, off the West coast of Mexico:

Having despatched letters for our friends by the Mexican courier to Vera Cruz, we took our departure from San Blas early on Sunday morning, 25th of March. Listening to the tramp and song of the sailors at the capstan and windlass, we caught the words—

"The Oregons are a jolly crew,
   O, yes, O!
A bully mate and captain, too,
   A hundred years ago."

The second and last lines formed the chorus, and they roared it out right heartily, bringing many from below in time to behold the sun rise above the mountains of Mexico in great glory and magnificence,...

I would think the windlass he is describing is the pump type. I must confess, however, that I'm not sure why there was capstan AND windlass. Are both there, for different tasks? Or does he just take them together as a phrase (cf. "ball and chain") because capstans do in fact engage a windlass below deck? (One would "tramp" round a capstan; not so a windlass.) The reason why I ask is in order to verify the type of action.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 07:25 PM

Steve, thanks very much for putting in the details on the United Services Journal version of "Cheerly."

And John, thanks for the recent references. I need to digest them. So...

MEMIORS OF THE REV. WALTER M. LOWRIE: MISSIONARY TO CHINA, ed. Walter Lowerie, 1849

John M: "The occasion is the hoisting of guns out of the hold to be mounted."

The passage is from April 18th, 1842. The Rev. Lowrie is aboard the ship HUNTRESS, bound out from New York eastward to China.

Monday, April l8th. Getting ready to go ashore, i. e., the ship is. The men have been at work most of this day getting the guns up out of the hold and mounting them. They were stowed away below shortly after leaving New York. Being quite heavy, it took several men to hoist them up out of the hold, and they raised the song of " Cheerily, oh cheerily," several times. This is a favorite song with the seamen. One acts as leader, and invents as he goes along, a sentence of some six or eight syllables, no matter what. To-day some of the sentences were, " Help rne to sing a song ;" " Now all you fine scholars ;" " You must excuse me now," &c. ; then comes in a semi-chorus " Cheerily oh !" then another sentence, and a full chorus, " Cheerily oh ~~~~~~ cheerily." Just imagine the sounds and music of that waving line! The song is exciting, and heard at the distance of the ship's length is very beautiful. I have just now been listening to music of another kind. The sea is smooth, all is quiet...

Shall we assume they used some sort of rope-pulley system to hoist the guns? It is interesting to see the persistence of "Cheerily Men" as a sort of ubiquitous "1 2 3 pull!", whenever/wherever needed.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 07:32 PM

Quoting John:

A second reference comes from A VISIT TO THE ANTIPODES: WITH SOME REMINISCENCES OF SOJOURN IN AUSTRALIA, by E. Lloyd, "A Squatter", 1846, perhaps referencing events in 1844. The location is Port Adelaide, and the author is reflecting on an abandoned ship and imagining the song "Cheerily men, ho!".

I find this interesting again because it would seem to underscore the ubiquity of "Cheerily Men" -- one has only to briefly mention it, and readers should know what is being referenced.

I forgot to mention, above that Rev. Lowrie (re: his 1842 voyage in the HUNTRESS) says he read Dana's "Two Years." We would also, in that case, be familiar with "Cheerly" before he ever heard it aboard a vessel.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 09:22 PM

There is an interesting reference to a song/chant used for stowing cargo aboard an East India Company ship -- allegedly circa 1790s-1800s?

It comes in the UNITED SERVICES MAGAZINE for March 1836, in a piece called "Leaves From My Log-book," by a "Flexible Grummett." The scene takes place in Calcutta.

We joined the ship next day, and found the cargo had been all delivered, and they were now taking in a ground tier of saltpetre in bags. The mode of stowing this was, to me, highly amusing, and the seamen appeared to enjoy it; though the labour, in a hot climate, down in an Indiaman's hold, must have been excessive. Two gangs are formed of about a dozen men each, all of whom are provided with heavy wooden mauls, the handle of bamboo being four feet long. This is called a commander. The saltpetre bags are laid level, and one of the gangs beat it down with their commanders, swinging them round above their heads in the same manner that a blacksmith does his sledge-hammer when forging an anchor. That all may strike together at the same moment so as to keep time, the captain of the gang sings (and the best singer is generally chosen) a line, at the end of which down come the mauls upon the bags. The following is the song:—

"Here goes one—(thump from the commanders)
One, it is gone, (thump)
There's many more to come (thump)
To make up the sum (thump)
Of one hundred so long." (thump)

He then continues, " Here goes two, &c.," and as each distich gives five thumps, twenty complete the hundred, the only change being in the numbers, and at the last blow the words are " There's no more to come," &c. The other gang then relieves them, and the same song is gone through; but occasionally, by way of bravado, numerous snatches of songs adapted for the purpose are added to the hundred, and sometimes these are not of the most delicate nature. One I well remember was—(the maul descending at the end of every line)

"My father's a gunner,
And I am his son;
He walks the quarter-deck, boy«,
And he fires a gun ;
Fire away, gunner,
And keep your guns warm;
And a good glass of grog, boys,
Will do us no harm."

Thus eight blows more are added gratuitously, which the other gang strive to emulate, and this work continues for two or three weeks. ln the mean time other gangs overhaul the rigging, clap on fresh services, and do everything to give the ship a perfect refit.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 11:02 PM

My cumulative summary up to this point.

1780s-90s:

General references to African and New World Black work-songs, from Mali, Grenada.

1800s:

General references to African-American work-songs and their style, from Martinique;
Rowing songs from Georgia, South Carolina, Guyana, Surinam;
Windlass songs, aboard vessels with sailors incl. from Northumberland and Holland.

1810s:

2 stevedore songs from Jamaica that resemble chanteys;
African-American rowing songs from Antigua, Virgin Islands;
Singing and fife-playing at the capstan on a British war ship.

1820s:

Rowing songs, from Georgia, Virginia, St. Thomas;
A version of "Cheerly Men" for topsail halyards on a brig near Quebec;
Fictional capstan shantying in the Arctic; capstan (?) song of British tars in London; chant for pulling known to an ex-British navy man. [I've also seen another reference to the phrase "British capstan song" from 1825.]

1830s:

African-American rowing songs in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Guyana, and "West Indies"
African-American firemen's songs on the Ohio and in general
Cotton stowing songs in Mobile Bay
"Ditties" at the capstan on an East India Company ship
A song at the pump windlass on a transatlantic voyage
Songs "for capstan and falls" and for catting anchor, on brigs off the coast of California
A capstan song on a ship off the coast of Arabia
The adoption of capstan songs and sailors' "ditties" by locals of Tahiti and the Society Islands

1840s:

A rowing song ("row, billy, row") (American)
Reference to Black steamboat firemen singing on the Ohio
A stevedore song ("grog time") in New Orleans
Cotton-stowing songs in New Orleans and Mobile (x3)
Cotton "hoosiers" working (and singing) aboard a trans-Atlantic
    packet
[The "Stormy" chantey adapted (?) as a minstrel song]
[Popular shanties ("A Hundred Years Ago" and "Stormy") turning
    up in the South Pacific]
A song ("Cheerly Man") for hoisting guns from below in a ship
    from New York
Generic reference to "Cheerily Men" in Port Adelaide
Unloading cargo by means of a capstan in London, to a song
A basic anchor song ("Ho, O, heave O") brought back from a Mediterranean voyage in an American vessel
A walk-away shanty ("drunken sailor"), another shanty (unknown      
    style, "Nancy Fanana"), and a short-haul song ("O! hurrah my
    hearties O!") on an American whaling ship in the Pacific
Possible stanza-form chantey on a whaleship
Spoke windlass song on a whaleship
Capstan (or pump windlass?) chantey ("A Hundred Years Ago") on
    a steamship bound for Frisco
A halyard shanty ("grog time") on a brig in New York

Summary:
Through the 1840s, references to African-American work-songs for rowing and on steamboats are fewer (though they will continue to appear in later decades). The cotton-stowing songs make a big entrance here, and they seem to have strongly influenced shipboard work-songs.   Although I believe the cotton-stowing songs (as a class) must have originated with Black labourers, by this time Euro-American labourers had also joined the trade. If, as I have hypothesized, the body of songs of a style known as "chanties" originated with African-American practices, then a question at this point would be: Where and when did it become a shared practice among the different cultural groups? Was cotton-screwing, for example, a ground zero whence the practice was taken to ships? Or had the sharing already occurred earlier – e.g. aboard ships, initially? Whereas in the past I have thought that cotton-screwing songs must be analogous in form to halyard shanties, after a close look at the literature, I begin to have doubts whether that can be said with any certainty.

Interestingly, through the 1840s there are still not many references to what one might consider "classic" halliard shanties. For pulling songs, this decade gives us, with clarity, only the well-worn, old-fashioned "Cheerly"…. Along with "Grog time of day" (in two different forms) used for hauling to load cargo and…finally as a halliard chantey. I find the latter to be most significant, because it is (arguably) the one halliard song of the decade with something like the classic form. Still, it is shy of the most typical form (i.e. of later times).

Needless to say, all this material needs much more mulling over. But if I may state, prematurely, my surprise – that there is little evidence, by the end of the 1840s yet, to say that many of the chanties we now know (especially in the typical double-pull halyard form) had by then existed.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 07:09 AM

Here is a reference to "A Hundred Years Ago" from a journal kept aboard the "Agincourt" on it's way to South Australia in 1848. The verse given is as follows:

"A hundred years is a very long time,
    Oh-ho! Yes! Oh-ho!
A hundred years is a very long time,
    A hundred years ago.
They hung a man for making steam,
    Oh-ho! Yes! Oh-ho!
They cast his body in the stream,
    A hundred years ago."

And the entry mentions that "Other favourites included:
   "Sweet Belle Malone"
   "Off to Botany Bay"
   "Sailing over the Ocean Blue"
   "Can You Bake a Cherry Pie".

The introductory comment is: "They were like monkeys moving swiftly aloft up the ratlines and sang Sea Chanties as they worked. ("Chant" is a French word)"

This comes from a posting found on the internet entitled BOUND FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA - AGINCOURT 1849-50 Journey by Diane Cummings. It looks like it is primarily concerned with the passengers list and has to do with genealogical research. There is no further documentation. Here is the link:

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/fh/passengerlists/1850AgincourtJourney.htm

I have not found other information on this particular "Diane Cummings". But here is a reference to the "barque Agincourt" making another voyage to Australia that is dated 1852, from OUR ANTIPODES: OR, RESIDENCE AND RAMBLES IN THE AUSTRALASIAN COLONIES by Lieut.-Col. Godfrey Charles Mundy:

http://books.google.com/books?id=MVgBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA2&dq=barque+Agincourt&lr=&cd=20#v=onepage&q=barque%20Agincourt&f=false

There are numerous other references to ships named "Agincourt".

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 07:41 AM

John-

Nice reference to "A Hundred Years Ago" from a journal kept aboard the "Agincourt" and interesting verse.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 05:36 PM

Interesting, John. So that makes three references to "Hundred Years Ago" in the late 40s. The first is sung removed from a task, the second is in reference to capstan and/or windlass and this one is again vague. Perhaps it was halyards.

The "based upon a diary" part of this is shady. Surely the line about "They were like monkeys moving swiftly aloft up the ratlines and sang Sea Chanties as they worked. ("Chant" is a French word)" is the editor's interpretation. Unfortunately, it raises suspicion on the rest. However, though the context and precise wording of the Diary have been mangled, it seems probable that it did contain the "Hundred Years Ago" text, at least.

Incidentally, the line about how "They hung a man for making steam," if authentic, is interesting. It seems an early date (though I would not know) for that tension between sail and steam. In the Rev. Lowrie voyage to Frisco in 1849, above, he took two steamships to get there, and at least twice in his journal he recommends strongly that all passengers avoid sailing vessels!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 06:36 PM

I'm presuming we are looking mainly for influences rather than origins.
The sporadic evidence strongly suggests multiple origins and we can only guess anyway. The strongest influences on the main body of material when it was at its height seem to be various channels of African/American occupations. Whereas the cotton screwing won't have been the only channel of influence I still think it would have been one channel.

Once this study is relatively complete another interesting development would be a timeline using specific chanties. I would suggest rather than using the dates of references, use e.g., c1825 as the suggested date of when the chanty was being performed. In order to do this effectively it might be helpful to have Master Titles for those chanties known by a variety of titles. I would be willing to help and make suggestions on this one, having already developed criteria for an English folk song Master Title Index. Chanties, however, are very different to other traditional songs and a different approach is needed. For instance with other types of folk song we identify variants of one song by the text and tune, mostly the text. With chanties the text is almost irrelevant so we would look at refrains, tunes and format.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 06:52 PM

Gibb beat me to it. The "diary" is also here:

http://www.angelfire.com/al/aslc/Tulle80.html

"Based on" is the tip-off.


From Basil Lubbock's "The Blackwall Frigates" (1922):

A hundred years is a very long time,
Oh-ho! Yes ! oh-ho !
A hundred years is a very long time,
A hundred years ago.

They hung a man for making steam,
Oh-ho ! Yes ! oh-ho !
They cast his body in the stream,
A hundred years ago. (OLD CHANTY.)

Note the identical, somewhat unusual spelling of "Oho!" in both sources. Lubbock's book, not coincidentally, also includes a skeletal "log" kept by a midshipman on _Agincourt_ in 1848. (I have not compared the accounts any more closely.)

Hugill gives both stanzas, though not consecutively or quite identically.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 07:17 PM

That's good suggestion, Steve. I suggest we use Hugill's titles as our starting point, to be adjusted if necessary.

His books have been the most influential over the past fifty years.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 07:54 PM

So...Gibb & Lighter, do you think the reference to "A hundred years ago" is legitimate or not? I was not exactly clear from your discussion. Do we know the owner of the original "diary"?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Apr 10 - 09:10 AM

There's no reason to believe, from the online _Agincourt_ "diary," that the "1848 text" or even the title of "A Hundred Years Ago" was recorded by anyone who was present on the voyage or even alive in 1848.

The online writer seems to have taken the shanty from Lubbock's book to flesh out the story of the voyage, assuming that Lubbock's "Old Chanty" "must have been" sung by the _Agincourt_ crew.

Lubbock doesn't print the original "midshipman's log" he refers to. He quotes a few lines, but mostly paraphrases and expands the information in the logbook.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 15 Apr 10 - 09:28 AM

Thanks, Lighter.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Apr 10 - 09:43 AM

I wish I didn't have to be so negative so often, but the reliability of so many shanty sources tends to be questionable or at best indeterminate.

Davis and Tozer is my top nominee in this category.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Apr 10 - 12:17 PM

Steve,

I'm presuming we are looking mainly for influences rather than origins.

My stated interest in looking to see the "emergence" of shanties nicely (!) confounds "influences" and "origins." While influences are indeed a more realistic thing to document and while it's undoubtably true that shanties are a composite of various influences (i.e. like most things)...my personal working hypothesis (which I'm willing to abandon at any time BTW) is that, with respect to being *shipboard* songs, "chanties" were *introduced*, and relatively suddenly at that. So my pet interest does include a lean towards the concept of "origins." That being said, I hope the evidence can do its own speaking; the rest is each person's interpretation.

I fully agree that the information will have to be organized in other ways; there is a zooming in / zooming out process involved. On the big "Sydney" thread, John Minear has followed the trajectories of individual chanteys. What I want to eventually do here is create the complimentary warp to that weft. I've begun -- and I think this is what you're suggesting? -- to create a timeline with the shanty "sightings" in each year. It's a lot of info to round up, but I'll post it once I have it, and people can re-format it as they like. The process definitely requires several phases of digestion. The trick is having it condensed enought to glance over, but with enough detail so the significance is not lost. For example, it might be misleading to group all songs mentioning "Sally Brown" with that tag. Anyways, it will be a start.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 Apr 10 - 06:32 PM

Sally Brown,
Agreed, but any song actually called 'Sally Brown' sung aboard we would presume was the well-known chanty unless evidence to the contrary arose. Most chanties appear to be titled in accordance with refrains which is helpful.
'Relatively suddenly' Again agreed but roughly what sort of a period do we consider, 10 years from say 1840 to 1850? I think once you've got a working list of references obviously this will become clearer.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Apr 10 - 11:32 PM

In my next post, I am going to put up my "TIMELINE" of attested 19th c. maritime work-songs. It currently goes through the 1840s. The format may not be to everyone's taste. But it is a working model; feel free to make your own modifications. And I have not nitpicked the editing...nor do I feel like taking the time now to create the HTML marks needed for Mudcat. (If someone knows a way to automatically "convert" a Word document into HTML code, please let me know.)

I have tried to be as brief as possible with each "entry." If one needs the full context and info on a reference, one can do a control-F search on the thread for the Author/Title-date, e.g. "Nordhoff" or "1855", and soon find the post(s) where the reference was discussed.

Since the songs don't have standard names, and the lyrics are so variable, I give the ""chorus lyric."" If there is no lyric at all, I give the essential phrase that describes what was seen/heard. After the lyric, where applicable, I give a standard [TITLE], for comparison. Then comes brief info on place (and vessel, when applicable) followed by the activity the song accompanied. Last comes the ((Published reference)).

Lastly, the references amassed have not explored every avenue. For example, some feel the songs of the French voyageurs had some influence, and that has not been researched so far. My personal reason for not having done so is because I think that, while such genres may well have contributed some repertoire, my hunch is that they were not very significant in developing the genre as a whole.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Apr 10 - 11:36 PM

"TIMELINE", 1770s-1840s

1777

- singing their plaintive African songs, in cadence with the oars, Georgetown, SC/Blacks rowing (Watson 1856)

1790s

- "gnyaam gnyaam row" Demerara River, Georgetown, Guyana/Blacks rowing (Pinckard 1806).

c.1790s-1800s

- canoe-rowing songs, partly traditionary, partly improvised Charleston, SC/Blacks rowing (as per Grayson)

c.1800s-1820s

- "Cheerly men" [CHEERLY] (conjecture based on comment of "time out of mind," in UNITED SERVICES JOURNAL 1834)

c.1803[or earlier]

- a sort of Song pronounced by one of the number, Europeans/spoke windlass (Falconer 1806)

1805

- eight stout negroes, who sing in chorus all the way, Surinam/Blacks rowing (Sack 1810)

c.1806

- "Aye, aye/ Yoe, yoe" Savannah River, Georgia/Blacks rowing (Lambert 1810)

c.1808-1826

- a common sailors' chant in character, having a sort of 'Sally Brown, oh, ho,' chorus; and requiring the action of pulling a rope, London stage (Clason 1826)

1811

- "Grog time of day" [GROG TIME] Jamaica/stevedores at capstan (Hay 1953)

- "Oh, huro, my boys/Oh, huro boys O" Jamaica/stevedores at capstan (Hay 1953)

[1812-1815 : War of 1812]

c.1814-15

- "Grog time a day" [GROG TIME] Antigua/Blacks rowing (SERVICE AFLOAT, 1833)

- "Heigh me know, bombye me takey" Virgin Islands/Blacks rowing (SERVICE AFLOAT, 1833)

- the drums and fifes merrily play, Round the capstan we dance; We soon hear the song,
"Heave, heave, my brave boys, and in sight." Poem/capstan (1825)

[1816: Start of the Blackball Line]

1818

- the negroes' song while stowing away the cotton, Savannah, GA/cotton-stowing (Harris 1821)

1821

- "It's oh! as I was a walking out, One morning in July, I met a maid, who ax'd my trade" [NEW YORK GIRLS?] and "All the way to Shawnee town/Pull away - pull away!"
Ohio River, Parkersburg,VA/rowing (Hall 1821)

1822[or earlier]

- "Fine time o' day" Saint Thomas/Blacks rowing (Wentworth 1834).

1825, July

- the sailor sent forth his long and slow-toned "yeo— heave — oh!" Brig leaving Quebec/windlass (Finan 1825).

- "Oh, yeo, cheerly" [CHEERLY]" Brig leaving Quebec/topsail halliards (Finan 1825)

c.1826

- "Haul way, yeo ho, boys!" London/Navy sailors in a pub ("Waldie's select circulating library", 1833)

1828, March

- a wild sort of song, Alatamaha River, Georgia/Black rowing (Hall)

1829

- they began their song, one of them striking up, seemingly with the first idea that entered his imagination, while the others caught at his words, and repeated them to a kind of Chinese melody; the whole at length uniting their voices into one chant, which, though evidently the outpouring of a jovial spirit, had, from its unvaried tone and constant echo of the same expression, a half-wild, half-melancholy effect upon the ear. …It had begun with "Yah! yah! here's a full ship for the captain, and a full pannikin for Peytie Pevterson, la— la—lalla—la—leh; but this sentence, after many repetitions, was changed for others of briefer duration and more expressive import, as they coursed after each other with intoxicating rapidity… Fictional whaleship/capstan ("Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean", 1829)

1830

- "Sally was a fine girl, ho! Sally, ho!" Cape Fear River, North Carolina/Blacks rowing (Cecelski 2001)

1831

- "De neger like the bottley oh!" [BOTTLE O] and "Velly well, yankee, velly well oh" Guyana/Blacks rowing (Alexander, 1833)

[1832: Invention of Dobinson's pump windlass]

1832[or earlier]

- "Pull away now, my Nancy, O!" and/with "To the Greenland sea/ Black although she be" East India Company ship/capstan (THE QUID 1832)

1832-33

- the wild song of the negro fire-men, Ohio River/steamboat firemen (Latrobe 1835)

1833

- "'Tis grog time o' day!" [GROG TIME] rowing on ocean ("Waldie's Select Circulating Library," Dec. 1833)

1834, Aug-1836

- "singing out" at the ropes in their hoarse and peculiar strains, brig PILGRIM

- "Heave, to the girls!" and "Nancy oh!" and "Jack Cross-tree," brig PILGRIM/ songs for capstans and falls

- "Heave round hearty!" and "Captain gone ashore!" and "Time for us to go!" and "Round the corner, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!" brig PILGRIM, California coast/driving in the hides (pull)

- the loud cry of "Yo heave ho! Heave and pawl! Heave hearty ho!" brig PILGRIM/spoke windlass

- Sailors, when heaving at a windlass, in order that they may heave together, always have one to sing out; which is done in a peculiar, high and long-drawn note, varying with the motion of the windlass

- "Cheerily, men!" [CHEERLY] brig PILGRIM/catting anchor

- lightening their labors in the boats by their songs, Italians rowing (Dana 1840ff)

1835

- A line was sung by a leader, then all joined in a short chorus; then came another solo line, and another short chorus, followed by a longer chorus, Jacksonville, FL/Blacks rowing (Kennard 1845)

1835, September

- "Ho! cheerly" [CHEERLY] US ship PEACOCK, the Gulf of Mazeira [coast of Arabia]/ as they marched round the capstan, or hauled in the hawser by hand (Howland 1840)

- "Bonny laddie, Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] capstan (Howland 1840)

1837, April

- "Hi de good boat Neely/Ho yoi!" Charleston, SC/Blacks rowing (Gillman 1852)

- "Oh! Sally Brown" (peculiarly musical, although not refined) [SALLY BROWN] Ship QUEBEC, Portsmouth >New York/pump windlass (Marryat)

1838-39

- "Jenny gone away" [TOMMY'S GONE?] and "Fare you well, and good-by, oh, oh!" Altamaha River, Georgia/Blacks rowing (Kemble 1864)

1838, December

- "Fire the ringo, fire away!" [MARINGO] Mobile/cotton-screwing (Gosse 1859)

1839, Sept.

- "Fire down below!" [SAILOR FIREMAN] Dramatic scene in a steamboat/Black fireman (BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY 1839)

- "So early in the morning the Sailor loves his bottle oh," [BOTTLE O] and "Round the corner, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Tally Ho, you know" [TALLY] & a dozen others, Tahiti/local women singing sailor songs (Reynolds and Philbrick)

c.1840s

- "grog time o' day." [GROG TIME] Clipper-brig CURLEW, New York >Hamburg/ halliards (Rice 1850)

1840, Feb.

- The usual cry is " Ho! Ho! Hoi!' or "Ho! Ho! Heavo!" whaler, New London > Pacific/hauling (Olmsted 1841).

- "Ho! Ho! and up she rises/Ear-ly in the morn-ing" [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and "Nancy Fanana, she married a barber/Heave her away, and heave her away [HAUL 'ER AWAY]
halyard

- "O! hurrah my hearties O!" short haul to extract whale tooth

1841

- "Grog time o' day/Oh, hoist away" [GROG TIME] New Orleans/stevedores loading a steamboat (THE ART OF BALLET 1915)

1842, February

- casting huge sticks of wood into the mouths of the row of yawning furnaces beneath the serried boilers,accompanying their labor by a loud and not unmusical song, steamboat, Ohio River/Black fireman (THE BALTIMORE PHOENIX AND BUDGET 1842)

1842, April

- "Cheerily, oh cheerily," [CHEERLY] Ship HUNTRESS, New York > China/ hoisting guns from hold (Lowrie 1849)

1842, Sept.

- "O ee roll & go/O ho roll & go" [SALLY BROWN?] whaleship TASKAR/song in diary (Creighton 1995)

1842, October

- "Heave him up! O he yo!" Canary Islands/spoke windlass (Browne 1846).

1843

- "Oh, Jenny gone away" [TOMMY'S GONE?] Virginia/corn-shucking ("The Family Magazine" 1843)

1844

- "Oh, the captain's gone ashore/Hie bonnie laddie, and we'll all go ashore" [GROG TIME?] Mobile Bay/cotton-stowing (Hill 1893).

- "Cheerily men, ho!" [CHEERLY] Port Adelaide/remembering a ship's song (Lloyd 1846)

1844, August

- "Round the corner, Sally!" [ROUND THE CORNER] Society Islands/local imitation of sailor's song (Lucett)

1844-45

- The crew was made up of the hardest kind of men; they were called "hoosiers,"
working in New Orleans or Mobile during the winter at stowing ships with cotton, and in the summer sailing in the packet ships. They were all good chantey men; that is, they could all sing at their…we could reef and hoist all three topsails at once, with a different song for each one, Packet ship TORONTO, NY > London/re: cotton-stowing (Low 1906)

- "Roll and go for that white pitcher, roll and go," London/unloading cargo w/ capstan

1845, Feb.

"Ho, O, heave O" heaving anchor ("American Journal of Music and Musical Vistor"1845)

- "Row, Billy, row," American sailor returned from Mediterranean/rowing

1845, Sept.

- "Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] and "Fire, maringo, fire away" [MARINGO] Ship CHARLES CAROL, New Orleans/cotton-stowing (Erskine 1896)

c.1845-1851

- "Carry him along, boys, carry him along/ Carry him to the burying-ground" [WALK HIM ALONG] and "Hurrah, see—man—do/Oh, Captain, pay me dollar" and "Fire, maringo, fire away" [MARINGO] and "Bonnie laddie, highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] many of the screw-gangs have an endless collection of songs, Mobile Bay/cotton-stowing (Nordhoff 1855)

1848

- "O! bullies, O!/A hundred years ago!" [HUNDRED YEARS] and "storm along, stormy!" [STORMY] Hawai'i/non-working, whaling territory (Perkins 1854)

- "Storm along Stormy" [STORMY] minstrel song collection (White1854) It looks like this minstrel version was inspired by the cotton-stowers' "traditional" song.

[1848-1855: California Gold Rush]

1849, March

- "O, yes, O!/ A hundred years ago" [HUNDRED YEARS] Steamer OREGON, Panama > San Francisco/ at the capstan and windlass (Thurston1851)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 12:51 AM

A few reflections on the timeline:

Generally, it is interesting to see examples of how certain songs or at least song-formats were passed between different types of work. "Grog Time o' Day" is a shining example of this, as it seems to have been used for just about every task. (Incidentally, I wonder why it did not survive down to the present, or in the works of collectors -- or has it?) And though our contemporary sensibilities tell us that certain songs could have been (and were) used for more than one type of *shipboard* task, nonetheless I am slightly surprised by some of the cross-use in this period. I was expecting a bit more of a distinction. On the other hand, the references are often unclear what the task was; it may just be vagueness or carelessness that makes it seem so.

There are some "key" references I'd like to pull out.

1825 - "Cheerly" is being used for topsail halyards. This is the earliest evidence (from this list) to show that intermittent hauls were being done at the halyards. I am contrasting this with what I suppose were earlier methods: stamp and go, hand over hand, and "willy-nilly" -- all being techniques being better suited to larger crews, and all requiring a different sort of song. Although "Cheerly" was in its verse not quite like later halyard chanties, it shares with them the intermittent haul, i.e. it shares the same general work method, even if not the poetic form.

1835 - "Highland" at the capstan. This suggests that when we see "Highland" in use by cotton-stowers later, it may well have been brought to them via sailors. It makes a bit more sense that Euro-American sailors marching round the capstan would have used the Scots march first, rather than (presumably?) African-American cotton-stowers adapting it first. This means that although (IMO at least) cotton-stower's original songs seem to have made a great impact on sailors' songs, sailors had also brought their songs to cotton-stowing. It also suggests a correspondence between capstan songs and the cotton songs. That connection is later underscored by Nordhoff. And though I *want* to imagine cotton songs as more like halyard shanties, I can't ignore this evidence. One *possible* way of reconciling that is to propose that, *at this point*, the halyard chanties as a body had not fully emerged.

1837 - "Sally Brown" at the pump windlass. The device, brand new at the time, suggested a new form of song, I think. And this "Sally Brown" bears good similarity to later chanties.

1840s - "Grog Time" at the halliards. Not *quite*, but basically a typical halyard chanty form of later days.

1844/45 - talk of "hoosiers" on a packet ship, hoisting topsail yards, and how there was "a different song for each one." This stands in contrast to what seems to have been the case earlier, where there were a few stock songs only ("Cheerly") or the cries were too incidental to be identified as song-units. With this and the example of "Grog Time," above, I feel there is good evidence that halyard chanties "as we know them" had developed in/by the mid 40s.

1845-1851? - Nordhoff's statement that the screw-gangs have an endless collection of songs. This again suggests that it was by the mid 40s when the repertoire had grown, and that such a large body of songs was now available for borrowing (in both directions?) between cotton-stowers and sailors.

In all the other trades, we have examples of songs that also made it aboard ship. However, I don't know how that happened. I tend to doubt, for example, that White men being rowed in boats decided to pick up those African-American songs. No, it would more likely be that: 1) Blacks working aboard ship introduced the songs as part of the routine -- especially since, as is over and over stated, Blacks "could/would not work without singing"; 2) Contact between White sailors and Black stevedores, OR Whites working along side Blacks in stevedoring (incl. cotton-stowing), after a certain point in history, induced the borrowing.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 04:07 AM

1) and 2) of my last paragraph was meant as an either/or thing.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 07:54 AM

Excellent summary of a lot of materials and good analysis of what they might mean for the advent and development of chanties. Good work, Gibb.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 10:37 AM

Great timeline, Gibb! A critical scrutiny of shanty sources is something long overdue!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 12:15 PM

I forgot a reference in the above "timeline":

c.1846-1852

- "Oh sailors where are you bound to/Across the briny ocean" Packet ship, Liverpool > Philadelphia/ pump windlass (Nordhoff 1855)

By a close, close reading of the text, I imagine the date could be made more precise.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 01:17 PM

Roll, 1850s, Roll!

I want to start re-viewing the sources attributing chanties to the 1850s. This means digging them out of places elsewhere on Mudcat and seeing what they say about the nature and context of maritime work-singing at those times. In addition to the MANY references in the "Sydney/SF" thread, I have some more bookmarked away!

The practice of chantying seems to explode in the 1850s. I will be interested to see the qualitative differences between the 40s and the 50s.

***
In John D. Whidden's OCEAN LIFE IN THE OLD SAILING SHIP DAYS (copyright 1908), he quotes his friend Captain George Meacom, of Beverly Mass. Who wrote about the chanties he remembered from circa 1850s New Orleans. The testimony includes reference to 3 familiar songs, as pumping chanties: "Mobile Bay," "Fire Down Below," and "One More Day." It is impossible to say if these were 1850s songs though. Chantying is ascribed to more or less every shipboard task, indicating that, if the dating is accurate, chanty-singing was absolutely ubiquitous by the 1850s. It all falls within a rich passage that includes a description of cotton-stowing. Here we go:

I left the "Tirrell " in Boston, and having had enough of western ocean winter voyages, I signed the articles of the ship "Emperor," Captain Knott Pedrick, as third mate, bound to New Orleans. The "Emperor" was a ship of seven hundred tons burthen, having fine accommodations for cabin passengers. Sailing from Boston in ballast, we arrived safely, and loaded cotton for Havre, France.

New Orleans, at this time, was the great shipping port of the South for exporting cotton to Europe, although Mobile, Savannah and Charleston also shipped great quantities.
In the winter months, all along the levees at New Orleans lay tiers of shipping of all nationalities, loading cotton for the northern ports of the United States, as well as the various ports of Europe. The river front is shaped like a crescent, and from this fact New Orleans takes its name of the "Crescent City." For miles along the banks, or levees, extends the shipping, lying in tiers, loading cotton, staves, or tobacco, but principally cotton. The bales were rolled from the levee by the stevedores' gangs, generally roustabout darkies, up the staging, and tumbled on deck and down the hold, where they were received by gangs of cotton-screwers, there being as many gangs in the ship's hold as could work to advantage. The bales were placed in tiers, and when they would apparently hold no more, with the aid of planks and powerful cotton-screws, several bales would be driven in where it would appear to a novice impossible to put one.

Four men to a screw constituted a gang, and it was a point of honor to screw as many bales in a ship's hold as could possibly be crammed in, and in some cases even springing the decks upwards, such a power was given by the screw. All this work was accompanied by a song, often improvised and sung by the "chantie" man, the chorus being taken up by the rest of the gang. Each gang possessed a good "chantie" singer, with a fine voice. The chorus would come in with a vim, and every pound in the muscles of the gang would be thrown into the handle-bars of the cotton-screws, and a bale of cotton would be driven in where there appeared to be but a few inches of space.

The songs or "chanties" from hundreds of these gangs of cotton-screwers could be heard all along the river front, day after day, making the levees of New Orleans a lively spot. As the business of cotton-screwing was dull during the summer months, the majority of the gangs, all being good sailors, shipped on some vessel that was bound to some port in Europe to pass the heated term and escape the "yellow Jack," which was prevalent at that season. When they returned in the fall they could command high wages at cotton-screwing on shipboard. Some would go to northern ports, but generally the autumn found them all back, ready for their winter's work.

"Chantie" singing was not confined to the gangs of cotton screwers. In the days of the old sailing ships almost all the work on shipboard was accompanied by a song or "chantie." My old friend Captain George Meacom, of Beverly, nephew of my old commander, Captain Edward Meacom of the ship " Brutus," in an able article in the Boston Transcript, says in regard to the old time chantie songs:

"Fifty years ago, in my early sea life, when the American merchant marine was at its zenith, and the deep-water clipper sailing ship carried the broom at its masthead, no first-class well-appointed sailing ship would think of shipping its crew without having at least one good 'chantie man' among them. For with the oldstyle hand-brake windlass for getting the anchors, the heavy, single topsails and courses to handle, it was necessary, in order to secure the combined power of the men, that unison of effort should be made, especially while heaving up the anchor, mastheading the topsails, getting the tacks of the courses aboard and the sheets aft, or pumping ship, and this could better be well done by the assistance of a good 'chantie' song. With twenty-five or thirty men's efforts worked as a unit, this great, combined power would be sure to bring desired results in all heavy work. Noticing an article recently published, the writer said, 'I have passed many miserable hours pumping out leaks from wooden ships, but I was never so fortunate as to hear a pumping chantie.'

"In my early days of sea life ships were driven hard, and sail carried on the vessel to the utmost limit, that quick passages might be made, with the result that the vessel often being strained, — it not being uncommon for the whole body structure of the ship to quiver, — would leak considerably, and in order to keep her cargo from being damaged, it would be necessary to pump the water out of the vessel at stated periods, and at these times the pumping 'chantie' song came in place and served its purpose admirably. Among these songs were the following:

"'Mobile Bay

"' Were you ever down in Mobile Bay,
    Johnnie, come tell us and pump away. 

A-screwing cotton by the day,
    Johnnie, come tell us and pump away, 

Aye, aye, pump away, 

    Johnnie, come tell us and pump away,' etc.

"' Fire Down Below

"' Fire in the galley, fire in the house, 
   
Fire in the beef kid, scorching scouse; 
   
Fire, fire, fire down below: fetch a bucket of water. 
   
Fire down below,' etc.

"' One More Day For Johnnie

"' Only one more day for Johnnie,
    Only one more day: 

Oh, rock and roll me over,
    Only one more day,' etc.

" All of the named ' chanties' the writer of this once took pride in singing as a chantie man when before the mast as a sailor, and, in later years, after becoming an officer and captain, he found that the early acquisition was valuable as a critic of good 'chantie' singing, and although more than one half of a century has passed, yet the old 'chantie' song will start the blood tingling with the vim of the days of yore."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 01:41 PM

Excellent stuff, Gibb.
Today I received an email from 'Billy Weekes' who is lurking. He tells me that somewhere in the thread you have assumed that the Chatham Theatre is in London (where Wallack performed his theatrical chanty). NYC stands for New York City. Although he was claiming to be an ex RN lieutenant he was performing in New York and actually managed this theatre.

Like many aspects of traditional music where cross-overs occur from one genre to another, or one place to another, the traffic is almost always a 2-way affair if not equally so.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 02:32 PM

&cdHere are some references to the 1850's. Not all of these references are to actual chanties. But there may be a connection to the later development of a particular chanty. I'm moving these over from the "San Francisco to Sydney" thread.

From SHE WAS A SISTER SAILOR: THE WHALING JOURNALS OF MARY BREWSTER, 1845-1851, there is a reference (from a snippet) to "Tally hi o you know". I can't tell what the year is from this but someone probably has this book.

http://books.google.com/books?id=_rBiAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Tally+Hi+O%22&dq=%22Tally+Hi+O%22&cd=7

From an article entitled "News From Our Digger" an account from 1852, in TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, VOLUME 19, we have reference to "Cheerymen" and "Storm along, my Stormy".

http://books.google.com/books?id=Qt4_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA294&dq=%22Polly+Racket,+hi-ho,+cheerymen.%22&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22Polly%20

From a story called "The Boy of Chickamauga" by Edmund Kirke, in OUR YOUNG FOLKS, VOL. 1, there is a line supposedly from 1853 that may refer to "Clear the track, let the bullgine run."

http://books.google.com/books?id=rJVHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA703&dq=%22Clear+the+track+and+let+the+bullgine+run%22&lr=&cd=39#v=onepage&q&f

We have three minstrel songs from Christy and White's ETHIOPIAN MELODIES, 1854. Various versions and editions and sections of this were published here and there at other times, and there may be some earlier publication dates out there. We have "Storm along, Stormy":

http://books.google.com/books?id=W2ZCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA3-PA71&dq=%22Storm+Along+Stormy%22&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22Storm%20Along%20Stormy

And then there is "Fire Down Below":

http://books.google.com/books?id=W2ZCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA18&dq=%22Fire+Down+Below%22+Christy&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

And finally, "Whoop, Jamboree":

http://books.google.com/books?id=W2ZCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA3-PA17&dq=%22Whoop,+Jam-bo-ree%22&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22Whoop%2C%20Jam-bo-r

From MELBOURNE, AND THE CHINCHA ISLANDS, by George Washington Peck, we have a reference from 1854 to "Haul the bowline" and four different melodies without words.

http://books.google.com/books?id=c_oOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA292&dq=%22Haul+the+bowline%22+Melbourne&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

And then a reference from Solomon Northup's TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE, 1855, perhaps talking about events in 1853 or earlier. He mentions some fiddle tunes and "patting juba" songs, among which are "Old Hog Eye!" and "Jim Along, Josie."

http://books.google.com/books?id=kTaJH3W2trEC&pg=PA220&dq=%22Old+Hog+Eye%22&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22Old%20Hog%20Eye%22&f=false

From a story by Edgar S. Farnsworth called "The Yarn of the Watch" in BALLOU'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE, VOL. 2, 1855, we have "Storm along, Stormy":

http://books.google.com/books?id=ta1MAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA114&dq=Storm+along+Stormy&lr=&cd=55#v=onepage&q=Storm%20along%20Stormy&f=true

From Charles Dickens' HOUSEHOLD WORDS, 1855-56, we have what may be a reference to "Drunken Sailor":

http://books.google.com/books?id=7wwHAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA167&dq=what+shall+we+do+with+a+drunken+sailor&lr=&as_brr=1&cd=14#v=onepage&q&

From John Stirling Fisher's A BUILDER OF THE WEST, we have "Storm Along," "All on the Plains of Mexico", and "Aha, we're bound away, on the wild Missouri", from the memoirs of General William Jackson Palmer, in 1856:

http://books.google.com/books?id=_OXRs_WmAY4C&pg=PA49&dq=%22Mister+Storm+roll+on%22&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22Mister%20Storm%20roll%20

From THE KNICKERBOCKER, VOLUME 54, we have an article entitled "The Life of a Midshipman", 1857, with "Row, bullies, row!"

http://books.google.com/books?id=ybXPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA11&dq=%22O+Shenandoh+my+bully+boy%22&lr==10#v=onepage&q&f=false

From THE MERCANTILE MARINE, by E. Keble Chatterton, we have a quote from Sir William B. Forwood's REMINISCENCES OF A LIVERPOOL SHIPOWNER, 1857, which mentions "Paddy works upon the railway" and "Whiskey, Johnny."

http://books.google.com/books?id=3qCr7nTPvewC&pg=PA159&dq=Whiskey+Johnny&lr=&cd=95#v=onepage&q=Whiskey%20Johnny&f=false

From THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, Vol. II, 1858, we have "Pay me the money down!", "O long storm, storm along stormy", and "Highland day and off she goes":

http://books.google.com/books?id=MbEGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA154&dq=%22O+Long+Storm,+storm+along.%22&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=%22O%20Long%20St

From an article in the OBERLIN STUDENT'S MONTHLY, VOL 1, Issue 1, from 1858, we have mention of "We're a bully ship and a bully crew", "O! haulee, heigho, cheeryman!" and "Storm along, my stormies". There is also mention of "Jim along, Josey" as a rowing song.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ow3cAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA47&dq=Storm+along+Stormy&lr=&cd=76#v=onepage&q=Storm%20along%20Stormy&f=false

Here is "Sally Brown" from Hercules Robinson's SEA DRIFT, from 1858:

http://books.google.com/books?id=-Ku40z-xkYkC&pg=PA221&dq=%22Oh+Sally+Brown,+Sally+Brown+Oh%22&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22Oh%20Sally%20

From THE REAL EXPERIENCES OF AN EMIGRANT, by Ward, Lock, & Tyler, we have a reference to "Whiskey for Johnny!" that may be from 1859:

http://books.google.com/books?id=tHkFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA39&dq=Whiskey+Johnny&lr=&cd=160#v=onepage&q=Whiskey%20Johnny&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 02:51 PM

Just one glance at this and we surely have our burgeoning of chanty singing in the 1850s. There are about 20 titles mentioned in there.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 02:57 PM

Thanks, John. Does that set represent a distillation (more or less) of the 1850s references from that thread, or just some of the recent ones?

Steve -- NYC it is!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 04:07 PM

Gibb, this was my attempt to pull it all together. I may have missed something but I don't think so. The dating in some cases may be open to debate. I put them into the 1850's not because that's when they were published but because that was, *as near as I could tell*, their original reference point. Here are the links to the other thread. You will see that I dropped two references that I either had second thoughts on or Lighter corrected me on.

thread.cfm?threadid=126347&messages=544#2882167

thread.cfm?threadid=126347&messages=544#2882720

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 04:42 PM

Perfect, John!!

Now to digest them, bit by bit.

***

This one is great; unfortunately I don't have the book, either.

From SHE WAS A SISTER SAILOR: THE WHALING JOURNALS OF MARY BREWSTER, 1845-1851, there is a reference (from a snippet) to "Tally hi o you know".

The only thing I'll add is that [TALLY] was said to have been sung while weighing anchor. However, without more info, I don't know which device was used: capstan, spoke windlass (e.g. as in the Moby Dick film), or the pump/brake windlass (e.g. as on the CHARLES W. MORGAN).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 04:44 PM

P.S. I'd like to try that Chinese root beer.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 05:42 PM

Here are a couple of references I missed, but I think you've covered two of them.

{1850s} W Craig , ADVENTURES IN THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD FIELDS, 1903 "Two shanty fragments as sung on the sailing ships bringing gold seekers to Sydney. (From Warren Fahey's website).

"Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne" [pumping]
" When first we went a-waggoning" [anchor hauling]

http://warrenfahey.com/maritime-3.htm

{1850s} OCEAN LIFE IN THE OLD SAILING SHIP DAYS, John D. Whidden. Whidden's source is his "old friend, Captain George Meacom, of Beverly [Mass.]." Meacom refers to his own recollection of the 1850s, and his testimony seems to be reliable. (See Gibb's note above)

"Mobile Bay" /"Johnnie Come Tell Us As We Haul Away"
"Fire Down Below"
"One More Day For Johnnie"

http://books.google.com/books?id=cj0NAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA99&dq=%22One+more+day+for+Johnnie%22&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22One%20more%20day%20f

{1853} A JOURNEY IN THE SEABOARD SLAVE STATES Frederick Law Olmsted, 1861

"Oahoiohieu" / "The Sailor Fireman" ("Lindy Lowe") [riverboat]
"Oh, John, come down in de holler" [riverboat]

(scroll down):

http://books.google.com/books?id=koMIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA607&dq=You+see+dem+boat+way+dah+head&lr=&cd=33#v=onepage&q&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 05:52 PM

From an article entitled "News From Our Digger" an account from 1852, in TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, VOLUME 19, we have reference to "Cheerymen" and "Storm along, my Stormy".

So this is a trip in Australia's Gold Rush days, in a packet ship, CHALMERS, which left Aug. 1852 from Gravesend (on the Thames) and bound for Melbourne. Published 1853. The author, a gold-seeking passenger, writes:

Songs Afloat.—There is one thing in particular which is sure to attract the attention of a landsman when he first sets his foot on board ship, and this is the songs sung by the seamen whilst performing their various duties. These songs, which often, as regards words, are made impromptu, are most enlivening and spirited; and a good singing crow, with a clever leader, may, in my opinion, be looked upon in the light of a blessing on board any ship. In a little schooner in which I made a voyage up the Mediterranean, we had some excellent singers; and scarcely was a rope touched, sail set, or other heavy work done, without a song : and this may, in some measure, be accounted for by the encouragement given them by our captain, who would often promise all hands a tot of rum, if they did their work in a seamanlike manner, and sang well. The good effect of this was very visible on the men, who evidently pulled the ropes more cheerfully and with double vigour. The following are specimens:—

On Hauling up Topsail Yards, after Reefing.

Polly Racket, hi-ho, cheerymen—(pull),
Pawned my jacket, hi-ho, cheerymen—(pull),
And sold the ticket, hi-ho, cheerymen—(pull);
Ho, hawly, hi-ho, cheerymen—(pull).

Eouse him up, hi-ho, cheerymen—(pull),
Pull up the devil, hi-ho, cheerymen—(pull);
And make him civil, hi-ho, cheerymen—(pull),
Oh, hawly, hi-ho, cheerymen—(pull).

***
I wish I was old Stormy's son,
Hurra, and storm along :
I'd give the sailors lots of rum,
Storm along, my Stormy.
Chorus—Hurra!—hurra!—hurra!—storm along,
    Storm along, my roving blades,
    Storm along, my Stormy.

Notes:

This is the first *shipboard* appearance of STORMY that I am seeing. The text's layout makes it confusing as to whether Stormy was also used for halliards. Well, it is listed as if it were, however, the full chorus is not characteristic of what we now associate with halyard chanties. (In Hugill's version, for example, this chorus seems to be chopped off.) The passenger may have noted this song, but not properly distinguished the task. If we consider that "Stormy" may have been borrowed from the cotton-stowers' repertoire...and as those "chants" were earlier (i.e. Nordhoff) compared to capstan songs, we'd expect this Stormy to be for a heaving task. On the other hand, if it was in fact used for halyards, that means cotton chants were adapted to halliards, too. Either way it is significant, but I'm not sure which way!

Interesting to see how CHEERLY persisted into this time, as a halliard chantey. In this example, there is a clear 4-phrase stanza-like form -- as it appears in Hugill. In other words, it wasn't just "say a line, then pull at the end," but rather the melodic cadences and the "hawly" phrase caused sets of 4 lines to be grouped.

Also interesting how the passenger attests hearing chanties for all work on a schooner. That statement may have to be qualified by something we are unaware of. However, it seems to contradict the idea that chanties weren't used on schooners "because they weren't needed." Perhaps the "need" for chanties on packet ships is what spurned the development, and once they became ubiquitous there, they became popular on lighter fore/aft rigged vessels, too.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 09:35 PM

THE WESTERN WILDS OF AMERICA, by John Regan (2nd. edition, 1859), mentions a riverboat trip in the Mississippi Valley (Galena River, Illinois) that he took circa 1843-1846. No specific song is mentioned, but he does describe his impression of the singing of African-American firemen:

About dark a steamer from Galena going down, called at the landing-place to take in grain, and we got on board to vary the journey and ease our limbs. The night was exceedingly hot and oppressive, and we stretched ourselves upon deck, hard by the windlass. The fires, as is usual, were upon this lower deck, served by negroes. As we lay with our hats drawn over our faces in a half doze, the firemen struck up one of those singularly wild and impressive glees which negroes alone can sing effectively. By turns the singer would break out into measured tones of laughter, followed by an outburst of musical salvoes, very singular and very commanding, coming as they did from the lungs of half a dozen or more. This would be succeeded by a sharp, piercing, "desolate howl," and this again by the full chorus of negro voices, aided by the black cook, who, captivated by the strains, would lean his breast up against his galley door, and grin out his satisfaction in true character, To describe in writing, however, the singular effect of this strange medley of sounds, would be impossible.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 10:00 PM

In "Notes and Queries" for August 1851, a contributer (T.W.) mentions an earlier published firemen's song. Here is what he/she says:

In the 231st number of that excellent New York periodical, The Literary World, published on the 5th of July, there is an article on "Steamboats and Steamboating in the South West," in which I find the following passage: —

"I mentioned the refrain of the firemen. Now as a particular one is almost invariably sung by Negroes when they have anything to do with or about a fire; whether it be while working at a New Orleans fire-engine, or crowding wood into the furnaces of a steamboat; whether they desire to make an extra racket at leaving, or evince their joy at returning to a port, it may be worth recording; and here it is:

Fire on the quarter-deck,
Fire on the bow,
Fire on the gun-deck,
Fire down below !'

The last line is given by all hands with great vim (sic) and volume; and as for the chorus itself, you will never meet or pass a boat, you will never behold the departure or arrival of one, and you will never witness a New Orleans fire, without hearing it."

The writer says nothing about the origin of this Negro melody, and therefore he is, I presume, unaware of it. But many of your readers will at once recognise the spirited lines, which when once they are read in Walter Scott's Pirate, have somehow a strange pertinacity in ringing in one's ears, and creep into a nook of the memory, from which they ever and anon insist on emerging to the lips. The passage occurs at the end of the fifth chapter of the third volume, where the pirates recapture their runaway captain : —

" They gained their boat in safety, and jumped into it, carrying along with them Cleveland, to whom circumstances seemed to offer no other refuge, and pushed off for their vessel, singing in chorus to their oars an old ditty, of which the natives of Kirkwall could only hear the first stanza :

'Thus said the Rover
   To his gallant crew,
Up with the black flag,
   Down with the blue!
Fire on the main-top,
   Fire on the bow.
Fire on the gun-deck,
   Fire down below !'"

How did the song get from Walter Scott to 1840s era Black Americans? I am supposing that the song was earlier prevalent as a song in British ships. Fascinating, then, that it would have become ubiquitous among African-Americans in certain trades. Incidentally, this reminds me that, though we've touched upon it slightly elsewhere on Mudcat (e.g. in reference to "bulgine"), we've yet to bring in the possible influence of fire-fighter's songs here.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 10:17 PM

Here's one to file back with the African-American rowing descriptions of the 1830s.

THE PLANTER, by David Brown, 1853. The narrator is on the St. Johns River, Florida. It is Feb. 1834.


What most surprised us in the negroes,—strangers till then to their peculiarities—was their remarkable talent of improvisation. Their extemporaneous songs at the oar, suited to various scenes and occasions and circumstances present, induced the natural feeling that our boatmen were a set of rare geniuses, selected by our generous friend for the purpose of giving us additional pleasure and surprise. It was afterwards found that extemporaneous singing was not uncommon among them.

The negro boatman of the South seems inspired by the improvising muse whenever he seizes the oar; and especially if it be to row a company of agreeable people on a party of pleasure. If there be young ladies of the number, they may be quite sure to be introduced by the muse, and to receive not only compliments, but admonitions.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 10:28 PM

From a story by Edgar S. Farnsworth called "The Yarn of the Watch" in BALLOU'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE, VOL. 2, [August] 1855, we have "Storm along, Stormy"

It's a general reference to how a crew might sing that song. No specific occasion mentioned.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 11:03 PM

PUTNAM'S MONTHLY for Jan. 1855 had an article entitled "Negro Minstrelsy - Ancient and Modern". It contains the following passage, which includes lyrics to two songs that relate to the maritime repertoire (in an imagined Georgia):

And now, faintly heard far over the water, I distinguish the soft thump of oars in the rowlock of an approaching boat. I listen with attentive ears—for I know by experience the gratification in store for me—and soon catch the distant tones of the human voice— now more faintly heard, and now entirely lost. A few minutes pass, and the breeze once more wafts to me the swelling notes of the chorus half buried in the measured cadeuce of the oars. The wind dies away, and my straining ears again hear nothing but the measured beat of the rowers, and the plashing of the restless sea. But now, anew, I hear the sound of those manly negro voices swelling up upon the evening gale. Nearer and nearer conies the boat, higher and higher rises the melody, till it overpowers and subdues the noise of the oars, which in their turn become subservient to the song, and mark its time with harmonious beating. And now the boat is so near, that every word and every tone comes to my ear, over the water, with perfect distinctness, and I recognize the grand old triumphal chorus of the stirring patriotic melody of " Gen'el Jackson":

"Gen'el Jackson, mighty man—
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away;
He fight on iea, and he fight on land,
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away.

Gen'el Jackson gain de day—
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away,
Be gain de day in Floraday,
Whaw, my kingdom, flre away.

Gen'el Jackson fine de trail,
Whaw, my kingdom, flre away,
He full um fote wid cotton bale,
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away."

But the boat touches the beach; the negroes with a wild cry quit their singing, tumble out into the shallow water, drag their dug-out up high and dry upon the sand, and I am left once more with the evening breeze and the quieter harmony of nature.

The song, a part of which I have just quoted, is fresh from the sable mint in which it was coined. Its originality and genuineness every one familiar with plantation life will at once perceive; while some Georgians may even be able to point to the very river on which the dusky troubadours still chant it. I am well aware that in depriving the words of their appropriate music, I rob it of much of its attractiveness, and still it is no bad sample of what may be called the Historic Plantation Ballad. The particular naval battle in which Old Hickory was engaged, I have not been able to discover; but the allusion to the bales of cotton in the third stanza may not be without its effect in settling one of the vexed questions relating to the defence of New Orleans; and it adds another to the many examples of the superiority of oral tradition over contemporaneous written history.

It is not alone, however, on the water that these quaint songs are produced. The annual corn-shucking season has its own peculiar class of songs, never heard but on that festival; their rhythmical structure or caesural pauses not being adapted to the measured cadence of the oars. Standing at a little distance from the corn heap, on some dark and quiet night, watching the sable forms of the gang, illuminated at intervals by the flashes of the lightwood knot, and listening to the wild high notes of their harvest songs, it is easy to imagine ourselves unseen spectators of some secret aboriginal rite or savage festival. Snatches of one or two songs which on such occasions I have heard, recur to me. Could I in the following specimen give you any idea of the wild grandeur and stirring music of the refrain, I should need no apology for presenting it to my readers.

"De ladies in de parlor.
Hey, come a rollln' down—
A drinking tea and coffee;
Good morning ladies all.

"De gemmen in de kitchen,
Hey come a rollln' down—
A drinking brandy toddy ;
Good morning, ladies all."

More clues to the origin of "Fire Maringo" -- The 2nd Seminole War in Florida (1835-1842), perhaps? -- and an example of its use for rowing (i.e. not just cotton-stowing). "Good morning, ladies all" may not be the same song as the chantey, though it does have a chantey form, and it is being used for "work."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 12:12 AM

GENTLEMEN'S MAGAZINE for Oct. 1839 contains a story supposedly based on the logs of the USS CONSTITUTION in action during the War of 1812. Outside of any context, the article quotes the words to the chantey, FIRE DOWN BELOW.

"Fire! in the main-top,
Fire! in the bow.
Fire! on the gun-deck,
Fire! down below."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 09:01 AM

This looks like it might be a reference to a Gold Rush voyage to San Francisco in 1856. It is from LIFE BY LAND AND SEA, by Prentice Mulford, originally published in 1889. He is on board the "Wizard", and there is a lot of pumping going on. He says,

"For the first six weeks all the "shanty songs" known on the sea had been sung. Regularly at each pumping exercise we had "Santy Anna," "Bully in the Alley," "Miranda Lee," "Storm Along, John," and other operatic maritime gems, some of which might have a place in our modern operas of "The Pinafore" school. There's a good deal of rough melody when these airs are rolled out, by twenty or thirty strong lungs to the accompaniment of a windlass' clank and the wild, shrill sweep of the winds in the rigging above." (p. 24    Here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ClgFQ2SwJQ0C&pg=PA24&dq=%22Bully+in+the+Alley%22&lr=&cd=12#v=onepage&q=%22Bully%20in%20the%20Al

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 02:34 PM

Just to add to John's last entry, Mulford 1889:

The WIZARD described was a clipper ship, bound NY > San Francisco. 1856 is also my best guess -- the author makes the time period very confusing. Though he refers to a windlass in the context of shanties, that is a general reference; the songs specifically mentioned are not necessarily ascribed to that task. Each is being ascribed to pumping. They must have been using the "Downton pump" (i.e. not the brake-lever style, whose action is much like a windlass) because later he says they fitted it with "bell ropes." That means that some guys were doing a hauling action.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 04:19 PM

I can't find a thing on "Miranda Lee". I wonder what this song was about.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: shipcmo
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 04:41 PM

Don't suppose it had anything to do with "Liza Lee"?
Hoist one!
Geo

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 08:03 PM

Here is the relevant passage in A JOURNEY IN THE SEABOARD SLAVE STATES by Frederick Law Olmsted, copyright 1856.

It is 1853. He is traveling on a steamboat on the Red River to Shrevport, LA.

We backed out, winded round head up, and as we began to breast the current, a dozen of the negro boat-hands, standing on the freight, piled up on the low forecastle, began to sing, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and shirts lashed to poles, towards the people who stood on the sterns of the steam-boats at the levee. After losing a few lines, I copied literally into my note-book:

"Ye see dem boat way dah ahead.
Chorus.—Oahoiohieu.
De San Charles is arter 'em, dey mus go behine.
Cho.—Oahoiohieu.

So stir up dah, my livelies, stir her up; (pointing to the furnaces).
Cho.—Oahoiohieu.
Dey's burnin' not'n but fat and rosum.
Cho.—Oahoiohieu.

Oh, we is gwine up de Red River, oh!
Cho.—Oahoiohieu.
Oh, we mus part from you dah asho'.
Cho.—Oahoiohieu.

Give my lub to Dinah, oh!
Cho.—Oahoiohieu.
For we is gwine up de Red River.
Cho.—Oahoiohieu.

Yes, we is gwine up de Red River.
Cho.—Oahoiohieu.
Oh we must part from you dah oh.
Cho.—Oahoiohieu."

[The wit introduced into these songs has, I suspect, been rather over-estimated. On another occasion I took down the following:

" John come down in de holler,
   Oh, work and talk and holler,
   Oh, John, come down in de ho ler,
Ime gwine away to-morrow.
Oh, John, &c.

Ime gwine away to marry,
Oh, John, &c.

Get my cloves in order,
Oh. John, &c.

I'se gwine away to-morrow,
Oh, John, &c.

Oh, work and talk and holler,
Oh, John, &c.

Massa guv me dollar,
Oh, John, &c.

Don't cry yer eyes out, honey,
Oh, John, &c.

I'm gwine to get some money,
Oh, John, &c.

But I'll come back to-morrow,
Oh, John, &c.

So work and talk and holler,
Oh, John, &c.

Work all day and Sunday,
Oh, John, &c.

Massa get de money,
Oh, John, &c.

After the conclusion of this song, and after the negroes had left the bows, and were coming aft along the guards, we passed two or three colored nurses, walking with children on the river bank; as we did so the singers jumped on some cotton bales, bowed very low to them, took off their hats, and swung and waved them, and renewed their song :

God bless yon all, dah ! ladies !
Oh, John come down in de holler,

Farwell, de Lord be wid you, honey,
    Oh, John, come down, &c.

Done cry yerself to def,
    Oh, John. &c.

I'm gwine down to New Orleans,
    Oh, John. &c

I'll come back, dough, bime-by,
    Oh, John, &c,

So far-you-well, my honey,
    Oh, John, &c.

Far-you-well, all you dah, shore,
    Oh, John, &c.

And save your cotton for de Dalmo!
Oh, John, &c]

The Black boat-hands singing are not working. However, one might presume (?) the songs would be the same ones they would use working -- for fireman duties. The first one, THE SAILOR FIREMAN, is attested elsewhere as a work-song, as is the famous JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO.

It may be notable that although Olmsted gave the work-songs on a whaling voyage in 1840 (above), he does not compare these songs to those (which were the old DRUNKEN SAILOR and "Nancy Fanana"/"Haul 'er Away").

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 08:31 PM

From John Stirling Fisher's A BUILDER OF THE WEST, we have "[Hi yi, yi, yi,Mister Storm roll on, Storm Along,] Storm Along," "All on the Plains of Mexico", and "Aha, we're bound away, on the wild Missouri", from the memoirs of General William Jackson Palmer, in 1856

Unfortunately, the specific context of these songs is not noted. The passenger heard them on a packet ship from Liverpool to New York.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 09:05 PM

Courtesy of John Minear:

///
Here is a version of "Row, Bullies Row" from 1857. It is in THE KNICKERBOCKER, VOL L., 1857, in an article entitled "The Life of a Midshipmen", by "John Jenkins" (?). He is at the Brooklyn Naval Yard and is being rowed out to his first assignment on board the US Frigate "Shenandoah". It is presented as a rowing song:

[As the launch (which, to my surprise, proved to be nothing more than a large boat) was heavily laden, and the tide running strong against us, the pull to the ship was a very heavy one ; so, to lighten their labors, the midshipman in charge of the boat, gave permission to ' the men ' to sing; upon which they regaled our ears with at least a dozen of the most popular sea-songs of the day, concluding with one, (which I afterward found to be a great favorite among seamen,) where the singers are two — the one (taking for his theme whatever comes uppermost in his mind) making some statement; the other asking a question in relation to it, to which the first replies — the whole boat's crew joining in the chorus. In the present instance it was as follows:]

'Oh! I do love that good, old bottle!
   Row, bullies, row!
Oh! I do love that good, old bottle!
   Row, my bullies, row!
Why do yo love that good, old bottle?
   Row, my bullies, row!
I love it 'cause it suits my throttle!
    Row, my bullies, row!
I love it 'cause it suits my throttle!
    Row, my bullies, row!

   After singing five more verses in the same elegant strain, we happened to pass a bum-boat, in which were seated a fat, old white woman and a negro boy, whereupon the singers roared out with great glee, and in a higher key than before:

'Yonder sits a dear old lady!
    Row, my bullies, row!
Yonder sits a dear old lady!
   Row, my bullies, row!
How do you know she is a lady?
    Row, my bullies, row!
How do you know she is a lady?
    Row, my bullies, row!
I know her by her nigger baby!
    Row, my bullies, row!
I know her by her nigger baby!"   
    Row, my bullies, row!            
////

I wonder about the time period. I don't find any Frigate SHENANDOAH around in 1857 (?). I wonder if this account is from quite a bit earlier. It is much like the song in The American Journal of Music and Musical Vistor, 1845 (above), and it may well have been the same song as what we now know as BLOW BOYS BLOW.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 09:43 PM

From John M.:

////
Here is a reference to ""Whiskey, Johnny" from 1857. In his book, THE MERCANTILE MARINE, E. Keble Chatterton [2009] prints a long quote from a "recently published" book by Sir Wiliam B. Forwood entitled REMINISCENCES OF A LIVERPOOL SHIPOWNER [1920]. Forwood is recollecting a voyage on the "Red Jacket" in 1857. Forwood says, "On the morning of 20th November, 1857...I embarked by a tender from the Liverpool pierhead." The anchor is heaved [via windlass] "to a merry chantie" which is "In 1847 Paddy Murphy went to Heaven".

[In 1847 Paddy Murphy went to Heaven
To work on the railway, the railway, the railway
Oh, poor Paddy works on the railway]

The next morning, they were off Holy head and the order came "loose the headsails." (pp. 158-159):

"Now then, my men, lead your topsail halyards fore and aft, and up with them'. And the crew walk along with the halyards, and then with a long pull and a pull all together the topsail yards are mastheaded to the chantie:

       "Then up the yard must go,
                Whiskey for my Johnny,
       Oh, whiskey for the life of man,
                Whiskey, Johnny.'"
////

So, PADDY ON THE RAILWAY at the brake windlass...and WHISKEY JOHNNY at the halyards. It sounds like they may have been doing a stamp 'n' go maneuver at the halyards, but I don't see how that would work for the chanty. Reading it closer, I think the crew was perhaps just walking the slack, after which, in positions, they did a pull in place. What do others think?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 10:35 PM

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY for July 1858 contains an article on "Songs of the Sea."

Here are some passages about work-songs.

The sailor does not lack for singing. He sings at certain parts of his work;—indeed, he must sing, if he would work. On vessels of war, the drum and fife or boatswain's whistle furnish the necessary movement regulator. There, where the strength of one or two hundred men can be applied to one and the same effort, the labor is not intermittent, but continuous. The men form on either side of the rope to be hauled, and walk away with it like firemen inarching with their engine. When the headmost pair bring up at the stern or bow, they part, and the two streams flow back to the starting-point, outside the following files. Thus in this perpetual " follow-my-leader " way the work is done, with more precision and steadiness than in the merchant-service. Merchantmen are invariably manned with the least possible number, and often go to sea shorthanded, even according to the parsimonious calculations of their owners. The only way the heavier work can be done at all is by each man doing his utmost at the same moment. This is regulated by the song. And here is the true singing of the deep sea. It is not recreation; it is an essential part of the work. It mastheads the topsail-yards, on making tail; it starts the anchor from the domestic or foreign mud; it " rides down the main tack with a will"; it breaks out and takes on board cargo; it keeps the pumps (the ship's,—not the sailor's) going. A good voice and a new and stirring chorus are worth an extra man. And there is plenty of need of both.

What a great statement on the difference of work in a Navy versus a merchant vessel. It provides perfect evidence for the argument that merchant vessels "needed" chanties.

I remember well one black night in the mid-Atlantic, when we were beating up
against a stiff breeze, coming on deck near midnight, just as the ship was put about. When a ship is tacking, the tacks and sheets (ropes which confine the clews or lower corners of the sails) are let run, in order that the yards may be swung round to meet the altered position of the ship. They must then be hauled taut again, and belayed, or secured, in order to keep the sails in their place and to prevent them from shaking. When the ship's head comes up in the wind, the sail is for a moment or two edgewise to it, and then is the nice moment, as soon as the head-sails fairly fill, when the main-yard and the yards above it can be swung readily, and the tacks and sheets hauled in. If the crew are too few in number, or too slow at their work, and the sails get fairly filled on the new tack, it is a fatiguing piece of work enough to " board " the tacks and sheets, as it is called. You are pulling at one end of the rope,—but the gale is tugging at the other. The advantages of lungs are all against you, and perhaps the only thing to be done is to put the helm down a little, and set the sails shaking' again before they can be trimmed properly.—It was just at such a time that I came on deck, as above mentioned. Being near eight bells, the watch on deck had been not over spry ; and the consequence was that our big main-course was slatting and flying out overhead with a might that shook the ship from stem to stern. The flaps of the mad canvas were like successive thumps of a giant's fist upon a mighty drum. The sheets were jerking at the belaying-pins, the blocks rattling in sharp snappings like castanets. You could hear the hiss and seething of the sea alongside, and see it flash by in sudden white patches of phosphorescent foam, while all overhead was black with the flying scud. The English second-mate was stamping with vexation, and, with all his Hs misplaced, storming at the men:— "'An'somely the weather main-brace,— 'an'somely, I tell you!—'Alf a dozen of you clap on to the main sheet here,— down with 'im!—D'ysee 'ore's hall like a midshipman's bag,—heverythink huppermost and nothing 'andy.—'Aul 'im in, Hi say!"—But the sail wouldn't come, though. All the most forcible expressions of the Commination-Service were liberally bestowed on the watch. " Give us the song, men!" sang out the mate, at last,— " pull with a will!—together, men!—haltogether now! "—And then a cracked, melancholy voice struck up this chant:

"Oh, the bowline, bully bully bowline,
Oh, the bowline, bowline, HAUL!"

At the last word every man threw his whole strength into the pull,—all singing it in chorus, with a quick, explosive sound. And so, jump by jump, the sheet was at last hauled taut.—I dare say this will seem very much spun out to a seafarer, but landsmen like to hear of the sea and its ways; and as more landsmen than seamen, probably, read the " Atlantic Monthly," I have told them of one genuine sea-song, and its time and place.

The classic sheet shanty.

Then there are pumping-songs. "The dismal sound of the pumps is heard," says Mr. Webster's Plymouth-Rock Oration ; but being a part of the daily morning duty of a well-disciplined merchant vessel,—just a few minutes' spell to keep the vessel free and cargo unharmed by bilge-water,—it is not a dismal sound at all, but rather a lively one. It was a favorite amusement with us passengers on board the --- to go forward about
pumping-time to the break of the deck and listen. Any quick tune to which you might work a fire-engine will serve for the music, and the words were varied with every fancy.
"Pay me the money down," was one favorite chorus, and the verse ran thus:—

Solo. " Your money, young man, is no object to me.
Chorus. Pay me the money down!
Sola. Half a crown's no great amount.
Chorus. Pay me the money down!
Solo and Chorus. (Bis.) Money down, money down, pay me the money down! "

Not much sense in all this, but it served to man and move the brakes merrily. Then there were other choruses, which, were heard from time to time, —" And the young gals goes a
weepin',"—" O long storm, storm along stormy"; but the favorite tune was "Money down," at least with our crew. They were not an avaricious set, either; for their parting ceremony, on embarking, was to pitch the last half-dollars of their advance on to the wharf, to be scrambled for by the land-sharks. But " Money down " was the standing chorus. I once heard, though not on board that ship, the lively chorus of " Off she goes, and off she must go,"—

" Highland day and off she goes,
Off she goes with a flying fore-topsail,
Highland day and off she goes."

It is one of the most spirited things imaginable, when well sung, and, when applied to the topsail-halyards, brings the yards up in grand style.

So PAY ME THE MONEY DOWN is used for pumping (brake style), along with (implied) ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN and STORMALONG. Is the last one HIGHLAND LADDIE? Or is it perhaps something related to Hugill's "Hilonday"?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 10:48 PM

BTW, is this perhaps the first article devoted to Sea Songs?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 11:18 PM

Another question: Why does the author in 1858 not use the term "chanty"?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 19 Apr 10 - 03:33 PM

As for minstrel songs -- those especially of the late 1830s thru 1850s -- influencing chanties, the fact is well known. But because this thread's subject is more about seeing the emergence of chanteying (i.e. maritime work-singing) as a whole, and not the individual trajectories of songs, I've not been inclined to note all the minstrel songs from those years (i.e. outside of maritime and working context).

Some deserve special note, however. We talked about STORMY appearing in WHITE'S NEW ILLUSTRATED MELODEON of 1848 -- a collection, which means the songs were popular on stage even a few years earlier, perhaps. One could make a good case that STORMY was borrowed into the minstrel repertoire from the cotton-stowing context.

So I want to mention two other songs that I think one could argue were also taken from work-songs.

The same collection has THE SAILOR FIREMAN. It had been documented before this date as a "stoker's chaunt" in 1839. And after this, it appears among steamboat hands in Olmsted's account. In other words, the song was linked to the steamboat fireman's profession. heres how it appears in the 1848 collection:

FIRE DOWN BELOW

I'll fire dis trip, but I'll fire no more
    Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!
Oh, pay me my money , and I'll go on shore
    Fire down below.

Miss Fanny Bell, oh, fare you well
I'm gwine away, p'r'aps to [Hell]

A bully boat, and a bully crew
An' a bully ragin' captain, too

De possum jump, and de panther roar
I woke dis mornin' at half-past four

I crept out safely from my five
An took a dram at half-past five

Says I, "ole boat, let's have no tricks"
Her biler bust at half-past six

So now we trabbel under sail
'Kase Jonah's de man dat swallowed de whale

I'll fire dis trip but I'll fire no more
Pay me my money, an I'll go on shore

Hugill included this in his collection; he'd taken it from a Swedish chantey collection. The verses are so similar, that it seems to be this minstrel version misheard/folk-processed. Here's a rendition. Still, I believe this song's existence was not dependent on the popular stage.

The other song of note in White collection is the "other" "Fire Down Below" song. This is the whose framework may (my conjecture) go back to British Navy days, but which had become ubiquitous among African-American laborers.

FIRE, FIRE, FIRE

Composed and sung by the Pet of Minstrels, Cool White, and received nightly with thunders of applause, at the Head Quarters of all Serenaders and Minstrels, the Melodeon, 53 Bowery, New-York.

I left de husking party late,
   I began to grow quite tire,
But 'fore I got to massa's gate,
I heard de cry ob fire
Chorui: Fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire,
      An I am bound to go,
    Yes, I am bound to go;
    Den tote dat bucket ob water, [boys?]
    Dar's fire down below

De fireman rushes to de spot,
What shriek is dat I hear!
De widow hab de child forgot,
Twill perish yet I fear.
Fire, fire, fire, fire, &c.

De fireman hears dat dreadful cry,
   I golly, dat's enough ;
De smoke an fire, he both defy,
His skin am thick an tough.
Fire, fire, fire, fire, &c.

Dat shout again, 'tis one ob joy,
De hero now appears,
De widow takes her darling boy,
She thanks him wid her tears.
          Fire, fire, fire, fire, &c.

It corresponds --I say-- to this strain of song, as in Hugill's Version "D'.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Apr 10 - 04:03 PM

Gibb, 'I don't see how that would work for the chanty. Reading it closer, I think the crew was perhaps just walking the slack, after which, in positions, they did a pull in place. What do others think?

I read the same as you here.

Why does the author in 1858 not use the term "chanty"?
I didn't think the term was in wide universal use until later. Not everyone would be familiar with it. The writer is also speaking as a very observant outsider, not someone actively involved. He was simply observing, not talking to the crew.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Apr 10 - 04:17 PM

Fire! Fire! Fire!
printed by the Glasgow Poet's Box 23rd November, 1867

Versions were also printed by Fortey of London and Sanderson of Edinburgh at about the same time.

As I went out de oder night
To take a little walk,
I ran again a fireman,
And to him I did talk.
He asked me what I wanted,
Or what I did require,
And just as he was saying dis
A nigger called out "Fire!"

Chorus--Fire! fire! fire!
Now I's bound to go;
       Can't you give us a bucket of water,
Dere's a fire down below.

Away we ran for de old engine,
To old Aunt Sally's dwelling;
Aunt Sally came to meet de flames,
To help dem I was willing
Aunt Sally jumped on de coachman's box,
I thought I should expire,
To see her grin on de old engine,
As we went to de fire.

When we got to de house on fire,
We off de engine hopped;
Aunt Sally up de ladder flew,
All for to reach de top.
Her heel did slip, and down she fell,
Instead of going higher;
She fell up to her neck in water,
And declared she was in de fire.

Aunt Sally kicked, Aunt Sally screamed,
And declared she was burnt to death;
De splashing ob de water
Soon put de flames to rest.
I caught hold of Aunt Sally's arms,
I thought she would expire;
She does declare to dis berry day,
She set de water on fire.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Apr 10 - 04:36 PM

Printed by Such of London at about the same time as the Glasgow one.

Fire! Down Below.

Oh, I am a simple country lad,
From London just come down,
To tell you the scrapes and narrow escapes
I had when last in town;
Twas market day, I'd sold my hay,
And stood things to admire,
When all at once a chap bawl'd oot,
Hey Master, mind the fire.
Fire! fire! fire!
   Fire down below;
Let us hope that we shall never see,
   A fire down below.,

I turned me round to ask a lass,
The cause of all this stir,
And if she'd a mind to be so kind,
As to tell me where it were;
Says she, "young man, yes that I can,
Do all that you require,
Just come with me and you shall see,
I'll take you where there's fire."

With that she linked her arm in mine,
And down the steeet we steered
To some back slum she called her home,
But still no fire appeared.
For a house we peep'd, upstairs we creep'd,
Three story's(sic) high or higher,
In a room we popp'd, all night we stopp'd.
But I couldn't find out the fire.

(I think I know where this is going!)

In the morning when I waken'd up,
My lady-bird had flown,
Not only lass, but all my brass.
And watch and clothes were gone;
Bare legg'd and feet, I ran in street,
My shirt my sole attire,
The women laughed, and the men they chaff'd,
While I kept bawling, "Fire!"

By some good chance I reached my home,
Half dead with shame and fright,
And all that saw me and all that knew me,
Said, "Spoony, served him right."
But the worst wasn't past, oh, it came at last,
I thought I should expire,
Say what you will I was very ill,
And the doctor said 'twas fire!

So all you good gentlemen,
Who a courting have not been,
Be advised by me, don't foolish be,
By all I have done and seen.
Don't miss your ways on market days,
Or stand things to admire,
But avoid back slums, and female chums,
And don't go catching fire.

A well-written tight little parody. Hope it gets sung again some time.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 19 Apr 10 - 05:46 PM

In the OBERLIN STUDENT'S MONTHLY for Dec. 1858, an I. Allen has written the second (?) article devoted to "Songs of the Sailor." It is remarkably reflective. Here are excerpts.

And then, on the still morning air, there comes floating to you, mellowed by the distance, the sailor's work song, keeping time to the monotonous "click, click'' of the windlass pawls, as the anchor comes slowly up:

"We've a bully slop and a bully crew,
      Heigho, heave and go;
We've a bully mate and a captain too;
      Heigho, heave and go.''

That monotonous chorus is just as essential to the proper working of the ship as the ropes and windlass. The anchor sticks as if it had grown to the bottom, and nothing but a song can get it up....

The brake windlass song has a typical verse. The chorus seems transmutable with "roll & go," i.e a Sally Brown sort of song.

The topsails are down for reefing, and the ship strains and pitches over the "seas," while the wind over head howls and whistles the chorus of triumphant storm-fiends; but the song rises:

"Oh haulee, heigho, cheeryman !
O ! pull like brothers, heigho, cheeryman,
And not like lubbers, heigho, cheeryman;
O ! haulee, heigho, cheeryman."

And up goes the topsail: the laboring ship feels it, and plunges off like a racehorse, and the enraged wind follows whistling and howling astern.

The continued use of CHEERLY for topsail halyards. Notable perhaps that the form is "cheeryman," as in the 1852 "News from our Digger."

There was one ditty often used at the windlass, that frequently gave rise to a train of reverie in my mind, especially when combined with surrounding circumstances. The forest-crowned hills, the waving palms and cocoas, the peculiar fragrance borne to us on the landbreeze, the solemn roar of the distant surf, the red, blue and white dresses of the men, as bare-armed and footed, they worked at the windlass and elsewhere, the hundreds of swarthy forms on deck and in canoes dancing over the blue waves, all combined to give force to the idea, that you were in a foreign land. And then, amid the barbarous jargon of tongues, the crew at the windlass strike up:

"I wish I were a stormy's son;
Hurrah, storm along!
I'd storm 'em up and storm 'em down;
Storm along my stormies.
Hurrah! John Rowley,
John, storm along—
We'll storm 'em up and storm 'em down,
Storm along, my stormies.
We'll make them hear our thundering guns,
Storm along my stormies."

And then it proceeds pathetically to inform us that "Old Rowley is dead and gone," and that "they lowered him down with a golden chain," and that they'll proceed to storm somebody or other...

It's WAY STORMALONG JOHN.

...There stuck the anchor till the captain came aboard and another row, and water as a result. Then the anchor came up and we sailed away to the tune of—

"And now our prize we'll take in tow,
And tor old England we will go ;
Our pockets all well lined with brass,
We'll drink a health to our favorite lass!
Hurrah! we're homeward bou-ou-ound!
Hurrah ! we're homeward bound."

Hugill has this one under the title of OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND. Claims it was originally an old (late 18th century) ballad.

But strange as it may seem, however varied the appearance and nationality of the ship and its crew, be they from Archangel's icebound coast, or India's coral strand, Saxon or Celt, Frenchman or Turk, Russian or African, we invariably find that the strain of the sailor's worksong has the same plaintive minor key, strongly reminding one of their similarity in this respect to the sad-toned melodies of the negro race....

Ooooh, "plaintive" and "minor" again.

One evening as we were thus seated on deck, among the eager listeners to the usual songs and ghost stories, there was a young colored man who was working his passage home. "Come Pete," said one of the men, "it's your turn now; give us a song." "Can't massar only savy (know) my country song." " Oh well, let's have one of them." After considerable parleying, a dirge-like whine issued from Pete's corner, which no one suspected was intended for a song. At last one, getting impatient, cried out, "That's enough tuning up; let's have the song." Another, " What are you crying about ? We only asked for a song." "Dat my country song I" retorted the indignant Pete; and the roar with which this announcement was greeted upsetting the nerves of poor Pete, we soon found there was a slight difference between his singing and crying. Along the African coast you will hear that dirge-like strain in all their songs, as at work or paddling their canoes to and from shore, they keep time to the music. On the southern plantations you will hear it also, and in the negro melodies every where, plaintive and melodious, sad and earnest. It seems like the dirge of national degradation, the wail of a race, stricken and crushed, familiar with tyranny, submission and unrequited labor.

Wow, the author is drawing a pretty strong connection between sailors' songs and slave songs. I wonder what the abolitionist undertones may have been. Hey, it's a far cry from this 1858 statement to Cecil Sharp's 1914 statements on "the vexed question of negro influence."

And here I cannot help noticing tho similarity existing between the working chorus of the sailors and the dirge-like negro melody, to which my attention was specially directed by an incident I witnessed or rather heard.

One day we had anchored off a small town, and soon the canoe fleet of the natives was seen coming off to trade. Suddenly a well known strain of music comes floating to us on the land breeze. "Where's that singing?" cries one, " can't be that yon ship is weighing anchor ?" " Why, it's the darkies I" shouts another of the listeners; and, sure enough, there were five or six hundred of them coming off singing in two parts and keeping time with their paddles to

"Heigh Jim along, Jim along Josey, Heigh Jim along, Jim along Jo!"

They had made an advance in the scale of civilization and taken their place in the world of harmony. Then the conclusions of my speculation on the probable cause of this evident similarity between the chorus melodies of the sailor and the negro were something like these—First, the similarity of the object; that is, the unifying of effort in labor, and thus to secure simultaneous action, as in rowing, pulling, hoeing, &c., &c., by the measured and rythmical occurrence of vowel sounds.

Was not "Jim along Jo" recognized as a minstrel tune then? I'm not sure. Perhaps, again, minstrelsy took it from the folk tradition -- and that tradition may have been of (or shared with) a work-song. There is the idea (not here) that "Jim along Jo" is the same framework as "Haul Away Joe." Their prosody matches exactly. Interesting, too, that Cecil Sharp later uses "Haul Away Joe" as an example to argue why not many chanty tunes are of African-American origin. Well, he might be right. The tune might be of an Irish character, say. Of course, my take on this is that to say African-American means to imply a culture that had already absorbed influences from English, Irish, etc. African-Americans' songs are not expected to have come from Africa (just as the language is a dialect of English); what is relevant is who was singing these melodies/songs during the time under question.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Apr 10 - 06:31 PM

Jim along Josey was written by Edward Harper in 1840 in a play called 'The Free Nigger of New York'. It was printed by early nineteenth century printers such as John Pitts of London. (Pitts died in 1844 so he must have printed it between 1840-44. The Pitts copy is on the Bodleian website, Harding B11 (1787).

It's an interesting point. Were the African Americans singing minstrel songs or were the minstrel writers basing their songs on what the slaves were singing? Probably both.

The sensational Jump Jim Crow was said to have been based on actual observation of an African American.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Apr 10 - 01:12 PM

Thank you, Steve. That's useful information about "Jim Along."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Apr 10 - 01:30 PM

MELBOURNE, AND THE CHINCHA ISLANDS, by George Washington Peck, 1854, has the following. It pertains to a trip in the ship PLYMOUTH ROCK from Boston to Melbourne (via Cape Horn) in early 1854. The passenger-narrator writes:

We experienced some very heavy weather in the South Pacific, and as the voyage lengthened, the tempers of many of our gold-hunters, most of whom had come from shops and farms, and had few resources for amusement, began to be sorely tried. To contribute my part to preserve them in order, I used to make catches out of sea-songs, and we got up a little glee club, whose performances were much admired. Almost every New Englander who has aught of a taste for music, has been to a " Singing School," and can read psalmody. But we had no psalm tunes for men's voices. To remedy this deficiency, I composed some for every Sunday, the last few weeks, which we sung to hymns appropriate to our situation. Annexed are some specimens of sea-songs, which may amuse our musical readers; the list might be extended indefinitely. What the first was manufactured out of, it is not easy to imagine. The second is a scrap of something familiar. Perhaps the third may be some Dutch melody. The last is the universal favorite. It goes to the words " Haul the bowline, the Black Star bowline, haul the bowline, the bowline HAUL!" The last word is only the cry in which all join, at the pull; the rest is sung by one alone.

He does not describe the working context; BOWLINE is being used for entertainment here. However, he does describe the form. Note that the chorus came only on the last word, not the entire last phrase ("haul the bowline, the bowline HAUL!") as is typically performed today. We can assume it was a sheet shanty. The melody is given, in major key. As for the other three melodies without words, I don't believe them to have been shanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Apr 10 - 07:05 PM

John M. writes:

////
And then a reference from Solomon Northup's TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE, 1855, perhaps talking about events in 1853 or earlier. He mentions some fiddle tunes and "patting juba" songs, among which are "Old Hog Eye!" and "Jim Along, Josie."
////

Here is the passage.

One " set" off, another takes its place, he or she remaining longest on the floor receiving the most up roarious commendation, and so the dancing continues until broad daylight. It does not cease with the sound of the fiddle, but in that case they set up a music peculiar to themselves. This is called " patting," accompanied with one of those unmeaning songs, composed rather for its adaptation to a certain tune or measure, than for the purpose of expressing any distinct idea. The patting is performed by striking the hands on the knees, then striking the hands together, then striking the right shoulder with ona hand, the left with the other—all the while keeping timo with the feet, and singing, perhaps, this song.

" Harper's creek and roarin' ribber,
Thar, my clear, we'll live forebber;
Den we'll go to de Ingin nation,
All I want in dis creation,
Is pretty little wife and big plantation.

Chorus. Up dat oak and down dat ribber,
Two overseers and one little nigger"

Or, if these words are not adapted to the tune called for, it may be that " Old Hog Eye" is—a rather solemn and startling specimen of versification, not, however, to be appreciated unless heard at the South. It runneth as follows:

"Who's been here since I've been gone?
Pretty little gal wid a josey on.

Hog Eye!
Old Hog Eye,
And Hosey too!

Never see de like since I was bom,
Here come a little gal wid a josey on.

Hog Eye!
Old Hog Eye!
And Hosey too!"

Or, may be the following, perhaps, equally nonsenaical, but full of melody, nevertheless, as it flows from the negro's mouth :

"Ebo Dick and Jurdan's Jo,
Them two niggers stole my yo'

Chorus. Hop Jim along,
       Walk Jim along,
         Talk Jim along. &c.

Old black Dan, as black as tar,
He dam glad he was not dar.
    Hop Jim along," &c

It's not *quite* "Jim along Josey" as we know it. One could say that, whether the minstrel song was based in a slave song or whether it was original in 1840, it did also have a life by this time as a folk song among Blacks. I would reason that, since the form of this does not match that of the minstrel version, that a folk version existed before and alongside the minstrel version. That is somewhat dodgy reasoning, however.

Was a version "Hog Eye" also a minstrel song? The "typical" lyrics appear in minstrelsy, I know, being floating verses. But the chorus?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Apr 10 - 07:43 PM

In SEA DRIFT, Hercules Robinson (1858) recalls his days in the British Navy and serving during the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805. I don't find where it says when he first went to see. However, it is that time (i.e. 1805 or earlier) that he refers to when giving his "Sally Brown" song.

When I went to sea first, the bellowing of officers in carrying on duty was awful, and a strong voice was a gift greatly prized. Every officer giving orders used a speaking trumpet, and the men were not half restrained in the article of noise. They were not allowed to do their work with such a song as Dickens commemorates—
" Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh !
She won't have a Yankee sailor, oh!
Cos she loves the nigger tailor, oh!!"—[Da Capo.]

But short of this refrain there was a great latitude as to exclamation and noise. My Captain, the first, Sir Henry Blackwood, had a wonderful organ, and might be heard a mile off.

Well, so they were not allowed to sing in the British Navy. It is not clear whether this song was of that time period (i.e. on non-Navy ships) or if it came in later -- in time for Dickens to commemorate it. Was it this song that Dickens commemorated, or another, perhaps as in HOUSEHOLD WORDS, 1855-56, which has an out-of-context reference to "Drunken Sailor"?

In any case, though this has the name "Sally Brown," and its lyrical theme, its form is not of the stanzaic sort, with "roll and go" chorus, that we know of later. It looks more like a "Cheerly Man" form, which would be consistent with the earlier time period and Navy context, if so. It's not Maryat's "Sally Brown" of 1837, but it does appear like the iffy "common sailor's chant" sung on stage by Wallack in the 1820s. I'm going to file it as "circa 1805-1820s."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 20 Apr 10 - 07:52 PM

Maybe someone else can identify the three other tunes printed by Peck.

I believe that No. 3 is the tune used by one or more of Carpenter's singers for "Victorio" or "Very Well Done, Jim Crow!"

The final bars of No. 1 seem to make up a chorus that scans like that of "Stormy Old Weather, Windy Old Weather."

No. 2 reminds me a little of the Scots song "Drumdelgie" and the Irish tune "O'Keefe's Slide."

I wouldn't discount their possible use in shanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Apr 10 - 10:05 PM

For the last (at present) reference that might be attributed to the 1850s, I want to copy (with minor additions) John Minear's post from elsewhere on Mudcat.

////snip
Posted By: John Minear
31-Mar-10 - 07:45 AM
Thread Name: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?
Subject: RE: From SF to Sydney - 1853 Shanties Sung?

Here is a reference to the hauling/halyard chanty "Whiskey for Johnny!" being used to "pull round the yards" on board of the packet ship "Mary Bradford" on a cruise from London to New York, from the book THE REAL EXPERIENCES OF AN EMIGRANT [(Ward, Lock and Tyler)]:

       "The passengers assisted the sailors to pull round the yards - a work of great difficulty. It was done by a series of pulls - thus: one man took hold of the rope and stood on the spar of the bulwark, singing a few words of a song - I could not make them out - the others called out, "Whisky for Johnny!" and gave a simultaneous haul, when the yard came round an inch or two, and so they continued until the sail was sheeted home." (p. 39)

The frustrating thing about this reference is that there is no publication date that I can find for the book other than "187?". And like a lot of these accounts, the writer chooses to *not* give a date for his experience! I have yet to understand this, unless it is a way of covering up a fiction. It makes me suspicious right off. He says, "On Saturday, the --day of June, 18--, I embarked on board the "Mary Bradford," then lying in the basin of the London Docks, and bound for New York." (p. 5)

There certainly was a "Mary Bradford", and she was one of the "Swallow-Tail Line of Packet Ship", sailing every alternate Thursday from New York and London. Here is an advertisement from 1859:...

She was launched in October of 1854 at Warren, Rhode Island, and immediately sailed for Mobile....

And on July 5, 1855, she was struck by lightning at Battery Wharf in Boston!...

While it is a somewhat shaky guess, I would say that this reference to "Whiskey for Johnny!" *could* be located in the later 1850s. It seems to place it in the packet trade. However, this chanty has quite a reputation for being used on board the packet ships. It is strange that this is the only reference I have been able to find that really confirms that, so far. All of the other solid references to "Whiskey Johnny" are later.
////snip

As far as dating the event goes, that makes a lot of sense to me. Additionally, the narrator mentions meeting a survivor of the U.S. steamship CENTRAL AMERICA, which used to transport gold-seekers between NY and Panama, and which sank off North Carolina in Sept. 1857. Abolitionists are mentioned, but the Civil War is conspicuously absent. So between 1858-1860 sounds about right. OK?

My suspicion is that this is not the halyard chantey "Whiskey for Johnny." Because if they were pulling the yards around (tacking), they'd be hauling on braces, right? (Someone please adjust my shaky sailing knowledge.) It sounds like a sheet shnty or a "sing-out," where perhaps there was just a hard pull on "Johnny!" Thoughts?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 12:15 AM

I had forgotten this source. It is James Hungerford's THE OLD PLANTATION (1859), which includes observations of slave songs the author heard whilst visiting a relative's plantation in southern Maryland in 1832.

First passage. The people are on a boat on a creek.

"This is getting dull," said the major, after the silence had lasted some minutes ; " Come, Charley, give us a song to enliven us a little."

In obedience to this order, Charley struck up a song; the other oarsmen answered in chorus, all timing the strokes of their oars to the measure. The song was not by any means enlivening, however, either in words or tune—as the reader will perceive. I have entitled it

SOLD OFF TO GEORGY [Chorus parts are in parentheses]

1. Farewell fellow servants, (O-ho! O-ho!)
I'm gwine way to leabe you (O-ho! O-ho!)
I'm gwine to leave de ole county (O-ho! O-ho!)
I'm sold off to Georgy! (O-ho! O-ho!)

2. Farewell, ole plantation, (Oho! Oho!)
   Farewell, de ole quarter, (Oho ! Oho!)
Un daddy, un mammy, (Oho! Oho !)
Un marster, un missus ! (Oho ! Oho!)

8. My dear wife un one chile, (Oho! Oho!)
My poor heart is breaking; (Oho ! Oho!)
No more shall I see you, (Oho ! Oho !)
Oh ! no more foreber! (Oho! Oho!)

The reader will observe that the lines of the song do not rhyme ; and it may be remarked that the negro songs—that is, such as they can compose themselves—are mostly without rhymes. When they do attempt to rhyme they frequently take more than the poetic license, being satisfied—when they can not do better—if the vowel-sounds at the ends of the lines agree.

The tone of voice in which this boat-song was sung was inexpressibly plaintive, and, bearing such a melancholy tune, and such affecting words, produced a very pathetic effect. I saw tears in the eyes of the young ladies, and could scarcely restrain my own. We heard but the three verses given (such songs are sometimes stretched out to many verses) ; for at the end of the third verse the major interrupted the song.

" Confound such lively music," he exclaimed; "it is making the girls cry, I do believe. And with such slow measure to sing to, we shall scarcely get into Weatherby's Creek tonight."
" De boat-songs is always dat way, marster," said Charley —" dat is mo' er less."
"Well, try to find something better than that," said the major; " I am sure that it is impossible for any thing to be more low-spirited in words, or tune, or manner of singing."
" Yas, marster," was Charley's answer. And the negroes sang another boat-song, but not so very sad as their first.
"Charley is right," said Miss Bettie, with a laugh; "the boat-songs are ' all that way, more or less.' I think that we had better have silence than such low-spirited music. Do you not think so, uncle?"
" Entirely," said the major. " The pathetic is well enough when there is need of stirring up our feelings of humanity, but I can see no use in creating mere low spirits."
" I like the music," said Lizzie ; " it is sometimes pleasant —if I may speak such a seeming paradox—to be made sad without any personal cause for being so. Such a state of feeling may be called ' the luxury of woe.' "
Miss Susan and I agreed with her. The negroes seemed pleased at our approval.

It looks like the 'marsters' got more than they bargained for when they requested a song!

It is printed with tune. It's in 6/8, in what you could call the major pentatonic scale (CDEGA). This gives some insight on what was being called "plaintive"! This shows that plaintive wasn't necessarily minor -- though the drop down to the sixth scale degree, presumably not characteristic of English music, lends a minor-ish touch. Blue notes may have been happening, or it may have just been something else in the "tone of voice." At least this resolves (for me) some of the disjuncture between the idea of "plaintive" and chanty melodies of today. That is, this melody is not unlike chanty melodies of today, so if this was what was being called "plaintive," then other references to "plaintive" could be to the same sort of idea.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 12:43 AM

The second passage in Hungerford 1859 contains the famous "Round the Corn, Sally."


" Charley looks as if he would sing us another song," said Miss Bettie. " What is that lively little song, Charley, which I heard you and some of the hands sing the other day, when you were hanging tobacco at the barn ? I am sure that you can row to that."
" Sure unnuff, young misstis," answered Charley; " I had forgot dat. But dat's a corn song; un we'll hab ter sing it slow ter row to."
" Try it, at any rate," said the major.
" Sartinly, sah, ef de marsters un mistisses wants it."
Charley was evidently somewhat vexed at the disparaging
remarks made by the petitioners on his previous performance.
Nevertheless, there came a quiet smile to his face as he began
the following song:

ROUN' DE CORN, SALLY.

1. Hooray, hooray, ho!
Roun' de corn, Sally !
Hooray for all de lub- ly la-dies!
Roun' de corn, Sal - ly I
Hooray, hoo - ray, ho !
Roun' de corn, Sal - ly!
Hoo-ray for all de lub - ly la - dies!
Roun' de corn, Sal - ly!

Dis lub's er thing dat 's sure to hab you,
Roun' de corn, Sal - ly!
He hole you tight, when once he grab you,
Roun' de corn, Sal -ly!
Un ole un ug - ly, young un prit- ty,
Roun' do corn, Sal - ly!
You need- en try when once he git you,
Roun' de corn, Sal - ly !

2. Dere's Mr. Travers lub Miss Jinny;
He thinks she is us good us any.
He comes from church wid her er Sunday,
Un don't go back ter town till Monday.
                         Hooray, hooray, ho! etc.

3. Dere's Mr. Lucas lub Miss Treser,
Un ebery thing he does ter please her;
Dey say dat 'way out in Ohio,
She's got er plenty uv de rhino.
                         Hooray, hooray, ho! etc.

4. Dere's Marster Charley lub Miss Bettie;
   I tell you what—he thinks her pretty;
   Un den dey mean ter lib so lordly,
   All at de Monner House at Audley.
                      Hooray, hooray, ho! etc.

5. Dere's Marster Wat, he lub Miss Susan;
He thinks she is de pick un choosin';
Un when dey gains de married station,
   He'll take her to de ole plantation.
                      Hooray, hooray, ho! etc.

6. Dere's Marster Clarence lub Miss Lizzy;
   Dressing nice, it keeps him busy;
Un where she goes den he gallants her,
Er riding on his sorrel prancer.
                      Hooray, hooray, ho! etc.

This song caused much amusement at the expense of each one of us who in turn became the subject of satire. The hit at Lizzie and me was the hardest, as we were both present, and was, therefore, I suppose, introduced at the end. Several laughing efforts were made by the ladies to interrupt the singing, when the words began to have reference to those who were present; but the old major insisted on " having it out," as he expressed himself. The decided " effect" produced by his song completely re-established Charley's good-humor. The old major, being the only white person present who was spared, of course enjoyed the occasion immensely; his laughter rang loud and far through the clear air, and was echoed back from the banks of the creek.
"Those are not the words, Charley," said Miss Bettie, " that you sung to that tune the other day."
" No, miss," was the answer. " Marse Weatherby's little Sam was ober at Sin Joseph's tud-day, un larnt um ter me. He said Clotildy made um un larnt um ter him dis morning.''
"But why did she make that verse," I asked, "about my 'gallanting' Miss Lizzie, as she calls it? I never rode out with Miss Lizzie till this morning."
" Sam said," answered Charley, " dat he asked Clotildy ubbout dat, un she said you was er gwine ter do it."
" I say, young Audley," said the major, " you forget that the poet has a right to foreshadow coming events. I have a dim recollection of having read, somewhere that there was a time at least
             " 'When the name Of poet and of prophet was the same.' "

Topical, ha ha! A good illustration of the qualities described by other authors. The tune is also given here, in 4/4, major scale. The harmonic structure is such that a IV chord comes at or just before the cadence, given a "modal" quality. Although it's not *exactly* what's written here (no one expects it to be), one can get a vert good sense of this melody from this rendition by The Johnson Girls. Note that while they sing the whole "hooray" part as a chorus, in Hungerford's text, that part is structured as a call and response. And of course, the harmonizing is their addition.

We also learn from this that "corn songs" were faster than those for rowing.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 09:00 AM

Here are three more references to "Round the Corn, Sally" as a corn-shucking song. The first is from 1848:

http://books.google.com/books?id=PCpKAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA287&dq=%22Round+the+corn,+sally%22&lr=&cd=23#v=onepage&q=%22Round%20the%20cor

I'm not sure on the dating of this one, which was published in 1894, but surely it is earlier than that:

http://books.google.com/books?id=2ncAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA260&dq=Round+the+corn,+sally&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Round%20the%20corn%2C%20sally&f

And, from SLAVE SONGS OF THE UNITED STATES, by Allen, Ware and Garrison, published in 1867, a tune:

http://books.google.com/books?id=6frfZd0-1xkC&pg=PA68&dq=Round+the+corn,+sally&cd=4#v=onepage&q=Round%20the%20corn%2C%20sally&f=

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 10:32 AM

See here (pp. 206-07) for a brief (and of course inconclusive) musicological discussion of "Round the Corn, Sally":

http://books.google.com/books?id=E2OQlWHzjvEC&pg=PA206&dq=%22Roun'+de+corn,+sally%22&lr=&cd=5#v=onepage&q=%22Roun'%20de%20corn%2C%20sally%22&f=false

I don't share the author's certainty that the shanty (with "corner" rather than "corn")"surely" came first.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 12:49 PM

OK! I've put those Round the Corn refs in my timeline, thanks.

The one published in 1894 is not authentic. It uses the same lyrics (polished up) as in Hungerford's 1832 account....lyrics which were composed specifically to address Hungerford's fellows at that time!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 01:11 PM

Gibb, I appreciate your close and careful reading of the sources!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 01:45 PM

Being more acqainted with chanties than slave songs I had not come across the 'Round the CORN songs' before. Whereas I do think that borrowing from one genre to another is often a two-way affair, in this case I think that 'round the corner' is more likely to derive from 'round the corn' than the reverse case.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 03:06 PM

Here's my meagre attempt to sort out the chicken-or-egg of "Round the corn(er)," with the the evidence available to me *at present*.

I think it is unlikely that the two phrases (corn/corner) coincidentally developed independently. So, one comes from the other. Having assumed that...

If we were to have evidence of the phrase "round the corner Sally" being in use in other contexts (e.g. in England, outside of maritime context) --especially if *earlier* than any of these working contexts-- then that would strengthen the originality of "Round the Corner, Sally" (shipboard song).

As far as the working songs go in the emerging "timeline," the first instance of one or the other phrase is:

1832, Maryland -- Hungerford's documented corn-shucking song Round the CORN

Next, just a few years after, comes,

1834-1836, on the brig _Pilgrim_, "Round the CORNER, Sally"

Then in 1839, "Round the CORNER" turns up in Tahiti as a song learned from sailors. CORNER turns up again in the Society Islands in 1844.

It persisted as a corn-shucking song, as evidenced by mention in 1848, and inclusion of a unique (i.e. not derivative of earlier texts) version in Allen's SLAVE SONGS.

It seems certain that, unless "Round the Corner" had become a popular song --that is, one that was widely spread and known amongst "all" people --that it's flow was the result of movement of African-Americans. I say this because, for example, I have difficulty imagining that non-Black sailors would have brought the song to plantations.

There may well have been some intermediary context, like rowing or stevedoring, which link the plantations to the sea. But in any case, I have difficulty imagining that Blacks were not the agents for the transfer. (Someone please critique my logic.) So, one might propose that Blacks either brought it to the ships when they came as sailors, or, having served as sailors, brought it to the plantations. To me, the former sounds more likely, i.e. slave song > shipboard song.

However, in terms of language, it seems to me slightly more likely that CORNER > CORN once the corn-shucking context was introduced. On the other hand, what did "corner" mean at all to sailors if it was *not* "flash girls down the alley"? (I don't buy the "Cape Horn" idea, at least not for this time period.)

I have not really clarified anything, but I will try to state my "bottom line":

If the phrase, "Round the Corner Sallies" was well established in Anglo discourse early on, then I'd learn towards CORNER coming first. Otherwise, I lean towards the CORN song coming first. In the latter case, the language scenario would be the reverse of Van De Merwe's idea: confronted with "corn," which no longer made any sense when brought to a maritime context, sailors changed it to "corner."

All that being said...if the slave song did get adopted as a sailor song, that happened at quite an early date -- before the time of cultural exchange (e.g. the cotton-stowing) that gives us a burst of new shanty repertoire. From Hungerford's 1832 Maryland to Dana's mid 1830s Cape Horn trip, that is a big leap in few years. The exchange probably would have happened quite a bit earlier. Was this one of the really early exchanges --compare GROG TIME-- during a period when African-Americans were well represented as sailing ship crew? I am too uncomfortable, with the lack of evidence, to say more.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 04:31 PM

I am just about in complete agreement with your summary, Gibb, with a reservation on the linguistic side. Corn and corner are far too close to determine which one would lead to the other. One has only to emphasize the 'n' on corn a little too much, as can happen when singing, and you have corner. Alternatively word endings can drop very easily in slang lingo (Mas' Jones = Master Jones). The only thing I can add is, to me 'round the corner Sally' rolls off the tongue marginally better, but that doesn't help at all in determining which might have come first. A lingiuistics expert would have plenty to say on this. The strong 'S' on Sally diminishes the 'er' sound on corner to the extent that there is very little difference between the two phrases. Try it. However, if you miss off the Sally, the 'er' becomes much more emphasised. Well, in my Yorkshire accent it does.

Looking back through the thread we have 'Round the corner Sally' appearing in a minstrel song in 1843. The most likely source of minstrel song material is African American. If we assume 'corner' was being used by the slaves then this means they were using both 'corn' and 'corner' and the change happened there, or at least that both were in use on the American mainland before transferring to shipboard use. Or not!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 05:01 PM

Some notes on the 1850s

I count about 13 *possibly* new chanties to appear in the 1850s. When I say "new," I mean new to the timeline of references; it is of course in possible to know if these songs were truly new to the world then. The more common hold-overs from the past decades are STORMALONG (in some form) and CHEERLY.

There are several references to shantying while pumping ship in the 1850s. This task was not mentioned in earlier decades.

Before the 1850s, I see only 3 direct references to using shanties for halyards. These shanties are CHEERLY, GROG TIME, and DRUNKEN SAILOR. In the 1850s, however, there is

CHEERLY x2
STORMY
WHISKEY JOHNNY
"Highland Day"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 05:09 PM

Steve,

Sorry I was unclear about "linguistic." I was not thinking about pronunciation or ease of speech or anything like that. I was thinking of the meaning of the words. That "corn" is meaningful in in the corn-shucking context is obvious. But what would "corner" mean to sailors, if not as part of the phrase meaning "streetwalkers"? Well, "corn" would mean even less to sailors, which is why I thought they might re-interpret "corn" as "corner." That particular issue is not one of hearing/pronunciation as it is one of assigning a meaning that fits.

Thanks for mentioning Emmet's minstrel song of 1843. I missed it, because I don't have it in my timeline. I have been trying to resist exploring the trajectories of individual songs, because I think that is being done quite nicely in the "warp" of John M's thread. In focusing on the "weft" here --the nitty-gritty of how chanteying in general is described-- some of non-work-song references fall through the cracks!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 05:38 PM

Here is a sort of distilled "set list" for shanty repertoire known to have been sung *aboard sailing vessels* (also inclusive of the sailor songs that turn up on Pacific islands) up through 1859-ish. It is taking the focus away from the broad world of work-songs, for a moment, and only looking at the songs that made it aboard ships.

c.1800s-1820s

CHEERLY
"Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!"
FIRE FIRE

1830s
"Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
"To the Greenland sea/ Black although she be"
"Heave, to the girls!"
"Nancy oh!"
"Jack Cross-tree,"
"Heave round hearty!"
"Captain gone ashore!"
"Time for us to go!"
ROUND THE CORNER
"Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
CHEERLY
HIGHLAND LADDIE
SALLY BROWN
BOTTLE O
TALLY

1840s

GROG TIME
DRUNKEN SAILOR
"Heave her away"
"O! hurrah my hearties O!"
CHEERLY
"O ee roll & go"
"Heave him up! O he yo!"
ROUND THE CORNER
"Ho, O, heave O"
TALLY
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN
HUNDRED YEARS
STORMY

1850s

"Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne"
"When first we went a-waggoning"
CHEERLY
STORMY
BOWLINE
SANTIANA
BULLEY IN ALLEY
"Miranda Lee"
STORMALONG JOHN
MR. STORMALONG
SHENANDOAH
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY
WHISKEY JOHNNY
"Whisky for Johnny!"
MONEY DOWN
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN
"Highland day and off she goes"
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND

John, I'd be interested to hear how this squares with what you have come up with so far in terms of chanties that could have been sung aboard the JULIA ANN, 1853-55.


In the whole timeline, CHEERLY comes up 8 times, all in shipboard contexts. STORMY --in some form (I still need to sort out the tags, to distinguish different versions)-- turns up 7 times in that context. These are the two most common shanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 07:18 PM

In the novel BLAKE; OR THE HUTS OF AMERICA, the first, relevant parts of which appeared in a periodical in 1859, M.R. Delany includes the following in reference to a riverboat on the Upper Mississippi:

...the boated glided steadily up the stream, seemingly in unison with the lively though rude and sorrowful song of the black firemen:

I'm a-goin' to Texas--O! O-O-O!
I'm a-goin' to Texas--O! O-O-O!

Looks like it could be a variation of the SAILOR FIREMAN.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 07:34 PM

Gibb, here is what we have found *so far* over on the "San Franciso to Sydney" thread. First of all there are songs that were given with lyrics and occasionally a tune, or with clear enough titles that we can identify them with known chanties today:

"Across the Briny (Western) Ocean"
"Aha, We're Bound Away, On The Wild Missouri"
"A Hundred Years Ago"
"All On The Plains Of Mexico"
"Bottle O"
"Bully in the Alley"
"Cheerily Men"
"Drunken Sailor"
"Fire Down Below"
"A Grog Time Of Day"
"Haul The Bowline"
"Hieland Laddie"
"Mary Ann"
"Mobile Bay" / "Johnny, Come Tell Us As We Haul Away"
"Nancy Fanana"
"One More Day For Johnny"
"Outward And Homeward Bound"
"Paddy Works On The Railway"
"Pay me the money down"
"Round The Corner, Sally"
"Row, Bullies, Row"
"Sally Brown"
"Stormalong"
"Whiskey Johnny"

Here is an additional list of songs identified as sung on board ship. Some even have lyrics. None had tunes, and to my knowledge have not been *clearly* identified with chanties known today:

"Captain gone ashore"
"Dandy ship and a dandy crew"
"Fire Maringo"
"Haul way, yeo ho, boys!"
"Heave round hearty!"
"Heave, to the the girls!"
"Heigho, heave and go"
"Highland day and off she goes"
"Ho, O, heave O"/ "Row, Billy, row"
"Hurrah! Hurrah! my hearty bullies"
"O, Hurrah, My Hearties, O"
"Jack Crosstree"
"Nancy oh!"
"Pull away now, my Nancy O!"
"Roll and go for that white pitcher, roll and go"
"Tally hi o you know"
"Time for us to go"
"Yankee Dollar"

And in comparison with your list I see I missed a few:

"Miranda Lee"
"To the Greenland sea/ Black although she be"
"When first we went a-waggoning" (this can be identified with other         known versions.)

Your listing is a more precise than mine, for example, noting the different versions of "Stormalong". And in some cases our titles may be different. My "Yankee Dollar" is your "MONEY DOWN". Basically, we agree!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 07:34 PM

I forget these, in the above set list, for the 1850s:

MOBILE BAY
FIRE FIRE
ONE MORE DAY

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 07:45 PM

MONEY DOWN refers to Pay Me The Money Down. I don't have "Yankee Dollar" on *this* particular list, because here I am ignoring songs that were not for sailing tasks.

The title we choose, of course, are fairly arbitrary.

To distinguish the two "Fire Down Below"s, I call the "fire on the foretop/fetch a bucket of water" one as FIRE FIRE. The steamboat one I have as SAILOR FIREMAN.

I really do have to sort out my system for "Stormalong" variants. That is not yet firm; I need to refer to Hugill.

We might speculate that "Nancy oh!" and "Pull away now, my Nancy O!" were the same song, though we've both logged them separately.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 09:09 PM

All in all, it's still a pretty meagre set list for the repertoire of a chanteyman, now isn't it?

If I count the songs on my list that I would consider to be known to us today (=collected by individuals), the number comes to only some 25 chanties. One could subtract one, GROG TIME, from that because it has not come down to us today. And although I don't personally include MARINGO in that count, it is relevant to note that it was never cited as being used over deep water and it may have disappeared after the 1850s.

CHEERLY is interesting too, because it lasted so long ...and yet nowadays we don't know it (=know it to be able to perform it) very well. I will be interested to see for how long it continues to show up, and what the musical notations are like, in later years. My sense as of now is that the oral tradition of how to sing CHEERLY may have been broken.

Perhaps around 10 in the list qualify as what we'd now call double-pull halyard shanties.

I'm still waiting for the chantey EXPLOSION! Well, if Alden's "30 years ago" were more definite in refering to the 1850s, perhaps we'd have seen one.

This takes us up to the Civil War/Between the States, basically, a period after which the creation of new shanties is supposed to have gone down. Let's see!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 10:24 PM

With the 1860's we have a peculiar problem that I have not figured out how to solve. A good number of the folks who show up in the later published collections started going to sea in the early to late 1860's. For instance, Captain John Robinson went to sea in 1859. He's got quite a developed list of chanties in his BELLMAN collection. Whall went to sea in 1861. He was only at sea for eleven years and he has quite a collection. Richard Maitland, who gave so many songs to Doerflinger, went to sea in 1869. Harding, in Hugill, probably went to sea in the late 1860's. Some of the singers in the Carpenter Collection were at sea in the 1860's. I don't know about Sharp's informants, but they were old fellows, too. And there is Joanna Colcord's father, and Hugill's father as well, along with some of Hugill's other shipmates and informants.

The problem is that their songs were "collected" much later in their lives. We don't know when they learned them. We don't know whether they come from the late 1850's or the 1880's. All I have been able to say is that they *could* have been learned as early as the '60's.

The only collections that come to my mind that I have been able to date to the sixties *to my satisfaction* are the ones from Adams in ON BOARD THE ROCKET, which I think can be dated to 1868, and the anonymous article in ONCE A WEEK, "On Shanties," also from 1868.

I'll be interested to see what we can turn up otherwise.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 12:31 AM

I had this interesting piece in my bookmarked folder for the 1860s...but it turns out it refers to 29 March, 1843. "Corn-shucking in South Carolina--From the Letters of a Traveller" (in Cyclopaedia of American literature, by E. A. and G. L. Duyckinck, 1866).

More "wild" and "plaintive" stuff. :) John comes, not down to Hilo or the holler, but to the "hollow." Note the suspicious phrase, "round the corner." And another "Going away to Georgia" -- reminds of "Shallow Brown."

"Jenny gone away" reappears. And what of "Dan Dan..."?

The light-wood-fire was made, and the negroes dropped in from the neighboring plantations, singing as they came. The driver of the plantation, a colored man, brought out baskets of corn in the husk, and piled it in a heap; and the negroes began to strip the husks from the ears, singing with great glee as they worked, keeping time to the music, and now and then throwing in a joke and an extravagant burst of laughter. The songs were generally of a comic character; but one of them was set to a singularly wild and plaintive air, which some of our musicians would do well to reduce to notation. These are the words:

Johnny come down de hollow.
             Oh hollow!
Johnny come down de hollow.
             Oh hollow !
De nigger-trader got me.
             Oh hollow!
De speculator bought me.
             Oh hollow !
I'm sold for silver dollars,
             Oh hollow !
Boys, go catch the pony.
             Oh hollow!
Bring him round the corner.
             Oh hollow!
I'm goln' away to Georgia.
             Oh hollow!
Boys, good-by forever!
             Oh hollow!

The song of " Jenny gone away," was also given, and another, called the monkey-song, probably of African origin, in which the principal singer personated a monkey, with all sorts of odd gesticulations, and the other negroes bore part in the chorus, "Dan, dan, who's the dandy?" One of the songs, commonly sung on these occasions, represents the various animals of the woods as belonging to some profession or trade. For example—

De cooter is de boatman—

The cooter is the terrapin, and a very expert boatman he is.

De cooter Is de boatman.
    John John Crow.
De red-bird de soger.
    John John Crow.
De mocking-bird de lawyer.
    John John Crow.
De alligator sawyer
    John John Crow.

The alligator's back is furnished with a toothed ridge, like the edge of a saw, which explains the last line.

LINK

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 12:52 AM

Next is from a sort of preview to Allen's SLAVE SONGS. It comes in The Pennsylvania freedmen's bulletin, 1865. The song is "I'm Gwine to Alabamy", and it's called a "Mississippi River Boat Song." Further, it is noted that it is, "A very good specimen, so far as notes can give one, of the strange barbaric songs that one hears upon the Western steamboats."

The tunes is given, in G (natural) minor.

I'm Gwine to Alabamy
    Ohh....
For to see my mammy
    Ahh....

etc. Lyrics at the link below.

LINK

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 01:05 AM

More steamboatin'.

From McBRIDE'S MAGAZINE, VOL. 2, Dec. 1868. It is an article called "Songs of the Slave."

For many years the steamboats on Western and Southern rivers were, almost without exception, manned by crews of negro slaves. Even after white labor began to encroach upon the occupation of the "deck-hand" and "roustabout," the vocation of " fireman " was peculiarly the negro's. He basked in an atmosphere insupportable to whites, and delighted in the alternation of very hard labor and absolute idleness. It was not uncommon for large steamers to carry a crew of forty or fifty negro hands, and it was inevitable that these should soon have their songs and peculiar customs. Nine-tenths of the " river songs" (to give them a name) have the same refrain, and nearly all were constructed of single lines, separated by a barbarous and unmeaning chorus. The leader would mount the capstan as the steamer left or entered port, and affect to sing the solo part from a scrap of newspaper, " the full strength of the company" joining in the chorus. The effect was ludicrous, for no imagination was expended on the composition. Such songs were sung only for the howl that was their chief feature. A glance at the following will abundantly satisfy the reader with this department of negro music:

STEAMBOAT SONG [with music]

What boat is that my darling honey?
    Oh, oh ho, ho ay yah yah-ah!
She is the "River Ruler"; yes my honey!
    Ah a... yah a...ah!

Occasionally some stirring incident of steamboat achievement, as the great race between the " Shotwell" and the " Eclipse," would wake the Ethiopian muse and inspire special paeans. But as a general rule the steamboat songs were tiresomely similar to the one just given.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 01:36 AM

Probably referring to observations from the 1850s, in SOCIAL RELATIONS IN OUR SOUTHERN STATES (1860), D.R. Hundley writes:

No matter where they may be or what they may be doing, indeed, whether alone or in crowds, at work or at play, ploughing through the steaming maize in the sultry heats of June, or bared to the waist and with deft hand mowing down the yellow grain, or trudging homeward in the dusky twilight after the day's work is done—always and every where they are singing and happy, happy in being free from all mental cares or troubles, and singing heartily and naturally as the birds sing, which toil not nor do spin. Their songs are usually wild and indescribable, seeming to be mere snatches of song rather than any long continuous effort, but with an often recurring chorus, in which all join with a depth and clearness of lungs truly wonderfuL No man can listen to them, be his ear ever so cultivated, particularly to their corn-husking songs, when the night is still and the singers some distance off, without being very pleasantly entertained. But the wildest and most striking negro song we think we ever listened to, we heard while on board an Alabama river steamboat. We were steaming up from Mobile on a lovely day in the early winter, and came in sight of Montgomery just as the heavens were all a-glow with the last crimson splendors of the setting sun, and while the still shadows of evening seemed already to be stealing with noiseless tread along the hollows in the steep riverbanks, creeping slowly thence with invisible footsteps over the placid surface of the stream itself. A lovelier day or a more bewitching hour could not well be imagined. As we began to near the wharf, the negro boatmen collected in a squad on the bow of the boat, and one dusky fellow, twirling his wool hat above his head, took the lead in singing, improvising as he sang, all except the chorus, in which the whole crew joined with enthusiasm. And O Madame Jenny Goldschmidt, and Mademoiselle Piccolomini! we defy you both to produce, with the aid of many orchestras, a more soulstirring strain of melody than did those simple Africans then and there ! The scene is all before us now—the purple-tinted clouds overhead—the dim shadows treading noiselessly in the distance—the gleaming dome of the State Capitol and the church-spires of Montgomery —the almost perfect stillness of the hour, broken only by the puff, puff of the engine and the wild music of the dusky boatmen—and above all, the plump, well-defined outlines of some sable Sally, who stood on the highest red cliff near the landing-place, and, with joy in her heart and a tear in her eye no doubt, (we hadn't any opera-glass with us,) waved a flaming bandanna with every demonstration of rejoicing at the return of her dusky lover, whom we took to be our sooty improvisatore, from the glow which mantled his honest countenance, and the fervor with which he twirled his old wool hat in response to the fair one's signal.

LINK

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 11:43 AM

re: McBRIDE'S MAGAZINE, VOL. "Songs of the Slave."

For many years the steamboats on Western and Southern rivers were, almost without exception, manned by crews of negro slaves.

OK, that helps us with ideas of borrowing/exchange. Here we could call the boatmen's music as essentially "Black music," no?

the alternation of very hard labor and absolute idleness.

Sounds like a sailing ship!

Nine-tenths of the " river songs" (to give them a name) have the same refrain, and nearly all were constructed of single lines, separated by a barbarous and unmeaning chorus....as a general rule the steamboat songs were tiresomely similar to the one just given.

Hence all the "O! O! O!" we've been seeing. While I have tagged several of the past song-texts seen as SAILOR FIREMAN, it may be that they just share a very *similar* refrain.

The leader would mount the capstan as the steamer left or entered port,

Capstan shanty!

and affect to sing the solo part from a scrap of newspaper, "the full strength of the company" joining in the chorus. The effect was ludicrous, for no imagination was expended on the composition. Such songs were sung only for the howl that was their chief feature.

That old "extempore" quality. And cf. Hugill's notes on the chorus of "Blackball Line," for example. He talks about the variability of that sort of "howling" chorus.

I understand better, from this, the earlier reference to the steamboat leaving the dock, and the singing connected with it by the many hands.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 11:53 AM

re: SOCIAL RELATIONS IN OUR SOUTHERN STATES.

Their songs are usually wild and indescribable, seeming to be mere snatches of song rather than any long continuous effort, but with an often recurring chorus, in which all join with a depth and clearness of lungs truly wonderful.

OK, this description is now typical. But if shanties were by then well known...and if shanties share some of the qualities just described...I wonder why these songs of African-Americans are still being described in such terms of otherness. It may just be that landsmen weren't familiar with chanties, either.

the wildest and most striking negro song we think we ever listened to, we heard while on board an Alabama river steamboat. We were steaming up from Mobile on a lovely day in the early winter, and came in sight of Montgomery...

The connection from inland, down to Mobile Bay.

As we began to near the wharf, the negro boatmen collected in a squad on the bow of the boat, and one dusky fellow, twirling his wool hat above his head, took the lead in singing, improvising as he sang, all except the chorus, in which the whole crew joined with enthusiasm.

I'm intrigued by this sort of parting song/singing that happens each time.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 12:16 PM

Continuing the steamboat adventures... HARPER'S Vol. 41, 1970, in an account by George Ward Nichols called "Down the Mississippi". He is going down river from St. Louis to New Orleans.

It describes another "parting" scene, with more details.

At the hour appointed the lines were cast loose, and we backed easily out from among the crowd of steamers which lay at the levee... At the bow of the boat were gathered the negro deck-hands, who were singing a parting song. A most picturesque group they formed, and worthy the graphic pencil of Johnson or Gerome. The leader, a stalwart negro, stood upon the capstan shouting the solo part of the song, the words of which I could not make out, although I drew very near; but they were answered by his companions in stentorian tones at first, and then, as the refrain of the song fell into the lower part of the register, the response was changed into a sad chant in mournful minor key.

Standing on the capstan! There is an illustration, too. Scroll down one page at this LINK

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: doc.tom
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 01:00 PM

Re 'Sharp's Informants' as queried above, John Short (Yankee Jack) of Watchet went to deep-sea at 18 yrs of age in 1857 - He says he learnt Cheer'ly Man & Stormalong (come along, get along, Stormey Along John) on his first trip - he retired from deep-sea work about 1875.

His repertoire as collected by Sharp/Terry was: Mr. Tapscott (Can't You Dance The Polka): Hundred Years on the Eastern Shore (A Hundred Years Ago): The Blackball Line: Poor Old Man (O Johnny Come To Hilo): Ranzo (Poor Old Reuben Ranzo): Lowlands (Dollar and a half a day): One More Day: The Dead Horse (Poor Old Man): Heave Away My Johnny (We're All Bound To Go): Homeward Bound (Goodbye, Fare Thee Well): Blow Boys Blow (Banks of Sacramento): Haul Away The Morning Dew: Amsterdam (A-roving): Shanadore (Shenandoah): Paddy Works on the Railway: Old Stormey (Mister Stormalong): Santy Anna (on the Plains of Mexico): Blow Boys Come Blow Together (Blow, Me Bully Boys, Blow): Haul Away Joe: (Run, Let the) Bulgine Run: Cheerly Men: Tom's Gone To Ilo: Carry Him to the Burying Ground (General Taylor): Good Morning Ladies All: I Wish I Was With Nancy: Whisky Is My Johnny: Rio Grande: Whip Jamboree: The Hog eyed Man: The Saucy Rosabella: Knock A Man Down (Blow the Man Down): Huckleberry Hunting (Hilo, Me Ranzo Ray): Stormalong John: Tommy's Gone: Rowler Bowler: Bully In The Alley: So Early in the Morning (The Sailor Likes His Bottle O): Boney Was A Warrior: Hanging Johnny: Johnnie Bowker: Times Are Hard & The Wages Low (Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her): Paddy Doyle: Fire! Fire! (Fire Down Below): Haul On The Bowline:   Handy My Girls (So Handy): Liza Lee (Yankee John Stormalong): Roll And Go (Sally Brown): Do Let Me Go: Shallow Brown: He Back, She Back (Old Moke): Round the Corner Sally: The Bully Boat (Ranzo Ray): Lucy Long: The Bull John Run (Eliza Lee): Would You Go My Way: Billy Riley: Sing Fare You Well:

What we have realised, while recording the repertoire, is that many of his versions seem closely akin to stevedore (Mobile?) chants rather than to the later, more shantified versions, generally given by Hugill.

Interesting! - great thread.

TomB

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 01:08 PM

There is a work of fiction, THE ARK OF ELM ISLAND by Elijah Kellogg (1869), which nonetheless can give a sense of what work-singing was like prior to that time. And because the songs he cites can be traced to songs we know today, there is good reason to consider them to represent actual songs with which the author was familiar (save for, perhaps, incidental verse-section lyrics). According to the scholarship of Charlie Ipcar, Kellogg, born in Portland ME, went to sea roughly between 1828 and 1835. That he maintained a connection with the seafaring world is evidenced by him becoming pastor for the Mariner's Church in Boston from 1854-1866. He could have learned the chanties in his story at any time up to its publication date, one supposes.

With this disclaimer in place, I am warning that I will be treating the text as containing valid references to what went on in chantey-singing prior to 1869. Note, however, that the author still does not refer to the songs as "chanties."

We have already spoken of the natural disposition of the negro to sing when at work. Their songs have no merits of composition, being the merest trash. Neither does the negro think it necessary that they should rhyme, — they may or may not, — or that there should be the same number of feet. He will have the time correct, as he will leave out or prolong words at pleasure, with the most sovereign contempt, both of sense and tho king's English.

Continually amazed how these authors, in one breath, can trash the songs but also say they are wonderfully "plaintive," etc.

Songs of labor seem to meet a universal necessity, and supply a common want. They are in use to lighten labor, from the boatmen among the loch of Scotland to the seamen of the tropics, and ac. complish this by securing unity of action.

Suppose eight men undertook to hoist a weight which it required all their strength to raise. If each pulled separately, it would bo just the same as though only one man was pulling at the weight. No matter how many of them were pulling, it would never be raised; but the song unites all their efforts, and the more accurately they observe the time of the song, and connect their efforts with it, the lighter the labor, and the greater the economy of strength. The song also renders labor pleasurable, for there is a love of it in human nature, and, by furnishing regular periods for breathing, renders labor less fatiguing.
How much more tiresome it is to pull a boat with muffled oars, because you miss the click of the oar in the rowlocks! Who could thresh all day if the flails did not make a noise as they strike the grain? The cooper beats out a tune as he drives the hoop. What weariness comes over the soldier on a march when the music stops! and how instantly his muscles are braced when it strikes up!

A general statement on work-songs.

The songs of the negro seamen generally refer to their labor—hoisting or stowing molasses, or screwing cotton, which is severe labor, where unity of effort is of the first importance; and here the negro's accurate ear renders them most effective, and they will accomplish more, with less fatigue to themselves, than white men. No matter how many of them are on a rope, their pull tallies precisely with the time of the song, and they will put in the queerest quirks and quavers, but all in time. Perhaps there may be one negro in a million who has no idea of time. If such a one gets hold of the rope, and makes a false pull, it affects them as much as a false note would a well-drilled choir. They will instantly hustle him out, crying,—

" Get away, you waw, waw nigger! You dunno how to pull!"

The preceding underscores my argument that chanties of this period were a sort of new technology -- perhaps a newer method of working that was "imported" from the practices among African-Americans. Also mentioned are the "quirks and quavers" that Hugill would later ascribe to sailors' singing generally and Black singers especially. It continues...

These songs produce the most singular effect upon the negroes, insomuch that they seem hardly conscious of fatigue, even while exerting themselves to the utmost. Wages have been paid to a negro for merely singing when a large cargo of molasses was to be discharged in a hurry, the extra labor which he excited the rest to perform being considered as more than an equivalent for his wages, while it prevented a rival from obtaining his services.

Paid just for singing, indeed. An anecdote follows.

A singular illustration of this was given many years ago in Portland, Maine. Eight negroes were hoisting molasses, one very hot day, aboard the brig William. They were having a lively time. Old Craig, a distinguished singer, was opening his mouth like an old-fashioned fallback chaise. A negro, — an agent for the Colonization Society, — very black, dressed in white linen trousers and coat, Marseilles vest, ruffle-bosomed shirt, nice beaver on his head, with a bundle of papers in his hand, came down the wharf, and went into a merchant's counting-room to collect a subscription. As he came out, his ear caught the tune.

He instantly came on board the vessel and listened. He grew nervous, imitated the motions of those at the tackle, and, by and by, off went the linen coat, the hat and papers were laid aside, he rushed among the rest, and, clutching the rope, like a maniac, began to haul, and sing,—

"Eberybody he lub someting;
Hoojun, John a hoojun.
Song he set de heart a beating;
Hoojun, John a hoojun."

When reeking with perspiration, he stopped: the white pants, vest, and ruffled bosom were spoiled. As he went up the wharf, casting many a rueful glance at his dress, Old Craig, looking after him, exclaimed,—
" No use put fine clothes on de 'possum! What bred in de bone, dat come out in de meat."

The stevedores' song can only be what Hugill called "Hooker John." It's my personal opinion --open to lots of debate-- that the "hooker" neé "hoojun" referred to a "hoosier," a stevedore or something of that sort.

The leader sings the principal part of the song (often composing it as he goes along), while the others sing the chorus.

When the winch was introduced to discharge vessels, these songs in the northern seaports ceased, the negroes disappeared, and Irishmen took their places, the negroes refusing to work with a winch, because that kind of labor did not admit of singing.

While this work of fiction is set in the late 18th century (!), the author seems to be referring to something that actually happened more recently. The beginning of the end of chanteying?

The clank of the pawls on the ship's windlass was now heard.
" Man the windlass!" was the order.
"Slip, slap!" cried Seth. This is a sailor phrase for heaving the windlass around at one motion instead of two, as is generally practised, and as was done on board the ship.
The ship possessed the advantage at the outset of being ahead of the Ark; but, as the crew of the latter weighed their anchor in half the time, the two vessels were now abreast.
" Massa Mate," said Flour, taking that officer aside, " if you want dese niggers to show you de time o' day, jes' praise 'em, and let 'em hab de music. Black man he lub song; song make him throw hisself, tear hisself all to pieces."
The English sailors now began to sing.
"Stop that!" said the captain. "None of that noise here."
" Now, boys," said the mate, patting Isaiah on the shoulder, " give us a shout that'll raise the dead."

Without the context, the above will make little sense, but I include it to show the notions being put for -- that being that the English sailors of whatever time period is being evoked (!) were alleged to frown upon chanteying, whereas the Americans, with their Black crew to assist, were allegedly more practical, and by accepting the practice of chanteying, they gain advantage.

ISAIAH'S SONG.

" Wind blow from de mountain cool,
      O, stow me long.
Mudder send me to de school;
      Stow me long, stow me.
Den I stow myself away,
      O, stow me long.
Way, way to de Isle ob May;
      Stow me long, stow me.
Go ashore to see de town,
      O, stow me long.
Hear de music, walk aroun';
      Stow me long, stow me.
Dere I hear Miss Dinah sing,
         O, stow me long.
Washin' linen at de spring.
Double Chorus. —Ha-a, stow me long,
Stow me long, stow me.

Straight I lub Miss Dinah Gray,
      O, stow me long.
Dinah lub me, so she say;
      Stow me long, stow me.
Get her necklace, get her ring,
      O, stow me long.
Happy nigger, shout and sing;
    Stow me long, stow me.
Wind a blowin' fresh and free,
      O, stow me long.
Vessel ready for de sea;
      Stow me long, stow me.
See de tear in Dinah's eye,
         O, stow me long.
Berry sorry see her cry.
Double Chorus. — Ha-a, stow me long
      Stow me long, stow me.

Tink ob Dinah ebery day,
      O, stow me long.
Wishin' ob de time away;
      Stow me long, stow me.
Buy her gown, buy her fan,
      O, stow me long.
Dinah lub anudder man;
      Stow me long, stow me.
Wish I hadn't been a fool,
       O, stow me long.
Neber run away from school.
Double Chorus. — Ha-a, stow me long,
Stow me long, stow me."

At intervals they would unite in one universal shout on the double chorus. Then Isaiah, bringing the flat of his foot down to advertise them of what was coming, came out on the word " ha-a" with a guttural so purely African, that the negroes would jump from the deck.

STORMY, at the windlass. It's tempting to speculate whether "Stormy" was originally a mishearing of "stow me" (i.e. stowing cotton). However, the earlier texts we've seen are consistent with "stormy".

But it was most amusing to watch the effect of the song upon Flour, who was plucking some chickens at the galley for a stew. His body swayed back and forth, and he pulled out the feathers to the time of the tune, tearing the skin in all directions...
At length he could contain himself no longer, and, having put his chicken in the pot, rushed among his black friends, and gave vent to his emotions in song.

FLOUR'S SONG.

" De blue-bird robbed de cherry-bird's nest,
       Hilo, boys, a hilo.
He robbed her nest, and brake her rest,
       Hilo, boys, a hilo.
Cherry-bird chirp, and cherry-bird cry,
       Hilo, boys, a hilo.
Cherry-bird mourn, cherry-bird die,
       Hilo, boys, a hilo.
De black cat eat de blue-bird now,
       Hilo, boys, a hilo.
He catch him sittin' on de bough,
       Hilo, boys, a hilo.
He nip his head, he tear his breast,
       Hilo, boys, a hilo.
Pay him for de cherry-bird's nest,
      Hilo, boys, a hilo.
De gard'ner shoot de ole black cat,
       Hilo, boys, a hilo.
Den rJat make it tit for tat,
       Hilo, boys, a bilo.
De gard'ner pull him down de tree,
       Hilo, boys, a hilo.
Den dat square de yards, you see,
    Hilo, boys, a hilo."

HILO BOYS.

continued...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 01:22 PM

continued...

Bathed in perspiration, smoking like race horses, and wild with excitement, they struck up a still quicker tune, intermingling with the words most singular yells and quavers.
"That's the time of day, my lads!" shouted the mate, catching hold of the warp, and joining in the chorus, completely carried away by the common impulse. " That's a bully song!" he cried; " you are worth your weight in gold."

The negroes instantly manifested their appreciation of the compliment by exclaiming, —
" Gib it to her, hand ober hand! Isaiah, dat tell de story dat make de chile cry!"

"HAND OBER HAND" SONG.

"Cuffee stole my bacca,
   Hand ober hand, O.
      Scratch him,
   Hand ober hand, O.
Put it in his pocket,
   Hand ober hand, O.
    Kick him,
   Hand ober hand, O.
Now he's gwine to smoke ii,
   Hand ober hand, O.
    Bite him,
Hand ober hand, O."

The excitement now mastered Captain Rhines and his friend, who both added their efforts. By reason of so much additional strength, the Ark went ahead faster than they could gather in the slack.

" Walk away with it, my boys," said the captain; and, taking the warp on their shoulders, they walked along the deck, still keeping step to the song.

WALKING SONG.

" Take de line, an' walk away,
    Ho-o; ho, ho, ho.
Gwine to leabe you; cannot stay,
    Fire down below.
Gwine to leabe you, Johnny Bull,
    Ho-o; ho, ho, ho.
'Cause yer dunno how ter pull,
    Fire down below.
Like as do dis Yankee crew,
    Ho-o; ho, ho, ho.
Warpin' ob de ballahoo,
    Fire down below."

The last song, being used as a walk-away, is none other than the steamboat song, SAILOR FIREMAN.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 01:50 PM

Later on in THE ARK OF ELM ISLAND, there is an exchange that includes shanties.

"Why can't we have a song?" said John. " Charlie is a first-rate singer; he can read music; and Isaac can sing, too. He's been three winters to singing-school; and I and Fred can sing the chorus."
" I don't know any song," said Charlie. " All I can remember is, —

" 'Was ever you in Aberdeen,
Bonny laddie, Highland laddie,
To see the duke in his Highland green,
My bonny Highland laddie ?'"

HIGHLAND LADDIE. Incidentally, in all the references to this song, I don't think we've yet seen the Scots form "hieland." Though that was presumably the "original," perhaps it was that ~American~ chantey singers simply said "highland," and that "hieland" is a later affectation (or a form used by northern British sailors, of course).

"I can learn you Flour's cherry-bird song," [i.e. HILO BOYS] said Isaac. They sat down on the hen-coop, and Isaac repeated the song till Charlie had it by heart. He then hummed over the tune till Charlie got that, and sung one verse.
"That's it," said Isaac; "that's the time. Now let's make believe get under way. John, go up and loose the main-topgallant sail. I'll get a snatch-block, so that one can take in the slack, and we'll have a song, and hoist it up."

Fred took in the slack, and they soon made Elm Island ring with, —

" Hilo, boys, a hilo."

" If you don't look out, Ben," said Joe, " these boys will heave the anchor up, or cut the cable, and run away with your brig. They have got the topgallant sails and royals hoisted up and sheeted home already."

So while earlier HILO BOYS occurred while the windlass was being operated, here they imply it is for halyards.

Boys never know when to stop when they once get excited ; for what one can't think of another can.
"Let us loose the main-topsail," cried John, "then we can have a longer song. This is too short a hoist."
" We can't furl it," said Charlie. " Ben will furl it for us."
" We can't hoist it — can't begin to."
" Yes, we can," said Isaac; " for we can take it to the capstan."
"O, that will be bully! I know a capstan song."

" 'Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes;
Chorus. — O, my poor sailor-boy, heave and she goes.'"

Sounds like a very old-fashioned capstan song.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 02:02 PM

TomB, I really appreciate that information on John Short. Can we assume that he learned all of his songs while he was at sea, between 1857 and 1875? And do we have dates when Sharp actually took down his songs? I assume that happened before the 1915 publication of Sharp's collection. There's a forty year period between the end of Short's sea-going days and the Sharp's publication. Is it possible that Short might have picked up some of his songs after his retirement from the sea?

What I'm getting at is this. If we actually knew that he learned all of these songs before 1875, we have a clear historical marker for the development of these chanties. This would go with Whall's dates of 1861-1872 for being at sea. The same questions apply to Whall. Did he learn all of his songs between 1861 and 1872? The next collection would be *some* of Harlowe's chanties in 1877. Using the period of 1872-1877 for a marker, we actually have documentation for a substantial number of chanties in use by that point. If we could pin down Maitland and Robinson to a cut off point, this would reinforce our position on this.

I realize that 1875 is not as early as some of us would like, but as a clear and concrete historical marker, I think that it's important.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 02:07 PM

TomB --

That's great info! I'm going to be bold and "file" Cheer'ly Man & Stormalong under "c.1857-58," based on Short's account.

John M--

Thanks for that lay-out of the issue of dating that comes up in this time. The dates of when these individuals sailed, recorded by you, Lighter, Charley, TomB, Snuffy, and others, is very useful info to have at hand.

What I am going to suggest is focusing on the category of what you have called "Published mention" (i.e. as opposed to collections), and stuff that can definitively be ascribed to the 1860s, first, as a matter of practicality. The collectors' experiences, which span decades, can be retro-fitted later.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: doc.tom
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 02:18 PM

John,
Short first went to sea at the age of 9 with his father on coastal work - Bristol channel, Barry Island, Gloucester Docks - and even down to Charlestown in Cornwall. However, he told Sharp (all the collecting was done in 1914 - and Sharp published, including the shanties collected in last session in September, before the end of the year!) that the first shanties he learnt were on that first deep-water trip in 1857.

After he retired from deep-sea work he worked again in the coastal trade until 1904 (according to his last references).

As we know he was a 'professional' shantyman (not just a casual sailor who remembered a few) I am of the opinion that he aquired all his shanties during those deep-sea years.

(Incidentally, the Short, Sharp Shanties project should be ready to issue the (3) CDs in early 2011, but we've already started a list of people who said they want the set. So if anyine wants to pm me with an e-mail address we'll add you to it).

TomB

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 02:31 PM

I forgot -- one last passage in THE ARK

The voice of Isaiah came shrill and clear over the water, singing at the studding-sail halyards, —

''De cap'n's a driver, de mate is a driver,
    John, John Crow is a dandy, O.
Drive her through de water, O, why don't you drive her?
    John, John Crow is a dandy, O.
De foam at our fore-foot, rolling white as de snow,
    John, John Crow is a dandy, O.
We sail o'er de ocean, and we sing Johnny Crow,
    John, John Crow is a dandy, O.
We're saucy to fight, we're nimble to fly,
    John, John Crow is a dandy, O.
Like de fish in de sea, like de bird in de sky,
    John, John Crow is a dandy, O.
For de Stars and de Stripes we hab fought wid de foe,
    John, John Crow is a dandy, O.
Now de fighting is ober, we will sing Johnny Crow,
    John, John Crow is a dandy, O.
De fair wind he blowing, nebber cloud in de sky,
    John, John Crow is a dandy, O.
We sheet home de royal, and we bid you good by,
John, John Crow is a dandy, O."

While we are not familiar with this as a chanty nowadays (at least *I* am not), possible relatives turn up in the reference from "Corn-shucking in South Carolina--From the Letters of a Traveller", 1843, above. It includes a song with the chorus, "John John Crow," and names another as "Dan, dan, who's the dandy?"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Apr 10 - 01:26 AM

George Edward Clark, in SEVEN YEARS OF A SAILOR'S LIFE (1867) mentions several windlass chanties. The text takes us up to mid 1866, so the seven years (if continuous) must have started around 1859 -- or earlier (if not continuous).

Clark's second voyage, at around 15-16 years of age, took place c.1859-60 or earlier. It was in the barque GUIDE, from Boston to Zanzibar.

Down the rigging they leaped, and to the windlass brakes. Then as they felt the old emotion, that they were at every stroke of the brakes slowly parting their last hold on Yankee land, they broke forth in a chanting that made the sleepy crews of the numberless coasters turn out in quick time. " O, Riley, O," " Whiskey for my Johnny," and the loud toned " Storm along, my Rosa," woke the echoes far and near.

c. 1860-61, Clark sailed in a clipper ship from Bombay to NY.

When leaving Bombay:

The men sprung to duty; the anchor was lifted from its slimy bed, the men singing "Rolling River" and "Cheerily she goes;" the fluke of the anchor was out of water; the sails run up and sheeted home, and with a famous wind, the ship, with flying colors, left her berth.

Arriving NY:

The anchor came to the bow with the chanty of "Oh, Riley, Oh," and "Carry me Long," and the tug walked us toward the wharf at Brooklyn.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Apr 10 - 01:50 PM

Lastly, from Clark, 2 more windlass chanties are mentioned:

In c.1865-1866, Clark was on the NASON, a fishing schooner (I assume?) out of Provincetown, sailing off the Grand Banks.

"Every man sprang to duty. The cheerful chanty was roared out, and heard above the howl of the gale. The cable held very hard, and when it surged over, the windlass sent the men flying about the deck, as if a galvanic battery had been applied to their hands. The vessel's head was often buried in the solid seas, and the men, soaked and sweating, yelled out hoarsely, " Paddy on the Railway," and " We 're Homeward Bound," while they tugged at the brakes, and wound the long, hard cable in, inch by inch."

Note that he uses the word "chanty."

That word is used elsewhere in the text -- in other contexts.

Here he is referring to stevedores, in Zanzibar:

A chanty gang was engaged to hoist out the cargo, and one of them in trying to steal hard bread, finding the bull-dog upon him, jumped overboard and swam safely ashore.......
The chanty men wanted biscuit, and waited to receive them.

So, "chanty men" and "chanty gang" had become a general term for stevedores.

In c.1866, is is about to leave St. Jago, Cuba. He notes at one point,

The Cubans have no real, go-ahead enterprise. The whites never perform any labor, but leave it to the slaves and coolies who do it all.

He is to leave on a Yankee schooner...

...when the sugar began to roll in, the crew found I was at the head of the rope, and a "chanty man." We rolled the sugar upon the stages, over the bows, and at every hogshead I gave them a different song. We worked hard all day, and generally had time at night to go ashore.

Clark, aka "Yankee Ned," was very familiar with chanties, then, and even refers to himself indirectly as a "chanty man" -- in this case, meaning someone who can lead chanties. He does put the phrase in quotes here, suggesting that maybe (though he doesn't define it for the readers) wants to mark it off as a particular usage.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Apr 10 - 02:19 PM

In GARRET VAN HORN (1863), J.S. Sauzade refers to the use of "Sally Brown."

As the ship SPLENDID leaves New York, bound for China...

I began my sailor duty by heaving away at the windlass to the tune of " Sally Brown, the bright mulatter."

This sea voyage happens before the narrator become a soldier, in which he was shipped to the Kabyle War in Algeria, mid 1857. So Sauzade implies that "Sally Brown" was sung before then...but since it is fiction, we can only date the mention to the copyright date, 1862.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Apr 10 - 02:39 PM

This comes courtesy of Lighter on March 10, 2010.

FIFTY-THREE YEARS MISSIONARY TO INDIA (1904)

On board the ship SUSAN HINKS, from Boston to Calcutta, 1862, Rev. Otis Robinson Bachelor ran a printing press. The contents of one published edition of his shipboard "newspaper" is described as follows.

In it we find good "Sunday Reading" and some amusing things; among which are " A Song for Raising Topsails," "Song on Sailing," "Song for the Halliards," and "Capstan Song." We copy as a specimen the "Capstan Song,"'with the editor's explanation that "as the motion is continuous, round and round the capstan, the object being to keep step, one or more may sing the melody and all join in the chorus: —

CAPSTAN SONG.

General Taylor gained the day,
    Hurrah Santa Anna!
General Taylor gained the day
    All on the plains of Mexico.

He gained the day at Monterey,
    Hurrah Santa Anna!
He gained the day at Monterey,
    All on the plains of Mexico.

Santa Anna ran away,
    Hurrah Santa Anna!
He ran away from Monterey,
    All on the plains of Mexico.

General Jackson's at New Orleans,
    Hurrah Santa Anna!
General Jackson's at New Orleans,
    All on the plains of Mexico.

'Twas there he gave the British beans,
    Hurrah Santa Anna!
'Twas there he gave the British beans,
    All on the plains of Mexico.

Although we have an earlier mention to the song "All on the Plains of Mexico" (1856), this is the first full text. Notably, General Taylor is gaining the day -- the ahistorical bit about de Santa Ana gaining the day (I think Hugill tried to explain it by saying that Britishers were in favour of the Mexicans) didn't necessarily come until later!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Apr 10 - 08:14 PM

Horace P. Beck gives a number of 20th Century shanties from "the West Indies" in his "Folklore of the Sea" (1973). Some are clearly versions of old standbys, others are unfamiliar, at least to me.

See my addition to the "Rosabella" thread for a now familiar example.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Apr 10 - 08:32 PM

Just wanted to log in this early African-American rowing song I found (discussed in the 'Sydney" thread).

From "The London Literary Gazette," Oct. 23, 1819. Setting, I presume is Maryland or Virginia. Rowing is referred to generally. The lyric is:

"Going away to Georgia, ho, heave, O!
Massa sell poor negro, ho, heave, O!
Leave poor wife and children, ho, heave, O!"

Compare to the "Sold off to Georgy" rowing song found in Hungerford, above.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Apr 10 - 08:49 PM

The above excerpt actually appeared originally in James Kirke Paulding's LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH (1817) and was heard in the summer of 1816. I believe that makes it the 2nd earliest published mention of such a text that I have. The earliest I have is Lambert 1810 (up thread), which has, lo and behold:

" We are going down to Georgia, boys,
CH: Aye, aye,

To see the pretty girls, boys ;
CH: Yoe, yoe.

We'll give 'em a pint of brandy, boys,
CH: Aye, aye.

And a hearty kiss besides, boys.
CH:Yoe, yoe.    "

I believe that makes 3 reference to a similar rowing, so I am going to give it a tag, AWAY TO GEORGIA.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 01:47 AM

For logging purposes of the 1860s.... Allen's SLAVE SONGS (1867) has a song called "Shock Along, John." "A corn-song, of which only the burden is remembered." He gives a full melody, which is in call-response-call-response form. However, he only has words to the refrain:

"Shock along John, shock along" (both times)

The structure of the tune, in a major key, is exactly like most halyard chanties.

Could this be related to "Stormalong"? "Shock" suggests "shuck," was meant, since after all it is a corn-shucking song. [Is it possible that Allen didn't know the word "shuck"--he'd have called it husking?] It is attributed to Maryland.

The rhythm of the verse phrase fits the poetic meter of "Stormy he is dead and gone."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 02:15 AM

To continue the log, I'd like to quote Lighter, on 10 March.

////
Probably the earliest full text of "Shenandoah," from The Riverside Magazine for Young People (Apr., 1868), p. 185:

"Man the capstan bars! Old Dave is our 'chanty-man.' Tune up, David!
                              
O, Shannydore**, I long to hear you!               
Chorus.-- Away, you rollin' river!                                                               
O, Shannydore, I long to hear you!
Full Chorus.--Ah ha! I'm bound awAY
On the wild Atlantic!
                                                   
Oh, a Yankee ship came down the river:…
And who do you think was skipper of her?…

Oh, Jim-along-Joe was skipper of her:…
Oh, Jim-along-Joe was skipper of her!…

An' what do you think she had for cargo?…
She had rum and sugar, an' monkeys' liver!…

Then seven year I courted Sally:
An' seven more I could not get her….

Because I was a tarry sailor,--
For I loved rum, an' chewed terbaccy:…

Especially good because it shows the "early" existence of some now familiar verses, the combination of "Shenandoah" with "Sally Brown," and the previously unreported combination with "Blow, Boys, Blow"!

The anonymous author says he (or she) learned this and a couple of other shanties on a recent Atlantic voyage.

.....

As I walked out one mornin',
                Down by the Clarence Dock,--
       Chorus. Heave away, my Johnny, heave away!
       'Twas there I met an Irish girl,
                Conversin' with Tapscott.
       Full chorus. An' away, my Johnny boy, we're all bound to go!

       "Good mornin' to yer, Taspcott;
                Good mornin', sir," she said….
       An' Tapscott he was that perlite
                He smiled an' bowed his head….

       "Oh, have yer got a ship," she said,--
                "A sailin' ship," said she,--
       "To carry me, and Dadda here,
                Across the ragin' sea?"

       "Oh yes, I got a packet ship,
                Her name's the Henry Clay,"--
       "She's layin' down to the Waterloo Dock,
                Bound to Amerikay."

       Then I took out my han'kerchief
                An' wiped away a tear,--
       And the lass was that she said to me, [sic]
                So, fare ye well, my dear!

       Some times I'm bound to Africay
                Some times I'm bound to France,--
       But now I'm bound to Liverpool
                To give them girls a chance."
////

I like how "Heave Away" mentions "Henry Clay." That name will turn up again in another version of "Heave Away."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 09:36 AM

Here is another reference to "going to Georgia", which introduces the "Jenny gone away" song as well. The line is

"Oh! my massa told me, there's no grass in Georgia."

"Upon inquiring the meaning of which, I was told it was supposed to be the lamentation of a slave from one of the more northerly states, Virginia or Carolina, where the labor of hoeing the weeds, or grass as they call it, is not nearly so severe as here, in the rice and cotton lands of Georgia. Another very pretty and pathethic tune began with words that seemed to promise something sentimental -

    "Fare you well, and good-by, oh, oh!
    I'm goin' away to leave you, oh, oh!"

http://books.google.com/books?id=WaFiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA128&dq=Jenny+gone+away&cd=2#v=onepage&q=Jenny%20gone%20away&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 09:44 AM

The last post was from JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE ON A GEORGIAN PLANTATION, by Fanny Kemble, 1863, here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=w34FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=journal+of+a+residence+on+a+georgian+plantation&cd=1#v=onep

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 10:05 AM

Here is "Jenny gone away" at a corn-shucking, from 1843, in THE FAMILY MAGAZINE, from an article entitled "Visit to a Negro Cabin" "(Extract from a Journal, kept by a Gentleman, who travelled through Virginia some years since.)".   

"Oh, Jenny gone to New-town,
   Chorus: Oh, Jenny gone away!
She went because she wouldn't stay,
   Oh, Jenny gone away!
She run'd away, an' I know why,
   Oh, Jenny gone away!
For she went a'ter Jone's Bob.
   Oh, Jenny! &c.
Mr. Norton, good ole man,
   Oh! &c.
Treats his niggers mighty well.
   Oh! &c.
Young Tim Barnet no great thing....
Never say, come take a dram....
Master gi's us plenty meat,...
Mighty apt to fo'git de drink....

http://books.google.com/books?id=cYAAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA244&dq=Jenny+gone+away&cd=6#v=onepage&q=Jenny%20gone%20away&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 01:07 PM

I think this is a reference from 1858 to "Hilo, Boys, Hilo". It is found in A CUBAN EXPEDITION, by J.H. Bloomfield, published in 1896.

http://books.google.com/books?id=WlhUsSH4QeUC&pg=PA282&dq=%22Hilo,+Boys,+Hilo%22&cd=6#v=onepage&q=%22Hilo%2C%20Boys%2C%20Hilo%22

The reference to the "execution of Colonel Crittenden in Havana", found on page 1 of Bloomfield's "Introduction" is documented here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=IropAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA140&dq=shooting+of+Colonel+Crittenden+in+Havana&cd=1#v=onepage&q=shooting%20o

Bloomfield says that his expedition set sail for Cuba seven years after this event, which would be 1858. A rather complete song is given by Bloomfield.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 01:24 PM

Dunno why we didn't see this one earlier! Well, it is not a work-song context, so here it is supplementary to the discussion of the origins of individual song strains.

John Dixon Long, PICTURES OF SLAVERY IN CHURCH AND STATE, 1857. An abolitionist text. Long (b. 1817) grew up and spent most of his life in Maryland, and his father was a slave-holder, so his experiences probably come from there. Exact time unknown, as he is speaking in generalities about the song.

The songs of a slave are word-pictures of every thing he sees, or hears, or feels. The tunes once fixed in his memory, words descriptive of any and every thing are applied to them, as occasion requires. Here is a specimen, combining the sarcastic and the pathetic. Imagine a colored man seated on the front part of an ox-cart, in an old field, unobserved by any white man, and in a clear loud voice, ringing out these words, which wake up sad thoughts in the minds of his fellowslaves :

" William Rino sold Henry Silvers;
            Hilo! Hilo!
Sold him to de Gorgy trader;
            Hilo! Hilo!
His wife she cried, and children bawled,
            Hilo ! Hilo !
Sold him to de Gorgy trader;
          Hilo! Hilo!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 02:40 PM

Bit by bit, I am going to break out references to shanties in RC Adams' ON BOARD THE ROCKET (1879). It probably refers to the late 1860s.

While the main vessel is the barque ROCKET -- aboard which we might assume Adams learned most of the chanties he discusses later on-- there is also the ship DUBLIN. Adams sailed in the Dublin from Boston, via Richmond, VA, to the Mediterranean. Here is what happened when that ship was leaving Boston. Adams was third mate. The crew members were all Black men.

The ship was bound to Richmond, Virginia, in ballast, there to load a cargo of tobacco for the Mediterranean. In the forenoon, a negro crew of fourteen men and two boys came on board. They were mostly fine "strapping" fellows, with bright eyes and shining " ivories," and as we proceeded down the bay they made the decks ring with their songs ; the maintopsail going to the mast-head to the tune of "Come down you bunch o' roses, come down," and the foretopsail halyards answering to the strong pulls following the sentiment:

"Sally Brown's a bright Mulatto,
She drinks ruin and chews tobacco."

So, BUNCH OF ROSES and SALLY BROWN at tops'l halyards.

Once arriving in Genoa, the Dublin was unloaded.

Every morning they were waked up by the song of the crew, as they commenced at five o'clock in the morning to hoist out the tobacco, for it is not customary in port to " turn to " until six, and all day long such choruses as "Walk along my Sally Brown," and "Hoist her up from down below," rang over the harbor, with all the force that a dozen hearty negroes could give them. When the " shanty man " became hoarse, another relieved him, and thus the song and work went along,...

I presume the hoisting of cargo was a similar maneuver to halyards. WALKALONG SALLY and what could be a number of different songs, "Hoist her up from down below," are here.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 02:51 PM

Gibb, I think this link can date the "Rocket" materials to 1868.

http://books.google.com/books?id=JVosAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA9-PA7&dq=%22Capt.+Robert+C.+Adams%22&lr=&cd=20#v=onepage&q=%22Rocket%22&f=tru

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 02:59 PM

Adams has an extended exposition on "Sailors' Songs." Many have musical score to go with them, however, they are rhymically unsound.

He distinguishes entertainment and work songs. Interestingly, though he uses the term "shantyman" several times, only once does he refer to a song as a "shanty." It is curious that, in the following layout, he does not refer to "shanties".

Sailors' songs may be divided into two classes. First, are the sentimental songs sung in the forecastle, or on the deck in the leisure hours of the dog-watch, when the crew assemble around the fore-hatch to indulge in yarns and music. Dibdin's songs, which the orthodox sailor of the last half century was supposed to adhere to as closely as the Scotch Presbyterian to his Psalter, are falling into disuse, and the negro melodies and the popular shore songs of the day are now most frequently heard. The second class of songs is used at work, and they form so interesting a feature of life at sea, that a sketch of that life would be incomplete without some allusion to them. These working songs may be divided into three sets :...

First he discusses sheet shanties:

First, those used where a few strong pulls are needed, as in boarding a tack, hauling aft a sheet, or tautening a weather-brace. "Haul the Bowline," is a favorite for this purpose. The shantyman, as the solo singer is called, standing up "beforehand," as high above the rest of the crew as he can reach, sings with as many quirks, variations and quavers as his ingenuity and ability can attempt, "Haul the bow-line, Kitty is my darling;" then all hands join in the chorus, " Haul the bowline, the bowline haul" shouting the last word with great energy and suiting action to it by a combined pull, which must once be witnessed by one who desires an exemplification of " a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether." This seldom fails to make the ropes " come home."

Haul the bow-line, Kit-ty is my dar-ling;
- Chorus: Haul the bow-line, the bow-line haul.

Then the song is repeated with a slight change in words, "Haul the bow-line, the clipper ship's a rolling," &c., and next time perhaps, " Haul the bow-line, our bully mate is growling."

In contrast to one of the earlier references to BOWLINE (up-thread), here it is clear that the crew sings the entire last phrase, not just the last word.

Adams digresses to speak to the duties and methods of a shantyman. This is the passage in which he uses the word "shanty":

Great latitude is allowed in the words and the shantyman exercises his own discretion. If he be a man of little comprehension or versatility, he will say the same words over and over, but if he possesses some wit, he will insert a phrase alluding to some peculiarity of the ship, or event of the time, which will cause mouths to open wider and eyes to roll gleefully, while a lively pull follows that rouses the sheet home and elicits the mate's order "Belay!" A good shantyman is highly prized, both by officers and crew. His leadership saves many a dry pull, and his vocal effort is believed to secure so much physical force, that he is sometimes allowed to spare his own exertions and reserve all his energies for the inspiriting shanty.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 03:08 PM

John, that's excellent, and I had seen that earlier. Your discovery of that, along with Lighter's observation that it would have to be after the Civil War, are what led me to say late 1860s. The reason I don't yet want to say 1868 specifically is because that note is for the Rocket's voyage to Sumatra. Adams sails in the Dublin prior to that, so the Dublin reference may apply to "1865-1868." And Adams continues to sail after the Sumatra voyage. His discussion of shanties is general, and must be a composite of his experiences over several years. I I figured "circa late 1860s" would be safer (?)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 03:31 PM

Adams, cont.

He gives two more sheet shanties:

Another common song is--

HAUL AWAY, JOE

Way, haul away; O, haul away, my Rosey.
Chorus: Way, haul away; O, haul away, Joe.

And another--

JOHNNY BOKER

Oh do, my Johnny Boker, come rock and roll me over,
Chorus: Do, my Johnny Boker, do.

In both of these, the emphasis and the pull come at the last word of the chorus : " Joe " and " do," as they end the strain, put a severe strain on the rope.

HAUL AWAY JOE is in Mixolydian mode. He uses a shorter rhythmic value on "Joe" -- emphasizing the sharpness of it, I think. Also, there is a fermata over it, implying that one does sing verse after verse in continuous meter, rather one pauses to regroup between verses. In other words, it's not a Clancy Brothers jig!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 07:01 PM

Adams, cont.

He next goes on to describe halyard chanties:

In the second set of working songs, I would place those that are used in long hoists, or where so large a number of pulls is required that more frequent exertion must be used, than is called for by the first set, lest too much time be occupied. The topsail halyards call most frequently for these songs. One of the most universal, and to my ear the most musical of the songs, is " Reuben Ranzo." A good shantyman, who with fitting pathos recounts the sorrows of " poor Reuben " never fails to send the topsail to the masthead at quick notice, nor to create a passing interest in the listener to the touching melody: —

Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo,
    Ranzo, boys, Ranzol
Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo,
    Ranzo, boys, Ranzol

Oh, Reuben was no sailor,
       Chorus, and repeat with chorus. 

He shipped on board of a whaler,
                   Chorus, &c.

He could not do his duty,
                   Chorus, &c. 

The captain was a bad man,
                   Chorus, &c. 

He put him in the rigging,
                   Chorus, &c.

He gave him six and thirty,
                   Chorus, &c.

Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo.
                   Chorus, &c.

In this song the pulls are given at the first word " Ranzo" in the chorus, sometimes at its next occurrence in addition.

It's nice that he adds in the pulls. Also, he adds the detail that this could be a sing- or double-pull.

Of all the heroines of deck song Sally Brown's name is most frequently uttered, and a lively pull always attends it. She figures in several of these songs; one has as its chorus "Shantyman and Sally Brown." But it is used more frequently, I think, in connection with the song: —

BLOW, MY BULLY BOYS, BLOW.

Oh, Sally Brown's a bright mulatto;
    Blow, boys, blow!
Oh, she drinks rum and chews tobacco,
    Blow, my bully boys, blow!

Oh, Sally Brown's a Creole lady,
             Chorus, and repeat with chorus. 

Oh, Sally Brown, I long to see you,
             Chorus, &c. 

Oh, Sally Brown, I'll ne'er deceive you.
             Chorus, &c.

It will be noticed that neither rhyme nor sentiment has much place in these songs. Each line is usually repeated twice, even if there be a rhyme impending, for the shantyman's stock must be carefully husbanded.

"Shantyman and Sally Brown" is a chorus I've not heard of elsewhere. Perhaps it is a natural variation of "spend my money on Sally Brown," in which case he is referring to the "usual" SALLY BROWN ("roll and go") to contrast it with BLOW BOYS BLOW.

Adams includes BONEY among the long-drag shanties. I would say that he is presenting it as a single-pull halyard shanty. (In contrast to a sheet shanty, the pull does not come at the very end.):

A favorite and frequently used song, in which Bonaparte's fortunes are portrayed in a manner startling to the historian, as well as to those who may have the fortune to hear it sung at any time, is: —

JOHN FRANCOIS (*"pronounced Frans-war").

Oh, Bo -ney was a war -rior,
    A-way, hey way!
Oh, Bo - ney was a war - rior,
    John Fran-cois.

Oh, Boney went to Roo-shy,
                  Chorus. 

Oh, Boney went to Proo-shy,
                  Chorus.

He crossed the Rocky Mountains,
                  Chorus.

He made a mistake at Waterloo,
                  Chorus. 

He died at Saint Helena.
                  Chorus.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 07:14 PM

Adams, cont.

Where Tommy actually proceeded to when he went "a high low" nobody knows, but the fact is related with continual gusto nevertheless: —

TOMMY'S GONE, A HIGH LOW

My Tommy's gone and I'll go too;
    Hurrah, you high low.
For without Tommy I can't do.
    My Tommy's gone a high low.
My Tommy's gone on the Eastern Shore,
                   Chorus. 

My Tommy's gone to Baltimore,
                   Chorus.

A person who knows a little of geography can send Tommy around the world according to his own discretion.

The emphases/pulls are missing in the original.
Our recent discussion of "Hilo" underscores that that phrase was *probably* not a place to go to (cf. speculations about Peru, Hawai'i). Whether it originally meant something is unknown, but it did come to be a common nonsense-syllable (?) chorus in slave songs. This may be another case of lost-in-translation. The "going places" theme of the lyrics influenced the later process of making the chorus a propositional statement, "Tommy's gone to 'Hilo'."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 07:23 PM

Curiously, Adams has SHENANDOAH as a halyard chanty. The pull on the second refrain is in an interesting place, too -- one might expect more pulls on that refrain, or the pull to come on "away" and "Missouri".

One of the best illustrations of the absolute nothingness that characterizes the words of these songs, is given by the utterances attending the melody called " Shanadore," which probably means Shenandoah, a river in Virginia. I often have heard such confusing statements as the following:—

Shannadore's a rolling river,
      Hurrah, you rolling river.
Oh, Shannadore's a rolling river.
      Ah hah, I'm bound away o'er the wild Missouri.

Shanadore's a packet sailor,
               Chorus. 

Shanadore's a bright mulatto,
                Chorus. 

Shanadore I long to hear you.
                Chorus,

and so the song goes on, according to the ingenuity of the impromptu composer.

"Absolute nothingness"? Well, much is incidental, but I would not call it nothingness! The verses here show more overlap with "Sally Brown."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 07:33 PM

Sailors are not total abstainers as a rule, and one would suspect that a song like "Whiskey Johnny " might find frequent utterance: —

WHISKEY JOHNNY.

Whiskey is the life of man,
    Whiskey Johnny.
We'll drink our whiskey when we can,
    Whiskey for my Johnny.

I drink whiskey, and my wife drinks gin,
                      Chorus. 

And the way she drinks it is a sin.
                      Chorus.

I and my wife cannot agree,
                      Chorus.

For she drinks whiskey in her tea.
                      Chorus.

I had a girl, her name was Lize,
                      Chorus. 

And she put whiskey in her pies.
                      Chorus.
Whiskey's gone and I'll go too,
                     Chorus.
For without whiskey I can't do.
                      Chorus.

Another popular song is:--

KNOCK A MAN DOWN.

I wish I was in Mobile Bay.
    Way, hey, knock a man down.
A-rolling cotton night and day.
    This is the time to knock a man down.

The words already quoted will enable a person to sing this and neariy all the songs of this set. He can wish he was in every known port in the world, to whose name he can find a rhyme. If New Orleans was selected, he would add, "Where Jackson gave the British beans." At " Boston city," his desire would be, "a-walking with my lovely Kitty." At " New York town," he would be, "a-walking Broadway up and down," or at Liverpool he would finish his education, "a-going to a Yankee school."

I am really enjoying the total fluidity / interchangeability of lyrical themes that Adams' chanties exemplify.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 07:47 PM

Adams goes on to describe the next category, heaving shanties -- he groups pumps, capstan and windlass without distinguishing. I'd caution against, however, assuming that RIO GRANDE might be used equally for pumps and windlass, in addition to capstan just because he doesn't say it wasn't.
He notes also that many of the halyard chanties might also be used for those tasks.

The third set of working songs comprises those used at the pumps, capstan and windlass, where continuous force is applied, instead of the pulls at intervals, as when hauling on ropes. Many of the second set of songs are used on such occasions, but there are a few peculiar to this use and of such are the following:

RIO GRANDE.

I'm bound away this very day.
    Ch: Oh, you Rio!
I'm bound away this very day, I'm bound for the Rio Grande.
    Chorus: And away you Rio! Oh, you Rio!
    I'm bound away this very day, I'm bound for the Rio Grande.


PADDY, COME WORK ON THE RAILWAY

In eighteen hundred and sixty-three,
I came across the stormy sea.
My dung'ree breeches I put on
Chorus: To work upon the railway, the rail - way,
To work up-on the rail - way.
Oh, poor Paddy come work on the railway.

Many other songs might be named, some of which, peculiar to the Liverpool packets, are of a rowdy nature.

Hmm, I wonder what those "rowdy" songs were.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 08:20 PM

Adams finally polishes up his discussion with a statement on sing-outs.

In addition to these songs are the unnameable and unearthly howls and yells that characterize the true sailor, which are only acquired by years of sea service. There is the continuous running solo of " way-hey he, ho, ya," &c., &c , accompanying the hand-over-hand hoisting of jibs and staysails. Then for short " swigs " at the halyards, we have such utterances as " hey lee, ho lip, or yu," the emphasis and pull coming on the italicized syllables on which the voice is raised a tone. Then comes the more measured "singing out," for the long and regular pulls at the "braces." Each sailor has his own " howl" peculiar to himself, but fortunately only one performs at a time on the same rope. The effect, however, when all hands are on deck at a time, and a dozen ropes are pulled on at once, is most suggestive of Babel. One learns to recognize the sailors' method of singing: when lying in his berth in the cabin he can tell what man is leading and by the measure of his cadence can judge what class of ropes is being pulled. He thus can often divine the changes of wind and weather without going on deck. The wakeful captain with nerves harrassed by contrary winds will recognize the hauling in of the weather braces by the cry, and with only this evidence of a fair wind will drop off into the slumber he so greatly needs. At other times he will be impelled to go on deck by the evidence that the outcries betoken the hauling of clew-lines and buntlines at the approach of a threatening squall. By attention to these and other sounds, and the motions of the vessel, an experienced mariner knows the condition of affairs above deck without personal inspection.

So, there are three styles of singing-out:

1) hand over hand style for jibs and stays'ls
2) shorts swigs at halyards (i.e. sweating-up)
3) Long pulls at the braces.

I especially appreciate Adams' indication of the emphases. Hugill does not make that clear. After reading this closely, I am doubting some of what I thought I understood from Hugill. General disappointment that Hugill could not have been more organized and descriptive in presenting sing-outs, and that we don't have recordings, etc to support a better understanding of what they were like!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 09:47 PM

The last of 2 sources to be considered for the 1860s (that I have) is the anonymously written (probably by W.L. Alden) article, "On Shanties," in ONCE A WEEK, 1 Aug, 1868. Though it would seem to be one of the earliest articles devoted to the subject, it was preceded by at least 2 that came in 1858. There are some correspondences between those articles and Alden's and I would not be surprised to find that he had referenced them.

The author's beginning statements acknowledge the duties and methods (i.e. improv) of the shantyman. S/he gives lyrics to CHEERLY, but does not assign its task.

At the capstan, on the topsail-halliards, in port and at sea, in calm and in storm, the ropes run smoother, the anchor comes quicker, when twenty strong voices sing,—

Pull together, cheerily men, 

'Gainst wind and weather, cheerily men. 

For one another, cheerily men, O, 
   
Cheerily men, O, cheerily men.

Truly, as I once heard an old skipper remark, a good shanty is the best bar in the capstan ; but it is impossible to give an adequate idea of them by merely quoting the words : the charm all lies in the air : indeed, few of them have any set form of words, except in the chorus ; thus the inventive as well as the vocal powers of the singer are taxed—yet the shantyman has to extemporise as he sings to keep up his prestige,—the captain, officers, the weather, the passengers, and the peculiarities of his mates, furnish him with matter.

Types of shanties. First, capstan (STORMALONG [sans lyrics], GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL, SACRAMENTO, RIO GRANDE, PADDY LAY BACK, SANTIANA, "Good morning ladies all," "Nancy Bell," "Sally in the Alley," "And England's blue forever"?, LOWLANDS AWAY, "Oceanida," "Johnny's gone," BLACKBALL LINE, and SLAPANDERGOSHEKA). Funny that s/he includes these ALL under the category of capstan, without parsing out other heaving tasks.

Shanties are of two kinds, those sung at the capstan, and those sung when hauling on the ropes ; in the former the meter is longer, and they are generally of the pathetic class. To those who have heard it at sea, what can be more sad or touching than the air of or

To Liverpool docks we'll bid adieu,
Good-bye, fare you well ; 

To lovely Poll, and pretty Sue ;
Hurrah, brave boys, we're outward bound.

More stirring is the following :—

Blow, boys, blow, for California, O, 

There's plenty of gold in the land, I'm told, 
   
On the banks of Sacramento.

There is an air of romance about California, the Brazils, and Mexico, that has a peculiar charm for Jack, and has made them the subject of many a favourite shanty, as Rio Grande, Valparaiso, Round the Horn, and Santa Anna.

Oh, Santa Anna gained the day,
Hurrah, Santa Anna ; 

He gained the day, I've heard them say,
All on the plains of Mexico.

Rio Grande is perhaps the greatest favourite of this description of songs, but all the beauty lies in the mournful air :—

To Rio Grande we're bound away, away to Rio ; 

Then fare you well, my pretty young girls, 
   
We're bound for the Rio Grande. …

…In those lively shanties, Good morning ladies all, Nancy Bell, and Sally in the Alley, ample homage is paid to the girl he leaves behind him. Love is tempered with patriotism in this :—

True blue for ever,

I and Sue together ; 

True blue, I and Sue, 

And England's blue for ever.

There are many more capstan shanties, which I can only mention by name, such as Lowlands, Oceanida, Johnny's gone, The Black-ball Line, and Slapandergosheka, which contain a wild melody all their own ; the last named, with the incomprehensible title (repeated at the end of every line) is addressed to All you Ladies now on Land, and may seem rather egotistical. It commences,—

Have you got, lady, a daughter so fine,
       Slapandergosheka, 

That is fit for a sailor that has crossed the Line,
       Slapandergosheka, &c.

OK, so now *Santa Ana* has gained the day!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 09:53 PM

"On Shanties," cont.

"Hauling shanties" come next. Hand over hand (HANDY MY BOYS) and "long pull song" (BOWLINE, "Land ho, boys," HAUL AWAY JOE, BONEY).

We now come to the hauling shanties : first, there is the hand over hand song, in very quick time; then the long pull song. When there are a number of men—perhaps twenty, or more— pulling on one rope, the reader will perceive that, to be effective, the pull must be made unanimously ; this is secured by the shanty, the pull being made at some particular word in the chorus. For instance, in the following verse each repetition of the word handy is the signal for a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull pull altogether:—

Oh shake her up, and away we'll go.
So handy, my girls, so handy ;
Up aloft from down below,
So handy, my girls, so handy.

But when the work is heavy, or hands are few, one of longer meter is used:—

Haul the bowline, the fore and main-top bowline,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul ;
Haul the bowline, Kitty you're my darling,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.

Here the concluding word of each couplet, haul, gives the clue ; there are many of this sort,— Land ho, boys, Land ho; Haul away, my Josey; and Boney was a Warrior; this last is the only one I know that has the words complete :—

Oh, Boney was a warrior, away a yah, 

A bonny little warrior, John Francivaux ;

John Francivaux is the nautical rendering of 
Johnny Crapeau. In the next two couplets 
Jack avails himself of his poetic licence to 
some purpose:—

He cruised in the Channel, away a yah, 

The Channel of old England, John Francivaux ; 

John Bull pursued and took him, away a yah, 

And sent him off to Elba, John Francivaux.

After stating a few more facts, that would astonish his biographers, he is brought to St. Helena :—

And there he pined and died, away a yah ; 

There grows a weeping willow, John Francivaux, 

A-weeping for poor Boney, John, &c.

"Haul away, my Josey" provides, perhaps, a needed clue to connect "Jim Along Josey" to "Haul Away Joe."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 09:57 PM

These songs also serve the means of communicating the ideas of the men to their superiors, or of giving a strong hint respecting the provisions ; for instance, a captain of a large passenger-ship will scarcely like his lady and gentlemen passengers to hear the watch, who are taking a pull on the mainbrace, commence, with stentorian lungs, something after the following strain :—

Oh, rotten pork, cheerily men, 

And lots of work, cheerily men, 

Would kill a Turk, cheerily men. oh,
Cheerily men.

Nothing to drink, cheerily men, 

The water does stink, cheerily men, 

And for Christians, just think, cheerily men, 
   
Oh, cheerily men.

Something of this sort generally has an effect in passenger-ships, and will obtain some concession.

Finally, s/he tells us how shantying was scarce in the Navy – apparently even up to this point in time.

These remarks apply only to merchant ships ; in the Navy, the shanty is prohibited, and at the capstan the men move to the sound of the fife or fiddle—the musician being seated on the capstan-head.
Of course the songs sung in the foke'sull, when Jack is taking his ease, are of another description…

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 12:37 PM

I want to correct myself when I said the 1868 article "On Shanties" was "probably by W.L. Alden." I said that because it appears to be an article that was later revised (seemingly) and published in the 11 December, 1869 deition of CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL. The latter has been attributed to Alden -- by Doerflinger, with a question mark, and by Hugill, positively. Those authors had me under the impression that it was probably by Alden. However, other than their opinion, I am not finding any reason to think that Alden wrote either one.

The problem with the 1869 article is that, not only does it appear to be a quick revision-- as if to shorten it-- of the 1868....it also seems to steal from the two earlier magazine articles, from THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY and OBERLIN' STUDENTS MONTHLY, that appeared in 1858. One of those is also anonymous, and the other is by an unknown "Allen" (not Alden!). There is the *possibility* that the same author wrote 2, or even all of these. I don't think so, however. And based on comparing Alden's later, 1882 article, I don't see any reason to believe that he wrote any of the earlier ones.

The relevant point is where these writers got their info from. The 1868 and 1869 articles are quite "journalistic," and we must suspect that the author(s) may have had no first hand experience of shantying. What we can mainly get from them, then, is just dry (without reliable context!) info on what shanties were being sung by the publication date and what some of their lyrics might be like. But even in terms of what shanty was used for what task, I think these need to be critiqued.

So... the 1869 article...."Sailors' Shanties and Sea-Songs"

At the capstan, on the topsail-halliards, in port and at sea, in calm and in storm, the ropes run smoother, the work is done quicker, when some twenty strong voices sing:

Haul the bowline, the fore and main top bowline;
    Haul the bowline, the bowline haul; 

Haul the bowline, the bully, bully bowline;
    Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.

This is the opening of the 1868 article, but BOWLINE has been swapped for CHEERLY.

I remember well, one dirty black night in the Channel, beating up for the Mersey against a stiff breeze, coming on deck near midnight, just as the ship was put about. When a ship is tacking, the tacks and sheets (ropes which confine the clews, or lower corners of the sails) are let run, in order that the yards may be swung round to meet the altered position of the ship. They then must be hauled taut again, and belayed, or secured, in order to keep the sails in their places, and to prevent them from shaking. When the ship's head comes up in the wind, the sail is for a moment or two edgewise to it, and then is the nice moment, as soon as the head-sails fairly fill, when the main-yard and the yard above it can be swung readily, and the tacks and sheets hauled in. If the ship is short-handed, or the crew slow at their work, and the sails get fairly filled on the new tack, it is a fatiguing piece of work enough to ' board' the tacks and sheets, as it is called. The crew are pulling at one end of the rope; but the gale is tugging at the other. The best plan in such cases is to put the helm down a little, and set the sails shaking again before they can be trimmed properly. It was just at such a time I came on deck as above mentioned. Being near eight bells, the watch on deck had not been over-smart, and the consequence was that our big main-course was flying out overhead with a might that shook the ship from stem to stern. The flaps of the mad canvas were like successive thumps of a giant's fist upon a big drum. The sheets were jerking at the belaying-pins, the blocks rattling in sharp snappings like castanets. You could hear the hiss and seething of the sea alongside, and see it flash by in sudden white patches of phosphorescent foam, while all overhead was black with the flying scud. Our second mate, a Yankee, was stamping his feet with vexation, and without any regard for his hs, was storming away at the men. 'An'somely the weather mainbrace there; an'somely, I tell you! Now, then, what the are you all standing there for?
'Alf-a-dozen of you clap on to the main-sheet. Here, look alive ! Down with 'im. 'Andy there ! 'Aul 'im in.' But although he ran through all the most forcible expressions in his vocabulary, the sail wouldn't come. ' Give us a song, boys,' cried out our old skipper, who had just come on deck. ' Pull with a will, boys ; all together, boys.' Then a strong voice sang out:

Haul the bowline, the bowline, the bowline;
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul; 

Haul the bowline; Polly is my darling;
      Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.

At the last word ' haul' in each couplet, every man threw his whole strength into the pull—all singing in chorus with a quick explosive sound. And so jump by jump the sheet was at last hauled taut I daresay this description will be considered spun out by a seafaring man; but landsmen like to hear of the sea and its ways; and as more fresh-water sailors read this Journal than sea-water ones, I have told them of one shanty and its time and place.

The preceding passage has been plagiarized (?) from the 1858 article in THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. The funny thing is, in the old version (published in Boston), it was an English mate who had his H's misplaced, whereas in this version (published in England) it is a Yankee mate! Besides the fact that it makes no sense, this suggests to me that the 1869 author is copying as needed, and therefore s/he is not the same author as the 1858 article.

cont...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 12:47 PM

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL 1869, cont.

The above is what we call a hauling shanty. Shanties are of two kinds—those sung at the capstan, and those sung when hauling on a rope: in the former, the metre is longer, and they are generally of a more pathetic nature. To those who have heard it, as the men run round the capstan, bringing up the anchor from the English mud, of a ship outward bound for a two years trip, perhaps never to return, what can be more sad or touching, although sung with a good-will:

To the Liverpool docks we'll bid adieu; 

To Suke, and Sall, and Polly too; 

The anchor's weighed, the sail's unfurled; 

We are bound to cross the watery world. 

Hurrah! we 're outward bound ! Hurrah ! 

we 're outward bound !

OK, so this is actually OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND. It seems to have been fudged as "Goodbye fare you well" in the 1868 ONCE A WEEK article. Or was it?--most of the 1868 version does scan as "Goodbye Fare You Well." This shanty (Outward and Homeward) was also in the 1858 OBERLIN STUDENT'S MONTHLY article, though with a different verse. But the punctuation in the chorus is the same. It is subtle, and my argument is not very strong, but I believe these discrepancies lend evidence to the case that the author(s) of both 1868 and 1869 were not first-hand knowledgeable.

More stirring is the following :

Steer, boys, steer, for California O; 

There's plenty of gold in the land, I 'm told, 
   
On the banks of the Sacramento.

There is an air of romance about California, the Brazils, and Mexico, that has a peculiar charm for Jack; and he has made them the subject of many a favourite shanty, as Rio Grande, Valparaiso, Round the Horn, and Santa Anna. Rio Grande is perhaps the greatest favourite of this description of songs, but all the beauty lies in the mournful air:

To Rio Grande we 're bound away, away to Rio; 

Then fare you well, my pretty young girls; 
   
We're bound to the Rio Grande. …

…There are many more capstan shanties, which I can only mention by name, such as Oceanida, Johnny 's Gone, The Black Ball Line, and Slapandergosheka. The last mentioned, with the incomprehensible title (repeated at the end of every line), is addressed to 'All you ladies now on land,' and may seem rather egotistical; it commences—

Have you got, lady, a daughter so fine,
       Slapandergosheka, 

That is fit for a sailor that has crossed the line ?
       Slapandergosheka, &c.

The preceding is repeated from his (?) 1868 article. But why change Sacramento from "Blow" to "Steer"? Perhaps he thought his readers would not understand "blow"?

I remember once hearing a good shanty on board a Glasgow boat; something like the following was the chorus :

Highland day, and off she goes, 

Off she goes with a flying fore-topsail; 

Highland day, and off she goes.

It was one of the most spirited things imaginable, when well sung; and when'applied to the topsail halliards, brought the yards up in grand style.

That was also stolen from ATLANTIC MONTHLY, 1858. The "Glasgow boat" is made-up B.S.—probably inspired by the word "Highland"—unless s/he wrote that old article and is now adding more detail.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 12:53 PM

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL cont.

We now come to the hauling shanties. First, there is the hand-over-hand song, in very quick time ; then the long-pull song. When there are a number of men—perhaps twenty or thirty—pulling on a rope, the reader will perceive that, to be effective, the pull must be made unanimously: this is secured by the shanty, the pull being made at some particular word in the chorus. For instance, in the following verse, each repetition of the word ' handy' is the signal for a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together:
Oh, shake her up, and away we'II go,

So handy, my girls, so handy; 

Up aloft from down below,
So handy, my girls, so handy.

For heavier work, or when hands are few, one of longer metre is used, such as Land O, Boys, Land O; Haul away, my Josey; O long Storm, storm along, stormy.

Land ho > Land O

"Haul away, my Josey," seeing his used of the OBERLIN article (which has "Jim Along Josey", *could* be a slight fabrication.

Most irksome is that now STORMY appears under the hauling category, whereas in the previous year he'd said it was a capstan chantey. This particular (odd) phrasing of the title reflects that it was most likely lifted from the ATLANTIC article.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 01:14 PM

So, the 1869 article is essentially "worthless." Funny -- If I remember right, that is the source from which the OED gets its first incidence of the word "shanty."

The 1868 article gives several items that were new at the time -- that is, I have not seen them in print before that. They are:

GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL
SACRAMENTO
RIO GRANDE
PADDY LAY BACK
"Good morning ladies all"
"Nancy Bell"
"Sally in the Alley"
"And England's blue forever"
LOWLANDS AWAY
"Oceanida"
"Johnny's gone"
BLACKBALL LINE
SLAPANDERGOSHEKA
HANDY MY BOYS
"Land ho, boys"
HAUL AWAY JOE
BONEY

Of these, Adams' later published work provides evidence that HAUL AWAY JOE and BONEY were already in existence.

"Good morning ladies all" and, possibly, "Johnny's Gone" (if related to "Jenny's Gone Away"), may have appeared earlier as corn-shucking songs.

And the author gives some unique verses to CHEERLY, too.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 01:33 PM

Though much of the '69 article is plagiarized and paraphrased from the '68, the two are not identical. '69 adds very little of substance, however.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 01:49 PM

Lighter, my suggestion is that the 1869 adds *nothing*. At least, I can find nothing new in it!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Apr 10 - 01:28 AM

Thanks, John, for this reference: A CUBAN EXPEDITION by J.H. Bloomfield (1896), and for your detective work placing the date of the voyage at 1858. I am going to break it out here, as usual.

Barque TYRER, from Casilda, Cuba to London.

General musings on shanties, their usefulness, their improvisatory nature. I like how he calls them "hauling choruses, not songs." :

The fore topsail rose off the cap with many jerks, and gradually got stretched out to its full height to the topmast head to the music of a "shantie," or song, given out by the carpenter, who happened to be the " shantie man" on this occasion.

Sailors' shanties—probably a corruption of chanting—or hauling choruses, not songs, are generally improvised by the "shantie man" who gives them out. The choruses are old and well known to all sailors, but between each pull and chorus the " shantie man" has to improvise the next line, or compose the "shantie" as he sings it. It is true there is not much in them, and any words or expression, no matter how absurd or incongruous, will answer as long as they rhyme with the line before. Although they are often without sequence they are not without music, and are as inspiriting to the sailor as the fife and drum is to the soldier. On one occasion at sea, after reefing the foresail in a gale, the united efforts of the whole crew were unable to board the foretack, or get it hauled down to its place on the cathead, until the mate of the watch called out: " Strike up a shantie there, one of you men." The "shantie" was struck up; the chorus was like a shout of defiance at the elements. It was fighting the gale, and was as inspiriting as a cavalry charge, and perhaps as hazardous. I enjoyed it, although every now and again a sea would break over the bows, drenching and blinding every one. The mate's voice would be heard shouting encouragingly to the men at each pull: " Well done, down with it, men, it must come; time the weather roll, bravo;" and at every shout of the chorus the men threw their whole weight, with a will, 'into the foretack, and down it came inch by inch steadily, and after a fierce struggle the tack was belayed and the crew were victorious.

And I like the observation here about how the drawn out "Oooh" gives one time to come up with lyrics. Very true, in my experience!:

The " shantie" sung this morning on getting under weigh and setting the topsails, we often heard on the passage to England, and is a good specimen of sailors' " shanties;" the men have breathing time to collect their strength and prepare themselves for the pull, while the " shantie man" is giving out the verse. At every repetition of the word "Hilo" in the chorus the men all pull together with a jerk, hoisting the heavy yard and sail several inches at every pull. " Give us ' Hilo,' Chips," the men said to the carpenter, and he began. The preliminary "Oh" long drawn out at the beginning of each verse was to gain time to improvise the verse :

Oh-o, up aloft this yard must go,
   Chorus by all hands : Hilo, boys, hilo !
I heard our bully mate say so.
   Hilo, boys, hilo !
Oh-o, hilo, bullies, and away we go,
    Hilo, boys, hilo !
Hilo, boys, let her roll, o-he-yho.
   Hilo, boys, hilo !
Oh-o, I knocked at the yellow girl's door last night,
   Hilo, boys, hilo!
She opened the door and let me in.
   Hilo, boys, hilo !
Oh-o, I opened the door with a silver key,
   Hilo, boys, hilo!
The yellow girl a-livo-lick-alimbo-lee.
   Hilo, boys, hilo !
Oh-o, watchman, watchman, don't take me !
   Hilo, boys, hilo !
For I have a wife and a large familee.
   Hilo, boys, hilo!
Oh-o, two behind, and one before,
   Hilo, boys, hilo I
And they marched me off to the watchhouse door.
   Hilo, boys, hilo!
Oh-o, where's the man that bewitched the tureen ?
   Hilo, boys, hilo!
Look in the galley and there you'll see him.
   Hilo, boys, hilo!
Oh-o, the mate's on foc'sle, and the skipper's on the poop.
   Hilo, boys, hilo!
And the cook's in the galley, playing with the soup.
Hilo, boys, hilo !
Oh-o, the geese like the gander and the ducks like the drake,
   Hilo, boys, hilo !
And sweet Judy Callaghan, I'd die for your sake.
    Hilo, boys, hilo !

"Oh, belay!" shouts the mate, cutting short the "shantie," for the yard is mastheaded.

Well, it's HILO BOYS. I love this text, the fact that it is extended and we are able to get a sense of the type of lines used -- rather than just getting a regulation verse and a note about how the rest was "nonsense."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: doc.tom
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 04:04 AM

Oh, what a beauty! (just to refresh!)
TomB

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 01:45 PM

Unprovable hypothesis alert.

John Masefield was confident that "Haul on the bowline" must go back to the 16th C. because the bowline, by the 19th, was no longer a rope that needed a shanty. Other writers have rightly criticized Masefield for his assumption. However...

It does seem unlikely that a shanty would arise telling the crew specifically to "Haul on the bowline" (and only the bowline) at a time when the labor would be unecessary. Sure, it could have started as a joke, but here's another theory.

Maybe the shanty developed from a "bowline singout" that really does go back centuries. Consider the tune of the words: "Haul on the bowline" - three close notes for five syllables. If the final syllable of "bowline" is shouted higher rather than sung lower, it becomes indistinguishable from a singout. The shanty may have developed from a repetitive singout: "Haul on the bowline!" (They haul.) "Haul on the bowline!" (They haul.)

Then one day, the proto-shantyman gets tired of "Haul on the bowline!" and follows it up with a second, more tuneful "verse," "So early in the morning!" Later, maybe years later, some crew adapts the first verse as a chorus. Ad lib to suit and voila! a shanty (maybe the earliest indeed).

No early writer would have noticed, because there's nothing interesting about sailors hauling on a bowline while someone yells, "Haul on the bowline!"

Just speculating.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 01:59 PM

Lighter-

Your "Bowline" reasoning works for me.

Gibb-

I can hardly wait to hear you lead this version of "Hilo." It is a beaut!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 03:02 PM

Charley, if I can just keep doubling the number of believers every hour....

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 09:35 PM

Lighter-

"if I can just keep doubling the number of believers every hour...."

The math begins to work your way once you achieve one believer.

Then it's just a matter of waiting until the money really begins to roll in!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 May 10 - 12:18 AM

Here's my updated "timeline," up through the 1860s...

1777

- singing their plaintive African songs, in cadence with the oars, Georgetown, SC/Blacks rowing (Watson 1856)

1790s

- "gnyaam gnyaam row" Demerara River, Georgetown, Guyana/Blacks rowing (Pinckard 1806).

c.1790s-1800s

- canoe-rowing songs, partly traditionary, partly improvised Charleston, SC/Blacks rowing (as per Grayson)

c.1800s-1820s

- "Cheerly men" [CHEERLY] (conjecture based on comment of "time out of mind," in UNITED SERVICES JOURNAL 1834)

c.1803[or earlier]

- a sort of Song pronounced by one of the number, Europeans/spoke windlass (Falconer 1806)

1805

- eight stout negroes, who sing in chorus all the way, Surinam/Blacks rowing (Sack 1810)

c.1805-1820s

- "Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!" Possibly, British war ship (Robinson 1858)

c.1806

- "Aye, aye/ Yoe, yoe" Savannah River, Georgia/Blacks rowing (Lambert 1810)

c.1808-1826

- a common sailors' chant in character, having a sort of 'Sally Brown, oh, ho,' chorus; and requiring the action of pulling a rope, London stage (Clason 1826)

1811

- "Grog time of day" [GROG TIME] Jamaica/stevedores at capstan (Hay 1953)

- "Oh, huro, my boys/Oh, huro boys O" Jamaica/stevedores at capstan (Hay 1953)

[1812-1815 : War of 1812]

c.1812-1839

- "Fire! in the main-top/Fire! down below" [FIRE FIRE] USS CONSTITUTION/out of context, poss. War of 1812 log (GENTLEMEN'S MAGAZINE, Oct. 1839)

c.1814-15

- "Grog time a day" [GROG TIME] Antigua/Blacks rowing (SERVICE AFLOAT, 1833)

- "Heigh me know, bombye me takey" Virgin Islands/Blacks rowing (SERVICE AFLOAT, 1833)

- the drums and fifes merrily play, Round the capstan we dance; We soon hear the song,
"Heave, heave, my brave boys, and in sight." Poem/capstan (1825)

[1816: Start of the Blackball Line]

1816, mid

- "Going away to Georgia, ho, heave, O!/ho, heave, O!" Maryland or Virginia/Blacks rowing (Paulding 1817)

1818

- the negroes' song while stowing away the cotton, Savannah, GA/cotton-stowing (Harris 1821)

1821

- "It's oh! as I was a walking out, One morning in July, I met a maid, who ax'd my trade" [NEW YORK GIRLS?] and "All the way to Shawnee town/Pull away - pull away!"
Ohio River, Parkersburg,VA/rowing (Hall 1821)

1822[or earlier]

- "Fine time o' day" Saint Thomas/Blacks rowing (Wentworth 1834).

1825, July

- the sailor sent forth his long and slow-toned "yeo— heave — oh!" Brig leaving Quebec/windlass (Finan 1825).

- "Oh, yeo, cheerly" [CHEERLY]" Brig leaving Quebec/topsail halyards (Finan 1825)

c.1826

- "Haul way, yeo ho, boys!" London/Navy sailors in a pub ("Waldie's select circulating library", 1833)

1828, March

- a wild sort of song, Alatamaha River, Georgia/Black rowing (Hall)

1829

- they began their song, one of them striking up, seemingly with the first idea that entered his imagination, while the others caught at his words, and repeated them to a kind of Chinese melody; the whole at length uniting their voices into one chant, which, though evidently the outpouring of a jovial spirit, had, from its unvaried tone and constant echo of the same expression, a half-wild, half-melancholy effect upon the ear. …It had begun with "Yah! yah! here's a full ship for the captain, and a full pannikin for Peytie Pevterson, la— la—lalla—la—leh; but this sentence, after many repetitions, was changed for others of briefer duration and more expressive import, as they coursed after each other with intoxicating rapidity… Fictional whaleship/capstan ("Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean", 1829)

1830

- "Sally was a fine girl, ho! Sally, ho!" Cape Fear River, North Carolina/Blacks rowing (Cecelski 2001)

1831

- "De neger like the bottley oh!" [BOTTLE O] and "Velly well, yankee, velly well oh" Guyana/Blacks rowing (Alexander, 1833)

[1832: Invention of Dobinson's pump windlass]

1832[or earlier]

- "Pull away now, my Nancy, O!" and/with "To the Greenland sea/ Black although she be" East India Company ship/capstan (THE QUID 1832)

1832

- "I'm gwine to leave de ole county (O-ho! O-ho!)/I'm sold off to Georgy! (O-ho! O-ho!)" and "Roun' de corn, Sally!" [ROUND THE CORNER] Maryland/Blacks rowing (Hungerford 1859)

1832-33

- the wild song of the negro fire-men, Ohio River/steamboat firemen (Latrobe 1835)

1833

- "'Tis grog time o' day!" [GROG TIME] rowing on ocean ("Waldie's Select Circulating Library," Dec. 1833)

1834, Feb.

- Their extemporaneous songs at the oar, St. Johns River, FL/Blacks rowing (Brown 1853)

1834, Aug-1836

- "singing out" at the ropes in their hoarse and peculiar strains, brig PILGRIM

- "Heave, to the girls!" and "Nancy oh!" and "Jack Cross-tree," brig PILGRIM/ songs for capstans and falls

- "Heave round hearty!" and "Captain gone ashore!" and "Time for us to go!" and "Round the corner, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!" brig PILGRIM, California coast/driving in the hides (pull)

- the loud cry of "Yo heave ho! Heave and pawl! Heave hearty ho!" brig PILGRIM/spoke windlass

- Sailors, when heaving at a windlass, in order that they may heave together, always have one to sing out; which is done in a peculiar, high and long-drawn note, varying with the motion of the windlass

- "Cheerily, men!" [CHEERLY] brig PILGRIM/catting anchor

- lightening their labors in the boats by their songs, Italians rowing (Dana 1840ff)

1835

- A line was sung by a leader, then all joined in a short chorus; then came another solo line, and another short chorus, followed by a longer chorus, Jacksonville, FL/Blacks rowing (Kennard 1845)

1835, September

- "Ho! cheerly" [CHEERLY] US ship PEACOCK, the Gulf of Mazeira [coast of Arabia]/ as they marched round the capstan, or hauled in the hawser by hand (Howland 1840)

- "Bonny laddie, Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] capstan (Howland 1840)

1837, April

- "Hi de good boat Neely/Ho yoi!" Charleston, SC/Blacks rowing (Gillman 1852)

- "Oh! Sally Brown" (peculiarly musical, although not refined) [SALLY BROWN] Ship QUEBEC, Portsmouth >New York/pump windlass (Marryat)

1838-39

- "Jenny gone away" [TOMMY'S GONE?] and "Fare you well, and good-by, oh, oh!/oh, oh!" Altamaha River, Georgia/Blacks rowing (Kemble 1864)

1838, December

- "Fire the ringo, fire away!" [MARINGO] Mobile/cotton-screwing (Gosse 1859)

1839, Sept.

- "Fire down below!" [SAILOR FIREMAN] Dramatic scene in a steamboat/Black fireman (BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY 1839)

- "So early in the morning the Sailor loves his bottle oh," [BOTTLE O] and "Round the corner, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Tally Ho, you know" [TALLY] & a dozen others, Tahiti/local women singing sailor songs (Reynolds and Philbrick)

c.1840s

- "grog time o' day." [GROG TIME] Clipper-brig CURLEW, New York >Hamburg/ halyards (Rice 1850)

1840, Feb.

- The usual cry is "Ho! Ho! Hoi!" or "Ho! Ho! Heavo!" Whaler, New London > Pacific/hauling (Olmsted 1841).

- "Ho! Ho! and up she rises/Ear-ly in the morn-ing" [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and "Nancy Fanana, she married a barber/Heave her away, and heave her away [HAUL 'ER AWAY]
halyard

- "O! hurrah my hearties O!" short haul to extract whale tooth

1841

- "Grog time o' day/Oh, hoist away" [GROG TIME] New Orleans/stevedores loading a steamboat (THE ART OF BALLET 1915)

1842, February

- casting huge sticks of wood into the mouths of the row of yawning furnaces beneath the serried boilers,accompanying their labor by a loud and not unmusical song, steamboat, Ohio River/Black fireman (THE BALTIMORE PHOENIX AND BUDGET 1842)

1842, April

- "Cheerily, oh cheerily," [CHEERLY] Ship HUNTRESS, New York > China/ hoisting guns from hold (Lowrie 1849)

1842, Sept.

- "O ee roll & go/O ho roll & go" [SALLY BROWN?] whaleship TASKAR/song in diary (Creighton 1995)

1842, October

- "Heave him up! O he yo!" Canary Islands/spoke windlass (Browne 1846).

1843

- "Oh, Jenny gone away" [TOMMY'S GONE?] Virginia/corn-shucking ("The Family Magazine" 1843)

1843, March

- "Oh hollow!/Oh hollow!" [HILO?] and "Jenny gone away," [TOMMY'S GONE?] and "Dan, dan, who's the dandy?" [the monkey-song] and "John John Crow/ John John Crow" [JOHN CROW] South Carolina/corn-shucking (Duyckinck, 1866)

1843-1846

- the firemen struck up one of those singularly wild and impressive glees which negroes alone can sing effectively, Steamboat, Mississippi valley (Illinois)/Black firemen (Regan 1859)

1844

- "Oh, the captain's gone ashore/Hie bonnie laddie, and we'll all go ashore" [GROG TIME?] Mobile Bay/cotton-stowing (Hill 1893).

- "Cheerily men, ho!" [CHEERLY] Port Adelaide/remembering a ship's song (Lloyd 1846)

1844, August

- "Round the corner, Sally!" [ROUND THE CORNER] Society Islands/local imitation of sailor's song (Lucett)

1844-45

- The crew was made up of the hardest kind of men; they were called "hoosiers,"
working in New Orleans or Mobile during the winter at stowing ships with cotton, and in the summer sailing in the packet ships. They were all good chantey men; that is, they could all sing at their…we could reef and hoist all three topsails at once, with a different song for each one, Packet ship TORONTO, NY > London/re: cotton-stowing (Low 1906)

- "Roll and go for that white pitcher, roll and go," London/unloading cargo w/ capstan

1845, Feb.

"Ho, O, heave O" heaving anchor (American Journal of Music and Musical Vistor1845)

- "Row, Billy, row," [BLOW BOYS BLOW?] American sailor returned from Mediterranean/rowing

1845, Sept.

- "Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] and "Fire, maringo, fire away" [MARINGO] Ship CHARLES CAROL, New Orleans/cotton-stowing (Erskine 1896)

c.1845-1851

- "Carry him along, boys, carry him along/ Carry him to the burying-ground" [WALK HIM ALONG] and "Hurrah, see—man—do/Oh, Captain, pay me dollar" and "Fire, maringo, fire away" [MARINGO] and "Bonnie laddie, highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] many of the screw-gangs have an endless collection of songs, Mobile Bay/cotton-stowing (Nordhoff 1855)

- "Tally hi o you know" [TALLY] Whaleship/weighing anchor (Brewster & Druett 1992)

c.1846-1852

- "Oh sailors where are you bound to/Across the briny ocean" [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN] Packet ship, Liverpool > Philadelphia/ pump windlass (Nordhoff 1855)

1848

- "O! bullies, O!/A hundred years ago!" [HUNDRED YEARS] and "storm along, stormy!" [STORMY] Hawai'i/non-working, whaling territory (Perkins 1854)

- "Round the corn, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Clear the way when Sambo come" corn-shucking, general (AMERICAM AGRICULTURIST, July 1848)

- "Storm along Stormy" [STORMY] minstrel song collection (White 1854)

- "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!/Fire down below" [SAILOR FIREMAN] minstrel song collection (White 1854)

- "Fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire/Den tote dat bucket ob water, [boys?]/Dar's fire down below" [FIRE FIRE] minstrel song collection (White 1854)

[1848-1855: California Gold Rush]

1849, March

- "O, yes, O!/ A hundred years ago" [HUNDRED YEARS] Steamer OREGON, Panama > San Francisco/ at the capstan and windlass (Thurston1851)

[1851ff. – Australia Gold Rush]

c.1850s

- "Johnnie, come tell us and pump away" [MOBILE BAY] and "Fire, fire, fire down below/fetch a bucket of water/Fire down below" [FIRE FIRE] and "Only one more day" [ONE MORE DAY] Ship BRUTUS (American)/pumping (Whidden 1908)

- the wildest and most striking negro song we think we ever listened to…one dusky fellow, twirling his wool hat above his head, took the lead in singing, improvising as he sang, all except the chorus, in which the whole crew joined with enthusiasm Steamboat, Alabama river/boatmen (Hundley 1860)

c.1851>

- "Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne" Ship > Sydney w/ gold seekers/pumping (Craig 1903)

- "When first we went a-waggoning" Ship > Sydney w/ gold seekers/pumping (Craig 1903)

1851, July

- "Fire on the bow/Fire down below!" [FIRE FIRE] Mississippi steamboat/Black firemen ("Notes and Queries" 1851)

1852, late

- "cheerymen" [CHEERLY] and "Hurra, and storm along/ Storm along, my Stormy" [STORMY] Packet ship, Gravesend > Melbourne/topsail halyards (Tait 1853)

c.1853 [or earlier]
- "Hog Eye!/Old Hog Eye/And Hosey too!" [HOG EYE] and "Hop Jim along/Walk Jim along/Talk Jim along" Louisiana/patting juba (Northup 1855)

1853
- "Oahoiohieu" [SAILOR FIREMAN] and "Oh, John, come down in de holler/Ime gwine away to-morrow" [JOHNNY COME DOWN HILO] Red River, LA/ steamboat hands (Olmsted 1856)

1854, early
- "Haul the bowline, the Black Star bowline, haul the bowline, the bowline HAUL!" [BOWLINE] Packet ship PLYMOUTH ROCK, Boston > Melbourne /sheet-style chanty adapted as entertainment (Note: text contains tunes to three other possible shanties) (Peck 1854)

1855, Jan.
- "Whaw, my kingdom, fire away" [MARINGO] Imagined Georgia/Blacks rowing (PUTNAM'S 1855)
- "Hey, come a rollln' down/Good morning ladies all" [GOOD MORNING LADIES] Imagined Georgia/corn-shucking (PUTNAM'S 1855)

1855, Aug.
- "Storm along, Stormy" [STORMY] general reference in fiction to how a crew might sing that song (Farnsworth 1855)

1856

- [Titles:] "Santy Anna," [SANTIANA] "Bully in the Alley," [BULLY IN ALLEY] "Miranda Lee," "Storm Along, John," [STORMALONG JOHN] Clipper ship WIZARD, NY > Frisco/Downton pump, with bell ropes (Mulford 1889)

- "Hi yi, yi, yi, Mister Storm roll on, Storm Along, Storm Along,"[MR. STORMALONG] and "All on the Plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] and "Aha, we're bound away, on the wild Missouri" [SHENANDOAH] Packet ship, Liverpool > NY (Fisher 1981)

1857

- "Hilo! Hilo!/ Hilo! Hilo!" [HILO?] Maryland/slave song (general reference) (Long 1857).

1857?

- "Row, bullies, row!/Row, my bullies, row!" [BLOW BOYS BLOW?] Rowboat to frigate, New York (KNICKERBOCKER, 1857)

1857, November

- "Oh, poor Paddy works on the railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] Ship RED JACKET, Liverpool/brake windlass (Chatterton 2009)

- "Whiskey for my Johnny/Whiskey, Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] Ship RED JACKET, Liverpool/topsail halyards (Chatterton 2009)

c.1857-58

- "Cheer'ly Man" [CHEERLY] and "Come along, get along, Stormy Along John" [STORMY ALONG] John Short of Watchet

1858

- "Hilo, boys, hilo! Hilo, boys, hilo!" Barque TYRER, Casilda, Cuba > London / topsail halyards (Bloomfield 1896)

1858, July

- "Oh, the bowline, bowline, HAUL!" [BOWLINE] Ship, trans-Atlantic/braces (THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY 1858)

- "Pay me the money down!/Pay me the money down!" [MONEY DOWN] and "And the young gals goes a weepin'" [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN] and "O long storm, storm along stormy" [STORMY] Ship, trans-Atlantic/brake pump (The Atlantic Monthly 1858)

- "Highland day and off she goes/Highland day and off she goes." [HILONDAY?] Ship, unknown/topsail halyards (Atlantic Monthly 1858)

1858, Dec.

- "Heigho, heave and go/Heigho, heave and go'' and "Hurrah, storm along!/Storm along my stormies"[STORMY] and "Hurrah! we're homeward bou-ou-ound!/Hurrah! we're homeward bound" [OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND] Brake windlass (Allen 1858)

- "Oh haulee, heigho, cheeryman!" [CHEERLY] topsail halyards (Allen 1858)

- "Heigh Jim along, Jim along Josey, Heigh Jim along, Jim along Jo!" Blacks rowing (Allen 1858)

c.1858-1860

- "Whisky for Johnny!" Packet ship MARY BRADFORD, London > NY/ to "pull round the yards" (Ward, Lock and Tyler)

c.1859-60

- "O, Riley, O" [OH RILEY] and "Whiskey for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Storm along, my Rosa"[STORMY] Barque GUIDE Boston > Zanzibar/ brake windlass (Clark 1867)

1860

- The leader, a stalwart negro, stood upon the capstan shouting the solo part of the song…they were answered by his companions in stentorian tones at first, and then, as the refrain of the song fell into the lower part of the register, the response was changed into a sad chant in mournful minor key Steamboat, St. Louis > New Orleans (Nichols 1860)

c.1860-61

- "Rolling River" [SHENANDOAH] and "Cheerily she goes" and "Oh, Riley, Oh" [OH RILEY] and "Carry me Long" [WALK HIM ALONG] Clipper ship, Bombay > NY/raising anchor (Clark 1867)

[1861-1865 American Civil War]

1862

- "Sally Brown, the bright mulatter" [SALLY BROWN] Ship SPLENDID New York > China/windlass (Sauzade 1863)

- "Hurrah Santa Anna!/All on the plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] Ship SUSAN HINKS, Boston > Calcutta/capstan (FIFTY-THREE YEARS, 1904)

1865

- "I'm Gwine to Alabamy, Ohh..../Ahh..." Slaves' songs collection Mississippi steamboat song (Allen 1867)

- "Shock along John, shock along" Slaves' songs collection, Maryland/corn-shucking (Allen1867)

- "Ho, round the corn, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] slaves' songs collection/corn-shucking (Allen 1867)

c.1865-66

- "Paddy on the Railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and "We 're Homeward Bound" [OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND?] Schooner (?) NASON, out of Provincetown/windlass (Clark 1867)

- A chanty gang was engaged to hoist out the cargo, Zanzibar/stevedores (Clark 1867)

c.1866

- when the sugar began to roll in, the crew found I was at the head of the rope, and a "chanty man." We rolled the sugar upon the stages, over the bows, and at every hogshead I gave them a different song, American schooner, St. Jago, Cuba/ working cargo (Clark 1867)

c.1865-1869

- "Come down you bunch o' roses, come down" [BUNCH OF ROSES] and "Sally Brown's a bright Mulatto"[SALLY BROWN] Ship (all Black crew) DUBLIN Boston > Genoa/ topsail halyards (Adams 1879)

- "Walk along my Sally Brown," [WALKALONG SALLY] and "Hoist her up from down below" Ship (all Black crew) DUBLIN Boston > Genoa/ working cargo (Adams 1879)

- "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul" [BOWLINE] and "Way, haul away; O, haul away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Do, my Johnny Boker, do."[JOHNNY BOWKER] Barque ROCKET/ tacks and sheets (Adams 1879)

- "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO] and "Shantyman and Sally Brown" [SALLY BROWN] and "Blow, boys, blow!/Blow, my bully boys, blow!" [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Away, hey way!/John Francois" [BONEY] and "Hurrah, you high low/My Tommy's gone a high low" [TOMMY'S GONE] and "Hurrah, you rolling river/Ah hah, I'm bound away o'er the wild Missouri" [SHENANDOAH] and "Whiskey Johnny/ Whiskey for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Way, hey, knock a man down/ This is the time to knock a man down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] Barque ROCKET/ halyards (Adams 1879)

- "And away you Rio! Oh, you Rio!/ I'm bound away this very day, I'm bound for the Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE] and "Oh, poor Paddy come work on the railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] Barque ROCKET/ capstan or windlass (Adams 1879)

- continuous running solo of " way-hey he, ho, ya,"…accompanying the hand-over-hand hoisting of jibs and staysails, and for short "swigs" at the halyards…"hey lee, ho lip, or yu" and the more measured "singing out," for the long and regular pulls at the braces, Barque ROCKET/sing-outs (Adams 1879)

1868

- "What boat is that my darling honey?, Oh, oh ho, ho ay yah yah-ah!/Ah a... yah a...ah!"
Steamboats /Black firemen (McBRIDE'S 1868)

1868, April

- "Away, you rollin' river!/Ah ha! I'm bound away/On the wild Atlantic!" [SHENANDOAH] Atlantic, capstan (Riverside Magazine 1868)

- "Heave away, my Johnny, heave away!/An' away, my Johnny boy, we're all bound to go!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] Atlantic/ ?? (Riverside Magazine 1868)

1868, Aug.

- "cheerily men" [CHEERLY]
journal article/braces (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- "Good-bye, fare you well/ Hurrah, brave boys, we're outward bound" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "There's plenty of gold in the land, I'm told/ On the banks of Sacramento" [SACRAMENTO] and "Then fare you well, my pretty young girls/ We're bound for the Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE] and "Valparaiso, Round the Horn" [PADDY LAY BACK] and "Hurrah, Santa Anna/ All on the plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] and "Good morning ladies all" [GOOD MORNING LADIES] and "Nancy Bell" [HURRAH SING FARE YOU WELL?] and "Sally in the Alley" and "True blue, I and Sue/And England's blue for ever" and "Lowlands" [LOWLANDS AWAY] and "Oceanida" and "Johnny's gone" [TOMMY'S GONE?] and "The Black-ball Line" [BLACKBALL LINE] and "Slapandergosheka" [SLAPANDER] journal article/capstan (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- there is the hand over hand song, in very quick time, journal article/ hand over hand (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- "So handy, my girls, so handy/So handy, my girls, so handy" [HANDY MY BOYS] journal article/halyards (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul" [BOWLINE] and "Land ho, boys, Land ho" and "Haul away, my Josey" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Oh, Boney was a warrior, away a yah/John Francivaux" [BONEY] journal article/ single pull hauling (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

1869

- "Hoojun, John a hoojun" [HOOKER JOHN] Brig WILLIAM, Portland, Maine, possible fiction/ hoisting molasses (Kellogg 1869)

- "O, stow me long/ Stow me long, stow me" [STORMY] Fictional American vessel/ windlass (Kellogg 1869)

- "Hand ober hand, O/ Scratch him/Hand ober hand, O" Fictional American vessel/ hand over hand (Kellogg 1869)

- "Ho-o, ho, ho, ho/ Fire down below" [SAILOR FIREMAN] Fictional American vessel/ walk-away (Kellogg 1869)

- "Bonny laddie, Highland laddie/ My bonny Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] Fictional American vessel/no context (Kellogg 1869)

- "Hilo, boys, a hilo" [HILO BOYS] Fictional American vessel/ topgallant halyards (Kellogg 1869)

- "Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes/O, my poor sailor-boy, heave and she goes" Fictional American vessel/ capstan (Kellogg 1869)

- ''John, John Crow is a dandy, O" [JOHN CROW] Fictional American vessel/ studding-sail halyards (Kellogg 1869)

[1869 Opening of Suez Canal]

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 May 10 - 01:01 AM

This is my "set list" of deep water chanties, arranged by decade.

c.1800s-1820s

CHEERLY (2)
FIRE FIRE (1)
Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!"

1830s

Black although she be"
BOTTLE O (1)
Captain gone ashore!"
CHEERLY (2)
Heave round hearty!"
Heave, to the girls!"
HIGHLAND (1)
Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
Jack Cross-tree,"
Nancy oh!"
Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
ROUND THE CORNER (2)
SALLY BROWN (1)
TALLY (1)
Time for us to go!"

1840s

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (1)
CHEERLY (2)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (1)
GROG TIME (1)
Heave her away"
Heave him up! O he yo!"
Ho, O, heave O"
HUNDRED YEARS (2)
O ee roll & go"
O! hurrah my hearties O!"
ROUND THE CORNER (1)
STORMY (1)
TALLY (1)

1850s

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (1)
BOWLINE (2)
BULLY IN ALLEY (1)
CHEERLY (3)
FIRE FIRE (1)
Highland day and off she goes"
HILO BOYS (1)
Miranda Lee"
MOBILE BAY (1)
MONEY DOWN (1)
MR. STORMALONG (1)
Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne"
ONE MORE DAY (1)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (1)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (1)
SANTIANA (2)
SHENANDOAH (1)
STORMALONG JOHN (1)
STORMY (4)
STORMY ALONG (1)
When first we went a-waggoning"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (1)
Whisky for Johnny!"

1860s

And England's blue for ever"
BLACKBALL LINE (1)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (1)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (1)
BONEY (2)
BOWLINE (2)
BUNCH OF ROSES (1)
Cheerily she goes"
CHEERLY (1)
GOOD MORNING LADIES (1)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (1)
Hand ober hand, O"
HANDY MY BOYS (1)
HAUL AWAY JOE (2)
Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes"
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (1)
HIGHLAND (1)
HILO BOYS (1)
HOOKER JOHN (1)
John, John Crow is a dandy, O"
JOHNNY BOWKER (1)
Johnny's gone"
Land ho"
LOWLANDS AWAY (1)
Nancy Bell"
Oceanida"
OH RILEY (1)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (1)
PADDY LAY BACK (1)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (2)
REUBEN RANZO (1)
RIO GRANDE (2)
SACRAMENTO (1)
SAILOR FIREMAN (1)
SALLY BROWN (2)
Sally in the Alley"
SANTIANA (2)
SHENANDOAH (3)
SLAPANDER (1)
STORMY (2)
TOMMY'S GONE (1)
WALKALONG SALLY (1)
WHISKEY JOHNNY (2)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 May 10 - 01:35 AM

And here is the "set list" overall. Some 47 songs are commonly known to us today.

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (2)
And England's blue for ever"
Black although she be"
BLACKBALL LINE (1)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (1)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (1)
BONEY (2)
BOTTLE O (1)
BOWLINE (4)
BULLY IN ALLEY (1)
BUNCH OF ROSES (1)
Captain gone ashore!"
Cheerily she goes"
CHEERLY (10)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (1)
FIRE FIRE (2)
GOOD MORNING LADIES (1)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (1)
GROG TIME (1)
Hand ober hand, O"
HANDY MY BOYS (1)
HAUL AWAY JOE (2)
Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes"
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (1)
Heave her away"
Heave him up! O he yo!"
Heave round hearty!"
Heave, to the girls!"
HIGHLAND (2)
Highland day and off she goes"
HILO BOYS (2)
Ho, O, heave O"
HOOKER JOHN (1)
HUNDRED YEARS (2)
Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
Jack Cross-tree,"
John, John Crow is a dandy, O"
JOHNNY BOWKER (1)
Johnny's gone"
Land ho"
LOWLANDS AWAY (1)
Miranda Lee"
MOBILE BAY (1)
MONEY DOWN (1)
MR. STORMALONG (1)
Nancy Bell"
Nancy oh!"
O ee roll & go"
O! hurrah my hearties O!"
Oceanida"
Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne"
OH RILEY (1)
Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!"
ONE MORE DAY (1)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (2)
PADDY LAY BACK (1)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (3)
Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
REUBEN RANZO (1)
RIO GRANDE (2)
ROUND THE CORNER (3)
SACRAMENTO (1)
SAILOR FIREMAN (1)
SALLY BROWN (3)
Sally in the Alley"
SANTIANA (4)
SHENANDOAH (4)
SLAPANDER (1)
STORMALONG JOHN (1)
STORMY (7)
STORMY ALONG (1)
TALLY (2)
Time for us to go!"
TOMMY'S GONE (1)
WALKALONG SALLY (1)
When first we went a-waggoning"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (3)
Whisky for Johnny!"

"Cheerly Man" and "Stormalong, lads, Stormy" were mentioned most frequently.

Others that were mentioned more than twice are PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (3), ROUND THE CORNER SALLY (3), SALLY BROWN (3), SANTIANA (4), SHENANDOAH (4), WHISKEY JOHNNY (3).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 01 May 10 - 07:21 AM

EXCELLENT!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 May 10 - 08:19 AM

Gibb-

Love these various sorted lists!

You've really done and provoked an amazing amount of work.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 01 May 10 - 03:07 PM

Gibb,
Brilliant.
But when does the book come out?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 01 May 10 - 03:21 PM

Very good work, indeed, Gibb!

Something else of interest. In North Carolina in 1922 or 1923, Frank C. Brown collected a call-and-response work song called "Sheep Shell Corn by the Rattle of His Horn." that scans like "Blow, Boys, Blow," and bears a tune that shows some slight resemblance:

http://www.archive.org/stream/frankcbrowncolle05fran#page/134/mode/2up

The chorus, "Blow, horn, blow!" at least makes more obvious sense than the shanty chorus. That suggests to me that it might be the original, but the evidence is too slim to allow a conclusion.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 May 10 - 04:11 PM

Lighter-

"Sheep Shell Corn by the Rattle of His Horn."

Try singing that line a dozen times as rapidly as you can.;~)

Maybe an old whaler swallowed the anchor and composed a corn shucking worksong modeled after "Blow Boys Blow/Congo River."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 01 May 10 - 04:40 PM

Here's some verses to "Sheep Shell Corn" from Thomas Talley's NEGRO FOLK RHYMES, 1922:

http://books.google.com/books?id=C6YqAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA59&dq=sheep+shell+corn&cd=2#v=onepage&q=sheep%20shell%20corn&f=false

And the tune from Brown, mentioned above by Lighter:

http://books.google.com/books?id=sKlOYEg_5c8C&pg=PA135&dq=Sheep+shell+corn&cd=3#v=onepage&q=Sheep%20shell%20corn&f=false

I've always liked this little rhyme and I think it would make a fine chanty, being the lubber that I am.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 01 May 10 - 07:10 PM

Talley's version isn't much like Brown's with the "Blow, horn, blow" chorus.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 01 May 10 - 08:46 PM

You're right, Lighter. Talley doesn't even have a chorus. It almost looks like the Talley version is a blackface minstrel song. Some of those verses show up elsewhere in that tradition, I think. It seems like the Brown version has "evolved" a bit, but maybe it went the other way. But that is a definitive line about the "sheep shell corn with the rattle of his horn", along with the the "whipoorwill" line. I think you are onto something though with the Brown version. I have that stuck away somewhere, but as I vaguely recall, there aren't really any more verses, are there? Now that you've pointed it out it sure looks like chanty material.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 May 10 - 09:26 PM

Thanks for the support, guys.

I forgot to include "Haul on the Bowline" among the shanties that were mentioned several times before 1869.

Oh, the Frank Brown collection also has the steamboat song-cum-shanty "I'll Fire Dis Trip" [i.e. SAILOR FIREMAN].

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 May 10 - 01:05 AM

In AMONG OUR SAILORS (1874), J. Grey Jewell describes his (?) observations of "Sailors' Songs." The preface is dated 1873. He is referring to practices in American vessels, but there is no more context than that, that I can see. His knowledge seems a little shaky, yet his do appear to be independent attestations of now-familiar songs.

As will readily be inferred by those who have read the preceding pages, there is very little to admire in the life of a sailor. Poor fellows! they try at times to enliven their work with songs, and although these are inspiriting for the moment, they are of the most ordinary character, and, as far as my observation goes, there is nothing elevating or beautiful in them. The spirit of poesy does not haunt the forecastle of a ship. I have frequently helped the men of a vessel (on which I was a passenger) haul on the braces, so that I might hear and note their songs. They have certain words and tunes for certain work, and I will append a few stanzas by way of illustration.

Funny that he only thinks of the purpose of shantying as something to "enliven."

First he gives WHISKEY JOHNNY for halyards.

When hauling up the main-yard, after reefing the maintop sail, they sing:

"Whisky makes a poor old man—
    (Chorus.)—O whisky, whisky !
Johnny met me in the street,
Johnny asked me if I'd treat—
   O whisky, whisky !
I said yes, next time we'd meet—
   O whisky is for Johnny!"

Then, HAUL AWAY JOE for the braces. It is hard to say if his observation really does "prove" the link to "Jim Along," or if he is assuming.

At each recurrence of the word whisky, the sailors give a pull on the braces. When hauling taut the weather main-brace, they sing a perversion of the old negro melody, "Hey, Jim along, Jim along, Josey!" but the sailors put it—

"Way, haul away—haul away, Josey—
Way, haul away—haul away, Joe !"

This is repeated over and over again, with any slight variation that may occur to the leader, until they cease hauling. Sometimes this is varied by singing—

" Haul the bowline—Kitty, you're my darling—
Haul the bowline—bowline haul!"

The author's credibility seems to wain when he ascribes BLOW BOYS BLOW to a heaving task. However, I suppose it could work for windlass with no problem--if that's what he saw.

When heaving up the anchor, they sing—

"A Yankee ship came down the river—
    (Chorus.)—Blow, my bully boys, blow !
They keep an Irish mate on board her—
    Blow, my bully boys, blow !
Do you know who's captain of her—
    Blow, my bully boys, blow !
Jonathan Jinks of South Caroliner—
    Blow, my bully boys, blow !"

Next, some evidence that "Ranzo" really did derive from "Lorenzo."

When hauling up the foretop-sail yard, after reefing or shaking out the reefs, they sing a song of more pretensions, as follows:

"Lorenzo was no sailor—
    (Chorus.)—Renzo, boys, Renzo !
He shipped on board a whaler—
    Renzo, boys, Renzo!
He could not do his duty—
    Renzo, boys, Renzo!
They took him to the gangway,
And gave him eight and forty —
    Renzo, boys, Renzo !
"He sailed the Pacific Ocean—
    Renzo, boys, Renzo !
Where'er he took a notion —
    Renzo, boys, Renzo !
He finally got married,
And then at home he tarried —
    Renzo, boys, Renzo !"
These, and like songs, are made to cheer the poor seaman, and in some measure to lighten the heavy load his masters (the captain and his mates) impose upon him.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 02 May 10 - 06:10 AM

Following a stunning week-long series of programmes on maps, this week BBC 4 are running another on all things nautical.
Friday (I think) is on shanties and sea songs, hopefully done by somebody who knows how to sing them.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 02 May 10 - 10:01 AM

John, the "shanty-like" version has only three stanzas and a "grand" chorus "O! blow your horn, blow horn, blow" (2x).

Brown collected a few other "shanty-like" work-songs connected with corn-shucking. One even has a refrain of "Oho, we are most done," rather like "Let the Bulgine Run," though otherwise there's not much resemblance.

The more I think about the history of shanties, the more significant improvisation becomes. There seem to have been a few (perhaps late) shanties that had more than two or three vaguely "established" stanzas, but Bullen was surely right when he suggested that the lyrics were most often improvised.

That explains why most field-collected shanties are only two or three stanzas long. After that, the shantyman sang whatever came into his head, rhyming or not. Writers may have begun to think of the shanty as a "song genre" only when they noticed interesting tunes and that some recognized stanzas were almost always present in a "performance."

Before that, it was just somehwhat tuneful shouting.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 02 May 10 - 11:24 AM

Brown also gives a "corn-shucking hollow" [sic] called "The Old Turkey Hen," with the repeated chorus "Ho-ma-hala-way." Sounds like it may once have been something like "Oh, my! Haul away!"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 02 May 10 - 03:15 PM

Lighter, I found the complete collection of Brown on line and now you've got me looking. Here are a few interesting items. First of all, on the page across from "Sheep Shell Corn", at #195, there is another corn husking song called "Jimmy My Riley", with a chorus of "Jimmy, my-Riley ho."

http://www.archive.org/stream/frankcbrowncolle03fran#page/232/mode/2up

And on the page after "The Old Turkey Hen" that you mentioned at #205, there is "Up Roanoke and Down the River", another cornhusking song. It looks particularly old, and has a chorus of "Oho, we are 'most done."

http://www.archive.org/stream/frankcbrowncolle03fran#page/238/mode/2up

At #230, there is "Whip Jamboree" from a line of sea captains. There's a couple of good verses here (and on the page across from it, a verse from "Hog-eye Man"):

http://www.archive.org/stream/frankcbrowncolle03fran#page/260/mode/2up

And back at #186, there's a country version of "Hog-eye Man" called "Row the Boat Ashore":

http://www.archive.org/stream/frankcbrowncolle03fran#page/224/mode/2up

And there's more.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 May 10 - 05:15 PM

John et al-

The Corn husking songs are real fun for connections. The one titled "De Shucking ob de Corn" (# 199, pp. 235-236) is clearly related to one my mother's nursemaid used to sing her:

Fight Wid Ole Satan

(From singing of Ella Robinson Madison in early 1920's as remembered from Dahlov Ipcar and as collected by Winifred (Wendy) Holt)

I had a fight wid ole Satan de odder night,
As I lay half awake;
Ole Satan, he come to my bedside
An' me he began to shake;
He shook me long an' he shook me strong,
He shook me plumb outa bed;
He done grab me by de collar and he looks me in the face,
An' whaddaya reckon he said?

"Whad he say, Aunt Jane?
Whad he say?"

"All de gole in de mountain,
All de silber in de mine,
Shall all belong to you, Aunt Jane,
If you will only be mine."
He led me to de winder an' the sight was dark
An' de moon was shinin' bright;
De hills an' the mountains all aroun'
Lay terror to my sight;
He said, "All des t'ings will be yours while you live
If you will be my general when you die."
But I look ole Satan right plumb in de eye
An' whaddaya t'ink I said?

"Whaddaya say, Aunt Jane?
Whaddaya say?"

"Getcha gone, ole Satan!
Don't you ever come 'round here again;
You might fool a white man wid dat tale
But you can't fool yo' ole Aunt Jane;
Live humble, humble youself,
I got glory an' honour, praise Jesus!"

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 May 10 - 08:57 PM

BALLOU'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE, vol. 40, for August 1974. There is a story by a Colonel Brevet. He includes mention of two familiar shanties, however no realistic context is given. In fact, they are presented in the story as if they were, possibly, entertainment (not work) songs. At this point in history, I think we have reason to suspect that the chanties he gives may have been culled by some earlier text, however, for now I will treat them as independent attestation.

He uses the terms "chanty-man" and "chanty."

The men seemed of my opinion, for they went forward singing merrily one of those peculiar ditties that sailors always affect, and which you hear nowhere but in the forecastle, or else from the chanty-man when all hands are employed together doing heavy work.

The song in question ran, as nearly as I remember, as follows:

" Whiskey is the life of man—
          Whiskey, Johnnie,
Whiskey is the life of man,
So whiskey for my Johnnie, OI
Whiskey makes mo work like fun—
       Whiskey, Johnnie,
Work from rise till set ot sun,
With whiskey for my Johnnie, Ol"

I wont give you any further infliction of this peculiar song, for, like the "Higgins story," it takes a month of Sundays to get over the introduction; but I will add that if any reader wants to learn the air of this marine sonata, all he has got to do is to hum "Soapsuds over the Fence," and then he can warble it to his satisfaction.

Anyone know that ditty?

Nothing of note transpired during the night, so at six in the morning we prepared to leave Bava and the treacherous Kanakas, hoping that no other ship would ever be entrapped into capture by the wily natives.

"Way, haul away, haul away, my Josey l
Way, haul away, haul away, my Jol"

roared the gunner in stentorian voice, as he led off in a sonorous chanty, the crew joining in with wild glee, their exuberance of joy knowing no bounds at the prospect of getting away from such inhospitable regions;

More evidence to connect "Jim Along"? Or has the supposed connection become the appearance of reality in the writings of such authors? (I'd lean towards the former.) In any case, it is notable that nowadays few (in my experience) would connect HAUL AWAY JOE to the minstrel song.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 May 10 - 09:20 PM

The next reference I am logging in has the very same two shanties as the last (different lyrics, however), which is one reason why I begin to become skeptical of the authenticity of these attestations -- i.e. in a time after such articles as the one in Chambers's Journal. In any case, these are unique lyrics so far as I can see.

This is from THE RIVERSIDE MAGAZINE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, Sept. 1870. There is a story by a "Taffy Jack."

The setting is of a ship bound out from New York. The word "chanty" is used. I am noting that, because, before 1870, we've actually not seen that word used often.

Forty-eight hours after that we were off Sandy Hook with our jib-boom pointing toward the open sea, and all hands on the main topsail halliards, pulling away to the roaring chanty, —

"We all of us feel very sad,
   Whiskey, O Johnnie :
To leave our true loves is too bad,
   Whiskey for my Johnnie."

...

"All hands on that main brace now," sung out the mate, and away we went all together, O-he-e-o —

"O-o-o-once I knew a Yankee gal,
She was so neat and pretty:
All haul away, haul away, Joe.
And if I didn't kiss her once, I didn't do my duty:
All haul away, haul away, Joe."

That time I belayed, and squeaked out "All fast"


I like the detail of the extended "O-o-o."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 May 10 - 09:46 PM

Courtesy of John Minear's link, which I neglected to log earlier:

The May 1884 edition of THE UNITED SERVICE contains recollections of a soldier in a piece called "First Scenes of the Civil War." The author notes that during the Battle of Fort Sumter, Charleston, April 1861, guns were hauled up onto the fort by means of the work-song SANTIANA at a capstan.

Work and sleep were the sole occupations in Sumter. There was no idling and no amusements. The work was hard and the workmen few. In heaving and hauling the men soon learned the value of a song in securing combined effort. The favorite song was one having the refrain, "On the plains of Mexico." We had rigged a shears, and with an improvised capstan walked the guns from the parade to the terreplein (a hoist of fifty feet) as an accompaniment to the favorite songs. ... I had given the word, " Avast heaving !"— the use of nautical terms must have been suggested by the song, —and ordered three men up to man the watch-tackle.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 May 10 - 10:14 PM

Earlier I forgot to add this connection. It comes again from Allen's SLAVE SONGS (1867), which was complete by 1865. It is "Heave Away"

The connection to the more familiar "Heave Away, My Johnnies" is obvious. So far, we have seen that one in a deep-water context in the Riverside Journal, 1868. It is impossible to say which song came first. One can decide for oneself whether they think the "Irish Emigrant" version or this steamboat song is more likely to have influenced the other. My guess would be that the steamboat song was the original. Hugill shows nicely how the verses of the emigrant ballad of "Yellow Meal" could have been fitted to the "Heave Away" chanty framework. The process is comparable to what I believe was likely to have happened in the case of "Knock a Man Down"/"Blow the Man Down."

Allen says:

This is one of the Savannah firemen's songs of which Mr. Kane O'Donnel gave a graphic account in a letter to the Philadelphia Press. "Each company." be says, "has its own set of tunes, its own leader, and doubtless in the growth of time, necessity and invention, its own composer."

The lyrics are as follows:

Heave away, heave away!
I'd rather court a yellow gal than work for Henry Clay.
Heave away, heave away!
Yellow gal, I want to go,
I'd rather court a yellow gal than work for Henry Clay.
Heave away, Yellow gal, I want to go!

Since many have not heard this song -- it was edited out for the abridged version of Hugill-- here is a rendition I did. It's one of my favs.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 May 10 - 10:53 PM

This next reference from the 1870s is intriguing because it seems to relate to Adam's ON BOARD THE ROCKET. The text is A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD (1871), by Nehemiah Adams.

If I am getting it right --the text may need further examination-- Nehemiah was the father of R.C. Adams of "Rocket" fame and his 1879 account. The younger Adams' adventures seem to have been in the late 1860s. The voyage that Nehemiah describes looks to have been started in October 1869, *after* the stuff that happened in ON BOARD THE ROCKET. The father went to sea for his health, aboard a ship GOLDEN FLEECE, of which his son was the captain, and which was bound out of Boston for Frisco, Hong Kong, and Manila.

First he mentions some pump shanties.

...the boatswain's "Pumpship " at evening, when twelve or fifteen men entertain you with a song. Every tune at the pumps must have a chorus. The sentiment in the song is the least important feature of it, — the celebration of some portion of the earth or seas, other than here and now : "I wish I was in Mobile Bay, " " I'm bound for the Rio Grande," with the astounding chorus from twenty-eight men, part of whom the fine moonlight and the song tempt from their bunks, is an antidote to monotony.

The first named probably refers to "Knock a Man Down". But neither that (BLOW THE MAN) nor RIO GRANDE are usually associated with pumping, so...

The sailors were a merry set. Though only half of the crew—that is, one watch—were required each night at the pumps, all hands at first generally turned out because it was the time for a song. It was a nightly pleasure to be on the upper deck when the pumps were manned, and to hear twenty men sing. When making sail after a gale, the crew are ready for the loudest singing, unless it be at the pumps. For example, when hauling on the topsail halyards, they may have this song, the shanty man, as they call him, solo singer, beginning with a wailing strain:

Solo : O poor Reuben Ranzo! (twice. [EACH LINE IS REPEATED])
   Chorus: Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Solo: Ranzo was no sailor!
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Solo : He shipped on board a whaler!
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Solo: The captain was a bad man!
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Solo : He put him in the rigging!
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, Ranzo !
Solo: He gave him six-and-thirty —

by which time the topsail is mast-headed, and the mate cries, "Belay!"

When the mainsail is to be set, and they are hauling down the main tack, this, perhaps, is the song : —

Solo: " 'Way! haul away! my rosey ;
Chorus: 'Way ! haul away! haul away! JOE!"

the long pull, the strong pull, the pull altogether being given at the word "Joe;" then no more pulling till the same word recurs.

When hauling on the main sheet, this is often the song, sung responsively : —

Shanty man: "Haul the bowline; Kitty is my darling.
       Crew: Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!"

Now, these are some of the exact same shanties --same lyrics-- as RC Adams published in 1869. What to make of that? Why did the son, the experienced sea captain, need to reproduce the exact shanties as his dad, a passenger? Did he dictate these lyrics to his father in 1871? Minimally, if the father did hear these in 1869 (and out of some laziness, the son reproduced the same), then we need to date RC Adam's ROCKET shanties to 1869 (a minor change in dating).

FWIW, this Adams also uses the term "shanty man," but not the term "shanty."

The text is here.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 May 10 - 11:35 PM

There is a reference to HILO BOYS in a piece of historical fiction (?) in CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL, Nov. 1876.

The narrator, an Englishman coming from Calcutta, has somehow found himself in a boat off Malaysia with some Papuans. There is some sort of boat race.

The next point was to make the Papuans sing. They are regular darkies; and dear old Captain Orde used to say that without a song a nigger couldn't pull against a fly ; with it, he could haul against a rhinoceros. So whilst Abou was arranging the oars, I got a lot of Papuans, and began to teach them a medley. I could not for the life of me remember the words, but the chorus went: ' Hilo boys, hil-lo !' The rest of it is unimportant, and can be supplied with any gibberish ; so I filled in with Papuan, and taught them to pull strong and slow to the words 'Hilo boys, hil-lo!' There is instinctive time and melody in the poor fellows' composition, and they took to it wonderfully kindly. We pulled away at this slow and steady, and then I taught them another which had a chorus of 'Walk away.' This was much faster, and I soon got them to pull tremendously...

Then came the proa race, for which we took our place in a line. Moussoul started us with a matchlock, and Tamula got ahead at once, followed by the other proas. We were last, singing our ' Hilo boys, hil-lo !' keeping about a hundred feet in rear of old Tamula, and going so beautifully that Abou was in raptures, and whispered to me that we could win....

Any ideas on what this "Walk away" song might have been?

LINK

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 May 10 - 12:28 AM

THE LOG OF MY LEISURE HOURS (1872), by "An Old Sailor," original preface 1868. I am confused to what this is -- fiction, or an autobiography. The author seems to switch from first person to third person midway through. In any case, the narrator claims to describe a voyage in a schooner CLEOPATRA to Georgetown, Guyana. On one scene, the loading of molasses and sugar is being accomplished. The writer says it was 1831. Thoughts on the authenticity of this?

Log of Leisure

Here is the passage of interest. Shanties are not mentioned in the book.

As the entire energies of the owners and their agents were devoted to the speedy discharge and loading of the Cleopatra, she was never detained in port, either at London or in Demerara, for more than ten or twelve days at a time. But the work in the West Indies was the heaviest; it was almost unremitting. After the seamen concluded their day's labour, a gang of negroes came on board, who worked the whole night, discharging cargo or taking on board hogsheads of sugar; and their never-ceasing songs, as they walked round the capstan, or when "screwing" or "swamping" sugars in the hold, left little chance of repose to the whites, who had been at similar work during the whole of the day.

The implication is that the crew, out of London, was all White. And though they participated in the loading of the cargo, it was the local (Guyanese) Black workers that sang songs as they worked.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 May 10 - 08:08 AM

Gibb-

I suppose that "Walkalong, Boys" might be related to the halyard shanty "Walkalong, My Rosie" as cited by Hugill, pp. 273-274, which has two pulls and would work well for the coordination of rowing.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 03 May 10 - 11:00 AM

Here's a reference to and a verse from "Blow the man down". It is in YANKEE SWANSON: CHAPTERS FROM A LIFE AT SEA, by Andrew Walfrid Nelson, 1913. The reference is to 1877. The verse given is:

    "Blow the man down in Grangemouth town,
       hay, hay, blow the man down."

The task at hand is one of hoisting the anchor.

http://books.google.com/books?id=uzRDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA82&dq=%22Blow+the+man+down&lr=&cd=353#v=onepage&q=%22Blow%20the%20man%20down&

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 03 May 10 - 11:07 AM

And here's a reference to "Cheerily, men!" from 1876, from THE FIRST TEN YEARS OF A SAILOR'S LIFE AT SEA, by Charles Chapman. The setting is in "the Downs" and the task is one of hoisting the anchor.

http://books.google.com/books?id=PY09AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA279&dq=Cheerily,+Men&lr=&cd=124#v=onepage&q=Cheerily%2C%20Men&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 03 May 10 - 11:38 AM

I may have missed this, but here is a reference to "Hanging Johnny", or more specifically, "Hangman Johnny". Actually it is two references to the same material. The earliest is from 1867 in an article entitled "Negro Spirituals", from THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. The second is to a book entitled ARMY LIFE IN A BLACK REGIMENT, published in 1882, but referencing the year 1862. Both are by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The song was being sung by a squad of men coming in from picket duty. Apparently these were freed slaves serving in the Union Army in South Carolina. The verses are:

    "O, dey call me Hangman Johnny!
          O, ho! O, ho!
      But I never hang nobody,
          O, hang, boys, hang!

    O, dey all me Hangman Johnny!
          O, ho! O, ho!
    But we'll all hang togedder,
          O, hang, boys, hang!"

http://books.google.com/books?id=250GAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA693&dq=Hangman+Johnny&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Hangman%20Johnny&f=false

And

http://books.google.com/books?id=ITcOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA220&dq=Hangman+Johnny&cd=2#v=onepage&q=Hangman%20Johnny&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 03 May 10 - 11:46 AM

Here's a version of "Haul Away, Joe" from 1877, from a book entitled CRUMBS SWEPT UP, by Thomas De Witt Talmage, in an piece called "Fallacies About The Sea". There are some interesting verses here. There is reference to the ship "Kangaroo", and sailing away from "Milfred Bay".

http://books.google.com/books?id=J1g1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA368&dq=%22Haul+Away,+Joe%22&lr=&cd=38#v=onepage&q=%22Haul%20Away%2C%20Joe%22&

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 03 May 10 - 12:08 PM

Here is a translation of a Scandinavian work of fiction by Jonas Lie, entitled THE PILOT AND HIS WIFE, reviewed in 1875, and translated in 1876, so written sometime before that. It contains a reference to "Haul the bowline". It's not clear to me what he task is here.

http://books.google.com/books?id=DkksAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA133&dq=%22Haul+the+bowline%22+The+Pilot+and+his+wife&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=f

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 03 May 10 - 04:14 PM

Here's a work of fiction published in 1878-79 by Horace Elisha Scudder called THE BODLEYS ON WHEELS. There is a section called "On Building a Ship", and in that section one of the girls reads a story that she has written about "The Happy Clothes-Dryer", which is about two pine trees in a forest in Maine that carry on a conversation about becoming masts on a ship. One is called "Tall" and one is called "Short". In this conversation, they mention and quote a few lines from a number of chanties: "Do, my Johnny boker, do!", "An' away, my Johnny boy, we're all bound to go!", "Away, you rollin' river", and three verses of "Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo!" Then there is an interesting verse from what appears to be a another version of "Shenandoah":

    "Aha! I'm bound A W A Y
    Across the broad Atlantic!"

And then another verse from "Johnny Boker":

    "Oh, do me, Johnny Boker, the wind is blowin' bravely!
          Do me, Johnny Boker, do!"

And another "Ranzo" verse. The children end up acting out the story, so all of these songs are being sung by children almost as children's songs. The author seems to presuppose that they were that well known by then! Here is the reference:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Pv0LAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA173&dq=The+Happy+Clothes-Dryer&lr=&cd=19#v=onepage&q=The%20Happy%20Clothes-Dr

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 May 10 - 04:19 PM

John-

Where one's research leads one is an endless source of amazement!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 May 10 - 09:10 PM

Thanks for these, John. Now to dissect them a little!

"Here's a reference to and a verse from "Blow the man down". It is in YANKEE SWANSON: CHAPTERS FROM A LIFE AT SEA, by Andrew Walfrid Nelson, 1913. The reference is to 1877."

The ship FORSETTE out of Höganäs, Sweden, is off Bodo, Norway. It says,

When the kedge was down, we took in the slack on the line and tripped our anchor, after which all hands manned the capstan and away we went as fast as we could run around the capstan. After we got a little way on her it was easy work, because there was no current in the inlet just then. We took the line off the capstan, and all hands tailed on to the rope with a will, brought on by splicing the main brace a couple of times, and by the cook's lusty singing, " Blow the man down in Grangemouth town, hay, hay, blow the man down," and several other chanteys.

So, just to clarify, they are indeed hauling (catting anchor).

"And here's a reference to "Cheerily, men!" from 1876, from THE FIRST TEN YEARS OF A SAILOR'S LIFE AT SEA, by Charles Chapman. The setting is in "the Downs" [English Channel] and the task is one of hoisting the anchor."

It is a brigantine, "M--", of Goole (Yorkshire), circa early 1840s.

At the end of that time the sound of the sailors "Oh-ye-hoy" was to be heard all over the roadstead, together with the sound of the " pawls " of the windlass. Then as the anchors came up to the hawse pipes, and when the cats were hooked on, there came over the still waters of the Downs the familiar song, "Cheerily, men!" from all quarters, which, together with the rattling of chains, the squeaking of the blocks, the throwing down on deck of coils of rope, and all the various noises, including the boatswain's pipe, and the more gruff boatswain's voice, gave one the idea of working life.

I'd guess the "oh-ye-hoy" was one of those pre-chanty cries at the old fashioned windlass. CHEERLY is here being used for catting anchor again.

In 1840 Melbourne, there is also this note:

all hands clapped on to the weather main topsail brace, and hauled on it with a will, and with a "Yo— he—hoy!"

And later, out of context,

ln the interest of the poor fellows who are no longer able to clap on a rope and sing out, "Oh—heave—hoy !'

More singing-out, but not chanteying. I'd say this is consistent so far with what we've seen from that time period--perhaps especially in British vessels.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 May 10 - 09:22 PM

Great "Hangman Johnny"!

I doubt you'll ever hear a verse like this today!:

My presence apparently cheeked the performance of another verse, beginning, "De buckra 'list for money," apparently in reference to the controversy about the pay question, then just beginning, and to the more mercenary aims they attributed to the white soldiers.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 May 10 - 09:40 PM

"Here's a version of "Haul Away, Joe" from 1877, from a book entitled CRUMBS SWEPT UP, by Thomas De Witt Talmage, in an piece called "Fallacies About The Sea". There are some interesting verses here. There is reference to the ship "Kangaroo", and sailing away from "Milfred Bay". "

Ha! Who knows where the author got this from? I wonder if he heard it in a trans-Altlantic voyage, or if culled from elsewhere. In any case, he has mixed up HAUL AWAY JOE with the sometimes-chantey (according to Hugill), ABOARD THE KANGAROO.

Away ! Haul away ! Haul away, Joe !
Away! Haul away! now we are sober
Once I lived in Ireland, digging turf and tatoes,
But now I'm in a packet-ship a-hauling tacks and braces.[//]
Once I was a waterman and lived at home at ease,
But now I am a mariner to plough the angry seas.
I thought I would like a seafaring life, so I bid my
       love adieu,
And shipped as cook and steward on board the Kangaroo.
Then I never thought she would prove false,
Or ever prove untrue,
When we sailed away from Milfred Bay
On board the Kangaroo. [//]
Away ! Haul away ! Haul away, Joe !
Away Haul away ! Haul away, Joe !

"On board the Kangaroo" is mentioned as a popular song (i.e. non-chantey) in this March 1868 article from THE MUSICAL WORLD.

http://books.google.com/books?id=_JkPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA215&dq=%22on+board+the+kangar

So I wonder if Talmage was hearing a chantey or a forebitter.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 May 10 - 11:36 PM

Lie's Norwegian story LODSEN OG HANS HUSTRU came out in 1874.

The English translation goes,

By the occasional howls, rather than songs, which were heard around the capstan, and which accompanied the different kinds of work, it was not difficult to understand that the crew had become excited, for they had expected to have quiet until after mess-time, when around the poop they should exchange news and communications. The usual English song for hauling the bowline —

Haul the bowline,
The captain he is growling —
Haul the bowline,
The bowline haul!

was sung with offensive application by the sailors sweating and half naked in the sun, who hauled the bowline and spread the topsail. During the heavy haul wherewith they at last got the huge anchor up on the bow, the mate had shouted and encouraged them:

"Take — my men — hold — haul!" but the closing words of the song —

Oh, haul in — oh-e-oh!
Cheer, my men!

were uttered with a derisive howl.

I suppose BOWLINE is being used to haul forward a tack. And CHEERLY is again being used for catting anchor.

Here is the original Norwegian:

Af de enkelte snarere Hyl end Sange, som hørtes om Gangspillet og ledsagede de forskjellige Arbeider, var det ikke vanskeligt at forstaa, at Mandskabet var kommet i en ophidset Stemning; thi man havde ventet at have Fred til over Skaffetiden, da man omkring Ruffet skulde udveksle alskens Nyheder og Efterretninger. Den vante engelske Opsang for Bouglinehal:

Haul the bowline,
the captain he is growling,
haul the bowline,
the bowline haul!

blev sunget med forarget Hentydning af de i Solen svedende, halvnøgne Matroser, der halede Bouglinen og strakte Mersseilet. Under de tunge Hal, hvormed man tilslut kattede det svære Anker op for Bougen, havde Styrmanden raabt et opmuntrende:
„Sæt „„Kjelimen — hal"" paa!" — Men Endeordene i Sangen:

„Aa hal i — aa — i aa —!
„Cheer my men!"

udstedtes med haanlig Hujen.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 May 10 - 12:12 AM

"Here's a work of fiction published in 1878-79 by Horace Elisha Scudder called THE BODLEYS ON WHEELS."

I saw this earlier, John, and was fascinated by its use of "chanty" as a verb, as if French.

' Do, my Johnny Boker, do !' "

And Short pretended to chanty a sailor's song.

"An' away, my Johnny boy, we 're all bound to go!" must be HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES

The REUBEN RANZO verses (repetition):

' Oh, Reuben was no sailor:
Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo !'
...
" You hear of Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo!"
...
" Oh Reuben was no sailor:
Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo! "
...
" Oh, Reuben was no sailor:
Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo ! "

The SHENANDOAH and HEAVE AWAY samples compare well with the lyrics given in "The Riverside Magazine for Young People" Apr., 1868, cited earlier by Lighter. I don't know who wrote that piece, but, chances are, if Scudder did not, then he has culled his chanties from there. Scudder was the editor of that children's magazine, so these are probably being rehashed. Perhaps Lighter will mention what some of the other chanties were in The Riverside Magazine -- they may match others in this story by Scudder.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 04 May 10 - 08:14 AM

Here is an interesting version of "Shenandoah" from UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS, 1876, by Januarius Aloysious MacGahan. He is on the ship "Pandora" and sailing in Artic waters. They are at the capstan, hoisting anchor. Here are the verses he gives:

"Oh, Shanadoa, I longs to hear you.
Ha! ha! the rolling water.
Oh, Shanadoa, I longs to hear you.
Ho! ho! the cold, pale water.

Oh, Shanadoa, I've seen your daughter,
Ha! ha! the rolling water.
Oh, Shanadoa, I've seen your daughter,
Ho! ho! the cold, pale water.

Oh, Shanadoa, I loves your daughter.
Ha! ha! the rolling water.
Oh, Shanadoa, I loves your daughter.
Ho! ho! the cold, pale water.

When I return I'll wed your daughter.
Ha! ha! we are bound away.
When I return I'll wed your daughter.
Ho! Ho! the rolling water.

For seven long years I woo'd your daughter.
Ha! ha! old Shanadoa.
For seven long years I woo'd your daughter.
Ho! ho! the rolling water.

Oh, Shanadoa, where is your daughter?
Ha! ha! the rolling water.
Oh, shanadoa, where is your daughtrer?
Oh! oh! the cold, pale water.

Oh, Shanadoa, beneath the water.
Ha! ha! the rolling water.
Oh, Shanadoa, beneath the water.
Oh! oh! the cold, pale water."

Oh, Shanadoa, there lies your daughter.
Ha! ha! the rolling water.
Oh, Shanadoah, there lies your daughter.
Oh! oh! the cold, pale water."

The verses are interspersed with commentary about the anchor coming up. Here is the source:

http://books.google.com/books?id=NC4mAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA213&dq=%22Oh,+Shanadoa,+I+longs+to+hear+you.&cd=2#v=onepage&q=%22Oh%2C%20Shan

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 04 May 10 - 08:45 AM

I've already posted that one from MacGahan's biography.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 04 May 10 - 09:29 AM

Sorry, Lighter. I didn't scroll back far enough. It's a good one.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 04 May 10 - 11:23 AM

And maybe half improvised. Or idiosyncratic, which is almost the same thing.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 May 10 - 01:16 AM

The verses are interspersed with commentary about the anchor coming up.

I am not sure what to make of it, though. Because first they are puling up the slack, and able to more or less "run" around the capstan. Then the mudhook is stuck and they are trying to break it out, etc. How is it that Shenandoah is working throughout this whole process? Conventional wisdom would say that it was sung during the really hard heaving i.e. at slow speed, and that the chantey would be have to be changed to match other tempi. So...either something is happening here that is different than the conventional understanding, or the Shenandoah text is just being used, with artistic license, to unify the writing and without regard to authentic context. (??)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 May 10 - 03:13 AM

Logging in this item mentioned already on the "Sydney" thread. "Marcia's Fortune," a story by Katharine B. Foot, appearing in SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY, vol 13 (April 1877).

Just then the sound of a voice singing reached her ears, and she turned her head to see a little boat, with two men in it, row past—as near in shore as was safe. One was a gunner, and the other a man she knew well,— a broken-down sailor who had once shipped " able-bodied seaman," but whose day for that had long been over. As he rowed he trolled out an old sea-song, sung by many a sailor as he weighed anchor or reefed top-sails, outward bound. It was this:

"I'm bound away to leave you;
Good-bye, my love, good-bye!
Don't let my absence grieve you;
Good-bye, my love, good-bye!"

This is the first mention of this song (?), later to be mentioned, with tune, by Alden.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 07 May 10 - 12:41 PM

Here is an interesting book published in 1921 about the maiden voyage of the clipper ship, "Sheila" in 1877, by the Captain, W. H. Angel, called THE CLIPPER SHIP "SHEILA" . Interspersed throughout this detailed account are sea shanties. They are not usually put into work contexts, but merely given as examples. Do they come from this voyage in 1877, or from later recollections/collections? I can't tell from scanning the text and there are no clues otherwise. I haven't had time to compare them to other collections to see if they might have come from somewhere else. Captain Angel says in his Preface, "The whole of this book has been written up by the Author from carefully kept logs, and its accuracy can be vouched for." Here is a list of the shanties and their page numbers.

"Outward Bound" 51-52
"Unmooring" 52-53
"Goodbye, Fare You Well"   55
"Across the Western Ocean"   59
"Bound for the Rio Grande"   64
"Reuben Rantzau"   73-74
"Sally Brown"   74-75
"Stormalong"   75
"Poor Old Man"   88
"Old Horse"   92-93
"So Early In the Morning"   120-121
"Johnny Boker"   120
"Paddy Doyle" 121
"So Handy, My Girls"   140-141
"Whiskey, Johnny"   144
"Poor Paddy Works On the Railway"   141-142
"Blow the Man Down"   162
"Blow Boys, Blow"   162
"A Roving"   163
"Rolling Home"   186-189
"Haul Away, Jo"   187-188
"Hilo, John Brown, Stand to Your Ground"   269-270
"One More Day, My Johnny"   277
"Farewell, Adieu"   278-279

Here is the link:

http://www.archive.org/stream/clippershipsheil00angeuoft#page/n7/mode/2up

And here is a note about all of this basically laying out the same information by Gibb on the "Rare Caribbean" thread, which I just came across:

Detail.CFM?messages__Message_ID=2608223

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 07 May 10 - 12:51 PM

I'm wondering if I've missed something. Does it strike anybody as strange that the so-called "oldest chanty of all", namely "A-Roving" hasn't showed up prior to the "SHEILA" source just posted?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 07 May 10 - 05:06 PM

There's no real evidence that "A-Rovin'" itself is unusually old, even if the general idea appeared in a completely different song in 1607.

The earliest polite version seems to be in [William Allen Hayes, ed.] Selected Songs Sung at Harvard College: From 1862 to 1866. (Cambridge: pvtly. ptd., June, 1866), pp.30-31.

So it could be a clean song that got bawdified and shantyized rather than the other way around. However, Whall gives the three tamest stanzas of the anatomical version as having been part of the shanty repertoire of the 1860s.

Harlow prints part of a version he presumably learned in 1876.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 May 10 - 09:12 PM

Lighter-

"There's no real evidence that "A-Rovin'" itself is unusually old..."

That's an interesting thought, given the conventional belief on the part of the folk music community. But let's re-examine the evidence.

My family certainly sang that song from 1940 on, as did our friends in Long Island.

I'll see what I can dig up.

With regard to literary references:

In the Fireside Book of Folk Songs, © 1947, it's described as "one of the oldest of the capstan shanties; originally a shore song, p. 168. Cecil Sharp collected a shore version called "We'll Go No More a-Cruising" as cited by Hugill in his discussion of the origins of the song in Shanties of the Seven Seas, p. 44. Frank Shay traces the song back to 1608 to Thomas Heywood in his play The Rape of Lucrece in An American Sailor's Treasury, © 1948, p. 86. It appears to be John Masefield who first mentions in Sailor's Garland, © 1906, p. 323, the connection with The Rape of Lucrece. Capt. Whall in Sea Songs and Shanties also mentions the connection with The Rape of Lucrece, p. © 1910, p. 61, as does Joanne Colcord in Songs of American Sailormen, © 1938, p. 28, and Frederick Pease Harlow in Chanteying aboard American Ships, © 1962, p. 51. Frank Bullen doesn't mention the song at all, nor does C. Fox Smith.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 10 May 10 - 05:19 PM

Here's a reference from January, 1874, in the APPLETON'S JOURNAL, VOL. XI, in an article by Samuel A. Drake entitled "The Pepperlls of Kittery Point, Maine", to "Heave Away, My Johnnies". The verse is

   "Then heave away, my bully boys,
       Heave away, my Johnnies!"

There is also reference to this song, which is unfamiliar to me:

    "Then heave up the anchor, boys,
       Brace round the main-yard;
    Haul taut your port bow-line,
       And let the good ship fly!"

Here is the link (click on p. 66 - I had trouble with this link):

http://books.google.com/books?id=rAMZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA65&dq=The+Pepperell's+of+Kittery+Point&lr=&cd=17#v=onepage&q=The%20Pepperell'

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 10 May 10 - 05:33 PM

Here is another reference (snippet only) from 1875 to "Heave away, my Johnnies", from ST. NICHOLAS, VOLUME 3, by Mary Mapes Dodge.

    "Heave away, my bully boys,
    Heave away, my Johnnies;
    Heave up the anchor, boys,
    Brace round the main yard,
    Haul taut your port bow-line,
    And let the good ship fly."

Which answers the question in my previous post about that additional verse. They appear to be the same, and thus it is all one song. Is this the same chanty as "Heave away, my Johnnies"?

http://books.google.com/books?id=p3IXAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Heave+away,+my+johnnies%22&dq=%22Heave+away,+my+johnnies%22&lr=&cd=20

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 May 10 - 05:34 PM

Thanks, John. Just to add that these songs were said to be sung whilst heaving at the windlass, and that the author uses the term "shanty" -- in quotes, as if it weren't common knowledge.

I don't recognize the second one, but it looks like a "grand chorus" section to a song.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 10 May 10 - 05:42 PM

Charley, I believe the idea that "A-Rovin'" is "one of the earliest shanties" is based entirely on Masefield's hasty conclusion, based on his observation that the theme and even some of the rhymes of Heywood's song are much the same as those of "A-Rovin'".

Otherwise, though, the songs are dissimilar.

Heywood:
http://books.google.com/books?id=BNUUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA233&lpg=PA233&dq=%22feele+man%22&source=bl&ots=TSwGSRBj2J&sig=V5Y2fvB_OAXNr8mDhdARvW5TlhY&hl=en&ei=UnvoS_XTLsSblgf-7-WlAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22feele%20man%22&f=false

(Pp. 232-33).

What text of "A-Rovin'" did your family sing in the '40s?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 May 10 - 05:57 PM

John,
re: the second reference.

With the info available, I strongly suspect that the 2nd/Dodge reference was just copied from the 1st/Drake. The author combined the two song fragments in a work of fiction.

Even the Drake reference may be inaccurately reproducing HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 May 10 - 07:47 PM

Lighter-

There were two sources for "A-Roving" in my family, my uncle Richard Dyer-Bennet and our old family friend Dennis Pulisten of Brookhaven, Long Island; both of them were born and raised in England. Their versions certainly predated the popular "Fireship" version that surfaced in about 1951. I'll have to check with my mother tomorrow and see if she can add any more notes.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 10 May 10 - 08:18 PM

Thanks, Charley. Only *one* authentic unbowdlerized seafaring text of "The Fireship" has ever been printed (by Ed Cray).

If you've got another one, the world demands it!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 24 Oct 10 - 10:34 AM

In his new book, JOLLY SAILORS BOLD (published by CAMSCO), Stuart Frank gives us a list of tunes found in a journal kept by Frederick Howland Smith, a whaleman. He first sailed in the Lydia on October 9, 1854. The tune list is found on a page of one of his journals kept during the period between 1854 and 1869. Frank says that it was "probably written down while serving as third mate of the ship Herald just after the Civil War." (p. 358).

One of the songs that shows up on this list is (#178) "Fanny Elssler Leaving New Orleans". We already know this song as a version of "Grog Time Of Day". Here is Gibb's original posting on this song with the lyrics:

Detail.CFM?messages__Message_ID=2875848

And here is a link back to one of the early accounts:

http://books.google.com/books?id=LOxCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA212&dq=%22Grog+Time+o'+day%22&hl=en&ei=OSzDTI_NJ8aAlAe457gE&sa=X&oi=book_resu

Fanny was a ballerina and toured the US in 1840-1842. Frank says that the lyrics for the song were "miraculously preserved through ephemeral publication in THE NEGRO SINGER'S OWN BOOK (circa 1845)." (p. 374) I was unable to find a full copy of this book on Google Books.

We don't know either from Frank or from Frederick Smith's journal when Smith learned this song. But we do know that sometime between 1854 and 1869, the title at least shows up on board of a whaling ship. Frank says that this list of songs were probably ones that Smith knew and sang. Frank calls this song a "cargo-loading" song, "evidently originating with African-american longshoremen in New Orleans...." (p. 374).

So, this puts this version of "Grog Time Of Day" at sea between 1854 and 1869 in a whaling context. Smith's early journals are in the Kendall Collection at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Oct 10 - 06:24 PM

Excellent work, John!

GROG TIME is of special interest because it seems to be one of the earliest known "chanties."

What you've posted leads to 2 insights. Please forgive me if I am repeating what you've already said, or clarify if I get it wrong.

1. Though earlier we had THE ART OF BALLET (1915) as a source for this "Fanny" song, for the purposes of this thread we now have an earlier source for it: as per Frank, THE NEGRO SINGER'S OWN BOOK ca. 1845. That does not change our supposed date of the song being sung in 1840-42, but it does give us a more contemporary reference. I, for one, am pleased to have that.

I would *guess* that the author of ART OF BALLET got the song from NEGRO SINGER'S (or some derivation). So, the latter now becomes our primary source for this reference.

A small point: (Neither John nor I have as now seen NEGRO SINGER'S, so I am still guessing here.) It may have been that the author of ART OF BALLET reconstructed the scene of the cargo loading based on notes from an earlier book. Frank also notes cargo loading in New Orleans, so I assume (?) that in NEGRO SINGER'S there are notes on context (i.e. that ART OF BALLET could have used to sketch the scene.)

2.If the whaleman Smith copied down "Fanny" in his journal, I am not sure what implications that has that he *sang* it. Without having seen Frank's exact words, I can't form a solid opinion of how likely that was. Worldcat indicates that NEGRO SINGER'S includes no music notation (though there certainly may have been other ways to cook up the/a tune).

What stumps me most is why such an incidental, ad-libbed song would be taken and reproduced in later performance. Perhaps if a minstrel group took on the song and, after a rather artificial staged fashion, worked up a performance version of it, it would then become popular and spread itself, no longer subject to the usual "rules" of performance in the "folk" tradition.

I guess what I am voicing is my skepticism --though it may be due to lack of info-- that this "Fanny" song would have been performed by the whalemen 2 decades after it was observed on a New Orleans dock. Well, at least not in an "authentic" way. But anything is possible, I suppose.

I'll see if I can get a hold of NEGRO SINGER'S.

Gibb

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 24 Oct 10 - 08:16 PM

Gibb, Frank does not give any indication of contextual notes for "Fanny" in NEGRO SINGER'S. Nor does he give any references for his statement about this being a "cargo-loading" song. My *guess* is that he may have gotten this from ART OF BALLET, which takes us back to where we were before on that. There apparently was no tune printed for "Fanny" in NEGRO SINGER'S. And I would add that as near as I can tell, there were no tunes notated for any of the 230 or so songs in Frank's book. Apparently the whalemen didn't write down music. Frank does provide tunes for each of the songs, but they come from other sources, such as later chanty collections, printed music, etc. Interestingly enough, the tune he provides for "Fanny" is "Fine Time O' Day" from Trelawney Wentworth's THE WEST INDIA SKETCH BOOK!

Smith only copied the title of "Fanny" in his journal, not the lyrics or the tune. I agree with you that this leaves open the question of whether he actually ever sang the song, or whether the song was ever actually used as a hoisting chanty on board a whaler. Once again, we don't have the info on any of this. Frank says,

    "Most of Fred Smith's known song and tune collecting was been (sic) done during his first four voyages, when he was a cabin boy, seaman, boatsteerer, and deck officer in three whaleships and before he ascended to the responsibilities and distractions of marriage and command. He kept journals of all four voyages in a single volume, which also became his reference library and study guide in matters of seamanship and celestial navigation." (p. 358).

He goes on to say,

    "It would undoubtedly delight folklorists and performers today had Fred Smith or some other whaleman seen fit to transcribe shipboard fiddle and dance tunes,note-for-note, just as he knew them - preferably with grace notes and ornamentation, the way they were played in the forecastle and aftercabin at sea. But, so far, no such transcriptions have emerged, and Smith's mere list, inscribed on a single page of his journal, is about the best and most extensive documentation of such tunes on American whaleships." (p. 358)

There is some indication that "Fanny" may have been used in minstrel performances. Frank says,

    "That the song may also have been making rounds on the music-hall circuit is suggested by an allusion on an earlier page of the same songster [NEGRO SINGER'S] (p. 196), in a section entitled "Conundrums," intended as a collection of vaudeville-like dialect quips for "Negro" musicians. It is attributed to the so-called "Black Apollo," whose real name was Charles White, "and all the Colored Savoyards at the Principal theaters in the United States":
          Why is Fanny Elssler like the Bunker Hill Monument?
          Because they are both out ob town. (Frank, p. 374)   

Out of the 230 or so songs in his book, Frank only lists seven as "deepwater chanteys" All of the rest were used for some form of entertainment on the whaling ships. Frank does seem to make the assumption that "Fanny" was used as a chanty, but gives not documentation for this assumption. See page xix in an introductory essay entitled "A Few Words about Chanteys" where he says,

    "A large number of chanteys survive; probably as many have been lost since steam propulsion supplanted them. But comparatively few original cotton-steeeving songs survive. "Fanny Elssler Leaving New Orleans" [#178] is a rare specimen of known vintage."

It is also possible that if this song was actually sung on board of the whalers, it was sung for entertainment as a music hall song. Again, all that can really be said is that the song title shows up in a whaleman's journal written sometime between 1854 and 1869. It is one of 21 titles on the list.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 03:14 AM

Wow! Thanks for all that detail.

The plot continues to thicken of the GROG TIME story.

I've ordered "The Negro Singer's Own Book" on interlibrary loan, and when and if it comes I'll report back.

Now it's back to writing articles on 'jhummar' dance and Punjabi popular music.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 08:36 PM

Back in May, John wrote:

Here is an interesting book published in 1921 about the maiden voyage of the clipper ship, "Sheila" in 1877, by the Captain, W. H. Angel, called THE CLIPPER SHIP "SHEILA" . Interspersed throughout this detailed account are sea shanties. They are not usually put into work contexts, but merely given as examples. Do they come from this voyage in 1877, or from later recollections/collections? I can't tell from scanning the text and there are no clues otherwise.

Due to a discussion with Lighter on the 'Rare Caribbean..." thread, I am suspecting that the chanty info in Angel's book is not reliable. At this point, I suspect that at least his "Stand to Your Ground" was copied from Whall's 1910 collection. Another tell-tale is the item called "Unmooring" in both texts. Another thing I haphazardly spotted is Angel's odd claim that "Stormalong" sounded great with violin accompaniment (!)

I have not compared every song! Perhaps some are original to Angel, but these issues make me inclined to throw it out as a useful reference for the 1870s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 02:58 AM

When last I was tending to this thread we were sifting through references to chantying in the 1870s. The discussion by this point has become quite sticky, because even contemporary references from the 1870s are potentially "contaminated" by the available articles from the late '60s. Still, I'll go on with trying to cite activity attributed to the 70s, with the caveat that , for the sake of time, the authenticity of each source is not being verified.

There is a travelogue by Symondson from 1876, TWO YEARS ABAFT THE MAST, that describes his voyage in an English merchant ship SEA QUEEN. Based on the date of the preface (Sept 1876), the voyage must have started in fall of 1874 or earlier. "Chanties" are mentioned by name several times. The term is used in quotes, still suggesting, perhaps, its relative newness.

When attempting to leave London, there's this:

//
Tuesday, at eleven o'clock, the third mate returned aboard, accompanied by Mr H (one of the owners), with instructions from the owners to return to Gravesend. We were not a little amused whilst heaving round the windlass at seeing Mr H leaning over the bulwarks deplorably sick. Our putting back made the men strike up the wellknown homeward-bound "chanty"—

" Good-bye, fare-ye-well;
Good-bye, fare-ye-well!"
//

When this author says "windlass" he means capstan. So it is GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL, which I think is more of a brake windlass chanty, but here we have it for capstan.

Off Portland we have this:

//
We filled up with water and took aboard some fresh meat; and the wind having hauled round to N.E., with fine and clear weather, we weighed anchor to the tune of the "chanty,"—"I served my time in the Black Ball Line,"—and proceeded out by the west entrance of the breakwater.
//

We don't associate BLACKBALL LINE with weighing anchor by capstan today. However, the one prior reference to Blackball Line, from the 1868 "On Shanties" articles, also puts it as a capstan chanty. Weird.

Next, when in Sydney Harbour:

//
Whilst heaving up anchor prior to the tug towing us to the wharf, we had some good "chanties " —for Jack's spirits are at their highest at the thoughts of a run ashore. The "chanty" known under the name of " The Rio Grande" is particularly pretty, the chorus being:—

"Heave away, my bonny boys, we are all bound to Rio.
          Ho ! and heigho!
Come fare ye well, my pretty young girl,
      For we're bound to the Rio Grande."
//

So, RIO GRANDE.

Later while Sydney Harbour is being described generally:

//
As the sun slowly vanishes away, the perspective becomes blue and purple, the sky settles into a bright greenish hue, and the noise and flutter cease, to be replaced by an almost unbroken silence, made all the more noticeable by its suddenness. The plaintive notes of a distant sailor's " chanty " or call alone break upon one's ear at intervals; and sweetly pretty they sound, particularly at such a time and place.
//

Ooh, chanties are still 'plaintive'!

Another general comment -- giving some insight on non-Anglophones knowing chanties:

//
Since the introduction of steam, there has been a large proportion of foreigners in the English merchant service — mostly Germans, Swedes, Dutchmen, and Russian Fins. All foreigners are called " Dutchmen " at sea. However, those who sail out of England on long
voyages, have mostly been so long in our service, that practically they are Englishmen, knowing our "chanties" and sea-rules better than their own.
//

On the difference between Navy and merchant ships, the author reconfirms what we understand to be the case, that chanties were not part of Navy practice:

//
Merchant Jack laughs with contempt as he watches their crew in uniform dress, walking round the windlass, weighing anchor like mechanical dummies. No hearty "chanties" there—no fine chorus ringing with feeling and sentiment, brought out with a sort of despairing wildness, which so often strikes neighbouring landsfolk with the deepest emotion. He likes to growl—and he may, so long as he goes about his work. I have heard mates say—Give me a man that can growl: the more he growls, the more he works. Silence reigns supreme aboard a Queen's ship; no general order is given by word of mouth—the boatswain's whistle takes its place.
//

"Despairing wildness"! Nice.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 03:04 AM

Here's the link to Symondson:

TWO YEARS ABAFT THE MAST

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Nov 10 - 03:03 AM

One reference that hasn't been logged here yet is Clark's THE CLIPPER SHIP ERA (1912). I am taking the liberty of reproducing John Minear's introduction from elsewhere on Mudcat, then I will break down the passages.

In his book THE CLIPPER SHIP ERA, Arthur Hamilton Clark says, "In the year 1849, 91,405 passengers landed at San Francisco from various ports of the world, of almost every nationality under the sun...." (p.101). That is simply astounding! And what is even more astounding is that so far nobody has turned up anything at all with regard to what just one or two or a dozen of these "Argonauts" might have written down about the work songs that they heard during their voyage to California. And we know they did write things down, in letters and journals and diaries and newspapers. They wrote about all kinds of things. But so far, not about sea chanties.

Clark does have a very detailed chapter, Chapter VII, "The Rush For California - A Sailing Day", in which he lays out what a sailing day from New York harbor would have been like. The problem is that is is not an actual historical account of an actual day, but an idealized account of a re-imagined day. However, Clark was around in those days and his accounts otherwise seem to be accurate and taken as an authority on things.

In this account, he mentions that "Almost every seaport along the Atlantic coast, sent one or more vessels (to California in 1849), and they all carried passengers." (pp. 100-101). In this chapter he says quite a bit about chanties. He says,

       "The people who gathered at Battery Park to see a clipper ship get under way, came partly to hear the sailors sing their sea songs, or chanties, which were an important part of sea life in those days, giving a zest and cheeriness on shipboard, which nothing else could supply." (pp. 109-110).

In his description of the process of a clipper ship putting to sea, he specifically mentions a number of chanties and gives lyrics and tells how and when and what they were used for: "Poor Paddy Works On The Railway", "Paddy Doyle's Boots", "Whiskey Johnny", "Lowlands", and "Hah, Hah, rolling John" ("Blow Boys Blow"). Not only is this probably an accurate list, but the lyrics he gives are probably what were actually sung on board those clipper ships headed to California. His book is specifically about the years from 1843-1869. But it was not published until 1912, and the Preface is dated 1910, about 60 years after the days of the Gold Rush.

Here is the extended reflection on chanties:

//
The people who gathered at Battery Park to see a clipper ship get under way, came partly to hear the sailors sing their sea songs, or chanties, which were an important part of sea life in those days, giving a zest and cheeriness on shipboard, which nothing else could supply. It used to be said that a good chanty man was worth four men in a watch, and this was true, for when a crew knocked off chantying, there was something wrong—the ship seemed lifeless. These songs originated early in the nineteenth century, with the negro stevedores at Mobile and New Orleans, who sung them while screwing cotton bales into the holds of the American packet ships; this was where the packet sailors learned them. The words had a certain uncouth, fantastic meaning, evidently the product of undeveloped intelligence, but there was a wild, inspiring ring in the melodies, and, after a number of years, they became unconsciously influenced by the pungent, briny odor and surging roar and rhythm of the ocean, and howling gales at sea. Landsmen have tried in vain to imitate them; the result being no more like genuine sea songs than skimmed milk is like Jamaica rum.
//

Hmm, interesting idea that back circa 1849 people were getting into listening to sailors' chanties. Had they entered the 'public consciousness'? I wonder why it took a while, then, for them to be written about. It's difficult to say, when this book was written so many years later. However, what *is* quite notable is that circa 1910 (date of the book's Preface), someone clearly had the idea that chanties originated with cotton-screwers "early in the nineteenth century".

Here is the recreation of preparations to sail, with chanties:

//
..."Maintop there, lay down on the main-yard and light the foot of that sail over the stay." " That's well, belay starboard." " Well the mizzentopsail sheets, belay." " Now then, my bullies, lead out your topsail halliards fore and aft and masthead her." " Aye, aye, sir." By this time the mate has put some ginger into the crew and longshoremen, and they walk away with the three topsail halliards:

"Away, way, way, yar,
We'll kill Paddy Doyle for his boots." ...
//

I am not sure what they mean by "walk away" here. I imagine it is not walking away while hoisting the yard, but rather just walking away with the *slack* of the halyards. I'd appreciate any thoughts. If this is the case, then this is certainly an unfamiliar use of PADDY DOYLE. What I don't think is happening: they are not using Paddy Doyle as a halyard chanty.

Continuing...

//
"Now then, long pulls, my sons." " Here, you chantyman, haul off your boots, jump on that maindeck capstan and strike a light; the best in your locker." " Aye, aye, sir." And the three topsailyards go aloft with a ringing chanty that can be heard up in Beaver Street:

"Then up aloft that yard must go,
Whiskey for my Johnny.
Oh, whiskey is the life of man,
Whiskey, Johnny.
I thought I heard the old man say,
Whiskey for my Johnny.
We are bound away this very day,
Whiskey, Johnny.
A dollar a day is a white man's pay,
Whiskey for my Johnny.
Oh, whiskey killed my sister Sue,
Whiskey, Johnny,
And whiskey killed the old man, too,
Whiskey for my Johnny.
Whiskey's gone, what shall I do ?
Whiskey, Johnny,
Oh, whiskey's gone, and I 'll go too,
Whiskey for my Johnny."

"Belay your maintopsail halliards." " Aye, aye, sir." And so the canvas is set fore and aft, topsails, topgallantsails, royals, and skysails, flat as boards, the inner and outer jibs are run up and the sheets hauled to windward; the main- and afteryards are braced sharp to the wind, the foretopsail is laid to the mast, and the clipper looks like some great seabird ready for flight. ...
//

The WHISKEY JOHNNY verses seem slightly mixed up, but reasonably authentic nonetheless. Then...

//
The anchor is hove up to:

"I wish I was in Slewer's Hall,
Lowlands, lowlands, hurra, my boys,
A-drinking luck to the old Black Ball,
My dollar and a half a day." ...
//

Nice verse. Interestingly, I believe this is the earliest (?) claim for LOWLANDS AWAY -- in the sense it is ~attributed~ to being sung in 1849. I believe the earliest print reference was Alden's 1882 mention. And this one has the "dollar and a half a day" chorus.

Continued...

//
And while some of the hands bring the anchor to the rail with cat and fish tackle, and:
"A Yankee sloop came down the river,
Hah, hah, rolling John,

Oh, what do you think that sloop had in her?
Hah, hah, rolling John,
Monkey's hide and bullock's liver,
Hah, hah, rolling John," ...
//

Catting anchor here, using a halyard chanty form. There was some discussion about the possible relatives of this "Rolling John" in the "Sydney/SF" thread, viz. "Blow Boys Blow," "Sally Brown," and Sharp's "What's in the Pot a-boiling?"

Another idealistic description of the early 1850s come later on:

//
Then when the sun has dried out ropes and canvas, the gear is swayed up fore and aft, with watch tackles on the chain topsail sheets, and a hearty:

"Way haul away,
Haul away the bowline,
Way haul away, Haul away, Joe!" ...
//

HAUL AWAY JOE for sheets. Next is the halyard chanty REUBEN RANZO:

//
The halliards are led along the deck fore and aft in the grip of clean brawny fists with sinewy arms and broad backs behind them, the ordinary seamen and boys tailing on, and perhaps the cook, steward, carpenter, and sailmaker lending a hand, and all hands join in a ringing chorus of the ocean, mingling in harmony with the clear sky, indigo-blue waves, and the sea breeze purring aloft among the spars and rigging:

"Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo,
Oh, Ranzo was no sailor,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo.
So they shipped him aboard a whaler,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo,
And he could not do his duty,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo.
So the mate, he being a bad man,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo,
He led him to the gangway,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo,
And he gave him five-and-twenty,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo,
But the captain, he being a good man,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo,
He took him in the cabin,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo,
And he gave him wine and whiskey,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo,
And he learned him navigation,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo,
And now he's Captain Ranzo,
Ranzo boys, O Ranzo."
//

Then, for the pumps, it is the chanty Hugill titles RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN:

//
Finally the mate's clear, sharp order comes: "Belay there; clap a watch tackle on the lee fore brace." "Aye, aye, sir!" And so every sheet, halliard, and brace is swayed up and tautened to the freshening breeze. The gear is coiled up, the brasswork polished until it glistens in the morning sun, the paintwork and gratings are wiped off, decks swabbed dry, and the pumps manned to another rousing chanty:

"London town is a-burning,
Oh, run with the bullgine, run.
Way, yay, way, yay, yar,
Oh, run with the bullgine, run."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Nov 10 - 03:21 AM

And one more reference from the above:

//
We hear the mate sing out in a pleasant, cheery voice: "Now, then, boys, heave away on the windlass breaks; strike a light, it's duller than an old graveyard." And the chantyman, in an advanced stage of hilarious intoxication, gay as a skylark, sails into song:

"In eighteen hundred and forty-six,
I found myself in the hell of a fix,
A-working on the railway, the railway, the railway.
Oh, poor Paddy works on the railway.

"In eighteen hundred and forty-seven,
When Dan O'Connolly went to heaven,
He worked upon the railway, the railway, the railway.
Poor Paddy works on the railway, the railway.

"In eighteen hundred and forty-eight,
I found myself bound for the Golden Gate,
A-working on the railway, the railway.
Oh, poor Paddy works on the railway, the railway.

"In eighteen hundred and forty-nine,
I passed my time in the Black Ball Line,
A-working on the railway, the railway,
I weary on the railway,
Poor Paddy works on the railway, the railway."
//

It's PADDY ON THE RAILWAY at the brake windlass.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Nov 10 - 03:06 AM

Here's the "set list" I've compiled for the 1870s attributions. It is just based on what is in this thread, i.e. "minor" sources -- doesn't included the later, big collections that might contain material heard in the '70s.

1870s

BLACKBALL LINE (1)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (1)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (1)
BOWLINE (2)
CHEERLY (1)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (1)
GOODBYE MY LOVE (1)
HAUL AWAY JOE (3)
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (2)
HILO BOYS (1)
JOHNNY BOWKER (1)
REUBEN RANZO (2)
RIO GRANDE (1)
SHENANDOAH (2)
Walk away" (1)
WHISKEY JOHNNY (3)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Nov 10 - 03:10 AM

And here's the overall list of chanties that have turned up, up through the 1870s (again, not accounting for the material in later collections or on recordings by people who sailed in the 1870s). It is based on the sources we've dug up in this thread.

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (2)
And England's blue for ever"
Black although she be"
BLACKBALL LINE (2)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (2)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (2)
BONEY (2)
BOTTLE O (1)
BOWLINE (6)
BULLY IN ALLEY (1)
BUNCH OF ROSES (1)
Captain gone ashore!"
Cheerily she goes"
CHEERLY (12)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (1)
FIRE FIRE (2)
GOOD MORNING LADIES (1)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (2)
GOODBYE MY LOVE (1)
GROG TIME (1)
Hah, hah, rolling John" (1)
Hand ober hand, O"
HANDY MY BOYS (1)
HANGING JOHNNY (1)
HAUL AWAY JOE (5)
Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes"
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (4)
Heave her away"
Heave him up! O he yo!"
Heave round hearty!"
Heave, to the girls!"
HIGHLAND (2)
Highland day and off she goes"
HILO BOYS (3)
Ho, O, heave O"
HOOKER JOHN (1)
HUNDRED YEARS (2)
Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
Jack Cross-tree,"
John, John Crow is a dandy, O"
JOHNNY BOWKER (2)
Johnny's gone"
Land ho"
LOWLANDS AWAY (2)
Miranda Lee"
MOBILE BAY (1)
MONEY DOWN (1)
MR. STORMALONG (1)
Nancy Bell"
Nancy oh!"
O ee roll & go"
O! hurrah my hearties O!"
Oceanida"
Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne"
OH RILEY (1)
Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!"
ONE MORE DAY (1)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (2)
PADDY DOYLE (1)
PADDY LAY BACK (1)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (4)
Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
REUBEN RANZO (4)
RIO GRANDE (3)
ROUND THE CORNER (3)
RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN (1)
SACRAMENTO (1)
SAILOR FIREMAN (1)
SALLY BROWN (3)
Sally in the Alley"
SANTIANA (5)
SHENANDOAH (6)
SLAPANDER (1)
STORMALONG JOHN (1)
STORMY (7)
STORMY ALONG (1)
TALLY (2)
Time for us to go!"
TOMMY'S GONE (1)
Walk away"
WALKALONG SALLY (1)
When first we went a-waggoning"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (6)
Whisky for Johnny!"

Of these, the most cited shanties have been:

1. CHEERLY (12 times)
2. STORMY (7)
3. BOWLINE (6) / WHISKEY JOHNNY (6) / SHENANDOAH (6)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 06 Nov 10 - 08:22 AM

Lots of good work, Gibb. Do we stop here or do we try to figure out how we got from here to the "later collections"? There seem to be some interesting discontinuities, but I'm not sure how to lay them out. You've done an excellent job pointing out on numerous occasions some of the probable "continuities" where someone has "borrowed" from someone else. But is it my reading or something else that a significant number of the chanties that we have found so far don't show up in the "later collections"? And almost all of a sudden "new" ones (albeit somewhat more familiar to us at times) start showing up.   What happened?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 08 Nov 10 - 01:06 PM

Hi John,

I have been wondering the same. Perhaps the only really "safe" way to do a literary survey is to go chronologically by date of publication...and yet my own interest is in something other than a history of *writings on* chanties, so the attempt has been to follow the chanties, themselves, chronologically. Considerably less certain, but up until the 1870s I don't think it was so bad. There weren't *too many* instances of the publication date being far later than the time described. And even those later publication dates might be said to have been in the "not yet too contaminated" era which is worth something.

As I said, 1870s got more tough. And I felt unsure, for example, about using THE CLIPPER SHIP SHEILA, 1912, to get statements reported to be about 1849. I'm a little worried I've mixed in bad data with good. Having included it speaks to the multiple purposes I have in mind. One of those is simply recording and extracting info from the texts that are not focused on chanties.

Even though the chronological (by date of publication) survey is not my main goal (it is certainly of interest to me, and it's sort of hovering in the back of my head at the same time)...nonetheless I think the best method at this point would be to stay grounded by following that technique. I am going to continue looking for and discussing references published in the earliest times possible -- now that basically means 1880s. I'll deal with, say, Whall's chanties (possibly all learned in 1860s-70s) once we get to the 1910s, and retroactively add them to the various lists.

I expect to go at least into the 1910s before stopping; I have lots of bookmarks up through then!

In the end, the data will still all be there, to be rearranged however one wants to. But I think if we move along this way -- keeping the date of attribution as close as possible to the date of 'publication' (/recording) -- then it will remain most coherent.

Gibb

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Nov 10 - 06:35 AM

I've been able to see a copy of NEGRO SINGER'S OWN BOOK. I had to get it on an interlibrary loan, and even then it was just on microfilm.

It's a songster without any author given. In fact, the introduction is written in eye-dialect or minstrel language, and signed by "Ole Hardtimes." However, WorldCat attributes it to "Henry B Anthony". Neither is any date given, but WorldCat says "no earlier than 1843." That seems to be based on the fact that it purports to contain "every Negro song that has ever been sung or printed," and yet it is limited to earlier tunes. It's long--448 pp. No organization scheme that I noticed. Many songs are repeated several times, here and there. Seems like a third of them are set to the tune of "Dan Tucker." No music notation, but in a majority of cases a familiar tune is referenced.

There are several interesting examples in it that could point to the origin of certain chanties. I am curious to know what influenced a songster like this might have had on chanties. My assumption is that chanties inspired by minstrel songs would have developed from hearing the songs in live performances. However, the discussion above, that a whaleman jotted down in his journal some songs from this one, makes me wonder if written texts were any contributing factor?

Anyway, the discussion above, which led me to look for this book, was about GROG TIME in the Fanny Elssler context.
In NEGRO SINGER'S it appears as 3 verses (6 lines), pg. 337:

//
FANNY ELSSLER LEAVING N. ORLEANS

Fanny, is you gwyne up de riber,
       Grog time o' day;
When all dese here's got Elslur feber?
       Oh, hoist away.
De Lord knows what we'll do widout you,
       Grog time o' day;
De toe an' heel won't dance widout you.
       Oh, hoist away.
Dey say you dances like a fedder
       Grog time o' day;
Wid tree tousand dollars all togedder.
       Oh, hoist away!
//

Absolutely nothing else is given. Most of the songs in the book are attributed to a performing minstrel artist or group, if not the composer, too. That this has no such notes suggests (to me) that it was not only a "real" worksong but that also it was not (yet, at least) co-opted as a stage song. I imagine it must have been taken from, say, a newspaper report, and included in the interest of making the "ultimate collection of negro songs EVER, dude!!"

Stuart Frank may then have gotten his idea of it as a cargo loading song, etc, from THE ART OF BALLET. A peak at his bibliography would confirm this, unless he does it as a "Works Cited" format.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Nov 10 - 06:53 AM

...also lots of dwelling on "bullgines" and General Taylor all over the place in this collection.

Subject: Lyr Add: A DARKEY BAND AND A DARKEY CREW
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Nov 10 - 07:33 AM

NEGRO SINGER'S OWN BOOK has a song that appears to be related to a chanty. On pg. 180, it's:

A DARKEY BAND AND A DARKEY CREW.

Tune -- "Yankee Ship."

A darkey band and a darkey crew,
    Tally ya ha higho!
Are out in de West care killers so true,
    Ya ha! ha! an' higho!
We spread our sail to de talkin' breeze,
    An' we pull away de oar,
An' den wid some whiskey, bread an' chew,
    Our songs de ribber out roar.

    A darkey band and a darkey crew,
          Tally ya ha! higho!
    Are out in de West, care killers true,
          Ya ha! ha! an higho!

A darkey band and a darkey crew,
    Tally ya ha higho!
Can see when de sky am black an' blue,
    Ya ha! ha! an' higho!
We travel up and down de stream,
    Wid our hog an' our coon skin store
An' we nebber put on de steam,
    Till we get on de shore

    A darkey band and a darkey crew,
          Tally ya ha! higho!
    Are out in de West, care killers true,
          Ya ha! ha! an higho!
//

I suppose this fits TALLY I O, no? It could also work, to some extent with "Blow Boys Blow". We already have attestations of TALLY from the 1830s-40s, so this would be consistent with that.

What is notable is the reference tune "Yankee Ship." One assumes it would have to be familiar enough already to be referenced as such. And we can guess that "Yankee Ship" was a chanty. Perhaps it began w/ the stock line (i.e. which is being parodied here), "A Yankee ship and a yankee crew..." Or was this *not* a parody? This song itself makes reference to riverboat travel, and also to rowing.

Even though this is a popular song given without context, I think there is enough to say that it provides evidence of some sort of chanty being widespread then. I can tentatively speculate that that chanty was "Tally I O."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Nov 10 - 08:10 AM

Very interesting, Gibb! Surely the form, at least, of "Fanny Elssler" preserves that of the "Grog Time of Day" shanty. (Or have we already established that? I forget.) The "hoist away" chorus shows that the minstrel at least had a work song in mind. Too bad there's no tune.

The song reminds me in vague ways (scansion and sentiment) of both "Blow Boys Blow" and "Shallow, Shallow Brown." But that may not mean anything.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 11 Nov 10 - 08:28 AM

Frank does not reference ART OF BALLET as far as I have been able to discover. At least he does not seem to mention it in JOLLY SAILORS BOLD. He does refer us back to his unpublished Ph.D. dissertation at Brown University (1985) "Ballads and Songs of the Whale-Hunters, 1825-1895; from Manuscripts in the Kendall whaling Museum". There may be a bibliographical reference in this earlier work, but I obviously don't have access to that.

Thanks for "A Darkey Band and a Darkey Crew", Gibb. It sounds like a working song. I am also intrigued by your suggestion that the "Fanny" song may have started out as an actual working song and then been taken up in a collection of "Negro" songs, and ended up on a whale man's list of songs.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Nov 10 - 08:34 AM

And here's "A Yankee Ship and a Yankee Crew" from 1840 -- it's Tally I O!. Gotta wait till later to dissect it, but enjoy!

http://books.google.com/books?id=9IwvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA34&dq=%22yankee+ship+and+a+ya

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Nov 10 - 02:09 AM

Whoops -- so I guess some of you guys already discussed the "A Yankee Ship and a Yankee Crew" song when talking about Dana's shanties. It doesn't seem like a chanty to me but I think it can reasonably be conjectured that it is related to the Tally I O szanty. I am at a loss, however, to say whether the "real" Tally chantey may have influenced it, or if the shanty was based in the song.

I am going to leave it aside for the purpose of this thread, because I don't think there is sufficient grounds to call it an attestation of chanteying happening. And because the "Darkey Crew" seems just a parody of the popular song, for the time being I am going to leave it out of things, too.

re: Fanny Elssler/Grog Time

My hypothetical scenario of the sich is as follows. "Grog Time of Day" was a chanty in use since at least the 1810s. In the early 1840s, the dockworkers in NOLA indeed sang something of that form when Fanny was leaving. An observer wrote a news article about it, including reconstructed lyrics. The author of NEGRO'S OWN used that recent news article as one of his sources in compiling his songster. Later, the author of ART OF BALLET used the hypothetical news article as a source for his historical account.

Whatever the details, I think there is enough to safely assume that *some* version of "Grog Time" was observed in the early '40s in NOLA.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 05:39 AM

Well now. Here's a song that's quite a lot like "Blow, Boys, Blow".

NEGRO SINGER'S OWN BOOK, pp239:

//
ORIGINAL OLE TAR RIVER

Banjo and ance accompaniments.
Sung by the Virginia Minstrels.

Its way down in ole Carolinar,
    Oh, ah, oh, ah
'Twar on de bank ob ole Tar riber,
    Dah, da, tiddle dum de da.

'Tis dar I met Aramintah Glober
She wanted me but I choose anudder.

Jim Carron katch a turkey buzzard
Black Betsy charmed dis nigger's gizzard

Her figure set dis heart a trotting
Her shabe war like a bale ob cotting

I ride upon de rolling riber
Wid a sail made ob a waggon kiver

Ole fat Sam died ob de decline
An dey dried him for a bacon sign

Is dere any one here loves massa Jackson
Yes I's de nigga loves General Jackson

He had a wife and a big plantation
De odder one in de choctaw nation

He thrashed the red coats at Orleans
He gib Packenham all sorts of beans

He is growing old, and will hab to leab us
His going will make a nation griebous

Along come a nigger wid a long tail coat
He wanted to borrow a tend dollar note
Says I go away, nigger, I ain't got a red cent
//

If the Virginia Minstrels sang this -- perhaps circa 1843 -- would they still be that obsessed w/ Andrew Jackson enough to make a new song? Or could we guess that they were performing a much older song? Jackson died in 1845, so it was created before then. And the line about "he's going to leave us" makes perfect sense for 1843-ish. But still I wonder if the subject matter wasn't original developed back just after the War of 1812. Notably, no composer is credited.

It does have the form of a halyard chantey/ rowing song, but there's no way to tell if that's what it originally was.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 07:31 AM

In Longman's Magazine Vol 12 (June 1888) there is an article "Old Naval Songs." The author, W. Clark Russell, sees fit to bring in chanties, although he familiarity with them is questionable. Several that he mentions are clearly pulled from Dana's TWO YEARS, but he passes of the titles as if they were songs that were part of his experience.

//
THERE are two kinds of sea-songs: those which are sung at concerts and in drawing-rooms, and sometimes, but not very often, at sea, and those which are never heard off shipboard. The latter have obtained in this age the name of ' chanty,' a term which I do not recollect ever having heard when I was following the life. It is obviously manufactured out of the French verb, and there is a 'longshore twang about it which cannot but sound disagreeably to the elderly nautical ear.
//

Hmm. Never heard the term 'chanty'? Possible. When did he sail?

//
This sort of song is designed to lighten and assist the sailor's toil. It is an air that enables a number of men pulling upon a rope to regulate their combined exertions. It is also a song for sailors to sing as they tramp round a capstan and heave upon a windlass. Of the melodies of many of them it is difficult to trace the paternity. Some are so engaging that they might well be regarded as the compositions of musicians of genius, who wrote them with little suspicion of the final uses to which they would be put. Why their destination, having been sung perhaps at the harpsichord and the guitar by ladies and gentlemen, should be the forecastle; why, being appropriated by the sailor they should be so peculiarly his, that no one else ever dreams of singing them, there is no use in attempting to guess.
//

Forecastle? He's talking about chanties, right?

//
The reader will not require me to tell him that the marine working songs are to be heard only in the Merchant Service. In a ship of war the uproar caused by the hoarse bawling of half-a-dozen gangs of men scattered about the decks would be intolerable, nor could the working song be of service to the blue-jackets, who are quite numerous enough to manage without it. It was always so, indeed ; a frigate getting under way would flash into canvas in a breath ; sails were sheeted home, yards hoisted, jibs and staysails run up, and the anchor tripped, as though the complicated mechanism were influenced by a single controlling power producing simultaneously a hundred different effects. There were men enough to do everything, and all at once ; but the ship's company of the merchantman were always too few for her. A mercantile sailor is expected to do the work of two, and, at a pinch, of three and even four. When one job is done he has to spring to another. There are 'stations' indeed in such manoeuvres as tacking or wearing; but when, for instance, it comes to shortening sail in a hurry, or when the necessity arises for a sudden call for all hands, the merchant sailor lays hold of the first rope it is necessary to drag on, and when he has ' belayed' it, he is expected to fling himself upon the next rope that has to be pulled. Here we have the secret of the usefulness of the working song. Let the words be what they will, the melody animates the seaman with spirit and he pulls with a will; it helps him to keep time too, so that not so much as an ounce of the united weight of the hauling and bawling fellows misses of its use on the tackle they drag at. I have known seamen at work on some job that required a deal of heavy and sustained pulling, to labour as if all heart had gone out of them whilst one of the gang tried song after song ; the mate meanwhile standing by and encouraging them with the familiar official rhetoric; till on a sudden an air has been struck up that acted as if by magic. The men not only found their own strength, every fellow became as good as two. This, I believe, will be the experience of most merchant sailors.
//

OK, so more confirmation of the lack of chanties in navy ships, and the reasons why.

Next, types of chanties:

//
There are tunes to fit every kind of work on board ship; short cheerful melodies for jobs soon accomplished, over which a captain would not allow time to be wasted in singing (for I am bound to say that the disposition of a sailor is to make a very great deal of singing go to the smallest possible amount of pulling), such as hauling out a bowline, mastheading one of the lighter yards, or boarding a tack. Other working choruses, again, are as long as a ship's cable. These are sung at the capstan or at the windlass, when the intervals between the starting of the solo and the coming in of the chorus do not hinder the work an instant.
//

Next he states he could not fins mention of chanties in older British accounts, concluding they may be American in origin:

//
It would be interesting to know when and by whom the working song was first introduced into the British Merchant Service. In old books of voyages no reference whatever is made to it. There is not a sentence in the collections from Hakluyt down to Burney to indicate that when the early sailors pushed at handspikes or dragged upon the rigging they animated their labours with songs and choruses. I have some acquaintance with the volumes of Shelvocke, Funnell, and other marine writers of the last century, but though many of them, such as Ringrose, Dumpier, Cooke, Snelgrave, and particularly Woodes Rogers, enter very closely into the details of the shipboard work of their time, they are to a man silent on this question of singing. It is for this reason that I would attribute the origin of the practice to the Americans.
//

//
If most of the forecastle melodies still current at sea be not the composition of Yankees, the words, at all events, are sufficiently tinctured by American sentiment to render my conjecture plausible. The titles of many of these working songs have a strong flavour of Boston and New York about them. 'Across the Western Ocean'; 'The Plains of Mexico'; 'Run, let the Bulljine, run !' 'Bound to the Rio Grande '; these and many more which I cannot immediately recollect betray to my mind a transatlantic inspiration. 'Heave to the Girls'; 'Cheerly, Men'; 'A dandy ship and a dandy crew'; 'Tally hi ho! You know'; ' Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies'; and scores more of a like kind, all of them working songs never to be heard off the decks of a ship, are racy in air and words of the soil of the States.
//

'Heave to the Girls', 'Tally hi ho! You know', 'Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies'
'Cheerly, Men', 'A dandy ship and a dandy crew' -- clearly come from Dana.

'Bound to the Rio Grande' could be his observation. But that exact wording appeared also in Chambers's Journal, 1869.

'Across the Western Ocean' - This exact phrase has not turned up yet in this thread.

'The Plains of Mexico' -- was there prior.

'Run, let the Bulljine, run!' -- I'm seeing this for the first time.


Then he moves onto sea songs, emphasizing the improvised, incidental, and 'doggerel' nature of chanty verses:

//
The other kind of songs—the songs of Charles and Thomas Dibdin, Shield, Arnold, Arne, Boyce, &c., are of a very different order. The working song is often at best but little more than unintelligible doggerel. It is the sailor's trick to improvise as he goes along, and rhyme and reason are entirely subordinate to the obligation of shouting out something. But the sea-song, as landsmen understand the term, is accepted as a composition of meaning and even of poetry...
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 10:10 AM

Though born in NYC, W. Clark Russell (1844-1911) was a very popular and respected English writer of sea stories. His father, Henry Russell, was the composer of the parlor song, "A LIfe on the Ocean Wave." The younger Russell was born in NYC, but both parents were English and he sailed on British ships, making his first voyage as a midshipman in 1857. He left the sea in 1865.

So I believe him when he says he can't recall hearing the word "chanty/shanty" used at sea. Remember that except for Nordhoff's (American) testimony from the 1840s, the word doesn't appear in print till 1868, after Russell had swallowed the anchor. As Nordhoff connects the word with the cotton-stowers of New Orleans, it may not have become generally applied to shipboard songs, even in the Gulf and the Caribbean, till during or just after the Civil War. Russell's observation should be taken seriously.

Neither Whall nor Robinson, who served at sea in Russell's time, insist that they'd heard the songs actually *called* shanties by the mid '60s. Even if they had, that doesn't mean that the word was universally known, as it apparently was by the '70s. (Without the broadcast media, new words didn't become entrenched as quickly then as now; even Davis & Tozier in 1888 thought they needed to put the word in quotes.)

When Russell wrote "in the forecastle," he meant, like many writers, "among deckhands," and not literally in the forecastle.

Russell's opinion that shantying arose in American ships looks more and more likely all the time.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 04:44 PM

Great info!

This testimony of Russell, coupled with his details, is thought provoking.

I too believe Russell when he says he didn't hear the word "chanty". But I am not sure what exactly that means for us.

Should we take it as some evidence that the word really was not common at sea ca. 1857-1865? Sure, that's possible. But though I am on board with the idea that the word didnt become common until relatively late (vagueness intended), it seems unlikely to me that it would go *this* late. If the first print mentions of chanty/shanty are 1867/1868, one could equally argue that terms are around awhile (e.g. at sea) before they get into print.

Or should we take it that 'chanty' was simply not in Russell's *personal* experience. Was he only in Navy ships? If so, that might explain why, if it was common, he did not come across it. Perhaps he heard sailors singing chanties but was not involved in them much.

It could also be that he sailed in British vessels and at that time 'chanty' was not there. This would inadvertently (?) help to prove his point about chanties originating in America. I think it was Steve Gardham who was investigating a while back the date at which shanties became prevalent in British ships.

It would be interesting to know how it is that now (i.e. 1880s -- he has earlier works with similar material) he knows the word 'chanty.' What has he been reading or hearing? (FWIW, the prominent 1868 and 1869 articles use the "shanty" spelling.) Has he since been observing sailors' speech? Or is his knowledge based in his reading?

I am not convinced (yet) that Russell knew much about chanteying from first hand experience, despite his nautical credentials in some areas. I prefer to read this for what it says (doesn't say?) *about* knowledge of chanteying.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 05:04 PM

Here's more from W. C. Russell. SAILOR'S LANGUAGE (London, 1883)

//
...I quote these verses at length, as a fair sample of the sort of " growling " Jack puts into his songs. Unfortunately he is somewhat limited in melodies. Some of them are very plaintive, such as "The Plains of Mexico " and "Across the Western Ocean," and others have a merry, light-hearted go, such as "Run, let the bulljine run!" "Whisky, Johnny!" "Time for us to go," " I served my time in the Blackwall Line."
//

He cites SANTIANA, ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN, RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN, WHISKEY JOHNNY, "Time for us to go", BLACKBALL LINE.

That's the earliest mention I've seen in print so far of "Run Let the Bulljine Run," suggesting it may be a unique addition. But then "Time for us to go" is one of those "lost" chanties of Dana. If he knows his chanties, why does he have to throw in Dana's titles?

In the continuation of the passage, he uses the term 'chantey'. Had that spelling turned up yet?

//
But the lack of variety is no obstruction to the sailor's
poetical inspiration when he wants the " old man" to know
his private opinions without expressing them to his face, and
so the same "chantey," as the windlass or halliard chorus is
called, furnishes the music to as many various indignant
remonstrances as Jack can find injuries to sing about.
//


Finally, he quotes the Salt Horse rhyme:

//
The provisions have for years been a sore subject with the sailor.
His beef and pork have earned more abuse from him than any
other thing he goes to sea with. " What's for dinner to-day,
Bill ? " I remember hearing a sailor ask another. " Measles,"
was the answer, that being the man's name for the pork aboard
his vessel. " Old horse," is the sailor's term for his salt beef;
and some old rhymes perhaps explain the reason :—

"Between the main-mast and the pumps
There stands a cask of Irish junks;
And if you won't believe it true,
Look, and you'll see the hoof and shoe.
Salt horse, salt horse, what brought you here,
After carrying turf for so many a year,
From Bantry Bay to Ballyack,
Where you fell down and broke your back ?
With kicks, and thumps, and sore abuse,
You're salted down for sailor's use.
They eat your flesh and pick your bones,
Then throw you over to Davy Jones."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 05:09 PM

Russell has a story in Longman's Magazine Vol. 3 (Nov. 1883), called "Jack's Courtship."

//
Miss Hawke then somewhat bashfully asked if I would sing. (What! before ladies, thought I. Never!) I told her that my knowledge of music did not enable me to reach to anything higher than a windlass chorus.

'Then give us one of the old chanteys,' exclaimed my uncle. "Haul the Bowline," or "Whiskey, Johnny," or " Run, let the Bulljine run." Why, the mere sound of those old songs takes me back forty years, and I seem to be standing in the lee scuppers up to my neck, or holding on with my eyelids as I try to roll up the foreroyal single-handed.'
//

He adds BOWLINE to his repertoire. Still "chantey". Must have changed it to "chanty" later on.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 05:18 PM

Russell's 1888 collection THE MYSTERY OF THE 'OCEAN STAR' has a version of his "Old Naval Songs" article above-- presumable collected in this volume. It's called "The Old Naval Sea-song." The chanty-related passage is the same. The preface is dated July 1888.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 05:52 PM

Russell again discusses sailor's songs in his THE ROMANCE OF JENNY HARLOWE (1889). This time, however, he is more opinionated.

//
In fact, there are two distinct sorts of sailors' songs, compositions of which only a very few indeed are sung by sailors, and compositions which nobody but sailors ever dream of singing. These last are well worthy of brief consideration. Some reckless modern has hurled the execrable term "chanty" at them, and the word, I am sorry to say, has stuck. I suppose the etymology of it must be sought in the French verb chanter. The "chanty," as it is now the custom to call it—pronounced "shanty," I believe, but I am very unwilling to have anything to do with it—is the modern generic appellation of the mariner's working song or chorus. It may be presumed that there is no landsman who needs to be told that when sailors heave upon a windlass, or wind round a capstan, or haul upon ropes, one of them will break into a song, which the rest at regular intervals pick up in a rousing chorus. These are Jack's working songs, and they are to be heard only on board ship.
//

Ouch! OK then, he really never heard 'chanty'! Still again -- I wonder where he first heard it. Has it been 'hurled' at sailors or landsmen by these 'moderns'?

//
The words of these compositions might make the exclusiveness intelligible were it not that some of the melodies are so pretty, so plaintive, so catching, so full of the salt aromas of the deep, as to make one wonder that they should not long ago have found their way ashore, fitted to words more proper for the drawing-room and the concert hall, than Jack's rhymes to them. Such airs as "Across the Western Ocean," "The Plains of Mexico," "Yon rolling River," "Blow, Boys, Blow," and a few others—not many, I admit—harmonized by an able musician, and associated with good poetry, should scarcely fail, I think, to captivate the shore-going ear, and hold to it with scarcely less tenacity than may be witnessed in its adherence to maritime memory and sympathy.
//

He has added SHENANDOAH and BLOW BOYS BLOW to his list.

I wonder if he read Adam's ROCKET of 1879. Lots of similarities in their expositions.

More on American origin of shanties:

//
I think it may be taken that we owe the sailors' working song as we now possess it to the Americans. How far do these songs date back ? I doubt if the most ancient amongst them is much older than the century. It is noteworthy that the old voyagers do not hint at the sailors singing out or encouraging their efforts by choruses when at work. In the navy, of course, this sort of song was never permitted. Work proceeded to the strains of a fiddle, to the piping of the boatswain and his mates, or in earlier times yet, to the trumpet. The working song then is peculiar to the Merchant Service, but one may hunt through the old chronicles without encountering a suggestion of its existence prior ot American independence and to the establishment of a Yankee marine. It is at least certain that the flavour of many of these songs is distinctly Transatlantic. The melodies it might be impossible to trace. Just as " Yankee Doodle " is an old English air Americanized by the inspirations of the Yankee poet, so there may be many an old tune that owed its existence to British brains appropriated by the Boston and New York lyrists, and fitted to words so racy of the soil as to render the whole production as entirely Yankee to the fancy as are the stripes and stars or the cotton white canvas of the ships of the States.
//

Attesting that despite steam, chanteys are still current:

//
But the working chorus takes a distinctive character when you think of it in reference to the small crew of a merchantman. Captains and mates so well understand the heartening influence of the song upon the sailor's toil, that half the official rhetoric of the forecastle and the quarter-deck is formed of entreaties to tbe men to sing out; to " Sing and make a noise, boys ! " To " Heave and pawl! " To " Heave and raise the dead ! " To " Sing to it, lads; sing to it!" A new song will sometimes be as good as a couple of new men to a ship's forecastle; hence in the merchant service sailors' songs, in the strict sense of the expression, are of incalculable value. To be sure in these days steam and patent machinery have diminished something of the obligation of these chants. A donkey engine does its work without a chorus; it needs not a fiddler to set a steam capstan revolving. But the manual windlass is still plentiful, the capstan bar of our forefathers is not yet out of date, though the single topsail is halved there is yet the upper yard to masthead; and these, with a hundred other jobs to be done aboard a sailing ship, keep the sailors' sea-song actively current.
//

Next he quotes from THE QUID (1832):

//
An old sailor recalls with a sigh the heaving of the capstan of his day. " It is one of the many soul-stirring scenes," he says, " that occur on board when all hands are turned up ; the motley group that man the bars, the fiddler stuck in a corner, the captain on the poop, encouraging the men to those desperate efforts that seem to the novice an attempt at pulling up the rocks by the root. It is a time of equality; idlers, stewards and servants, barbers and sweepers, cooks and cooks' mates, doctors' mates and loblolly boys; every man runs the same road, and hard and impenetrable is that soul that does not chime in with the old ditties, 'Pull away now, my Nancy O!' and the long ' Oh !' that precedes the more musical strain of—
" ' Oh, her love is a sailor,
His name is Jemmy Taylor;
He's gone in a whaler
To Hie Greenland Sea.'

" Or—
" Oh! if I had her,
Eh, then, if I had her,
Oh ! how I could love her,
Black although she be!'"
//

On improvisation, variability:

//
The sailor's trick of improvising furnishes a very varied character to his working songs. A man having exhausted all the rhymes he knows, with a good deal of pulling and hauling still remaining, will often venture upon a doggerel of his own instead of repeating what he has already said. "Words of certain songs have indeed a permanency, but I doubt if it would be possible to express the peculiar nature of the sailors' working songs, by printing the verses which are supposed to accompany the airs. Words are varied again and again; line after line is made up on the instant; the reader may reject with confidence any collection that is offered to him as samples of the poetry which Jack roars out when he heaves or drags. In truth, but a very little of the real thing would bear the light of day.
//

Lastly, he claims to be very familiar with shanties first hand. OK, I'll buy it. Funny thay he never prints any verses though.

//
I remember a lady writing to ask me to assist her in forming a collection of the sailors' working songs, and I could not help thinking that if by Jack's songs she meant the "chanties," as they are now called, she would be starting on a quest which I might expect to hear in a very little time she had relinquished with a hot face and a shocked heart. No, the mariner is not very choice in his language. His working ditties are a little too strong for print, on the whole. The few examples I have seen in type are Bowdlerized out of knowledge. He may have reformed in this matter of late years; he may sing nothing to-day that is not virginal in purity; but in my time—and it is not so very long ago either—his working choruses reeking with forecastle fancies, were as full of the unrepeatable and the unprintable as his biscuit was of weevils. In sea stories, however, the sailors' working song is seldom or never given. Dana will speak of the crew having struck up such and such an air—"Cheerily, Men," or "Heave to the Girls," or "Tally hi ho, you know," but he confines his reference to the titles.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 07:33 PM

The 1889 passages are especially interesting. I'd almost bet that the lady who asked Russell's assistance was L. A. Smith, ca1883.

The reference to Dana makes it pretty clear that he knows those shanties by title only. I'm not surprised that he offers no words.
He obviously doesn't think much of them, and he may not remember them very clearly. He hadn't been at sea for nearly 25 years, and as far as we know he was never a shantyman himself; so the words he'd memorized would have mostly been the choruses. It is also possible that

1. the shantymen he'd known were so vulgar (by Victorian standards) that he'd have felt uncomfortable quoting anything they sang. A serious Victorian frowned on any reference to getting drunk or disorderly, any use of the word "damn" or "bloody," any suggestion of hanky-panky, and perhaps even on a song like "Sally Brown," in praise of a mulatto woman. Minstrel-type lyrics were simply foolishness (Whall pretty much says that's how he felt.) "Uplift" was the watchword.

2. the shantymen he'd known extemporized so freely and unpoetically that the words were just too dull to quote

3. he knew that the inoffensive stanzas floated so freely from song to song that he didn't feel they belonged to any one shanty and so would not be "representative" of any particular song

4. Russell's editor thought that it would be a waste of space to quote doggerel, particularly since the books of L. A. Smith and Davis & Tozier were now available.

Altogether, I don't see anything disingenuous about Russell's failure to quote lyrics, though of course it's disappointing. My guess is that he didn't pay much attention to the shanties in the first place except for the melodies. I'll also guess that the shanties he mentions (except probably those mentioned by Dana) were the most widely sung in his experience.

The "reckless modern" had "hurled" the name not at the sailors or the landsmen but at the songs themselves. "Them" must refer to "these last," which refers to the songs.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 08:56 PM

The "reckless modern" had "hurled" the name not at the sailors or the landsmen but at the songs themselves. "Them" must refer to "these last," which refers to the songs.

Grammatically, sure. But the question I am getting at is who was using the word 'chanty,' and what exactly is he alleging? Did the agent who introduced the word (i.e. in his imagination of it) come from among sailors or from among literateurs? Were sailors using a word that had become trendy among outsiders and then put into their vocabulary? Or does he believe sailors began using the word natively among themselves? If the latter, why so much disdain for the sailors' own language? What could he possibly think was their motivation to adopt the term or for someone among them to introduce it?

I am mainly using Russell as a foil here. His statements remind me of the yet unanswered issue of how/why/when the term 'chanty' came about -- the answer to which, of course, would help show from who/where they came.

The cotton-stowers and stevedores in many ports had the term "chantyman' or 'chanty" with them. There is a notable association with African-Americans, but it is not necessarilly the case that most were. Use of chanties (by whatever name) seems to have become common on ships (qualified by nationality, geography) by the Gold Rush. Assuming there is at least some significant relationship between the African-Americans' worksong practice and later shipboard practices...Did the term 'chanty' not come with the songs? Was it that the songs mostly came, and that only some 'deep' in-the-know would refer to them as 'chanty'? And if, for some time, the practice of these songs went on without most people calling them chanties, when/why did the term finally gain prominence? What would it come to prominence so long *after* the adoption of the practice?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 11:52 PM

One last (?) statement by WC Russell comes in an essay called "A Claim for American Literature" in THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, Feb. 1892.

It shows his high regard for Dana.

He puts his American origins of chanties idea down in an even more positive fashion than previously.

//
However, I will not here assert that the Americans have taught us any particular lesson in the direction of forecastle fare. They invented the double topsail yards ; they invented the "chanty," the inspiring choruses of the windlass and the capstan, such hurricane airs as "Across the Western Ocean," " Run, Let the Bulljine Run!" " Shanadoah," " Old Stormy," " Bully in the Alley," " Cheerily, Men !" and scores besides ; they were the first to lighten the sailor's labor by bidding him lift up his voice when he hove or shoved ; they-imported into their commercial marine fifty useful time- and labor-saving ingenuities, all which we on our side, blind with the scaly salt of centimes of dogged seagoing, were very slow to see, to apprehend, and to apply. But the imaginations, the inventions, of the American nautical mind seemed to have come to a stand at the Sign of the Harness Cask.
//

He adds "Old Stormy" -- which I will attempt to class under the keyword I've been using, WALK HIM ALONG -- and "Bully in the Alley" to his named shanties.

The title "Old Stormy" appeared as such in Nordhoff but nowhere else that I can see. BULLY IN ALLEY occurred only once so far, in a book by Mulford in 1889. Russell doesn't mention that title in his writings prior to 1889 but now he adds it to his list. Whereas one could argue that Rio Grande and Bowline and Whiskey Johnny were commonly known, Bully in the Alley being mentioned here raises my eyebrow. It is entirely possible that he mentions it independently but... there still remains an issue for my purposes at least. Which is that if this is an independent mention then I want to record it as such, while if Russell is for some reason just mentioning previously-mentioned songs (regardless of his own experiences) then it messes with my data....damnit!

In any case, these Russell examples are great because they show an Englishman, at the cap (?) of the shanty era stating his belief that szanties were American creations...which we can then compare to the growing belief in the 20th century that shanteys were essentially British.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 01:00 AM

This reference comes via Q, who posted it 28 Jun 09 on the "Rare Caribbean" thread.I am taking the liberty of copy-pasting it because it has all the information.

Robert C. Leslie, in "Old Sea Wings, Ways and Words in the Days of Oak and Hemp," , London, 1890, Chapman and Hall Ltd., describes the sailing of an American Black X ship from St. Katherine's Docks, bound for New York, p. 233: "Yankee seamen (almost an extinct race now) were then noted for their capstan chants, and the chorus of "Good Morning, Ladies All," swells quaintly up at intervals above the other sounds."" [Leslie was speaking of the 1880s]

So, GOOD MORNING LADIES, which was also mentioned as a capstan chantey in 1868 ONCE A WEEK article.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 01:49 AM

In another work of historical fiction, Elijah Kellogg sets a scene of Black men at work in Portland (ME) using chanties. Like in his other works, the shanties (at least in my opinion) look like they were based in some existing songs. The book is A STRONG ARM AND A MOTHER'S BLESSING, published 1881.

Stevedores are unloading casks of molasses (by means of hoisting with rope) to make way for lumber. We are expecting either a halyard-like action or else a hand-over-hand.

//
Shepard, a tall, intelligent-looking mulatto, covered with molasses from head to foot, took his place at the hatchway, and the stevedore cried :

"Come, Bob Craig, call de mourners, strike de music, short song, my bullies, short song; we've lost much time dis mornin', and de brig must be discharged to-night."

Thus exhorted, Craig, a very tall, sinewy negro, black as night, opened a mouth so capacious that it resembled an old-fashioned fall-back chaise, but the voice that issued from this cavern, though of tremendous volume, was sweet and well modulated. The words were silly enough, but the time was perfect, — and this accomplishes the object of the song, which is to cause every man to lay out his strength at the same instant; it also excites the negro to such a degree that while singing he is scarcely conscious of fatigue. Craig, obeying the command of the stevedore, proceeded to "call de mourners," standing on a plank placed across the hatchway that elevated his tall form far above the rest.

"Born in a frying-pan, raised on a shovel,
Tidee-i-dee ah, tidee-i-dee ah ;
Way down south among de corn and de cotton,
Tidee-i-dee ah, tidee-i-dee ah,
Dere I growed to be such a coal-black darky,
   Tidee-i-dee ah, tidee-i-dee ah."

The other blacks giving the chorus.
//

I can't place it. Thought about "Tiddy High O," but it doesnt fit Hugill's version.

//
Under the stimulus of this quick time six casks came up in a hurry, when Craig struck up :

"Gen'ral Jackson's a fightin'-man,
    Fire, my ringo, fire away;
He opened his forts, fired away,
    Fire, my ringo, fire away."
//

MARINGO!

The following exchange underscores the idea of the chantyman as a singer who doesnt work. In his ARK OF ELM ISLAND (1869), Kellogg also refers, as if to an actual event, to this "Old Craig" singing while hoisting molasses from the brig WILLIAM in Portland. Is he reusing his ideas here? It's not unreasonable to think that Kellogg did see something like this "many years" before 1869, however we can't place the shanties.

//
"Dat's fust-rate song," cried the stevedore, delighted. He then said to Arthur:

"Dat big man what gives de song — dat's Bob Craig; no man like him eber I see ; I give him most wages. I've knowed Massa Jake Knights give hitn nine shillings a day, 'cause he 'fraid somebody else hire him, and Craig neber touch his hand to de rope, but stand at de rail, and sing, and beat de time with two belayin' pins."

"I don't see why he paid him for singing if he didn't work."

"Paid him 'cause he made de rest work — paid for de sing; black man no like a white man, song stir him all up ; no song, he lazy, no do nothin'; give him good song, den he throw himself."
//

And one more song:

//
One of the negroes now cried :
" Dis song too quick, Jack Groves; men no get dere breath ; must have longer song."
" Stick to it, bullies; three more casks, den have longer song."
After hoisting three more casks, Craig began another ditty.

"My name is Johnny-jump-round,
And every person knock down,
Ho, ho, Highland a'!
Round de corner Sally,

My breast is made of steel-plate,
My arms are made of crowbars,
Ho, ho, etc.

And if you don't believe me,
I'll give you leave to try me,
   Ho, ho, etc."

[line breaks are mine]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 02:02 AM

And here's more from Kellogg.

//
The importance of the negro stevedores and seamen gradually diminished with the decay of the West India trade. But the first severe blow was inflicted in 1833, when the brig Oscar, belonging to Jacob Knight, a prominent West India merchant, came into Boston with a cargo of molasses. Mr. Knight took his blacks and went to Boston to discharge the vessel, and bring her back to Portland. He took a large crew of the smartest negroes, first-rate hoisters and singers, with the tackles and other gear, and Robert Craig for leading singer, with the two Shapleigh's, Isaiah Thomas, Young, Jere Brown, and Stewart, a man of enormous bulk and lungs in proportion. The derrick was raised, the gear rove, and Craig commenced his favorite song:

"Crow, crow; why don't you crow?"

in tones that were distinctly heard in South Boston, East Boston, and over the entire peninsula, while the rest of the crew resolved to show the Boston people how it was done, put in a fearful chorus of

"John, Johnnie Crow is a dandy, O."

In half an hour there were five thousand people on the wharf, and the vessel's rigging was filled with boys and loafers from the leading-blocks to the cross-trees.

Some one bent on mischief raised the cry of fire; the Old South bell rang; the firemen turned out, and rushed wildly about to find the fire, for there was no smoke visible, and no fire telegraph then. At length the police were summoned to disperse the crowd and stop the noise, and to their infinite disgust the negroes were forbidden to sing, upon which they refused to work, when the matter was compromised by their being permitted to sing in a low tone, with a policeman on the quarter-deck to enforce the order. Craig avenged himself and his mates by lampooning the policeman in his song, and most of the time sung a mournful ditty, the chorus of which was:

"Poor old man."

In the mean time Knight went among the shipping, and found cargoes there were discharged with a winch, that this required less men, and more work could be done in the same time for less money. He therefore bought a winch (windlass turned by cranks) and brought it home in the brig. The negroes would have nothing to do with it, because they could have no song, for this machine did not admit of it. There was neither poetry, music, nor pleasant associations connected with turning a crank, and the Irish filled their places; the lumber was cut off; the negroes gradually disappeared and sought other employments, and the entire course of trade changed.
//

Kellogg made a similar claim about the winch in his 1869 work.

1833 was during the time that Kellogg was at sea. I'm beginning to think this stuff has basis in fact in which case Kellogg's observations would really give some insight to *early* work-singing.

More facts could be checked. Here's the link to the book.

http://books.google.com/books?id=QksqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA151&dq=negro+sing+%22fire+awa

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 04:06 AM

A reference to shantying probably in the 1870s (after the Civil War but no later than 1881) is the following, introduced by John Minear in the "Sydney" thread thus:

Here is another one of those very interesting references in which the events are not dated. My sense is that this is from the 1870s. The book is FORE AND AFT: A STORY OF ACTUAL SEA LIFE, by Robert Brewer Dixon, in which he describes a voyage from New York to Vera Cruz, Mexico, on the "brig Elizabeth." The book was published in 1883. I have tried to locate information on the brig "Elizabeth", but there apparently were several of them dating back to the time of the American Revolution. I couldn't pin it down. The same was true with "Captain Bradley". There was a Robert Brewer Dixon who became a prominent physician in boston. He studied for his MD at Harvard from 1876-79. It is likely that this is the same person, in which case, these events at sea probably happened prior to his time at Harvard. He mentions in his first chapter that he has been at school at "Chauncy-hall School, Boston, and was at home on my summer vacation..." (p.2)

The shanty passages are as follows.

When leaving NY:

//
The pawls of the windlass rattled merrily to "Shanandore, I love your daughter," led by our "shanty-man," the crew coming in on the chorus of "Hurrah, you rollin' river!"
...
The top-sail sheets were hauled taut and "bowsed down;" the halyards were then run through a snatch-block, manned by all hands; and, with another song from our "shanty-man," the yard was "mast-headed," and the sail filled with the breeze.
//

SHENANDOAH at the brake windlass, and a reference to halyard chanties.


In Vera Cruz, Mexico, cargo is being discharged a a group of stevedores -- no Americans among them -- as described herein. The work involves a pulling action.

//
Some of the logs were monsters, ten of them weighing nearly six tons each; these were about fifteen feet in length, and nearly four feet square, and required a large and powerful purchase to get them over the rail and into the hold without accident. The winch was not strong enough to lift them, so the purchase had to be taken to the windlass.

Some of the "shanty" songs, which the stevedore's crew sang as they hove in and stowed away the logs, were highly interesting and melodious. The "shanty-man" was a large, powerfully built Portuguese, who had charge of the work. He would lead off in a song; and the rest of the gang would come in on the chorus, all pulling at the same time, as the word or sign was given in the song. All of the men were Mexicans, except the Portuguese, and a young Swedish sailor who had left his vessel, and had since" been living on shore, working for the stevedore.
//

//
There is a great deal of melody in these sailorsongs, and a good "shanty-man" has at least fifty songs in his repertoire. One of the most spirited " pulling-songs " was the " Bowline," a favorite with the men, constantly called for when a log refused to move; and almost continually the echoing chorus of this or some other equally pleasing song resounded through the hatchway while the cargo was stowing.

We'll haul the bowline so early in the morning;
(Chorus.) We'll haul the bowline, the bowline haul!
[w/ musical score]

"Rosa," another "pulling-song," undoubtedly of negro origin, was a favorite of mine.

Oh ! Rosa in the garden, hanging out clothes
(Chorus.) Stand below you coal black rose.
[w/ music]
//

So, BOWLINE and COAL BLACK ROSE mentioned for the first time. The melody is different than the one supplied by Hugill.

//
"Pulling-songs" should have but one chorus, while windlass-songs invariably have two. One of the widest-known and most melodious of all windlass-songs is " Shanandore." This is also of negro origin: as now sung, the wording is changed almost entirely, but the original air remains.

For seven long years I courted Sally.
Hurrah, you rollin' river!
I courted Sally down in yon valley
Ah, ha! I'm bound away on the wild Missouri.
[w/ music]
//

SHENANDOAH again. When he says "as now sung," I understand it to me that he believes the "Shanadore, I love your daughter" version (i.e. as opposed to a Sally Brown version) is the the altered form, which the sailors (as opposed to these stevedores) sing.

//
These few are enough to give an idea of sailor-songs. The Portuguese had a good voice for "shanty " singing, and his clear tones would ring out with the line of the song; while the men, catching up the air, would come in heartily on the chorus, and give a quick strong pull at the proper time. It was remarkable to see, when a song was started up, how quickly the men would move a heavy log that before they could not stir. The song not only inspired them with vim and enthusiasm, but gave them the time for pulling all together.
//

FWIW, "shanty" continues to be used in quotes.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 04:26 AM

and, from Dixon:

//
The following morning, Sept. 18, all hands were called at daybreak; and the windlass was manned, and the anchor hove short, to " Lowlands," the wildest and most weird of all sailor-songs, led by the second mate.
//

LOWLANDS AWAY


Dixon's lyrics and tunes compare well with RC Adams' (1879).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 04:39 AM

This collection of STUDENTS' SONGS (13th edition, ed. W.H. Hills, 1887) has a parody version of RIO GRANDE. It is by Hills and copyrighted 1881. Just goes to show how well known the chanty must have been by then.

http://books.google.com/books?id=U68QAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA34&dq=%22heave+away%22&lr=&as

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 05:21 AM

The March 5, 1887 issue of CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL contains an unsigned article about a trip to North Bimini (Bahamas) at the end of 1881. The travelers meet with some boat rowers, who sing a work song:

//
One of the large island boats, rowed by twelve stout blacks, took us the three miles to the landing-place, as, though we were only about two miles from the island then, we had to circumnavigate the reef which projects across the narrow strait dividing North from South Bemini, and which strait, sheltered by the reef, forms a most excellent harbour for the schooners and smaller craft of the island. These black rowers then started a chant, of a more Anglican than Gregorian tone, the music of which was prettier than the words, though this is not high praise, the words being:

Oh, I wish I was in Mobile Bay—
   Sally, get round the corner;
Loading cotton all the day—
   Sally, get round the corner;
//

This reads like a passage from the 1830s! Funny that the author doesn't connect this 'chant' to 'chanties,' but I suppose s/he didnt have the experience.

Is this ROUND THE CORNER SALLY?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 06:14 AM

I take back what I said about Dixon. Looks like his stuff, and some of his ideas are from Alden's 1882 article (not yet dissected in this thread), which would have just come out recently before. He even talks about "Lowlands" as the "wildest" chanty, like Alden, and uses Alden's "shanty-man." And he refers to two versions of Shenandoah in the same way. The tunes are the same as Alden.

The exception is Coal Black Rose. I don't know where that came from.

Also -- Comparing Russell's work to Alden, his titling is conspicuously similar. "Across the Western Ocean" had not been mentioned until Alden. "Plains of Mexico". Russell and Alden have "bound TO the Rio Grande," where elsewhere it is "for." Use of the title "Old Stormy."

The unique phrases in Russell so far are 'Run, let the Bulljine, run!' and "I served my time in the Blackwall Line". I am skeptical of the rest, and I won't include it in any tally.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 05:07 PM

Going back a bit, here is relevant reference to non-maritime work-singing. RH Dana evidently took a trip to Cuba in Feb. of 1859, and the result is his travelogue, TO CUBA AND BACK (1859). At one point he visits a sugar plantation and observes the round-the-clock slavery of converting the cane into raw sugar. Here is is description of the singing.

//
The smell of juice and of sugarvapor, in all its stages, is intense. The negroes fatten on it. The clank of the engine, the steady grind of the machines, and the high, wild cry of the negroes at the caldrons to the stokers at the furnace doors, as they chant out their directions or wants—now for more fire, and now to scatter the fire—which must be heard above the din, "A-a-b'la! A-a-b'la!'" "E-e-cha candela!" "Pu-er-ta!", and the barbaric African chant and chorus of the gang at work filling the cane-troughs ;—all these make the first visit at the sugar-house a strange experience. But after one or two visits, the monotony is as tiresome as the first view is exciting. There is, literally, no change in the work There are the same noises of the machines, the same cries from negroes at the same spots, the same intensely sweet smell, the same state of the work in all its stages, at whatever hour you visit it, whether in the morning, or evening, at midnight, or at the dawn of the day. If you wake up at night, you hear the "A-a-b'la A-a-b'la!" "E-e-cha! E-e-cha!" of the caldron-men crying to the stokers, and the high, monotonous chant of the gangs filling the wagons or the trough, a short, improvisated stave, and then the chorus;—not a tune, like the song of sailors at the tackles and falls but a barbaric, tuneless intonation.
//

In 1859, Dana is still using his terminology of "song at tackles and falls". I wonder if, while away from sea, his vocabulary has been updated or not. Probably not, and it's not surprising he doesnt say "chanty."

But what is more deserving of careful thought: He says that these short, improvisated [intoned] staves, followed by chorus were *not* like the sailors' songs. Well, not like them for their lack of "tune" -- though his definition of "tune" is certainly subjective. One presumes he means that they didnt have much in the way of melodic leaps and they had a very narrow ambit, though they were still tunes at some level if ~intoned~. I think what he is saying is fairly clear, but I do wonder if he is comparing this to the "songs at the tackles and falls" of *his* day -- remembering that we are unclear what the songs/chanties were like in his day.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 10:37 PM

It's come time....*drumroll*....to break out the source that may be "ground zero" for much of what is now contained in the shantying collections. It is Alden's July 1882 article in HARPER'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE, "Sailor Songs." It has been mused over quite a bit in the Sydney/Frisco thread. Now to look at its details in relation to what came before it and to see if it indicates anything about the trajectory of chanty development.

Before starting, I will include Jon Lighter's sketch/remarks on Alden, back from Ja. 2010, for easy reference:

Born in Williamstown, Mass., William Livingston Alden (1837-1908) was just old enough to have learned his shanties in the 1850s, but neither _Who's Who_ nor his obituary in the N.Y. Times suggests that he took a sea voyage before 1885, when he was appointed U.S. Consul- General in Rome by Pres. Cleveland. He held the post till 1889.

Wiki warning: Despite the authoritative sources, Wikipedia's brief bio claims he held the office of Consul-General for the rest of his life - another indication of Wikipedia's unreliability. (If they could get that wrong....) What he did do was to remain in Europe, living in Paris and London while writing professionally.

Alden practiced law during the Civil War, then became a journalist and editorial writer. He wrote humorous editorials for the Times for
a number of years, and was well known for his books for young people and a biography of Columbus. He helped introduce sport canoeing to the United States in the early 1870s.

Unfortunately, we know nothing about when Alden learned his shanties. His Harper's article suggests that he'd heard them sung often - quite possible for an interested journalist living in New York City.

On the other hand, he didn't move to NYC, apparently, till the 1860s.
Until then, all his residences seem to have been landlocked.

It seems as though "thirty years ago" was a literary device and that none of Alden's shanties can be dated that far back on the basis of his 1882 article.

And a warning: I'm keeping my skeptic's / Devil's-advocate's hat on for now. This is the first focused article on chanteying after the similar 1868 and 1869 articles from ONCE A WEEK / CHAMBERS'S. I expect to see some correspondences.

ok...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 11:08 PM

Alden, 1882, cont.

He begins by speaking of the decline of sailors, and thus their songs. He presents it as a salvaging project. This is very different from the tone of previous articles. As I can see, only Adams, so far, has made a comment about steam's effect on things, and even he (3 years earlier) says that chanties are still going along well. Perhaps we can begin to see the early 1880s as the "beginning of the end" for chanties.

//
Let us, then, in the interest of archaeological science, make an effort to preserve the memory of his songs before the last man who heard them, and can give testimony in regard to them, is gone.

The present race of marine brakemen who form the crews of steam vessels can not sing. There is but one solitary song that is ever heard on board a steam-ship, and that one belongs to the least artistic class of sailor songs. The "shanty-man"— the chorister of the old packet ship—has left no successors. In the place of a rousing "pulling song," we now hear the rattle of the steam-winch; and the modern windlass worked by steam, or the modern steam-pump, gives us the clatter of cogwheels and the hiss of steam in place of the wild choruses of other days. Singing and steam are irreconcilable. The hoarse steam-whistle is the nearest approach to music that can exist in the hot, greasy atmosphere of the steam-engine.
//

Alden was first to use the orthography "shanty-man."

He reinforces the idea of Black origins of chanties, which seems to be tied up with this consistent idea that they (or their melodies) are "wild." Funny that he thinks Emmett's minstrel songs were so evocative of "African melodies." I suppose nowadays we are so accustomed to these musical forms as "American" or even global popular music style that they don't stand in such contrast to supposed "non-African" melodies.

He says other chanties were the work of English sailors, but cites only CHEERLY. This is important because, as we have documented, "Cheerly" seems to have been one of the very early chanties that existed, at least as I allege, before an influx of African-American songs to the trade that exploded the genre.

//
The old sailor songs had a peculiar individuality. They were barbaric in their wild melody. The only songs that in any way resemble them in character are "Dixie," and two or three other so-called negro songs by the same writer. This man, known in the minstrel profession as "Old Emmett," caught the true spirit of the African melodies—the lawless, halfmournful, half-exulting songs of the Kroomen. These and the sailor songs could never have been the songs of civilized men. They breathe the wild freedom of the jungle, and are as elusive as the furrow left by a ship on the trackless ocean.

Undoubtedly many sailor songs have a negro origin. They are the reminiscences of melodies sung by negroes stowing cotton in the holds of ships in Southern ports. The "shanty-men," those hards of the forecastle, have preserved to some extent the meaningless words of negro choruses, and have modified the melodies so as to fit them for salt-water purposes. Certain other songs were unmistakably the work of English sailors of an uncertain but very remote period. Of these the once famous " Cheerly, men," is a typical specimen. They were, however, frowned upon on board American ships because of their English origin, and no American crew would ever ape the customs prevailing under the flag of an effete monarchy by singing "Cheerly, men."
//

Of course, he is wrong about "Cheerly" in American ships. Perhaps this is a clue about what he *hasnt* read.

Next, basic features of the genre that ring true today. The emphasis on variability and improvisation remains.

//
Sailor songs may be divided into two classes—pulling songs and windlass songs. The former were used merely to aid the men, when pulling on a rope, to pull at the same precise instant. The latter were intended to beguile the men, while getting up the anchor or working the pumps, into temporary forgetfulness of their prosaic labor. As might be expected, the latter are much the more elaborate and pretentious. The one class, however, passes into the other by subtle gradations. There are pulling songs which approach so closely the structure of windlass songs that they were sometimes made to do duty at the windlass or the puinp by shanty-men whose artistic consciences were somewhat dull.
All sailor songs consist of one or more lines sung by the shanty-man alone, and one or two lines sung by the men in chorus. Windlass songs always have two choruses, while pulling songs should have but one. The choruses are invariable. They are the fixed and determinating quantities of each song, while the lines sung by the shanty-man were left in a measure to his discretion. It is true that custom wedded certain lines to certain songs, but the shanty-man was always at liberty to improvise at his own pleasure. He was also permitted to slightly vary the melody of his part, and the accomplished shanty-man was master of certain tricks of vocalization which can not be reproduced in print, but which contributed vastly to the effectiveness of his sinking. Those who have heard Irma Marie in Barbe Bleu may remember that in some of her songs, notably in the first act, she had a trick of slurring from a note in her proper register to another in her head voice. This was one of the favorite mannerisms of the shanty-man.
//

Some mention at the end of vocal technique. To my mind, this sounds like normal scooping or gliding in singing that any non-classical singer would do unconsciously today?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 11:13 PM

I forgot to mention that the inclusion of music notation in Alden makes it the first collection to have that (after Adam's briefer exposition, also with musical examples). It does a lot to add to the originality of the article.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 11:42 PM

//
Let us suppose ourselves on board a Liverpool packet thirty years ago. The maintopsail has just been reefed, and the men are vainly trying to hoist the heavy yard, which refuses to move. Presently some one says, "Oh, give us the 'Bowline,'" whereupon the shanty-man's sharp clear voice is heard, the men join in the chorus, and as they sing the last syllable they haul on the halyards, and the stubborn yard yields. Verse follows verse until the yard is up, and the virtue of the pulling song has been vindicated. This is the "Bowline," one of the purest of generic pulling songs:

We'll haul the bowline so early in the morning,
(Chorus) We'll haul the bowline, the bowline haul!
[w/ score, throughout]

Another pulling song of almost equal popularity in old days was the following one:

Way, haul away, haul away, my Josie.
Way, haul away, haul away, Joe.

These have, as is seen, but a single chorus. Their purely nautical origin is manifest and they are undoubtably very old.
//

SO he begins with the same two sheets shanties (though not identical forms) as Adams, BOWLINE and HAUL AWAY JOE. He attributes "Bowline" to raising a yard, which is a plausible use -- momentarily if it gets stuck -- but not typical.

The melodies for these here and as given in Adams are, to my mind, conspicuously similar. Sure, they didnt vary much perhaps, but my intuition is telling me to wonder.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 12:13 AM

Next he mentions halyard shanties.

//
Closely resembling them, but nevertheless advancing a step in the direction of windlass songs, were those pulling songs which consisted of four lines instead of two, the words of both the choruses being the same, but the melody of each being different. Of these the two following were often heard:

I'm bound away to leave you
Good-by, my love, good-by
I never will deceive you
Good-by, my love, good-by...

Come get my clothes in order
Shallow, Shallow, Brown.
The packet sails tomorrow.
Shallow, Shallow, Brown.

Finally there were pulling songs with a double chorus, each chorus differing both in words and melody from the other. These were in structure precisely the same as the windlass songs, but it was very "bad form" to use them except for pulling purposes. It is one of these that is the sole surviving song which steam-ship crews ever use. They would have shown better taste had they chosen for preservation the ballad of Jean Francois, whoever he may have been.

O drive her, captain, drive her!
Way-a-yah!
O drive her, captain, drive her!
To my Johnnie Franswaw.
//

GOODBYE MY LOVE was mentioned once earlier (1877).
This is the first time for SHALLOW BROWN.

BONEY was also in Adams, however he says it referred to Bonaparte (whereas Alden is not positive).

He never mentions "the sole surviving song which steam-ship crews... use". ?? What was it, and what did they use it for?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 12:53 AM

Great detail on performance practice! And stringing-out.

//
It was in the windlass songs that the accomplished shanty-man displayed his fullest powers and his daintiest graces. When he began a song, he usually began by singing the first chorus as an announcement of what he expected of the men, who, being thus duly warned, joined in the second chorus. He was always careful to rest his voice while the others were singing, and it was considered the proper thing for him to begin his lines so closely after each chorus as to make his first note a prolongation of the last note of the preceding chorus. His lines were expected to rhyme, but he was prudently economical of them, generally using only one line, repeated twice, for each verse.

One of the best known of the windlass songs was the " Shanandore":

You Shanandore,I long to hear you.
Hurrah, you rollin' river!
You Shanandore, I long to hear you.
Ah, ha, you Shanandore.

This is clearly of negro origin, for the "Shanandore" is evidently the river Shenandoah. In course of time some shanty-man of limited geographical knowledge, not comprehending that the "Shanandore" was a river, but conceiving that the first chorus required explanation, changed the second chorus. Thus the modified song soon lost all trace of the Shenandoah River, and assumed the following form, in which it was known to the last generation of sailors:

For seven long years I courted Sally.
Hurrah, you rollin' river!
I courted Sally down in yon valley.
Ah, ha! I'm bound away on the wild Missouri.
//

I'm going to assume for now that by "windlass" he means "capstan." SHENANDOAH would be awkward at the brake/pump windlass, no?

//
Perhaps the wildest, most mournful, of all sailor songs is "Lowlands." The chorus is even more than usually meaningless, but the song is the sighing of the wind and the throbbing of the restless ocean translated into melody.

I dreamt a dream the other night.
Lowlands, Lowlands, Hurrah, my John.
I dreamt I saw my own true love.
My Lowlands aray.

Much care was evidently given to "Lowlands" by the shanty-men. It has often been improved. In its original form the first chorus was shorter and less striking, and the words of the second chorus were, "My dollar and a half a day." It is to be regretted that no true idea can be given on paper of the wonderful shading which shanty-men of real genius sometimes gave to this song by their subtle and delicate variations of time and expression.
//

It's the first text of LOWLANDS AWAY. (The title was mentioned in 1868.) Note the "aray."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 10:13 PM

What is the "aray" supposed to be? A typ-o of "away"? Is it a phonetic rendering of "hurray!" as it would sound coming after the word "lowlands"?

When it appears in later literature, is it pretty safe to assume that those authors have copied Alden? What did *they* think it meant (i.e., why just copy verbatim)?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 10:39 PM

"Aray" is almost certainly a misprint for "away." At least I've never seen it anywhere else.

If Alden had meant "hurray," he'd have written it.

So yes, I'd say at this point that all later writers must slavishly have copied "aray" from Alden.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 11:00 PM

//
Of the same general character as " Lowlands," though inferior to it, is the song that was usually known as " Across the Western Ocean." There were, however, several variations of the second chorus, none of which could be called improvements.

I wish I was in London town.
O say where you bound to?
That highway I'd cruise round and round.
Across the western ocean.
//

There were 2 (probable) mentions of ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN early, but this is the first to call it by that name, and to supply the music. "Several variations of the chorus" might include Nordhoff's "across the briny ocean."

//
It may be assumed that the predominance of Santa Anna's name in sailor songs is due to the Southern negroes, who still sing songs of which the name of the Mexican general is the burden. We may therefore class the "Plains of Mexico" with those sailor songs which are of African descent.

Did you never hear tell of that general?
Hurrah, you Santy Anna
Did you never hear tell of that general?
All on the plains of Mexico.
//

The first instance of music for SANTIANA.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 03:05 AM

Continuing my logging/break-down of Alden 1882...

We continue with a version of NEW YORK GIRLS.

//
Another Santa Anna song is more unmistakably negro from the fact that the expression "my honey," so common among the negroes of the South, occurs in it. It is a cheerful song, in spite of the painfully mercenary spirit expressed in the second chorus:

As I was lumbering down the streets of bully London town,
I spied a Yankee clipper ship to New York she was bound.
(Cho.) And hurrah, you Santy, my dear honey; Hurrah, you Santy, I love you for your money.
//

Hmm, I really didn't know the phrase "my honey" would tip off an African-American influence. But while we haven't seen NEW YORK GIRLS for sure yet up to this point, we've seen a reference to a Black rowing song from Ohio with similar solo lyrics--though no full semblance of the chanty we know.

Alden goes on to give two different Stormy chanties.

//
"Old Stormy" is a mythical character often mentioned in sailor songs. Who Stormy was, and why he received that evident nickname, even the most profound and learned shanty-men always confessed themselves unable to explain. The oldest of these songs is rather the best of them:

Old Stormy he is dead and gone.
To me way hay storm along, John.
Old Stormy he is dead and gone.
Ah, ha! come along, get along, stormy along, John.

Here is another "Stormy" song that contains a hint of negro origin in the word "massa," and suggests that perhaps the legend of "Stormy" is an African rather than a nautical myth:

Old Stormy he was a bully old man.
To me way you storm along.
Old Stormy he was a bully old man.
Fi-i-i, massa, storm along.
//

As far as I can tell, this is the first time that these *particular* Stormy chanties, what I have been tagging as STORMY ALONG and MR. STORMALONG, are mentioned in literature.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 03:33 AM

continued...

//
Quite as popular as Stormy was another mysterious person--Randso. Of this person it is alleged in an unusually coherent narrative song that "he was no sailor"; that, nevertheless, "he shipped on board of a whaler," and as "he could not do his duty," he was brought to the gangway, where "they gave him nine-and-thirty." Obviously Randso was not a model for sailors.

O Randso was no sailor.
Ah, Randso, boys, ah, Randso.
He shipped on board of a whaler.
Ah, Randso, boys, ah, Randso.
//

It's REUBEN RANZO with the regulation verse.

Then he gives HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING

//
In the following song not only is the mysterious Randso mentioned, but a word of fathomless meaning and of very frequent recurrence in sailor songs is introduced. Perhaps Max Müller could attach some meaning to "hilo," but in that case he would do more than any sailor ever did. It will not do to suggest that it is really two words--"high" and "low." It occurs in too many other songs as an active verb to leave us any room to doubt that to "hilo" was to be, to do, or to suffer something. It can not be gathered from the insufficient data at our command whether or not the act of "hiloing" was commendable in a sailor, but from the frequency with which the fair sex was exhorted in song to ''hilo," it is evident that it was held to be a peculiarly graceful act when executed by a young girl. The syllable "yah" which appears in the first chorus of this song is not necessarily the negro "yah." The best nautical pronunciation gave it a long sound, something like "yaw," whereas the negro, who is popularly believed to remark "yah I yah I" whenever he is amused, really says " yoh! yoh!"

I've just come down from the wildgoose nation.
To me way hay E O yah.
I've left my wife on a big plantatlon.
And sing hilo, me Randso, way.
//

This is there first time it appears as a chanty, though the song is known in minstrelsy since the 1840s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 03:55 AM

//
In another song, which is chiefly concerned with the celebration of the great deeds of the first Napoleon, we find the expression "hi-lon-day." It has been held by learned nautical commentators that this word should be written ''Allan Dale." It is a good theory, and the only fault to be found with it is the fact that there is not a particle of evidence in support of it. This song departs from the usual pattern of windlass songs in having but one chorus; but that chorus is so elaborate that it fully satisfied the artistic desires of marine vocalists.

O Boney was a warrior.
(Cho) Ah hilonday.
O sigh her up, my yaller gals, a hi, hilonday
//

First appearance of HILONDAY. Note that it is ascribed to capstan use and especially that the entire bit after "warrior" is the chorus. So, the form is diffferent from the hauling form that Hugill later describes.

//
The most pretentious, though not always the most meritorious, of windlass songs were those in which the second chorus was greatly extended, and made in some instances longer than all the rest of the song.
//

He is referring to a 'grand chorus'.

//
Of these there is one in which the chorus rises and swells with the crescendo of the heaving Atlantic swell.

I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea.
Rolling Rio.
I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea.
To my Rolling Rio Grande.
Hurrah, you Rio, Rolling Rio.
So fare you well, my bonny young girls,
For I'm bound to the Rio Grande.
//

The by now well documented RIO GRANDE.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 04:17 AM

//
But one sailor song has ever been tamed and made to do land service. The song of the "Railway" was caught by some negro minstrel, and with sundry improvements made to do duty as a comic song on the minstrel stage. It is still occasionally sung by street boys, who fancy that it is an Irish national air.

In eighteen hundred and fifty-three I sailed away beyond the sea.
O! I sailed away to Amerikee
(Cho.) To work upon the railway, the railway.
O! I'm wearied on the railway.
O! poor Paddy works on the railway.
//

Huh! Interesting theory about PADDY ON THE RAILWAY. However, I believe there is a broadside of this about, right? I wonder what evidence he had -- or recent observation -- to claim that the song began as a chanty. Well, we've got references for the chanty to/from the 1860s. Any of the broadsides predate that?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 04:42 AM

//
It may be imagined that the specimens of sailor songs already given illustrate the highest possible achievements of man in the direction of vocal idiocy. This would be a mistake. There are songs which in elaborate unintelligibility and inanity of chorus are so appalling that it would be unkind to lay them before the sane reader. The following song is bad enough in this respect, but there are others which are infinitely worse. It has, moreover, the redeeming trait of true melody, and was once, perhaps, the most universally popular of its class.

O the wildest packet you can find--
Ah he, ah ho, are you most done?
Is the Marg'ret Evans in the Black X line.
So clear the track, let the bulgine run.
To my high rigajig in a low-back car.
Ah he, ah ho, are you most done?
With Eliza Lee all on my knee.
So clear the track, let the bulgine run.
//

It seems to be the first reference to CLEAR THE TRACK. The only earlier thing that might be related is a corn shucking song, mentioned in 1848 (AMERICAN AGRICULTURALIST, above) called "Clear the track when Sambo come."

//
It is not the purpose of this article to give the entire repertoire of the shantyman. If he was an artist of any real cultivation, he had at least seventy-five songs at his tongue's end. Those which have been given will afford a fair idea of the best of the sailor songs which will bear translation from the windlass to the columns of a magazine. It must be admitted that, in spite of the simplicity and purity of character ascribed to the sailor by novelists, not a few of the songs which he sang were highly objectionable on the score of morality. They were, however, no worse in this respect than the songs which one occasionally hears in the smoking-car of an excursion train, and were decidedly better than certain opera-bouffe songs which some ladies seem to enjoy when the song-writer's indecency is picturesquely illustrated by a clever French-woman. But both the good and the bad songs ceased when the sailor disappeared, and to revive them on the deck of an iron steam-ship would be as impossible as to bring back the Roman trireme.
//

Clearly, Alden knew more chanties than what he has given.

With the end of the article, another lament for the end of sailing ships...and chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Dec 10 - 12:40 AM

I've found the only (???) reference to chantying in the 18th century, so far. It's basically something we've seen, but an earlier version with a much earlier date.

1784[1769]        Falconer, William. An Universal Dictionary of the Marine. New Edition. London: T. Cadell.

Falconer died 1769. He had sailed in British merchant ships from 1748 or '49 through the 1750s. I was not able to access the first, 1769 edition of this, but it seems to have had the same content as the 1784 (he was dead, and it doesn't look to have been revised). The passage is as follows.

From the entry on "WINDLASS":

As this machine it heaved about in a vertical direction, it is evident that the effort of an equal number of men acting upon it will be much more powerful than on the capftern; becaufe their whole weight and ftrength are applied more readily to the end of the lever employed to turn it about. Whereas, in the horizontal movement of the capfrern, the exertion of their force is considerably diminifhed. It requires, however, fome dexterity and addrefs to manage the handfpec to the greateft advantage; and to perform this the failors muft all rife at once upon the windlafs, and, fixing their bars therein, give a fudden jerk at the fame inftant, in which movement they are regulated by a fort of fong or howl pronounced by one of their number.
        
The moft dexterous managers of the handfpec in heaving at the windlafs are generally fuppofed the colliers, of Northumberland: and of all European mariners, the Dutch are certainly the moft aukward and fluggifh in this manoeuvre.

So, he is making the distinction between working the spoke windlass versus capstan. In his capstan entry, incidentally, no songs are mentioned. Capstan did not need coordination as, he explains, the spoke windlass did. He does not call it a "song" but rather a "SORT OF song or HOWL." Doubtful if this was any kind of "chanty" as we know them, however it was a similar practice. The question is whether it was anything more notable than a "yeo heave ho." Speaking of which...in his French dictionary, he later gives this entry:

UN, deux, troi, an exclamation, or fong, ufed by feamen when hauling the bowlines, the greateft eftbrt being made at the laft word. Englifh failors, in the fame manner, call out on this occafion,—haul-in—haul-two—haul-belay!

In a way, this is "negative testimony" suggesting that the French and English of that time did not have songs for hauling. True, that is not necessarily the case, and only the "bowlines" are discussed here. But I think it is reasonable to infer that if there were songs he would have mentioned them, no?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 04:24 PM

My last article source for the 1880s is one called "Sailors' Songs" starting on pg. 592 in Charles Dickens' edited ALL THE YEAR ROUND, no. 1047, 22 December 1888. The name of the author is unknown.

This postdates LA Smith's collection, which I suppose it would make sense to critique first...however I feel like getting all the articles out of the way first! Nevertheless, I am sure that much will reference Smith's text.

S/he begins with the idea that true sailors' songs are unlike the parlour songs represented as sailor songs on shore. I don't get the sense, however, that chanties had actually yet been appropriated and transformed as parlour songs.

SPANISH LADIES is first mentioned with a tip of the hat to Marryat, as did Smith. The lyrics more resemble Smith than Marryat. And the idea is added that it was used as a chanty.

//
You may also still hear, sometimes as a forecastle song, but more often adapted, in time and metre, as a Chanty, a song which was popular in Captain Marryat's time:

Now, farewell to you, ye fine Spanish ladies,
Now, farewell to you, ye ladies of Spain,
For we've received orders to sail for Old England,
And perhaps we may never more see you again.

We'll range and we'll rove like true British sailors,
We'll range and we'll rove all on the salt seas,
Until we strike soundings in the Channel of England.
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-five degrees. ["leagues" in original source]

There are four more verses given in "Poor Jack," and the whole song has been incorporated by Mr. Chappell in his "Music of the Olden Time."
//

Ah, so it looks like this author and Smith both copied their versions from Chappell. Chappell's work, in which Spanish Ladies is not represented as a chanty, dates from 1850 or earlier. Gotta get it.

cont...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 Dec 10 - 05:11 PM

Gibb,
Have copies of Chappell if you need it, including his own personal copy.

Paddy Works. There is no broadside as such. There are broadsides possibly related with this title and similar c1850 all mentioning Greenock in Scotland. There is useful info on it in Folk Songs of the Catskills where they mention a sheet music copy seemingly written by J. B. Geoghegan in the Levy Collection. It mentions tunewise the connections to 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' which is also claimed by Geoghegan. 'Paddy works on the Erie' about canal building may be older. When was the Erie Canal built?

I'm pretty certain it must be an American song of Irish navvies inspired perhaps by the Scottish song.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 02:45 AM

Thanks, Steve!

Well, I was able to see a preview on-line of Chappell. I was just trying to find out when Chappell published "Spanish Ladies" for the very first time. There were some misleading links suggesting that "Music of the Olden Time" existed as early as 1850, however, I guess the actual publication dates of the volumes range from 1855-59.
In mentioning "Spanish Ladies," however, Chappell says that he had it in his earlier work, which must be his "Collection of National English Airs." Those volumes range from 1838-1840. I have not been able to see the text to verify. Marryat gave "Spanish Ladies" in his POOR JACK of 1840, and Chappell implies that that came after his own offering. For now, that is close enough for me -- since I am not trying to track down the origins of the song.

Steve, according to Wikipedia, the Erie Canal "was under construction from 1817 to 1825 and officially opened on October 26, 1825."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 03:10 AM

continuing with the ALL THE YEAR ROUND article...

//
While the sailors are "making poetry" their lives are neither bright nor comfortable; but they are infinitely better than they would be without song. It is song that puts spirit and "go," into all their work, and it is often said at sea that a good "Chanty-man" is equal to an extra hand. The chanties, or working songs, are the real sea songs of sea life. It may be that they are going gradually out of use nowadays, when so much is done by steam; but, wherever the concentrated strength of human muscles is needed, even on a steamship, there is nothing like a chanty for evoking the utmost motive power.
//

The "extra hand" bit comes from Smith.

//
Chanties are of various kinds, adapted to the different varieties of work on shipboard, and without a chanty a crew is as listless as a gang of South Carolina darkies without their plantation songs. In truth, there is a good deal in common between the working songs of sailors and of niggers, and it is curious that many of the most popular sea-chanties are wholesale adaptations of plantation airs, and often of the words also.
//

Let us not this observation of comparability between chanties and African-American worksongs.

//
For quick haulage, working at the sails, and so forth, one of the most favourite chanties is this:

We'll haul the bowlin' so early in the morning.
(Chorusl We'll haul the bowlin', the bowlin' haul.
Haul on the bowlin', the fore and maintop bowlin'.
(Chorusl Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul.
Haul on the bowlin', the packet she's a rollin'.
(Chorusl Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul.
Haul on the bowlin', the Captain he's a growlin'.
(Chorusl Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul.

There is not much poetry in this, you will say. Well, there is not; but there is an immense amount of vigorous music when ten, or twelve, or twenty strongthroated seamen give voice to the hearty chorus, and with each recurrence of the word "haul," strain every muscle of the body in combined effort. That is where the chanty is invaluable—in timing the moment for the concentration of force. It makes all the difference in the world in the working of a ship, and the chanty will often be changed several times at some special job, until the right one is got, which sends the men together like the beat of a conductor's baton in an orchestra. A good chanty-man—that is, the soloist who starts the songs, and gives the time to the chorus —is one of the most popular, as well as the most useful, men on board a ship.
//

BOWLINE here has the format of Alden (with "We'll") while combining the lyrics to Smith's two versions.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 03:22 AM

The idea of variability and improvisation is there:

//
The airs to which the chanties are sung are pretty much common property—that is to say, you will hear thom all the world over. Miss Smith has scored many of them, and musical readers cannot do better than consult her pages if they want to test the quality of Jack's music. But the words of the chanties vary very much. There is a sort of general range of subject for each air, while a great amount of latitude is exercised by the chanty-man. In fact, a clever "improvisatore" who can adapt the lives and the peculiarities of officers and crew to the metre of the chanty he is leading, is very much esteemed. Like everybody else, Jack enjoys hearing the foibles of his fellows humorously hit off. and he does not object to being "dressed" a bit himself in turn.

Thus, then, the words of a chanty may be altered according to the ability of the chantyman and the opportunity afforded by the incidents and personages of each separate voyage. All that is wanted is that hauling chanties shall be short and lively; that windlass chanties be more measured; that pumping chanties be adapted to the monotonous movement of the work, and that capstan chanties be in long metre, and of a more tender character in general. Thus it is, that in the capstan chanties, when the men run round and round from slow to quick as the anchor comes "home," we find usually both more sentiment, and more of the semblance of part-songs.

Here is one capstan chanty:

To the Liverpool Docks we'll did adieu,
To Suke, and Sally, and Polly, too;
The anchor's weighed, the sails unfurled,
We are bound to cross the watery world.
Hurrah, we're outward bound!
Hurrah, we're outward bound!

The first four lines may be either sung as a solo, with the last two in chorus, or the four lines by divisions of the men, and the last two in unison. Of course, for "Liverpool Docks" will be substituted the name of any other place from which the ship is parting.
//

This OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND evidently comes from the 1869 Chambers's Journal article. It is verbatim. Smith had another version of the shanty, w/ Catherine's Dock, which probably led the author here to his/her idea about substitution.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 03:35 AM

RIO GRANDE here is from Smith:

//
Here is another very favourite outwardbound chanty:

(Solo) The ship went sailing out over the bar.
(Chorusl O Rio! O Rio!
(Solo) They pointed her nose for the Southern Star.
(Chorus) And we're bound for the Kio Grande.
(Together) Then away, love, away, away down Rio.
Then fare you well, my pretty young girl,
We're bound for tho Rio Grande.

(Solo) Oh, were you ever in Rio Grande?
(Chorus) Away, you Rio.
(Solo) Oh, were you ever in Rio Grande?
(Chorus) We're bound to the Rio Grande.
Away, you Rio; away, you Rio.
Fare you well, my pretty young girl,
I am bound to the Rio Grande.

As capstan work is long, we may take this as only the beginning of the song, the rest of which will depend on the chantyman's ability to weave in some narrative. Failing that, the words of the old song, "Where are you going to.my pretty maid?" will be utilised, each line being sung twice by the soloist, followed by the Rio Grande chorus. The effect is curious, but very pleasing.
//


The next again, STORMY ALONG, is the author's interpretation of Smith.

//
Another capstan song is sacred to the memory of a certain mythical being called "Old Stormy" or " Old Storm Along":

(Solo) Old Stormy he is dead and gono.
(Chorus) To me, way, hay, storm along John.
(Solo) Old Stormy he is dead and gone.
(Chorus) Ah ha, come along, get along, storm along John.
(Solo) Old Stormy he was a bully old man.
(Chorus) To me, way, you storm along.
(Solo) Old Stormy he was a bully old man.
(Chorus) Way, hay, storm along John.

There are several variants of this chanty, and one of the versions gives to the soloist these curious words:

When Stormy died I dug his grave,
I dug his grave with a silver spade,
I hove him up with an iron crane.
And lowered him down with a golden chain,
Old Storm Along is dead and gone.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 03:42 AM

LOWLANDS AWAY comes from Smith (orig. from Alden)

//
One of the most beautiful in a musical sense of all the chanties, is that known as "Lowlands Low." The words are nothing, and, as usual, many versions are used; but the air is singularly wild and mournful, and is an immense favourite with Jack It generally begins somewhat like this:

(Solo) I dreamt a dream the other night.
(Chorus) Lowlands, lowlands, hurrah, my John.
(Solo) I dreamt I saw my own true love.
(Chorus) My Lowlands, aray.
//

HOME DEARIE HOME also is from Smith 1888.

//
The most sentimental and also the most poetical of all the capstan chanties, is "Home, Dearie, Home ":

Solo.
Oh, Amble is a fine town, with ships in the bay,
And I wishwithmy heart I was only there to-day;
I wish with my heart I was far away from here,
A-sitting in my parlour and talking to my dear.
Chorus.
And it's home, dearie, home, oh, it's home I want to be,
My topsails are hoisted and I must out to sea.
For the oak, and the ash, and the bonny birchen tree,
They're all a-growin' green in the North countree.
Oh, it's home, dearie, home, it's home I want to be.
Solo.
Oh, there's a wind that blows, and it's blowing from the west,
And of all the winds that blow, 'tis the one I like the best;
For it blows at our backs, and it shakes the pennon free,
And it soon will blow us home to the North countree.
(Chorus as before.)

The next verse refers to the ei arrival of a little stranger:

Solo.
And if it be a lass, she shall wear a golden ring;
And if it be a lad, he shall live to serve his King;
With his buckles, and his boots, and his little jacket blue.
He shall walk the quarter-deck as his Daddy used to do.
(Chorus as before.)
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 04:21 AM

OK, so I went through the rest of this painful Dickens edited article, and it's all culled from LA Smith. Here are the rest of the chanties noted:

HANDY MY BOYS
BLOW THE MAN DOWN
REUBEN RANZO
UP A HILL
PAY ME THE MONEY DOWN (orig. from the 1858 Atlantic Monthly)
HILONDAY
BONEY
HAUL AWAY JOE
SHENANDOAH
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (another variation)
and some forecastle songs like THE MERMAID

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 05:33 AM

The remaining 1880s publications on chanties, that I know of, are:

1883: Luce - I think most of the chanties are taken from Adams 1879
1887: Davis and Tozer
1888: L.A. Smith

Right now I want to mention Davis and Tozer. The vagarious editions (each quite different) are hard to come by. Once Lighter put up the table of contents for the first edition. Here it is:

1. Sally Brown
2. Away for Rio
3. We're All Bound to Go
4. The Wide Missouri
5. Leave Her, Johnnie ###
6. Can't You Dance a Polka? ###
7. The Black Ball Line
8. Hoodah Day ###
9. Homeward Bound
10. Whiskey for My Johnnie
11. Reuben Ranzo
12. Blow Boys, Blow
13. Blow the Man Down
14. Tom's Gone to Ilo ###
15. Hanging Johnnie ###
16. Haul Away Jo'
17. Haul the Bowlin'
18. Paddy Doyle's Boots
19. A-Roving
20. Storm Along
21. Mobile Bay
22. Salt Horse
23. The Dead Horse
24. Eight Bells

I won't have access to this edition (unless I fly to Dublin), but I am going to get a later edition and assume that the earlier shanties were unchanged. For now, I thought I'd take note of which of these songs had appeared in literature already up to this point. I don't mean the same lyrical versions, I just mean if the song had been mentioned at all.

So, all the chanties have turned up in some form (A-Roving not as a chanty). The songs with ### after them, however, have a significantly different or original phrasing.

In all, the book appears to be quite original (despite the common songs, they look like they'd be original versions). What intrigues me more is the possibility that many of these forms set the mold for future interpretations.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 09:42 AM

Some good reading and fine analysis here, Gibb. I am enjoying this very much. I appreciate the way you are tracing out the historical lineage of these works and untangling the possible borrowings and sources. This transition period seem to sum up the fragmented past and to lay the foundations for future "interpretations". I like the care with which you go about this work and also your willingness to put forth your own theories and conclusions. Keep up the good works.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 10:05 AM

&printsecGibb, I don't think this source has been mentioned, but I confess to not having done a thorough look-through. It doesn't show up in the Mudcat search system. The book is THE CRUISE OF THE YACHT MONTAUK, by James McQuade. This cruise took place between February 21, 1884 and May 3, 1884, and was a trip to the West Indies. As near as I can tell, the book was written in 1884. Here is the link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=7jEn_Inpb6wC=frontcover&dq=James+McQuade&hl=en&ei=jrMUTZqBJsXflgfh09DADA&sa=X&oi=book_

On page 102, McQuade mentions shanties and lists "Ranzo", "Haul Away, Joe" and "Knock-a-man-down" specifically by saying that they "rarely animate the sailor in this period of maritime degeneracy."

http://books.google.com/books?id=t2QXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA102&dq=%22Knock+a+man+down%22+shanty&lr=&cd=16#v=onepage&q=%22Knock%20a%20man

And on page 103, he gives the words to an unfamiliar chanty he calls "Largy-Kargy", of West Indian origin:

http://books.google.com/books?id=t2QXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA103&dq=Largy+-+Kargy&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Largy%20-%20Kargy&f=false

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 02:45 PM

Hate to have this old minstrel song that I posted above ignored in the discussion of where and when "stormy" first surfaced:

As sung by J. Smith of White's Serenaders at the Melodeon, New York City, from White's New Ethiopian Song Book, published by T.B. Peterson & Bros., Philadelphia, US, © 1854, p. 71,

Storm Along Stormy


O I wish I was in Mobile bay,
Storm along, Stormy.
Screwing cotton all de day,
Storm along, Stormy.
O you rollers storm along,
Storm along, Stormy.
Hoist away an' sing dis song,
Storm along, Stormy.

I wish I was in New Orleans,
Storm along, Stormy.
Eating up dem pork an' beans,
Storm along, Stormy.
Roll away in spite ob wedder,
Storm along, Stormy.
Come, lads, push all togedder,
Storm along, Stormy.

I wish I was in Baltimore,
Storm along, Stormy.
Dancing on dat Yankee shore,
Storm along, Stormy.
One bale more, den we'be done,
Storm along, Stormy.
De sun's gwan down, an' we'll go home.
Storm along, Stormy.

This minstrel song is clearly inspired by a stevedore song, sung while the worker gangs were rolling burlapped-wrapped bales of cotton down the dock.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 11:58 PM

Happy Christmas, friends!

Cool, John, it's always good to see more travelogues; they usually have some 'gems' that are not in the deliberate articles.

The schooner MONTAUK was out of New York. This part of the voyage, between Bermuda and St. Kitts, was in March 1884.

McQuade seems to have read Adam's 1879 ON BOARD THE ROCKET, I think. He is not noting these chanties because he heard them, but rather knows of them from elsewhere (and noting that he did not hear them). Adams' text is the only one that had the "Knock a Man down" at this point (well, along with Luce 1883, who got it from Adams). That, and the way he invokes Dibdin as Adams did, suggests that he read it.

For recording purposes, here is the passage:

//
Since the general employment of steam in navigation, the habits of sailors have naturally changed so as to conform, in some degree at least, to the existing condition of sea service. The old Jack tar, with his natty blue jacket, immaculate white trousers, flowing neckerchief, and jaunty tarpaulin hat, is being merged in the greasy stoker. The dust, smoke, cinders and soot of the steamship make sad havoc with the purity of white duck; the stiff tarpaulin has no place in the sweltering confines of the boiler-room and coal-bunker; everything is done by machinery; the anchor is hoisted by steam, the sails set by steam, and even the vessel steered by steam. William and Black-eyed Susan belong to the stage, and the oil-stained sailor of to-day is but a grimy representative of the airy and romantic jolly tar, who danced the sailor's hornpipe, wielded a heavy cutlass as if it were a toothpick, and blasted his 'eyes, and shivered his timbers, and avasted, and ahoyed, in days of yore. As steam has so largely superseded manual labor, the sea-songs with which sailors used to keep time when pulling and hauling in combined and simultaneous effort, are dying away in faint echoes, and soon they will only mingle with the discredited strains of the nearly forgotten mermaid. True there are navies to keep up the old standard, and sailing vessels and yachts to maintain the recollection and traditions of the blue jackets, but they are fast being smothered by steam. Occasionally we hear some of the familiar chants, but " Ranzo," " Haul Away, Joe," and "Knock-a-man-down," rarely animate the sailor in this period of maritime degeneracy. Of course seamen have to be educated in their vocation, but the sailor has become something like the mechanic. Large manufactories and mills, with complex labor-saving apparatus, have done away measurably with the journeyman who served his time as an apprentice to an experienced master. Machinery not only works, but thinks, and the machine-feeder takes the place of the skilled mechanic.

The sea-songs of Dibdin and others were really made for landsmen, and are different from the sailors' chants proper, which were of other material; like their working toggery, expressive and matter-of-fact. Prosody received but scant consideration, but the rhymes were a sort of rugged doggerel, with a refrain strongly accentuated, which served as a signal for all to pull away together. They were called Shanty songs, from the French word chanter, to sing, and many of them are familiar, having been incorporated in magazine articles and published in books.
//

But then we have the new chanty!: LARGY KARGY, attributed to the West Indies.

//
One of the sailors aboard the Montauk, who has been in the West Indies, furnishes the following example of a Shanty song, which is evidently the composition of some one possessed of a better ear for rhythm than the ordinary chanteur, as the measure is reasonably accurate. The refrains, Largy Kargy and Weeny Kreeny, are evidently corruptions of Spanish words, probably intended for Largo Cargo and Buena Carina—big cargo, and good little girl:

We're bound for the West Ingies straight,
    Largy—Kargy, Haul away O—h.
Come lively, boys, or we'll be late,
   Weeny—Kreeny, Haul away O—h.

We'll have rum and baccy plenty,
    Largy—etc.,
Cocos, yams, and argy-denty,
    Weeny—etc.

No more horse ' and dandy funky,
But St. Kitten's roasted monkey.

We'll go fiddle with black Peter,
Dance all night with Wannereeter.

At Kooreso we'll get frisky,
Throwing dice with Dutch Francisky.

When we've found the pirate's money,
We'll live on shore eating honey.

Wear big boots of allygator,
Taking Nance to the thayayter.

We'll bunk no more with cockroaches,
    Largy—Kargy—Haul away O—h,
But ride all day in soft coaches,
    Weeny—Kreeny, Haul away O—h.
//

I love it!

Charlie-- Yes, I love that one, too. It is such a cool example to have -- a song in a minstrel context that does not disguise its work song roots (?). No, we're not forgetting that one -- I think somewhere along the line we found that it could be dated to at least as early as 1848, so it is "filed" there at present. The same text also had a version of the "Sailor Fireman " (stoker's chant) and "Fire Down Below". Cheers!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 12:10 AM

Wow, 400 posts on this subject/thread!

My personal aim at this point (it changes slightly now and then) is to get through the 19th century, to kind of create a nice, round, pausing-point. That includes both texts written in the 19th century (my main priority) and those referencing events in the 19th century.

I am sorting the material according to both chronology of reference and chronology of publication. At this point, I've posted the more or less complete reference chronology up through the '70s. That one is to get a picture of the development of chantying, and I'll continue to update it as part of this discussion.

I've also been creating a publication chronology -- an annotated bibliography of texts referring to chanties -- which is a personal thing that I'll use in he future. The reason why I mention this one is because it explains why I am so interested in recording the specific details: it aids in later constructing the bibliography. The thread becomes something that is a "one stop" source where it's easy to search and see, for example, who first said "chanteur" or who first mentioned Dibdin.

I'd like to write some sort of article about this stuff eventually.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 01:32 AM

1883 Luce, (Admiral) Stephen Bleecker. Naval Songs. New York: Wm. A. Pond.

Luce's collection is full of a variety of sea songs, with score. I can only find the 1902 edition on line right now, but I have the 1883 with me. The editions are not the same. First I'll deal with the 1883.

At the end of his introduction, Luce breaks into a discussion of shanties. He praises Adams' ON BOARD THE ROCKET, and then launches into a series of long quotes from it. As it goes along, he reproduces all of Adams' shanties (all of the ones in the section of his books that was specifically about shanties), but actually corrects the notation! I believe that in most cases one can correct Adams' notation just on what musically makes sense. But I wonder, too, if in some cases one might have to be previously familiar with the songs.

Then, the collection proper begins, with non-chanties for the most part. There are several forebitters tht I will note, only for reference and because they are songs that, in works like Hugill's, at some point have also been said to have been used as chanties. Luce also has a couple real chanties in this section. Here are the songs that I would note:

THE FLASH FRIGATE - 9
HIGH BARBARY (minor mode) - 16
ROLLING HOME - 17
SONG OF THE FISHES - 19
SAILING BY THE LOWLANDS - 25
GOOD-NIGHT, LADIES - 34
HOMEWARD BOUND ("to Pensacola town I'll bid adieu")- 38
"OLD STORM ALONG. "CHANTY SONG"" - 41
THE MERMAID - 42
THE DREADNOUGHT - 68
BLACK BALL. "CHANTY" SONG. - 79
TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY - 90

cont...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 02:18 AM

Luce 1883...

Starting on pg. 129, Luce gives several "SHANTY SONGS".

It begins with the first mention of HOGEYE as a shanty:

//
OH, THE HOGEYE MEN ARE ALL THE GO
Oh the hogeye men are all the go when they do come from Callao
In a hogeye,
railroad nigger in a hogeye
Row the boat ashore in a hogeye
All she want's a hogeye man.
//

Next is SANTIANA. Interesting with this and other shanties, Luce does not give the commonly accepted (at least nowadays) titles.

//
OH! GEN'RAL TAYLOR GAINED THE DAY
Oh Gen'ral Taylor gained the day,
Down on the plains of Mexico;
And Santa Anna ran away,
Hurray! Santa Anna.
//

The melody phrases in this seem to be flip-flopped. Next is ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN.

//
OH! LIVERPOOL JACK
Oh! Liverpool Jack with a tarpaulin hat;
Amelia, Where're you bound to,
The Rocky Mountains is my home
Across the Western ocean
//

Then, MR. STORMALONG:

//
I WISH I WAS OLD STORMY'S SON
I wish I was old Stormy's son.
Aye, Aye, Aye, Mister Stormalong;
I'd build a ship of a thousand ton.
To my way stormalong, Way hey, Stormalong.
//

I think the following is the first shanty reference to HANGING JOHNNY:
//
OH! THEY CALL ME HANGING JOHNNY
Oh! They call me hanging Johnny,
Hurray! Away;
Because I hang for money;
So, hang, boys, hang.
//

Then a version of GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL that is apparently for halyards:

//
FOR "SHEETING HOME" TOPSAILS
We're outward bound this very day.
Goodbye, fare you well, Goodbye fare you well.
We're outward bound this very day.
Hurrah! My boys we're outward bound.
//

The following looks to be the first reference to A-ROVING as a shanty (someone please correct me if i am mistaken):

//
LEE-GANGWAY CHORUS
In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid,
And her you ought to sea.
In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid,
And making baskets was her trade.
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
A-roving, a-roving, since roving's been my ruin,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
//

What's a "lee-gangway chorus" by the way? Is it a stamp 'n' go chanty?

This also appears to be the first reference in literature to the bunt shanty PADDY DOYLE:

//
FOR "ROUSING UP" THE BUNT OF A SAIL
To my way, hey, hey-yah, We'll all drink brandy and gin.
To my way, hey, hey-yah, We'll all shave under the chin.
To my way, hey, hey-yah, We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.
//

Good stuff! Lots that seems to be original and new.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 03:07 AM

Finishing up with Luce,

In the middle of the collection there are two chanties. Strange that he uses the "CH" spelling here, and the "SH" elsewhere. It's as if he is getting them from some particular (?) source.

The first has the "Stormy" lyrical theme, but the tune and chorus belong to GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL:

//
OLD STORM ALONG.
"CHANTY SONG."

Old Stormy was a good old man,
O good-bye, fare you well, Good-bye fare you well.
Old Stormy was good old man,
Hurrah! my boys, we're homeward bound.

I wish I was old Stormy's son
"

I'd buy me a bark of a thousand ton
"

I'd fill her up with New England rum
"

And my old shell-backs they'd have some
"

Now if ever again I get ashore
I'll wed the gal that I adore

And if ever childer we should have
I'll bring him up as a sailor lad
(Gruffly) Belay.
//

And the second is BLOW THE MAN DOWN. This would be the first literary mention of the shanty with "blow" in it. That "Blow the Man Down" was not necessarily well known (or, not outside of merchant sailors) is suggested in that Luce merely names it after the Blackball line theme of the solo.

//
BLACK BALL. "CHANTY" SONG.
Sung in the merchant service in heavy-hauling. No interval between verses.

Come all ye young fellows that follow the sea,
With a yeao, ho! blow the men down;
And pray pay attention and listen to me,
Oh! give me some time to blow the men down.

'Twas on board a Black Baller I first served my time,
To my yeo, ho! blow the men down;
And in the Black Baller I wasted my prime,
Oh! give me some time to blow the men down.

'Tis when a Black Baller's preparing for sea,
You'd split your sidea laughing at the sights you would see,

With the tinkers and tailors and soldiers and all,
That ship for good seamen on board a Black Ball,

'Tis when a Black Bailer is clear of the land,
Our boatswain then gives us the word of command,


"Lay aft!" was the cry "to the break of the poop!"
"Or I'll help you along with the toe of my boot,"

'Tis larboard and starboard on the deck you will sprawl,
For "Kicking Jack Williams" commands the "Black Ball,"

Pay attention to orders, yes, you, one and all,
For see right above you there flies the "Black Ball,"

'Tis when a black bailer cornes back to her dock,
The lasses and lads to the pier-head do flock,
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 03:49 AM

Luce's 1902 edition has some differences.

The "shanty-songs" in this edition are placed in an appendix at the end. There is new text with it, that is not just copying of Adams.

//
SHANTY SONGS.
{Folk Songs of the Sea.)

Shanties, sometimes spelled "Chanteys" are peculiar to the Merchant Service. The word is doubtless derived from the French word chanter, to sing. These songs are essentially working songs, and have been used from time immemorial to cheer the seaman in his labors of pulling, hauling, and heaving. This class of songs has been mentioned by some of the modern writers about the sea, Mr. Richard II. Dana in " Two Years Before the Mast" being perhaps the first. Clark Russell, Rudyard Kipling, and several others have also written on the subject. There is an excellent dissertation on shanties in an interesting book, entitled " On Board the Rocket," by Captain Robert C. Adams, from which, with the kind permission of the author, we take the liberty of making a few extracts. Shanties are generally classed under three heads, viz., the Short Drag, the Long Pull, and the Heaving shanties. The latter may be subdivided into windlass, capstan and pumping shanties. A few of these songs have several verses, such as the "Dreadnought," "High Barbary" (capstan shanty), and "The Black Ball," sometimes called "Blow the Man Down" (a long drag shanty), and have, on that account, been placed in the body of the book; but, generally speaking, each shanty has but one or two lines peculiar to it; just sufficient, in fact, to identify it with its melody. After those are sung, the "Shanty-man" is relied upon to improvise, or to use some of the stock phrases which are well known to sailors. Captain Adams says:...
//

So, he is also influenced by Russell now.
We get the idea that DREADNOUGHT and HIGH BARBARY were capstan shanties. And he add the "Blow the Man Down" title -- something I'll bet he became aware of only in the interim between editions.

He starts to quote Adams again...with quotation marks...but it is not verbatim. Weird. He seems now to be trying to work all the chanties from the first edition into one narrative. He adds the organizational terms "short drag" and "long drag," which were not used by Adams. (Who introduced these?)

After the short drag examples, he makes as if quoting Adams, but this never appeared in Adams:

//
"Among the short drag shanties may also be classed one which was very popular and is used for tossing the bunt of a foresail up on the yard. A foresail is very heavy; and a ship is generally short handed,— moreover, the foresail is seldom furled except in the worst weather, unless the ship is coming into port (when of course all sails are furled). So when the men have succeeded in gathering the sail up close to the yard, the shanty-man leads the following ditty; and at the last word every man gives a mighty pull. Two or three verses are generally enough to bring the sail up on the yard, when the gaskets are passed and the work finished.

FOR 'ROUSING UP' THE BUNT OF A SAIL....
//

AFter going through "long drag shanties" as per Adams, Luce throws in BLOW BOYS BLOW:

//
A Yankee ship came down the river,
Blow, boys, blow,
A Yankee ship came down the river,
Blow, my bully boys, blow

A Yankee ship with a Yankee skipper, Blow, etc.
A Yankee crew and a Yankee clipper,

Oh, how d'ye know she's a Yankee clipper?
Because the blood runs from the scuppers.

What d'ye think they have for dinner?
Monkey tails and bullock's liver.
//

He follows this with his version of ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN from the first edition.

Then adds HANGING JOHNNY. Then a new one for this edition: HANDY MY BOYS.

cont...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 09:05 AM

Gibb-

Got to love the multiple editions. The story never ends.

"Lee-gangway chorus" certainly conjures up an image of a crew marching in line as they haul along the lee rail as the haul, as in stamp-an' go" or "roll an' go."

My image of "haulin' on the lee fore brace" is one of hauling in place, the line moving back while the gang is securely braced.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 03:05 AM

Luce 1902 cont.

He then injects POOR OLD MAN with some words about it -- still in misleading quotation marks.

"Knock a Man Down" is repeated from the first edition, but with this new note:

//
"There is another song very much like the above, called 'Blow the Man Down.' The melody will be found under the head of the 'Black Ball.' 'Knock a Man Down' was one of the negro songs of the southern cotton ports, while 'Blow the Man Down' was one of the regular breezy Western Ocean Shanties, and is one of the best specimens of the shanty to be found. It makes a fine topsail halyard shanty.
//

Luce indicates here, haphazardly, what are some of the forebitters that were also chanties: HIGH BARBARY, YANKEE MAN-O-WAR, ROLLING HOME.

//
"There are other songs of similar character which will be found in the body of the book; they are frequently used as working songs at sea: Such as ' High Barbary,' 'The Yankee Man-o-war,' 'Rolling Home,' etc.
//

Moving on to "heaving" shanties, he gives RIO GRANDE as in Adams, but adds a note about the "milkmaid" lyrical variation that I feel may have come from reading LA Smith.

He has HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES in a form that corresponds to an article in THE SEA BREEZE of 1900 -- thought that article did not supply tune! The Characteristic phrase is "Sometimes we're bound for England...," along with the fact that he gives "heave away, my bullies."

LOWLANDS AWAY is here, in a form not yet noted. Minor mode.

//
I thought I heard the old man say.
Lowlands, lowlands, my Johnny,
That this would be our sailing day,
A dollar and a half a day.
//

He gives A-ROVING as in the first edition -- but now he actually calls it "A-Roving" and says it is "A favorite pumping shanty."

Next comes CLEAR THE TRACK, taken from Smith.

His version of SANTIANA has now be changed to as follows:

//
SANTA ANNA.
Oh, Santa Anna's dead and gone,
Away, oh, Santa Anna,
Oh, Santa Anna's dead and gone,
All on the plains of Mexico.
//

Luce also revises his "Old Storm Along" (MR. STORMALONG) by correcting his flip-flopped past version, and adding this note:

//
"'Old Storm Along' was a favorite pumping shanty and was considered to be a song of triumph over the storm fiend, notwithstanding which fact it is a somewhat dismal song, being sung in slow time and usually with many embellishments.
//

Instead of "Across the Western Ocean," he puts a new LEAVE HER JOHNNY in this edition:

//
Oh, the times are hard and the wages low,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
And there's sick foot of water in the hold,
Oh, it's time for us to leave her.

"In this song the shanty-man rehearses all the miseries of the crew, and though 'Growl and go' is considered a 'good man,' the singing of this song was often the forerunner of trouble, and was never sung by a contented crew.
//

The last new thing to be found here is a version of BLACKBALL LINE. It has a melody that I'd not encountered before.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 03:27 AM

And as for the songs in the non-shanties section of Luce 1902, here are the ones I find notable:

Sailing by the Lowlands 41
Rolling Home 47
Song of the Fishes 53
The Yankee Man-o-War 56
The Dreadnought 67
High Barbary 77
Good-Night Ladies 106
On Friday Morning We Set Sail (The Mermaid) 118
The Merman 130
The Black Ball Liner Shanty Song 155
Homeward Bound 179
The Flash Frigate 183

These differ from the 1st edition in:
1) Adding The Merman
2) Removal of the "Stormy" song set to Goodbye Fare you well form. Perhaps he thought that was an irregularity that needed revising.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 03:48 AM

Another 18th century reference to maritime work-singing--

THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for October 1775 has this note,in an unsigned "Essay on Musical Time," pg. 465:

//
Seamen at the windlafs, and on other occafions, fing, that they may all act together.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 04:00 AM

THE NEW AND COMPLETE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, Vol. 2, (London: Edward and Charles Dilly) by John Ash, 1775...has this entry:

//
Ve'a (s. a fea term) The cry made by failors when they pull or heave together.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 04:16 AM

BOYER'S ROYAL DICTIONARY, abridged, by Abel Boyer, additions by N. Salmon. London: Meffra, etc.1802.

Entry for French "voix":

"...Voix, Mar. fong employed by failors in heaving, hoifting, hauling, &c...."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 04:24 AM

Oops, here's an earlier appearance of the same, in Boyer's 1780 DICTIONNAIRE ROYAL FRANCOIS-ANGLOIS ET ANGLOIS-FRANCOIS. Lyon: Jean-Marie Bruyset.


"Voix, (en termes de mer.) The fong employed by failors, as in hauling hoifting, heaving, &c."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 11:57 AM

Here is an entry from 1886, by Robert C. Leslie, entitled SEA PAINTER'S LOG. There are two mentions about maritime work songs. The first has to do with fishermen hauling their boats ashore with the use of a capstan. Here is the link (p. 174):

http://books.google.com/books?id=7DY9AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+Sea+Painter's+Log&cd=1#v=onepage&q=An%20Old%20Sea%20Song&

In the second reference on page 242, Leslie discusses some specific chanties and gives us the words for: "A Hundred Years Ago", "Storm Along, Stormy", and "Good Morning, Ladies All."

http://books.google.com/books?id=7DY9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA242&dq=the+old+Black+X+sailing-liners&hl=en&ei=CHMXTcu-DoOBlAevp8S3DA&sa=X&oi

Here, Leslie is recollecting an earlier time about the "old Black X sailing-liners", who were "notable for their musical crews".

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 12:44 PM

This source was mentioned in the "SF to Sydney" thread, but I don't think it has been listed here so I will add it. John Mason's BEFORE THE MAST IN SAILING SHIPS recounts his experience on a cruise in 1884, from Newcastle in New South Wales (Australia) to San Francisco, with a cargo of coal. At one point he mentions and quotes from three chanties: "The Banks of the Sacramento", "Santy Anna", and "Sally Brown". The songs are being sund by "Campbell's men" as they load wheat at Port Costa.

http://books.google.com/books?id=JirozwWDDaMC&pg=PA66&dq=Campbell's+men+were+splendid+chanty+men&hl=en&ei=j3wXTfrMN4K0lQfZy4TLCw

Later on, in Liverpool (I think), they hove up the anchor and made "the Mersey ring", singing "Leave her, Johnny, Leave her," and "Sally Brown". Mason gives us quotes from those two songs.

http://books.google.com/books?id=JirozwWDDaMC&pg=PA118&dq=we+fairly+made+the+Mersey+ring&hl=en&ei=0H0XTYSYCYT7lweTwP3_Cw&sa=X&oi

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 02:40 PM

"Oh, the times are hard and the wages low,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
And there's sick(SIC) foot of water in the hold,
Oh, it's time for us to leave her."

Typo alert?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 10:42 PM

This is very similar to the experience of Basil Hall in the 1820s:

1849        Lyell, Sir Charles. A Second Visit to the United States, in the Years 1845-6. Vol. 1.

Going down the Alatamaha river from Darien, GA on Dec. 31, 1845.

//
...He came down the river to meet us in a long canoe, hollowed out of the trunk of a single cypress, and rowed by six negroes, who were singing loudly, and keeping time to the stroke of their oars. …
…For many a mile we saw no habitations, and the solitude was profound; but our black oarsmen made the woods echo to their song. One of them taking the lead, first improvised a verse, paying compliments to his master's family, and to a celebrated black beauty of the neighbourhood, who was compared to the "red bird." The other five then joined in chorus, always repeating the same words. Occasionally they struck up a hymn, taught them by the Methodists, in which the most sacred subjects were handled with strange familiarity, and which, though nothing irreverent was meant, sounded oddly to our ears, and, when following a love ditty, almost profane.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Dec 10 - 10:48 PM

And another rowing reference from a Britisher visiting the Charleston area, from June 1819

1823        Faux, William. _Memorable Days in America_. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall.

//
I noticed to-day the galley-slaves all singing songs in chorus, regulated by the motion of their oars; the music was barbarously harmonious. Some were plaintive love-songs. The verse was their own, and abounding either in praise or satire, intended for kind or unkind masters.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 12:18 PM

Gibb, it would be too easy to miss the significance of the French "voix" from 1780. I believe it's a quite a discovery.

It would be most interesting to know more about how widespread the term was and precisely what songs it was applied to.

It would be striking indeed if French had a *technical word* for "shanties" long before English - and that that word had nothing to do with French "chanter"!

Any serious French scholars out there who can add to our understanding?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 05:02 PM

Well, there's this; please stop me if this sort of thing is already part of the chanty etymology discussion. It is a sort of definition of "chanty-man":

1844. Gocvic, E. and H.G. Jansen. UNIVERSEL, HISTORIQUE ET RAISONNÉ, français-hollandais DE MARINE ET DE L'ART MILITAIRE. La Haye and Amsterdam: Les Fréres Van Cleef.

//
Chanteur, m. Mar. (Ouvrier ou matelot qui a la voix forte, et qui par un cri de convention, donne le signal du moment où les gens qui travaillent à une même manœuvre, doivent réunir leurs efforts). Opzinger, opzanger, m.
//

With the help of Google:
"Singer, m. Mar. (Worker or sailor who has strong voice and a shout of agreement, gives the signal when the people who work in the same maneuver, must combine their efforts). Opzinger, opzanger, m."

Those last two words are Dutch.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 05:17 PM

And, pg 127

//
CHANTER, v. n. Mar. (Faire certains cris de convention , pour donner le signal de l'instant où plusieurs hommes, employés à une même opération, doivent réunir leurs efforts et agir tous ensemble). Opzingen.
//

"Sing, V. n. Mar. (Make some calls convention to signal the moment when several men employed in the same transaction, should unite their efforts and act together). Opzingen."

http://books.google.com/books?ei=oQkZTdXHOY2WsgOOs4nQAg&ct=result&output=text&id

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 12:59 AM

Lighter,

I was thinking the same. Also wondering what this "ve'a" thing was. Is it just a phonetic realization of some nonsense sound? Or could it be an Anglicization of 'voix' perhaps? It is unclear to me whether it is the name for the 'cry' or else the word that is shouted when one cries.

I have a feeling that the French texts about shanties have mulled over these things already, but I have not read any of those. On the other hand, Hugill (for one) seems to have gobe through some of those. I don't know if he read them closely or just harvested texts from them. I'm inclined to think that he read them. And if that was the case, he never brought up any special insights they may have supplied.

Please let me apologize to any chanty scholars who read this and who have studied French sources -- I don't mean to imply that you have not.

Anyway, as for a word for shanty that the French may have had before English-speakers, there is of course "chant."

My coming upon "chanter", as the verb for singing the maritime work song, and "chanteur", for the person who sings, is pretty exciting for me. But again I say that I don't know how significant that really is in adding to work of people like J. Lighter and S. Gardham on the etymology issue. That is, I don't know if it's a situation like "Yup, we already knew that. What we still need to really confirm is XYZ."

What we don't have, indeed, is the noun. I presume it would have been "chant", but I'd like to see it -- specifically, with reference to "maritime worksong" for example.

"Chant" does seem a little obvious. It is not a "special" word for a thing in French -- it would only have had extra connotations...versus in English where it is a special/unique term.

If "chant" is the word, then we still need the gaps filled as to how exactly it got borrowed and applied to what English speakers were doing. I would also like to know if "chant" had any particular connotations, in both the French and English uses, for types of song. Did English speakers borrow it when they were still in the days of the rudimentary "yeo heave ho" songs, or was it only first used in application to the African-American style worksongs?

Were the cotton stowers observed by Nordhoff calling their songs "chants" in the regular English sense, or were they French-influenced folk (i.e. the Creole environment) using it similarly to a description of maritime work songs in use by the French?

Anyway, Boyer's French-English dictionary was first published as early as 1702 it seems (a copy was recently digitized on Google), and FWIW the maritime definition of "voix" is not there. Nor is there anything of note under "chanteur" or "chanter." That may suggest that this meaning didnt come round until later in the 18th century.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 01:44 AM

Here's an earlier reference to "chanter" and "chanteur" with maritime meanings.

1792. Romme, Charles. _Dictionnaire de la marine françoise._ Paris: Barrois l'aîné.

//
Chanter. v. n. To song. C'est saire certains cris de convention, pour donner le signal , de l'instant ou plusieurs hommes employés à une même opération , doivent réun? leurs eíforts & agir tous ensemble. — La maniere-de chanter où le cri de convention est variable suivant les chanteurs.
//

"Sing. v. n. To song. It's necessary some cries of agreement, to give the signal, the time or more men employed in the same transaction, must meet? eíforts & their act together. - The manner of singing where-the-art convention varies according to the singers."

//
Chanteur. s. m. Ouvrier qui agissant concurremment avec d'autres , leur donne le signal, par un cri de convention , du moment où ils doivent déployer ensemble toutes leurs sorces , pour produire par leur réunion, un effet déterminé , qui exige non seulement toutes ces piússancas , mais aussi leur concours simultané.
//

"Singer. s. m. Workman acting in conjunction with others, gives them the signal, a cry of agreement, when they should deploy all their sorces together to produce by their union, a specific effect, which requires not only all the power rating, but also assist simultaneously."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 01:56 AM

1825. Willaumez, Jean-Baptiste-Philibert. _Dictionnaire de marine_. New edition. Paris: Bachelier.

//
CHANTER, v. n. Vieil usage de faire crier quelques hommes qu'on nommait chanteurs, pour donner le signal de réunion d'efforts àfaire par plusieurs sur une bouline, ou pour toute autre opération qu'on exécute dans les ports et sur les grands bâtimens. Dans un bâtiment de guerre bien ordonné, on ne permet plus de chanter ainsi. Voy. Boulina.
//

"SING, v. n. Old custom to yell a few men who were called "chanteurs," to give the signal for both business meeting by several efforts on a bowline, or any other operation that executes in ports and on major buildings. In a warship well ordered, we can no longer "sing" as well. Voy. Boulin."

//
BOULINA-HA-IIA ! Arrache ! Boulina-ha-ha, déralingue ! etc. Ancien chant des matelots français pendant qu'ils bâient sur les quatre principales boulines , notamment celle du grand et du petit hunier. Ce chant est si ridicule que plusieurs capitaines militaires le défendent.
//

"Boulina-hA-hA! Hard! Boulina-ha-ha, déralingue! etc. Former French sailors sing while on the four main bâient bowlines, including that of large and small topsail. This song is so ridiculous that many defend military captains."

The translation needs tweaking...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 02:02 AM

//
HISSA, O, HA , HISSE: chant de l'homme qui donne la voix pour réunir les efforts de plusieurs autres sur un même cordage afin de produire un plus grand effet. Ce chant ou cri n'a plus guère lieu que dans quelques ports.
//

"HISSA, O, HA, HISSE: song of the man who gives voice to unite the efforts of several others on the same rope to produce a greater effect. This song or cry has hardly place in a few ports."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 03:45 AM

Sorry to interrupt:
Anybody within the receiving range of Irish 'Lyric FM' can catch three - hour long radio programmes on sea songs over the next three nights, starting at 6.00pm tonight and described as "a three part exploration of Ireland's song tradition" and are as follows:
Wed - 'Hard Men To Shave', narratives in the shanties and ballads of the 19th century.
Thur. - The Tumbling Wave, Coastal songs, including tales of shipwrecks, smuggers, drownings and heroic rescues.
Fri. - Love is Tempestuous.
The programmes have been researched and are presented by Mary Owen.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 04:25 AM

A few details on the Mason book introduced above by John Minear. The original of _Before the Mast in Sailing Ships_ came in 1928. It deals with the 1880s-90s.

Aug. 1884. Having left SF bay, up the Sacramento river. Heaving anchor, to moor at Port Costa, with stevedore crew. Fully rigged British ship. SACRAMENTO, SANTIANA, SALLY BROWN. Pg 66:

//
Campbell's men were all splendid chanty men and they fairly made the harbour ring with the melody of their strong voices. The leading man was a negro who had a powerful voice. The first song was "The Banks of Sacramento." The words are:—

"Blow, boys, blow, for Californio,
For there is plenty of gold,
So as I have been told,
On the banks of Sacramento," etc.

Another good chanty was:—

"Oh, Mexico, I do very well know;
Hooray, Santa Anna;
For Santa Anna has gained the day
Along the plains of Mexico," etc.

Another was "Sally Brown"—:

"Oh, Sally Brown was a bright Mulatto.
Was a bright Mulatto,
She drinks rum and chews tobacco;
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown," etc.
//

Pg. 74:

//
A very dull-looking crowd manned the capstan until Potter, the Englishman, started a chanty:—
"He are homeward bound for Falmouth Town…"
''

Pg117:

//
As we walked merrily around the capstan Cockney Bob was at his best. His first chanty was:
"We are homeward bound for Liverpool Town,
Good-bye fare ye well, good-bye fare ye well;
Homeward bound for Liverpool town…"
//

In the Mersey (Liverpool area), heaving anchor on final arrival, early 1885. Adds LEAVE HER JOHNNY . P118:

//
As we hove up anchor that afternoon we fairly made the Mersey ring with our chanteying. Cockney Bob started with "Leave her, Johnnie, leave her":

"I thought I heard our captain say,
        Leave her, Johnnie, leave her.
Come along and get your pay;
        Leave her, Johnnie, leave her.
"Times are hard and wages low,
        Leave her, Johnnie, leave her,
A hungry ship and a drunken crew;
        Leave her, Johnnie, leave her."
Etc., etc.

Another chantey was "Sally Brown":

"Oh, Sally Brown was a bright Mulatto,
She drinks rum and chews tobacco;
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown,
Way hay, roll and go."
                        Etc., etc.
//

//
With no discernable context, 1885. MR. STORMALONG. pg 121:

Old Stormalong has gone to rest,
Of all the sailors he was the best;
We'll dig his grave with a silver spade,
And lower him down with a golden chain—
        By all his shipmates blest.
To my aye, aye, Mister Stormalong.
                Etc., etc.
//

P157:

//
The first chantey was "Leave her, Johnny, leave her":

"A leaky ship and a drunken skipper,
It is time for us to leave her;
Captain drinks whisky and rum…"

There might be more chanties; I've only previewed this.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 01:24 PM

Seems to me that the French "chanter" in this case means/ meant something like English "to sing out an order (for sailors to get to work)," rather than "to sing a shanty."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 05:40 PM

George H. Haswell was a passenger on board S.S. Pamaratta, London to Sydney, in the fall of 1879. He noted ten shanties with their melodies as sung during the voyage and published them in the passengers' on-board newspaper, "The Paramatta Sun." Graham Seal transcribed Haswell's work in a booklet called "Ten Shanties Sung on the Australian Run 1879" (Antipodes Press, 1992).

This is an extremely valuable collection because it was made on the spot before much on shanties - or their music - had been published.

Even more interesting, L. A. Smith tells us in "Music of the Waters" (1884) that another Pamaratta passenger had sent her all the shanties Haswell had printed, and she includes them, mostly accurately and complete, in her own book. This is unfortunate because that publication allowed the Pamaratta shanties to influence all post-1884 collectors to some degree when otherwise they would have been a unique standard of comparison for later versions.

Anyway, the following shanties from "Music of the Waters" can be dated definitely to 1879, are entirely authentic, and do not represent lines conflated by a landlubber editor from different versions.

The shanties are:

1. Heave Away, My Johnny
2. Haulin' [sic]the Bowlin'
3. Handy Jim
4. [Away] Haul Away
5. The Dead Horse
6. Bonny [i.e., Boney]
7. Whisky [Johnny]
8. Blow the Man Down
9. Ranzo
10. Good-bye, Fare Ye Well

Had there been more issues of the "Paramatta Sun," there may have been more shanties - but no such luck!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: shipcmo
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 06:16 PM

Jeez,
Just as I thought I had all the publications I should have.
I recently ordered "Around Cape Horn to Honolulu on The Bark Amy Turner 1880" By: L. Vernon Briggs

But thanks anyway for the "heads up".

Cheers,

Geo

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 05:39 AM

Excellent info, Lighter -- and timely! I am about the dissect/log LA Smith; it is the last (for now!) textual source of the 1880s that I have.

***

L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_ (London, 1888).

The editor of _The Shipping World_ had commissioned her to write a series of articles on shanties. Do we know these articles?

Introduction dated June 1887. I believe that is too late to have had access to Davis and Tozer's collection FWIW.

She learned some schanties directly from sailors. The introductory notes make much of this, though we know that so many of her items were just culled from other texts.

I see some plagiarism so far from the unsigned 1869 Chambers's Journal article, so we know for sure that she read that (or wrote it?!).

The chapter of interest is the first,

//
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN "CHANTIES;" OR, WORKING SONGS OF THE SEA.
//

I begin at a passage saying how chanties were not part of navy life:

//
On vessels of war, the drum, fife, or boatswain's whistle furnish the necessary movement regulator. There is a vast difference between the merchant sailor and his fellow "salt," the man-o'-war's man, whom they call "Johnny Haultaut," or "John o' Fight." They hold each other in mutual derision, although without any unfriendly feeling. Accustomed to the comparative independence and free life of a merchant-vessel, they look with scorn on the binding discipline and severe penalties of a man-o'-war, and laugh contemptuously as they watch the crew in uniform dress walk round the windlass, and weigh anchor like mechanical dummies:—
    "Your work is very hard, my boys,
    Upon the ocean sea,
   And for your reefing topsails,
       I'd rather you as me—
I feather my oar unto the shore,
So happy as I be in the Guard-ship, ho!"

No hearty chanties there—no fine chorus ringing with feeling and sentiment, brought out with the sort of despairing wildness, which so often strikes neighbouring landsfolk with the deepest emotion. He likes to growl —and he may, so long as he goes about his work. I have heard mates say, "Give me a man that can growl : the more he growls, the more he works." Silence reigns supreme aboard a Queen's ship; no general order is given by word of mouth, the boatswain's whistle takes its place. There, where the strength of one or two hundred men can be applied at one and the same effort, the labour is not intermittent, but continuous. The men form on either side of the rope to be hauled, and walk away with it like firemen marching with their engine, when the headmost pair bring up at the stern or bow, they part, and the two streams flow back to the starting-point outside the following files. Thus in this perpetual "follow my leader way" the work is done, with more precision and steadiness than in the merchant service. In it the heavier work is done by each man doing his utmost at the same moment. This is regulated by the "Chanty," and here is the true singing of the deep sea—it is not recreation, it is an essential part of the work. It will masthead the topsail-yards, on making sail; it will start the anchor, ride down the main-tack with a will, it will break out and take on board cargo, and keep the pumps going. A good voice and a stirring chorus are worth an extra man.
//

A similarly worded passage occurred in Symondson's 1876 TWO YEARS ABAFT THE MAST

cont...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 08:54 AM

"A good voice and a stirring chorus are worth an extra man."

"five extra men"

"10 extra men"

A phrase which has become so inflated with each repetition that it currently rivals the total of posts on "The Mother of All BS Threads."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble et al

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 09:03 AM

No excuse for failing to proof-read.

The correct name of the vessel is "Parramatta." And, as Gibb observes, the correct publication date of Smith's book is 1888.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 01:26 AM

Indeed, Charley! If you search this thread for "extra" you can see the development of that theme. In fact, it looks like that line first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly of 1858, and Smith has copied it here. This appears to be ground zero for that cliche, as I don't find it in any of the earlier sources.

***
LA Smith, cont.

The sentiment that steam has killed chanties -- an I idea which I believe "first" appeared in Alden (1882). Dunno who wrote for the "St. James's Gazette."

//
A writer in the St. James's Gazette of December 6th, 1884, says: "The beau-ideal chanty-man has been relegated to the past. His death-knell was the shriek of the steam-whistle, and the thump of the engines. When he flourished British ships were manned by British seamen, and carried much stronger crews in proportion to their tonnage than their successors. In those days gipsywinches, patent windlasses and capstans, had no existence, and the heaving and hauling had to be performed by manual strength and labour; and to make the work 'go' lighter, the chanty-man chanted his strange lays, while the tars with hearty good-will joined in the refrains and choruses. ...

... Old tars tell us that the chanties are not what they were before steam became so universal: one added, on telling me this, " I'll tell you what it is, Miss, steamboats have not only taken the wind out of our sails, but they have taken the puff out of us too, and them as remembers ship-life as it was, will scarcely recognize it now-a-days." This advocate of the old school was one of many "old salts" whose acquaintance I made, and who goodnaturedly sang for me several of their best-remembered chanties in a Sailors' Home in the North of England. I was very agreeably surprised at the effect of some of these chanty choruses; some of the men present had really good voices, and they sang with a life and spirit, and with as much rhythmical accuracy as though they were miles away on the briny ocean "heaving the windlass round, or hoisting the ponderous anchor."

Whilst on the subject of Sailors' Homes, I should like to digress for just one moment to express my cordial thanks to all those connected with the institutions that have so greatly helped me in the matter of collecting these chanties. To the Secretaries, Missionaries, and sailor inmates of many of the English Homes, I am indebted for much of the information I have obtained. ...
//

So she cites her human subjects: old gents at sailors' homes. We will see, I hope, just which chanties came from them and which were drawn from elsewhere.

Several types of chanties:

pg7
//
There are several kinds of chanty, though I believe, properly speaking, they should only be divided into two classes, namely, those sung at the capstan and those sung when hauling on a rope: but there are, over and above these, pumping songs—pumping being part of the daily morning duty of a well-disciplined merchant-vessel, just a few minutes' spell to keep the vessel free and the cargo unharmed by bilge-water; it is not a dismal sound at all, rather a lively one, on the contrary. There are also chanties used when holy-stoning the decks, and when stowing away the cargo; and indeed I think one may safely conclude that every one of Jack's duties, from Monday morning to Saturday night, is done to some sort of music, and according to the-Philadelphia catechism his labours do not end then, for in it we are taught that—

"Six days shalt thou labour and do all thou art able, And on the seventh, holy-stone the deck and clean-scrape the cable."

There is one job that sailors seldom fail to get, even when the weather is such as to prevent other work being done, and that is holy-stoning the decks. The men have to kneel down and push backwards and forwards a goodsized stone (usually sandstone), the planks being previously wetted and sprinkled with sand. From the fact of kneeling to it, this unpleasant task is known at sea under the title of " saying prayers."
//

Another cliche begins here. And this is the first mention of holystoning chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 02:39 AM

Capstan shanties. The prose is from 1869 CHAMBERS'S, but the chanty YEO HEAVE HO is a new addition:

//
In the capstan chanties the metre is generally long, and they are of a more pathetic nature than the hauling ones. To those who have heard it as the men run round the capstan, bringing up the anchor from the English mud of a ship outward bound for a two or three years' trip, perhaps never to return, what can be more sad or touching, although sung with a hearty good-will, than "Yo, heave ho!" [with tune]

Yo, heave, ho! Round the capstan go!
Round, men, with a will! Tramp, and tramp it still!
The anchor must be heaved, The anchor must be heaved.
(Chorus.) Yo, ho! Yo, ho! Yo, ho! Yo, ho!
//

This is followed by the 1869 CHAMBERS'S versions of OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND and SACRAMENTO, then the intro to RIO GRANDE, but with a new tune and more than one set of lyrics. Is this another original? She also mentions SANTIANA and PADDY LAY BACK (though, as Hugill would later note, she notes it as if it were 2 different songs, viz. "Valparaiso" and "Round the Horn" -- merely repeating the mistake in CHAMBERS'S).

//
Another outward-bound chanty is "To Rio Grande we're bound away ;" the tune of this last-named is very mournful, as will be found in the fews bars of the melody which follows:

The ship went sailing out over the bar,
O Rio! O Rio!
They pointed her nose for the Southron Star,
And we're bound for the Rio Grande.
Then away, love, away,
Away down Rio;
Then fare you well, my pretty young girl,
We're bound for the Rio Grande.

"Valparaiso," "Round the Horn," and "Santa Anna," are all much in the same style as "Rio Grande."

Solo.—"Were you ever in Rio Grande?
Chorus.—Away you Rio.
Solo.—O were you ever in Rio Grande?
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande.
      Away you Rio, away you Rio.
      Fare you well, my pretty young girl,
      I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Solo.—As I was going down Broadway Street,
Solo.—A pretty young girl I chanced to meet,
Chorus.—I am bound to Rio Grande.
Away you Rio, away you Rio,
Fare you well, my pretty young girl,
I am off to Rio Grande.
Solo.—Oh where are you going, my pretty maid?
Solo.—Oh where are you going, my pretty maid?
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Away you Rio, &c.
Solo.—I am going a milking, sir, she said.
Solo.—I am going a milking, sir, she said.
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Away you Rio, &c.
Solo.—What is your fortune, my pretty maid?
Solo.—What is your fortune, my pretty maid?
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande,
Away you Rio, &c.
Solo.—My face is my fortune, sir, she said.
Solo.—My face is my fortune, sir, she said.
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Away you Rio, &c.
Solo.—What is your father, my pretty maid?
Solo.—What is your father, my pretty maid?
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Away you Rio, away you Rio.
Then fare you well, my pretty young girl,
I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Solo.—My father's a farmer, sir, she said.
Solo.—My father's a farmer, sir, she said.
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Away you Rio, &c.
Solo.—What is your mother, my pretty maid?
Solo.—What is your mother, my pretty maid?
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Away you Rio, &c.
Solo.—Wife to my father, sir, she said.
Solo.—Wife to my father, sir, she said.
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Away you Rio, &c.
Solo.—Then I can't marry you, niy pretty maid.
Solo.—Then I can't marry you, my pretty maid.
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Away you Rio, &c.
Solo.—Nobody asked you, sir, she said.
Solo.—Nobody asked you, sir, she said.
Chorus.—I am bound to the Rio Grande.
Away you Rio, &c."
//

The next bit is also lifted from CHAMBER'S:

//
American vessels, I think, may be charged with the following, which are all capstan chanties,—" Oceanida," "Johnny's Gone," " The Black Ball Line," and" Slapandergosheka," the last-named with the incomprehensible title is addressed "To all you ladies now on land," and may be said to be slightly egotistical; it commences—
"Have you got, lady, a daughter so fair? [*"fine" in CHAMBERS'S]
       Slapandergosheka,
That is fit for a sailor that has crossed the Line?
       Slapandergosheka."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 02:59 AM

pg. 12
On the ethnic and national associations of chanties, Smith says it is impossible to distinguish British and American ones, but then goes on to say that there are some about which there is no doubt. No examples. Then notes that Black singers made up a lot of them.

//
It is almost impossible to discover which are British and which American, amongst the chanties, they are so mixed up with each other, and any which may formerly have been characteristic of the one country, have become so cosmopolitan, that the sailors themselves have been unable to discriminate between them. I have, therefore, acting upon some very reliable advice, thought it better to classify under one heading all chanties with English words, although there are many cases where the nationality is beyond doubt. Coloured men being, as a rule, such good singers and ingenious poets, may be credited with many; and most probably "Slapandergosheka' was first pronounced by some more than usually clever nigger.
//

The next passage (which I'll refrain from posting) is based on ATLANTIC MONTHLY 1858 introducing BOWLINE. However, she makes the mistake of calling it a capstan chanty. And the text + tune given are out of Alden 1882.

She admits her debt to CHAMBERS'S here:

//
This very practical and certainly nautical explanation of the use of a capstan chanty I found in an old number of Chambers' Journal, to whose clever and instructive columns I owe many hints on the subject of sailors and their songs.
//

This is the second time she called "Bowline" a capstan chanty. Is it a typo (twice), or is she really that confused about chanty forms? It does seem to undermine her credibility.

Another version of "Bowline" follows, that appears to be one of the Haswell shanties noted by Lighter up-thread:

//
Another version of "Haulin' the Bowlin'."
i. Haul on the bowlin', the fore and main-top bowlin',
Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin', Haul.
2. Haul on the bowlin', the packet she's a rollin',
Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin', Haul.
3. Haul on the bowlin', the captain he's a growlin',
Haulin' the bowlin', the bowlin', Haul.

At the word Haul, which terminates each couplet, the tars give a tremendous jerk on the rope.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 03:15 AM

LA Smith, pg. 14, give the rough tune, no lyrics, to JOHNNY BOKER, with this note:

//
I have no words to the next bowline song, which rejoices in the name of " Johnny Polka."
//

This pretty much proves that she did not read Adam's ROCKET.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jan 11 - 02:00 PM

Just got my copy of   L. Vernon Briggs, "Around Cape Horn to Honolulu on The Bark Amy Turner 1880", and found the following references:

"Old Horse", p44,
"What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?", p86-7
"The Ship "Neptune"", 87-9
"As I Was A Walking Up Dennison Street", 89-91
"Ranzo". p92-4
"Orenso", p95-8
"Haul Away, Joe", p98-100
"Blow, My Bully Boys, Blow", 100-02
"Whiskey for My Johnny", p103-04
"Santa Anna on the Plains of Mexico", p170-2

I came upon the reference to this book in the Carpenter Online Catalog.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 08 Jan 11 - 04:09 PM

LA Smith, cont.:

The following passage, introducing LOWLANDS AWAY and ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN is essentially copied from Alden 1882. Smith does one little trick in that she runs w/ Allen's note about how "My dollar and a half a day" could be a chorus variation, and she goes ahead and fits it into a full stanza. However, Alden had said that it was the "second chorus," but she puts it as the first.

//
One of the wildest and most mournful of the sailor songs is "Lowlands." The chorus is even more than usually meaningless, but the song is the sighing of the wind and the throbbing of the restless ocean translated into melody:—

I dreamt a dream the other night:
Lowlands, Lowlands, Hurrah, my John!
I dreamt I saw my own true love:
My Lowlands a-ray!
                  
Much care was evidently given to "Lowlands" by the chanty-men. It has often been improved. In its original form the first chorus was shorter and less striking, and the words of the second chorus were, "My dollar and a half a day."

Solo.—Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John.
Chorus.—My dollar and a half a day.
Solo.—I took up my clothes and I went away.
Chorus.—Lowlands, Lowlands, a-ray.

Of the same general character as " Lowlands," though inferior to it, is the song that was usually known as "Across the Western Ocean." There are several variations of the second chorus, none of which could be called improvements.

I wisht I was in London town:
Oh, say, where you bound to?
That highway I'd cruise round and round,
Across the Western Ocean.
//

Following this, Smith copies STORMY ALONG and MR. STORMALONG from Alden.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 01:22 AM

LA Smith, cont.

Smith next gives two more "Stormy" texts, without score. The first, a MR. STORMALONG, is one that I've not seen yet exactly in print, and it appears to be one Smith collected in her fieldwork.

//
This is a great favourite, and often sung after a gale of wind.

Solo.—Old Storm Along is dead and gone,
Chorus.—Ay ! ay ! ay ! Mr. Storm Along!
Solo.—When Stormy died, I dug his grave,
I dug his grave with a silver spade,
I hove him up with an iron crane,
And lowered him down with a golden chain
Old Storm Along is dead and gone.
Chorus.—Ay ! ay ! ay ! Mr. Storm Along.

Each line is repeated twice. The solemnity of the air and the mock-seriousness of the words have a most comical effect, and reminded me very much, when I heard them sung, of the tale of " The Death of Cock Robin," the well-known favourite of the children's picture-books. ...
//

This is followed by a STORMY harvested from Leslie's SEA PAINTER'S (1886):

//
I have since come across a somewhat different version of the words of this chanty, in which "Stormy" was written "Starmy," and of which the ending was—

Solo.—We carried him along to London town,
Chorus.—Starm Along, boys, Starm Along.
Solo.—We carried him away to Mobille Bay,
Chorus.—Starm Along, boys, Starm Along.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 01:57 AM

Next comes...

//
HAULING CHANTIES.

Of these, there is first the hand-over-hand song, in very quick time; then the long-pull song, when there are, perhaps, twenty or thirty men pulling on a rope. To be effective, the pull must be made unanimously. This is secured by the chanty, the pulling made at some particular word in the chorus. For example, in the following verse the word "handy" is the signal, at each repetition, for a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together:—

Chorus.—Oh, shake her up, and away we'll go,
So handy, my girls, so handy;
Up aloft from down below,
So handy, my girls, so handy.

For heavier work, or where hands are few, one of longer metre is used, such as "O Long Storm, storm along, Stormy," which must not, however, be confounded with the capstan chanty," Old Storm Along."
//

HANDY MY BOYS has been taken from Chambers's 1869. Smith lists the whole thing as "Chorus," as if it were done hand-over-hand style, although the description makes it out to be a double-pull halyard chanty.

The note about the "longer metre" had been in the 1868 article, followed by a sheet chanty. The 1869 got it messed up, by making a false contrast between "So Handy" for halliards and other examples for halliards. Furthermore, "O Long Storm, storm along, Stormy" had been lifted from the Atlantic Monthly 1858 (where it was a pump chanty) and plopped into the 1869 in the wrong place. Smith is perpetuating the error, I think. Again I think that Smith really did not get the difference between types of chanties, and how she categorizes them should be viewed with skepticism.

Smith is the "first" to name BLOW THE MAN DOWN in print. We are forced to conclude that she collected it, though she does say it was "one of the most well-known."

//
One of the best and jolliest quick-time songs, and certainly one of the most well-known, is "Blow the Man Down." It is very tuneful, and though, perhaps, the words are scarcely to be admired, still it is a genuine chanty, and has a verve and vigour about it that speak of its value as an incentive to the labour of hoisting the topsail-yards or any other hauling work :— [with score]

I'm a true English sailor, Just come from Hong-Kong,
Tibby, Heigh, ho, blow the man down!
My stay on the old English shore won't be long,
Then give me some time to blow the man down.

Then we'll blow the man up, and well blow the man down,
Tibby! Heigh, ho, blow the man down !
So we'll blow the man up, and we'll blow the man down!
Then give me some time to blow the man down.

Solo.—As I was a-walking down Winchester Street—
Heigh-ho, blow the man down;
A pretty young girl I happened to meet,
Oh, give me some time to blow the man down.
Chorus.— So we'll blow the man up, and we'll blow the man down,
Heigh-ho, blow the man down.
We'll blow the man up, and we'll blow the man down,
Oh, give me some time to blow the man down.
//

Funny how she has divided Solo and Chorus -- not like a halyard chanty at all. My guess is that someone sang it for her solo, and she did not understand where the chorus parts would come in.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 02:38 AM

cont...

REUBEN RANZO looks to be an original collection by Smith:

//
"Reuben Ranzo" is, perhaps, the greatest favourite with the men of all the chanties. The tune is mournful and almost haunting in its monotony:

[musical score]

Solo.—Pity Reuben Ranzo,
Chorus.—Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo.
Solo.—Oh, pity Reuben Ranzo,
Chorus.—Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo.
Solo.—Reuben was no sailor,
Chorus.—Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo.
Solo.—Reuben was no sailor,
Chorus.—Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo.
Solo.—By trade he was a tailor,
Chorus.—Ranzo, &c.
Solo.—He went to school on Monday,
Chorus.—Ranzo, &c.
Solo.—Learnt to read on Tuesday,
Chorus.—Ranzo, &c.

The chorus continues the same all through, the pull always being made at the word "Ranzo." Each line of the solo is also repeated.

Solo.—He learnt to write on Wednesday,
He learnt to fight on Thursday,
On Friday he beat the master,
On Saturday we lost Reuben,
And where do you think we found him?
Why, down in yonder valley,
Conversing with a sailor.
He shipped on board of a whaler;
He shipped as able seamen do;
Oh, pity Reuben Ranzo.
The captain was a bad man,
He took him to the gangway,
And gave him five-and-forty.
The mate he was a good man,
He taught him navigation;
Now he's captain of a whaler,
And married the captain's daughter,
And now they both are happy.
This ends my little ditty,
This ends my little ditty.
Chorus.—Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!
Belay there, lads, belay.
//

Next she quotes Alden on HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING. She adds her own note about "hilo," mentioning TOMMY'S GONE, but does not offer lyrics.

//
I have a song amongst my collection entitled "Tommy's gone to 'Hilo,'" which again upsets the theory that "hilo" was an active verb; at least, in this instance, it rises to the dignity of a proper noun :—
//

Then the unique collected chanty, UP A HILL. It is reminiscent of a Grimm fairy tale. Smith may have remembered it wrong.

//
There is another topsail-yard chorus something like this :—

Solo.—There once was a family living on a hill,
And if they're not dead they're living there still.
Chorus.—Up, up, my boys, up a hill;
Up, up, my boys, up a hill.
//

I've interpreted this HERE.

And it is sung to the tune of "Blow the man down." Then there is the well-known topsail-halyard song, " Sally Racket," greatly used by the sailors when loading their ships with timber at Quebec. In this chanty some of the lines are much longer than others, and to any one not acquainted with Jack Tar's style of singing, it would seem impossible to make them come in, but the sailors seem to be able to manage it. Like "Reuben Ranzo," the solo lines of Sally Racket are always repeated, the same chorus occurring after each solo line:

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 03:12 AM

Smith's CHEERLY also looks original -- characterized by her giving the melody without the words beneath the notes. Actually, it is not clear here how the words should fit the melody she gives. But here is the description, where she calls the chanty "Sally Racket":

//
Then there is the well-known topsail-halyard song, " Sally Racket," greatly used by the sailors when loading their ships with timber at Quebec. In this chanty some of the lines are much longer than others, and to any one not acquainted with Jack Tar's style of singing, it would seem impossible to make them come in, but the sailors seem to be able to manage it. Like "Reuben Ranzo," the solo lines of Sally Racket are always repeated, the same chorus occurring after each solo line:

Solo.-- Sally Racket, hoy oh,
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men.
Solo.-- Sally Racket, hoy oh!
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men.
Solo.-- Sally Racket, hoy oh!
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men; a haughty hoy oh! cheerily, men.
Solo.-- Pawned my jacket, hoy oh.
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men.
Solo.-- Pawned my jacket, hoy oh.
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men; a haughty hoy oh! cheerily, men.
Solo.-- Sold the ticket, hoy oh.
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men.
Solo.-- Sold the ticket, hoy oh.
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men.
Solo.-- And sold the ticket, hoy oh.
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men; a haughty hoy oh! cheerily, men.
Solo.-- That's not the worst, hoy oh.
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men.
Solo.-- And that's not the worst, hoy oh.
Chorus.-- And that's not the worst, hoy oh.
Solo.-- And that's not the worst, hoy oh.
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men; a haughty hoy oh! cheerily, men.
Solo.-- She left me in the lurch, hoy oh.
Chorus.-- Cheerily, &c.
Solo.-- I don't care a rap, hoy oh.
Chorus.-- Cheerily, men.
Solo.—If she never comes back, hoy oh.
Chorus.—Cheerily, men.
Solo.—I can get another girl, hoy oh.
Chorus.—Cheerily, men.
Solo.—Good-bye, Sally Racket, hoy oh.
Chorus.—Cheerily, men.
Solo.—You can keep my old jacket, hoy oh.
Chorus.—Cheerily, cheerily, men.
Solo.—And burn the ticket, hoy oh.
Chorus.—Cheerily, cheerily, men.
(Spoken) That'll do, boys.

The words at the end of the song are spoken by the man in charge of the work—mate, second mate, or boatswain. In the chorus the word "men" is accented by the pull; and in the solo lines the word "oh" is where another pull is taken.
//

Well, this is interesting. Pull on "oh" and "men"? I thought it was one pull on "cheer-". I could see how it could possibly work, but with the melody she gives, those words are on unaccented notes...

The "pawned my jacket/sold the ticket" idea also appeared in a Cheerily up-thread, from 1852.

Smith follows this with a curious note that, despite the quaint wording, rings rather true to me in the context of this thread:

//
I am told that the oldest chanty on record is one that goes by the name of "Cheerily, men; oh holly, hi-ho, cheerily, men." But at what time, in what place it is used —or I should say, was used, for I think it is almost obsolete now—I cannot say. It is, however, a typical specimen of an English sailor-song of a remote period, for undoubtedly many of the sailor-songs are of negro origin. They are the reminiscences of melodies sung by negroes stowing cotton in the holds of ships in Southern ports. The "chanty-men" have, to some extent, kept to the silly words of the negroes, and have altered the melodies to suit their purposes.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 03:29 AM

Smith has PAY ME THE MONEY DOWN, with lyrics taken from Atlantic Monthly 1858. I don't know where she gets the "English comic song" idea, and the "pay me my money" seems quite in line with stevedore songs.

//
Any quick, lively tune, to which you might work a fireengine, will serve for the music of a pumping song. The words vary with every fancy. "Pay me the money down" is a very favourite pumping chorus. Somehow thus the verse runs (it is known as an English comic song):—

Solo.—Your money, young man, is no object to me.
Chorus.—Pay me the money down.
Solo.—Half-a-crown's no great demand.
Chorus.—Pay me the money down.
Solo & Chorus.—Money down, money down;
             Pay me the money down.

It seems a very strange song for men so little given to avarice as sailors are. Their parting ceremony on embarking is usually to pitch their last shilling on to the wharf, to be scrambled for by the land-sharks. Nor yet does there seem much sense in it, but it serves to man and move the brakes merrily. The following tune is sometimes used for this chanty :—
PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE. [score]
//

Even though she got the lyrics from a book, did she hear this sung? Otherwise, how does she know the tune?

Then comes "Highland day and off she goes," from Atlantic Monthly.

Her RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN is original:

//
RUN, LET THE BULL CHIMES RUN. [score]

This is another favourite pumping song :—

Chorus.—Run, let the bull chimes run,
Chorus.—We'll run,—
Solo.—Away to America.
Chorus.—Way aha, way aha!
Way aha, way aha!
Chorus.—We'll pump her dry and get our grog.
Solo.—Run, let the bull chimes run.
Chorus.—We'll pump her dry and away we'll go,
Solo.—Away to America!
//

Once again, the solo - chorus structure anfd the notation don't quite jive.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 04:32 AM

Smith next gives "THE LION MAN-O'-WAR," without saying it is a chanty, only that it was "A very popular song at Portsmouth..."

She follows it with HOME DEARIE HOME, the shore composition. Her version of the words, unless they were popular in periodicals/broadsides of the time, may have come from James Runciman's SKIPPERS AND SHELLBACKS (London: Chatto and Windus, 1885).

http://books.google.com/books?id=OrwNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA207&dq=%22amble+is+a+fine+tow

The idiosyncratic words match exactly (e.g. "Amble" rather than "Falmouth")...but then where does her tune come from? ANd she says that it is "Amongst the favourite chanties of North-country sailors..." but I don't know what the proof of that is. Chanty for what?

Next she gives a stanza, with tune, of GOLDEN VANITY, which she calls 'the capstan song of "Lowlands"'.

Then comes a version (text only) of OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND that I've not seen exactly before:

//
There is also a " Homeward Bound " song very well known to them :—

"At Catherine's Dock I bade adieu
To Poll and Bet, and lovely Sue;
The anchor's weighed, the sails unfurled,
We're bound to plough the watery world;
Don't you see we're outward bound.

But when we come back to Catherine's Docks,
The pretty girls they come in flocks;
And Bet to Poll and Sue will say—
'Oh, here comes Jack, with his three years' pay;'
Don't you see we're homeward bound?
Then we all set off to the 'Dog and Bell,'
Where the best of liquor they always sell;
In comes old Archy, with a smile,
Saying ' Drink, my lads, it's worth your while ;'
Don't you see we're homeward bound?"
//

No information as to whether it was a chanty.

I believe that her next song, WHISKEY JOHNNY, came from the Haswell 1879 source.

//
The chanty known by the name of "Whisky for my Johnny," or "Whisky Johnny," has many different verses, all more or less bearing upon the same subject, and none betraying much delicacy or refinement of expression. It has been sent to me from several different quarters where I have applied for chanties, so I - conclude from this fact, that it must be fairly well known amongst the sailors, and may be even a great favourite. As I have before remarked, the sailors' songs are truly characteristic of the men they belong to, and so long as they adapt themselves to the purpose for which they are intended, and help to lighten the labour and regulate the work at sea, we must be content to take them as they are, and not look for drawing-room rose-water sentiment in the ideas that originate and find favour amongst the hardy toilers of the briny ocean.

[w/ score]
Oh, whisky is the life of man;
Oh, whisky! Oh, Johnny!
Oh, whisky is the life of man!
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!

Solo.—Oh whisky makes me pawn my clothes,
Chorus.—Oh whisky, Oh Johnny;
Oh whisky makes me pawn my clothes,
Chorus.—Oh whisky for my Johnny.
Solo.—Oh whisky gave me a broken nose,
Oh whisky gave me a broken nose,
I thought I heard the old man say,
I thought I heard the old man say,
I thought I heard the old woman say,
I thought I heard the old woman say,
Oh whisky up and whisky down,
Oh whisky up and whisky down,
I thought I heard the steward shout,
I thought I heard the steward shout,
Chorus.—Here's whisky for my Johnny.
If I can't get whisky, I'll have rum,
Chorus.—Whisky, Johnny;
Oh that's the stuff to make good fun,
Chorus.—Oh whisky for my Johnny.
For whisky men and women will run,
Chorus.—Oh whisky, Oh Johnny;
I'll drink whisky when I can,
That's the stuff to make you frisky,
Chorus.—Whisky, Johnny;
Give me whisky and I'll give you tin,
If you have no whisky give me gin,
If you have no whisky give me gin.
      BELAY THERE!

Belay is generally said when the song comes to an end, or "Coil up the ropes there, boys."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 04:41 AM

Correction: The above WHISKEY JOHNNY was not the one from Haswell (I see that coming later).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 03:28 PM

In the next section of LA Smith, she introduces (without naming him) her Haswell/Parramatta Sun source (explained by Lighter, above) and explicitly attributes some items to him. I find her tone amusing; we'll see if the most of here shanties were really collected out in the field as she makes out.

//
It is not either necessary or would it be interesting for me to relate at any length, the manner in which many of these chanties have been obtained. I have taken down myself the greater part from the sailors ; sometimes at my own house, sometimes at one of theirs, occasionally in a hospital, or on board ship. There have been difficulties often in my way, in spite of the great kindness I have everywhere had shown me, but I have never had the experience of one of my numerous correspondents—namely that of having the chanties sung to him sotto voce. It appears that he, like many others, had entertained the idea of collecting the Sailors' songs and had accordingly made a beginning, which he has since handed over to me. "I was," he says, "some time ago making a ninety days' voyage in an old 'sailer' and as a pastime I commenced what you have since so ably completed, the task of making a collection of the working songs of the sea. I took notes of the best of the capstan and other songs included in the repertoire of our not very large crew. At first I jotted down the words and music in my note-book while the men were actually hauling at the ropes—but this method promised to yield as many versions of each song as there were sailors (for each man had his own pet way of leading), so that I was constrained to try some other plan. It was this. I selected the most vocal of the crew—a splendid fellow, as supple as a panther, and first at everything. He visited me in my cabin at stated moments, and as his presence was a grave breach of the rules, he had, like Bottom, to ' roar him as gently as any sucking dove.' In a word the songs were given out in a sort of roaring whisper, or whispering roar, which greatly exercised the curiosity of the passengers in the adjacent saloon. Even this chosen songster proved untrue to himself and gave me the same song in different ways, at different times, and this accounts, no doubt, for the discrepancies that exist between some of the songs as given by you, and as taken by myself." I believe it is for this reason, that the chanties have remained so long uncollected. Of course, I have found these same discrepancies over and over again, and many times have almost given up the idea of the collection, in consequence. It is the same amongst all nations of sailors. The writer of the letter just referred to, sent me some of the chanties he had taken down in secret in his cabin, and the versions both of music and words are different to mine.
//

From my own 21st century perspective it is hard to imagine just what the problem was -- the funny argument that the chanties could not be collected because of their variability. Well, just collect what you hear! But I do understand why they might not have done that. They were looking for cannon. Perhaps this explains why so many copied texts from earlier publications. LA Smith must have heard many more chanties than she lets on, but may have decided to use previously published versions as a sort of "standard."

Smith then gives Haswell's WHISKEY JOHNNY.

//
For instance, "Whisky Johnny " he gives as " Whisky " (hauling chanty), and though the sentiment is the same he gives it in quite other words :—

Solo.—O! Whisky is the life of man,
Chorus.—Whisky, Johnny!
          I drink whisky when I can,
Chorus.—O! Whisky for my Johnny.
Solo.—I drink it out of an old tin can,
       Whisky killed my poor old dad,
       Whisky drove my mother mad,
       Whisky caused me much abuse,
       Whisky put me in the Calabouse,
       Whisky fills a man with care,
       Whisky makes a man a bear.

The tune is also different, so I give that to which these
words were sung. A query is appended to " Whisky," as to
whether it be an anacreontic or a teetotal hymn? The
sentiment is mixed, and it might serve for both. [score]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 03:43 PM

Next from Haswell comes BLOW THE MAN DOWN. Incidentally, I believe this would make Haswell's the first (to my knowledge, of course) publication of the chanty.

//
He gives the same melody as I have done for " Blow the Man Down," but different lines.

1. "Blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down;
    Blow the man down, bullies, pull him around.
2. Blow the man down, you darlings, lie down,
Blow the man down for fair London town.
3. When the Black Baller is ready for sea,
That is the time that you see such a spree.
4. There's tinkers, and tailors, and soldiers, and all,
They all ship for sailors on board the Black Ball.
5. When the Black Baller hauls out of the dock,
To see these poor fellows, how on board they flock.
6. When the Black Baller gets clear of the land,
'Tis then you will hear the great word of command.
7. 'Lay aft here, ye lubbers, lay aft, one and all,
I'll none of your dodges on board the Black Ball'
8. To see these poor devils, how they will all 'scoat,'
Assisted along by the toe of a boot.
9. It's now we are sailing on th' ocean so wide,
Where the deep and blue waters dash by our black side.
10. It's now when we enter the channel so wide,
All hands are ordered to scrub the ship's side.
11. And now, my fine boys, we are round the rock,
And soon, oh! soon, we will be in the dock.
12. Then all our hands will bundle ashore,
Perhaps some will never to sea go more."
Chorus.—Wae! Hae! Blow the man down,
Give me some time to blow the man down.
//

Luce in 1883 had also given a Black Ball Line theme.

And now Haswell's REUBEN RANZO, which Smith quotes.

//
"Reuben Ranzo"(a true story?), of course is given in yet another form, both as regards music and poetry; this favourite hauling chanty seems to have as many different versions as a pickpocket has aliases. The remark made by the collector on this song is worth remembering; he says, "Ranzo is suspiciously like a 'crib' from a wellknown old sea-song concerning a certain 'Lorenzo,' who also 'was no sailor.' However the versions of Reuben Ranzo may alter one salient point in each remains, and that is the fact of' his being no sailor.'" The last lines of this poem run :—

"I wish I was old 'Ranzo's' son."
Chorus.—Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.
"I'd build a ship of a thousand ton;
I'd give my sailors plenty of rum
Old ' Ranzo' was a good old man,
But now old 'Ranzo's ' dead and gone,
And none can sing his funeral song."
//

The theme here reminds us of Stormalong.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 06:13 PM

"Chalk and Charcoal – Outlines of a Trip to Europe!" Syracuse (N.Y.) Daily Courier (July 25), p. 1:

"GLASGOW, Scotland, July 12th, '67. … [Steamer Caledonia, Anchor Line, N.Y. to Glasgow] In hauling up the sails, the sailors sang to a wild old Boreas air – this impromptu verse, which they varied indefinitely:

                Blow away – blow a man down,
                A bonnie good mate and a captain too,
                A bonnie good ship and a bonnie good crew,
                Give me some time to blow a man down.

                                CHORUS.

                Away, away, blow a man down."

The first two lines were evidently transposed in typesetting.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 11:14 PM

LA Smith, cont.


Here's her collected version of TOMMY'S GONE AWAY:

//
The next song, "Tommy's gone to Hilo," is one of the mournful style of chanties, with a very long dragging chorus. [with score]

Solo.--Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Chorus.—Hurrah, Hilo.
Solo.—Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Chorus.—Tom's gone to Hilo.
Solo.—To Liverpool, that noted school,
To Liverpool, that noted school,
Tommy's gone to Quebec town,
Tommy's gone to Quebec town,
There's pretty Sail and Jenny Brown, ,
There's pretty Sail and Jenny Brown,
A-dancing on that stony ground,
A-dancing on that stony ground,
Tommy's gone to Baltimore,
A-rolling on the sandy floor,
Tommy's gone to Mobille Bay,
To roll down cotton all the day,
He's gone away to Dixie's Land,
Where there's roses red and violets blue,
Up aloft that yard must go,
I thought I heard the skipper say,
That he would put her through to-day,
Shake her up, and let her go,
Stretch her leech and shew her clew,
One pull more, and that will do,
Chorus.—Hurrah, Hilo.
Solo.—One pull more, and that will do,
Chorus.—Tom's gone to Hilo.
BELAY!

Like most chanties, the lines of "Tommy's gone to Hilo" are repeated every time, the chorus being the same for the first repetition, and changing a little at the second. The pull is made on the word "Hilo."
//

From these comments and elsewhere, it looks as if Smith's informants did a lot of "stringing out." If what she says about "Hilo" is accurate, this was a single pull chanty.

Smith next gives a ballad, "Married to a Mermaid," which uses "Rule Britannia" as a chorus. Nowhere does it say if this was a chanty, but the existence of a chorus suggests that it could have been.

Then comes paraphrasing of Alden 1882 for:
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY
BONEY
HILONDAY

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 11 - 11:54 PM

Smith's three versions of BLOW BOYS BLOW look independent. IMO this is one of her best examples, with interesting, varied verses and tune (just one).

//
A YANKEE SHIP.
[with score]

Solo.—A Yankee ship came down the river,
Chorus.—Blow, boys, blow.
Solo.—A Yankee ship came down the river,
Chorus.—Blow, my bully boys, blow.
Solo.—And who do you think was skipper of her?
And who do you think was skipper of her?
Dandy Jim from old Carolina,
Chorus.—Blow, my bully boys, blow.
Solo.—Dandy Jim from old Carolina,
And who do you think was second greaser?
Why, Pompey Squash that big buck nigger,
And what do you think they had for dinner?
Monkey's lights and donkey's liver,
And what do you think they had for supper?
Hard tack and Yankee leather,
Then blow, my boys, for better weather,
Chorus.—Blow, boys, blow.
Solo.—Then blow, my boys, for better weather
Chorus.—Blow, my bully boys, blow.
Solo.—What do you think was the name of this clipper?
The Flying Cloud, with a cranky skipper,
Then up aloft that yard must go,
One more pull and then belay,
I think I heard our old man say,
Chorus.—Blow, boys, blow.
Solo.—He set more sail and give her way,
We'll hoist it high before we go,
Another good pull and make it stay,
And then we've finished for to-day,
And then we've finished for to-day,
Chorus.—Blow, my bully boys, blow.

This chanty is sometimes called " Blow, boys, blow," and the verses vary, not so much in the theme or the locale, which is always America, but in the dramatis personae. For instance, in one version I found—

Solo.—Who do you think was captain of her?
Who do you think was captain of her?
Old John Brown, the boarding master,
Old John Brown, the boarding master,
Who do you think was looking after?
Who do you think was looking after?
Cock-eyed Bill, the West-end barber,
Cock-eyed Bill, the West-end barber.

In another—
Solo.—Oh blow, my boys, I long to hear you. Chorus.—Blow, boys, blow.
Solo.—A Yankee Liner coming down the river. Chorus.—Blow, boys, blow.
Solo.—And how do you know she's a Yankee Liner? Chorus.—Blow, boys, blow.
Solo.—By the stars and stripes she hangs behind her. Chorus.—Blow, boys, blow.
Solo.—A Colonial packet coming down the river. Chorus.—Blow, boys, blow.
Solo.— How do you know she's a Colonial packet? Chorus.—Blow, boys, blow.
Solo.—She fired a gun, I heard the racket. Chorus.—Blow, boys, blow.

And so on. This version was given me by a young Scotchman, whose time at sea had been limited to fifteen months, nevertheless he had a very intimate knowledge of shiplife, and sailors' ways and songs, and was furthermore possessed of a good voice and a better ear ; he sang several chanties for me, and acted, as far as he was able in a drawing-room, the heaving and hauling which they accompanied.

The tune is, however, the same for both titles, and whether known as "A Yankee Ship" or " Blow, boys, blow," it is always fathered on America.
//

After this comes a JOHN BROWN'S BODY collected by Smith:

//
The same may be said of "John Brown," which follows:

[score]

Solo. — In eighteen hundred and sixty-one
The Yankee war it was begun.
In eighteen hundred and sixty-one
As we go marching along.
Chorus.—Glory, halleluiah!
Glory, halleluiah!
As we go marching along.

Solo.—In eighteen hundred and sixty-two
The niggers made a great ado,
In eighteen hundred and sixty-two
As we go marching along.
Chorus.—Glory, halleluiah ! &c.

Solo.—In eighteen hundred and sixty-three
The niggers they were all set free,
In eighteen hundred and sixty-three
As we go marching along.
Chorus.—Glory, halleluiah! &c.

Solo.—In eighteen hundred and sixty-four
The Yankee war it was no more.
In eighteen hundred and sixty-four
As we go marching along.
Chorus.—Glory, halleluiah! &c.

Solo.—Old John Brown was the Abolition man,
Old John Brown was the Abolition man,
As we go marching along.
Chorus.—Glory, halleluiah! &c.

Solo.—John Brown's knapsack was number 92,
John Brown's knapsack was number 92,
As we go marching along.
Chorus.—Glory, halleluiah! &c.
//

This is followed by several non-chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 12:11 AM

Taking a break from L.A. Smith for a few other notes.

Geo--

Thanks for the song list from "Around Cape Horn to Honolulu..."! Does it give lyrics and/or tunes? And are all of them meant to be shanties/work-songs? Any clue to how or when they were used?

What is "As I Was A Walking Up Dennison Street"? "Blow the Man Down"?

What's the difference between "Ranzo" and "Orenso"?

Lighter--

Boo-yah! You've been holding out!
Thanks too for the idea of "Blow *A* Man Down." That phrase seems to get a lot more earlier hits on searches...and it would make sense if, presumably, related to "Knock a Man Down" and before, possibly, "THE" became the standard.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 12:31 AM

John M. wrote:

Here is an entry from 1886, by Robert C. Leslie, entitled SEA PAINTER'S LOG. There are two mentions about maritime work songs. The first has to do with fishermen hauling their boats ashore with the use of a capstan. Here is the link (p. 174):...

In the second reference on page 242, Leslie discusses some specific chanties and gives us the words for: "A Hundred Years Ago", "Storm Along, Stormy", and "Good Morning, Ladies All." ...

Here, Leslie is recollecting an earlier time about the "old Black X sailing-liners", who were "notable for their musical crews".

And here are the texts:

p174
//
Then from midnight and on through the small hours of morning, the beach is lively with the song of the men hauling the boats up from the wash of the sea; after which a steady tramp, tramp round the capstan brings them slowly but surely above highwater mark.
//

p242
//
An Old Sea Song.

Years ago, when the (little) Great Western was fighting an almost solitary battle of steam versus sail power upon the Atlantic, the old Black X sailing liners were notable for their musical crews; and capstan songs, as they were called, always came rolling aft from a liner's forecastle, as the men tramped round winding in the warp that was slowly moving her out of dock (all done now by rattling, whizzing, steam-winch power). I recollect the airs of many of these songs; but the words, except the choruses, were hard to catch; and some of these were coarse, or not worth much when caught. The following was written down as a very superior piece of poetry; and it was sung by a fellow of most "comly making."

Solo. Late one evening as I vas a valking,
Chorus, all. Oh, ho, yes—Oho.
So. O there I heard a loving couple talking:
Ch. A hundered years ago.

So. It was a serious good old woman,
And she vas a saying of things not common,

She vas a saying unto her darter,
O mind, then, vords o' mine herearter,

Red-nosed men frequent the ale-'ouse,
Sandy-'aired men are always jailous,

The fat will coax, the lean will flatter,
O marry none of them, my darter,

So. But marry a man of a comly making,
Ch. Oh, ho, yes—Oho.
So. For in him there's no mistaking:
Ch. A hundered years ago.

So. In so doing of w'ich you'll please me,
Ch. Oh, ho, yes—Oho.
So. And so of my troubles ease me:
Ch. A hundered years ago.

But long before the song reached this point it was usually cut short by the mate singing out, "Vast heaving there for'ard; out bars and lay aft some of ye," &c. Then soon a fresh song would burst from another part of the ship, perhaps the following wild kind of thing:—

So. Oh, poor old Starmy's dead and gone.
Ch. Starm along, boys—Starm along.
So. Oh, poor old Starmy's dead and gone.
Ch. Starm along, Starmy.

So. I dug his grave with a silver spade—
Ch. Carry him along, boys, carry him along.
So. I lowered him down with a golden chain—
Ch. Carry him along, boys, carry him along.

So. We carried him along to London town—
Ch. Starm along, boys—Starm along.
So. We carried him away to Mobille Bay,
Ch. Starm along, Starmy.

Or, just as the ship was passing the dock-gates, this favourite chorus to a very lovely air, which I am sorry I cannot give with it:—

So. Now we're outward bound from London town,
Ch. With a heave oh—haul.
So. With a last farewell and a long farewell.
Ch. And good morning, ladies all—
But we're homeward bound to New York town.
With a heave oh—haul.
And it's there we'll sing and sorrow drown,
Good morning, ladies all.
//

tags: HUNDRED YEARS, STORMY, GOOD MORNING LADIES

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 01:22 AM

A note from (arguably) pre-shanty days --

This is a supposedly true story, "My Adventures (Part VI)", by an "O.P.B." from Connecticut, aboard a ship the TRAVELER (slave ship disguised as merchant ship) out of New York and, at this point, at Rio, Brazil. It's in _The Rural Repository_ (Hudson, NY: William B. Stoddard) Vol. 12(23), 16 April 1836.

I believe the period described in the account is the late 1820s.

There is a section where work orders are given. They are being pursued by a schooner. Pg. 180:

//
'Ship them then at once. Man the capstan bars, my men. Send up that drunken fifer, Tom, and let him play Yankee Doodle. That's it. Round with you men, round with you cheerily. Heave, and she must come. Walk her up, my lads, walk her up. What are you doing there you black rascal, leaning your whole weight on that bar. Cook, steward, come out of the cabin, you yellow, sneaking scoundrels and bear a hand on deck here. By the Lord, the schooner's hoisting her topsails. Do you mean to lose this fine land breeze, you long, lubberly villains. Do you mean to sleep in jail to night, you poor, good for nothing devils ?' This last exhortation seemed to have the desired effect, and in a few minutes the anchor was at the larboard cathead, and amid the general confusion Captain Talbot and his bo.us crew came aboard. 'Man the topsail halliards, hoist away' and up went the topsail yards to the inspiring tones of the fife, the sails catching the fresh breeze from the land, and the ship already beginning to feel its influence, and dashing the smooth water in mimic waves from her bows.
//

So, there is a conspicuous absence of singing mentioned. Only the fife is used.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 01:48 AM

1855 Marryat, "Frank". _Mountains and Molehills_. London: Longman, Brown, Green. and Longmans.

Marryat is mining at Tuttletown (Tuolumne County) in California during the Gold Rush. It is January 1852.

//
A sailor in the mines is at best a rough and uncomely fellow to the sight; but will you show me anything more pleasing to contemplate than that sturdy fellow there who plies his pickaxe to the tune of " Oh, Sally Brown! " that he may take at night to his sick friend in the tent hard by the luxuries he needs ? The sailors in the mines have been ever distinguished for self-denial; and whenever I see " prim goodness" frown at the rough, careless sailor's oath that will mingle now and then with his " ye-ho ! " I think to myself, " Take out your heart, 'prim goodness,' and lay it by the side of Jack's and offer me the choice of the two, and maybe it won't be yours I'll take, for all that you are faultless to the world's eye."
//

The son of Frederick Marryat would certainly know "Sally Brown."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 02:07 AM

1887 Edwards, George Wharton. "The Figurehead of the James Starbuck." _St. Nicholas_ vol. 14(10) (August 1887) 742-746.

An imagined scene of older times. Not an eyewitness account. Just using the chanty text for literary effect:

//
...Beneath, through the open door of the shed, we can see long lines of men sitting on low benches and sewing away on huge strips of new canvas; singing in chorus, as they ply the short, thick sail-needle and waxed thread, some old-time ditty of the sea. Hark!

'' 'Where are you going, my own pretty maid?'
    Hey-ho! Blow a man down!
    'I'm going a-sailing, sir,' she said.
    Give a man time to blow a man down!"
//

So, BLOW THE MAN DOWN is becoming popularly known in the 1880s?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 02:31 AM

1851 Fuller, Thomas, Jr. _Journal of a Voyage to Liberia_. Baltimore: Printed by John D. Toy.

The narrator is a passenger on a packet barque from Baltimore to Liberia, carrying emigrant free Blacks. It's Sept. 1851. He notes STORMY at one point, though not with any particular work mention:

//
All being on board, Tom Williams, the leader of the band, struck up his favorite air, "old stormy long." And in a short time we were under way for Cape Palmas.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 03:03 AM

1887   Unknown author. "Experiences of an English Engineer in the Congo." _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_ 864(142) (Oct. 1887).

The narrator is on the Congo River at Pool Malebo (Stanley Pool). He is being hauled ashore from a boat.

//
I landed in the usual fashion, being carried from the boat through the shallow water by two natives. The boat, by the by, was that belonging to the Congo Free State factory, and the " Kruboys" who manned her, dressed in neat uniforms, pulled steadily and in good time, to the tune of "One more river to cross!" This air is known to them as "Stanley song" —they or their predecessors having learnt it from Bula Matadi himself, as a "chantee," when hauling the steamers overland between Vivi and Isanghila.
//

Just noting the use of "chantee" here by the author.

The song alluded to may have been this one in Higginson's "Negro Spirituals" (1867), a work mentioned up-thread:

pg. 687

//
The following begins with a startling affirmation, yet the last line quite outdoes the first. This, too, was a capital boat-song.

X. ONE MORE RIVER.

O, Jordan bank was a great old bank I
Dere ain't but one more river to cross.
We have some valiant soldier here,
Dere ain't. &c.
O, Jordan stream will never run dry,
Dere ain't, &c.
Dere 's a hill on my leff", and he catch on my right,
Dere ain't but one more river to cross."

I could get no explanation of this last riddle, except, "Dat mean, if you go on de leff, go to 'struction, and if you go on de right, go to God, for sure."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 03:14 AM

Another source that shows a conspicuous absence of chanties--

1835. Disraeli, Isaac. "Songs of Trades, or Songs For the People." In _Curiosities of Literature_. Vol. 2. Paris: Baudry's European Library.

The English author is speaking of work-songs throughout the ages and different places.

//
Our sailors at Newcastle, in heaving their anchors, have their "Heave and ho! rum-below!" but the Sicilian mariners must be more deeply affected by their beautiful hymn to the Virgin...
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 04:09 AM

1836 Weston, Richard. _A Visit to the United States and Canada in 1833._ Edinburgh: Richars Weston and Sons.

The narrator leaves Greenock (Scotland) for New York on the ship JOHN DENNISON in July 1833. Whilst warping out they used this hauling song:

//
July 11.1833.—8 o'clock A.M. A warp was sent out and made fast to a buoy in the stream. It was stretched along the deck, and manned by the seamen. The captain, whose name was M'Kissock, desired some of the passengers to lend a hand to assist the seamen ; and, accordingly, many of the emigrants were put on the warp. When every thing was got ready, a sailor sung the following words, or something like them, to a lively air, and keeping time to the music, as they all pulled:

Pull away,, my hearty boys—pull away so cheerily,
She moves along, my boys—pull away so heartily !
We are for America ; the wind is whistling cheerily,
Then bouse away together,, boys, and see you do it merrily!
//

I imagine that may have been done as a hand-over-hand.

The next day, there is a scene of heaving anchor and hoisting yards. The early "Sally" style halliard chanty makes an appearance.

//
July 12.—At three o'clock, A.M. All hands were ordered up to weigh the anchor; the morning was clear, and the wind fair. The windlass went cheerily round with the assistance of the emigrants, who lent a willing hand. The words "Yo heave "ho!" were sung cheerily by one of the seamen at the bar. The sails were loosened and sheeted home, and the halyards manned, the emigrants giving every assistance they could. The yards were then hoisted up, a seaman singing, in order to keep the hands all pulling together, words something like the following—

Sally is a pretty girl—Sing Sally-ho,
Sail she is fond of me—Sing Sally-ho !
We are for America, so cheerily we'll go ;
Then pull away strongly, boys, and sing Sally-ho!

The yards were braced round to catch the wind, accompanied by songs of various metres, according to the length of the pull and the number pulling.
//

The phrase "songs of various metres..." makes it sound somewhat sophisticated.

Holystoning songs are also alluded to, after arriving in New York in August:

//
The seamen were put to holystone the deck, and as they rubbed, one of them sung a song, rubbing and keeping time.
//

Being the early 1830s, this was also the start of the boom in minstrel music...that would have such an influence on chanties. Here is a scene in New York, with "Coal Black Rose" and "Jump Jim Crow." Note the segregated African-American audience also in attendance.pg. 68:

//
In the evening I went to the theatre; the play was Inkle and Yarico. The people of colour were huddled into a place by themselves ; the pale faces, though liberty is continually in their mouths, lord it over them on every occasion. The Americans boast of having given the slaves their freedom in New York, but they still treat them as such, and expose them to every kind of indignity and insult. The performance, upon the whole, was very poor; but there was an excellent comic actor who played the part of a negro, and sang two of their songs, which kept both audiences, black and white, in a roar of laughter. One of the songs ran thus:

   Lubby rose, will tu tum,
   When tu hear te bango ?
   Tum! — tum! — tum !
   O rose, de coal-black rose!
   Wish I may be corched ib I dont lub rose.

The other was :

Turn about, jump about, turn about so ;
Ebery time I turn about, jump Jem Crow.
//

It must have been T.D. Rice that he saw perform.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 04:18 AM

1880. _Echoes from the Counties._ London: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co.

It's a florid passage about Greenland whaling, but not with any specifics, just images.

//
But though the route to the remotest realms of ice and darkness is now seldom taken, the commerce with the Baltic along the old beaten track still flourishes in greater vigour than ever, and still may be heard amid the clank of great chains and the rattle of tarry cordage, this favourite old refrain, as the brawny sailors step round the groaning capstan—

''Sally's going to Petersburgh—
             Sing, Sally, ho!"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,shipcmo
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 06:42 AM

Gibb,


Only the lyrics, no tunes

< And are all of them meant to be shanties/work-songs? Any clue to how or when they were used?>

Briggs states: "There are several kinds of shanty: the capstan or hoisting shanty, sung when at the capstan, warping or weighing anchor or hoisting topsails; the halyard shanty, sung when the topsails and topgallants are being mast-headed; and the sheet-tack and bowline shanty, used when the fore, main and other sheets are hauled aft and the bowlines made taut.   There is also the bastard shanty, so-called; it is a runaway chorus, sung by all hands as they race across the deck with a rope; you hear it in tacking ship."


Right the chorus is: "Oh, give me the time to blow the man down!"
And he gives 14 verses
But: The Ship "Neptune" also has a chorus line: "Give me some time to blow the man down!"


Briggs states that Orenzo was "Another version of the same shanty was written for me by Lawrence, an old sailor of our crew."
with 22 verses.

Also, There is mention of a shantie: "Here Comes Old Wabbleton a-Walking the Deck", but there is a line in The Ship "Neptune" that goes "Oh! don't you see Wabbleton walking the poop?"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,shipcmo
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 07:19 AM

Upon further reading I find the following passage, referring to a situation off Cape Horn: "He himself (meaning the Captain) worked with the sailors, cheering them and telling them to "pull for their lives"--and for the first and only time on the voyage I heard him break into a shanty, leading off with the first verse of "Baltimore Bell", the Seacond Mate taking up the alternate verses, as the men strained at the ropes to the rhythm of the chorus."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,shipcmo
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 08:49 AM

Reference up-thread:
"The words "Yo heave "ho!" were sung cheerily by one of the seamen at the bar."
I cannot but wonder what a landsman(landlubber)would make of the phrase "at the bar"
Cheers,
Geo

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 12:26 PM

Gibb, your reference to "1855 Marryat, "Frank". _Mountains and Molehills_" may be the first real evidence we have of an actual chanty being sung in connection to the Gold Rush! I'm going to copy this note over to the "SF to Sydney" thread. If the sailors were singing "Sally Brown" while they were mining for gold, then they may well have been singing it on the outward bound ships from San Francisco to Sydney.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Jan 11 - 05:03 AM

Learning the shanties in Hugill's collection has really been a ...erm... learning experience for me, expecially for the fact that I think actually being *forced* to perform them (and thus get a practical sense of them) occasionally brings some insight that might occur if just looking at the texts. All of us here have performed chanties, and I think we have all had that experience to some extent. Anyways, I had finished learning all the English-language songs (the end was mostly dregs). Lately I've felt a bit burnt out, and one thing I realized is that I was not having a steady diet of the chanties keeping me going as it had for the last 2 1/2 years. But though I thought I'd need lots of help covering the non-English ones, and especially daunted by the idea of (as is my policy) memorizing them, have been trying some out.

I am rambling here... but I am getting to the point that which is that learning the non-English chanties has broadened my horizons with respect also to what we are doing in this thread. I am wondering what these of linguistic chanty "traditions" and sources can tell us about what was going on.

I posted a query about Norwegian shanties here:
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=134867#3071130

What is blowing my mind is that these "sjömandsviser" (sailor songs, I suppose) are from the late 1830s/early 40s. SOme form of maritime worksongs must have been well known by them. True, maybe they were mainly capstan songs, and not necessarily "chanties." But there must have been enough of a repertoire..or maybe a pretty standard form?...so that a Norwegian poet would treat them as a generic genre (!) within which to compose. I think the inspiration was English songs, but there may have been Norwegian songs, too. I only wonder what more the Norwegian (and other language) songs can tell us about what was going on.

The songs by Wergeland have a "Sing, Sally-o!" chorus. Almost all have this. Was he just supplying a generic chorus, with the assumption that one could fit the solo couplets to any chanty "framework"? Or is that that, mainly, "Sing Sally O" was just THE song, and people made endless variations on it. Are some of these halyard chanties? Were the "original" shanties really ribald, as Hugill claims, such that Wergeland had to clean them up? If so, might we find more details somewhere about the ribald originals, which would have formed a significant body?

I am vaguely aware, FWIW, that the written language in Wergeland's time was basically what's now thought of as Danish. This collection gives no explanation of the sailor songs. I wonder what might happen if we open up our literature searches to these languages.

Anyway, it's late and I am just vamping here...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Jan 11 - 05:58 AM

LA Smith cont...

Smth next reproduced some texts of non-shanties (incl. SPANISH LADIES) from the story "The Man-of-War's Man," by "S.," published in the Jan. 1822 issue of _ Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_ 60(9).

http://books.google.com/books?id=PNhT1uVIZvYC&pg=PA20&dq=%22greenland+is+a+cold+

Then come Alden's versions of CLEAR THE TRACK (with a typo, "sig-a-jig"), SHENANDOAH, and SHALLOW BROWN.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Jan 11 - 03:12 PM

"insight that might NOT occur if just looking at the texts"
"I am wondering what these OTHER linguistic chanty "traditions" and sources can tell us about what was going on."

Whoops. Look at the time of my post, which may explain some of the cloudiness.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Jan 11 - 03:40 PM

The next two are L.A. Smith's original contributions.

First, SALLY BROWN.

//

[score]

Solo.—Sally Brown was a bright mulatto,
Chorus. —Way! heigh! Roll and go.
Solo—Oh! Sally Brown was a bright mulatto,
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown.
Sally Brown was a bright mulatto.
Cho—Way! heigh! &c.
Solo—Sally Brown she had a daughter,
Cho—Way! heigh! &c.
Solo—Oh! Sally Brown she had a daughter,
Her name it was Matilda Jane.
Sally Brown she had a daughter.
Cho—Way! heigh! &c.
Solo—Seven long years I courted Sally,
Cho--Way! heigh! &c.
Solo.—Oh! seven long years I courted Sally,
I mean to marry Sally Brown.
Oh ! seven long years I courted Sally.
Chorus.—Way! heigh! &c.

The last verse resembles the other version somewhat....
//

By "the other version"she must mean Alden's Shenandoah, which has Sally Brown lyrics.

Then comes our "first" SOUTH AUSTRALIA:

//
...The verses are not at all times consistent with the next song, also a capstan one, and they are too numerous to quote in full.

I give the melody as I got it from a coloured seaman at the " Home,"together with a verbatim copy of his verses :—

[score - starts with grand chorus]

*Solo.—South Australia is my native home,
Chorus.—Heave away! Heave away!
Solo.—South Australia, &c.
Chorus.—I am bound to South Australia,
Heave away! Heave away!
Heave away, you ruler king,
I am bound to South Australia.
Solo.—There ain't but the one thing grieves my mind,
Chorus.—Heave, &c.
Solo.—To leave my dear wife and child behind.
Chorus.—I am bound, &c.
Solo.—I see my wife standing on the quay,
The tears do start as she waves to me.
When I am on a foreign shore,
I'll think of the wife that I adore.
Those crosses you see at the bottom of the lines,
Are only to put me in mind.
As I was standing on the pier,
A fair young maid to me appeared.
As I am standing on a foreign shore,
I'll drink to the girl that I adore.
For I'll tell you the truth, and I'll tell you no lie,
If I don't love that girl I hope I may die.
Liza Lee, she promised me,
When I returned she would marry me.
And now I am on a foreign strand,
With a glass of whisky in my hand;
And I'll drink a glass to the foreign shore,
And one to the girl that I adore.
When I am homeward bound again,
My name I'll publish on the main.
With a good ship and a jolly crew,
A good captain and chief mate, too,
Now fare thee well, fare thee well,
For sweet news to my girl I'll tell.
//

Then comes Haswell's collected version of HAUL AWAY JOE.

//
"Haul away." This is a short-rope pulling song of almost equal popularity in the olden days with "Haul the Bowline." It is one of the most characteristic melodies amongst the chanties. At the word "Joe," all hands give a pull.

"Oh once I had a nigger girl,
And she was fat and lazy.
And then I got an Irish girl,
And she was double-jointed.
And then I had a Dover lass,
She ran away with a soldier."
"Away, haul away—Haul away, Joe.

Away, haul away—Haul away, Joe.
Away, haul away—Haul away, Joe."

[score]
//

Then Alden's other SHENANDOAH. Smith seems confused here, first in not recognizing (?) that Alden gave two versions of "Shenandoah," and second in calling the river "Shenandore."

//
The following is a windlass song of negro origin, River Shenandore:—

[score, as in Alden]
//

Then, she has RIO GRANDE (fishes version) as in Alden.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 06:19 AM

LA Smith goes on to give a few of Haswell's chanties.

First, HANDY MY BOYS:

//
"Handy Jim," a long-rope hauling chanty, I am told is a Portsmouth favourite:—

[score]

Solo.—" I'm Handy Jim from Caro-line,
Chorus.—So handy, me boys, so handy."
(The chorus is throughout the same, and follows each line of the solo.)
Solo.—"I courted a girl named Sarah Jane,
    So handy, me boys, so handy.
Sarah Jane was a kitchen maid,
And ofttimes into her kitchen I strayed,
And had a good blow-out of something hot.
But one fine night, through my good luck,
The missus came home—in the copper I got;
But the missus had come the clothes for to wash.
The fire being lit the copper got hot,
And the missus she came to stir up the pot,
And out I jumped, all smoking hot,
The missus she fainted, and cried ' Stop thief!'
But I was off like a shot of a gun.
When the missus came to there was an awful row;
Poor Sarah, she got the sack next day,
Then she came to me straightway, and said,—
'I've lost my character, place likewise.'
Says I,' My dear, now never you mind,
Next Sunday morn' we'll go and get wed ;'
Next Sunday morn' I was at sea instead.
So now, my boys, when courting you go,
If the missus turns up, in the copper don't go,
If you're handy there, you're handier here.
One more pull, and up she will go,—
The mate cries ' Belay!' so below we will go."
//

Then, BONEY. Funny though how she doesn't seem to recognize it as "Boney," though she has already given another version of it (??).

//
The following "Bonny" is another hauling chanty, somewhat after the style of " Whisky Johnny."

1. Oh, Bonny was a warrior,
Chorus.—Wae! Hae! Ha!
2. Oh, Bonny was no Frenchman,
    Wae! Hae! Ha!
3. Bonny beat the Rooshins,
4. The Prooshians, and the Osstrians,
5. At the Battle of Marengo.
6. Bonny went to Moscow,
7. Moscow was o'foyre.
8. Bonny lost his army there,
9. Bonny retreated back again.
10. Bonny went to Elbow,
11. And soon he did come back again.
12. Bonny fought at Waterloo;
13. There he got his overthrow.
14. Bonny went a cruising,
15. In the Channel of Old England.
16. Bonny was taken prisoner,
17. On board the Bella-Ruffian {"Bellerophon")
18. Bonny was sent to St. Helena,
19. And never will come back again.
   Wae! Hae! Ha!

[score]
//

//
The following are both good capstan songs:

HEAVE AWAY, MY JOHNNY.

[score]

As I was going out one day, Down by the Clarence Dock;
    Heave away my Johnny, Heave away...
As I was going out one day, down by the Clarence Dock,
    Hand away, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go.

2. I overheard an emigrant conversing with Tap Scott
I overheard an emigrant conversing with Tap Scott.

3. "Good-morning, Mr. Tap Scott." "Good morning, sir," said he.
"Have you got any ships bound for New York, in the States of Amerikey?"

4. "Oh, yes! I have got packet-ships. I have got one or two,
I've got the Josey Walker, besides the Kangaroo.

5. I've got the Josey Walker, and on Friday she will sail,
With all four hundred emigrants, and a thousand bags o' mail."

6. Now I am in New York, and I'm walking through the street,
With no money in my pockets, and scarce a bit to eat.

7. Bad luck to Josey Walker, and the day that she set sail!
For them sailors got drunk, broke into my bunk, and stole out all my meal.*

8. Now I'm in Philadelphia, and working on the canal,
To go home in one o' them packet-ships, I'm sure I never shall.

9. But I'll go home in a National boat, that carries both steam and sail,
Where you get soft tack every day, and none of your yellow meal.

In this song each line is repeated, so that the anchor may be up ere it is finished.
//

And, GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL, set to the "Dreadnought" ballad theme:

//
GOOD-BYE, FARE YE WELL!

This is the last of the English chanties I shall quote. It is also a capstan song:—

[score]

Solo.—It's of a flash packet, a packet I've seen,
Chorus.—Good-bye, fare ye well. Good-bye, fare ye well.
Solo.—She's a hearty flash packet—the Dreadnought's her name.
Chorus.—Hurrah, me boys! we're bound to go!

2. She sails to the westward, where stormy winds blow,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

3. It's now we are hauling right out of the dock,
Where the boys and the girls on the pier-head do flock.

4. They give three loud cheers, while the tears downward flow,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

5. Oh, now we are lying in the River Mersey,
Waiting for the tug-boat to take us to sea.

6. She tows us round the black rocks where Mersey does flow,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

7. It's now we are sailing on the wild Irish shore,
Our passengers all sick—and our new mates all sore.

8. The crew fore and aft—all round to and fro,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

9. Oh, it's now we've arrived on the banks of Newfoundland,
Where the water is green and the bottom is sand.

10. Where the fish of the ocean swim round to and fro,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

11. Now we are running down Long Island shore,
Where the pilot does "board " us, as he's oft done before.

12. Then back your main top-sail—rise your main tack also,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.

13. It's now we've arrived at New York once more,
Where I'll see my dear Polly, the girl I adore.

14. I'll call for strong liquors, and merry will be,
Here's a health to the Dreadnought, where'er she may be.

15. Here's a health to the captain and all his brave
crew, Here's a health to the Dreadnought and officers too.

16. And this song was composed when the watch went below,
Bound away in the Dreadnought, to the westward we'll go.
//

Subject: Lyr Add: BURYING THE DEAD HORSE
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 06:35 AM

The last English chanty bit in L.A. Smith comes later on in the volume:

//
The following extract is from "A Land-Lubber's Log," in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle:—

BURYING THE DEAD HORSE.

Auctioneer.—"A poor old man came riding by.
   Chorus.—And they say so, and they hope so.
Auctioneer.—A poor old man came riding by.
   Chorus.—A poor old man,
               A poor old man came riding by.
Auctioneer.—They say, old man, your horse will die.
If he dies I will tan his hide,
And if he lives I will ride him again;
I'll have his hide to make my shoes.
We'll drag him along to his burial-place,
O pull, my boys, and make a noise.
You, poor old horse, what brought you here,
After carrying turf for many a year
From Bantry Bay to Ballyack,
When you fell down and broke your back?
You died from blows and sore abuse,
And were salted down for the sailor's use.
The sailors they the meat despise,
They turned you over and (ahem'd) your eyes,
They ate the meat and picked the bones,
And gave the rest to Davy Jones;
And if you don't believe it's true,
Go look in the harness cask, and find his shoes."

"The music to this extraordinary song," says the writer, "was strange and crude, but marked by a weird, mournful melody, recalling what one has read of the caoine that was formerly sung by the Irish over their dead. . . . Each line was sung twice over by the auctioneer, and the crew followed in chorus with the alternate refrain." The ceremony of " Burying the Dead Horse" is now almost an obsolete one, and is rarely witnessed save on Australian bound passenger-ships. As to its origin I cannot find any authentic information, the custom is certainly confined to the British mercantile service. "The Dead Horse" is typical of one month's pay advanced on shore, and which, after twenty-eight days, has been worked out. The horse's body is made out of a barrel, and his extremities of hay or straw, covered with canvas, the mane and tail of hemp, or still better, of manilla; the eyes consist of two ginger-beer bottles, which are sometimes filled with phosphorus. When the horse is completed, he is lashed to a box, which is covered by a rug and then drawn along, in Egyptian fashion, on a grating.

A very humorous description of this ceremony, and another set of lines and music known as "The Dead Horse," I had sent me, in a copy of The Parramatta Sun (a serio-comic magazine, issued fortnightly, during the voyage of the ship Parramatta from London to Sydney, September 9th, 1879, to December 8th, 1879).

BURYING THE DEAD HORSE.

"On Thursday, October 2nd, lat. 7-32° N., long. 25-20° W., Mr. Richard Tangye, the well-known judge and buyer of blood stock, attended the Parramatta sale, and purchased the animal which was too celebrated to need mention by name. At about eight o'clock a vast multitude of those interested in the turf were assembled on the poop, anxiously waiting to catch a glimpse of the noble animal as he emerged from his stable in the fore part of the ship. His jockey having mounted him, proceeded to the main-deck amidst a crowd of the ship's crew, singing as they did a song which would have deterred anybody with less spirit than Mr. Tangye from bidding. It appeared that the horse was a victim to fate, and that his dirge was being sung :—

"Oh! now poor horse your time is come,
       And we say so, for we know so.
Oh! many a race I know you've won:
         Poor old man.
2. I have come a long, long way,
       And, &c.
To be sold upon this day.
       Oh, poor old man.
3. I have made Fordham's heart jump with joy,
And, &c.
For many a long time he tried a Derby to win,
4. But I was the moke to carry him in.
So I hope I shall fetch plenty of tin.
5. Oh! gentlemen, walk up and speculate;
   If I go cheap, my heart will break.
6. So now, Mr. Auctioneer, you can begin.
And, &c.

"Put up, therefore, he was before the poop, the auctioneer introducing him to the public by narrating his past and prosperous career, and quickly inducing them to make spirited bids. The bidding commenced at five shillings, and speedily ran up to six pounds ten shillings, each person being answerable for the amount of his or her bid. The horse and jockey being knocked down, the crew sang the following requiem, the melody being the same as that for the dirge :—

"Now, old horse, your time is come,
       And we say so, for we know so.
Altho' many a race you have won.
         Oh, poor old man.
2. You're going now to say good-bye,
       And, &c.
   Poor old horse you're going to die.
       Oh, &c.

"The procession moving forward, the horse and jockey were attached to a rope and hauled up to the main-yardarm, and were then, amid plenty of blue fire (stay, the jockey, who happened to be alive, was spared) committed to the deep. The crew then sang:—

"Now he is dead and will die no more,
    And we say so, for we know so.
It makes his ribs feel very sore,
      Oh, poor old man.
He is gone and will go no more,
    And we say so, &c.
So good-bye, old horse!
    We say good-bye!"

[score]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 11:16 PM

Thank God I'm finally done logging in the chanties from L.A. Smith's MUSIC OF THE WATERS! Now to summarize its contents.

The following are the shanties named or described, and where I think they most probably came from. I am only noting songs offered as chanties (though sometimes it is ambiguous), so for example I am not including "Spanish Ladies," which Smith quotes from Chappell's old work and not as a shanty. I name the chanties according to their "tag" titles that I have been using fairly consistently.

1. 1858 Atlantic Monthly:

BOWLINE
"Highland day and off she goes"
PAY ME THE MONEY DOWN

The first two were also in the 1869 Chambers's article, however, because I don't locate "Pay Me the Money Down" anywhere else (?), I feel Smith must have read this article, too.

2. 1869 Chambers's Journal:

OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND
SACRAMENTO
PADDY LAY BACK
SANTIANA
"Oceanida"
"Johnny's Gone"
"The Black Ball Line"
SLAPANDERGOSHEKA
HANDY MY BOYS

This means Smith cannibalized essentially all the material in that article.

3. 1872 Bennett, William Cox. "Songs for Sailors" London: Henry S. King & Co. (??):

YEO HEAVE HO

Not sure about this one. I think Smith got it from a text, and this text does have it in the same lyrical version. However, Bennett did not give a tune though Smith supplied one. There may be another little source for this, as I honestly don't think Smith collected it in the field.

4. 1879 Parramatta Sun:

BOWLINE
WHISKEY JOHNNY
BLOW THE MAN DOWN
REUBEN RANZO
HAUL AWAY JOE
HANDY MY BOYS
BONEY
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL
DEAD HORSE

These are all of the Haswell chanties.

5. 1882 Alden:

LOWLANDS AWAY
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN
STORMY ALONG
MR. STORMALONG
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY
BONEY
HILONDAY
CLEAR THE TRACK
SHENANDOAH
SHALLOW BROWN.
SHENANDOAH (2)
RIO GRANDE

So, most of what was in Alden.

6. 1886 Leslie (Sea Painter's Log):

STORMY
HUNDRED YEARS

7. Probably collected by Smith in the field:

RIO GRANDE
JOHNNY BOWKER
MR. STORMALONG
BLOW THE MAN DOWN
REUBEN RANZO
UP A HILL
CHEERLY
RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND
TOMMY'S GONE AWAY
BLOW BOYS BLOW
JOHN BROWN'S BODY
SALLY BROWN
SOUTH AUSTRALIA

8. Unknown:

RIO GRANDE
CHEERLY
GOLDEN VANITY
WHISKEY JOHNNY

One of my main reasons for doubting these were collected by Smith is that Smith's others consist of music notation (where applicable) without the words directly under the notes. I think these may have come from other sources like correspondence (perhaps with Clark Russell?) and minor articles.

I hope I haven't forgotten or confused anything, though it's likely I probably have.

Smith does not seem to have been influenced by either Adams' or Luce's notable prior works.

What I am seeing here in terms of historiography goes something like this: The Atlantic Monthly 1858 provided a model and some material, greatly expanded, for the 1868 ONCE A WEEK article. For whatever reason, that one was not reference so much afterwards, but the 1869 CHAMBERS'S article is mostly a copy, and it is the one to later feed Smith. Smith was also fed by Alden's 1882 article in HARPER'S. Another stream is represented by Adam's and his replicators, including Luce who cleaned up his notation. These streams are separate at the time of Smith's publication, though Luce's revised version does then reference Smith. I am not sure at this point how Davis/Tozer might fit in. Much of the early 20th century chanty references seem to rely on Smith (or a predecessor in her lineage). In any case, these are the foundational shanty sources. My guess is that Whall would be the next big contributor to how shanty repertoire is perceived, but before his 1910 publication, much in print would rehash the widely-read (attractively packaged and accessibly titled) Smith.

Thoughts?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 12:42 AM

I also see Smith may have been influenced from reading James Runciman's _Skippers and Shellbacks_. I'll dig that one out in a bit.

***

Smith's _Music of the Waters_ was reviewed in _The Musical Times_ Vol. 30 for 1 July, 1889. Here are some excerpts.

The water music, however, with which Miss Smith has to deal is of a particular sort, and is primarily confined to those songs known as "chanties" (pronounced shanties, probably from the French chanter), which are sung by the sailors of the mercantile marine at their work, at the fo'c'sle head or during the dog watches.

"Chanty" was obviously not entirely common, and the author got it mixed up.

The fact that a large number of sailors' songs are primarily employed to regulate their movements in the performance of some manual labour, may prepare us for the apparently meaningless and perfunctory nature of the words attached to them. No doubt there is a substratum of sense somewhere, but one has to dive very deep to discover any coherence in the literature of the capstan-bar. Take, for example, "Old Stormy," of which the following lines may serve as a sample :—
...
The foregoing lines are decidedly difficult to construe —almost as difficult as the astounding English versions set to Brahms's new Part-songs (Op. 104), by Mrs. John P. Morgan, of New York. There are, of course, some good songs—from the literary point of view—in the repertory of the sailor, whether blue jacket or merchant manner, but they are few and farbetween. "Home, dearie,home," given on page 25, is a touching and pathetic ballad; but Miss Smith has erred in imagining it to be an old established favourite, and beguiled some of her reviewers into the same error; the words being really an admirable imitation of the old style from the clever pen of Mr. W. E. Henley. Miss Smith has a superabundance of enthusiasm, but she is conspicuously bereft of all critical instinct....

This want of arrangement pervades the whole book and deprives it of all value as a work of reference. Furthermore, the musical illustrations are almost invariably characterised by blunders of the grossest order. For example, on page 255, the Russian National Anthem is given with no less than eight solecisms—an inexcusable proceeding when one reflects that Miss Smith could have found it correctly given in at least a dozen collections. But we can almost forgive Miss Smith anything in our gratitude for the delightful bull which she has perpetrated on the following page. ...

;-D

Now there is a good deal to admire in this strange scrap-book of Miss Smith's—notably her enthusiasm in her subject. But it would be idle to pretend that she has fulfilled her aim. That aim, as we said at the outset, is an admirable one, but it has not been achieved by Miss Smith. Only a scholar and a musician could do justice to such a subject, and she unfortunately is neither.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 01:33 AM

1885        Runciman, James. Skippers and Shellbacks. London: Chatto and Windus.

Son of coastguardsman Walter Runciman. Also a journalist; may have been familiar with some shanty articles. These are short stories, some of which mention shanties.

In "The Chief Mate's Trouble." Set in 1870. A barque leaving port. A chorus from RIO GRANDE.

//
There was plenty for me to do without thinking of sentiment; yet, sweating and breathless as I was, I had time to feel sad when the shanty-man struck up, "Away down Rio." The chorus goes:

Then away, love, away,
Away down Rio.
O, fare you well, my pretty young girl,
We're bound for the Rio Grande.

We were giving her the weight of the topsails, and all the fellows were roaring hard at the shanty, when I saw what I wanted to see. My bonny was out on the end of the jetty....
//

In "An Old Pirate." Set after 1878.

//
I guessed what Tom meant, and a few minutes afterwards I hummed the shanty—

"So where they have gone to, there's no one can tell—
   Brandy and gin and a bottle of rum;
But I think we shall meet the poor devils in hell,
   Brandy and gin and a bottle of rum."

Tom turned sharp.
"You know it, do you 1 Many's the time I've heard that for an hour on end when we was having idle time, and the stuff was plenty. Know any more V
I sang—

"We went over the bar on the 13th of May,
   Brandy and gin and a bottle of rum;
The Galloper jumped, and the gale came away,
   Oh ! brandy and gin and a bottle of rum."

"You ain't got it right. You've heerd it aboard a collier, maybe?"
I had heard the wicked shanty on board a collier brig, as it happened, but my version was corrupt. The gruesome song which Mr. Louis Stevenson lately printed is also corrupt. In fact, Mr. Stevenson's verse is so artistically horrible that I rather fancy he composed it himself.
//

I assume he's referring to "yo ho ho and a bottle of rum." He may be fanciful in calling this a "shanty."

In "Lancelot Hinhaugh's Long Voyage."

//
...Then he starts singing again one of the ordinary capstan songs with a chorus, and you could hear the hum of his voice all over, for there was no wind to speak about. He climbs into the boat, and I went by him careless like, and he says, "Damn the thing! I can't get it right. Here, you, tell the carpenter this is his job; and so he gets the only man near out of the way. Then, with his back to me, he sings rather low:

"Look out to-night in the middle watch—
    Roar, my boys, I like to hear you;
Oh ! keep your eye on all the lot,
   And, my Way-O, we'll make her ring.'

You would have thought he was only going through a common shanty, as the men will do at their work; but I heard the words plain, and I knew the time was come for me. Before the man came back from the carpenter, the sailor went on:

"Keep your eye on Donovan—
Cheerly, men in the Quebec Line;
He's got the rope to throw round your arms—
I-oh, cheerly men, cheerly men.
I'll stand by as long as I can—
Cheerly men, why don't you sing?
But there's just me and Jimmy to face the gang—
I-oh, cheerly men, cheerly men."
//

Using chanties to send messages! Well, the second is similar to CHEERLY, but it may be all made up.

In "A Chapter of Accidents." Ship bound for Boston.

//
The second mate was a fine young chap, and a good seaman, but the trouble unmanned him and he lost his senses. He began to try singing shanties, and his hoarse shrieks were awful to hear in the pauses of the gale. With chattering teeth and contorted face, he yelled:

"Now, my bully boys, all get ready,
   We'll be stiff when the sun shall rise;
And here's to the dead already,
   And hurrah for the next that dies."

Then they heard him sing:

"The standards was gone and the chains they was jammed—
   With a heigh-ho, blow the man down;
And the skipper, says he, 'Let the weather be damned—
    Oh, give me some time to blow the man down.'"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 03:14 AM

"Yo, heave ho!" -- as a phrase -- has been noted numerous times. I think we've generally seen that it constituted a sort of chant in the pre-"chanties" days. It's still not totally clear to me if it was at all more like a song, if it had more complicated texts, etc. But I have a few more references, to add to the picture.

1807 "A Gentleman Lately Returned from the West Indies." "Descriptions, Remarks, Anecdotes, and Sentiments, during a Voyage from the West Indies to North America, and from thence to England, and during the Author's Rambles in the two latter Countries." _The European Magazine and London Review_ 51 (Feb. 1807). pp110-

It's a voyage in June 1806 from Jamaica to New York.

//
About two o'clock P.M. our poor cook died; and soon after, having read the funeral service over him, his body was committed to the deep. An affecting circumstance of him [ cannot forbear here to relate. In the morning he was extremely weak, and some what delirious. The Captain went to see him, and asked him how he was. The poor fellow said he was "Pretty well," and began to sing out " Yo, heave ho!" as if heaving at the capstan or windlass; but soon feeling, as it were, the hand of death already on him, he called out, "Come my boys, heave away bv yourselves, for I can't any longer lend you a hand."
//

***

Dibdin's song, "Tom Tough." This taken from an anthology, _The Universal Songster_ Vol. 3 (London: John Fairburn, 1826).

//
...   
    So I seized a capstan bar.
    Like a true honest tar,
And, in spite of sighs and tears, sung out, yo, heave ho!
//

***
1854 Unknown. "Down the River." _The Leisure Hour_ 149 (2 Nov. 1854). pp. 698-700.

Musings on the Thames and the Port of London.

//
One moment it is the roaring of our captain to some self-willed coal-barge a-head, which has strayed into our track, and threatens us with a sudden stoppage or a collison—then it is the rattling crash of some cataract of Wall's-end into a lighter—then it is the shrill cry of the sailor-boy at the mast-head of some tall ship, or the "yo heave-ho!" of the men at the capstan who are warping her into dock, where she will discharge her cargo...
//

***

1853 Sherer, John, ed. _The Gold-Finder of Australia_.London: Clarke, Beeton, & Co.

Vignettes of the Australian Gold Rush. Preface dated July 1853. Author left England in fall of 1851 on the MARY ANN. Goes to Melbourne. The musical activities of the encamped gold diggers is described. pg. 75

//
In my opinion, life in any situation is always apt to degenerate into monotony, unless it is diversified by both physical and mental exertion— at least, so have I ever found it; and even the diggings, with all their excitement, would have engendered ennui, had other resources than gold-seeking not opened themselves, of a more ideal or intellectual character. These were found in the music, the dancing, and the literature of the diggers, all of which were of such a mixed and various kind that their quality might readily be mercifully dealt with, in consideration of the variety which they offered to the gratification of the senses. The musical instruments consisted chiefly of accordions and flutes; here and there a stray fiddle might be heard within the precincts of some Irish tent, or a cornet-a-piston blowing mellowly from the lips of some German, who sent its notes swelling over the ranges or amongst the woods with a sweep that transported the ear far beyond the sounds of the cradle or the pick. A German hymn, sung in chorus, would occasionally relieve this, which again would be lost in the ruder throats of a party of our own Anglo-Saxon seamen, who, with "Yo, heave ho !'' or some such capstan or windlass chorus, would rend the air as one would think they were endeavouring to do their lungs from the stentorian force with which, every now and then, they would commence the first note of the burden of their song. All this was, more or less, to be heard nightly; but it was on Saturday evening, when the end of the week had brought to a close the toils of the labourer, that enjoyment was more particularly on the wing...
//

http://books.google.com/books?id=F80NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA75&dq=%22yo,+heave,+ho%22+cap

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 05:16 AM

I will be making an effort, now, to take stock of the references up through the 1880s as included here. Because there is so much material now, I will make an effort to summarize (roughly) each decade as I go.

18TH CENTURY (1750s-1790s)

Summary: British and French vessels had a practice of singing or chanting or howling cries to coordinate their labor during certain tasks. This goes back until at least about the 1750s. "Ve'a" and "Voix" (French) are given as tow terms for this in the 1770s-80s. The texts of these cries are not noted. By the 1790s, "chanter" was a French verb referring to the act of these cries, and "chanteur" referred to the lead crier. The French sources give the sense that the practice (though not necessarily the terms) were old and had more recently declined, e.g. under military influence.

From the 1770s, African-American rowing songs are noted in South Carolina (twice) and Guyana. They are improvised, traditional, plaintive.

Here are the listings:

1750s-1760s

- a sort of Song pronounced by one of the number, Europeans/spoke windlass (Falconer 1784)

1775

- Seamen at the windlafs, and on other occafions, fing, that they may all act together, incidental mention in an essay in British journal (GENTLEMAN'S 1775)

- Ve'a…The cry made by failors when they pull or heave together, dictionary entry (Ash 1775)

1777

- singing their plaintive African songs, in cadence with the oars, Georgetown, SC/Black rowing (Watson 1856)

1780

- Voix…The fong employed by failors, as in hauling hoifting, heaving, &c, French-English dictionary (Boyer 1780)

1792

- Chanter…To song…cris de convention, pour donner le signal , de l'instant ou plusieurs hommes employés à une même operation, and Chanteur…Ouvrier qui agissant concurremment avec d'autres, leur donne le signal, par un cri de convention,
French maritime dictionary (1792 Romme)

1790s

- "gnyaam gnyaam row" Demerara River, Georgetown, Guyana/Blacks rowing (Pinckard 1806).

c.1790s-1800s

- canoe-rowing songs, partly traditionary, partly improvised Charleston, SC/Black rowing (as per Grayson)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 05:25 AM

1800s

Summary: The African-American rowing songs continue to appear, in Surinam and Georgia.

We get the idea that the common cry for heaving capstan or windlass on ships was "Yo heave ho."

It's possible that by this decade (if not 2 decades later), two hauling phrases/chants/songs existed. One is CHEERLY and the other uses "Sally Brown oh!" These are possibly related or one and the same (cf. the Sally Racket style song).

Sources:

c.1800s-1820s

- "Cheerly men" [CHEERLY] (conjecture based on comment of "time out of mind," in UNITED SERVICES JOURNAL 1834)

1805

- eight stout negroes, who sing in chorus all the way, Surinam/Black rowing (Sack 1810)

c.1805-1820s

- "Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!" Possibly, British war ship (Robinson 1858)

c.1806

- "Aye, aye/ Yoe, yoe" Savannah River, Georgia/Blacks rowing (Lambert 1810)

1806, June

- "Yo, heave ho!" as if heaving at the capstan or windlass, Jamaica > NY (European Magazine 1807)

c.1808-1826

- a common sailors' chant in character, having a sort of 'Sally Brown, oh, ho,' chorus; and requiring the action of pulling a rope, London stage (Clason 1826)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 03:02 PM

To me, Falconer's "sort of song" suggests more than a sing-out, less than a fully developed melody.

Think of vendors' street cries: "sort of" songs.

Something with three or four distinguishable notes perhaps. "Little Sally Rackett" may be a little more primitive melodically than the related "Cheer'ly Man." Maybe an abbreviated "LSR" with a "Cheer-i-lee Man" chorus?

Sheer conjecture is fun even when groundless.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 04:24 PM

To me, Falconer's "sort of song" suggests more than a sing-out, less than a fully developed melody.

Think of vendors' street cries: "sort of" songs.

I am with you.

Something with three or four distinguishable notes perhaps. "Little Sally Rackett" may be a little more primitive melodically than the related "Cheer'ly Man." Maybe an abbreviated "LSR" with a "Cheer-i-lee Man" chorus?

Your comment reminds me that I wanted to elaborate on what I am imagining re: how "cheerly" and "sally brown oh ho" possibly refer to more or less the same chant.

My proposal is that instead of connecting the "sally brown" in these references to later "Sally Brown" chanties (i.e. about the "bright mulatto," etc.), it may just be part of "Cheer'ly." The name of "Sally Brown" may have functioned just like "Sally Racket," "Polly Riddle," etc. Compare to Hugill's "Oh Sally Racket, hi o! -- cheerly man!"

The found phrases "Sally Brown, oh, ho," and "Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!" are, arguably, appreciably distinct from the sort of "way hey roll and go" or "spend my money on Sally Brown" that we'd expect to find in the Sally Brown chantey form.

However, in time, Marryat's windlass song "Oh! Sally Brown," which has the "bright mulatto" theme and which has a similarly primitive and yet wholly distinct form from Cheer'ly kind of messes up that theory!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 06:24 PM

1810s

Summary:

A plethora of African-American worksongs are noted. Rowing songs in Antigua, Virgin Islands, South Carolina (twice), and Maryland or Virginia. "Going Away to Georgia" has so far been a repeated theme.

Black Americans in Georgia are noted to sing while stowing cotton.

And stevedores in Jamaica sing while working the capstan. One of their songs, "Grog Time of Day," is shared with boat rowers.

In European ships, we get reference to the fife and drums accompanying the capstan.

Perhaps significantly, the European/Euro-American observers of the African-American songs have not made comparison to any shipboard songs from their tradition.

Sources:

1811

- "Grog time of day" [GROG TIME] Jamaica/stevedores at capstan (Hay 1953)

- "Oh, huro, my boys/Oh, huro boys O" Jamaica/stevedores at capstan (Hay 1953)

[1812-1815 : War of 1812]

c.1812-1839

- "Fire! in the main-top/Fire! down below" [FIRE FIRE] USS CONSTITUTION/out of context (not a work song), poss. War of 1812 log (GENTLEMEN'S MAGAZINE, Oct. 1839)

c.1814-15

- "Grog time a day" [GROG TIME] Antigua/Blacks rowing (SERVICE AFLOAT, 1833)

- "Heigh me know, bombye me takey" Virgin Islands/Blacks rowing (SERVICE AFLOAT, 1833)

- the drums and fifes merrily play, Round the capstan we dance; We soon hear the song,
"Heave, heave, my brave boys, and in sight." Poem/capstan (1825)

[1816: Start of the Blackball Line]

1816, mid

- "Going away to Georgia, ho, heave, O!/ho, heave, O!" Maryland or Virginia/Blacks rowing (Paulding 1817)

1818

- the negroes' song while stowing away the cotton, Savannah, GA/cotton-stowing (Harris 1821)

1819, June

– the galley-slaves all singing songs in chorus, regulated by the motion of their oars, Charleston SC/Blacks rowing (Faux 1823)

c.1819-1835

- "Hi de good boat Neely/Ho yoi!", plantation near Charleston, SC/Black rowing (Gilman 1838)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 07:03 PM

1820s

Summary:

The War of 1812 has recently ended; the Black Ball Line as started.

On Euro/American vessels, the fife is still noted to inspire both capstan and halyards. As for texts in that cultural context (and I hope I am not mixing up military versus merchant vessels here), phrases like "yo, heave ho!" and "Haul way, yeo ho, boys!" are remembered. We also get one more elaborate description of, I suppose, what would have been the ad-libbed and incidental (an therefore less liable to be transcribed) parts that came after/between the heave ho's: repeated, non-rhyming phrases (see the 1829 reference). Well, that is for long, heaving tasks. For hauling, we see our first detailed transcription if a "cheerly" chant.

I made the mistake earlier of saying that the French references to "chanter" etc. suggested it was a dying practice. It is at *this* time that the definitions are revised (i.e. from the 1790s ones) to suggest that these were "former" practices.

African-Americans are heard to sing as they row in Virginia, Georgia, and St. Thomas. These songs tend to resemble halyard chanties.

Sources:

1820s

- Send up that drunken fifer, Tom, and let him play Yankee Doodle, ship TRAVELER, New York > Rio, Brazil/capstan (Rural Repository 1836)

- up went the topsail yards to the inspiring tones of the fife, ship TRAVELER, New York > Rio, Brazil/topsail halyards (Rural Repository 1836)

1821

- "It's oh! as I was a walking out, One morning in July, I met a maid, who ax'd my trade" [NEW YORK GIRLS?] and "All the way to Shawnee town/Pull away - pull away!"
Ohio River, Parkersburg,VA/rowing (Hall 1821)

1822[or earlier]

- "Fine time o' day" Saint Thomas/Blacks rowing (Wentworth 1834).

1825

- CHANTER…Vieil usage de faire crier quelques hommes qu'on nommait chanteurs, pour donner le signal de réunion d'efforts àfaire par plusieurs sur une bouline, ou pour toute autre opération qu'on exécute dans les ports et sur les grands bâtimens, and BOULINA-HA-HA! Arrache! Boulina-ha-ha, déralingue! etc. Ancien chant des matelots français pendant qu'ils bâient sur les quatre principales boulines, and HISSA, O, HA , HISSE: chant de l'homme qui donne la voix pour réunir les efforts de plusieurs autres sur un même cordage afin de produire un plus grand effet, French maritime dictionary (Willaumez 1825)

1825, July

- the sailor sent forth his long and slow-toned "yeo— heave — oh!" Brig leaving Quebec/windlass (Finan 1825).

- "Oh, yeo, cheerly" [CHEERLY] Brig leaving Quebec/topsail halyards (Finan 1825)

1826>

- So I seized a capstan bar…And, in spite of sighs and tears, sung out, yo, heave ho!, Dibdin's song, "Tom Tough" (Universal Songster 1826)

c.1826

- "Haul way, yeo ho, boys!" London/Navy sailors in a pub ("Waldie's select circulating library", 1833)

1828, March

- a wild sort of song, Alatamaha River, Georgia/Black rowing (Hall)

1829

- they began their song, one of them striking up, seemingly with the first idea that entered his imagination, while the others caught at his words, and repeated them to a kind of Chinese melody; the whole at length uniting their voices into one chant, which, though evidently the outpouring of a jovial spirit, had, from its unvaried tone and constant echo of the same expression, a half-wild, half-melancholy effect upon the ear. …It had begun with "Yah! yah! here's a full ship for the captain, and a full pannikin for Peytie Pevterson, la— la—lalla—la—leh; but this sentence, after many repetitions, was changed for others of briefer duration and more expressive import, as they coursed after each other with intoxicating rapidity… Fictional whaleship/capstan ("Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean", 1829)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 08:56 PM

1830s

Summary:

Quite a significant increase in references to this decade. The brake/pump windlass comes into existence in this decade.

African-American worksongs:
Rowing in North Carolina, Georgia, Guyana, Maryland, Florida (twice), and on the Ohio River. We also see phrases from corn shucking and cotton stowing songs that match rowing ("Jenny Gone Away") and bear similarity to chanties. The riverboat firemen also sing "wild" songs, The stevedores' songs at the capstan in Guyana are "never-ceasing."

More texts of capstan songs in British vessels. They don't seem to have much by way of choruses. "Cheerly" continues to be used for hauling in deepwater vessels, along with the various yo-heave-ho's. A reference from the English Channel from as late as 1840 suggests that this was still basically the "system" in British vessels.

Pointing the way, I think, to the chanties as we would come to know them, a U.S. ship uses a capstan song "Bonny laddie, Highland laddie." Note, however, that while this march-like song is quite consistent with many later chanties, the ship was still using "Cheer'ly" for hauling. It's possible that at this time "halyard chanties" (double-pull form) had not yet come into general use.


"Grog time" and "Off to Georgia" themes continue in the Black songs.
"Sally" is a part of different songs across the board. There is a "ho! Sally, ho!" and "Roun' de corn, Sally!" for rowing. Dana used "Round the corner, Sally" for driving hides in California. There's a "and sing Sally-ho!" for halyards crossing the Atlantic. The latter phrase seems to have been picked up as a model for the Norwegian poet Wergeland's capstan songs. And at the brake windlass in America there is "Oh! Sally Brown."

Two references are particularly illustrative. Weston 1836 shows a ship on a translatlantic voyage at a time when, I would argue, chanties had still yet to hit the scene. It is great because it does note chants for halyards, heaving, braces, and even holystoning. Some kind of singing-out had become a definite need in packet ships, therefore. However, the hauling chants are the already established "Cheer'ly" and "Sally-ho!", and the heaving was the familiar "yo heave ho." What is fascinating is that the observer of these ends up at a minstrel performance in New York, where songs like "Coal Black Rose" (later adapted as a chanty) were performed. One could imagine a scenario whereby, in the 1830s, chanting has become useful on ships and where minstrel songs were about to become a major influence.

The second, more familiar reference is Dana. Writing about the same time, I submit that the scene he describes is quite comparable to Weston. We again get the sense that singing-out had become standard for various tasks, but that the cries are of the older sort, with the rudimentary "heave round hearty" phrases. Also, Dana's comment about how the Italians sang while rowing while his people had not yet learned that technique, is striking. What I think most jumps out of Dana, by way of pointing towards chanties, are the titles "Captain gone ashore!", "Time for us to go!", and "Round the corner, Sally". The first and last might very well be connected to the "Grog Time" and "Round the Corn" songs that had previously been noted only among African-American workers. (**Also, "Tally hi O" should be in there somewhere -- I may have to revise my list to reflect the various Dana editions.)

Also notable in the last regard are the alleged references to Tahitians having picked up the sailor songs of "Round the Corner," "Bottle O," and "Tally," as the first two, again, can be traced to Black rowing songs -- which we might imagine had been adopted by deepwater men.

Sources:

1830s

- "Oh, Jenny gone away" [TOMMY'S GONE?] Virginia/corn-shucking ("The Family Magazine" 1835)

1830

- "Sally was a fine girl, ho! Sally, ho!" Cape Fear River, North Carolina/Blacks rowing (Cecelski 2001)

1831

- "De neger like the bottley oh!" [BOTTLE O] and "Velly well, yankee, velly well oh" Guyana/Blacks rowing (Alexander, 1833)

- their never-ceasing songs, as they walked round the capstan, or when "screwing" or "swamping" sugars in the hold, schooner CLEOPATRA, Georgetown, Guyana/Blacks loading sugar+molasses [fiction?](THE LOG OF MY LEISURE HOURS, 1868)

[1832: Invention of Dobinson's pump windlass]

1832[or earlier]

- "Pull away now, my Nancy, O!" and/with "To the Greenland sea/ Black although she be" East India Company ship/capstan (THE QUID 1832)

1832

- "I'm gwine to leave de ole county (O-ho! O-ho!)/I'm sold off to Georgy! (O-ho! O-ho!)" and "Roun' de corn, Sally!" [ROUND THE CORNER] Maryland/Blacks rowing (Hungerford 1859)

1832-33

- the wild song of the negro fire-men, Ohio River/steamboat firemen (Latrobe 1835)

1833

- "'Tis grog time o' day!" [GROG TIME] rowing on ocean ("Waldie's Select Circulating Library," Dec. 1833)

1833, July

- "Pull away, my hearty boys—pull away so cheerily," ship JOHN DENNISON, Greenock (Scotland) > New York/warping out (hauling – hand over hand?) (Weston 1836)

- "Then pull away strongly, boys, and sing Sally-ho!," ship JOHN DENNISON, Greenock (Scotland) > New York/halyards (Weston 1836)

- The windlass went cheerily round with the assistance of the emigrants, who lent a willing hand. The words "Yo heave "ho!" were sung cheerily by one of the seamen at the bar, ship JOHN DENNISON, Greenock (Scotland) > New York/windlass (capstan?) (Weston 1836)

- The yards were braced round to catch the wind, accompanied by songs of various metres, according to the length of the pull and the number pulling, ship JOHN DENNISON, Greenock (Scotland) > New York/braces (Weston 1836)

- The seamen were put to holystone the deck, and as they rubbed, one of them sung a song, rubbing and keeping time, ship JOHN DENNISON, Greenock (Scotland) > New York/holystoning (Weston 1836)

- "O rose, de coal-black rose!" [COAL BLACK ROSE], New York/minstrel performance (probably T.D. Rice) attended by sailors (Weston 1836)

1834, Feb.

- Their extemporaneous songs at the oar, St. Johns River, FL/Blacks rowing (Brown 1853)

1834, Aug-1836

- "singing out" at the ropes in their hoarse and peculiar strains, brig PILGRIM

- "Heave, to the girls!" and "Nancy oh!" and "Jack Cross-tree," brig PILGRIM/ songs for capstans and falls

- "Heave round hearty!" and "Captain gone ashore!" and "Time for us to go!" and "Round the corner, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!" brig PILGRIM, California coast/driving in the hides (pull)

- the loud cry of "Yo heave ho! Heave and pawl! Heave hearty ho!" brig PILGRIM/spoke windlass

- Sailors, when heaving at a windlass, in order that they may heave together, always have one to sing out; which is done in a peculiar, high and long-drawn note, varying with the motion of the windlass

- "Cheerily, men!" [CHEERLY] brig PILGRIM/catting anchor

- lightening their labors in the boats by their songs, Italians rowing (Dana 1840ff)

1835

- A line was sung by a leader, then all joined in a short chorus; then came another solo line, and another short chorus, followed by a longer chorus, Jacksonville, FL/Blacks rowing (Kennard 1845)

- Our sailors at Newcastle, in heaving their anchors, have their "Heave and ho! rum-below!", English author speaking gen. of work-songs throughout the ages (Disraeli 1835)

1835, September

- "Ho! cheerly" [CHEERLY] US ship PEACOCK, the Gulf of Mazeira [coast of Arabia]/ as they marched round the capstan, or hauled in the hawser by hand (Howland 1840)

- "Bonny laddie, Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] capstan (Howland 1840)

1837, April

- "Oh! Sally Brown" (peculiarly musical, although not refined) [SALLY BROWN] Ship QUEBEC, Portsmouth >New York/pump windlass (Marryat 1837)

1838-39

- "Jenny gone away" [TOMMY'S GONE?] and "Fare you well, and good-by, oh, oh!/oh, oh!" Altamaha River, Georgia/Blacks rowing (Kemble 1864)

1838, June

Brief: 1838, June - The fall was manned, the song rose cheerily on the morning air, whaling ship HUDSON, Brazil/ halyards (Hazen 1854)

1838, December

- "Fire the ringo, fire away!" [MARINGO] Mobile/cotton-screwing (Gosse 1859)

1838-1843

- "Sing, Sally! Oh!" and "Singsallijo!/ Singsallijo! / Hurra! Hurra! for Singsallijo!", composed, published Sjömandsviser (sailor songs) for Norwegian sailors by Henrik Wergeland/mainly for capstan? (Wergeland 1853)

1839, Sept.

- "Fire down below!" [SAILOR FIREMAN] Dramatic scene in a steamboat/Black fireman (BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY 1839)

- "So early in the morning the Sailor loves his bottle oh," [BOTTLE O] and "Round the corner, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Tally Ho, you know" [TALLY] & a dozen others, Tahiti/local women singing sailor songs (Reynolds and Philbrick)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 09:38 PM

Dibdin's reference to "yo, heave ho!" at the capstan dates from 1798.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Jan 11 - 05:36 AM

1840s

Summary:

African-American songs of many types. Just one rowing song, in Georgia (perhaps this practice was becoming obsolete?). However, fireman songs come in as a possible influence. Corn-sucking songs in South Carolina, with proto-chanty themes. Perhaps most profound are the cotton-stowing references at Mobile and New Orleans, especially because they directly share shipboard themes as the prior "Highland Laddie" and coming "Stormy." This work is most significant as a place where two different working cultures met: Black shoreside work gangs, with their concept of the dedicated chanty-man, and Euro/American sailors, who moved between professions.

"Grog Time" appears again as a stevedore's song -- and appears as one of the first clear examples of a modern halyard chanty when used on a run by a brig out of New York.

The Black songs seem to have fed the minstrel genre to some degree. Songs connected to or resembling "Tally," "Blow Boys Blow," "Stormy," and "Fire Down Below" are all ones for which we could make a good case had inspired, rather than were inspired by, their minstrel cognates.

While the "Blow Boys Blow" lyrics have a downhome Southern touch about them, we also see the possibility that "Row, Billy, Row" was a transformation of an old style heaving song.

Speaking of which, the old yo-ho's and "cheerl'y" are still plentiful. Among them, songs that stand out as "modern" chanties are "Hundred Years Ago," "Stormy," "Across the Briny Ocean." Their symmetrical (or binary, balanced) form certainly is well suited to the brake windlass, and, when specified, they seem most applied to that function. I am not seeing any other (except Grog Time) explicitly named as a halyard song.

The phrase "roll and go" appears for the first time, twice in this decade.

*I am leaving out the last (Clark) reference; I don't trust it as a reliable source for this period.

Sources:

c.1840s

- "grog time o' day." [GROG TIME] Clipper-brig CURLEW, New York >Hamburg/ halyards (Rice 1850)

- "yeo, heave ho", Clipper-brig CURLEW, New York>Hamburg, [spoke?] windlass

- "Oh-ye-hoy" brigantine, M--, "the Downs" [English Channel]/ windlass (Chapman 1876) [1840]

- "Cheerily, men!" [CHEERLY], brigantine, M--, "the Downs" [English Channel]/catting anchor (Chapman 1876) [1840]

- all hands clapped on to the weather main topsail brace, and hauled on it with a will, and with a "Yo— he—hoy!" and clap on a rope and sing out, "Oh—heave—hoy !" brigantine, M--, Melbourne/braces (Chapman 1876) [1840]

1840, Feb.

- The usual cry is "Ho! Ho! Hoi!" or "Ho! Ho! Heavo!" Whaler, New London > Pacific/hauling (Olmsted 1841).

- "Ho! Ho! and up she rises/Ear-ly in the morn-ing" [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and "Nancy Fanana, she married a barber/Heave her away, and heave her away [HAUL 'ER AWAY]
halyard

- "O! hurrah my hearties O!" short haul to extract whale tooth

1841

- "Grog time o' day/Oh, hoist away" [GROG TIME] New Orleans/stevedores loading a steamboat (THE NEGRO SINGER'S OWN BOOK ca1843-45; THE ART OF BALLET 1915)

1842, February

- casting huge sticks of wood into the mouths of the row of yawning furnaces beneath the serried boilers,accompanying their labor by a loud and not unmusical song, steamboat, Ohio River/Black fireman (THE BALTIMORE PHOENIX AND BUDGET 1842)

1842, April

- "Cheerily, oh cheerily," [CHEERLY] Ship HUNTRESS, New York > China/ hoisting guns from hold (Lowrie 1849)

1842, Sept.

- "O ee roll & go/O ho roll & go" [SALLY BROWN?] whaleship TASKAR/song in diary (Creighton 1995)

1842, October

- "Heave him up! O he yo!" Canary Islands/spoke windlass (Browne 1846).

c. 1843[or earlier]

- "A darkey band and a darkey crew, Tally ya ha higho!" [TALLY] rowing song, minstrel collection (Negro Singer's 184x)

- "Oh, ah, oh, ah/Dah, da, tiddle dum de da," lyrics evoke "Blow Boy, Blow," minstrel collection (Negro Singer's 184x)

1843, March

- "Oh hollow!/Oh hollow!" [HILO?] and "Jenny gone away," [TOMMY'S GONE?] and "Dan, dan, who's the dandy?" [the monkey-song] and "John John Crow/ John John Crow" [JOHN CROW] South Carolina/corn-shucking (Duyckinck, 1866)

1843-1846

- the firemen struck up one of those singularly wild and impressive glees which negroes alone can sing effectively, Steamboat, Mississippi valley (Illinois)/Black firemen (Regan 1859)

1844

- "Oh, the captain's gone ashore/Hie bonnie laddie, and we'll all go ashore" [GROG TIME?] Mobile Bay/cotton-stowing (Hill 1893).

- "Cheerily men, ho!" [CHEERLY] Port Adelaide/remembering a ship's song (Lloyd 1846)

1844, August

- "Round the corner, Sally!" [ROUND THE CORNER] Society Islands/local imitation of sailor's song (Lucett)

1844-45

- The crew was made up of the hardest kind of men; they were called "hoosiers,"
working in New Orleans or Mobile during the winter at stowing ships with cotton, and in the summer sailing in the packet ships. They were all good chantey men; that is, they could all sing at their…we could reef and hoist all three topsails at once, with a different song for each one, Packet ship TORONTO, NY > London/re: cotton-stowing (Low 1906)

- "Roll and go for that white pitcher, roll and go," London/unloading cargo w/ capstan

1845, Feb.

"Ho, O, heave O" heaving anchor (American Journal of Music and Musical Visitor 1845)

- "Row, Billy, row," [BLOW BOYS BLOW?] American sailor returned from Mediterranean/rowing

1845, Sept.

- "Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] and "Fire, maringo, fire away" [MARINGO] Ship CHARLES CAROL, New Orleans/cotton-stowing (Erskine 1896)

1845, Dec.

- rowed by six negroes, who were singing loudly, and keeping time to the stroke of their oars, Alatamaha river, GA/Black rowing (Lyell 1849)

c.1845-1851

- "Carry him along, boys, carry him along/ Carry him to the burying-ground" [WALK HIM ALONG] and "Hurrah, see—man—do/Oh, Captain, pay me dollar" and "Fire, maringo, fire away" [MARINGO] and "Bonnie laddie, highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] many of the screw-gangs have an endless collection of songs, Mobile Bay/cotton-stowing (Nordhoff 1855)

- "Tally hi o you know" [TALLY] Whaleship/weighing anchor (Brewster & Druett 1992)

c.1846-1852

- "Oh sailors where are you bound to/Across the briny ocean" [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN] Packet ship, Liverpool > Philadelphia/ pump windlass (Nordhoff 1855)

1848

- "O! bullies, O!/A hundred years ago!" [HUNDRED YEARS] and "storm along, stormy!" [STORMY] Hawai'i/non-working, whaling territory (Perkins 1854)

- "Round the corn, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] and "Clear the way when Sambo come" corn-shucking, general (AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, July 1848)

- "Storm along Stormy" [STORMY] minstrel song collection (White 1854)

- "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!/Fire down below" [SAILOR FIREMAN] minstrel song collection (White 1854)

- "Fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire/Den tote dat bucket ob water, [boys?]/Dar's fire down below" [FIRE FIRE] minstrel song collection (White 1854)

[1848-1855: California Gold Rush]

1849, March

- "O, yes, O!/ A hundred years ago" [HUNDRED YEARS] Steamer OREGON, Panama > San Francisco/ at the capstan and windlass (Thurston 1851)

1849 (ideal look back)

- "We'll kill Paddy Doyle for his boots" [PADDY DOYLE] clipper ship, New York harbor (ideal) / walking away with slack (?) of halyards (Clark 1912)

- "Whiskey, Johnny/Whiskey for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] clipper ship, New York harbor (ideal) / topsail halyards (Clark 1912)

- "Lowlands, lowlands, hurra, my boys/My dollar and a half a day" [LOWLANDS AWAY] clipper ship, New York harbor (ideal) / anchor capstan (Clark 1912)

- "Hah, hah, rolling John," clipper ship, New York harbor (ideal) / catting anchor (Clark 1912)

- "Oh, poor Paddy works on the railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] clipper ship, New York harbor (ideal) / brake windlass (Clark 1912)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Jan 11 - 04:35 AM

1850s

Summary:

The Gold Rushes have happened. Before these, as far as shipboard-related items are concerned, we've seen no more than maybe 10 songs that we might know today. The rest is in the order of "heave ho" and lost ditties. Chanties have indeed arrived, but we don't get the sense there was necessarily much repertoire in the deepwater trade. It was the cotton-stowers who had "endless" songs--"chants." However, the Gold Rush(s) is a time when we expect to see lots of new repertoire.--right?

Non-shipboard songs in this decade include:

Mississippi and Alabama firemen's songs, Patting juba and other plantation songs in Louisiana and Maryland, and allusions to more rowing and corn-shucking in Georgia. They suggest the origins of such themes as "Hilo," "Hog-eye," and "Haul Away Joe."

"Cheer'ly" and yo heave hos are still being noted.

"Stormy" has emerged as a major theme, and its use at halyards on what must have been a British ship to Melbourne, in 1852, is notable.

Many of the references to actual chanties are unsatisfying as they are written at a much later time from when they were supposed to have existed. However the first focused expositions on chanties (but still not calling them such) come out. The two articles really bring home the "recently" acquired importance of chanties. One makes a very dramatic comparison between chanties and African songs. The other would become one of the text sources to be mined by later authors.

For interest's sake, if one is to note the known shipboard chanties that are mentioned *only* in *contemporary* sources up to this point (i.e. not looking back from much later dates), we have:

up through 1829

"yo, heave ho"
CHEERLY
'Sally Brown, oh, ho"

up through 1839

"Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
"Pull away, my hearty boys—pull away so cheerily,"
"Then pull away strongly, boys, and sing Sally-ho!"
"Oh! Sally Brown"
"Heave, to the girls!"
"Nancy oh!"
"Jack Cross-tree"
"Heave round hearty!"
"Captain gone ashore!"
"Time for us to go!"
ROUND THE CORNER
"Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"

Up through 1849

HIGHLAND LADDIE
DRUNKEN SAILOR
"Nancy Fanana, she married a barber/Heave her away, and heave her away"
"Then walk him up so lively/ Ho, O, heave O!"
GROG TIME

Up through 1859/start of Civil War

STORMY
HUNDRED YEARS
BOWLINE
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN
MONEY DOWN
"Highland day and off she goes"
"Heigho, heave and go/Heigho, heave and go''
"Hurrah! we're homeward bound"

Strictly speaking, then, the evidence for the times really doesn't show us too many familiar chanties even before the Civil War. Of course that doesn't mean they weren't there -- but a lot of the familiar stuff is appearing on "shore". And remember, the songs have yet to be called "chanties" by observers.

Sources:

c.1850s

- "Johnnie, come tell us and pump away" [MOBILE BAY] and "Fire, fire, fire down below/fetch a bucket of water/Fire down below" [FIRE FIRE] and "Only one more day" [ONE MORE DAY] Ship BRUTUS (American)/pumping (Whidden 1908)

- the wildest and most striking negro song we think we ever listened to…one dusky fellow, twirling his wool hat above his head, took the lead in singing, improvising as he sang, all except the chorus, in which the whole crew joined with enthusiasm Steamboat, Alabama river/boatmen (Hundley 1860)

- "Haul away the bowline/ Way haul away, Haul away, Joe!" [HAUL AWAY JOE] clipper ship (ideal) / sheets (Clark 1912)

- "Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO] clipper ship (ideal) / halyards (Clark 1912)

- "Way, yay, way, yay, yar/ Oh, run with the bullgine, run" [RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN] clipper ship (ideal) / pumps (Clark 1912)

c.1851>

- "Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne" Ship > Sydney w/ gold seekers/pumping (Craig 1903)

- "When first we went a-waggoning" Ship > Sydney w/ gold seekers/pumping (Craig 1903)

1851, July

- "Fire on the bow/Fire down below!" [FIRE FIRE] Mississippi steamboat/Black firemen ("Notes and Queries" 1851)

1851, Sept.

- "old stormy long" [STORMY], packet barque, Baltimore > Liberia/no particular work mentioned (Fuller 1851)

1852, Jan.

- that sturdy fellow there who plies his pickaxe to the tune of "Oh, Sally Brown!", central California during the Gold Rush/sailors mining (Marryat 1852)

c.1852

- the ruder throats of a party of our own Anglo-Saxon seamen, who, with "Yo, heave ho!'' or some such capstan or windlass chorus, outside Melbourne, Australian Gold Rush/musical activities of diggers (Sherer 1853)

1852, late

- "cheerymen" [CHEERLY] and "Hurra, and storm along/ Storm along, my Stormy" [STORMY] Packet ship, Gravesend > Melbourne/topsail halyards (Tait 1853)

c.1853 [or earlier]
- "Hog Eye!/Old Hog Eye/And Hosey too!" [HOG EYE] and "Hop Jim along/Walk Jim along/Talk Jim along" Louisiana/patting juba (Northup 1855)

1853
- "Oahoiohieu" [SAILOR FIREMAN] and "Oh, John, come down in de holler/Ime gwine away to-morrow" [JOHNNY COME DOWN HILO] Red River, LA/ steamboat hands (Olmsted 1856)

1854, early
- "Haul the bowline, the Black Star bowline, haul the bowline, the bowline HAUL!" [BOWLINE] Packet ship PLYMOUTH ROCK, Boston > Melbourne /sheet-style chanty adapted as entertainment (Note: text contains tunes to three other possible shanties) (Peck 1854)

1854, Nov.
- the "yo heave-ho!" of the men at the capstan who are warping her into dock, London/ general reference (Leisure Hour 1854)

1855, Jan.
- "Whaw, my kingdom, fire away" [MARINGO] Imagined Georgia/Blacks rowing (PUTNAM'S 1855)
- "Hey, come a rollln' down/Good morning ladies all" [GOOD MORNING LADIES] Imagined Georgia/corn-shucking (PUTNAM'S 1855)

1855, Aug.
- "Storm along, Stormy" [STORMY] general reference in fiction to how a crew might sing that song (Farnsworth 1855)

1856

- [Titles:] "Santy Anna," [SANTIANA] "Bully in the Alley," [BULLY IN ALLEY] "Miranda Lee," "Storm Along, John," [STORMALONG JOHN] Clipper ship WIZARD, NY > Frisco/Downton pump, with bell ropes (Mulford 1889)

- "Hi yi, yi, yi, Mister Storm roll on, Storm Along, Storm Along,"[MR. STORMALONG] and "All on the Plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] and "Aha, we're bound away, on the wild Missouri" [SHENANDOAH] Packet ship, Liverpool > NY (Fisher 1981)

1857

- "Hilo! Hilo!/ Hilo! Hilo!" [HILO?] Maryland/slave song (general reference) (Long 1857).

1857?

- "Row, bullies, row!/Row, my bullies, row!" [BLOW BOYS BLOW?] Rowboat to frigate, New York (KNICKERBOCKER, 1857)

1857, November

- "Oh, poor Paddy works on the railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] Ship RED JACKET, Liverpool/brake windlass (Chatterton 2009)

- "Whiskey for my Johnny/Whiskey, Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] Ship RED JACKET, Liverpool/topsail halyards (Chatterton 2009)

c.1857-58

- "Cheer'ly Man" [CHEERLY] and "Come along, get along, Stormy Along John" [STORMY ALONG] John Short of Watchet

1858

- "Hilo, boys, hilo! Hilo, boys, hilo!" [HILO BOYS] Barque TYRER, Casilda, Cuba > London / topsail halyards (Bloomfield 1896)

1858, July

- "Oh, the bowline, bowline, HAUL!" [BOWLINE] Ship, trans-Atlantic/braces (THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY 1858)

- "Pay me the money down!/Pay me the money down!" [MONEY DOWN] and "And the young gals goes a weepin'" [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN] and "O long storm, storm along stormy" [STORMY] Ship, trans-Atlantic/brake pump (The Atlantic Monthly 1858)

- "Highland day and off she goes/Highland day and off she goes." [HILONDAY?] Ship, unknown/topsail halyards (Atlantic Monthly 1858)

1858, Dec.

- "Heigho, heave and go/Heigho, heave and go'' and "Hurrah, storm along!/Storm along my stormies"[STORMY] and "Hurrah! we're homeward bou-ou-ound!/Hurrah! we're homeward bound" [OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND] Brake windlass (Allen 1858)

- "Oh haulee, heigho, cheeryman!" [CHEERLY] topsail halyards (Allen 1858)

- "Heigh Jim along, Jim along Josey, Heigh Jim along, Jim along Jo!" Blacks rowing (Allen 1858)

c.1858-1860

- "Whiskey for Johnny!" Packet ship MARY BRADFORD, London > NY/ to "pull round the yards" (Real Experiences 187?)

1859, Feb

- the "A-a-b'la A-a-b'la!" "E-e-cha! E-e-cha!" of the caldron-men crying to the stokers, and the high, monotonous chant of the gangs filling the wagons or the trough, a short, improvisated stave, and then the chorus;—not a tune, like the song of sailors at the tackles and falls but a barbaric, tuneless intonation, Cuba, sugar plantation/non-maritime work-singing of slaves (Dana 1859)

c.1859-60

- "O, Riley, O" [OH RILEY] and "Whiskey for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Storm along, my Rosa"[STORMY] Barque GUIDE Boston > Zanzibar/ brake windlass (Clark 1867)

c.1860-61

- "Rolling River" [SHENANDOAH] and "Cheerily she goes" and "Oh, Riley, Oh" [OH RILEY] and "Carry me Long" [WALK HIM ALONG] Clipper ship, Bombay > NY/raising anchor (Clark 1867)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 20 Jan 11 - 08:40 AM

Gibb, I appreciate this summary for the decade of the '50's. There's actually quite a lot of material there in the bits and pieces. The musical silence of the California Gold Rush with regard to chanties continues to mystify me.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Jan 11 - 01:36 AM

John,
I must admit that even after looking back over this material I feel unsatisfied (or at least less satisfied than I expected). The condensed summaries are too vague to see the picture...and the detailed texts too much info to hold in the brain at once... I'm jumping back and forth, but I haven't yet quite felt like "Ah, that must be it; that's how it all probably happened." I am even still on the fence about whether "modern" chanties generally came in in the 30s, 40s, or even later!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Jan 11 - 03:14 AM

Here's an article from The New York Times, 27 Jan. 1884 (pg. 10).

It contains a text of SHENANDOAH that has not yet featured in this thread. Much of what I've cut is redundant waxing about the "wild" and "plaintive" qualities and affects of the songs.

//
MINSTRELSY ON THE SEA.
SONGS WHICH THE REAL SAILOR
SINGS AT HIS WORK.
GOOD MUSIC AND DOGGEREL WORDS WHICH
OFTEN DELIGHT THE HEARERS AND
HELP JACK'S LABORS VERY MUCH.

... The words and music of the majority of the sea songs now in
use were composed gonerations ago. ... The words are, as a rule, mere doggerel,
but there is a wild beauty about many of the airs that leads to the conviction that their
composers were gifted with a rude sort of musical
inspiration. ...
Jack is very proud of tIle songs which he has inherited
from his predecessors, but he rarely sings
them except on shipboard. ... The sea airs have
had very little chance to become popular
on shore, owing to the fact that comparatively
few landsmen have ever heard them....
The genuine sea songs do not abound
with poetic sentiments. They consist largely of
matter-of-fact remarks and rude legends, with
an occasional rhyme thrown in to give a flavor
to the words....
The most popular of the sea songs are known
as "shanties." Whether this is an original word
or is a corruption of "chants" it would be difficult
to say. Whenever the sailors heave up the
anchor, or man the pumps, or undertake some
difficult operation which requires the use of the
capstan they are apt to indulge in "shantying."...
The "shantyer," or soloist,
chants one or two rude Iines and is followed by
his comrades in a brief chorus. In nearly all
shanties there are two choruses, which are sung
alternately.
//

Interesting, the use of the word "shantyer."

//
The following is a portion of one of
the most popular of the shanties:

Shanadore is my native valley,
Chorus--Hurrah, rolling river,
Shanadore I love your daughters,
Chorus -Ah-ha, bound away 'cross the wild Missouri.
For seven long years I courted Sally,
Hurrah, rolling river,
Seven more and I could not get her,
Ah-ha. bound away 'cross the wild Missourl.
Seven long years I was a 'Frisco trader,
Hurrah, rolling river,
Seven more I was a Texas ranger.
Ah-ha, bound away 'cross the wild Missourl.
//

Next is MR. STORMALONG described.

//
...
Another beautiful sea air is known as "Storm-along."
... In the words of the librettist
of the song which immortalized him,
Storm-along "gave his sea boys plenty of rum."
The shantyer's face invariably glows with enthusiasm
when he reaches this line, while the
chorus of "Aye, aye, aye, Mr. Storm-along,"
which follows is given with a will. ...
//

And LOWLANDS AWAY

//
A very touching sea air is known as "Lowlands Away." The choruses
of this are "Lowlands Away, my John," and "My dollar and a half a day." ...
//

The next part is interesting because it seems to suggest that the Civil War era MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA, contrary to what we'd probably assume, has only recently become a shanty.

//
One or two land songs have of late years been
transformed Into shantys. "Marching Through
Georgia" is becoming a great favorite with Jack,
although the air of this does not compare with
those of several of his shantys. The song in
which a young man meets a pretty maid, who,
upon being cross-examined, informs him that her
face is her fortune, and in a very pert and forward
manner says: "Nobody asked you, Sir" when he announces his disinterested Intention of
marrying her, has, after some alterations and
renovations been transformed into a shanty,
with the following somewhat irrelevant chorus:
"I was bound for the Rio Grande."
//

The last was RIO GRANDE, with the Mother Goose-y "milkmaid" theme that Harlow also documented.

And LEAVE HERE JOHNNY.

//
There is however, one shanty the words of which were very appropriate. This is rarely sung except by the crew of some sinking vessel who are about to abandon her. Those who have heard it under these circumstances say that it Is very touching. It begins as follows:

She's a gallant ship with a gallant crew,
Chorus.-Leave her, jollies, leave her.
She's a gallant ship. so's her Captain, too,
Chorus.-Oh! It's time for us to leave her.
//

The next section seems to be describing "sweatin' up" chants or sheet shanties. However, the author, possibly, gets mixed up when s/he puts HANGING JOHNNY and WHISKEY JOHNNY in the category.

//
There are a number of songs which sailors sing
while hauling on the ropes which are not called
shantys, but are in many respects similar to the
latter. The soloist chants a line, and his comrades
follow with a chorus, at the last word of which they give the rope a terrific tug. One of
these songs is known as "Hanging Johnny." Although the air is singularly sweet
the words breathe forth a most diabolical
spirit. The soloist, in somewhat plaintive
tones, announces the fact that he Is
called "Hanging Johnny." His comrades
encourage hIm by exclaiming: "Hurrah,
heigho!" He then states that his acquaintances
conferred upon him the title mentioned for the
reason that he has hanged a large number of persons.
A fit of hanging enthusiasm seizes the
members of the chorus, who yell: "Hang, boys, hang." 'The soloist then proceeds to relate a few of his achievements in the hanging line. He
states unblushingly that after hanging his poor
old father by the neck until he was dead,
he strung up his venerable and sainted
mother. He then turned his attention
to his kinsmen and friends, whom, by
the aid of a noose artistically handled,
he succeeded in jerking from this world into the
next. He afterward in the same manner cut
short the days of an estimable young woman
whom he mentions rather tenderly as "sweet
Nelly."

Another rope-hauling song begins with
the announcement that "Whisky is the life
of man," and points out the numerous
advantages which may be obtained from
a Iiberal consumption of corn juice.
When seamen are called out on a cold night
to make sail, one of them is apt to start the
whisky song. They all smack their lips occasionally
by way of a hint to the Captain, and the
line, "I drink whisky when I can," is given with
emphasis.
//

PADDY DOYLE, with a fairly unique (?) lyric:

//
There are a number of similar songs
which are rarely used except when the seamen
are hauling on the ropes.
When seamen furl one of the larger sails it
requires their united efforts to roll the canvass
up on to the yard. For the final effort they stimulate
themselves by a brief chant at the last word
of which all pull together. In the selection of
the two sets of words which Jack has set to
this chant he has displayed his love of
honesty and truthfulness. One version of
the yard-arm chant is "Wea-hay-hay; we
will pay Paddy Doyle for his boots."
The composer of these words undoubtedly owed
a man named Patrick Doyle for a pair of boots,
and he took a public occasion for announcing
his intention of paying for them like an honest
man. The other version of the chant is "Wea-hay-
hay; oh, my wife she's a devil for gin." The
composer of this sentiment was doubtless thinking
of his wife when he first gave utterance to
the immortal line. He wanted to say somethillg
about his life partner, but as he could relate
nothing good of her, and being a truthful man
he mentioned the peculiarity which he deemed
most characteristic of her.
//

Brief mention of forecastle songs, with "The Dreadnaught" as an example:

//
There are a few songs which Jack reserves for
forecastle use, but he only indulges in these on
rare occasions. There is one quite popular ballad,
the words and music of which were composed
by a foremast hand on the famous packet ship
Dreadnaught which ran between this port
and Liverpool a number of years ago. The song Is
descriptive of one of the Dreadnaught's voyages
from Liverpool to New-York. ...
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Jan 11 - 09:45 PM

A comment: Interesting to see, up to this point, how very little overlap there seems to be between chanties and so-called forebitters. If one looks at the picture presented of the shanty repertoire by Stan Hugill --in part because his aim was to be so inclusive-- we see that very many of the items are songs that were generally understood to be non-chanties but which had supposedly been "used as chanties" at one time or another. However, in the 19th century references we have not really seen that. I will be interested to see at what time that might have started happening more, and/or what writers may have started mixing them (e.g. the situation that Bullen may have been responding to in 1914 when he had to be firm about excluding certain kinds of songs from his collection).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 09:04 AM

My impression is that sailors sang ordinary songs at the capstan, as the spirit moved them, even in the 18th C. I don't know, however, if it was an established practice, as shantying became in the 19th C.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 10:11 PM

Thanks to shipcmo for introducing "Around Cape Horn..." to this discussion. I am going to give some more details from it, now that I have my hands on a copy.

1926[1925]        Briggs, L. Vernon. _Around Cape Horn to Honolulu on the Bark "Amy Turner" 1880_. Boston: Charles E. Lauriat Co.

Bark leaves Boston in July 1880, for Honolulu. Briggs had a copy of "Two Years Before the Mast" with him, though he does not make any comparisons re: shanties that I can see.

Shantying or singing-out is ascribed to the officers. Pg. 84

//
We often heard the "Haw-haw" and the call of the Mate in pulling at the sheets, but the songs or shanties on our vessel were reserved for use in bad weather to inspire the men to put forth their best efforts after long hours of duty or when their task was unusually difficult.
//

Pg. 85

//
During the four weeks that we were off Cape Horn we heard the shanties every time the men were able to get on deck and pull at a rope. Such songs as "The Ship Neptune", "Here Comes Old Wabbleton a-Walking the Deck", "Wey, Hey, Knock a Man Down", "Whiskey for My Johnny" or "Orenso was no Sailor, Boys", encouraged the sailors to lay out twice their usual strength. The men would take hold of the sheet in a sort of half-hearted way—their clothes had been wet for days, their hands were sore and they had had no hot food to eat. In a few minutes the Second Mate or one of the crew with a good voice would start a favorite shanty. Immediately the sailors would brace themselves, grip the rope with a firmer hold and, remaining in position until the line or verse was finished, would heave their bodies with a tremendous movement and bend all their strength to the rope, as they sang the refrain "Pull, ye devils, pull!"—varying it between the verses with "Pull, ye landlubbers, pull", "Pull, ye hellions, pull!", "Pull, ye seadogs, pull!" and other variations which would not look well in print.
        Many of these shanties (or "chanteys") are quaint and very old. Their verses are legion and vary on every ship. I will give some of the words sung on the "Amy Turner", which I have taken down or had written for me by the sailors.
        There are several kinds of shanty: the capstan or hoisting shanty, sung when at the capstan, warping or weighing anchor or hoisting topsails; the halyard shanty, sung when the topsails and topgallantsails are being mast-headed; and the sheet-tack and bowline shanty, used when the fore, main and other sheets are hauled aft and the bowlines made taut. There is also the bastard shanty, so-called; it is a runaway chorus, sung by all hands as they race across the deck with a rope; you hear it in tacking ship. It is sung to a vigorous tune, in quick time and increasing in volume. One of the most popular bastard shanties is the following:

WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH A DRUNKEN SAILOR?

What shall we do with a drunken sailor? [X3]
        Early in the morning.

Wey, hey, there she rises!
        Early in the morning.

Chuck him in the longboat till he gets sober.
        Early in the morning.

Wey, hey, there she rises!
        Early in the morning.
//

I believe that's only the second reference so far to DRUNKEN SAILOR in this thread.
In the following note, Briggs seems to imply that BLOW THE MAN DOWN was also a stamp 'n' go, however, he later states its use for halyards. I suppose he was just noting that the "way hey" is similar. The theme of this is a bit of "The Black Ball Ship" and "The Dreadnought" combined.

//
        In the shanties with a "Wey, hey" chorus, the men pound the decks with their feet when they say "Wey, hey", as in the following shanty:

THE SHIP "NEPTUNE"

Solo:--Now the "Neptune" is bound out on a float
        Chorus: Wey, hey, knock the man down!
Solo:-- Now the "Neptune" is bound out on a float
        Chorus: Oh, give me some time to knock the man down!

Oh! The "Neptune"'s a hard one—Oh, Lord let her go![x2]

Oh! Don't you see Wabbleton walking the poop? [x2]

Oh! Here's to the "Neptune" and her officers too—[x2]

Oh! Along comes the Mate with his big sea boots on—[x2]

If you don't be aware he'll alight you along—
With the toe of his boot he'll alight you along—

Next come the greaser, the pride of the day—[x2]

He'll sing out, "Lay aft, one—Lay aft one and all!" [x2]

For right over your head there flies the black ball—[x2]

Oh, there is a crew here—Oh, guess who was there!—[x2]

There was butchers and bakers and tinkers and Quakers—[x2]

There was soldiers and sailors and horse-hair braiders [x2]

Oh, the "Neptune"'s arrived, she's in Liverpool town—[x2]
//

It's almost all "stringing-out". I wonder how that practice might be mapped. In which eras or places, or amongst which crews, was it more common? Why did some sailors seem capable of creating rhymes while others stretched out "bachelor" lines? I understand the reasons for why one would "string-out". What I am wondering is if there was any observable shift towards that practice as a *general* style or trend that we might see. because its not so common in the earlier references -- leaving aside the possibility that the chanties were *written down* in couplet form to be more interesting or save space.

Next comes another BLOW THE MAN DOWN. It's solo themes resemble "Paradise street" and "flying fish sailor" ones.

//
Another hoisting shanty with the same chorus was:

AS I WAS A WALKING UP DENNISON STREET

Oh, as I was a walking up Dennison Street—
        Wey, hey, blow the man down!
Oh, as I was a walking up Dennison Street—
        Oh, give me the[/some] time to blow the man down!

Oh, it was a young jaunt that I chanced to meet—[x2]

Oh, she says, "Young man, can't you stand treat?"[x2]

"Oh, yes, young dame, at the head of the street"—[x2]

So we entered the alehouse, so snug and so neat—[x2]

With contentment and pleasure the time passed away—[x2]

And I never did leave her until the next day—[x2]

As I was a walking up Waterloo Road—[x2]

I met with a damsel and these words she said—[x2]

Oh, she say, "Young man, where are you from?" [x2]

"I'm a flying fish sailor—I'm just from Hongkong"—[x2]

Then she says, "Young man, oh give us your arm!" [x2]

"For I'm one of the posies—I'm just on the town!" [x2]

Chock up to the sheave hole this yard it must go—[x2]
//

continued...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 12:13 AM

Briggs, cont.

I'm enjoying the fresh lyrics of some of these chanties.

Next is two versions of REUBEN RANZO -- great to have such an example of two person's variations from the same ship.

//
A hoisting and windlass shanty frequently heard in bad weather was:

RANZO

Solo: Oh Ranzo was no sailor, boys—
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!
Solo: Oh Ranzo was no sailor, boys—
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!

He shipped aboard a whaler, boys—

And he could not do his duty—

Oh, they took him to the gangway,

And they gave him one-and-twenty.

Oh, the Captain was a good man,

And he took him to the cabin,

And he taught him navigation.

Oh, the Captain had a daughter,

And she loved poor Reuben Ranzo—

Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo!

Oh, he now sails captain of her,

And he thinks of the times he used to have

While he hugs the Captain's daughter.

Three cheers for Young Reuben Ranzo!

And I'll bid adieu to the girl I loved—

Adieu to the girl with the red topped boots

We touch our glass with a good-bye lass—

(These words are as copied for me by a sailor. The last two lines are apparently improvised and difficult to fit to the tune.)

Another version of the same shanty was written for me by Lawrence, an old sailor of our crew.

ORENSO

Solo: Orenso was no sailor—
Chorus: Orenso, boys, Orenso!
Solo: Orenso was no sailor—
Chorus: Orenso, boys, Orenso!

He was apprenticed to a tailor—

And he did not like his master—

So he thought he'd be a sailor,

And he shipped on board, a whaler—

He shipped as able seaman.

And he could not do his duty.

The Mate he was a bad man;

He lashed him to the capstan,

And he gave him six-and-thirty.

The Captain was a good man;

He took him to the cabin,

And he learned him navigation;

And he had a only daughter—

Orenso used to court her.

Now he's married the Captain's daughter.

Now he sails the South Seas over.

He is captain of a whaler,

And when he gets a sailor

That can not do his duty,

He takes him down the cabin

And learns him navigation.
//

Then, HAUL AWAY JOE. I'm not sure what to make of the many verses, in light of the idea that not many were needed for this. Does Brigg's transcription represent a single performance (actual or ideal), or is it a compilation of verses?

//
        The shanty we most often heard when boarding a main tack or hauling aft the fore sheet was:

HAUL AWAY, JOE

Solo: Once I had a yaller gal—I kept her like a lady—
Chorus: Way, haul away, haul away, Joe!
Solo: Once I had a yaller gal—I kept her like a lady—
Chorus: Way, haul away, haul away, Joe!

Now I've got an Irish girl, she's dirty, fat and lazy—

You'd better sell your fiddle and buy your wife a gown—

I wouldn't sell my fiddle for all the wives in town.

Now I'm sparking a Spanish lass—She almost sets me crazy—

Oh, thence, boys, I'll never give her up for Miss Long-legs-Daisy.

O boys, I'll pass the grog around when i marry the Spanish lady—

O, my boys, she's the lass—She'll court you nice and easy—
//

Next, BLOW BOYS BLOW, with a few fun and original verses. "Monkey's nuts" is interesting!

//
Another shanty frequently heard was:

BLOW, MY BULLY BOYS, BLOW

Solo: Holler, my boys, I long to hear you—
Chorus: Blow, boys, blow!
Solo: Holler, my boys, I long to hear you—
Chorus: Blow, my bully boys, blow!

Blow today and blow tomorrow—

A Yankee ship goes down the river—

Then how do you know she's a Yankee packet?

She fired a gun and I heard a racket.

Where do you think that she was bound to?

For Hongkong, and that's in China.

And what do you think we had for cargo?

Doll's eyes and fly paper.

Who do you think was captain of her?

Old Tom Jones, the big Kanaka.

Who do you think was Chief Mate of her?

Jimmy Brown, the big-bellied sinner.

And who do you think was steward of her?

A long-tailed Chinaman who spoiled the dinner.

What do you think we had for dinner?

Monkey's nuts and baboons' liver—
//

And, WHISKEY JOHNNY:

//
        But the most popular shanty, sung on our bark during the fiercest gales was:

WHISKEY FOR MY JOHNNY

Solo: Whiskey is the life of man—
Chorus: Whiskey, Johnny!
Solo: Whiskey is the life of man—
Chorus: Whiskey for my Johnny!

Whiskey made me a drunken man—

Whiskey made me what I am.

Whiskey drove me to the sea.

Whiskey gave me a broken nose.

Whiskey made me pawn my clothes.

Whiskey made go to prison.

Whiskey killed my poor old dad.

Whiskey drove my brother mad.

Whiskey and me, us do agree.

I drink whiskey when I can.

Now, whiskey gone, my song goes too.

        The shanties for hauling the fore and main sheets are the most ancient.
//

Briggs goes on another voyage in late 1882. The AMY TURNER is off Cape Cod, and they need to get the anchor up in a storm. The 70-yr. old chanteyman gives one of the older chanties, SANTIANA:

//
It was not easy to work the capstan in such a gale and John Miller, of East Boston, the ship-keeper, nearly 70 years old, who had spent many years on the United States Ship "Ohio", started a shanty, of which he sang the verses, while the sailors joined in the chorus and pulled with a will. I took down the words, as follows:

SANTA ANNA ON THE PLAINS OF MEXICO

Santa Anna gained the day—
        Hurrah, Santa Anna!
Santa Anna gained the day—
        All on the plains of Mexico.

He gained the day at Monterey.

He sailed away one fine day—

Oh, that creole gal, she's the gal for me!

She wears red-top boots and her hair does shine—

She's just the girl to make them pine—

We're bound to have her in the black-ball line—

Oh, was you ever in Mobile Bay?

Screwing cotton by the bale—

'Tis there you'll find the boys to shine—

But the girls are all of the blackest kind—

Now we sail from Mobile Bay—

We are bound for Liverpool town—

Oh, there you'll see the girls come down—
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 07:13 AM

The following is the updated "set list" of shipboard work-songs claimed to have existed up through the 1880s. Re: number of appearances, I have made an effort to excluded from the tally any citations that were clearly repetitions of prior text sources. There are 101 chanties here. The usual disclaimers about vague references, subjectivity in tally, etc. apply. Remember, these are only ship-board songs.

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (4)
A-ROVING (2)
And England's blue for ever"
Baltimore Bell"
Black although she be"
BLACKBALL LINE (4)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (5)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (9)
BONEY (4)
BOTTLE O (1)
BOWLINE (9)
BULLY IN ALLEY (1)
BUNCH OF ROSES (1)
Captain gone ashore!"
Cheerily she goes"
CHEERLY (13)
CLEAR THE TRACK (1)
DEAD HORSE (3)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (2)
FIRE FIRE (2)
GOLDEN VANITY (1)
GOOD MORNING LADIES (2)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (7)
GOODBYE MY LOVE (2)
GROG TIME (1)
Hah, hah, rolling John" (1)
Hand ober hand, O"
HANDY MY BOYS (2)
HANGING JOHNNY (3)
HAUL AWAY JOE (8)
Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes"
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (6)
Heave her away"
Heave him up! O he yo!"
Heave round hearty!"
Heave, to the girls!"
HIGHLAND (2)
Highland day and off she goes"
HILO BOYS (3)
HILONDAY (1)
HOGEYE (1)
Ho, O, heave O"
HOOKER JOHN (1)
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (1)
HUNDRED YEARS (3)
Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
Jack Cross-tree,"
JOHN BROWN'S BODY (1)
John, John Crow is a dandy, O"
JOHNNY BOWKER (3)
Johnny's gone"
Land ho"
Largy Kargy"
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (2)
LOWLANDS AWAY (3)
Miranda Lee"
MOBILE BAY (1)
MONEY DOWN (2)
MR. STORMALONG (6)
Nancy Bell"
Nancy oh!"
NEW YORK GIRLS (2)
O ee roll & go"
O! hurrah my hearties O!"
Oceanida"
Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne"
OH RILEY (1)
Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!"
ONE MORE DAY (1)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (3)
PADDY DOYLE (3)
PADDY LAY BACK (1)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (5)
Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
REUBEN RANZO (9)
RIO GRANDE (6)
ROUND THE CORNER (3)
RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN (3)
SACRAMENTO (3)
SAILOR FIREMAN (1)
SALLY BROWN (6)
Sally in the Alley"
SANTIANA (9)
SHALLOW BROWN (1)
SHENANDOAH (8)
SLAPANDER (1)
Sing, Sally, ho!"
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (1)
STORMALONG JOHN (1)
STORMY (9)
STORMY ALONG (2)
TALLY (2)
Time for us to go!"
TOMMY'S GONE (3)
Up a hill"
Walk away"
WALKALONG SALLY (1)
When first we went a-waggoning"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (10)
Whisky for Johnny!"
YEO HEAVE HO (1)

The most frequently appearing items overall are:

CHEERLY (13)
WHISKEY JOHNNY (10)
STORMY / BOWLINE / BLOW THE MAN DOWN / REUBEN RANZO / SANTIANA (9) SHENANDOAH / HAUL AWAY JOE (8)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 07:47 AM

About 86 "unique" (this number is quite subjective) new references were discovered for the 1880s.

About 15 (quick count) of the 101 items in the list were *first* to be cited in reference to the 1880s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 07:48 AM

It is always exciting to find another new/old source, and one with such detail. Thanks shipcmo for the "Amy Turner" and thanks Gibb for unpacking all of that information. Your comprehensive list for the 1880's is impressive. There are some indications that some of these chanties had been around for awhile, maybe even thirty or forty years. But if Briggs can be so interested in 1880, why didn't we find such interest back in the '50's, if such chanties were around then? I know I keep asking the same question, but it intrigues me. Was there some kind of change in reporting styles or literary styles or just plain consciousness? What happened between Dana and Briggs? We know folks were keeping all kinds of journals about sea voyages during those many decades. But such rare mention of sailors singing.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Jan 11 - 05:59 AM

1860s

Summary: The American Civil War is on, and the shanties that we know are finally starting to pop up everywhere. Is it because so many chanties were being created/adapted then? Or, were they perhaps being reconstituted in some way that made them more "notable"? Or, is the preponderance of chanties just an illusion having to do with the legacy of written works and those who wrote them? Previously, I had the notion that most of the chanties were done being created by the Civil War. However, the queer lack of references to much repertoire in the 1850s does not support that.

If I'm not mistaken, all the vessels referred to here were America, though that may not necessarily mean anything, what with transatlantic runs and mixed nationality crews.

Here's a rough idea of what new was added to the repertoire for the 1860s -- and this list only includes reasonably contemporary references:

SHENANDOAH
RIO GRANDE
SACRAMENTO
SANTIANA
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES
TOMMY'S GONE
REUBEN RANZO
WHISKEY JOHNNY
BLOW BOYS BLOW
BLOW THE MAN DOWN
BONEY
HAUL AWAY JOE
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND
BUNCH OF ROSES
BOWLINE
JOHNNY BOWKER
GOOD MORNING LADIES
Nancy Bell
Sally in the Alley"
True blue, I and Sue/And England's blue for ever"
LOWLANDS AWAY
Oceanida"
BLACKBALL LINE
SLAPANDER
HANDY MY BOYS
Land ho, boys, Land ho"
HILO BOYS
JOHN CROW

Sources:

ca.1861-1880s

- "Shenandoah" [SHENANDOAH] and "Sally Brown" [SALLY BROWN] and "Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE] and "Dixie's Isle" [OH SUSANNA?] and "Blow for California" [SACRAMENTO] and Santa Ana [SANTIANA] and "Mister "Stormalong"" [MR. STORMALONG] and "Maid of Amsterdam" [A-ROVING] and "Homeward Bound" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "Heave Away, Lads" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "The Dreadnought" [DREADNOUGHT] and "Ten Thousand Miles Away" [TEN THOUSAND MILES], gen. discussion, remembered by ex-sailor from U.S./windlass (Coast Seamen's 1909)

- "Tom is Gone to Ilo" [TOMMY'S GONE] and "'Ranzo, Boys, 'Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO] and "Whiskey, Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Blow, Boys, Blow" [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Blow the Men Down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN" and "John Francois" [BONEY], gen. discussion, remembered by ex-sailor from U.S./topsail halyards (Coast Seamen's 1909)

- "Johnny Bowker" [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "Haul on the Bowline" [BOWLINE] and "Haul Away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE], gen. discussion, remembered by ex-sailor from U.S./sheet shanties (Coast Seamen's 1909)

- [PADDY DOYLE], gen. discussion, remembered by ex-sailor from U.S./bunt shanty (Coast Seamen's 1909)

- "Miss Rosa Lee" and "Somebody Told Me So" and "Yankee John, Storm Along" [YANKEE JOHN STORMALONG], gen. discussion, remembered by ex-sailor from U.S./timber stowing ascribed to Blacks in South (Coast Seamen's 1909)

1861, April

- "On the plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] Battle of Fort Sumter, Charleston/hauling up guns onto fort w/ capstan (THE UNITED SERVICE, May 1884)

1862

- "Sally Brown, the bright mulatter" [SALLY BROWN] Ship SPLENDID New York > China/windlass (Sauzade 1863)

- "Hurrah Santa Anna!/All on the plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] Ship SUSAN HINKS, Boston > Calcutta/capstan (FIFTY-THREE YEARS, 1904)

- "O, dey call me Hangman Johnny!" [HANGING JOHNNY] South Carolina/Freed slaves in Union Army coming in from picket duty (Higginson 1867).

1865

- "I'm Gwine to Alabamy, Ohh..../Ahh..." Slaves' songs collection Mississippi steamboat song (Allen 1867)

- "Shock along John, shock along" Slaves' songs collection, Maryland/corn-shucking (Allen1867)

- "Ho, round the corn, Sally" [ROUND THE CORNER] slaves' songs collection/corn-shucking (Allen 1867)

- "Heave away, heave away!/ Heave away, Yellow gal, I want to go!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES], Savannah/firemen's song (Allen 1867)

c.1865-66

- "Paddy on the Railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and "We 're Homeward Bound" [OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND?] Schooner (?) NASON, out of Provincetown/windlass (Clark 1867)

- A chanty gang was engaged to hoist out the cargo, Zanzibar/stevedores (Clark 1867)

c.1866

- when the sugar began to roll in, the crew found I was at the head of the rope, and a "chanty man." We rolled the sugar upon the stages, over the bows, and at every hogshead I gave them a different song, American schooner, St. Jago, Cuba/ working cargo (Clark 1867)

c.1865-1869

- "Come down you bunch o' roses, come down" [BUNCH OF ROSES] and "Sally Brown's a bright Mulatto"[SALLY BROWN] Ship (all Black crew) DUBLIN Boston > Genoa/ topsail halyards (Adams 1879)

- "Walk along my Sally Brown," [WALKALONG SALLY] and "Hoist her up from down below" Ship (all Black crew) DUBLIN Boston > Genoa/ working cargo (Adams 1879)

- "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul" [BOWLINE] and "Way, haul away; O, haul away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Do, my Johnny Boker, do."[JOHNNY BOWKER] Barque ROCKET/ tacks and sheets (Adams 1879)

- "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO] and "Shantyman and Sally Brown" [SALLY BROWN] and "Blow, boys, blow!/Blow, my bully boys, blow!" [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Away, hey way!/John Francois" [BONEY] and "Hurrah, you high low/My Tommy's gone a high low" [TOMMY'S GONE] and "Hurrah, you rolling river/Ah hah, I'm bound away o'er the wild Missouri" [SHENANDOAH] and "Whiskey Johnny/ Whiskey for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Way, hey, knock a man down/ This is the time to knock a man down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] Barque ROCKET/ halyards (Adams 1879)

- "And away you Rio! Oh, you Rio!/ I'm bound away this very day, I'm bound for the Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE] and "Oh, poor Paddy come work on the railway" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] Barque ROCKET/ capstan or windlass (Adams 1879)

- continuous running solo of " way-hey he, ho, ya,"…accompanying the hand-over-hand hoisting of jibs and staysails, and for short "swigs" at the halyards…"hey lee, ho lip, or yu" and the more measured "singing out," for the long and regular pulls at the braces, Barque ROCKET/sing-outs (Adams 1879)

1867

- "Dere ain't but one more river to cross", Af-Amer gospel-cum-boat song (Higginson 1867)

1867, July

- "Away, away, blow a man down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], Steamer CALEDONIA, NY > Glasgow/ halyards (Daily Courier 1867)

1868

- "What boat is that my darling honey?, Oh, oh ho, ho ay yah yah-ah!/Ah a... yah a...ah!"
Steamboats /Black firemen (McBRIDE'S 1868)

1868, April

- "Away, you rollin' river!/Ah ha! I'm bound away/On the wild Atlantic!" [SHENANDOAH] Atlantic, capstan (Riverside Magazine 1868)

- "Heave away, my Johnny, heave away!/An' away, my Johnny boy, we're all bound to go!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] Atlantic/ ?? (Riverside Magazine 1868)

1868, Aug.

- "cheerily men" [CHEERLY]
journal article/braces (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- "Good-bye, fare you well/ Hurrah, brave boys, we're outward bound" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "There's plenty of gold in the land, I'm told/ On the banks of Sacramento" [SACRAMENTO] and "Then fare you well, my pretty young girls/ We're bound for the Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE] and "Valparaiso, Round the Horn" [PADDY LAY BACK] and "Hurrah, Santa Anna/ All on the plains of Mexico" [SANTIANA] and "Good morning ladies all" [GOOD MORNING LADIES] and "Nancy Bell" [HURRAH SING FARE YOU WELL?] and "Sally in the Alley" and "True blue, I and Sue/And England's blue for ever" and "Lowlands" [LOWLANDS AWAY] and "Oceanida" and "Johnny's gone" [TOMMY'S GONE?] and "The Black-ball Line" [BLACKBALL LINE] and "Slapandergosheka" [SLAPANDER] journal article/capstan (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- there is the hand over hand song, in very quick time, journal article/ hand over hand (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- "So handy, my girls, so handy/So handy, my girls, so handy" [HANDY MY BOYS] journal article/halyards (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

- "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul" [BOWLINE] and "Land ho, boys, Land ho" and "Haul away, my Josey" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Oh, Boney was a warrior, away a yah/John Francivaux" [BONEY] journal article/ single pull hauling (ONCE A WEEK 1868)

1869

- "Hoojun, John a hoojun" [HOOKER JOHN] Brig WILLIAM, Portland, Maine, possible fiction/ hoisting molasses (Kellogg 1869)

- "O, stow me long/ Stow me long, stow me" [STORMY] Fictional American vessel/ windlass (Kellogg 1869)

- "Hand ober hand, O/ Scratch him/Hand ober hand, O" Fictional American vessel/ hand over hand (Kellogg 1869)

- "Ho-o, ho, ho, ho/ Fire down below" [SAILOR FIREMAN] Fictional American vessel/ walk-away (Kellogg 1869)

- "Bonny laddie, Highland laddie/ My bonny Highland laddie" [HIGHLAND] Fictional American vessel/no context (Kellogg 1869)

- "Hilo, boys, a hilo" [HILO BOYS] Fictional American vessel/ topgallant halyards (Kellogg 1869)

- "Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes/O, my poor sailor-boy, heave and she goes" Fictional American vessel/ capstan (Kellogg 1869)

- ''John, John Crow is a dandy, O" [JOHN CROW] Fictional American vessel/ studding-sail halyards (Kellogg 1869)

1869 Oct. – 1870

Don't tally: Repeat of RC Adams, though earlier pub. date.[[- "I wish I was in Mobile Bay" and " I'm bound for the Rio Grande," [RIO GRANDE] ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/pumping (Nehemiah Adams 1871).

- "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"[REUBEN RANZO], ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/topsail halyards (Nehemiah Adams 1871).

- "'Way! haul away! haul away! Joe!" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!" [BOWLINE], ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/tacks+sheets (Nehemiah Adams 1871). ]]

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 06:55 PM

1870s

Summary:

Danger ahead! -- Beware that, in trying to construct a narrative, there may be more than usual tendency towards conjecture on my part, in this decade.

I see this as the decade in which chanties became "standard." The word "chanty/shanty" itself has become widely known to and used by the sort of people who hold the privilege of writing. And while we can't say for sure if the word wasn't already very common amongst "common" sailors, the awareness of it by writers suggests to me that the genre itself had reached some stage of "everyday knowledge" -- at least as a concept. Establishing the word and using it in discourse (not just literary) seems to lend a more definiteness to the genre. It all becomes a bit more regular.

That may be reflected by the pieces of repertoire, which doesn't grow much in the decade.

The only reasonably new song mentioned is DEAD HORSE.

A major disclaimer, however, is that this survey has not taken much into consideration the oral sources and testimonies in much later collections (e.g. Harlow) who sailed at this time. 1870s is really the earliest decade about which the John Shorts and Carpenter's singers and people like that could tell us, I think -- Sure, a few were at see in the 60s, but how does one reasonably separate what one may have learned in the 60s from the 70s? And since my division by decade is really somewhat arbitrary, "late 60s" is not necessarily a different "era" from, say, 1974. Add to this an idea -- that the 70s was really the "last" decade for chanties. The early 80s authors already talk about chanties as a by-gone practice. In any case, despite what can be no doubt that some new repertoire was added afterwards (I'd think, especially popular songs during later wars)...It may be possible to say that the 70s was when things "flattened out" (creatively speaking) and chanties began their decline.

Including the later-published and -recorded accounts would certainly yield a higher number, but there is the uncertainty about the authors adding items heard/seen in later decades. Besides, even if we look at Harlow, his "Akbar" shanties add very few title to what would be noted by the 80s. That being said, there is some interesting material in Bullen, or in Hugill (via his West Indian informants), etc., but I cannot consider it at this time.

To make another dramatic statement: Might we say that "chanties as we know them" (as repertoire and as form/usage -- not in terms of performance style, etc.) were a product of the 1870s (or late 60s)? Not in terms of origin, of course, but in terms of the collective body, fully developed, that constituted a named genre.

Sources:

1869 Oct. – 1870

- "I wish I was in Mobile Bay" and " I'm bound for the Rio Grande," [RIO GRANDE] ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/pumping (Nehemiah Adams 1871). [Repeat of RC Adams, though earlier pub. date.]

- "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"[REUBEN RANZO], ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/topsail halyards (Nehemiah Adams 1871).

- "'Way! haul away! haul away! Joe!" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!" [BOWLINE], ship GOLDEN FLEECE, Boston > Frisco, Hong Kong, Manila/tacks+sheets (Nehemiah Adams 1871). ]]

[1869 Opening of Suez Canal]

c. 1870s

- "Oh, ho, yes—Oho/ A hundered years ago" [HUNDRED YEARS] and "Starm along, boys—Starm along/ Starm along, Starmy" [STORMY] and "With a heave oh—haul/ And good morning, ladies all" [GOOD MORNING LADIES], memory of work on Black X liners "years ago" (Leslie 1886)

1870

- The leader, a stalwart negro, stood upon the capstan shouting the solo part of the song…they were answered by his companions in stentorian tones at first, and then, as the refrain of the song fell into the lower part of the register, the response was changed into a sad chant in mournful minor key Steamboat, St. Louis > New Orleans (Nichols 1870)

1870, Sept.

- "Whiskey, O Johnnie/ Whiskey for my Johnnie" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] ship, New York> /topsail halyards [fiction] (RIVERSIDE MAGAZINE Sept. 1870)

- "All haul away, haul away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE], ship, New York> /braces [fiction] (RIVERSIDE MAGAZINE Sept. 1870)

c. early 1870s

- "Stand below you coal black rose" [COAL BLACK ROSE], Vera Cruz, Mexico/stevedores discharging cargo [pulling] – possibly contrived (Dixon 1883)

1873

- O whisky, whisky ! / O whisky is for Johnny!" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Lorenzo was no sailor / Renzo, boys, Renzo!" [REUBEN RANZO], Sailors' songs in American vessels/halyards (Jewell 1873)

- "Way, haul away—haul away, Josey/ Way, haul away—haul away, Joe!" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Haul the bowline—bowline haul!" [BOWLINE], Sailors' songs in American vessels/braces (Jewell 1873)

- "Blow, my bully boys, blow!" [BLOW BOYS BLOW], Sailors' songs in American vessels/windlass (Jewell 1873)

1874

- "Whiskey, Johnnie / So whiskey for my Johnnie, O" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Way, haul away, haul away, my Josey / Way, haul away, haul away, my Jo" [HAUL AWAY JOE] [possibly culled from elsewhere] (Brevet, August 1974)

- "Haul the bowline, The bowline haul!" [BOWLINE] Norwegian/tacks (Lie 1874)

- "Aa hal i — aa — i aa —! / Cheer my men!" [CHEERLY] Norwegian/catting anchor (Lie 1874)

- "Good-bye, fare-ye-well!" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL], English merchant ship SEA QUEEN, London > / capstan, "homeward bound chanty" (Symondson 1876)

- "I served my time in the Black Ball Line" [BLACKBALL LINE], English merchant ship SEA QUEEN, off Portland / anchor capstan (Symondson 1876)

- "Ho! and heigho!/ For we're bound to the Rio Grande" [RIO GRANDE], English merchant ship SEA QUEEN, > Sydney Harbour / anchor capstan (Symondson 1876)

1874, Jan.

"Then heave away, my bully boys/ Heave away, my Johnnies!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] (Drake 1874)

1875

[[- Harlow]]

1876

- "Oh, Shanadoa, I longs to hear you/ Ha! ha! the rolling water" [SHENANDOAH],
ship PANDORA, Arctic/anchor capstan (MacGahan, 1876)

1876, Nov.

- "Hilo boys, hil-lo!" [HILO BOYS] and "Walk away", rowing a boat off Malaysia [historical fiction?] (CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL, Nov. 1876)

1877

- "Blow the man down in Grangemouth town, hay, hay, blow the man down," [BLOW THE MAN] ship FORSETTE out of Höganäs, Sweden, off Bodo, Norway/catting anchor (Nelson, 1913)

1877, April

- "I'm bound away to leave you/ Good-bye, my love, good-bye!" [GOODBYE MY LOVE], rowing [fiction] (Foot 1877).

1878

- "Aha! I'm bound AWAY/ Across the broad Atlantic!" [SHENANDOAH] and "Do my, Johnny Boker, do!" [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "An' away, my Johnny boy, we 're all bound to go!" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "Ranzo, boys, O Ranzo!" [REUBEN RANZO] [fiction, maybe rehashed from RIVERSIDE Apr 1868] (Scudder 1879)

1879, fall

- "Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin', Haul" [BOWLINE] and "Whisky, Johnny!/ O! Whisky for my Johnny" [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Wae! Hae! Blow the man down/ Give me some time to blow the man down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO] and "Away, haul away—Haul away, Joe" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "So handy, me boys, so handy" [HANDY MY BOYS] and "Wae! Hae! Ha!" [BONEY] and "Hand away, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "Good-bye, fare ye well. Good-bye, fare ye well/ Hurrah, me boys! we're bound to go!" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "And we say so, for we know so/ Poor old man" [DEAD HORSE], steamship PARRAMATTA, London > Sydney/ transcriptions of various sailors' chanties (Seal 1992)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Snuffy
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 09:24 AM

1870s is really the earliest decade about which the John Shorts and Carpenter's singers and people like that could tell us, I think -- Sure, a few were at see in the 60s, but how does one reasonably separate what one may have learned in the 60s from the 70s? And since my division by decade is really somewhat arbitrary, "late 60s" is not necessarily a different "era" from, say, 1974.

With Carpenter's informants, at any rate, I think that we may safely set the parameters back 20 years before your cut-off date. Many of them were at sea in the 1850's and some even in the late 1840's: it was not unusual to have 12-year-old lads on board.
* Edward Robinson - born 1834 - to sea 1846
* Mark Page - born 1835 - to sea 1849
* James Forman - born 1844 - to sea 1856. Forman claimed that Bully in the Alley was "learned as a boy before going to sea", and also gave Carpenter a song "learned when seven or eight years old; sung in 'guysens' (serenading, with faces blacked) on New Year's Day; did not celebrate Christmas"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:32 AM

Hi, Snuffy.

Robinson's repertoire would be especially interesting, since he was at sea (though we don't know where) during the Gold Rush era.

If shantying was well-established in the late '40s, he would presumably have learned most of his shanties (though we don't which)in his first year before the mast.

Mark Page's repertoire would be equally worthy of investigation. I do know he sang "The Hog-Eye Man" for Carpenter.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:45 AM

Gibb, I've been puzzling over these transitions from occasional, mostly random notices of chanty singing to the early "collections" in magazine articles to the later "published collections". I'm thinking off the top of my head here, but roughly speaking, the history seems to move from "actual practice in working situations" to a much more "literary" enterprise of "collecting". And the "literalizing" (?) of the genre roughly coincides with the phasing out of "actual" use in the workplace.

We've wondered why there were not more instances of mention of these chanties earlier on (say from 1840 to 1860) in the various accounts of the day. It seems that it is only when they become a literary phenomenon that things pick up. I was struck by your use of the phrase "the sort of people who hold the privilege of writing". This seems to signal the establishment of a "genre" for secondary interests. And of course there is also a feedback loop wherein the new published information can re-impact the original chanty singers. Surely we see that happening in someone like Harlow.

But what is occurring to me this morning is this. Is the process that we are observing with regard to "sea chanties" that runs roughly through the second half of the 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th century really any different from the same or a similar process that happened in relation to other genres of "traditional folk music". Child published his "collection" of ballads between 1882 and 1898. These were primarily if not exclusively drawn from literary sources. Child seemed to think that actual living oral sources no longer existed or weren't worth seeking out. He certainly ignored the oral situation in America! It wasn't until Cecil Sharp came along in the early 20th century (following the lead of Olive Dame Campbell and others) that the American oral traditions began to be tapped and recorded. What kinds of literary evidence do we have in the 19th century for the "ballads"? I am aware of the Broadside dimension. But what about the worksongs and play party songs, etc. that were being sung throughout the 1800's? Are they any more noted than were the sea chanties? Has anybody even done the kind of re-searching for these sources for other folk songs that you have been doing with the chanties?

In other words, what happens when we place "the advent and development of chanties" in the larger historical context of the "advent and development" of "folk" music in general throughout the 19th century and go looking for the published remains for other "folk" songs? Could we learn anything about the process that affected the mentioning and collecting of sea chanties? And would this possibly highlight how they might have been unique (for instance they were supposedly "never sung ashore" or were "too obscene")?

When I've gone looking for the "origins" of a particular folksong, I have never gone behind or beyond the early collections. It will be interesting in the future to apply the "Google book search" method to this process and see what comes up. My guess is that it is going to be about as scarce as it has been for sea chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 06:16 AM

500 ??

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 03:42 PM

Thanks, Snuffy. That's exactly the kind of info that I, for one, am looking for!...or *will* be looking for when I get far enough along to critique Carpenter's singers. Unfortunately I've been overloaded with masses of data so far yet in the recently-published material through the 1880s. I can't wait, however, to study the Carpenter stuff more closely and see how it might fit. We do have one published source, albeit from the 1880s, that also attributes "Bully in the Alley" to the 50s, which is great corroboration. I do maintain, however, that it is *generally* difficult to trust the shanty knowledge of someone interviewed in the 1920s, even if they went to sea in the 50s/60s, that the shanties they know weren't necessarily learned afterwards. In this case, the date they *left* the trade becomes equally important. The exception is when they do specify when they learned the song, as in the examples you provided.

John - Big thoughts! Too bad not too many of the "general" folk music people are reading this (I'm sure we lost them long ago...the posts are too long, and there is not enough bickering :) ). Otherwise you'd be blowing their minds, ha!

Leadfingers-- Uh, yeah? What's more, all the posts have been substantial. Thanks for giving the old "Mudcat blessing" of a one-word random post! ;D

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:30 AM

"John - Big thoughts! Too bad not too many of the "general" folk music people are reading this (I'm sure we lost them long ago...the posts are too long, and there is not enough bickering :) ). Otherwise you'd be blowing their minds, ha!"

That's not to say we aint reading it all, rather that we aint got nothing constructive to post and maybe we dont want to muddy the waters for them what has. :-)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 12:15 AM

GUEST -- You're always welcome!

*****

I was just rereading over some sources and kind of struck by the similarity in phrasing here. Probably means little, but still interesting.

So, a 1775 essay "On Musical Time" states,

Seamen at the windlass, and on other occasions, sing, that they may all act together.

Then Dana in 1840 (I forget wish edition exactly) says,

Sailors, when heaving at a windlass, in order that they may heave together, always have one to sing out.

I can't help but think that, even if Dana had not read (and unconsciously paraphrased) the first, these two statements support each other -- Specifically, they support the idea that was was being done at the windlass in those times was certainly a "sing-out," not a "song" (or chanty). It's interesting because Dana of course talks about his "songs for capstan and falls," but nothing for windlass. Anyways, if anyone cares :) I am thinking about this in terms of the role the *new* windlass (brake/pump style) may have had in the development of chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 03:11 AM

1900        Mather, Fred. _In the Louisiana Lowlands: A Sketch of Plantation Life, Fishing and Camping Just After The Civil War, and Other Tales._ New York: Forest and Stream.

The narrator is on a steamboat journey down the Red River at Natchitoches, Louisiana in 1860. He has come upon a White banjo player in the saloon. A song called "The Lowlands" is requested: (pg 9)

//
I was not surprised when I saw a young white man at the end of the saloon just winding up an obligate and retiring for a rest. But he was vociferously recalled and "The Lowlands" was demanded. The air was a singular one, with a refrain that began slowly and ended fast; it was:

"In the Louisiana lowlands, lowlands, lowlands, In the Louisiana lowlands, low."

And from this song the title of this sketch was chosen.

Later in the night at a landing for wood I heard one of the negro roustabouts singing of old Gen. Andrew Jackson:

"Gen'el Jackson mighty man—
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away!
He fight on sea an' he fight on lan'—
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away!

"Gen'el Jackson find de trail—
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away!
He make a fort wid cotton bale—
Whaw, my kingdom, fire away!"

There was more of it, for all these songs are spun out to cover the time of wooding up or of heaving up the levee. A livelier song was sung in the morning as we rounded to. It had a refrain of:

"Heave away! heave away!
I'd rather court a yallow gal
Dan work fo' Henry Clay!"
//

"Louisiana Lowlands" is a local or parody variation of the "Golden Vanitee" ballad. The work-songs are of more interest here. First is MARENGO, then the relative of HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES. The account is supposed to be based on the author's notes on the journey. Both songs are problematic, however, because they appeared in comparable versions in print earlier. The first was as early as 1855 and the second was in Allen's SLAVE SONGS from 1867. So I can't tell if he is making it up, or if he is using published material to refresh the memory.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 03:58 AM

1898        Whitmarsh, H. Phelps. _The World's Rough Hand._ New York: The Century Co.

Author born 1863. Clipper ship Bosphorus bound out of London to Adelaide ca. 1884.

"Singing-out" is decribed, Pg 5:

//
When I reached the pierhead, it was nearly high water; the dock gates stood wide open; and the Bosphorus, with a gang of riggers aboard, was hauling briskly through the still water of the basin toward the river. Upon her forecastle-head, a bunch of men, bending almost double over the bow line, surged rhythmically back and forth to the quaint, nautical "singing out" of the leader; and the rope plashed in the water ahead of them after each pull.
The hauling-song began something like this: "Way-ho!" (jerk), "Way-ho-hu!" (jerk), "O-le-obo-ho!" (jerk), increasing in sound, volume, and power as it progressed; then running into a wordless chant,—a vowel song,—which, with a pulling emphasis, and a melody as weird as a Gaelic psalm-tune, rose and fell like the song of the shrouds when the wind pipes strong.
//

They haul out of the dock to HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES at the capstan, pg7:

//
The gangway was withdrawn, the lines cast off, the order given to "Heave away on your capstan!" and we hauled slowly through the gates to the tune of the favorite outward-bound chantey:

Sometimes we 're bound to London town, 

Sometimes we 're bound to France,
Chorus: Heave away, my bullies, heave away.
But now we 're bound to Adelaide, 

To give those girls a chance!
Chorus: Heave away, my bully boys; 
         
We 're all bound to go.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Dead Horse
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 06:41 AM

Duh! Last 'Guest' was me, without noticing that cookie had been filched.

The stuff collected in Louisiana particularly interested me as Cajun music is my favourite genre after shanties. Mebbe I could now combine the two with "Heave away, ma Jolies" :-)
The wife dances Appalachian flatfooting so I am often called upon to sing some really fast stuff for her to hoof to.
You aint lived til you have heard "Johnny come down to Hilo" or "South Australia" sung at a speed that would enable the off duty crew to go water skiing to........

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 07:21 AM

DH, I'd love to find some instances of "White" Appalachian influence on the advent and development of sea chanties. This could be dance tunes (fiddle & banjo), ballads, "love songs", work songs, and religious songs. So far as I know and can remember, we've not had any examples of this kind of influence. I am talking here about influence moving from the mountains to the sea, rather than vice-versa. Or, possibly, just shared material.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 12:33 PM

Gibb, I found some references to "In the Louisiana Lowlands". It appears to have been minstrel song that was popular with the Northern troops during the Civil War. Here are the lyrics from SONG-BOOK OF THE COMMANDERY OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA (1902):

http://books.google.com/books?id=LMYVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA24&dq=%22In+the+Louisiana+lowlands%22&hl=en&ei=EP5XTfDcDIjrgQerwaCWDQ&sa=X&oi

And here is a reference to it in relation to the war - 1882 (scroll up a page for the beginning }:

http://books.google.com/books?id=2JIvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA310&dq=In+the+Louisiana+Lowlands,+lowlands,+low&hl=en&ei=FgxYTdK_IonEgAel76Wf

Here is a parody using "In the Virginia lowlands low" (1893 & 1864):

http://books.google.com/books?id=UsESAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA96&dq=%22In+the+Louisiana+lowlands,+lowlands,+low%22&hl=en&ei=ogtYTaKIFIndgQe

and,

http://books.google.com/books?id=ND09ZBPerW8C&pg=PA14&dq=In+the+Louisiana+lowlands,+lowlands,+low&hl=en&ei=sAxYTaeMM4L2gAfgjJnHD

And another parody using "In the Shenandoah lowlands, low" (1886):

http://books.google.com/books?id=_tbNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA562&dq=%22In+the+Louisiana+lowlands,+lowlands,+low%22&hl=en&ei=bgtYTfrkLoyr8A

And finally, a mention of the song in the context of a campfire sing around in Florida. Here the song is being sung by local (?) black folks (1882). I'm not clear if this was being sung also as a rowing song or a chanty.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Cs3UAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA64&dq=%22In+the+Louisiana+lowlands%22&hl=en&ei=rf5XTcrEH4LagAfcw7nUDA&sa=X&oi

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 02:01 PM

Don't stop now!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 05:48 PM

Thanks, John M. neglected to note, too, that the song *with score* was in Mather's book.

(Scroll up a page or 2:)
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZKQcAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=%22louisiana+lowlands%22

From the score, one can see that it did indeed go to the tune (or at least one of the well known tunes) of the "Golden Vanitee" ballad.

***

On another note --
I have decided to keep going with this thread to round out at least the 19th century -- I have an itch for some kind of "completion" like that. From me you'll most likely see more published references through the 1890s (I have a load of them to follow up on in my notes, which I've not yet read). Then, I will probably shift to trying to work in the recorded or other archived info. As usual, any and all contributions (don't mind my own, somewhat arbitrary structure) are welcome.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 02:20 AM

1876        Warner, Charles Dudley. _My Winter On the Nile, Among the Mummies and Moslems._ Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company.

Preface dated Oct. 1875. Warner is on a sail-boat on the Nile in December 1874. Some of the chants of Egyptian boatmen are mentioned, e.g. "Yah! Mohammed!" In one of the descriptions, he indicates that the English would refer to the singer as "shanty man." It would seem that he heard this in use; it is possible he also read the term in an earlier work—though only N. Adams (1971) had previously used that orthography.

Pp153-154:

//
The morning finds us still a dozen miles from Asioot where we desire to celebrate Christmas; we just move with sails up, and the crew poling. The head-man chants a line or throws out a word, and the rest come in with a chorus, as they walk along, bending the shoulder to the pole. The leader—the "shanty man" the English sailors call their leader, from the French chanter I suppose—ejaculates a phrase, sometimes prolonging it, or dwelling on it with a variation, like "O ! Mohammed!" or "O! Howadji!" or some scraps from a love-song, and the men strike in in chorus: "Ha Yalesah, ha Yalesah," a response that the boatmen have used for hundreds of years.
//

http://books.google.com/books?id=mFYoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA153&dq=sailors'+%22chants%22&

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 03:09 AM

1894[1889] No author. _More Maritime Melodies._ Second edition. San Francisco: Commercial Publishing Co.

I believe only the Second edition of this is available. However, the first, it seems, had no chanties, anyway. The preface explains:

//
In 1889, as a Christmas greeting to the friends of the Commercial News and the Commercial Publishing Company, Maritime Melodies, edition 1,000 copies, was launched. The demand exceeded the supply, as is usually the case when good things are given away, and this Christmas a new edition, entirely changed, and it is hoped, improved, is put forth, and a copy sent you with the compliments of the season.
//

It is mostly sea-related poetry, though it also contains a version of "The Dreadnaught" (pp.21-23). The Appendix conatins a section called "Chanties" with texts (pg. 60ff).

The blurb is interesting for its positive assertion that chanties originated with Black cotton-stowers and that, moreover, they were French (i.e. Creoles). Was this something "generally known" at the time, or did the author read of it? Alden (1882) did give a statement that connected chanties to cotton stowers, and L.A. Smith repeated that. I believe that, if anywhere in print, this is where the author would have gotten the idea from. S/he mentions an English chanty collection, which may have been Smith's or Davis/Tozer's—I'd guess Smith's, for this reason. But now where does the French/Creole idea come in? Is it conjecture based on the presumed French etymology of 'chanty'? Or did this author, closer to the historical events, have some better sense than we do nowadays that the cotton-stowers may have actually been Creoles?

Interesting that it uses both (ch/sh) spellings of shchanty.

It quotes a verse from SACRAMENTO, the exact form of which does not show up previously.

//
IT WAS the intention to give in this edition of "Maritime Melodies" a number of chanties, but without the music, the action and the very spirit of the sea, words are feeble.

The "Chanty," a corruption of the French verb to sing, came from New Orleans, where the French darkies made up songs to suit the occasion as they loaded the Yankee clipper ships with cotton. The Yankee sailor in turn "caught on" and calling their songs "Shanties," made rhymes and fitted them to music that assisted in heaving anchor, setting and furling sails, pumping out the ship, etc. And now the "motif" is explained.

With the decadence of the American marine since "the late unpleasantness" between the brethren North and South, who, before and since that episode have dwelt together in unity, it has been an unfortunate fact that the American Mercantile Marine is more of a theory than a condition. With the ship, the American sailor has also disappeared. But the Shanty remains. Listen. The fine 100 AI British ship California, a good ship with a good name, but flying the flag of Great Britain, instead of the Stars and Stripes, officered and manned by lusty Britons, good fellows all, but unfortunate in not being born here: The fine ship California is leaving the State for w hich she is named, and on the order to heave up. anchor, the Chanty man starts in:

"As I was walking down the street,
   Hoodah, to my Hoodah; 

A charming girl I chanced to meet,
   Hoodah, Hoodah day.

Blow ye winds, heigho,
        For California, O,
There's plenty of gold,
       So I've been told,
On the banks of Sacramento.

While there is much about the Yankee skipper, the Yankee clipper, the famous Black Ball line, in every chanty sung aboard any ship, American or foreign, the only collection of Chanties is an English edition in which these references are generally eliminated, while as sung aboard ship, there is so much that while forcible is hardly polite, it is impossible to reprint those particular chanties having reference to the past glories of American shipping. Therefore Chanties cut no further figure in this book, but songs with the sea for their subject are again used in Maritime Melodies.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 03:39 AM

1897        Carstensen, A. Riis. _Over Viden Strand._ Copenhagen: Gad.

The book is in Danish.

As far as I can tell, it is 1868 and the U.S. frigate (?) LADOGA is sailing from Copenhagen to New York. On leaving, the narrator hears (sings at?) the anchor being raised to the lyric from CLEAR THE TRACK:

//
»A high rig a jig and a low beggar

»Oh clear the track let the bullgine run.«
//

http://books.google.com/books?id=4IkBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA69&dq=%22let+the+bullgine%22&

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 04:00 AM

1898        Oscar, Alan. "A Messenger from the Dead." _Chambers's Journal_ 18(1) (April 1898): 284-7.

This work of fiction has as its setting a ship "Armenian" going from Liverpool to Halifax. A French Canadian is aboard. It seems to give –made up, or once heard?—a French version of SACRAMENTO:

//
Vannes, who was said to be a French Canadian, …He was a favourite amongst the seamen on account of his simplicity and good nature, and also because he had a fund of French songs, some of which the rough fellows had turned into chantys or hauling choruses, by adding an uncouth burden of their own. One in particular appeared to be a favourite, and in constant use when the topsails were to be hoisted:

Joliette, ma Joliette—
   And a hoodah, and a hoodah;
Qu'elle est belle, ma Joliette— 
   
   And a hoodah, hoodah day.

And so forth.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 04:21 AM

1899[1894]        Hains, T. Jenkins. _The Wind-jammers._ Philadelphia & Lond: J.B. Lippincott.

A work of fiction, ascribes the following verse to use at windlass:

//
"A Bully sailed from Bristol town, 

Singing yo, ho, ho, oh, blow a man down; 

A Bully sailed, and made a tack, 

Hooray for the Yankee Jack, 

Waiting with his yard aback, 

Soo-aye! Hooray! Oh, knock a man down."
//

Seems contrived.

http://books.google.com/books?id=l9AYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA125&dq=%22blow+a+man+down%22&

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 04:55 AM

1900[1899]        Hains, T. Jenkins. _Mr. Trunnell: Mate of the Ship Pirate._ Boston: Lothrop Publishing.

Another work of fiction by Hains.

At some point, the off-duty crew is singing 'to the tune of "Blow a man down,"'.

Interesting to see how BLOW THE MAN DOWN starts becoming one of the most well-known chanties to landlubbers. Growing up, "Blow the Man Down" was central to my idea of a chanty.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 06:09 AM

1893        Barra, E.I. A Tale of Two Oceans. San Francisco: Eastman & Co.
PDF

"An Account of a Voyage from Philadelphia to San Francisco, Around Cape Horn, Years 1849-50, calling at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and at Juan Fernandez, In the South Pacific."

The first chanty is cited from aboard a ship "Sweden" bound out of Boston for California. Feb. 1849. It's only our second appearance (i.e. since Olmsted 1841) of HAUL HER AWAY. It certainly seems authentic to the period (along with the parody of "Oh! Susanna"):

//
The mate sung out to the men aloft, "Drop the bunts of the fore and main top-sails." Then to the men on deck—"Sheet home!" "Now man the halyards and hoist away!" "Aye, aye, sir!" "Give us a shanter, somebody," sung out the men, at which one of the sailors struck up a hoisting song:

"Nancy Banana she married a barber!"
CHORUS."Haul her away, boys! Haul her away!" 

"She married a barber who shaved without lather!"
CHORUS. "Haul her away, boys! Haul her away!"

When the top-sails were mastheaded, the pilot sung out to cast off the bow line. "Now run up your jib, Mr. Mate. Now ease away on your spring line;" and the vessel began to move from the wharf. Then the pilot sung out, "Let go your spring and stern lines!" Then the good ship began to forge ahead; and the last cord that held the ship tied to the land was cast off and she was as free as the bird that flew around her masthead. Just then a number of the passengers mounted the quarter-deck and struck up a song that was then quite in vogue in minstrel exhibitions, changing a few words of the chorus to suit the occasion. It ran thus:
"I dreamt a dream the other night when everything was still; 

I dreamt I saw Susanah, a coming down the hill. 

She had a pancake in her mouth ; a tear was in her eye; 

Says I, ' O Susanah, dear; Susanah, don't you cry.'"
CHORUS. "O! Susanah, don't you cry for me! 
 For I'm bound to California with my washbowl on my knee."
//

Next, the narrator is on the packet ship "Samson" out of Philadelphia (Oct '49). The ship had been in the cotton trade. In Dec. 1849, they were anchored off Rio de Janeiro. They hoist a boat to another "old" chanty, BOTTLE O:

//
We furled the sails, and then rigged the tackles to hoist the longboat, as she was large and heavy. When everything was ready, the mate sang out, ''Hoist away!" As the tackles were drawn taut, the men called to Stanwood: "Give a shanter, old boy ! " And he sang the following hoisting song, which was chorused by the men:
"The ladies like Madeira wine, 

The gents they like their brandy oh! 

So early in the morning— 

The sailor likes his bottle oh! 

His bottle oh! his bottle oh! 

The sailor likes his bottle oh!
CHORUS.
So early in the morning—

The sailor likes his bottle oh!"

The longboat was lowered into the water…
//

A curious thing about this text is the word "shanter." Certainly the author, by 1893, had access to the "standard" term "shanty"—yet he does not acknowledge it. I can't help but think, despite the time gap, his "shanter" reliably reflects *something* historical about the term in 1849-50.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 07:31 AM

Odd little bits and pieces but interesting as usual.

I haven't run into "shanter"but doesn't "chanter" harken back to Nordhoff, or at least to one edition of his book? My edition, The Merchant Vessel (1895), actually has "chanty-man."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 07:46 AM

Scrolling down, James Runciman's "Hurrah for the next that dies" is elucidated into the ground, here, by me:

http://wiki.folklore.ms/index.php?title=Stand_to_Your_Glasses

(John Patrick and Lydia Fish suggested it.)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 06:40 PM

1864        Fanny, Aunt. _Good Little Hearts._ Vol. 4. New York: Hurd and Houghton.

The setting is a plantation near the Ashley River near Charleston, SC "many years ago" (i.e. before 1864). An enslaved Black man named Jupiter has been asked to row a boat. On the journey, he is requested to sing. Pp. 60-61:

//
…then, in a fine, clear voice, he broke out in a long-shore melody, keeping perfect time with the beat of his oars: —

"Ole maum Dinah, she hab 'leben chillen, 
   
        Fol de rol de ri, oh, fol de rol de ray.
One he was a stevedore, an 'toder was a barber, 
      
      Fol de rol de ri, oh, fol de rol de ray.
Wid a head like a tin pan, a back like a crowbar, 
      
      Fol de rol de ri, oh, fol de rol de ray.
He done row dis boat so bad, boys, he could n't make it go far,
      Fol de rol de ri, oh, fol de rol de ray.

And it's hurrah! massa barber, wen did you get to Charleston,
      Fol de rol de ri, oh, fol de rol de ray. 

An he row to de landin', wid tank you berry much, sar,
      Fol de rol de ri, oh, fol de rol de ray."
//

It's a version of the song MUDDER DINAH that Hugill and Bullen later published as chanties.

http://books.google.com/books?id=crMaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA60&dq=stevedore+songs&hl=en&e

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 06:57 PM

Here's an insightful quote from the previously reviewed A JOURNEY IN THE SEABOARD SLAVE STATES Frederick Law Olmsted, 1856, that I don't believe we mentioned earlier. Pg. 26:

//
He concluded by throwing a handful of earth on the coffin, repeating the usual words, slightly disarranged, and then took a shovel, and, with the aid of six or seven others, proceeded very rapidly to fill the grave. Another man had, in the mean time, stepped into the place he had first occupied at the head of the grave; an old negro, with a very singularly distorted face, who raised a hymn, which soon became a confused chant—the leader singing a few words alone, and the company then either repeating them after him or making a response to them, in the manner of sailors heaving at the windlass. I could understand but very few of the words. The music was wild and barbarous, but not without a plaintive melody.
//

In several places in the book, Olmsted refers to African-American singing as "wild." We are also familiar with "plaintive." Here, however, he is making a comparison between this singing and and the singing of sailors at the windlass.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 07:46 PM

1899        Boyd, Alex J. _The Shellback._ Ed. by Archie Campbell. New York: Brentano's.

Or "At Sea in the 'Sixties"

Describes Yankee "hellships" of the 1860s. The ship ALTAMONT from Melbourne bound to West coast of South America. The comments on chanties seem pretty original.

At the windlass, SHENANDOAH:

//
The work is always accompanied by a song called a "shantey" (probably from the French word chanter, to sing).* Now, as our anchor chain was coming in, I stood by the men, listening to the grand chorus "Rolling River" and to the clank, clank of the ponderous chain as it passed in, every clank seeming to me a step nearer home and the coveted commission,…
//

And at the topsail halliards, WHISKEY JOHNNY:

//
The topsails had been loosed and sheeted home, so "Hoist away the topsail yards!" was followed by the lively shantey, "Whisky Johnny," whilst the huge yards rose…
//

Pg 305 starts a sort of appendix titled "SHANTEYS":

//
Some of the "shanteys" are very musical, but the words are generally absurd. Take, for instance, the following:—

"Bony was a general,
Way hay yah! 

Bony licked the Rooshians,
   Jean Francois.

Bony licked the Rooshians,
    Way hay yah! 

Bony licked the Rooshians,
Jean Francois," etc.

Here is another good topsail-halliard "shantey" :—

"Oh! whisky is the soul of man,
                Whisky, Johnny. 

Oh! whisky is the soul of man,
               Whisky for my Johnny. 

Whisky tried to make me drunk,
                Whisky, Johnny. 

Oh! whisky tried to knock me down,
      Whisky for my Johnny.
"Whisky hot and whisky cold,
      Whisky, Johnny. 

Oh I whisky for a sailor bold,
       Whisky for my Johnny. 

Whisky's gone, what shall I do?
       Whisky, Johnny.

Oh! whisky's gone, and I'll go too,
       Whisky for my Johnny," etc.

A man with a good voice leads off with a line of the song, and the others join in the chorus, which is made to time with the pull on the halliards, or the stroke of the pump brakes. Sometimes a single and sometimes a double pull is required, and the choruses vary as given above. There are "shanteys " adopted for almost all "pully-hauley" work on board ship; some slow and drawling, others smart and lively. I shall never forget the "shantey," I heard once, when I went aloft in a heavy blow for the first time to assist in furling the foresail. The sail was stiff and frozen, and when at last we were ready to haul up the bunt, the shanteyman broke into song.

All hands took a good grip, and waited. There we lay along the yard, the gale howling in our teeth, our fingers freezing, listening to a soug. It seemed to me a dreadful waste of time, especially as we were wet and cold, and I wanted to get below out of the cutting wind and sleet The "shanteyman," however, drawled out clear enough, in spite of the howling of the wind—

"Who sto-o-ole my b-o-ota?
That dirty Blackball sailor. 

Who sto-o-ole my b-o-ots?
   Ah—ha!!"

With the "Ah—ha!" chorused by all hands, the sail was rolled up in a jiffy, the gaskets passed, the bunt neatly made, and we got down from aloft far quicker than if we had fumbled about in a disconnected "Pull you, Johnny, I pulled last" kind of fashion.
//

So, BONEY is there, too. Most unique is the last, bunting chanty. This is one that Whall offered as a sing-out, "St. Helena Soldier"

rendition of St. Helena soldier

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 08:29 PM

1899[Sept.]        Bullen, Frank T. _The Log of a Sea-Waif._ New York: D. Appleton and Company.

"Being Recollections of the first 4 years of my sea life." = age 12-16. Bullen sailed for 15 (?) years in British ships.

On his first trip out of London, on arrival at Demerara, he describes the chanties of stevedores unloading the cargo. I guess this would be 1869, if that's when Bullen first sailed? His later work says he sailed from 1869-1880 = 11 years. But here he says 15, and these are his first 4 years. Was it that this first 4 he was not a "proper" seaman or something? The date here could then be 1865.

//
Streaming with sweat, throwing their bodies about in sheer wantonness of exuberant strength as they hoisted the stuff out of the hold, they sometimes grew so excited by the improvisations of the "chantey man," who sat on the corner of the hatch solely employed in leading the singing, that often, while for a minute awaiting the next hoist, they would fling themselves into fantastic contortions, keeping time to the music. There was doubtless great waste of energy; but there was no slackness of work or need of a driver. Here is just one specimen of their songs; but no pen could do justice to the vigour, the intonation and the abandon of the delivery thereof.

[with score – includes a harmony lines]

Sister Seusan, my Aunt Sal,
Gwineter git a home bime-by – high!
All gwineter lib down shin bone al,
Gwineter git a home bime-by.
Gwineter git a home bime-by-e-high,
Gwineter git a home bime-by.
//

Later, at age 13, Bullen is in Mobile Bay, where his ship is being loaded with cotton for Liverpool. Pg. 91:

//
A fine fleet of ships lay here, all loading cotton for Liverpool. Nor, in spite of the number of vessels, was there any delay in commencing our cargo, for the next day, after mooring, a gang of stevedores came on board and set to work, with characteristic American energy, to prepare the hold….

Then the cotton began to come in. The great loosely pressed bales, weighing some six hundredweight each, were whipped on board like magic by a single-purchase steam-winch on board the steamer, and tumbled into the hold as fast as they came. Below, operations commenced by laying a single tier of bales, side by side across the ship, on the levelled ballast, leaving sufficient space in the middle of the tier to adjust a jack-screw. Then, to a grunting chantey, the screw was extended to its full length, and another bale inserted. The process was repeated until at last long wooden levers were attached to the iron bars of the screw, and the whole gang "tallied" on until the last possible bale was squeezed into the tier, which was then almost as solid as a beam of timber built into the ship. It was a point of honour among stevedores to jam as many bales into a ship as she could possibly be made to contain, and restraint was often needed to prevent the energetic workers from seriously injuring vessels by the displacement of deck-planks, stanchions, bulkheads, and even beams.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 08:50 PM

Two entries in slang dictionaries. (Lighter must know these!) Perhaps notable (but not surprising) that "shanty" is being considered "slang" at this point.

1874[Dec. 1873]        Hotten, John Camden. _The Slang Dictionary._ New edition, revised. London: Chatto and Windus.

"Shanty" appears for the first time in this edition.

Pg. 284:

//
Shanty, a song. A term in use among sailors. From CHANTER.
//

1890        Barrere, Albert, and Charles G. Leland, ed. _A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant._ Vol. 2. The Ballantyne Press.


The entry includes a quotation from a newspaper. Pg. 224:

//
Shanty… (Nautical), a song.
It was a tough pull, as the shark was over fifteen feet in length, until the mate suggested a shanty, or sea-song, a corruption of the French word chanter, which a fo'cs'le Mario commenced, and the rest joined in vigorous chorus. So Carcharias vulgaris, as naturalists call the white shark, left his native element to the rousing strains of—

"Were you ever in Quebec, 
   
   Ho, la! ho, la! 

Hoisting timber on the deck! 
   
   Ho, la! ho, la! 

With a will now—Heave, oh!" 
   
   
—Detroit Free Press.

A contributor to a London journal declares that this is not a true sailor's word, but of literary origin, and only of late years.
//

I guess the example most resembles HIGHLAND LADDIE. And I presume they are referring to W. Clark Russell.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 09:21 PM

1844        "The Poor Scholar." "The Flower Girl." The Ladies' National Magazine 6(2) (Aug. 1844): 46-54.

A story about (set in?) New Orleans in 18-- (prior to 1844). Note the time period, when stevedores singing was evidently still "strange" and "wild."

//
Farther up [the river] could be heard the strange, wild song and chorus as the crew of the stevedore freighted the merchant ship for the ports of distant lands!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 11:14 PM

1861        'Spunyarn', Percival. "Sketches: Personal, Nautical, and Tropical." _Entertaining Things_ 2(8): 41-4.

Narrator's ship had left London in March 1837. The setting here relates to the timber industry in Belize. It is Christmas, and festivities are going on among the locals. Although not sung at work, the "row row" in the song suggests that it could be, and it uses the phrase of "Round the corner, Sally." By "especially composed" surely we are to understand that the song represents a prior "framework" but that new "extempore" lyrics are being fitted to the solo. It seems the author maybe doesn't quite "get" the nature/style of the song.

//
After the singing and dancing had lasted about four hours, I was honoured by a song, especially composed, I was told, by my friend Dingo for the occasion.

"Massa com from London town, 

Where all de gala now cry for me— 
            
Row, row, row, row! 
            
Don't ye cry, Miss Sally, O!
Massa got one hansome faee, 

He lub de gals in ebbery place—
Row, row, row, row!
Round de corner, Sally, O!
Buckra kin 'em lily white,
De gals dey say him eyes dem bright—
Row, row, row, row!
Take you care, Miss Sally, O!
Pickaniney him cum to town.

Him kin it ony leetle brown—
Row, row, row, row!
Where you bin, Miss Sally, O?
Niggah like one drop o' grog, 

No gete drunk, like one hog—
Row, row, row, row!
Why you laugh, Miss Sally, O ?
Massa smoke him bacca, too— 

Dingo like one bit to chew—
Row, row, row, row!
Round de corner, Sally, O!"

The remaining twenty verses I do not remember; but they were very similar in character, and all ended with some allusion to Miss Sally, O.
//

There is also a call and response style song mentioned with the chorus of "and a one lime!"

http://books.google.com/books?id=fWgEAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA43&dq=%22round+de+corner%

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 01:02 AM

1900        Patterson, J.E. "Sailors' Work Songs." _Good Words_ 41(28) (June 1900): 391-397.

The century has turned, and here is a substantial article devoted to chanties, in a British publication. This may be the first chanty article to include the idea of "folk-songs," but it does not call chanties them, only compares them, as folklore. The author reckons that most laypeople are not familiar with chanties.

//
That the deep-water sailor—as is termed the one who keeps to far-going sailing vessels —has a song for almost every piece of work wherein four to a dozen men are engaged is probably news to thousands who can claim to have been beyond the shores of this "right little, tight little island." Aboardship these songs are known by the name of "chanties"—which is, in all probability, either a sailor's pluralising of our word "chant," or a corruption of the French "chanson."
//

We are taken through a mock sequence or where and what chanties might be used, with illustrations. Joe Stead came out with an album that did this sort of sequential outward/homeward bound thing. I could swear there was another writer who followed this pattern though, but I can't remember who.

First there is SANTIANA at the capstan for warping out of the dock.

//
We will take a set of these songs in order, as on a voyage, and begin with the crew on their turning-to after joining the ship in the East India Dock. The command has come to move her to the lockpit; the mate passes it forward; the bo'sun yells it in at the fo'c'sle doorway, and the men—all in some degree sober—appear on deck. The shore-boatmen pull away with the line; it is made fast to a bollard on the quay, its in-board part taken to the capstan; the bars are shipped, and round we go—sullenly, for this is the initial note of some eighteen months' comparative isolation. Then the bo'sun—that connecting link between men and officers—cries out, "A song, boys, a song! Come, isn't there a 'chanty-man' in the crowd?" In response a negro—he being of a livelier temperament than his white shipmates, despite the fitting melancholy air of his farewell—begins:—

We're on the plains of Mexico, 

(Chorus.) Away Santa Anna!
We're on the plains of Mexico 
   
Hurrah for Santa Anna!
Santa Anna fought his way, 

All on the plains of Mexico;
Santa Anna gained the day. 
   
Hurrah for Santa Anna!

How Santa Anna came to be spoken of in a masculine sense is a mystery that cannot be solved by the writer, in spite of the considerable time he has spent in endeavouring to arrive at the sources of these old work-songs. In the chorus all men at the capstan join. In "chanties" proper never more than three, generally but one or two, lines are sung by the soloist. As may be expected, the airs, like the words, are of a shoddy kind. Very often the singer will introduce lines of his own making, either out of conceit, or because he has forgotten the acknowledged ones; yet the chorus ever remains the same. Rarely does it happen that, however moody the men commence a piece of work, if a song be started they do not finish it lustily, and in a better frame of mind.
//

(Evidently s/he didn't know about the General DE Santa Anna!) Treats variation as conceit or memory lapse – rather than the idea that one is *supposed* to vary the text. Next comes DREADNAUGHT.

//
Now, while more of the above has been sung—capstan and hauling "chanties " being usually of a considerable length—the vessel has shortened-in her heaving line. Here the end is taken to the lock-head; the bars are again manned, and—this time from a British throat—we move around to the old balladlike tune of:

"Tis of a flash packet of bully-boy fame;
She sails from the Mersey, and the Dreadnought's her name,
(Chorus). Bound away, bound away!
She sails from the Mersey, where the broad waters flow;
Then away to the west'ard, oh God let her go!
Bound away, bound away, where the stormy winds blow;
She's a Liverpool packet—oh, God let her go!
//

For fore topsail halyards, it's WHISKEY JOHNNY:

//
By the time the "Dreadnought " is concluded, the ship is taken in tow, her tug-boat being of a large and powerful make; for clippers, unless the breeze be a steady easterly one, are usually towed well down Channel. We will suppose that the wind is fair. The lower topsails are loosed and sheeted home; the foresail and lower staysails follow; then all hands—cook included—man the fore-topsail halyards, the "chanty-man" standing up and pulling on the downward part with the second or third officer, and we get:

Whisky is the life of man,
(Chorus.) Whisky, Johnny! *
[*With this word, and at every recurrence of it, all pull together.]
Whisky is the life of man, 

Whisky for me, Johnny!
Whisky made me go to sea,
Whisky, Johnny!

Whisky made me go to sea,
Whisky for me, Johnny!

If the singer be of the common order he will here tell what he would do were the ocean made of whisky; how, if he had a "whisky-shop," he would hang it on a halyard-block and haul the men up to it; and more of the same kind until the mate cries "Belay!" But occasionally a man will give the remainder of this song its proper version —that is, the evil of its subject.
//

"Proper version"?
Next, RIO GRANDE at the main topsail halyards. The form is modified accordingly.

//
After the fore, the main-topsail will be hoisted, and with the work we shall probably hear another outward-bound ditty, such as:
Oh, where are you going to, my yaller gal?
(Chorus.) Away to Rio! [All pull together.]
Oh, where are you bound to, bully-boys all?
We're bound to the Rio Grande! [Pull.]
//

Here then, comes the heaving form:

//
The above is also used as a windlass "chanty" when heaving up the anchor to leave home. The wording then generally runs:
Oh, where are you bound to, sailor boys all?
(Chorus.) Heave-o, Rio I
Oh, where are you bound to jolly Jack-tars? 
      
We're bound to the Rio Grande! 
   
Then it's heave-o, Rio! heave-o, Rio! 
   
And fare you well, my bonny young girl, 
   
For we're bound to the Rio Grande!
Oh, what to do there, my sailor-boys all?
       Heave o, Rio! 

Oh, what do you there, my jolly Jack-tars? 

In that far-away Rio Grande?
Then it's heave-o, Rio! &c.

After a stanza on the fever, this song goes on to say what the vessel will load according to probability—how she will return home, and what the "sailor-boys" will do on arrival—if they live to come back; and its air is as near as can be that of the independent milkmaid, whose face was her fortune.
//

In the next passage, SACRAMENTO seems to be used for sweating-up. Weird form.

//
Thus the heavy sails are set, and lighter ones follow; the tow-line is cast off; England's white cliffs fade away astern, as the sun sinks below the horizon ahead; night comes down, with its vague fear for the new voyager's heart, its commonplaceness to the ocean's wanderers, and we are alone to do our business on the waters. Now day slips by on the heels of night; night goes as uneventfully after it; they stretch into weeks; the breeze freshens, and we taughten halyards to the somewhat lively tune of "The Banks of Sacramento" the first part being:

Now, my lads, get your beds and lie down,
[Chorus.) With a hoo-dah! [All pull together.]
Now, my lads, get your beds and lie down, 
      
With a hoo-dah, hoodah-o! [Pull.]
Blow, boys, blow for Californio,
       With a hoo-dah! 

There's plenty of gold, so I've been told, 

On the banks of Sacramento,
With a hoo-dah, hoo-dah-o!
We came to the river where we couldn't get 
across,
       With a hoo-dah! 

And the plenty of gold, as you'll now be told, 

Was a bully, bully, bully loss.
With a hoo-dah, hoo-dah-o!
The third line of this last stanza gives a good idea of what is to follow.
//

MR. STORMALONG for pumping:

//
Here let us suppose that the weight of wind increases so that we must shorten sail. Later on it freshens, breaks into a gale, and we are soon afterwards lying-to under a reefed maintopsail. Then, as the ship is found to be slightly leaking, we man the pump-wheels while we sing:

Storm along, and round we go,
[Chorus.) To me way storm along!
Storm along, and round she'll go,
To me hi-hi-hi, Mister StormalongI
Storm along through frost and snow,
   To me way storm along!
Storm along through frost and snow,
To me hi-hi-hi, Mister Stormalong!

The above is succeeded by a piece of flattery paid to the personified storm. Next, the singer works in the style of how he would have a ship built, rigged and manned; how he would feed the men on "cake sand wine," what he would load her with, and the wonderful places to which they would sail. By this it will be seen that one with sufficient imagination and flow of words can draw out the pump-song into an interesting ditty, and if he has the gift of satire—which is usually his in some crude form—he will indirectly let the officers know how they should comport themselves and govern the vessel.
//

SALLY BROWN at halliards:

//
However, the breeze slackens; more canvas is needed, and the topsails again go up, the first to the lively strains of:
Sally Brown is a nice old lady,
(Chorus.) Away-aye, roll and go! [All pull together.]
Sally Brown is a nice old lady,
Spend my money on Sally Brown! [Pull.]
Sally, Sally, why don't you marry? 
   
Away-aye, roll and go! &c.
The remainder tells how "for seven long years they have been a-courting," and that Sally will not marry until he stops on shore to work by the dock-side.
//

BLOW BOYS BLOW:

//
Then, on the next set of halyards, this song is most likely followed by:
Blow, my boys - I long to hear you—
(Chorus.) Blow, boys, blow I [Pull.]
Blow, my boys—I long to hear you—
Blow, boys, bully boys, blow! [Pull.]
A Yankee ship came down the river,
    Blow, boys, blow!

Oh, how do you know she's a Yankee clipper?
Blow, boys, bully boys blow!
Here "Blow, boys, blow" develops into a description of the differences in food and appearance that marks the American from the British vessel, and is often made to contain some arrant nonsense.
//

JOHNNY BOWKER and BOWLINE:

//
Now we find the wind has gone ahead, and brace up our yards, then flatten the sheets as we chant:
Little Johnny Boker, what made you go to sea?
(Chorus.) Do, my Johnny Boker, do! [Pull.]
Little Johnny Boker, in Liverpool you ought to be,
Do, my Johnny Boker, do!
This, too, has more stanzas, though sung to no other kind of work. But the officer has cried "Make fast !" which we do and leave it. Then, as the mainsail is shaking in the wind, we reeve a bowline and shout:

The bully ship's a-rolling,
(Chorus.) Haul away the bowline! [Pull.]
Its a-raining and a-snowing, a-snowing, a-snowing; 

It's a-raining and a-snowing,
The bowline haul! [pull.]
//

Bunting to PADDY DOYLE:

//
Thus is the outward passage made. The anchor is dropped at, say Garden Reach, below Calcutta; and while the heavy sails are being rolled on to their yards the banks of the Hoogly resound with:
Aye, aye—aye, aye, and we'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!
Aye, aye—aye, aye, and we'll have no slop-chest suits!
At the end of each line the sail is bunted a little higher, until it finally rests on the yard. The foregone is given entire, and is evidently the shortest song, good or otherwise, in our language. Its first half seems to hint of some Irish shoe-maker who was paid for his boots with the tiller-rope, or with a "stern course," i.e., not paid; while the second half refers to the inferior clothing sold at high rates by most captains.
//

ROLLING HOME at the windlass. I believe this is the first attribution of "Rolling Home" to a work task in the literature. Luce, in 1902 (i.e. after this article), adds that it could be used as a chanty, but in his earlier edition, not so. Come to think of it, the same seems to be true with "The Dreadnaught," which is only first here called a chanty, if I'm not mistaken.

//
Then comes the weighing of the anchor to return home, naturally a joyous day; a day when every hand goes lightly to its work, and scarcely feels tired when night and "all sails set" put an end to the long task. Now we all warm to our work on the windlass-bars, and in the crowd there is barely a heart that does not swell as the links come in to the words:

Pipe all hands to man the windlass, 

See your cables stowed all clear:
We to-day set sail from India, 

And for English shores we'll steer.
(Chorus.) Rolling home, rolling home.
Rolling home across the sea; 

Rolling home to dear old England, 

Rolling home, sweetheart, to thee.
If you all heave with a will, boys, 

Soon our anchors we will trip;
And we'll cross the briny ocean 

In our good and gallant ship. 
         
Chorus.

Of the above there are but eight more lines. It is one of the very few "chanties" without nonsense of some kind, and it is best rendered when divided between the watches, one watch singing the stanzas, and the other the chorus. Unless the cable has been previously shortened in, one song will not last till the anchor is apeak. Thus "Rolling Home " will probably be followed by "Roll the Cotton Down "—a "chanty" that is only suitable for capstan and windlass work, and is a great favourite with the negro cotton-stowers on the Mississippi—or "The Australian Girl," or "Bound to Western Australia," which are also heaving "chanties" only.
//

That last bit was a doozy. So, a chanty "without nonsense," eh? Again the author shows his preference/bias. When he mentions ROLL THE COTTON DOWN, he must mean the version with the grand chorus (i.e. "Roll the cotton, Moses!). This is the first published mention I remember seeing of this chanty, in any case. He speaks in present tense about the cotton-stowers of New Orleans. This info is unique. I don't recognize 'The Australian Girl," but should we assume the other is SOUTH AUSTRALIA?

Seems to mess up on REUBEN RANZO:

//
Next, when the tug-boat leaves us off the long and dangerous Hoogly, we spread our canvas for home under such lusty airs as:
Sing a song of Ranzo. boys, 

(Chorus.) Ranzo, boys, Ranzo! [Pull.]
Sing a song of Ranzo, boys,
Sing a song of Ranzo! [Pull.]
Ranzo took a notion to cross the briny ocean,
Ranzo boys, Ranzo!
He was a New York tailor, but he thought he'd be a sailor.
Sing a song of Ranzo!

Thus night and day, in foul weather and fine, fore and aft, the work is made light by songs which have a long and curious history, yet are barely dreamt of outside the life that keeps them alive. But, like all else, they must die, and the beginning of their death has begun. The modern spirit, its materialism, stress, and poor dignity are silencing them in small ships; while the same added to the power of steam-winches for raising top sails, anchors and the like, are killing these old ditties even in the descendants, so to write, of the once famous "Black Ball liners."

Warping into dock, w/ LEAVE HER JOHNNY:

//
Here, completing our voyage, we will—for variety's sake—suppose her to have been an unpleasant vessel, and warp her into dock while singing:
Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
(Chorus) Leave her Johnny! [Pull.]
Now we'll sing you a farewell song, 

Leave her, Johnny, leave her! [Pull.]
Leave her, Johnny leave her,
Leave her, Johnny!
Pack your bags and go on shore,
For it's time for you to leave her!
Leave her, Johnny, leave, her
Leave her, Johnny

For the grub was bad, and the wages low.
So it's time for you to leave her!
Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
Leave her, Johnny!
For the mate's a terror, and the "old man"'s worse.
So it's time for you to leave her!

Now, with our bags on our shoulders, we bid her good-bye, knowing her to be as good as many, and better than some, and rather regretfully picturing the day when an old negro was allowed to sit and fiddle to the "chanty-singers."
//

I don't understand the last phrase!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 01:44 AM

Correction on the last: "Roll the Cotton Down" had previously appeared in Davis/Tozer.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 01:48 AM

1900[Oct.]        Lahee, Henry C. "Sailors' Chanteys." _The Sea Breeze_ 13(1) (Oct. 1900): 13-14.

This next article for the new century is from an American perspective, the Boston Seaman's Friend Society. It laments the passing of chanteys, too. Beginning to treat them as folklore.

Begins noting the dearth of prior literature.

//
Steam has almost entirely displaced the sailing ship, has changed the life and conditions of the sailor, and has rendered the chantey a thing of the past.
Now that the thing has gone by, we are alive to the fact that an old and romantic custom is dead or dying. Its rope is rapidly running through the block, and unless some one puts an overhand knot in the end, it will soon unreeve itself and be lost forever. During the past twenty years there have been a few magazine articles on the subject, one or two collections of chanteys in book form, and several allusions to the custom in various novels. Previous to that time it is not easy to find much allusion to the subject in literature. Not many knights of the pen went to sea, and of the few who did, scarcely any took notice of a custom which was as much a matter of course among sailors as going to the galley with a hookpot at seven bells. I do not mean to say that there is nothing on the subject, for I have found several allusions, but they are few in comparison to the number of books about the sea, and this leads us to imagine that many sea novels have been written by people whose knowledge of the mighty deep and its strenuous life is as fictitious as the stuff they write about it. And some of them have written books which, although they may be admired from a purely literary point of view and please the business man and his family, would be considered in the forecastle as more funny than the comic papers.
//

//
Singing is one of the most powerful stimulants known to mankind, and it would be strange indeed if sailors had been different from all other people in this respect. These chanteys were not always sung as an expression of joy. Quite the contrary. The sailors had before them weary tasks which sometimes required twice as many men as the crew comprised. They sang in order to lighten their work, — to concentrate their efforts; and the songs which they sang were (some of them) wild and weird. Many familiar chanteys have been used in the more modern days as college songs. There is a song, "There's plenty of gold, so I've been told, on the banks of the Sacramento," which can be found in many college song books. I remember the same tune sung by negro minstrels under the name of " Campdown Races." The tune is lively and a good one. The words of the chantey evidently originated after 1849.

Then there is a rousing good song called "Sally Brown," and another, "Blow, boys, blow." These originated in the southern cotton ports, and there are several of the same kind, all good stirring chanteys, but of comparatively modern origin.
//

So, mentions SACRAMENTO, SALLY BROWN, and BLOW BOYS BLOW. How did he know the last two originated in cotton ports?

//
The Mexican war left a legacy to the chanteyman. There are two or three songs bearing the marks of that war, and of these the best and the most frequently sung was " Santa Anna."

Solo: "Santa Anna's dead and gone."

Chorus: "Away, oh, Santa Anna." 

Solo: "Oh, Santa Anna's dead and gone." 

Chorus: "All on the plains of Mexico."

Santa Anna was pronounced Santiyanna. There are several verses, but in the chantey the tune and the chorus are the important parts. Neither the words nor the music of these choruses are difficult to learn, otherwise there would have been no chantey singing. "Santiyanna" is a solemn dirge, but a fine, lung-expanding song when you are pushing a capstan bar, or heaving away at the pumps on a stormy night, with an occasional great hoaryheaded comber breaking over the bulwarks and swashing about the decks. But since the days of the iron and steel ship there is no pumping. They are as tight as a "soup and bully" tin, and when they spring aleak they generally go down and settle the question without any chantey singing.
//

That was SANTIANA. Incidently, Luce in 1902, changed his lyrics to match this set.
Then, BLACKBALL LINE:

//
Several of the finest and most characteristic chanteys are associated with the old transatlantic packets, -— the forerunners of the Cunard, White Star, Inman, Guion lines, etc. One of the breeziest of these is called the " Black Ball Line ":

Solo: "In the Black Ball Line I served my time." 

Chorus: "Way-ay-ay-oh, the Black Ball Line." 

Solo: "The Black Ball Line is a bully line."

Chorus: "Hurrah for the Black Ball Line."

Neither Tennyson, Longfellow, nor any of the great poets wrote the words of any of these chanteys. With the exception of a few lines and the words of the chorus, which are peculiar to each, chanteys are nothing but a string of doggerel dependent upon the wit of the chanteyman.
//

HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES

//
The great poets of those days have all passed away without realizing their opportunity. What better subject could one have than the stately, full-rigged ship, at anchor in the river or harbor, her topsails loosed and hanging in graceful draperies from the yards, the shore with its outline, perhaps of wharves and warehouses, softened by the gray mist of early morning, the smoke curling up from the galley funnel, and on the forecastle head a dozen or more men, more or less picturesque, heaving away on windlass or capstan and singing their chantey, —

"Sometimes we're bound for England, sometimes we're bound for France.
Heave away, my bullies, heave away — away.
Sometimes we're bound for England, sometimes we're bound for France,
Heave away, my bully boys, — we're all bound to go."
//

DEAD HORSE:

//
And go they did, setting topsails to the tune of
"Poor old man, your horse will die, 

And we say so, — and we hope so. 

Oh, poor old man, your horse will die, 

Oh, poor — old — man.
"For thirty day I've ridden him, 

And we say so, — and we hope so. 

For thirty days I've ridden him, 

Oh, poor — old — man.
"And when he dies I'll tan his hide. 

And we say so — and we hope so. 

Oh, when he dies we'll tan his hide, 

Oh, poor — old — man." (Belay.)

Up go jibs and staysails, topgallants and royals, with now and then a short song, suitable for a short drag, and the beautiful ship glides away almost imperceptibly on her long and perilous voyage, leaving to the spectator a memory, and much to think of.
This song about the dead horse refers to the thirty days' wages which have been advanced at the time of signing articles, and which has generally been squandered, and thus the sailor has a month's work to do before his pay begins to accumulate. This is the " Dead Horse." At the end of the first month the horse used to die, and its funeral was conducted with much ceremony,—an old sea custom, possibly as dead now as the horse itself.
//

Possibly? Does he have no knowledge?

MR. STORMALONG at pumps:

//
Some of the chanteys, and those I consider the most valuable, contain a poetical idea, — such a one in fact is "Poor Old Man." But of all these, the song which has always appealed most strongly to me is " Storm Along." Many a dismal spell at the pumps has been enlivened by this dirge:

"Old Storm Along is dead and gone. 
   
To my way, oh. Storm Along. 

Old Stormy's dead, he'll storm no more, 
   
Ay, ay, ay, Mr. Storm Along."

Other verses follow:

"When Stormy died, I dug his grave." 

"I dug his grave with a silver spade."

"I lowered him down with a golden chain." etc.

It was a wild old dirge, suitable for stormy weather, and more characteristic of the sea than any other chantey. So far as the tune is concerned, it is perhaps exceeded in quaintness and "atmosphere" by one which went by the name of ''Lowlands," and of which the chorus ended up with "five dollars and a half a day," — which might just as well be any other price you like to mention, as it was the sailor's dream of the pay which he could get in some other place where he was not. These dreams come to all of us, and if we merely sing about them and still go on with our daily work, they are all right, — otherwise they are all wrong.
//

That was LOWLANDS AWAY. I am getting a weird feeling from this article – like the author is familiar with this stuff, but is writing through the voice of Alden or Smith. It's all so standard, and a bit generic.

The next phrase is curious. Does it really mean it was hard to find people who knew many chanties? Or was it just that *he* was making up a story?

//
For many years I have not found a sailor who could sing "Lowlands." The old-time deepwater men are scarce. It is not very easy to find men who know any reasonable number of chanteys, except perhaps some of the modern and more frivolous ones. The modern sailor sings sentimental songs, not at his work, but for his amusement, —"Put my little shoes away," and appropriate songs of that kind. But they all sing, whether they have voices or not. Singing is the great outlet for human energy. Even the Puritans enjoyed what they called singing. Everywhere people gather together, in church, in choral societies, glee clubs, etc.,— they all like to sing.

The poor, weatherbeaten, half-starved physically and wholly starved mentally, sailors gathered together at the capstan and sang their chanteys, — wild chants with doggerel words, — and the anchor came quickly to the hawse-pipe, the topsail yard capered nimbly to the masthead, the leaky, overloaded, ill-found windjammer was kept afloat to make more money for the owner, because the songs gave heart and purpose to the men. A good old custom has gone.
//

The best definition of chanty I've ever read: "wild chants with doggerel words"!!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 02:06 AM

1892[1890]        Richards, Laura E. _Captain January._ Boston: Estes & Lauriat.

Novel, mentions/quotes a few chanties:

//
But she loved the scraps of sea-song that the old Captain still hummed over his work: "Baltimore," and "Blow a Man Down," and half a dozen other salt-water ditties: and it might have been strange to less accustomed ears than Bob Peet's to hear the sweet childvoice carolling merrily: —

"Boney was a warrior, 

Weigh! heigh! oh! 

Boney was a warrior, 

John Francois!
Boney whipped the Rooshians, 

Weigh! heigh! oh! 

Boney whipped the Prooshians, 

John Francois! 

Boney went to Elba, 

Weigh! heigh! oh!" etc.

Bob's oars kept time with the song, and his portentous voice thundered out the refrain with an energy which shook the little skiff from stem to stern. By the time that "Boney " was safely consigned to his grave…
//

Not sure which is "Baltimore". Hugill gives a chanty called "Baltimore", and "Baltimore Belle" (Belle of Baltimore?) has been mentioned in this thread as a title. BLOW THE MAN DOWN had appeared in that phrased form earlier. BONEY.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 02:22 AM

1902        Keeler, Charles. _A Wanderer's Songs of the Sea._ San Francisco: A.M. Robertson.

Composed poems/songs inspired by chanties. The preface says,

//
Only on deep-water sailing vessels do the sailors still sing chanties. When a ship has been laboring through a storm under shortened canvas and the wind abates, the skipper, anxious to make a quick voyage, gives the command to set more sail. Men are ordered aloft to free the lashings and the heavy spar must then be hoisted to its place. The full watch take hold of the halyard, a rope on which the spar is suspended, and which passes through a pulley on the deck. Then the leader of the crew commences a chanty. All hands join in the refrain, pulling in unison at every accented syllable of the chorus. With the wind humming and whistling through the rigging, the ship tossing in the great ocean rollers, and the muffled thud of crashing waves upon its sides, the setting is a wildly picturesque one for the stirring rhythm of such well-known chanties as "Blow the Man Down," "Ranzo," or "Whiskey For My Johnnie," sung with lusty voices by the crew bending in their sou'westers over the wet rope. In a few chanties of this collection, notably "South Australia," "Storm Along," and "Haul Away, Joe," I have preserved the refrain of the sailors, and in all of them I have aimed to give something of the spirit of the men who go down to the sea in ships.
//

So, it's all composed stuff. Some of the choruses are there, but the forms aren't really preserved. His "South Australia" has both "heave away" and "haul away." Since that song has only turned up in print once so far (with "heave" consistently), he either made this up (e.g. after reading Smith) or is actually providing evidence of a heard version that actually mixes the two.

Notably funny is a version of "Haul Away Joe" in an Irish eye-dialect. When did that chanty start taking on connotations of Irishness?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 02:55 AM

1903        Unknown. Review of B. Lubbock's Round the Horn before the Mast. _The Anthenaeum_ no. 3929 (14 Feb. 1903): 296.

Notes that though Lubbock (1902) mentioned several chanteys,

//
It contains many chanties, but seagoing readers will miss such old favourites as "Roll, Alabama, roll," and "We'll roll the old chariot along."
//

This is the first we read of ROLL ALABAMA ROLL and ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT, though the writer calls them old favourites.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 03:09 AM

1903        Rideout, Henry Milner. "Wild Justice." The Atlantic Monthly 92(552) (Oct. 1903): 496-

Story in which BLOW THE MAN DOWN is quoted, outside of any functional or maritime context, as:

//
"Wey, hey, blow a man down.
An' they all shipped fer sailors aboard the
Black Ball. Oh give the wind time fer to blow a man down."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 05:20 AM

1902        Lubbock, A. Basil. _Round the Horn Before the Mast._ London: John Murray.

First signed on as a sailor in July 1899 at San Francisco, in a 4 masted barque ROYALSHIRE of Glasgow, to go East around the Horn.

First mention of a chanty happens before he even ships out, July 1899, in Frisco at the Institute to British Seamen. He attends a weekly concert series there that involves sailor performers. BLOW BOYS BLOW is being used as entertainment.

//
It was a very amusing concert, and ended with a hauling chanty, that good old stager "Blow, Boys, Blow," all hands tailing on to the end of the rope, and running three fat apprentices up by means of a hook in the ceiling and a block and tackle.
//

He finally leaves Frisco in August:

//
The longbars were put into the capstan, and we were soon tramping drearily round in the raw, misty, morning air. As no one felt equal to a chanty, we hove her short to occasional "Heave, and she comes!" "Heave, and break her out!" "Heave, and she must!" "Heave, and bust her!"…
//

GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL is quoted:

//
Good-bye, Frisco, we shall ever have pleasant memories of you; but, as the good old chanty goes—

"Our anchor we'll weigh, and our sails we'll set,
Good-bye, fare-ye-well!
Good-bye, fare-ye-well! 

The friends we are leaving, we leave with regret, 

Hurrah! my boys, we're homeward bound!"
//

October, in the South Atlantic. The following passage satisfies some curiosity as to what role chanteys had at this late date.

//
Scar is an authority on chanties, and he says that the real old chanties are very seldom heard now; all the same, we have had a good number of fine chanties sung on board.
//

He seems to be talking of "blue notes" here:

//
The thing to hear is a nigger crew chantying. They sing most beautifully, with splendid minor and half notes; they cannot do the least little bit of work without chantying.
//

Hmm, BOWLINE for setting sail?

//
A celebrated chanty, which I am very fond of, is "Haul on the Bowlin'," which is a setting sail chanty, and runs thus :—

Solo. "Haul on the bowlin', the fore and maintop bowlin',"
Chorus. "Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul!"
Solo. "Haul on the bowlin', the packet is arolling,"
Chorus. "Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul!"
Solo. "Haul on the bowlin', the skipper he's agrowling,"
Chorus. "Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul!"
Solo. "Haul on the bowlin', to London we are going,"
Chorus. "Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul!"
Solo. "Haul on the bowlin', the good ship is abowling,"
Chorus. "Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul!"
Solo. "Haul on the bowlin', the main-topgallant bowlin',"
Chorus. "Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul!"
//

MR. STORMALONG, also not with much authority? Later, this is Hugill material.

//
A real good old-time chanty is "Storm along, Stormie!" which runs thus :—
Solo. "Stormie's gone, the good all man,"
    Chorus. "To my aye, Storm along!"

Solo. "Oh, Stormie's gone, that good old man,"
Chorus. "Aye! aye! aye! Mister Storm along!"
Solo. "They dug his grave with a silver spade,"
    Chorus. "To my aye, Storm along!" 

Solo. His shroud of finest silk was made,"
Chorus. "Aye! aye I aye! Mister Storm along!"
Solo. "They lowered him with a golden chain,"
    Chorus. "To my aye, Storm along!" 

Solo. "Their eyes all dim with more than rain,"
Chorus. "Aye! aye! aye! Mister Storm along!"
Solo. "He was a sailor, bold and true,"
    Chorus. "To my aye, Storm along!" 

Solo. "A good old skipper to his crew,"
Chorus. "Aye! aye! aye! Mister Storm along!"
Solo. "He lies low in an earthen bed,"
    Chorus. "To my aye, Storm along!"

Solo. "Our hearts are sore, our eyes are red,"
Chorus. "To my aye, Storm along!"
Solo. "He's moored at last, and furled his sail,"
    Chorus. "To my aye, Storm along!"

Solo. "No danger now from wreck or gale,"
Chorus. "Aye! aye! aye! Mister Storm along!"
Solo. "Old Storm has heard an angel call,"
    Chorus. "To my aye, Storm along!" 

Solo. "So sing his dirge now, one and all,"
Chorus. "Aye! aye! aye! Mister Storm along!"
This is a pumping chanty.
//

BLACKBALL LINE is "celebrated." But did Lubbock use it much? A capstan chanty? "14 verses in the original"? huh?

//
One of the most celebrated chanties is "The Black Ball Line," the first verse of which runs thus :—

Solo. "In the Black Ball Line I served my time," 
   
Chorus. "Hurrah for the Black Ball Line!"
Solo. "In the Black Ball Line I served my time," 
   
Chorus. "Hurrah for the Black Ball Line!"
This is a long capstan chanty, and has fourteen verses in the original words; of course you hardly ever hear two men sing the same words in the solo of a chanty, though the choruses are always the same.
//

Concludes with a "such as" section: BLOW BOYS BLOW, LONG TIME AGO, DEAD HORSE, SANTIANA, JOHN BROWN'S BODY (good original version), BONEY, BLOW THE MAN DOWN, REUBEN RANZO, RIO GRANDE, WHISKEY JOHNNY and GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN – first time mention of this last one.

//
Chanties such as "Blow, my bully boys, blow!" "A long time ago!" "A poor old man," "The plains of Mexico," "John Brown's whisky bottle's empty on the shelf," "Boney was a warrior," "Blow the man down," "Reuben Ranzo," "Away for Rio!" "Whisky for my Johnnie," we were constantly singing.
"The Girls of Dublin Town" is also a very popular chanty.
//

RIO GRANDE at a capstan:
//
We took the halliards to the small capstan forward, and mastheaded the yard to the chanty of "Away for Rio!" Jamieson singing the solo. It was pretty bad weather for chantying, but there is nothing like a chanty to put new life into a man, and we roared out the chorus at the top of our pipes….
Of all the chanties, I think "Away for Rio!" is one of the finest, and I cannot refrain from giving you the words.

CHANTY.—"AWAY FOR RIO!"
Solo. "Oh, the anchor is weigh'd, and the sails they are set,"
Chorus. "Away, Rio!"
Solo. "The maids that we're leaving we'll never forget,"
Chorus. "For we're bound for Rio Grande, 
      
And away, Rio! aye, Rio! 
         
Sing fare-ye-well, my bonny young girl, 
      
We're bound for Rio Grande!"
Solo. "So man the good capstan, and run it around,"
Chorus. "Away, Rio!"
Solo. "We'll heave up the anchor to this jolly sound,"
Chorus. "For we're bound for Rio Grande, 
      
And away, Rio!" etc.
Solo. "We've a jolly good ship, and a jolly good crew,"
Chorus. "Away, Rio!"
Solo. "A jolly good mate, and a good skipper too,"
Chorus. "For we're bound for Rio Grande, 
      
And away, Rio!" etc.
Solo. "We'll sing as we heave to the maidens we leave,"
Chorus. "Away, Rio 1"
Solo. "You know at this parting how sadly we grieve,"
Chorus. "For we're bound to Rio Grande, 
      
And away, Rio!" etc.
Solo. "Sing good-bye to Sally and good-bye to Sue,"
Chorus. "Away, Rio 1"
Solo. "And you who are listening, good-bye to you,"
Chorus. "For we're bound for Rio Grande, 
      
And away, Rio!" etc.
Solo. "Come heave up the anchor, let's get it aweigh,"
Chorus. "Away, Rio!"
Solo. "It's got a firm grip, so heave steady, I say,"
Chorus. "For we're bound for Rio Grande, 
      
And away, Rio!" etc.
Solo. "Heave with a will, and heave long and strong,"
Chorus. "Away, Rio!"
Solo. "Sing a good chorus, for 'tis a good song,'
Chorus. "For we're bound for Rio Grande, 
      
And away, Rio!" etc.
Solo. "Heave only one pawl, then 'vast heaving, belay!"
Chorus. "Away, Rio!"
Solo. "Heave steady, because we say farewell to-day,"
Chorus. "For we're bound for Rio Grande, 
      
And away, Rio!" etc.
Solo. "The chain's up and down, now the bosun did say,"
Chorus. "Away, Rio!"
Solo. "Heave up to the hawse-pipe, the anchor's aweigh!"
Chorus. "For we're bound for Rio Grande, 
      
And away, Rio! aye, Rio! 
         
Sing fare-ye-well, my bonny young girl, 
      
We're bound for Rio Grande!"

Of course the words are not exactly appropriate in the present occasion, but the chorus is one of the best I have ever heard, with its wild, queer wail.
//

Off the Horn…

SHENANDOAH (for capstan to hoist yards):
//
Although we were all pretty well worn out, we managed to ring out a rare good chorus, chantying up the topsails.
Jamieson sang the solo of "The Wide Missouri," a very celebrated chanty.

CHANTY.—"THE WIDE MISSOURI."
Solo. "Oh, Shenadoah, I love your daughter," 
      
Chorus. "Away, my rolling river!"
Solo. "Oh, Shenadoah, I long to hear you."
Chorus. "Ah! ah! We're bound away 
         
'Cross the wide Missouri I"
Solo. "The ship sails free, a gale is blowing," 
      
Chorus. "Away, my rolling river I"
Solo. "The braces taut, the sheets a-flowing,"
Chorus. "Ah! ah! We're bound away 
         
'Cross the wide Missouri!"
Solo. "Oh, Shenadoah, I'll ne'er forget you," 
      
Chorus. "Away, my rolling river!"
Solo. "Till the day I die, I'll love you ever,"
Chorus. "Ah! ah! We're bound away 
         
'Cross the wide Missouri."
//

SACRAMENTO continues it…
//
It's wonderful how a chanty will get a topsail mastheaded. We sent the mizen upper-topsail up to the tune of

"ON THE BANKS OF THE SACRAMENTO."
Solo. "Sing and heave, and heave and sing,"
    Chorus. "Hoodah, to my hoodah;" 

Solo. "Heave, and make the handspikes spring," 
   
Chorus. "Hoodah, hoodah day.
And it's blow ye winds, heigh-ho,
For Cal—i—for—ni—o;
For there's plenty of gold, so I've been told,
On the banks of the Sacramento!"

It is rather difficult for a landsman to understand the sense of the words in some of the chanties, and no doubt in most cases they need some explanation. Some of them refer to people and events long since gone and forgotten.
//

The popular authored-song HOME DEARIE HOME is called a chanty here.
//
There is one chanty, however, which is, perhaps, as well-known ashore as afloat, and few songs have more beautiful words than "Hame, dearie, Hame," and I cannot resist from giving the first verse.

Solo. "I stand on deck, my dearie, and in my fancy see,
The faces of the loved ones that smile across the sea; 

Yes, the faces of the loved ones, but 'midst them all so clear, 

I see the one I love the best, your bonnie face, my dear."
Chorus. "And its hame, dearie, hame! oh, it's hame I want to be,
My topsails are hoisted, and I must out to sea;
For the oak, and the ash, and the bonnie birchen tree,
They're all agrowin' green in the North Countree."
This is, of course, a capstan chanty, and it takes some beating when sung by a good chantying watch.
//

Here's an addition to the repertoire: OFF TO THE SOUTHARD
//
As we were chantying up the main upper-topsail to the tune of "As off to the Southard we go," a big sea fell aboard and washed Higgins and Bower into the lee scuppers.
Solo. "Sing, my lads, cheerily, heave, my lads, cheerily,"
Chorus. "Heave away, cheerily, oh, oh!"
Solo. "For the gold that we prize, and sunnier skies,"
Chorus. "Away to the south'ard we go." 

Solo. "We want sailors bold, who can work for their gold,"
Chorus. "Heave away cheerily, oh, oh!" 

Solo. "And stand a good wetting without catching cold,"
Chorus. "As off to the south'ard we go—o, 
      
As off to the"

Crash! bang! fizz ! — " Hang on all!"— "Damn !" — " South'ard we go !" — " Curse you, get your boot out of—" (splutter) — " Blasted fool! "—(puff, splutter)—" O Lord!"—"Lost my only sou'wester, curse it!"—"Where's Bower?"— (coughing, panting, blowing, as the water begins to roll off)—

"In the lee scuppers with old Higgins, clasped in each other's arms."
"Ha! ha! ha!"
"Hallo, Rooning, bleeding?"
"Some one kicked me in the face."
"Now then, tune her up, boys, give her hell!"

"Give us a chanty some one."
//

In the Western Ocean…
REUBEN RANZO:
//
With all hands on the halliards, we hoisted the yard to the chanty of " Reuben Ranzo."

"REUBEN RANZO."
Solo. "Hurrah! for Reuben Ranzo," 
   
Chorus. "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"
Solo. "Hurrah! for Reuben Ranzo," 
   
Chorus. "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"
Solo. "Ranzo was no sailor,"
Chorus. "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"
Solo. "Ranzo was a tailor,"
Chorus. "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"
Solo. "Ranzo joined the Beauty" 
   
Chorus. "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"
Solo. "And did not know his duty," 
   
Chorus. "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!"

It is too long to give in full, so I will leave out the chorus, which comes in like thunder between each line, the haul coming each time on the "Ranzo."

"His skipper was a dandy, 
 And was too fond of brandy.
"He called Ranzo a lubber, 
 And made him eat whale blubber.
"The Beauty was a whaler, 
 Ranzo was no sailor.
"They set him holy-stoning, 
 And cared not for his groaning.
"They gave him 'lashes twenty,' 
 Nineteen more than plenty.
"Reuben Ranzo fainted, 
 His back with oil was painted.
"They gave him cake and whisky, 
 Which made him rather frisky.
"They made him the best sailor, 
 Sailing on that whaler.
"They put him navigating, 
 And gave him extra rating.
"Ranzo now is skipper 
 Of a China clipper.
"Ranzo was a tailor, 
 Now he is a sailor."

So runs the queer story of Reuben Ranzo, a rare old hauling chanty.
//

"Rare" in what sense?

Arrival in Liverpool…

//
"Man the capstan!"
Round we tramped, making the Mersey ring with our chanties.
We started the ball with "Sally Brown."

    CHANTY.—" SALLY BROWN." 

Solo. "I love a maid across the water,"
    Chorus. "Aye, aye, roll and go!" 

Solo. "She is Sal herself, yet Sally's daughter,"
Chorus. "Spend my money on Sally Brown."
Solo. "Seven long years I courted Sally,"
    Chorus. "Aye, aye, roll and go!"

Solo. "She called me ' boy, and Dilly Dally,'"
Chorus. "Spend my money on Sally Brown."
Solo. "Seven long years and she wouldn't marry,'
    Chorus. "Aye, aye, roll and go!" 

Solo. "And I no longer cared to tarry,"
Chorus. "Spend my money on Sally Brown."
Solo. "So I courted Sal, her only daughter,"
    Chorus. "Aye, aye, roll and go!" 

Solo. "For her I sail upon the water,"
Chorus. "Spend my money on Sally Brown."
Solo. "Sally's teeth are white and pearly,"
    Chorus. "Aye, aye, roll and go!" 

Solo. "Her eyes are blue, her hair is curly,"
Chorus. "Spend my money on Sally Brown."
Solo. "The sweetest flower of the valley,"
    Chorus. "Aye, aye, roll and go!" 

Solo. "Is my dear girl, my pretty Sally,"
Chorus. "Spend my money on Sally Brown."

And so it runs on into a number of verses. How we did sing it out! It is something to hear a deepwater crew, in high spirits at getting into port, ring out a chanty. The tugmen came aboard and watched our enthusiasm as we almost ran round the capstan at times.
//

LEAVE HER JOHNNY at the end:
//
Then old Foghorn struck up, "Leave her, Johnnie," a great chanty.

CHANTY.—" LEAVE HER, JOHNNIE."
Solo. "I thought I heard the skipper say,"
Chorus. "Leave her, Johnnie, leave her!"
Solo. "To-morrow you will get your pay," 
   
Chorus. "It's time for us to leave her."
Solo. "The work was hard, the voyage was long," 
   
Chorus. "Leave her, Johnnie, leave her!"
Solo. "The seas were high, the gales were strong," 
   
Chorus. "It's time for us to leave her."
Solo. "The food was bad, the wages low,"
Chorus. "Leave her, Johnnie, leave her!"
Solo. "But now ashore again we'll go,"
Chorus. "It's time for us to leave her."
Solo. "The sails are furled, our work is done," 
   
Chorus. "Leave her, Johnnie, leave her!"
Solo. "And now on shore we'll have our fun," 
   
Chorus. "It's time for us to leave her."
//

Wow, Hugill really did harvest a lot of lines from this book.

One last passage of interest:

//
Some Yankee ships have what is called "checkerboard" crews, that is to say, niggers in one watch, white men in the other, and I believe the competition between the two watches is tremendous. There are some deep voyagers that go in for entirely nigger crews.

They are said to be rather unruly at sea, though good and fearless sailors. The great point about a negro crew is their "chantying." They do nothing without a chanty, and their chantying is a real musical treat, which, if put on the stage, I am very sure would draw immensely.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 03:14 PM

The Matura [N.Z.] Ensign, Aug. 13, 1896, ran an article on "The 'Chanties' of Sailors."

After noting that shanties are "unknown" to "the great majority" of people, and that they are not used in the Royal Navy, the writer gives a few examples:

Our anchor's weighed, our sails unfurled;
Good-bye - fare you _well_ - goodbye [sic] fare you _well_.
We're bound across the watery world,
Hurrah! my boys, we're outward bound.

[One of Carpenter's shantymen also sang an "outward bound" form of what's usually "homeward bound.]

"At each italicized word there is a pull on the ropes."

"'Bunting topsils' is accompanied by a wild chant, the origin of which is lost in obscurity. But it is specially peculiar, because, amid the roar of wind nd wave, the soundcomes down in weird resonance from the singers aloft.

"Old Tommy Boyd had a good pair of boots - Heigh _ho_! heave _ho_.
Who robbed Tommy Boyd of his _boots_?
'Twas an old thief from London _town_.
Who was used to robbing poor sailormen _down_.
Who had Tommy Boyd and done him quite _brown_.
Who robbed Tommy Boyd of his _boots_.

"The operation of hoisting yards...is effected to the following lyric:

"Oh, poor Ruben Ramsell!
_Ramsell!_ boys, _Ramsell!_
Ramsell was no sailor,
_Ramsell!_ boys, _Ramsell!_
He shipped on board of a whaler,
_Ramsell!_ boys, _Ramsell!_
The captain's name was Taylor,
_Ramsell!_ boys, _Ramsell!_"

...

"Oh! whisky is the life of man!
_Whisky! Johnnie!_
Oh! whisky killed my poor old dad,
_Whisky_ for my _Johnnie_.
Oh! Whisky gave me a red nose,
_Whisky! Johnnie!
Oh! whisky made me pawn my clothes,
_Whisky_ for my _Johnnie!.

"And various other verses of the same kind....

"I thought I heard the chief mate say,
_Whisky! Johnnie!_
Just one more pull then we'll belay,
Give _whisky_ to my Johnnie_."

"When in roughest weather storm-stay-sails are hoisted, and short, heavy pulls are needed, they are given to the following curious and very ancient chantie....:

"Poor old man! his horse will die,
And the _say_ so, and they _hope_ so!
       _Poor old man!_

If he dies I'll tan his hide,
And I _say_ so, and I _hope_ so,
If he lives I'll ride him again,
       Oh _poor old man._"

...

"In fairer weather hauling out the bowlines (to make the sails draw properly) is done to the accompaniment of:

"Haul on the bowline!
The old man's a _growlin'_.
Haul on the bowline,
The bowline _haul!_

"And when the homeward voyage is over...the crew have to wash her down and pump her out....The particular chorus runs thus:

"I've earned all my money, and I worn out my clothes,
Leave her, Johnnie! leave her!
Oh! shake her up and away we goes.
Leave her, Johnnie! leave her!
We'll shake her up from down below,
Leave her, Johnnie! leave her!
We've stuck to her through sun and snow,
Leave her, Johnnie! leave her!

"This of all the chanties is sung with the most unanimity and cheeriness..."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 03:55 PM

In a letter to the Wellington [N.Z.] Evening Post (June 9, 1934), John Hutcheson lists the titles of shanties he learned when he was an "apprentice in a Western Ocean packet-ship (Liverpool-New York)" in 1871:

"Reuben Ranzo"
"Johnnie Boker"
"Paddy Doyle"
"Blow, my Bully Boys, Blow"
"Tom's Gone to Hilo"
"John France Wah"
"Whisky for my Johnnie!"
"Hurrah, My Boys, We're Homeward Bound!"
"Santa Anna"
"Shenandoah"
"Heave Away, My Johnnie, Heave Away-ay"
"Old Stormalong"
"Oh! You New York Girls, Can't You Dance the Polka?"

Besides these "Western Ocean" shanties, Hutcheson mentions that

"I have heard the Mississippi Screwmen (the very aristocrats of labour) screwing cotton in the hold till they raised the decks to the sound of 'Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that Flies the Single Star!' etc. I've heard the Jamaica niggers sing 'The Saucy Rosabella' or 'Waitin' for de Steamboat,' or 'Jimmy Riley,' etc., as they rolled the big hogsheads of raw sugar or hove at the winch discharging their coastal drogher.; I've heard the coolies in Moulmein chanting as they staged rice over the side; but of all the sea songsn for real life and go,give me the good old vulgar, obscene Western Ocean chanty before them all.

"Although just entering the eightieth lap, I can still think of the good old days:

"'When bending low her bosom in snow,
She buried the lee cathead.'"

The last lines, of course, are from the forebitter "The Stately Southerner."

Hutcheson also mentions that "The language of the average sailorman in those days was, as [the American humorist] Bill Nye puts it, 'painful and frequent and free,' and was scarcely fit for polite society. Some of the most popular chanties just could not be written - they'd set the paper afire!" Concerning sung complaints about the officers, the food, and the treatment, "It's wonderful what they got away with when expressed allegorically to music."

Hutcheson seems unaware that any shanties had ever been printed. "Of course, the music could be scored, but that's a job nobody seems to have done yet."

Mention of "The Saucy Rosabella" is valuable. (Horace P. Beck also found it being sung in the Caribbean in the 1950s.) Hutcheson's 1870s date for "Can't You Dance the Polka?" may be unique. I can't identify "Jimmy Riley" unless (as seems likely) it's a variant of "Old Billy Riley." "Waitin' for de Steamboat" seems like a new title to me. Because they were apparently sung while loading, Hutcheson seems not to think of these Jamaican songs as shanties.

Otherwise all of Hutcheson's titles are attested elsewhere (usually in reminiscence) as having been typical of the 1870s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 06:17 PM

"Tommy Boyd"! Wow, first variation I can recall seeing on "Paddy Doyle."

Re: "Jimmy Riley", a corn-shucking song is noted up-thread by John Minear, called "Jimmy My Riley." Based only on text, I think the latter is quite comparable to "Old Billy Riley" the chanty. So the possibility that all three are related indeed seems likely.

Incidentally -- re: chanty/sailors' language -- I have been rereading Harlow and noticing how many of his chanties go with a disclaimer that the actually verses he heard sung were filthy. A lot of his printed texts don't seem bowdlerized per se, but rather just different, clean verses. This raises the question of where they came from. Is Harlow using/selecting clean verses that he heard back in the day? It doesn't seem so. He may have made up the verses anew for publication -- albeit possibly "based on 1870s sensibilities" (to paraphrase Lighter) -- or he got them from other versions of the chanties he'd heard/read since then. I am of the suspicion that a significant portion of Harlow's verses come from a later time then we are led to believe.
The Sailor's Alphabet is a good example. He had said that the word for every letter was unprintable. And yet he gives a different version with every letter clean. If the clean version was also sung in *his* experience, that would belie his statement that chantymen were dirty. So where is he getting the clean version from, and how much historical value is there to it, really?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Feb 11 - 08:44 PM

Here's a hard-to-fnd shanty text that must have been thought charmingly risque' when it was published in 1931, but whose third stanza, I believe would have been considered "unfit for polite ears" fifty years earlier.

On Oct. 13, 1931, the magazine supplement to the Brooklyn Sunday Eagle carried a human interest feature by O. R. Pilat titled "He Sings Old Sea Chanteys." The singer was marine engineer Alexander MacPhedran, 46, whose younger brother (not named) became a shantyman on board "Garnet" and "Hill of Glasgow" beginning about 1906. Alexander learned his shanties from him. Among them:
        
        Oh, Shenandoah, I long to hear you.
                Way, hay, you rolling river.
        Oh, Shenandoah, I long to hear you.
                Way, hay, we're bound away,
                O'er the wide Missouri.

        Missouri she's a mighty river,
        She sets our topsails all a-shiver.

        Oh, Shenandoah, I love your daughter.
        She loves to do what she hadn't oughter.

Cf. this rhyme, collected early in WWII (from Edgar Palmer's "G.I, Songs"):

We love Mrs. Jones, we love her daughter,
We love her in a way we hadn't oughter -
Oh, it's home, boys, home, the place we ought to be -
Oh, it's home, boys, home, and to hell with the life on the sea.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 03:06 AM

1903        Whitmarsh, H. Phelps. "The Chantey-man." _Harper's Monthly Magazine_ 106(632) (Jan. 1903): 319-

This featured article in Harper's seems to mark maybe a new way of discussing chanties. It uses the phrase "sea chanteys" which, though it does appear a few times earlier, was never used consistently or with quite such a firm sense of purpose. The article is full of nonsensical platitudes like "smacking of old ocean, true nautical swing," starting off, for instance, with the claim that chanties "hark back to such a remote period that it is impossible to say when or whence they originated…" It is possible that he doesn't mean that chanties "as we know them" "hark back" to such a remote period; he may have adopted the idea of a chantey as *any* maritime work-song that one might dig up – in which case this is also a notable shift in conception/usage.

The author is informed about such things as "walking away" with a halyard (i.e. in war ships) and "singing out."
"The soloists are known as chantey-men, and they are usually older men…"

Here's yet another statement of the idea of "Southern cotton ports" – one which I think is reasonable, but smacks, perhaps, or recent writings (e.g. the SEA BREEZE article). Wondering if this impression of the cotton stowing influence was, in the 1890s-1900s, a presently experienced idea, or more like a part of the written narrative passed down. Either way, it is notable that, outside of chanty scholars, the idea has sort of left the common consciousness. Now, as for the "undoubtedly English" origins of "ancient airs," I don't know where that comes from. I don't see earlier writers opining like that.

//
Most of the melodies are undoubtedly of English origin, though in many cases they have been influenced by contact with other nations. Thus we find a number of ancient airs set to words distinctly American, such as those of "Shenandoah," "Sally Brown," and "On the Banks of the Sacramento." The first two doubtless came from some Southern cotton ports, as they bear ear-marks of negro singers.
//

He characterizes the poetic style/method accurately IMO, saying that to to landsmen they "will probably appear as the veriest doggerel" and yet "As a rule, the chantey in its entirety possesses neither rhyme nor reason; nevertheless, it is admirably fitted for sailors' work. Each of these sea-songs has a few stock verses or phrases to begin with, but after these are sung, the soloist must improvise, and it is principally his skill in this direction that marks the successful chantey-man."

//
…in listening to the plaintive melodies like "Storm-along" and "The Lowlands," I have at times been reminded of a Gaelic psalm chant, such as is sung by the Scotch Highlander ers and their descendants in Cape Breton; and again, they have seemed akin to the weird recitative and chorus of the aboriginal Australian.
//

Mention of adapted songs—"rarely" used: JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME, TRAMP TRAMP, JOHN BROWN'S BODY:

//
Sometimes the sailor has taken a 'longshore tune and modified it for his own purposes. "When Johnny comes marching home again," "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," and "John Brown" are on rare occasions used as capstan chanteys;
//

Hauling songs:
//
BLOW THE MAN DOWN [w/ score]
As I was a-walking down Paradise Street.
Way! Hey! Blow the man down.
A pretty young damsel I chanced for to meet.
Give me some time to blow the man down.
Says she, young man, will you stand treat?
'Way! Hey! Blow the man down.
Delighted, says I, for a charmer so sweet.
Give me some time to blow the man down.

And so on until a loud " Belay!" from the mate announces that the yard is high enough. In a long haul like this a poor chantey-man will repeat each line twice, while a good improvisatore will scorn such a spinning out, and turn the song upon current events, the officers, and the food. A chantey-man invariably alters certain words to suit himself. For instance, the chantey given refers to a notorious street in Liverpool. A Londoner would sing it:

As I was a-walking down Ratcliffe Highway. A pretty young damsel I chanced for to spy.
And a New - Yorker would make this much-walked street Broadway.
//

That's the first literary reference to the "Paradise Street" version I have seen, though I suspect the line had been attached to the song for a while – though, as we've seen, the "Black Ball Liner" theme may be older. The above also includes an asthetic evaluation of spinning (stringing) out.

SALLY BROWN, no lyrics:
//
A similar chantey is "Sally Brown." Who Sally Brown was, beyond the statement that she was "a bright mulatto" and "a gay old lady," and that "she's got a baby," I have never been able to discover,…
//

REUBEN RANZO:
//
Another mythical personage much sung about is "Reuben Ranzo":

His name was Reuben Ranzo. 

Oh! Ranzo, boys. Ranzo.
And Ranzo was no sailor. 

Oh! Ranzo, boys, Ranzo. 

He shipped aboard a whaler. 

Oh! Ranzo, boys, Ranzo. 

The captain was a bad man. 

Oh! Ranzo, boys. Ranzo. 

He triced him in the rigging, 

Oh! Ranzo. boys, Ranzo, 

And gave him four-and-twenty. 

Oh! Ranzo. boys, Ranzo.

The song goes on to tell of the various vicissitudes that befell poor Ranzo,…
//

//
BLOW, BOYS, BLOW [w/ score]
Blow, my bullies, I long to hear you.
Blow, boys, blow.
Blow, my, bullies, I come to cheer you.
Blow, my bully boys, blow.
A Yankee ship's gone down the river. 

Blow, boys, blow.
And what do you think they got for dinner?
Blow, my bully boys, blow. 

Dandyfunk and donkey's liver. 

Blow, boys, blow.
Then blow, my boys, for better weather, 

Blow, my bully boys, blow.
//

BONEY:
//
Then there is a popular chantey relating to the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte. It begins somewhat in this wise:
Boney was a warrior.
To me, tray, hey, yah!
A warrior and a tarrier,
John Fran-swaw. (Jean Francois.)
But the big-nosed duke, he put him through.
To me, way, hey, yah!
He put him through at Waterloo.
John Fran-swaw.
//

One pull is indicated each chorus, on "yah" and "John."

TOMMY'S GONE:
//
Another favorite conveys the information that "Tom's gone to Hilo." One version opens after the following fashion, which is sung with gusto:

Tommy's gone and I'll go too, 

A-way, ey, oh! 

Tommy's gone to Timbuctoo. 

Tom's gone to Hilo.
After running on for a while about the beauties of Hilo, and the delightful life
that Tommy led, and so forth, the song branches off (as indeed most halyard chanteys do) into such words as these:
Up aloft this yard must go.
A-way, ey, oh!
Up aloft from down below,
Tom's gone to Hilo.
Oh! did you hear the first mate say,
A-way, ey, oh!
Give one more pull, and then belay.
Tom's gone to Hilo.
//

And the "such as" section, lists other long drag chanties, WHISKEY JOHNNY, DEAD HORSE, CHEERLY, BLACKBALL LINE, HUNDRED YEARS:
//
Other much-used chanteys for work of this nature are "Whiskey Johnny," "Poor Old Man," " Cheerly Men," " The Black Ball Line," and " A Hundred Years Ago."
//

Short drag stuff, w/ BOWLINE and HAUL AWAY JOE:
//
For work requiring only a few pulls, as the tautening of a weather-brace, a different kind of chantey is called for. In this case a turn is kept on the belaying-pin so that the slack can be held after each pull. The hands having laid hold of the rope, the chantey-man usually stands with arms outstretched above the block, and sings:

HAUL ON THE BOWLINE. [w/ score]
Haul on the bowline (bolin),
Our bully ship's a-rollin',
CHO: Haul on the bowline, the bowline—Haul
Haul on the bowline,
Our Captain he's a growlin',
CHO: Haul on the bowline, the bowline—Haul
Haul on the bowline,
Haul on the bowline,
Oh, Kitty, you're my darlin'.
CHO: Haul on the bowline, the bowline—Haul
Haul on the bowline,
…
//

HAUL AWAY JOE has various accents being done (cf. the Irish accent version of this recently mentioned up-thread).
//
Once I loafed a Deutscher maid, Und she vas fat and lazy,
Way, haul away, haul away—Joe.
And thin I coorted an Irish gyurl, She—nigh dhruv me crazy.
Way, haul away, haul away—Joe.
//

Heaving chanties…
//
The capstan or windlass chanteys admit of a little more leeway in their composition, inasmuch as there is no regular hauling time, the sailors merely tramping around the capstan, or heaving up and down on the handle-bars of the windlass. When heaving anchor on an outwardbound vessel, a common one is "Rio Grande," which runs as follows:

WERE YOU EVER IN RIO GRANDE? [w/ score]
Were you ever in Rio Grande?
Away, you Rio.
Were you ever on that strand?
We're bound for the Rio Grande.
And away, you Rio,
Way, you Rio;
Then fare you well,
My bonny young girl,
We're bound for the Rio Grande.

Where the Portugee girls can be found
Away, you Rio.
And they are the girls to waltz around,
We're bound for the Rio Grande.
And away, you Rio,
Way, you Rio;
Then fare you well,
My bonny young girl,
We're bound for the Rio Grande.
//

GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL:
//
WE'RE HOMEWARD BOUND [w/ score]
We're homeward bound, ah! That's the sound!
Good-by, fare you well, Good-by, fare you well,
We're homeward bound, to Liverpool town.
Hurrah! My lads, we're homeward bound.

The second stanza runs thus:
We're loaded down with sugar and rum.
Good-by, fare you well, 
Good-by. fare you well.
The sails are set. and the breeze has come,
Hurrah! my lads, we're homeward bound.
//

MR. STORMALONG:
//
After a blow a suitable chantey is:

Old Storm-along, he is dead and gone. 

Ay—ay—ay—Mister Storm-along. 

Oh! Storm-along, he is dead and gone, 

To my way, yah. Storm-along.
And there are many more, some gay and some cheery, like "Santa Anna"; others, like "The Lowlands," mournful as the sighing of the wind in the shrouds.
//

Pumping…
This like the "mid-journey" version of LEAVE HER JOHNNY that Hugull offers.
//
There are no chanteys more suggestive of the old-times wooden ships than those used at the pumps. Of these there are quite a number, some suited to the everyday work of clearing the bilges, and some adapted for more serious times. Where heavy weather has caused the vessel to leak more than usual, and the crew are weary from pumping, nothing could be more appropriate, doleful though it be, than "Leave her, Johnny, leave her":

Heave around the pump-bowls bright, 

Leave her, Johnny, leave her. 

There'll be no sleep for us to-night, 

It's time for us to leave her.
Heave around or we shall drown, 

Leave her, Johnny, leave her. 

Don't you feel her settling down? 

It's time for us to leave her.
The rats have gone, and we the crew,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her.
It's time, by , that we went too,
It's time for us to leave her.
//

The usual PADDY DOYLE stuff:
//
The quaintest little hauling-song of all, "Bunt Chantey," is only sung aloft when stowing a large sail, and it is confined to one short verse;—if I may call it a verse. When a mainsail is being furled, and "all hands and the cook" are laid out on the yard and have the "skin" of the sail in their hands, a few simultaneous lifts are required to bring the heavy roll of canvas on to the yard. Then above the booming of the wind in belly of the topsails, above its howling as it hurries past the multitudinous ropes, comes the "bunt" cry:

WE'LL PAY PADDY DOYLE. [w/ score]
Ay-Ay-Ay ah! We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.

Way—ay—ay—ah,
followed by the strange chorus:
We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.

At the last word every one gives a vicious hoist, and it is continued until the sail is in place and the gaskets are passed. This chantey doubtless originated in the superstition that bad luck would follow when shore bills were left unpaid, and the song is addressed to the Storm Fiend in hopes of appeasing his wrath.
//

Nostalgia…
//
In this age the chantey-man is very little in evidence. His place is rapidly being taken by the hiss and clank of the steam-winch, and at the present rate at which progress is making new conditions he will soon be as extinct as the dodo. And with these new conditions we have a new class. But what a difference between the old-time sailor-man and the modern follower of salt-water! Steam with its labor-saving devices, iron sailing-ships, wire-ropes, screw rigging, and the 'longshore rigger have made the ancient art and craft of the sailor, with few exceptions, unnecessary. The principal end of seamen in these times is to use a chipping-hammer, a paint-brush, and the bucket of "soogey-moogey"— a compound for cleaning paint - work. The mariner of old in American vessels hailed from Cape Cod, the coast of Maine, and the Eastern seaboard. In English ships he was a native of the British Isles. Skilled in the mysteries of knots and splices, sail-making, and seamanship in general, steeped in brine and tar and the traditions of his calling, hewn into shape by his constant battle with the elements, he was a sailor to the backbone—a man whose blood ran Stockholm tar, and whose every hair was a ropeyarn. To-dny the vessels of both nations are manned by foreigners. And with the advent of this new element the quaint customs and practices of the old-time sailor's life are fast dying.
The chantey, from a musical point of view, is crude enough, its melody is doubtful, and the voices that sing it are untrained—ay, even hoarse and cracked, —and yet in my memory there clings no song more in harmony with the wild freedom of the sea, no sound more cheery and stirring on stormy nights, than when

Blow, my bullies, I long to hear you, 

Blow, boys, blow.
Blow, my bullies. I come to cheer you, 

Blow, my bully boys, blow,

is being bellowed through a score of lusty throats.
//
Aww…

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 03:52 AM

1905        Fenton, Reginald. Peculiar People in a Pleasant Land. Girard, Kansas: Pretoria Publishing.

Describing the voyage of a sailing ship Catraraqui from Britain to South Africa, "forty years ago." The preface calls "now" 1900. So, ca.1860-65. A quick scan shows there were several trips on this route in 1861.

WHISKEY JOHNNY:
//
The passengers, as the wish to live came back to them with their sea-legs, had begun to get some excitement out of the cry, "All hands 'bout ship," "Tacks and sheets," "Mainsail-haul," "Clew-up," and some of us would tail on to the main-sheet or a topsail-halliard, pull with a will, and join in the rousing "chanty":

Oh, whisky killed my sister Fan.
Oh, whisky! Oh, Johnnie! 

But whisky is the life of man;
Then whisky for me, Johnnie,

And the mate would roar: "Keep all that. Belay. Smart now."
//

Although BLOW YE WINDS appears in several earlier references, I believe this is the first time logging it as a chanty:
//
A call to reef top-sails was an opportunity to hear a new "chanty," or to join in the chorus of a fresh improvisation to the tune of an old one; such as:

"Our Captain on the quarter-deck is growlin' like a bear; 

A stampin' on his hat, me boys, and a-tearin' of his hair,"

which "London Charley" roared one day as a hint to the raging skipper, and the gang at the lift drowned the sultry comment of the latter in the vigor with which they trolled the chorus:

"Then blow ye winds in the mornin',
Blow ye winds, heighho; 

Clear away the morning dew,
Row my bully-boys, row."
//

BOWLINE:
//
How through the misty distance of the vanished past still rings in memory the swinging chorus of the watch, when, trimmng the rig to gain the full power of each change of the breeze, they would sing:
"Haw-haul the bowlin', the Catarak's a-rollin', 

Haul the bowlin'; the bowline—Haul!!"
giving with the last word a tug at their rope which sent the note out with a shout and a jerk. "Just another little one," the mate would cry, and off at score went the chanty once more.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 04:53 AM

1907        Chamberlain, Lucia. "The Harder Case." Everybody's Magazine 16(4) (April 1907): 515-

A reference to sailing is made, with a quotation from a "Sally" version of SHENANDOAH:

//
Oh, twenty years I courted Sally, 

Yo ho, ye rolling river! 

And twenty more, but I didn't get her! 

I'm bound away on the wild Atlantic.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 05:19 AM

1906[Oct.]        Masefield, John, ed. _A Sailor's Garland._ London: Macmillan.

This is a general anthology of sea-related songs and poetry that includes a section on "Chanties." They have been, on one level, hijacked to serve this project of enshrining the sea as English "heritage" of a particular character. They were part of Masefield's experience, as he sailed 1891-1895.

This text seems to have very influential on the lyrics of later revival performers, so, though it is lengthy, it is important to have it logged for later reference.

The CHANTIES section begins pg. 300 with an introduction.

His famous pronunciation spiel. I've not seen early evidence of using "chanty" as a verb in the way he says.
//
A Chanty is a song sung by sailors when engaged in the severest of their many labours. The word chanty is generally mispronounced by landsmen. It is not pronounced as spelt, like the word chant with an added y final. It is pronounced shanty, to rhyme with scanty, the ch soft and the a narrow. The verb to chanty is frequently used, as in the order "Chanty it up, now," or the injunction "Heave and chanty."
//

Some indication here that chanties were still being used, but not for pumping.
//
There are three varieties of chanty, each kind adapted to its special labour. There is the capstan chanty, sung at the capstan when warping, or weighing anchor, or hoisting topsails with the watch. There is the halliard chanty, sung at the topsail and top-gallant halliards, when the topsails and top-gallant sails are being mast-headed. And there is the sheet, tack, and bowline chanty, used when the fore, main, and crossjack sheets are hauled aft, and when the tacks are boarded and the bowlines tautened. Formerly, in the days when ships were built of wood, and leaked from an inch or two to two or three feet a day, there used to be pumping chanties, sung by the pumpers as they hove the brakes round. Now that ships are built of steel or iron, which either leak not at all or go to the bottom, there is no pumping to be done aboard, save the pumping of fresh water from the tanks in the hold for the use of the crew, and the daily pumping of salt water for the washing down of the decks. I have passed many miserable hours pumping out the leaks from a wooden ship, but I was never so fortunate as to hear a pumping chanty.
//

Walk-away chanties are "bastard chanties." DRUNKEN SAILOR had indeed been rarely cited. I wonder what "wave" came to popularize it in the 20th century? Masefield's mention here may have been influential.
//
Strictly speaking, there is a fourth variety of chanty, but it is a bastard variety, very seldom used. The true chanty, of the kinds I have mentioned, is a song with a solo part and one or two choruses. The solo part consists of a line of rhyme which is repeated by the solo man after the first chorus has been shouted. The bastard variety which I have j ust mentioned has no solo part. It is a runaway chorus, sung by all hands as they race along the deck with the rope. You hear it in tacking ship. It is a good song to sing when the main and mizzen yards are being swung simultaneously. All hands are at the braces straining taut, and at the order they burst into song and "run away with it," bringing the great yards round with a crash. It is a most cheery kind of chanty, and the excitement of the moment, and the sight of the great yards spinning round, and the noise of the stamping feet impress it on the mind. The favourite runaway chorus is:

"What shall we do with a drunken sailor? 

What shall we do with a drunken sailor? 

What shall we do with a drunken sailor, 
         
Early in the morning? 
      
Way, hay, there she rises, 
      
Way, hay, there she rises, 
      
Way, hay, there she rises, 
         
Early in the moming.
"Chuck him in the long-boat till he 
 gets sober,
Chuck him in the long-boat till he 
 gets sober,
Chuck him in the long-boat till he gets sober, 
         
Early in the morning. 
      
Way, hay, there she rises, 
      
Way, hay, there she rises, 
      
Way, hay, there she rises, 
         
Early in the morning.

It is sung to a vigorous tune in quick time. It is the custom among sailors to stamp with their feet at each "Way, hay." The effect is very spirited.
//

Describing over-lapping style of singing:
//
Of the chanties proper, the capstan chanties are the most beautiful, the halliard chanties the most commonly heard, and the sheet, tack, and bowline chanties the most ancient. In a capstan chanty the solo man begins with his single line of verse. Before he has spoken the last word of it the other men heaving at the bars break out with the first chorus. Immediately before the chorus has come to an end the solo man repeats his line of verse, to be interrupted at the last word by the second chorus, which is generally considerably longer than the first. It is a glorious thing to be on a forecastle-head, heaving at a capstan bar, hearing the chain coming clanking in below you to the music of a noisy chanty sung by a score of sailors.

The Solo, or Chanty-man. In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid.

The Sailors. Mark well what I do say!
The Solo, or Chanty-man. In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid, 
                        
In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid. 

The Sailors. And I'll go no more a-ro-o-ving 
                  
With you, fair maid. 
                     
A-roving, a-roving. 
               
Since roving's been my ru-in, 
                     
I'll go no more a-ro-o-ving with you, fair maid.

That is the most beautiful of all the chanties. It is sung to an old Elizabethan tune which stirs one's blood like a drum-tap. The song, or solo of it, is strangely like the song in one of Thomas Heywood's plays. Several of the couplets are identical. The curious will find the song in Lucrece, in the fifth act. I cannot quote it here.
//
No comment!

Very intriguing the next comment about halliard chanties getting old and discarded in favor of new ones:
//
A halliard chanty is begun by the solo-man in the manner described above. It has generally two choruses, but they are of the same length—not short and long, as in the case of the anchor chanty. The solo man is always a person of some authority among the crowd. He begins his song after the first two or three pulls upon the halliards. There are countless halliard chanties, and new ones come into use each year. Those which one hears occasionally ashore are nearly always old ones, little used at sea. The sailors have grown tired of them. I do not know what chanties are most used now at sea. In my time we used to get the yards up to—

The Chanty-man. A long, long time and a long time ago, 

The Sailors. To me way hay, o-hi-o;
The Chanty-man. A long, long time and a long time ago, 

The Sailors. A long time ago.

The Chanty-man. A smart Yankee packet lay out in the bay, 

The Sailors. To me way bay, o-hi-a;
The Chanty-man. A smart Yankee packet lay out in the bay, 

The Sailors. A long time ago (etc.).

The pulls upon the rope are delivered during the choruses upon the words I have italicised. Another very popular chanty was:

The Chanty-man. Come all you little nigger-boys, 

The Sailors. And roll the cotton down;
The Chanty-man. O come all you little nigger-boys, 

The Sailors. And roll the cotton down (etc.).

The tune to this is bright and merry. It puts you in a good temper to be singing it.
//
Both the above chanties, LONG TIME AGO and ROLL THE COTTON DOWN, had not been noted until relatively recently (see Lubbock 1902). So, perhaps they really were popular in the 1890s specifically.

//
Another strangely beautiful chanty is that known as Hanging Johnny. It has a melancholy tune that is one of the saddest things I have evei heard. I heard it for the first time off the Horn, in a snowstorm, when we were hoisting topsails after heavy weather. There was a heavy, grey sea running and the decks were awash. The skies were sodden and oily, shutting in the sea about a quarter of a mile away. Some birds were flying about us, screaming.

The Chanty-man began. They call me Hanging Johnny,
The Sailors. Away-i-oh;
The Chanty-man. They call me Hanging Johnny,
The Sailors. So hang, boys, hang.

I thought at the time that it was the whole scene set to music. I cannot repeat those words to their melancholy wavering music without seeing the line of yellow oilskins, the wet deck, the frozen ropes, and the great grey seas running up into the sky.
//

The start of another popular narrative:
//
Of the sheet, tack, and bowline chanties the oldest is Haul the Bowline, which was certainly in use in the reign of Henry VIII. It is still very popular, though the bowline is no longer the rope it was. It is a slow, stately melody, ending with a jerk as the men fall back with the rope.

The Chanty-man. Haul on the bowline, the fore and maintop bowline. Haul on the bowline.
The Sailors. The bowline haul.
Another excellent chanty in this kind is the following:
The Chanty-man. Louis was the King of France afore the Revolution.
The Sailors. Away, haul away, boys ; haul away toge-e-ther;
The Chanty-man. But Louis got his head cut off, which spoiled his consti-tu-ti-on.
The Sailors. Away, haul away, boys; haul away O.
//
Was this the source for later singers' "King Louis" lyric?

These phrases for sing-outs are later harvested by Hugill.
//
The chanty is the invention of the merchant service. In the navy they have what is called the silent routine, and the men fall back upon their ropes in silence, "like a lot of soldiers," when the boatswain pipes. It must be very horrible to witness. In the merchant service, where the ships are invariably undermanned, one sings whenever a rope is cast off the pin. You haul a brace to the cry of "O, bunt him a bo," "O rouse him, boys," "Oho, Jew," "O ho ro, my boys," and similar phrases. You clew up a sail to the quick "Lee-ay," "Lee-ay," "Ho ro," "Ho," "Aha," uttered in a tone of disquiet or alarm. You furl a course to the chant of "Paddy Doyle and his Boots." Without these cries and without the chanties you would never get the work done. "A song is ten men on the rope." In foul weather off the Horn it is as comforting as a pot of hot drink. A wash and a song are the sailor's two luxuries.
//

Refers to the two big collections of the time – which no doubt had some influence, as will be seen from the individual items. The other items are unfamiliar, save for the Folk-Song Society articles, which started coming out at this time.
//
Those who wish to obtain the music of the commoner chanties will find Miss Laura Smith's Music of the Waters and the anthology of Dr. Ferris Tozer of use to them. Several may be found in the songbook of the Guild of Handicraft. I have also seen a collection of them published (I believe) by Messrs. Metzler. The files of the Boy's Own Paper, The Cadet, and the publications of the Folk-Song Society may also be consulted with advantage.
In the following pages I have included only a few of the chanties in general use. Many familiar chanties have been excluded owing to lack of space.
//

Apparently in his time/place, "stringing-out" was the thing to do—because every though this is a "literary" collection, he makes few rhyming couplets!

LOWLANDS AWAY. Though Masefield heard chanties, the chorus of this is a giveaway that he is copying it from Smith/Alden. We can can infer that he has made up the solo verses – possibly even adding the very Northern English/Scots flavour they have, and influencing later presenters.
//
LOWLANDS 

(halliard Chanty)
I Dreamt a dream the other night,
Lowlands, Lowlands, hurrah, my John;

I dreamt a dream the other night, 
      
My Lowlands a-ray.
I dreamt I saw my own true love,
[ETC – all the of the verses strung out]

He was green and wet with weeds so cold,
"I am drowned in the Lowland seas," he said,
"I shall never kiss you again," he said,
I will cut my breasts until they bleed,
I will cut away my bonny hair,
No other man shall think me fair,
O my love lies drowned in the windy Lowlands,
//

STORMY ALONG JOHN:
//
STORM ALONG 
   
(halliards)
Old Stormy he was a good old man, 

To me way hay; storm along, John;
Old Stormy he was a good old man,
Come along, get along. Storm along, John.
Old Stormy he is dead and gone, 

Old Stormy died, and we dug his grave, 

In sailor town up Mobile Bay,
//

WHISKEY JOHNNY:
//
WHISKEY! JOHNNY! 
      
(halliards)
O Whiskey is the life of man, 
   
Whiskey! Johnny!
O whiskey is the life of man,
Whiskey for my Johnny.
1 drink it out of an old tin can,
I drink whiskey when I can,
I drink it hot, I drink it cold,   
I drink it new, I drink it old,
Whiskey killed my poor old dad,
Whiskey makes me pawn my clothes,
Whiskey makes me scratch my toes (gout ?),
O fisherman, have you just come from sea?
O yes, sir, I have just come from sea,
Then have you any crab-fish that you can sell to me?
O yes, sir, I have crab-fish one, two, three,

[At this point the ballad becomes a little gross. The curious will find the remainder of the tale in a discreet little book published by the Percy Society, from the relics of Bishop Percy's collection. The ballad dates from the sixteenth century. It is still very popular at sea.]
//
Where did he get this from? Why publish the gout lyric if he doesn't get it? And why refer us to a 16th century version of the crab-fish ballad?

BONEY:
//
JOHN FRANCOIS 
   
(halliards)
Boney was a warrior,
    Away-i-oh; 

Boney was a warrior,
John Francois.
Boney fought the Proosh-i-ans,
Boney fought the Roosh-i-ans,
Drive her, captain, drive her,
Give her the top-gallant sails,
It's a weary way to Baltimore,
//


BLOW THE MAN DOWN:
//
BLOW THE MAN DOWN 
         
(halliards)
Blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down,
Away-hay—blow the man down;
Blow the man down, bullies, blow him right down,
Give us a chance to blow the man down.
Blow him right down from the top of his crown,
As I was a-walking down Paradise Street,
A pretty young girl I chanced for to meet,
This pretty young girl she said unto me,
"There's a fine full-rigged clipper just ready for sea,
The fine full-rigged clipper to Sydney was bound,
She was very well manned and very well found,
As soon as the clipper was clear of the bar,
The mate knocked me down with the end of a spar,
As soon as the clipper had got out to sea,
I'd cruel hard treatment of every degree,
I'll give you a warning afore we belay,
Don't ever take heed of what pretty girls say,
//
The preceding has the weird "end of a spar" lyric.

ROLL THE COTTON DOWN
//
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN 
         
(halliards)
Come roll the cotton down, my boys,
    Roll the cotton down;

Come roll the cotton down, my boys,
O roll the cotton down.
A dollar a day is a white man's pay,
Ten dollars a day is a black man's pay,
The white man's pay is rather high,
The black man's pay is rather low,   
Around Cape Horn we're bound to go,
So stretch it aft and start a song,
//

//
REUBEN RANZO
(Halliards)

O do you know old Reuben Ranzo?
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo;
O do you know old Reuben Ranzo?
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.

Old Ranzo was a tailor,
Old Ranzo was no sailor,
So he shipped aboard of a whaler,
But he could not do his duty,
//

TOMMY'S ON THE TOPSAIL YARD – first time for this one:
//
ROLL AND GO
(halliards)
There was a ship—she sailed to Spain,
O. Roll and go;
There was a ship—she sailed to Spain,
O Tommy's on the topsail yard.
There was a ship came home again,
What d'ye think was in her hold?
There was diamonds, there was gold,
And what was in her lazareet?
Good split peas and bad bull meat,
Many sailormen gets drowned,
//
Even though Hugill says he learned the foregoing in the Caribbean, he uses mostly these Masefield verses.


COME ROLL ME OVER
//
COME ROLL HIM OVER 
         
(halliards)
Oho, why don't you blow?
Aha. Come roll him over; 

Oho, why don't you blow?
Aha. Come roll him over
One man. To strike the bell, 

Two men. To take the wheel,
Three men. Top-gallant braces,
//

//
HANGING JOHNNY 
      
(halliards)
They call me Hanging Johnny,
    Away-i-oh; 

They call me Hanging Johnny,
So hang, boys, hang.
First I hung my mother,
Then I hung my brother,
A rope, a beam, and a ladder,
I'll hang you all together,
//

Evidently Masefield's Sally was not a "bright mullater"
//
SALLY BROWN 
   
(halliards)
O Sally Brown of New York City,
Ay ay, roll and go;
O Sally Brown of New York City,
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown. O

Sally Brown, you are very pretty,
Your cheeks are red, your hair is golden,
//

DEAD HORSE
//
POOR OLD JOE
(halliards)

Old Joe is dead, and gone to hell,
O we say so, and we hope so; 

Old Joe is dead, and gone to hell, 
   
O poor old Joe.
The ship did sail, the winds did roar,
He's as dead as a nail in the lamp-room door,
He won't come hazing us no more,
//

TOMMY'S GONE
//
TOMMY'S GONE TO HILO 
         
(halliards)
Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Tommy's gone to Hilo;
Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Tommy's gone to Hilo.
Hilo town is in Peru,
He never kissed his girl good-bye,
He signed for three pound ten a month,
//

//
A LONG TIME AGO 
      
(halliards)
A Long, long time, and a long time ago, 
         
To me way hay, ohio;
A long, long time, and a long time ago, 
      
                A long time ago
A smart Yankee packet lay out in the bay,
To me way hay, ohio;
A waiting for a fair wind to get under way,
A long time ago.
With all her poor sailors all sick and all sore,
To me way hay, ohio;
For they'd drunk all their lime-juice, and could get no more,
A long time ago.
With all her poor sailors all sick and all sad,
To me way hay, ohio;
For they'd drunk all their lime-juice, and no more could be had,
A long time ago.
She was waiting for a fair wind to get under way,
    To me way hay, ohio; 

She was waiting for a fair wind to get under way,
A long time ago.
If she hasn't had a fair wind she's lying there still,
   To me way hay, ohio; 

If she hasn't had a fair wind she's lying there still,
A long time ago.
//

BLOW BOYS BLOW:
//
BLOW, BULLIES, BLOW 
         
(halliards)
There's a Black Ball barque coming down the river,
       Blow, bullies, blow; 

There's a Black Ball barque coming down the river,
Blow, my bully boys, blow.
And who d'ye think is Captain of her?
Why, bully Hains is the Captain of her,
He'll make you wish you was dead and buried,
You'll brighten brass, and you'll scrape the cable,
And who d'ye think is mate aboard her?
Santander James is the mate aboard her,
He'll ride you down like you ride the spanker,
And who d'ye think is the second mate of her?
Some ugly case what hates poor sailors,
//

//
THE RIO GRANDE 
      
(capstan)
Where are you going to, my pretty maid?
       O away Rio; 

Where are you going to, my pretty maid? 
   
We are bound to the Rio Grande. 
      
O away Rio, 
      
O away Rio, 

O fare you well, my bonny young girl, 
   
We are bound to the Rio Grande.
Have you a sweetheart, my pretty maid?
May I go with you, my pretty maid?
I'm afraid you're a bad one, kind sir, she replied,
//

First, interesting sighting of SEBASTOPOL"
//
SEBASTOPOL 
   
(capstan)
The Crimean war is over now,
Sebastopol is taken; 

The Crimean war is over now,
Sebastopol is taken. 

So sing cheer, boys, cheer,
Sebastopol is taken; 

And sing cheer, boys, cheer,
Old England gained the day.
The Russians they was put to flight,
//

SACRAMENTO
//
THE BANKS OF THE SACRAMENTO 
                  
(capstan)
In the Black Ball Line I served my time, 

To me hoodah. To me hoodah;
In the Black Ball Line I served my time, 

So hurrah for the Black Ball Line.
Blow, my bullies, blow, 

For California O. 

There's plenty of gold, 

So I've been told, 

On the banks of the Sacramento.
From Limehouse Docks to Sydney Heads,
We were never more than seventy days,
We cracked it on, on a big skiute, 

//

A-ROVING:
//
THE MAID OF AMSTERDAM 
            
(capstan)
In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid,
    Mark well what I do say;

In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid, 

And she was mistress of her trade. 
   
And I'll go no more a-roving 
      
With you, fair maid. 
      
A-roving, a-roving, 
   
Since roving s been my ru-i-n, 
      
I'll go no more a-roving 
      
With you, fair maid.
Her cheeks was red, her eyes was brown,
[For the rest of the solo, see the song in The Rape of Lucrece, by Thomas Heywood, Act iv, Scene vi.]
//

HANDY MY BOYS:
//
HAND OVER HAND 

(Hand Over Hand)
A Handy ship, and a handy crew,
    Handy, my boys, so handy; 

A handy ship, and a handy crew,
Handy, my boys, away oh.
A handy skipper and second mate, too,
A handy Bose and a handy Sails, 

//

HAUL AWAY JOE
//
HAUL AWAY O

(Sheet, Tack, And Bowline)
Away, haul away, boys, haul away together, 
   
Away, haul away, boys, haul away O;
Away, haul away, boys, haul away together, 
   
Away, haul away, boys, haul away O.
Louis was the King of France afore the Revolu-ti-on,
Away, haul away, boys, haul away O;
But Louis got his head cut off, which spoiled his constitu-ti-on,
//

BOWLINE:
//
HAUL THE BOWLINE 

(Sheet, Tack, And Bowline)
Haul upon the bowline, the fore and main top bowline,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul;
Haul upon the bowline, the fore and main top bowline,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.
Haul upon the bowline, so early in the morning,
Haul upon the bowline, the bonny ship's a-sailing,
Haul upon the bowline, Kitty is my darling,
Haul upon the bowline, Kitty lives at Liverpool,
Haul upon the bowline, Liverpool's a fine town,
Haul upon the bowline, it's a far cry to pay-day,
//

DRUNKEN SAILOR:
//
A RUNAWAY CHORUS
What shall we do with a drunken sailor? 

What shall we do with a drunken sailor? 

What shall we do with a drunken sailor? 
      
Early in the morning. 
   
Way, hay, there she rises, 
   
Way, hay, there she rises, 
   
Way, hay, there she rises, 
      
Early in the morning.
Chuck him in the long-boat till he gets sober, 

What shall we do with a drunken soldier? 

Lock him in the guardroom till he gets sober,
//

//
PADDY DOYLE 
   
(furling)
To my, 

Ay,
And we'll furl,
Ay,
And pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.

We'll sing,
Ay,
And we'll heave,
Ay,
And pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.

We'll heave,
Ay, 

With a swing,
Ay,
And pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.
//

//
L'ENVOI— LEAVE HER JOHNNY 
   
(For Pumping And Halliards)
I Thought I heard the captain say,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her; 

You may go ashore and touch your pay,
It's time for us to leave her.
You may make her fast, and pack your gear,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her;
And leave her moored to the West Street Pier,
It's time for us to leave her.
The winds were foul, the work was hard,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her; 

From Liverpool Docks to Brooklyn Yard,
It's time for us to leave her.
She would neither steer, nor stay, nor wear,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her;
She shipped it green and she made us swear,
It's time for us to leave her.
She would neither wear, nor steer, nor stay,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her;
Her running rigging carried away,
It's time for us to leave her.
The winds were foul, the trip was long,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her; 

Before we go we'll sing a song, 
   
It's time for us to leave her.
We'll sing, Oh, may we never be, 

Leave her, Johnny, leave her;
On a hungry ship the like of she, 
   
It's time for us to leave her.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 07:49 AM

Gibb-

Nice work!

I've been reading Nordhoff's first book MAN-OF-WAR-LIFE, originally published in 1855 but describing his first experience at sea aboard the ship-of-the-line "Columbus" from 1845-48. I wasn't expecting to find much mention of shanties , given that this experience was aboard a warship, but Nordhoff does mention, p. 13, that while he was prowling the docks in Baltimore looking for a ship to sail on he was watching "...the sailors hoisting in or out cargos, or busy about their various other duties, and listening admiringly to the songs with which they enlivened their labors."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 02:27 AM

Geo was looking at this one of late, and since it does supply data for 1880s, now is a fine time for me to log it here.

1946        Hatfield, James Taft. "Some Nineteenth Century Shanties." _Journal of American Folklore_ 59(232): 108-113.

In 1886, prior to July, Hatfield traveled from Pensacola to Nice on the bark AHKERA. The crew was, evidently, all Black men from Jamaica. There were a few different guys that cted as chantyman. Hatfield, at the time of writing, was family with the collections of Colcord, Frothingham, Masefield, and L.A. Smith. However, he aims to present strictly the renderings of these chanties as he heard them in '86. Hatfield was adimant that he had noted all the chanties at the time he heard them. The current notations are the result of fixing them up with the help of his daughter, at the piano.

His daughter notes, of her deceased father,
//
He told me that he often requested them [the chanty-singers] to begin again and again until he could note the exact timing and melody. He stressed this point to me often, as we went over each melody, with the
Colcord, Frothingham, etc., books lying open on my piano for comparison; and when I asked
if one or another might have been similar to certain texts, and whether, because of this similarity,
he might have inadvertently confused published texts with the original tunes forgotten
during the years, he turned to me to say, 'My dear, these are the original papers which I carried
in my pocket on the boat. How could I forget tunes which are here in black and white?'
//

Hatfield claims that though he often traveled by sea again after this trip, he never again heard a chanty!

His versions of items are all appreciably unique.

BLOW THE MAN DOWN:
//
1. BLOW A MAN DOWN
O 'low me some time for to blow a man down!
Too ma hay ho, blow a man down.
Blow the man down in the hold below,
O give me some time to blow a man down!

From starboard to larboard away we will go!
From larboard to starbord away we will go!

W:O, hip, hip, hip, and away we will go!
We'll rise and shine and make her go!
//

//
2. RIO GRANDE
Rio Grande I took my stay,
and away we'll go!
Sing fare ye well, my bonny young girl,
I am bound for Rio Grande.

The ship went sailing over the bar;
The pointed her nose for the southern star.
//
The opening of this melody, especially, is appreciably different from most versions.

//
3. FIRE DOWN BELOW
Easy, easy, John Brown!
Too ma ha-a-a-ay, ho!
Easy John Brown, why don't you come along?
O, fire down be-low
Fire in the main-top, fire down below;
Too ma ha-a-a-ay, ho!
Fire in the main-top, fire down below,
O, fire down below
//

//
4. SHINY O!
Captain, Captain, you love your brandy,
A-a-a-a-a-ay, shiny O!
Captain, Captain, I love your daughter,
A-a-a-a-a-ay, Shiny O!

O ferryman, ferryman, won't you ferry me over?
Won't you ferry me from Queenstown across over to Dover?

O from Queenstown to Dover's a hundred miles or over;
From Queenstown to Dover's a hundred miles or over!

Captain, Captain, how deep is the water?
She measures one inch, six feet and a quarter.

The Hen and the Chickens were all flying over,
And when she pitches, she pitches into Dover.

O Captain, Captain, what is the matter?
I lose my wife and my pretty little daughter.

O rivers, rivers, rivers are rolling;
Rivers are rolling and I can't get over!
//
Hatfield notes that he thinks he was the only collector offer this item. It personally reminds me of both Bullen's version of "Shenandoah" and the currently-popular "Bound Down Trinidad, to look for Sunnydore." (The thread for Shiny O is freshly revived at present, and I've been having some fun with it.)


//
5. SALLY BROWN
Saly Brown was a bright mulatto,
Yay ho o, roll and go!
Roll on, go on to roll me over,
Spend my money on Sally Brown

Spend my money on the black-eyed Susannah.
//
The phrase "Roll on, go on to roll me over" has a rather unique melody, and it looks like maybe its lyrics stay the same each verse.

//
6. NANCY RHEE
Nancy Rhee, O Nancy Rhee,
My gallant Nancy Rhee!
O, why don't you come along,
my gallant Nancy Rhee?

The Austral is the ship for me!
//
The melody is in harmonic minor. "Miss Nancy Ray" was a digging song collected by Jekyll in Jamaica, however it does not resemble this. Perhaps "Nancy Ray" is a trope in Jamaican songs, like 'Sally Brown" in chanties.

REUBEN RANZO:
//
7. RANZO
O, Ranzo was no sailor,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.
He shipped on board a whaler
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.

He shipped with Captain Taylor,
He shipped with Captain Taylor,

He could not do his duty;
The captain sent him up aloft.

He was standing on the gangway
A nice young girl walked on the poop.

"O, I should like to marry you!"
"To marry me would never do

For I am the Captain's daugher,
And you are a poor Scotchman."

But the captain was a good man;
He took him in the cabin,

And he learned him the navigation,
And gave him whiskey and brandy.

O, whiskey for the Irishman,
And lime-juice for the Englishman;

And stockfish for the Norwegian,
And baked beans for the Yankees.
//

Next is a relative to HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES. However, Hatfiedl says it was "Not found elsewhere." He obviously was not looking in books about African-American songs. Really, it is just like the "Henry Clay" version of "Heave Away" that was first cited as a steamboat fireman's song by Allen in his Slave Songs.
//
8. BOUND TO GO
Heave away, John Brown A-a-a-a-ay!
Three pretty girls bound for Baltimore city,
Heave away my bonny boy, we're all bound to go!

You yellow girl, now let'a me go!
//

SOUTH AUSTRALIA is fascinating. This would date to around the time (decade) that L.A. Smith collected her version. How do they compare?
//
CHO: Hooray! You're a lanky!
Heave away haul away! Hooray You're a lanky!
I'm bound for South Australia
SOLO: What makes you call me a ruler and king?
CHO: Heave away! Haul away!
SOLO: 'Cause I'm married to an Indian queen,
CHO: I'm bound for South Australia

'Cause I wear a diamond ring.
//
Though the pitches of the chorus (both heave and haul!) compare well with other versions, the rhythm is funny. I'm not buying the daughter's assertion to Hatfield was absolutely precise about his notations!
The "lanky" in this – surely something misheard?—is more confusing than the "ruler and king".

JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO. This is actually the first/earliest ascribed deepwater version of this (in this thread).
//
10. SHAKE HER UP
Shake her up and make her go!
O, shake that girl with a blue dress on!
O me Johnny come along, too ma high low,
This poor old man!
//

"Not found elsewhere."
//
11. WAY DOWN LOW
Ev'ry day the sun goes down,
Way down low!
Ev'ry day the sun goes down,
Way down low!
//

//
12. WHISKEY JOHNNY
CHO: O whiskey! O Johnny!
SOLO: O whiskey is the life of man,
and a whis key for my Johnny!
The Captain he drinks whiskey,
And a whiskey, and a whiskey,
But he won't give us none, boys!
And a whisky for my Johnny!

O, whiskey made me pawn my clothes,
And whiskey gave me a broken nose.

When the whiskey's gone, what shall we do?
When the whiskey's gone, will I go too!

I'll drink my whiskey while I can;
A small drop of whisky wouldn't do no harm!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 08:00 AM

Gibb-

I'm wondering if the reference to "lanky" in "South Australia" above is folk-processing for "lair," which comes up in the traditional Sydney song called "The Wooloomooloo Lair" (a "lair" being a larrican or 19th century waterfront ruffian that hung about Circular Quay).

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 03:47 PM

Charlie--

I think that even if these Jamaican gents in the crew had "folk-processed" something, what they sang would have meaning. This was their living, breathing, music -- in which they said what they wanted, and meant what they said. "Lanky" may have been a change from something else originally -- I really don't know what! BUT, I would bet that "lanky" also had its own meaning independent of that. We can't get the meaning because it is either too archaic, too regional, or.....my bet...... Hatfield misunderstood it, so he wrote something approximating a spelling.

The singers' accents probably colored the way Hatfield heard "unknown" words.

It's quite a puzzle! Keep thinking =D

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 02:45 AM

Anyone who may be interested--

I presented a paper at a conference that is partly related to discussions/material in this thread. I have made it available on-line, here:

Ethnic Choices in the Presentation of Chanties

It's not exactly on the mark to what folks may be interested in here. Given my audience of general ethnomusicologists, I decided they would be less interested in the historical nitty-gritties and more interested in my thesis of African-American associations with chanty origins becoming erased or marginalized through the dynamics of 20th century folkloristics and Folk Revival presentations. The other disclaimer is that such papers have to be read within 20 minutes, so one cannot include much detail; it is a sketch.

However, it may be of some interest in concisely summarizing my current characterization of chanty development. I'd be interested to know if anyone feels I am drawing any conclusions unreasonably, too great assumptions, etc.

Gibb

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 08:20 AM

Gibb, thanks so much for sharing your paper with us. I think that it is definitely on the mark and appropriate for this venue. I hope that it generates some good discussion in this context, which is just the place for such a discussion, since this thread provides the detailed context for your thesis. J.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 10:18 AM

Gibb-

An excellent presentation, and hopefully it will help refocus critical attention on the part of scholars as well as sea music singers of the role of Black sailors in creating shanties.

I would also have mentioned Capt. William B. Whall as another early sailor-collector of shanties who dismissed or marginalized the role of Black sailors in the creation and development of shanties. Bullen, as you've mentioned, was the exception.

C. Fox Smith, another favorite of mine that was missing in your discussion, was clearly enthnocentric but did recognize that some Black sailors were excellent shantysingers, and also won recognition for their work as sailors from even hardened British shellbacks.

Your presentation I'm sure would be received with interest at the Mystic Sea Music Festival symposiums if you can work your way through their application process.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 10:48 AM

Yes, Gibb, thanks for posting this. It's a long overdue statement of reality. And how ironic it is that the reorientation of the shanty toward English ethnicity has been carried out by performers of (I'd say) overwhelmingly multiethnic sympathies.

As you suggest, of course, it's been done unitentionally and unwittingly. English sailors indeed sang shanties, and most of the revival performers you mention were English. If they wanted to sing shanties, what could they have done? Well, of course, they could have gone out of their way to affect American and Caribbean accents, but we all know where that leads artistically.

A few points: if anything, the presumed "English ethnicity" of most shantying may now be moving toward a stereotyped "Irish ethnicity," partly for the comparable reason that many real shantymen were Irish
and partly for the commercial reason that for much of the public (particularly since the commercial success of Riverdance), trad = Celtic = Irish.

(The presumably lesser but real influence of Scots shantymen too is shown by the early adaptation and popularity of "Highland Laddie" as a shanty. And there's the unmistakably Welsh "Cosher Bailey.")

White American contributions to the genre (including, let's face it, the minstrel songs as we know them) get divvied up between "English" and "African American."

Also, it seems to me that you treat the question of Hugill's source(s) for his 1961 version a little too handily. We really don't know whether - or by how much - he might have been influenced by Lloyd. Maybe the influence went the other way. If Lloyd was one of Hugill's sources for his song, it can only be because Lloyd's version struck Hugill as utterly believable. He may have "wanted to believe," as you put, but given Lloyd's reputation in the revival, he had no reason not to.

But that doesn't affect your larger point. Hugill says he first learned the song from Harding of Barbados, and his non-Lloyd verses support his claim. Presumably (in the light of earlier texts and of Hugill's presentation itself) Harding sang "bunch of roses," regardless of anything Hugill may have learned afterwards. Your significant point remains that the shanty is evidently an African-American/ Afro-British Caribbean creation and by no means simply "English," as it is now perceived. (I think I mentioned the new "English pyrate" lyrics elsewhere.)

I agree completely that any relationship between roses and Wellington's army is fanciful. "The Bonnie Bunch of Roses,O!" is unrelated to the shanty, unless the shantyman just liked the sound of the phrase. The roses in it come from the monarchical "English rose" based on the symbolic roses of York and Lancaster (and thus the House of Tudor). The Napoleonic song contrasts the "Bonnie Bunch of Roses" ("England, Scotland, Ireland...their unity can ne'er be broke") with the Russian Empire. No redcoats appear in either the song or the shanty.

But what I mean to say above all is that you've written an excellent article. Congratulations!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Azizi
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 11:17 AM

I'm popping in to thank Gibb and other posters on this thread for the interesting and insightful comments on the subject of sea shanties. I knew very little about sea shanties prior to reading this thread and other Mudcat threads. And I recognize that I have a lot more to learn from those threads and otherwise.

I'm also posting to let you know that-largely as a result of this thread-I have added a page on shanties to my Cocojams website http://www.cocojams.com/content/sea-shanties-chanteys-neglected-area-black-history "Sea Shanties (Chanteys)- A Neglected Area Of Black History". The examples & comments on that page are mostly reposts of selected comments from Mudcat threads on sea shanties. All reposts are credited to their writers and hyperlinked to their source threads/websites.

It's my hope that my page will help raise awareness about this musical genre among specific populations.

Again thank you, and keep on keepin on!

Azizi Powell

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Azizi
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 11:21 AM

Sorry. Here's that hyperlink:

http://www.cocojams.com/content/sea-shanties-chanteys-neglected-area-black-history

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 12:19 PM

That 10:48 GUEST was me.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 01:17 PM

Lighter-

Thanks for clarifying. It's nice to know who the players are.

Azizi-

And nice to have you posting to this thread as well.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 06:22 PM

Friends!—

Thanks sincerely for your support and taking the time to read and engage my paper. Happily, I agree with all the suggestions you've made. In general, it is only for want of time/space that I was not able to address everything (the version I actually read had even more cut from it at the last minute).

Since people may read this thread in the future who are not familiar with my positions beyond this paper and recent posts, I would like to clarify some things. One is that I am not suggesting that the chanty genre needs to be somehow "reinstated" as a "Black" genre. Moreover, I don't aim to minimize the contributions, real experiences, and very valid feelings (from certain perspectives) of ownership of the genre by English people, Anglo-Americans, or any others. While it is impossible to be 100% objective, what I am interested in is seeing the reality of chanty history. The paper is not to say that any one person or group of people has sought to deny or obscure the African-American contribution to chanties. I am saying that 1) I believe the African-American contributions to be foundational and essential; they are more than "contributions" – they are that which gave birth to the form; 2) Observers during the time chanties were still in active use recognized the genre as owing, to one degree or another, to African-American culture; 3) Commenters after the genre had "died" and who did not have access to either historical materials or first-hand viewing of chanties at the height of their use, were subject to all the biases of their position and limited to what they could see of chanties at that time; 4) This process continued, whereby each generation of writers, performers, and audiences has had its perspective limited, in many ways, by that which came before them and what chanties currently "look like" to them.

On the last point, for example, 20th century writers investigating chanties –certainly without our current ease of access to resources – would have sought out sources that seemed, from their perspective, most likely to yield information. So they would read mainly sea-going accounts, for example, and not, say, go combing through writing on so-called "slave songs." Similarly, 20th century performers had practically no models of Blacks chanteying to observe. Chanteying had become, so far as the label can be applied, a "White" genre. It is fairly unreasonable to expect people in that era to see it as much else. For that reason, though at various points – mainly in the last couple decades and with performers like the Menhaden Chanteymen – the idea of Blacks chanteying was introduced to the picture, these (I think) have been incorporated into the "White genre" frame. Because, again, let's face it, nearly 100% of chantey singers that are active can be construed as "White" in some way. The repertoire of the Menhaden chantymen, adopted by White singers, became (I argue) *marked off* as "Black chanties." Is this "progress" in reorienting the historical perspective on chanties? In my opinion, not really. That they have to be marked with the qualifier, "Black," only reinforces the idea that White is the default, and that these Black songs are to be given a marginal position – despite how truly beloved they are by performers. Sea-music scholar Revell Carr expressed the idea once (I am paraphrasing) that (White) American chanty performers in particular were open to the potential of these "African-American chanties" to articulate the AMERICAN aspect of chanties (i.e. as opposed to British), with which I agree. The existence of "African-American chanties" does something to help Americans in general stake a claim in chanty "ownership" and performance. So, there are certainly several processes of identification going on; the ethnic and the national get mixed, depending on how one hopes to envision the genre. The Irish ethnic identification, mentioned by Lighter, is another one (which I have observed but could not fit in the paper!). One more dimension that I absolutely had no time to address, but which is related to the idea of "Black chanties" is multiculturalism. It's my feeling that in the last few decades, the very British (or perhaps Irish) cultural associations with chanties – and those associations can only really be generalized with respect to the "lay" public; performers (and Mudcat-types) really don't tend to be hung up that way -- …the British cultural association, and to some degree the general "White" cultural associations were challenged by multiculturalism. Performers (especially Americans, I think) have been very open to the idea that "Chanties are the product of multiple sources/influences." To their credit, I'd say that most performers would like to accept any and all possible cultural contributions. In some contexts, the vibe is such that people really want to express these "many cultural contributions."

Here is where I think that approach goes wrong, and where chantey performers and presenters become trapped by their own good intentions. The multicultural idea tends to remove ownership from any one group (e.g. in effort to remove it from the English). Alternatively, it appears to give all people equal cultural ownership. In this way, African-American "contributions" are in danger of being valued just as much as hypothetical Hawai'ian or Italian contributions. The power of Black culture to occupy the historical position as the "default" – by which "Black chanties" becomes a redundant or awkward concept – is taken away. Blacks become one among many who have bore an influence whereas, in my opinion, historical perspective must recognize Black culture as the *core*. For example: In the same way I think the "blood red" roses/red-coats is a slight of hand that turns our gaze away from African-Americans and towards 18th century Englishmen, I would go so far to claim that "John Kanaka"'s narrative bring our gaze to Hawaii or "Brindisi di Mari" brings us to Sicilian fishermen. If the early twentieth century was marked by one particular frame-of-reference (perhaps, the quest for British heritage through her sea-going traditions), the late 20th century was marked by an equally skewing frame-of-reference: multiculturalism.

Most tragic and most "trapping" of all the processes of re/presentation has been the delicate issue of the need for White performers to present "Black" material in a way that is 1) "True to themselves" and 2) Non-offensive. As Lighter points out (and I hope I was clear about in the paper), "White" performers have no reasonable choice other than to perform as themselves (or do they?) – well, what I mean to say is that they cannot be faulted for being "themselves." Who else would they be? White men were the majority of chanty singers in the 20th century, and there was no plot to erase African-American associations through their performances. This is why I say that it was more of a process of representations and presentations "corroborating" one another, through very subtle acts – choices—in what to present. Ideas are fine, but when we come to the practical task of presentation we all must ultimately make some kind of choice. In my paper for example, I was indeed uncomfortable with the fact that I don't know if Hugill got his "Blood Red" version from Lloyd. As a scholar, I try to be responsible, through my language, for example, in a footnote to the paper (or question marks in the powerpoint presentation that went with it). Yet ultimately that small detail is something that, due to all the constraints, needed to be subsumed by my larger argument. (I am appreciative that Lighter allowed me the leeway in favor of seeing my larger argument.) Presentations/performances of chanties must also often gloss over details in favor of their larger "argument." And so, perceptions gradually change based on the sum total of all these little choices that each individual is forced to make.

As to part "2" of the "trap" of presentation, specifically in relation to White singers presenting 19th century "Black" (authentic or minstrel) type songs: Some of the more conscious choices have relate to the selective changing of language of the chanties to avoid offense. I have mentioned this before, but I think it is really significant. Because even with, for example, chanties being grouped with English folksong, etc etc, if more of the historical language had been retained by revivalists it would have been impossible to hide the connections with 19th century "Black" culture and American popular culture. If chanties were still a living tradition (some may say they are – depending on how you define that), their lyrics would have naturally changed with the times (i.e. since texts were not fixed and they were often improvised). But the Revival approach has largely been to select or re-write old texts, not to reflect contemporary life. And in this selection/rewriting, racially-marking language is almost always avoided/removed. If, for example, Lloyd had taken on Nathanial Silsbee's VERSES to "Blood Red Roses," even the addition (?) of the phrase "blood red" could not make us envision an old English song. It is near impossible (nor is it desirable!) for White singers to use currently-offensive racial language in their performances unless MAYBE their performance is really clearly framed as a historical recreation or something. I have done so in a few of my YouTube recordings, which takes courage, but also helped along by the hope that people understand the purpose of it. I would not do it "live." I know some people may think I'm a crank for harping on this, but I really do think that in not using this language –language used by African-Americans and in minstrel songs and, in their time, without derisive intent— performers have unwittingly contributed to erasing the Black cultural connotations of the repertoire.

The only change I see that could happen, along the lines of re-centering African-Americans in the historical vision of chantying, is if one or more Black REVIVAL performers comes around. In our current political climate, one needs to have a Black voice saying these things – a chanty equivalent to the Carolina Chocolate Drops. On the other hand, one doesn't NEED anything. Speaking personally, as a scholar, I am not responsible for engendering some movement to change the chanty singing scene and how it is perceived. I should only report the history, as well as the current state. And the current state is such that there is no justifiable reason to force a change in the demographics or perceptions of chanty singers. My goal can only be to broaden people's frame of reference. What they do with the information is their choice, and only adds to the constant dilemma (never to be solved!) of performers in how to present themselves and their material.

The reaction to my paper included several people saying that, indeed, they thought chanties to be "British," and that they had no idea about the history I presented. At least two used the word "appropriation" in asking about the ideas in the paper. I never used the word "appropriation," as indeed I don't think the English or "Whites" appropriated chanties. As best as I can reason from the evidence (and as I say in the paper), I think White sailors were "enculturated" into the practice of using chanties; they were adopted, but not appropriated. There was sharing going on, for an extended period. Certain English writers, for example, could be said to have appropriated chanties as a SYMBOL. But I don't think "appropriation" best fits the process by which chanties, through performance and earnest scholarship, began to become enshrined as a part of British/Irish/White ethnicity. Appropriation just sounds too active, sudden, and deliberate to me.

This is quite a ramble; I'll try to express these things more coherently/formally at some point, but for now…hurrah for the Mudcat "café"!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 08:08 PM

Gibb, you have my thanks, at least, for avoiding fashionable and tendentious terminology such as "appropriated." (I'm sure you can think other examples.)

"Appropriation" implies theft. In no way did white sailors steal black shanties (if "steal" is to retain any of its meaning), because black cotton-stowers and shantymen went right on singing them, often on the same ships. Except in extraordinary cases under modern totalitarian regimes, artistic and literary genres cannot be "stolen" or "appropriated." With enough force it's easier to suppress (like the inevitably temporary 18th C. English suppression of the highland pipes) than it is to "appropriate."

Unless the original creators and practitioners abandon their own creative styles, all an "outgroup" can do to a genre is to adopt, adapt, elaborate, and circulate it beyond its original points of reference.

Consider the history of jazz and the blues.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 08:43 PM

Gibb, it's interesting to me that you mention the Carolina Chocolate Drops in your discussion above. It just so happens that I forwarded your paper this morning to one of them for their consideration. J.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 08:39 PM

In 1922-23, Robert W. Gordon recorded a number of shanties and forebitters from retired sailors in the San Francisco Bay area. His understanding was that all the singers had formed their repertoires before 1880. That makes the list of titles all the more interesting: they must be fairly representative the American shanty and sea song repertoire in the last quarter of the 19th Century. Most of the canonical favorites are here (though two collected versions of the rarely reported "London Julie" come as a surprise).

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress transferred the wax cylinders to tape in the 1970s.

I've indicated the number of variant texts when there are more than one.

SHANTIES

Banks of the Sacramento (2)
The Black Ball Line
Blow, Boys, Blow
Blow the Man Down (3)
Boney (2)
Do My Johnny Boker
Drunken Sailor
Fire Down Below
Hanging Johnny (2)
Haul Away the Bowline (2)
Haul Away, Joe (3)
Haul the Woodpile Down
Homeward Bound ("Goodbye, Fare You Well") (2)
Jamboree
Leave Her, Johnny (3)
London Julie (2)
A Long Time Ago (3)
The Maid of Amsterdam (4)
Old Horse
Paddy Doyle
Paddy Get Back
Poor Paddy Works on the Railway
Randy, Me Boys ("Handy, Me Boys")
Reuben Ranzo (2)
Rio Grande (3)
Rolling Home
Roll the Cotton Down (2)
Roll the Old Chariot Along
Sally Brown (4)
Santy Anna (2)
Shallow Brown
Shenandoah
South Australia
Stormy
We're All Bound to Go ("Heave Away, My Johnnies") (3)
Whisky, Johnny (2)


FOREBITTERS

According to the Act
The Banks of Newfoundland
The Cumberland's Crew
The Dark-Eyed Sailor
The Dreadnought
The Dying Shellback ("The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime")
A Fast-Going Clipper ("Cruising Round Yarmouth")
The Flash Frigate
Go to Sea Once More
The Lowlands Low
The Sailor's Alphabet
Ten Thousand Miles Away
The Whale ("Greenland Whale Fishery")

Like Carpenter's and Colcord's, few of Gordon's shanties consist of more than three stanzas. Most of the verses are either familiar or pedestrian. None, I'd say, sound "literary."

My sincere thanks to Judith Gray of the American Folklife Center, who kindly supplied the complete list of titles.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 12:08 AM

This is excellent. Not only are the appearances of London Julie fascinating, but I am also intrigued by the enigma of "South Australia."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 03:26 AM

1917        Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chantey Man." _The Bellman_ 23(574) (14 July 1917): 38-44.

Several of Robinson's chanties reoccur in Colcord's collection, so they are especially familiar nowadays.

Robinson said he heard the chanties "over 60 years ago," = mid-1850s. (Though I have seen the date floating around that he went to sea circa 1859-60?) However, he makes a disclaimer:

//
As may well be imagined, I cannot exactly recall all the original verses. They varied much according to the taste of the chanty-man and his powers of improvisation. In a crude way, however, I have endeavored to carry the spirit and sense of the originals into the words which I have written down.
//

And,

//
Without the music, which is really the chief attraction of the chanty, the words would be valueless. Therefore, in accordance with The Bellman's suggestion, I have sung the tunes over to a competent musician, Madame Girardot, who has arranged them…
//

In these later years "doggerel" continues to be used to describe chanty solos. Early, perhaps, "extempore" (or "nothingness"!) was the emphasis.

//
The solos are mere disjointed doggerel, merely something to which to hang the chorus.
//

Robinson also notes:

//
In point of fact, many of the original words were quite unprintable, and never intended for delicate ears. For instance, in "Bangidero," "Galloping Randy Dandy" and "Slav Ho," the words of some verses were really shocking, and the choruses quite unfit to be written, yet they were three good chanties, too.
//

I wonder if there is a time period where chanty lyrics started to become "dirty" as a matter of course. Early commenters did not make such remarks. There are of course several possible reason why they may not have noted (or even heard) such lyrics, but I am going to suggest the possibility that the character changed at some point. I seem to remember Stan Hugill saying (I don't know his source for the info) that the South American nitrate trade circa 1880s-90s was associated with crews that loved to sing spicy songs. Now, this is just my cultural imagination (maybe prejudiced) running away from me, but I picture these 1880s Liverpool men as being wont to tap into certain "dirty" lyrical themes that would not have been as common to the output of the older, African-American workers that gave us "Stormy." Then again, Robinson is supposed to be referencing the 50s….but then again, no: he mainly emphasizes his later experiences in Chile here.

It is probably really Robinson from whom Hugill got his idea of the dirty song-singing nitrate traders, because he goes on to say,

//
I never heard these except upon the coasts of Chile. Bolivia and Peru. The west coast of South America was an excellent training school for the chanty-man. The anchorages were very deep, and when a ship was ready to sail for home, parts of the crews of the other vessels in port would assist in weighing her anchor. This meant that several chanty-men would be present, and there would be an interchange of chanties.
//

It is unclear to me what body or repertoire he is calling British here, though he follows it with A-ROVING:
//
Most of those I submit were called "lime-juice" chanties by the American sailors; that is, they were originally sung on British ships, where a daily allowance of lime juice was served to the crew as an anti-scorbutic. On American ships of this period the food was much better, a great quantity of preserved vegetables was served to the men, and lime juice was unnecessary.
//

Information on the trajectory of chanty use here – far more nuanced than the (by then) clichés about "Steam has killed chanties," "these are our lost art," etc.
//
The advent of steamships and the use of steam power almost eliminated the chanty-man, but not quite, although his fate was sealed and certain. Even when steam-driven ships became almost universal, he still survived on the large North Atlantic liners, because, as the old packet ships were put out of commission, the crews, or "packet rats," swarmed on board the liners.

These were originally heavily rigged. The Cunard boats were bark-rigged; the National Steamship Line vessels were very heavily bark-rigged; the Inman liners were full-rigged, as also those of the Collins Line. The White Star ships were full-rigged, with another mast added, while the Union Line vessels were brig-rigged.

At that time it was an unwritten law that steam power was not to be used in making or taking in sail, and as the wind on the North Atlantic is of a varying nature, it was necessary to set and furl the sails frequently during every twenty-four hours. Chanties were therefore sung, and the chanty-man continued to exist, for a time, but his end was near. Early in the nineties the heavy yards were being abolished, as the speed of the ships increased, and in a few years the square-rigged merchant ship was a thing of the past. When the yards came down, the crews were reduced. Thus the song of the chanty-man was ended….

The sailor's chanty belongs just as much to the period of the square-rigged ship as all the other time-honoured traditions of the sea which steam has put to flight. …The gradual replacement of the square-riggers by schooner-rigged ships, the sails of which are far easier to handle, has likewise contributed to the disappearance of the chanty.
//
His last point there argues that it was not just mechanical devices/engines that made them obsolete.

//
Maid of Amsterdam [w/score]

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
Mark well what I do say.
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
And she was mistress of her trade.
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
A-roving, a-roving,
Since roving's been my ruin.
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
//

NEW YORK GIRLS – the "honey"/"money" style (cf. Alden):
//
Oh My Santi [w/ score]

My name is Larry Doolan, a native of the soil.
If you want a day's diversion, I can drive you out in style.
Then away you Santi! My dear Honey!
Oh! you Santi! I love you for your money.
//

RANZO RAY:
//
Ranso Ray. [w/ score]

We've pass'd the cliffs of Dover,
In the good old ship the Rover.
Ranso, Ranso, Ray!
We've anchored in the downs,
For we're bound for London Town.
With my Hilo! My Ranso Ray!
//

DERBY RAM, he says, was
//
…an old English chanty which was not often sung, was a windlass song.

Derby Ram. [w/ score]

As I was going to Derby, 'twas on a market day—
I met the finest ram, sirs, that ever was fed upon hay!
That's a lie! That's a lie! That's a lie, a lie, a lie!

…I can recall a few of the many verses beside that which accompanies the notes. Thus:

"This ram and I got drunk, sir
        As drunk as drunk could be,
And when we sobered up, sir,
        We were far away out on the sea.

"This wonderful old ram. sir,
Was as playful as a kid, 

He swallow'd the captain's spyglass
Along with the bo'sun's fid.

One morning on the poop, sir, 

Before eight bells were rung,
He grabbed the captain's sextant 

And took a shot at the sun.

One night 'twas wet and rough, sir, 

And the wind was blowing keen,
He borrowed my suit of oilskins 

And he took my trick at the wheel.

The butcher who killed this ram, sir, 

Was up to his knees in blood,
And the boy who told the tale, sir, 

Was carried away with the flood.

"The crew of the Vencedora
Are handsome, strong, and brave.
The smartest lot of sailors
That ever sailed over the wave."

I made many voyages before the mast in the Vencedora, always around Cape Horn to the coast of Chile.
//

HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING
//
Huckleberry Picking [w/ score]

Oh the boys and the girls went a huckleberry picking,
To my way, aye, aye, Hey, yah.
Oh! the boys and the girls went a huckleberry picking;
To my Hilo, my Ranso Ray.
//

More about the nature of chanty lyrics, and these versions:

//
It should be remembered that the words of many, perhaps most, of the chanties varied according to the tastes of the individual chanty-man. Some of the most popular chanties acquired an almost endless number of verses. The choruses would stay relatively unchanged, because the men who sang them were, as a rule, by no means gifted with inventive genius. The verses, on the other hand, could be strung out just as long as the chantyman could remember or invent them. No one was very particular about rhyme or meter, and there was seldom any great continuity to the songs themselves.
In the "Derby Ram," for example, an ingenious chanty-man could make up endless adventures in which the ram played the leading part. The tune and the chorus would be found pretty much the same wherever they were sung, but every ship would be likely to have a number of verses which were peculiarly its own.

This makes any attempt to record the chanties very difficult. Two persons familiar with any given song arc likely to find that the verses for it that they know are very different. The chanty-men did not learn their songs from books, but passed them along from mouth to mouth, with such changes or additions as happened to occur to them. The verses I give are simplv such as I remember —with many, from motives of propriety, omitted.
//

DANCE THE BOATMAN:
//
Dance the Boatman Dance. [w/ score]

The boatman he can dance and sing,
and he's the one knows ev'rything.
Dance the boatman dance. Dance the boatman dance.
We'll dance all night, till the broad daylight,
and go home with the girls in the morning.
Hurrah! the boatman Ho!
Spends his money when he comes on shore!
//

MR. STORMALONG (flip-flopped version):
//
Old Stormy! [w/ score]

Old Stormy was a fine old man.
Hi, Hi, Hi, Mister Stormy along!
Old Stormy was a fine old man.
To my way—o storm along.

Old Stormy he is dead and gone,
And for his loss, we'll always mourn.

He slipped his cable off Cape Horn,
Our sails were split, and the mainmast gone.

We buried him in the raging main,
And none shall see his like again.

Oh, if I was old Stormy's son,
I'd give the sailors lots of rum.
//

HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES
//
We're All Bound Away. [w/ score]

As I walked out one morning 'twas by the canning dock.
Heave away my Johnny, heave away
I met a noble Irish girl, conversing with Tap Scott,
And away my Johnny boys, we're all bound away!
//

JOHNNY BOWKER. Note its various applications:
//
For a good bowsing-up chanty, either for the bunt of a topsail, bowsing down the main tack, or sweating up the topsail halyards, I think nothing could beat "Do, my Johnny Boker." There is but one pull in it…

Johnny Boker. [w/score]

Do, my Johnny Boker, roll me in the clover;
Do, my Johnny Boker do!
Do, my Johnny Boker, rock and roll us over;
Do, my Johnny Boker do!

Years ago my Sally was fresh as any daisy,
But now she's growing old, she's growing fat and lazy.

Last time that I met her she wasn't very civil,
So I stuck a plaster on her back and sent her to the devil.

Sheepskin, pitch and beeswax makes a bully plaster;
The more she tried to pull it off, it only stuck the faster.
//

Robinson attributed the additional lyrics above to "Boker," but seems as if he may have confused it with Haul Away Joe.

LOWLANDS AWAY:
//
Lowlands. [w/ score]

Last night I dreamt of my true love.
Lowlands, Lowlands, away my John.
She begged me ne'er again to rove.
my Lowlands away.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 09:16 AM

Gibb, what makes Gordon's "South Australia" enigmatic?

Also, Robinson's article appeared in such an obscure periodical that I wouldn't assume that Hugill had read it. Hugill says he got his own versions of the notorious "Gals o' Chile" and "Saltpeter Shanty" ("Bangidero") from a singer who told him independently that they were generally sung in the nitrate trade.

It's easy to believe that carrying "nitrates" would be conducive to bawdy shantying. Why? Normally there'd be no passengers on nitrate ships: they were cargo vessels, and in this case the cargo stank. Hauling tons of guano around the Horn might also lead to an outspoken attitude among sailors.

What's a "Hash gal" anyway?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 02:48 PM

Gibb, what makes Gordon's "South Australia" enigmatic?

Ha! Well, nothing! I am speaking subjectively about "South Australia", its origins, and the "meaning" of parts of its text. For example, the "Ruling King" phrase, whether it originally had much to do with South Australia, how the tune should "really" go (before being mangled by one or more sloppy writers), the heave/haul thing, etc. Its not necessarily any more mysterious than any other song, but I (again, subjectively) reserve a special place for it, so it interests me to hear it more than, say, Rio Grande (despite that having an equal number of unknown aspects).

Hugill cites Robinson several times, and a few of his versions seem like they may have owed a lot (lyrically) to Robinson, e.g. Dance The Boatman and Derby Ram. On the other hand, he cites Robinson in his bibliography with an error in spelling, so I guess it's possible that he got the info secondhand through Colcord (I have not done a 3-way comparison).

BTW (for John M.), I remember our discussion of some of Robinson's writing in the Sydney-Frisco thread, after Lighter had got a hard copy.

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=126347#2864166

Evidently, a couple weeks after that post, the Bellman was digitized! Hurroh för de Internet!

Songs of the Chanty-Man

I'm going to go through my usual, somewhat tedious and somewhat overkill exegesis-cum-data entry of the whole of it, gradually. Geo had been making some MIDIs from it, and I figured it would be a good time to jump to this one while the iron is hot.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 05:53 PM

Just to say it because someone might want to believe it: though "ruling king" makes better sense than "rolling," the original was conceivably "Heave way a-rollickin'."

That's "conceivably," which means only that there's a more than infinitesimal chance. How much more, I won't speculate. My feeling is that it's a long shot indeed. I'd think if it happened, it would have been altered to "ruling/rolling king" rather quickly.

If I can think of any other mondegreeny possibilities, I'll let you know.

IIRC, Colcord offers all of Robinson's "Derby Ram" stanzas. If Robinson cooked them up, he was at least as good at bowdlerizing as Hugill! I don't know of any other "DR" texts that compare in the slightest (except, of course, in general grotesquerie).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 06:20 PM

Gibb, thanks for the "Chanty-Man" link to the "Bellman" and Robinson's collection. It certainly pays to keep checking Google Books! J.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 11:52 PM

1917        Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chanty-Man: II." _The Bellman_ 23(575) (21 July 1917): 66-72.

In this section Robinson states that he was a "half-century at sea." He retired circa 1909. The following additional details by Lighter have been lifted from elsewhere on the 'Cat:

Robinson, an Englishman, went to sea in 1859 at the age of 14. He was over 80 when his five-part article appeared in "The Bellman." Robinson writes that he learned a number of shanties on his first voyage, aboard the brigantine "Emily" to Catania in Sicily. His prime source was an old seaman named Will Halpin, "who had sailed the seas for sixty years, to all parts of the known globe." Halpin had sailed "on the Australian sailing ships during the gold rush, and again during the California rush....[H]e never missed an opportunity to sing his chanties."

Unfortunately Robinson doesn't say precisely which shanties he learned from Halpin.

In this section, Robinson takes a universalist approach in his speculations about chanty origins. He says that Henry V build ships in 1414 and there may have been chanties. He randomly notes The Soveriegn of the Seas, built in 1637, and wonders whether one of Shakespeare's song was sung aboard her. He is planting an idea that was not there in the comments of much earlier writers.

On tunes:
//
In some cases I recall two or more entirely different airs which were used for the same song, and I have given some of these variant versions of the music. More often, the music remained pretty much unchanged—so far as the particular chanty-man was able to sing it,—while the words underwent all sorts of variations.
//

SACRAMENTO:
//
Sacramento [w/ score]

A bully ship and a bully crew,
With a Hooda, and a Dooda!
A bully mate, and a captain, too,
With a Hooda Dooda Day!
Then Blow, my lads, Heigh Ho!
For California Ho!
There's plenty of gold, as I've been told,
On the banks of Sacramento.
//

SHENANDOAH:
//
Shenandoah! [w/score]

Shenandoah! I long to hear you—
Hurrah! you rolling river.
Oh, Shenandoah! I long to hear you—
And hurrah! we're bound away!
On the wide Missouri!

Shenandoah is an American chanty. Additional verses are:
"I love the murmuring of your waters,
I love the beauty of your daughters.

"Seven long years since I lost Dinah;
I've searched seven years. I cannot find her.

"'Twas down in Shenandoah's sweet valley 

Where first I met and courted Sally.

"To Shenandoah I am returning.

My heart for thee is ever burning.

"When wide Missouri's call is over, 

I will go back and stay forever."
//

BLACKBALL LINE. Funny that halliards are not mentioned for its use:
//
I served my time in the Blackball line.
To my way…Hurrah yah!
In the Blackball line I served my time;
Hurrah! for the Blackball line.

The "Blackball Line" was a great favorite among the sailors and very well known. It was used on the windlass or capstan. Here are some additional verses:
"I've crossed the line full many a time, 

And have seen the line both rise and shine.

"You will surely find a rich gold mine, 

Just take a trip in the Blackball Line.

"The ships are fast, they make good time. 

With clean long runs and entrance fine.

"I've sailed the seas full many a mile
In wintry cold and sultry clime.

"A few more pulls, and that will do.
A few more pulls to pull her through."
//

CHEERLY:
//
One of the earliest chanties in my memory is "Catting the Anchor,"…A few verses of this old and popular melody were sufficient to bring the anchor to the cathead….

Catting the Anchor. [w/ score]

Pull one and all.
Hoy, Hoy, Cheery men!
On this cat fall!
Hoy! Hoy! Cheery men!
Answer the call!
Hoy, Hoy! Cheery men!
[still chorus:] Hoy, Haulee, Hoy! Hoy! Cheery men!

Verses besides the one given with the music are:

"To the cathead
We'll raise the dead,
As we have said.

"Now once again,
With might and main
Pay out more chain.

"Ring stopper bring,
Pass through the ring,
Still haul and sing.

"'Vast there, avast!
Make the fall fast,
Make it well fast."
//
I recall the last verse from learning Hugill's "Cheer'ly," and remembering how it was hard to fit in meter. I guess he tacked it on to the end.

This is perhaps different from other versions in that the "hoy hoy" begins the chorus. Other notations indicate that the chorus starts on "cheerly."

The meter of the "Cheer'ly" verses reminds us how distinct it was from presumably later songs/chanties. It really was in its own class.

SALLY BROWN. "First Setting":
//
Sally Brown. [w/score]

Sally Brown's a bright-eyed beauty.
Way… roll and go.
Oh Sally is sweet and pretty.
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown.
//

"Second Setting." This corresponds to what RC Adams had mentioned as a stevedore chanty and what Hugill also collected, WALKALONG SALLY. The tune is memorable for its resemblance to "Shenandoah."
//
Sally Brown's a bright Mulatto,
Way, yah!
Oh Sally Brown's a bright Mulatto--
Oh walk along, you Sally Brown.
//

REUBEN RANZO:
//
It was a very good hoisting song. The words were repeated by the chanty-man in order to spin out the song long enough for its purpose:…

Reuben Ranso. [w/ score]

Oh! poor Reuben Ranso,
        Ranso, boys, Ranso!
Oh, poor Reuben Ranso;
        Ranso, boys, Ranso!
…
"Oh, poor Reuben Ranso,
Ranso was no sailor.
He shipped on board a whaler,
He could not do his duty.
They took him to the gangway,
And gave him five and forty.
//


DEAD HORSE:
//
…a good hoisting chanty; after the four verses were sung, the chanty-man would improvise until the work was finished:…

Poor Old Man. [w/ score]

As I was walking down the street,
And they say so and they hope so,
A poor old man I chanced to meet,
Oh poor old man.
…
"The old man heaved a mighty sigh
When I told him that his horse would die.

"If he dies it will be my loss,
But if he lives, he is still my hoss.

"If he dies, I shall have his skin,
But if he lives, I can ride him again."
//

RIO GRANDE
//
The anchor is up and we're sailing away,
Way you Rio
And the wind it is fair to sail out of the bay.
for we're bound for the Rio Grande!
        And away you Rio! Oh! you Rio!
        Then fare you well, my bonny young girl,
        for we're bound for the Rio Grande!
//

BOTTLE O
//
Sailors Like the Bottle o'! [w/ score]

When you get to Baltimore,
Give my love to Suzanna, my dear.
[solo still] So early in the morning.
Sailors like the bottle o'.
[cho.] Bottle o'! Bottle o'!
Bottle of very good Brandy o.
So early in the morning.
Sailors like the bottle o'!
//

//
Haul away, Joe! [w/ score]

Once I had a yellow girl,
She grew fat and lazy.
Way, Haul away.
Haul away Joe!
//

//
"Hanging Johnny." [w/score]

They call me Hanging Johnny
Oh! way aye
They say I hang for money
Oh! Hang, Boys hang!
//

//
Highland Laddie. [w/ score]

Where have you been all the day?
Bonny laddie! Highland laddie!
Where have you been all the day?
My bonny Highland laddie!
Oh! Oh! my heart is sair,
Bonny laddie, Highland laddie!
Oh! Oh! my heart is sair,
My bonny Highland laddie!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 05:32 AM

1917        Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chanty-Man: III." _The Bellman_ 23(576) (28 July 1917): 96-102.

//
Paddy On the Railway. [w/ score]

In eighteen hundred and fifty-one,
A cordaroy breeches Paddy put on.
A cordaroy breeches Paddy put on.
[cho.] To work upon the railway, the railway.
I'm weary of the railway.
Oh! poor Paddy works on the railway.
//

SHALLOW BROWN
//
"Shallo Brown" is a hoisting song. I remember hearing it sung by the black crew of an American full-rigged ship, the Garnet, of New York, at Macabei, a guano island in the South Pacific. It sounded very musical coming across the still waters, while, to its accompaniment, the captain's gig was pulled up to its place. …

Shallo Brown! [w/ score]

Shallo! I'm gwine to leave you
oh Shallo! Shallo Brown!
I'm gwine away to leave you!
Shallo, Shallow Brown!

Here are some additional verses:

"I'm leaving you in sorrow, 

We're going away tomorrow,

"Thro' wind and weather snarling, 

I'll think of thee, my darling.

"I'll love you without measure, 

You are my only treasure.

"When I return to greet thee, 

Oh, you'll come down and meet me.

"My heart is full of pain, love, 

I'll come to thee again, love."
//

ONE MORE DAY, corresponding to what Hugill learned as "Rock 'n' Row Me Over":
//
Oh, row me 'cross the river,
I heard a maiden say.
Oh, row me to my lover,
One more day!
Only one more day, my Johnny, One more day.
Oh, rock and row me over
One more day!

Additional verses to "One More Day" are these:

"I'm almost broken hearted,
He can no longer stay,

Once more we shall be parted,
One more day.

"I've seen the sea birds flying, 

Ashore from o'er the bay,
I felt they all were crying 

One more day.

"For sea birds get the warning,
Which one and all obey, 

The tempest loud is storming,—
One more day.

"Oh, do not fear, my beauty,
The call I must obey, 

But love gives place to duty,—
One more day.

"Oh, heave and sight the anchor, 

We sail out from the bay.
Oh, heave and sight the anchor— 

One more day.

"O'er many seas I'll roam, love,
Ere I return to stay, 

To stay with thee at home, love,—
One more day."
//

JOHN CHEROKEE 's first mention. I'm not clear why he has singled out this particular song as an example of a popular melody.
//
"John Cherokee" is a negro chanty. I heard it during the Civil War at Nassau, while the crew was loading cotton on the ship Hilja, and the words here given are essentially the same. The song is of particular interest, as it indicates the relation of the sailors' chanty to other kinds of popular melody. Probably it started without any nautical quality, and was adapted for such use by reason of its vigor and swing:…

John Cherokee was an Indian man,
Alabama. John Cherokee!
He runs away every time he can.
Alabama, John Cherokee!
Way aye ya!
Alabama John Cherokee!
Way aye ya!
Alabama John Cherokee!
…
"They put him aboard a Yankee ship, 

Again he gave the boss the slip.

"They catch him again, and chain him tight,

And starve him many days and nights.

"He have nothing to drink, and nothing to eat, 

So he just gone dead at the boss's feet.

"So they bury him by the old gate post, 

And the day he died, you can see his ghost."
//

GALS OF CHILE. This one is in 3/4, while Hugill fit it in 2/2.
//
Bangidero. [w/ score]

To Chili's coast, we are bound away,
    To my Hero Bangidero.
To Chili's coast we are bound away,
    To drink and dance fandango
To Chili's coast we are bound away,
Where the Spanish girls are so bright and gay!
    To my Hero Bangidero!
Singing Hey for a gay Hash girl!
Other verses than those accompanying the music of "Bangidero" are these, an expurgated version of the original:

"The girls of Chile are hard to beat,
From top to toe, they are trim and neat,
From their black mantillas to their natty feet.

"My Julia's beauty is rich and rare,
And with the smartest she can compare,
With her well-set figure, and her jet-black hair.

"The old señoras, as may be seen,
Are frigate-molded, from truck to keel,
With their quarter galleries, and breadth of beam.

"And when the time comes to say farewell,
From old Coquimbo to Coronel,
We'll send our addios, and we'll wish 'em well."

… "Bangidero" shows in almost every line its South American origin.
//
Hmm. "Berreadero" is "whorehouse" in Mexican Spanish (!). "Bang 'er here, oh, bang 'er there, oh"? (I'm kidding.) The game is on for de-expurgating this! Gay Hash girls, indeed. Would Robinson have avoided "Dago" (as Hugill uses)?

RANDY DANDY
//
Galloping Randy Dandy o! [w/ score]

Now we're warping her into the docks,
Way aye roll and go!
Where the pretty young girls come down in flocks.
My galloping Randy Dandy o!
[solo] Heave and pull and heave away,
[cho] Way aye roll and go!
[solo] The anchor's aboard, and the cables are stowed,
My galloping Randy Dandy o!
//

TOMMY'S GONE
//
My Tom's Gone to Hilo! [w/ score]

My Tom he's gone, what shall I do?
Hilo Hilo
My Tom he's gone, and I'll go, too;
My Tom's gone to Hilo!

…
"She wept because her Tom had gone,
But soon she'll find another one.

"Poor Tom's half pay will go like chaff
She'd like to get the other half.

"She'll drink and booze away his pay,
And hunger for the next pay day.

"When Tom gets back, he'll find her gone,
With all his 'longshore togs in pawn.

"But Tom will get another flame,
And she will serve him just the same."
//

//
Blow the Man Down. [w/ score]

Blow the man down, blow the man down.
Way blow the man down.
Shake her up and away we'll go,
Give me some time to blow the man down!
//

WHISKEY JOHNNY:
//
Whisky for My Johnny. [w/ score]

Oh! whiskey is the life of man!
Whisky! Johnny!
I'll drink of whisky when I can.
Oh whisky for my Johnny!
//

BOWLINE
//
Haul the bowline, the ship she is a rolling.
Haul the bowline, the bowline Haul!
//

CAN'T YOU HILO. Here's a new one.
//
Young Girls, Can't You Hilo? [w / score]

Young girls, young girls, young girls, Ho!
Young girls, can't you Hilo?
Young girls, young girls, young girls, Ho!
Young girls, can't you Hilo?
//

SANTIANA
//

He lost it once, but gained it twice,
Upon the plains of Mexico!
Santa Anna gained the day,
Hurrah, Santa Anna!
//
How does he manage to get the form mixed up here?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Feb 11 - 11:50 PM

1917        Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chanty-Man: IV." The Bellman 23(577) (4 Aug. 1917): 123-128.

An interesting anecdote of trained female singers partaking in singing chanties in the 1870s.
//
Somewhere in the seventies, I think it was, Miss Lydia Thompson and her "Company of British Blondes" crossed the Atlantic to play "The Black Crook" at Niblo's, New York, in the ship Denmark, of the National Steamship Company.
When sail was set, with a good rousing chanty coming from the throats of the men, it gave the company a most delightful surprise. Its members cottoned to the idea from the first, and, without invitation, a number of them tailed onto the fore- and main-topsail halyards. They soon caught the tune of the chanties, and understood the moment when it was time to pull.

Never was "Blow the Man Down," "Whisky for My Johnny" or "Boney Was a Warrior" sung half so well. The sweet soprano and contralto voices of the girls, trained as they were in singing, blended well with the sailors' rough but not unmusical tones, and the effect was most pleasing and greatly enjoyed by all the passengers.
The heavy square sails were often taken in and furled, loosened and set again; therefore there was ample opportunity for exercise of the muscles and the voice, seldom neglected by Miss Thompson's gay party. They had great fun and much laughter over it, and no one enjoyed the unique performance more than the old shellbacks, the chanty-man and his chorus.

Some of the more venturesome of the girls wanted to go aloft and help throw up the heavy bunt of the foresail, to the tune of "Paddy Doyle" or "Johnny Boker," but the chief officer, a very pleasant and good-tempered man, restrained them, saying: "Not aloft, yet, ladies, until your wings are grown." I think he used to have the topsails lowered a foot or two in order to give the girls a chance to sing a short bowsing-up chanty.
//

Below is positive testimony that chantying was well established in Britisg vessels by the late 1860s or 70s – not that we didn't necessarily know that, but I do seem to recall a dearth of references to chantying in British ships in the 60s:
//
The print of the True Briton shown herewith shows a typical English full-rigged ship of forty or fifty years ago. On such vessels as these the chanty was an established institution.
//

The very strangely bowdlerized SLAV HO:
//
To the Spanish Main – Slav Ho! [w/ score]

To the Spanish Main we are bound away--
Slave Ho!
To the Spanish Main we are bound away,
Slave Ho!
We're sailing away in the early day,
Where the swift bonitos and dolphins play.
Slav Ho! Slavita, vralmentigo sleega.
Slav Ho!
//

LEAVE HER JOHNNY, lacking any grand chorus:
//
"'Tis Time for Us to Leave Her" is a chanty that tells its own story. Often have I heard it as a Quebec drogher rolled into the roadstead, almost waterlogged.

'Tis Time for Us to Leave Her! [w/ score]

Two pound ten is a sailor's pay,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
To pump at night, and work all day,
'Tis time for us to leave her!
…
"Two pounds ten is a sailor's pay, 

To pump at night and work all day.
"The Bosun shouts, the pumps stand by, 

But we can never suck her dry."
//

PADDY DOYLE:
//
Paddy Doyle. [w/ score]

To my way… Hey yah,
We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!
//
Also note that earlier he ascribed Johnny Boker to bunting, too.

BONEY, with a notably distinct first musical phrase:
//
A favorite chanty in all British ships…

Boney was a Warrior. [w/ score]

Boney was a warrior
Way aye yah.
A brave and fearless warrior,
Jean Francois
…
"He went to fight the Russian,
The Portuguese and Prussians.

"Moscow was a-blazing,
And Boney was a-raging."
//

GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL
//
We're Homeward Bound. [w/ score]

Oh Homeward Bound is a joyful cry,
Goodby, fare you well, Goodby fare you well.
We wish you all well, in this hearty goodby.
Hurrah my boys, we're Homeward Bound.
//

OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND, in a an abbreviated form:
//
We're Homeward Bound. [w/ score]

The madam in her best silk gown,
Says "Get up Jack, let John sit down."
[cho.] For he is homeward bound
Hurrah we're homeward bound!
//

HOGEYE:
//
The Ox-eyed Man. [w/ score]

The ox-eyed man is the man for me,
For he is blind and he cannot see,
With his ox-eye,
[cho.] I knew an old nigger with an ox-eye!
Row the boat ashore, with the ox-eye,
All she wants is the ox-eyed man!
…
"The girl on the shore, whose name is Sall,
Is waiting there, for the ox-eyed man.

"Sall is in the garden, picking peas,
Here long brown ringlets hang to her knees.

"Sall is on the beach, a-sifting sand,
And is thinking much of the ox-eyed man.

"Go home, Sall, he will come no more,
For he got drowned, as he rowed ashore."
//

SPANISH LADIES – No, not a chanty:
//
"Farewell and Adieu" is a forecastle song, and it was there that I picked it up….

Farewell and Adieu. [w/ score]

Farewell and adieu, to all you Spanish ladies,
Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain,
For we're received orders to sail for old England,
But we hope in a short time to see you again.
We're Ramp and we'll rove, like true British seamen.
We'll romp and we'll rove upon the salt seas.
Until we arrive in the channel of old England,
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-five leagues.

The following verses are additional to those given with the notes:
"We hove our ship to, in a gale from the Sou'west,
We hove our ship to, to get sounding clear,
We had forty-five fathoms, on a white sandy bottom,
Oh square in your main yard, up channel we steer.

"The first land we made was called the Deadman; 

Start Point, off Plymouth, brought Selsey and the Wight; 

We sailed past Beachy, past Fairley and Dungeness,

And then we arrived off the South Foreland Lights.

"The signal was given for our good ship to anchor, 

All in the Downs to anchor the fleet.
Stand by your ring-stoppers, slack away your shank painters,
Man your clue garnets, let fly tacks and sheets.

"Let every man here fill up a full bumper, 

Let every man here drink up a full bowl. 

We'll drink and be jolly and drown melancholy, 

And here's a good health to each true-hearted soul."
//

Robinson mentions Meloney's 1915 article in _Everybody's Magazine_ which has not been discussed yet here. I seem to remember a lot of it looked derivative of Masefield. In any case, this is what he says:

//
Some years ago an interesting article on this subject by Mr. William Brown Meloney appeared in an American magazine. Although I do not quite agree with all Mr. Meloney's versions of the chanties he mentioned, it is probably due to the fact that we heard them at different times and under different conditions.
//

He goes on to quote large chunk of Meloney's article.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 09:24 AM

>How does he manage to get the form mixed up here?

Two or three other writers agree that this "inverted" form was genuine.

Though musically it does seem unlikely.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 12:29 PM

Gibb-

I'm also intrigued with the image of Miss Lydia Thompson and her "Company of British Blondes" hauling on the halyard while singing shanties with the crew. What a splendid folk opera that would make! And what I wouldn't give to see them up on the main foreyard bunting away! It's enough to make me want to "pay Paddy Doyle for his boots."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 05:44 AM

1915        Meloney, William Brown. "The Chanty-Man Sings." _Everybody's Magazine_ 33(2) (August 1915): 207-217.

Meloney was a SF born journalist who seems to have gone to sea circa 1890. He is given this great pedigree at the start of the article, however, I wonder how well he really knew chanties. Much of this is derivative or contrived, I feel. Not sure what to make of it.

Intro note:
//
Mr. Meloney began hearing and singing chanties at twelve, when he ran away to sea. He has heard and sung them on all the Five Oceans. And he has gathered them all. Here are the best.
//

A snatch from BLOW BOYS BLOW
//
Oh, blow, ye winds, I long to hear you,
        Blow, bullies, blow!
Oh, blow to-day and blow to-morrow,
        Blow, my bully boys, blow!

Oh, blow to-day and blow to-morrow,
        Blow, bullies, blow!
Oh, blow away all care and sorrow,
        Blow, my bully boys, blow!

Thus I hear the Chanty Man sing to winds in days full of the mystery of tall, white-pinioned ships and the call of faraway waters. [ETC *nostalgia* ETC ] …when the Chanty Man and his chanty are passing.
//

More romanticizing…
//
A chanty is—no, was—a merchant seaman's work song, and the Chanty Man was its leader—the acknowledged foresinger, forehand of the working crew. Black and blue from the thuggery of "Shanghai" Brown's boarding-house—
…and a chanty was then—and still is, on the few square-rigged wanderers left on the seas —as good as ten men on a rope's end, capstan-bar, or windlass-brake.
//

Claiming there was a "one true" navy chanty, but not giving the title:
//
The chanty was peculiarly an institution of the merchant marine. In the navies the crews of the ships in the days of sail were —as they are to-day—so large that a work song was seldom necessary, and therefore seldom heard. I know of only one true navy chanty or chorus.
//

He treats "chanty" as if it were every English-language maritime worksong ever sung, so, being that they are in English language, "of course" they must be British! I will need to track down the first writer to start the "Complaynt" narrative.
//
In the beginning, of course, the chanty was wholly British. In the fifteenth century Englishmen were heaving in an anchor with this:
Vayra veyra, vayra veyra,
Gentil gallantis veynde:
I see hym, veynde, I see hym.
Pourbossa, Pourbossa.
Hail all and ane, hail all and ane;
Hail hym up til us, hail hym up til us.
(Haul one and all, haul him [the anchor] up to us.)*
*From a work entitled "The Complaynt of Scotland." 1450.
//

The following shows the influence of Masefield's seemingly harmless conjectures.
//
With the birth of the nineteenth century and the quickening of the United States as a national seafarer, the chanty came into our ships. We molded it to our needs, our idioms; nationalized it. But through all the years its construction remained unchanged.
The old airs, too, survived. Somewhere on the salt seas to-day one of the last chanty men is lifting his voice in "Whisky! Johnny!" or "The Maid of Amsterdam," ignorant that the sailors of Queen Bess's reign sang the same words and same tunes. "Whisky! Johnny!" may be found among songs of the sixteenth century in the Percy Reliques. It was probably a street ballad. "The Maid of Amsterdam" is a solo from Thomas Heywood's "The Rape of Lucrece," which went on the boards about 1630.
One can imagine the horny-fingered pigtails of those times catching at a verse in the theatre or at a fair or drinking-place to take it down to the sea, perhaps with its own tune or with one heard as children at grandmothers' knees. Through the centuries, unwritten, like Homer's lines, these words and tunes were tongued along by succeeding generations of seamen.

It must not be understood that the British and American merchantmen were the only singers on the seas. They were the only chanty singers. I have heard the French sailor, the Italian, the Norwegian, the German, sing at work, but they sang songs, not chanties.
//

The melody to this RIO GRANDE is unusual, and seems off.
//
The Rio Grande [w/ score]
The ship she's a-sailing out over the bar.
Away Rio! Away Rio!
The ship she's a –sailing out over the bar.
We are bound to the Rio Grande!
//

Claiming here that pump chanties were practically extinct during his time, and much of the rest of this passage, echoes/paraphrases Masefield.
//
Strictly speaking, there were four kinds of chanties: capstan, windlass, or anchor, to get under way, sung to a march time that varied with the difficulty of the task; halyards, to hoist topsail and topgallantyards—the time fitted to a rhythmic hauling motion; sheet, tack, or bowline, to set or adjust sail to the most advantage—the time lively, quick, jerky; and those used at the pumps. This last kind was practically extinct in my time at sea. The old-style brake-pumps had been succeeded by the rotary patents, and the turning motion somehow would not lend itself to a tune. I never heard but one pumps chanty.
//

//
…in weighing anchor the character of the task permitted a longer chorus; as thus, in "Outward Bound"—a favorite in the days when sailing packets were the Western Ocean shuttles between the New and Old Worlds.

We're outward bound from New York Town;
Heave, bullies, heave and pawl!
Oh, bring that cable up and down.
Hurrah, we're outward bound!
Hurrah, we're outward bound!

To the Battery Park we'll bid adieu,
Heave, bullies, heave and pawl!
To Suke and Moll and Sally, too,
Hurrah, we're outward bound!
Hurrah, we're outward bound!
//
It seems like he made that up (?) from the written verses, as in CHAMBERS'S, but the form doesn't make sense.

He quotes A-ROVING in the form that Masefield probably made up.

A capstan shanty, "The Fishes". The verse/chorus structure also seems rather odd here.
//
Oh, a ship she was rigged and ready for sea,
Windy weather! Stormy weather!
And all of her sailors were fishes to be,
Blow, ye winds, westerly, gentle sou'westerly,
Blow, ye winds, westerly—steady she goes!

Oh, first came the herring, the king o' the sea,
He jumped on the poop: "I'll be capt'n!" cried he,

Oh, next came a flatfish, they call him a skate,
"If you be the capt'n, why sure I'm the mate."
//

Anchor-weighing "The Banks of the Sacramento":
//
Round Cape Horn in the month o' May,
To me hoodah! To me hoodah!

Round Cape Horn in the month o' May, 

To me hoodah, hoodah, hay! 
   
So blow, boys, blow, 
   
For Cali-forn-ee-O! 
      
There's plenty of gold, 
      
So I've been told, 
   
On the banks of the Sacramento!

I'll bet my money on a bob-tailed nag,
To me hoodah! To me hoodah! 

I'll bet my money on a bob-tailed nag,
To me hoodah, hoodah, hay! . . .
//

GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL is, I'm not sure why, being connected specifically with the tea trade.
//
"Homeward Bound" is another capstan favorite, which may be identified with the great clipper tea-trade days. These were the days when romance sailed with commerce and men dared to call their ships "Wild Pigeon," "Flving Fish," "Flying Cloud," "Flying Dragon," Flvaway," "Fleet-wing," "Trade Wind." "Gale," "Hurricane," "Typhoon," "Whirlwind," "Tornado," "Simoon," "Sirocco," "Monsoon," "Lightning," "Herald o' the Morning," "Wind o' the Dawn," "Undaunted," "Intrepid," "Dreadnought," or else after fair women; days, too, when a premium of one pound was paid on every ton of the tea season's first cargo landed in London; ay, days when it was cheaper for England's poor to drink gin, for the tax on tea was six shillings the pound!

We're homeward bound across yon sea,
Good-by, fare ye well! 

We're homeward bound with Chi-nee tea,
Oh, good-by, fare ye well!
Hurrah, my boys, sing fare ye well!
//

ROLL THE COTTON DOWN:
//
The cotton trade between the Gulf Ports and the looms of Lancashire expressed itself best in "Mobile Bay." It was bully at topsail halyards. Hark!

Oh, have you ever been in Mobile Bay?
Roll the cotton down! 

A-rolling cotton for a dollar a day?
Oh, roll the cotton down!
Oh, a pleasant place is Mobile Bay,
Roll the cotton down; 

Where a white man gets a nigger's pay,
Oh, roll the cotton down!
And a nigger gets a white man's pay, 

Roll the cotton down, etc.
//
Seems inspired by Masefield.

SEBASTOPOL is obviously from Masefield:
//
Britain's merchantmen celebrated the Crimean War at their capstans with this one, called "Sebastopol":

The Crimee War is over now,
Sebastopol is taken! 

The Crimee War is over now,
Sebastopol is taken!
So sing, cheer, boys, cheer,
Sebastopol is taken!
And sing, cheer, boys, cheer,
Old England gained the day!
//

BONEY:
//
They set Waterloo to this halyards chanty known as "Boney":

'Twas on the Plains o' Waterloo,
To me way, hay, hay-ho! 

He met the boy who put him through,
Jawn France-o!

The Iron Duke o' Wellington,
To me way, hay, hay-hoi 

That day almighty deeds were done.
Jawn France-o!
//

A repetition of the solo lines will be observed in many of the verses. This custom was to enable the Chanty Man to cast the rhyming line of the succeeding verse. He improvised as he sang, except in the classics such as "The Maid of Amsterdam" and "Lowlands."
Often his poetic feet stumbled and his rhymes flattened out like flounders' tails, but he sang bravely and not without purpose. As a long passage wore on he would become a very personal interpreter of the crew's opinions of ship, owners, master, mates, cook, and grub—the lyrical barrister of the forecastle's real or imaginary wrongs. Thus a crew worked off its "grinds" on those who ruled from abaft the mast.
This is a topgallant halyard "grind":

And who d'ye think's the skipper o' her?
Blow, boys, blow! 

Why, Holy Joe, the nigger lover,
Blow, my bully boys, blow!
Now, who d'ye think's the chief mate o' her?
Blow, boys, blow!

A big mu-latter, come from Antigua!
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

It is not to be wondered that things like this were productive of ructions and of "belaying-pin soup"—that is, a beating—on forecastle bills of fare.
//

Says he learned BLOW BOYS BLOW from a Norwegian, "Long Ned."
//
The cleverest and most irrepressible improviser I ever knew was the fellow who first charmed my ears with "The Maid of Amsterdam." He was a Norwegian who had sailed away his native accent in American and British ships. We called him "Long Ned." As he first presented himself to my sight he had just come from such
a manhandling as twenty years ago made "Shanghai" Brown's boarding-house and San Francisco's waterfront notorious throughout the world.
As we went through the Golden Gate in the haze of an October afternoon he took the forehand on the foretopsail halyards and, to the air of "Blow, Boys, Blow," paid his compliments to "Shanghai" in this wise:

Oh, Shanghai Brown he loves us sailors.
Blow, boys, blow! 

Oh, yes, he does like hell and blazes,
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

That verse is sufficient to indicate the rest, although as Long Ned went on his meter and rhyming improved. The hoisting of each topsail and topgallantsail marked a canto.
Good as was Long Ned at improvisations, he also knew the chanty classics. One murky morning off the pitch of the Horn he sang "Lowlands," an ancient chanty, as a weather-beaten, storm-racked handful of frozen men hoisted a main uppertopsail. The scene haunts me. The sea was a gray, snarling, snapping monster. Half a gale was howling through the ice-whiskered rigging. The sky was a bleak slab of slate— low and billowing like a circus-tent top. Every now and then under our lee, less than two miles away, "Cape Stiff" reared itself like a huge black gravestone. We were fighting to escape. And thus Long Ned was singing in a wonderful, rich baritone:

I dreamt I saw my own true love, 

Lowlands, Lowlands, hurrah, my John;
I dreamt I saw my own true love, 

My Lowlands a-ray!
"I am drown-ed in the Lowland Seas," he said, 

Lowlands, Lowlands, hurrah, my John;
"I am drown-ed in the Lowland Seas," he said,
My Lowlands a-ray!

…[ETC…]
//
Wha?? Was Long Ned A.K.A. "John Masefield"? Meloney continues with Masefield's "Hanging Johnny", however he retells the anecdote of Masefield hearing it as if "Long Ned" were in the story.


What kind of crapola is this?:
//
Sally Brown [w/ score]

Oh, Sally Brown of New York City
Aye, aye, roll and go!
Of pretty Sal this is a ditty.
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown.
//

1/2 of WHISKEY JOHNNY:
//
Whisky! Johnny! [w/ score]

Oh whisky is the life of man,
Oh whisky for Johnny.
//

LONG TIME AGO
//
I wish to God I'd never been born,
To me way, hay, hay-yah!
To go rambling round and round Cape Horn,
A long lime ago.

Around Cape Horn where wild winds blow,
To me way, hay, hay-yahl
Around Cape Horn through sleet and snow,
A long time agol
//

BLOW THE MAN DOWN
//
Never was the deep-water sailor more interesting than when, with his heart full of wrongs done him ashore by the boardinghouse masters, crimps, runners, and shoddy dealers, he cast his chanties in a narrative mood. Woe unfits most folk for work or, at least, makes it all the harder. But the Chanty Man made a lay of his personal disasters and with it lightened his labor. Hear him in this version of "Blow the Man Down":

As I was a-walking down Ratcliffe Highway,
Away-hay—blow the man down;
A neat little craft I met under way,
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
She was round in the counter and bluff in the bow,
Away-hay—blow the man down;
So I took in all sail and cried, "Way enough now!"
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!

The inevitable result of that remarkable meeting was that "Jack" was shanghaied. The "neat little craft" had sold him out to a crimp for the ruling port price in "blood money." And when "Jack" came to his senses again he was on deep water, "undergoing cruel hard treatment of every degree" in "a ship that for Sydney was bound," and enjoining all listeners:

Now I'll give you a warning afore we belay,
Away-hay—blow the man down;
Don't never take heed of what pretty girls say,
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
//

SALLY BROWN is for halyards here:
//
But the sirens of the port astern would be hardly a week in the past when the Chanty Man would be singing topsails to the masthead with "Sally Brown":

Oh, Sally Brown of New York City,
Aye, aye, roll and go; 

Of pretty Sal this is a ditty,
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown!
Oh, Sally Brown is very pretty,
Aye, aye, roll and go; 

Prettiest gal in all the city,
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown!
//

More "Blow the Man Down":
//
The setting of most of the "Blow the Man Down" chanties, both American and British, was Liverpool. Lancashire's big port was the eastern terminus of the Western Ocean packet liners of the thirties, forties, and fifties—the heyday of sailing-ships as passenger carriers. "Blow the Man Down" was sung in these craft more often than anything else. The men who manned them were not called sailors, but packetrats. The ships were "tough" ones; the trade hard and driving.
Aye, first it's a fist and then it's a fall. . . . 

When you are a sailor aboard a Black Ball.
So ran one chanty most truthfully of that trade.
The Black Ball reference was to a particular and famous line of packet ships. The meaning of the word "blow," as employed at that time, was to strike; to knock.
But to come to a Chanty Man of Black Ball vintage who went a-walking—something always happened to deep-water sailors who went a-walking:

As I was a-walking down Paradise Street;
Way, hay—blow the man down:
A saucy young policeman I happened to meet.
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
Says he, "You're a Black Ball by the cut o' 
your hair," 

Way, hay—blow the man down; 

"You're a packet-ship rat by all's foul and all's fair,"
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
"Oh, policeman, policeman, you do me much wrong,"
Way, hay—blow the man down;
"I'm a Flying-Fish sailor just home from Hongkong,"
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
"No; you've sailed in a packet that flies the 
Black Ball," 

Way, hay—blow the man down; 

"You've robbed some poor Dutchman of boots, 
clo's and all," 

Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
Oh, they gave me three months in Walton's black jail,
Way, hay—blow the man down; 

For blowing and kicking that Bobby to kale,
Oh, give us some time to blow tlte man down!

That Chanty Man's description of himself as "a Flying-Fish sailor just home from Hongkong" was an assumption of class. The Flying Fish was a famous, flash tea-clipper. She was a ship to boast—a deep-water aristocrat. A "Dutchman" was the appraisal, in all American and British merchantmen of that time and later, of a slow-witted person, a fool, a bungler at his work. It was used regardless of nationality.
//

Whiskey Johnny:
//
Of all the halyards chanties I should say that "Whisky! Johnny!" was the prime favorite of sailor-men. Strangely, it carried a sort of moral, and the kind of men who used to "go deep water" liked to moralize—at sea. I have seen it put life in a gang of bullies who, a moment previously, had been in a state of semicoma as the result of a farewell 'longshore bout with John Barleycorn; put them on their toes and drive a good ship winging seaward. This version is the purest:

Oh, whisky is the life of man,
Whisky! Johnny!

It always was since time began,
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!
Oh, whisky makes me wear old clo's,
Whisky! Johnny!

'Twas whisky gave me a broken nose,
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!
I think I heard our Old Man say,
Whisky! Johnny! 

"I'll treat my men in a decent way,"
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!
"I'll treat my men in a decent way,"
Whisky! Johnny! 

"I'll grog them all three times a day,"
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!
"A glass o' grog for every man,"
Whisky! Johnny!

"And a bottle full for the Chanty Man,"
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!
//

BOWLINE gets mixed up with HAUL AWAY JOE here.
//
This used to be a spirited version of a chanty of fifteenth or sixteenth century origin—"Haul Away the Bowline":

Haul on the bowline, the main and foretop bowline,
Away, haul away, haul away, Joe!
Haul on the bowline, the packet-ship's a-rollin',
Away, haul away, haul away, Joe!
Haul all together, we're sure to make her render,
Away, haul away, haul away, Joe!
Haul, my bully boys, we'll either break or bend her,
Away, haul away, haul away, Joe!

The bowline, pronounced "bo'lin'," was a line which square-rigged vessels used, when on the wind, to draw the weather leeches or edges of their courses, topsails, and topgallantsails forward or toward the bow.
//

PADDY DOYLE:
//
"Paddy Doyle's Boots" was sung, or rather cried, in furling the heavy, boardlike fore and main courses and lower topsails:

We'll drink 

Aye,
Brandy and gin, 

Aye,
And pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!

The effect produced by twelve or fifteen men crying that through the wrack of a storm, as they lay hooked along a great tossing yard, struggling for their lives to master and smother a bellowing, gale-thrashed sail, was weird indeed.
//

Meloney paraphrases DRUNKEN SAILOR as in Masefield, and says it belongs to the navy man-o'-war. It was used for hoisting boats or heaving heavy weights aboard. He then says that in the merchant service it was called a "main brace 'walk-away'".

Lastly, he quotes GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL for the capstan. The formatting is like Masefield, but words are different.
//
We're homeward bound, oh, joyful sound!
Good-by, fare ye well,
Good-by, fare ye well!
Come, rally the capstan and run quick around,
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound!

Our anchor we'll weigh and our sails we will set,
The friends we are leaving, we'll leave with regret,

Oh, heave with a will and heave long and strong,
Oh, sing a good chorus for 'tis a good song,

We're homeward bound, you've heard them say,
Then hook on the catfall and run her away,

We're homeward bound, may the winds blow fair,
Wafting us true to the friends waiting there,
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 07:26 AM

Gibb-

Meloney paraphrases DRUNKEN SAILOR as in Masefield, and says it belongs to the navy man-o'-war. It was used for hoisting boats or heaving heavy weights aboard. He then says that in the merchant service it was called a "main brace 'walk-away'".

Perhaps this walk-away shanty for shifting tacks and braces is what Meloney meant for a shanty used by the Navy.

Or maybe he meant "Bell-Bottomed Trousers."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 08:25 AM

I think Charlie's right about "Drunken Sailor." Meloney picked up later on his earlier cryptic remark.

What to make of those questionable forms is anybody's guess. J. E. Patterson, writing around the same time, has more of them.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 02:31 AM

1916[May]        Associated Harvard Clubs. _Book of Songs._ Chicago: Lakeside Press.

Collected Songbook for the university. Contains an adaptation of CAPE COD GIRLS.

There seems to be an imitation of military band percussion, as if this had been used as a marching song perhaps.

//
AUSTRALIA

BR-R-ROOM, poom, poom, poom, POOM, poom, poom, poomp, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yum, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_.
Australia is a very find [sic] place,
Heave away! Heave away!
To come from there is no disgrace,
Heave away! Heave away! Heave away! My bonny, bonny boys,
Heave away! Heave away! Heave away! My bonny, bonny boys,
We're off for Australia.

BR-R-ROOM, poom, poom, poom, POOM, poom, poom, poomp, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yum, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_.

Australian girls are very fine girls,
Keep away! Keep away!
With codfish bones they comb their curls,
Keep away! Keep away! Keep away! My bonny, bonny boys,
Keep away! Keep away! Keep away! My bonny, bonny boys,
We're off for Australia.

BR-R-ROOM, poom, poom, poom, POOM, poom, poom, poomp, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yum, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_.

Australian booze is very fine booze,
Keep away! Keep away!
'Twill make you as tight as a new pair of shoes,
Keep away! Keep away! Keep away! My bonny, bonny boys,
Keep away! Keep away! Keep away! My bonny, bonny boys,
We're off for Australia.

BR-R-ROOM, poom, poom, poom, POOM, poom, poom, poomp, yi-di, di-di, yi-di, yi-di, yum, POOMP.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 02:35 AM

Source for the above

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 03:03 AM

1898[1894]        Brewer, Ebenezer, Cobham. _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable._ New edition, revised. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus.

Yet another slang dictionary entry, this time with a quote from RIO GRANDE.

//
Shanty Songs. Songs sung by sailors at work, to ensure united action. They are in sets, each of which has a different cadence adapted to the work in hand. Thus, in sheeting topsails, weighing anchor, etc., one of the most popular of the shanty songs runs thus :—

"I'm bound away, this very day.
I'm bound for the Rio Grande.
Ho, you, Rio!
Then fare you well, my bonny blue bell,
I'm bound for the Rio Grande."
(French, chanter, to sing; a sing-song.)
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 01:55 AM

1906[Jan.] Masefield, John. "Sea-Songs." Temple Bar (Jan. 1906): 56-80.

This is Masefield's "other" writing about chanties. It was published earlier in the year, before SAILOR'S GARLAND. He uses notations from Davis and Tozer to illustrate – from the 2nd edition of that collection (the 3rd edition, I believe, would come out later in this same year).

Intro, in which he creates interest for chanties, and says he will mainly deal with British ones.
//
The sea-songs in general use in merchant ships are of two kinds. There is the working-song, or chanty, which is sung as an aid to labour during the performance of certain tasks. And there is the sea-ballad, or sailor's folk-song, which, at sea, is sung in the second dog-watch; and, in port, at night, after supper. Both kinds have their uses and their beauties, but the chanties are perhaps the more interesting. They spring directly from the lives of the sailors. They are the spontaneous outcome of certain wants and certain difficulties. Ashore, where those wants do not exist, there is nothing quite like them. At sea, where those wants are ever present, they are always to be found. They may be heard in ships of every nationality, but it is thought that they are most common in American, and rarest in French ships. The most beautiful chanty I have ever heard was sung by a Norwegian crew. I have heard two Greek chanties of great beauty, and I am told that the Russians have at least one as beautiful as any of our own. In this article I must confine myself to those commonly sung aboard the merchant ships of these islands.
//

Follwing is of course similar to his taxonomy elsewhere, but for some reason he adds the salt junk rhyme or "grace" to the mix.
//
The word chanty is pronounced like shanty. It is applied to all those songs and choruses to which, in times of stress, or on gay occasions, the sailor works and hauls. There are several kinds of chanty, each peculiarly fitted to some variety of sea-labour. There is the anchor or capstan chanty, sung when the hands are heaving round the capstan, weighing anchor, or warping, or hoisting heavy yards. There is the halliard-chanty, sung when the topsail or topgallant yards are being hoisted by pully-hauly or strength of arm. There is the sheet, tack, and bowline chanty, sung when sheets are being hauled aft, or tacks boarded, or bowlines tautened. There is the pumping chanty, now, fortunately, little heard, since iron ships do not leak. There is the runaway chorus, sung on those rare occasions when the crew can race along the deck with the rope at which they are hauling. And, lastly, there is the Fo'c's'le Grace, or Pier Head Thanksgiving, which is sung over the junk at dinner.
//

I made a comment on the thread about "captain's daughter" how Masefield said "Drunken Sailor" was sung in chorus throughout. Here, he is supposing it was also once sung in a solo-chorus format. And a bit about who becomes the chantyman.
//
Of these five varieties, the three most commonly heard, the anchor, halliard, and sheet varieties, consist of a solo part sung by a leading seaman, and a chorus sung by the rest of the watch. The fifth, or runaway variety, is sung by all hands; though at one time, no doubt, it, too, was similarly divided. The last kind is sung or said by the high priest of the forecastle, some elderly seaman disgusted with the ship's food. The others join in at the end with the concluding Amen. In singing at the pumps the words used are generally those of a halliard chanty, arranged, like all such, for a solo part and a chorus.
The anchor, or capstan chanty, is the most beautiful kind of chanty we have. It generally begins with a single line, sung by the soloist, or chanty man, and followed by a short chorus. The men heaving round at the bars begin to sing their chorus before the soloist has ended his line. Before the chorus is at an end, the soloist begins to repeat his line; for every line of the solo is sung at least twice, so that the improvisatore may have time to compose his ditty. When the repetition of the solo is almost over, the chorus breaks in again, with a rather longer and more moving music, at the end of which the soloist goes on with his song. There is therefore a line of solo, followed by a short chorus, and a repetition of the solo, followed by a longer chorus. The soloist is invariably a man of some authority among the crew. The mate of the watch, if he be musical, and have a good voice, will sometimes strike up the chanty; but more frequently the chanty man is one of the leading seamen, a strong man, a power in the fo'c's'le. If a young or weak sailor presumes to pipe up with a song the others will often refuse to sing, until an authoritative voice puts the youth to silence.
//

On capsan chanties, first noting how their use over deep water was natural relatively rare, but how capstan might be used for stubborn halliards.
//
Sailors seldom work at a capstan unless they are entering or leaving port, or doing some job of more than usual difficulty. At sea, after foul weather, when the sun is bright, and the clouds are flying past, and the green seas are glittering as they topple, the sailors sometimes find the topsail yards too heavy for them. The sails are loose aloft, and thrash and slat, with a great clack of flogging gear, and the green seas rise and race, as the watch tallies on to the halliards. The decks are still wet and slimy, and the spray, like white fire, is still flying over the rail. The turns are cast off, and the hands begin to sway upon the rope, " Oh, bunt him, boys," cries the mate or boatswain, " Oho, Jew," " Oh, rise him high " Yet the yard will not budge; there may be ice in the blocks, or the men may be overworn. The halliards are taken to the deck capstan, and the bars are shipped. A boy seizes the halliard-end, and prepares to haul in on the slack. " Heave now," cries the mate. " Heave now; heave and pawl." The men heave with a will. The little iron pawls, or patent catches, which keep the capstan from revolving in the wrong direction, begin to click and clatter, as they pass over their sprockets. The rope creaks and grunts as the strain comes upon it, and the yard very slowly begins to move up the mast. " Start a song there, one of you," says the mate, " you're heaving still, like a lot of soldiers." Then someone, as he heaves, pipes up a capstan chanty, and the rest join in. The work goes the merrier for it; the yard travels to the mast-head in a few minutes; and the watch are sorry when the bars are unshipped. There are many capstan chanties, many of them very beautiful. The words are generally nonsense, or worse. One can take no pleasure in any of them for their literary merit. But the music is often of great beauty.
//

SEBASTOPOL:
//
One of the best, and most popular, capstan chanties is that known as " Sebastopol." The words are, if anything, rather better than most. The tune is excellent and stirring. It moves to quicker time than most capstan chanties.

The Crimee war is over now.
Sebastopol is taken.

The Crimee war is over now.
Sebastopol is taken.
So sing, Cheer, boys, cheer, 

Sebastopol is taken:
And sing, Cheer, boys, cheer, 

Old England gained the day.

The Rooshans they was put to fly.
Sebastopol is taken. 

The Rooshans they was put to fly.
Sebastopol is taken.
So sing, Cheer, boys, cheer, etc.
//

A-ROVING:
//
Another beautiful capstan chanty is "The Maid of Amsterdam." The words of the solo are scarcely fitted for quotation, but those who wish to know what they are like may consult Thomas Heywood's play of "Valentinian," where a song almost identical, is given at length. The tune of this chanty is singularly fine, but I am told that it is almost certainly more modern than the words sung to it.

[Score appears here – strange because it is just the piano part, no melody!]
[Text is like Masefield's other published version.]
//

Homeward bound chanties and RIO GRANDE:
//
No chanties are sung with such a gusto as those with which the crew get their anchors on leaving port for home. When all the hatches are on, and covered with tarpaulin; when the sails are all bent, and the house-flag slats at the truck, and the ensign, a stream of scarlet, flies astern; it is then that the sailors burst out a-singing in their best style. In many foreign ports, it is the custom to cheer the homeward bound ship as she gets her anchor. Each ship in port sends a man, or two men, to help in the work of heaving in, and making sail. As the anchor comes home, each ship cheers her, in turn, as a sort of sea-farewell, and wishing of God-speed. The ship so cheered replies to each greeting with a single cheer. It is fine, on such an occasion, to be at the capstan, on the forecastle-head, making one of a chorus. The noise of the cheering comes over the water very pleasantly. The sight of so many ships' companies, standing on the fife rails, waving their hats as they shout, is stirring and salutary. If, at such a time, one is aloft, loosing the casting sails, one notices a strange thing. All the bass voices seem to get together upon a single capstan bar, and all the other voices group together in the same way; and the effect, as the men heave round, is very curious. I remember a barque sailing for home from one of the Western ports. I was aboard her, doing some work, I forget exactly what, just below the fore-rigging, and the effect of these differing voices, now drawing near and ringing out, then passing by, and changing, and fading, was one of strange beauty. It was beautiful as much for its stately rhythm as for its music. It was like watching some beautiful dance in which the dancers sang as they moved slowly. The song they were singing was the old, haunting pathetic chanty of the Rio Grande. As it was sung that sunny morning, under the hills, to the sound of the surf and the cheering sailors, its poor ballad took to itself the nobility of great poetry. One remembered it, as a supremely lovely thing, in which one was fortunate to have taken a part.

[w/ piano score]

Where are you going, my pretty maid ?
O, away to Rio. 

Where are you going, my pretty maid ? 

O, we're bound to the Rio Grande. 
   
O, away to Rio, 
   
O, away to Rio;
O, fare you well, my bonny young girl, 
   
For we're bound to the Rio Grande. 


Have you a sweetheart, my pretty maid ?
O, away to Rio.
//

Halliard chanties. LONG TIME AGO, w/ more verses than in his other piece.
//
The halliard chanties, like those for the capstan, have all a repeated solo part, followed by choruses. In the capstan chanties the second chorus is generally longer than the first. In the halliard chanties each chorus is of the same length. They are more frequently heard than the other varieties of chanty, for the work to which they are suited has often to be done. It has been said that " a song is ten men on the rope." It is strange that a song should have so much effect; but no one, who has been at sea, can deny that it puts a spirit into the men, and helps them to do work otherwise beyond them. Day after day, in the Cape Horn cold, with the decks awash, and the seas heaving up into a dingy sky, the worn-out men gather at the halliards, to make sail after a storm. The icy ropes are stretched along; the canvas slats up aloft, and the monotonous crying out begins, with the yard jolting, and the sheets clacking on the masts. The men fall back heavily, but the yard seems jammed, and the parrel rises no further. Then some old man, in glistening oilskins, with a quid in his cheek, cries out his tuneless nonsense:

" A long, long time, and a long time ago."

Perhaps at his first crying out no one will join in, and the old man will begin again. Then with a shout the hands take up the chorus. New life comes to them. Each man puts new strength into his haul. The great yellow yard goes jolting up to the masthead, with the sail flying over it. It is as though a spirit of song had verily entered into every sailor.

[no score]

A long, long time, and a long time ago.
To me way hay O-hi-o.

A long, long time, and a long time ago.
A long time ago.
A smart Yankee packet lay out in the bay.
To me way hay O-hi-o. 

A smart Yankee packet lay out in the bay.
A long time ago. 

A-waiting for a fair wind to get under way.
To me way hay O-hi-o. 

A-waiting for a fair wind to get under way.
A long time ago. 

With all her poor sailors all sick and all sore.
To me way hay O-hi-o.

With all her poor sailors all sick and all sore.
        A long time ago.

For they'd drunk all their whisky, and 
could get no more. Etc., etc.

Some ten years ago that was the most popular of all the chanties, but the fashion changes, and it may have given place to another.
//
The above must be where Hugill gets his claim that "Long Time Ago" was the most popular halyard chanty of the 1890s. This "ohio" chorus seems pretty unique. Hugill gives such a version that he took from _The Shell Book of Shanties_. It has a tune (unlike Masefield's). I am wondering idley (until future reading) if the Shell Book may have cooked up the tune.

A slightly longer statement on how certain chanties went in and out of fashion. WHISKEY JOHNNY had evidently become stale by the 90s. Masefield claims that a Danish sailor made up COME ROLL ME OVER. There is only the one verse here, so it seems he made some more up in "Sailor's Garland." Now, if this Dane made it up, how did Hugill learn it from Harding the Barbarian? Something's fishy.
//
In a sailor's repertory there are many chanties, which are seldom heard. The men grow tired of the old words and the old music, and do not work so lustily to them. The well-known " Whisky, Johnny," has become a burden, from its frequent repetition. As the old songs die out, new songs are made, or, it may be, yet older songs regain their popularity. I knew a Danish sailor who passed his spare moments in inventing chanties. He had one half-finished specimen of which he was very proud. It may have been perfected since I knew him, and perhaps it is now well known "from Callao to Rio, by the west." It was not a literary chanty, nor was the tune very remarkable. It ran as follows:

Oho, why don't you blow?
A, ha, come roll him over.
Oho, why don't you blow?
A, ha, come roll him over.
//

//
"Whisky, Johnny," one of the best known of all chanties, is worthy of a place in this article. I first heard it in the Bristol Channel, off Bull Point, with the Shutter Light glimmering in the distance. I was reeling about in the waist, deathly sea-sick, carrying an order to the mate. They were setting the fore upper topsail, and one very drunk sailor was singing the solo.

[w/ score]

O, whisky is the life of man !
Whisky! Johnny! 

O, whisky is the life of man !
Whisky for my Johnny. 

I drink it out of an old tin can.
Whisky! Johnny!

I drink it out of an old tin can. 

Whisky for my Johnny.
The song goes on to celebrate the virtues of whisky, and to describe its effects on the singer's relatives. It then tells a story about a man, a fisherman, three live lobsters and a lady, but the story is hardly worth repetition, and there are other reasons why it should not be printed.
//

BLOW BOYS BLOW
//
Another excellent halliard chanty,very popular among sailors, is "Blow, Bullies, Blow." A good chantyman, in singing this song, will often contrive to satirise the officers of the ship, in language as direct as it is forcible. If the old man, or one of the mates, be unpopular, the lampoon will be shouted with gusto, so that it may reach aft, amid the jeers of the singers.

There's a Black Ball barque a-coming down the river.
Blow, bullies, blow.
There's a Black Ball barque a-coming down the river. 

Blow, my bully boys, blow.

And who d'ye think is captain of her ? 
                  
Why little …the….. [censored]

I have heard a discontented ship's crew singing this chanty to the scandal of all who lived aft. The chantyman picked out the weak points, physical and moral, of the old man and his mates. His touch was light and certain.
//

HANGING JOHNNY
//
All of the halliard chanties quoted above are sung to quick time, so that the work may be done quickly. There is, however, one melancholy song, never sung save on grave occasions, which goes to a slow movement. I heard it once off the Horn, one dismal morning, when the sodden watch were hoisting the main topsail. It had been blowing hard for a week, but the wind had at last died down, and we were making sail. A heavy sea was running. It was so cold that the water which came aboard was slushy with ice. The day was a typical Cape Horn day, grim and lowering. It was under these conditions that I first heard the song. I have always thought that it expressed perfectly, in its melancholy, wavering music, the grey sea, with its mournful birds, and the wind in the rigging, and the disconsolate seamen on the rope.

HANGING JOHNNIE. [w/ score]

They call me Hanging Johnny.
Away-i-oh.

They call me Hanging Johnny.
So hang, boys, hang.

First I hung my mother.
Away-i-oh. 

First I hung my mother.
So hang, boys, hang.
//

BOWLINE and HAUL AWAY JOE
//
The sheet, tack, and bowline chanty is perhaps heard less frequently than the two varieties already mentioned. It is generally a leisurely song, slow in coming to the point, and of no great beauty. The best known song of this kind is very old. It was heard aboard a Dover trader during the reign of Henry VIII. It may be several centuries older.

[w/ score]

Haul on the bowline, early in the morning,
Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul.
Haul on the bowline, the kettle is a-boiling.
Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul.
Haul on the bowline, the fore and main-top bowline.
Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul.

Another excellent song of this kind is the following, which goes to a tune as little tuneful, and perhaps as ancient.

Louis was the King of France afore the Revolu-ti-on,
Away, haul away, boys, haul away together.
But Louis got his head cut off which spoiled his consti-tu-tion.
Away, haul away, boys, haul away, O.
//

DRUNKEN SAILOR. Adds the note here that there was seldom time for more than a couple verses.
//
The runaway chorus is not often heard, for sailing ships are so weakly manned that it is unusual for any job to be done easily aboard them. It is sung sometimes when tacking ship in fair weather. The men gathered at the main and crossjack braces sing it, as the yards are swung, at the orders "Crossjack yard," and "Main topsail haul." The yards fly about, and come home on the lee shrouds with a crash. The men race away with the braces singing:

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
Early in the morning.
Way, hay, there she rises,
Way, hay, there she rises,
O, boy, there she rises,
Early in the morning. 

Chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober, 

Chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober, 

Chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober, 

Early in the morning.
Way, hay, there she rises,
Way, hay, there she rises,
Way, hay, there she rises,
Early in the morning.

There are other verses, but the work is so quickly finished that there is seldom time for them.
//

I'm not sure why he calls this hand-over-hand a "runaway chorus." HANDY MY BOYS has an usual second chorus line here.
//
There is another variety of runaway chorus, sung by all hands when hauling in hand over hand, as when getting a hawser aboard. It is not quite so stirring a song as " What shall we do?" but it is lively and merry.

A handy ship and a handy crew,
Handy, my boys, so handy; 

A handy skipper and second mate too,
O handy, my boys, away, O.

The rest, if more be wanted, can be made up by the singer, for the least literary person can generally produce a catalogue of nouns to label handy. The second and fourth lines remain the same throughout.
//

Again on the obsolescence of pump shanties. I appreciate his honesty here in admitting that LEAVE HER JOHNNY was sourced from outside his working experience.
//
I have never heard a pumping chanty, though I have passed in all from a week to ten days of my life, from 170 to 240 hours, in pumping water out of a leaky wooden ship. I am told that the usual pumping chanty is the halliard chanty of "Leave her, Johnny, leave her," one of the most excellent of all chanties:

I thought I heard the skipper say,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her. 

You may go ashore and touch your pay.
   It's time for us to leave her. 

We'll go ashore and touch our chink,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her. 

Before we go we'll have a drink.
It's time for us to leave her.
//

Here's the sailor's grace / salt horse rhyme.
//
The Pier Head Grace is not often heard in these days, perhaps because our sailing ships are generally manned by Scandinavians. It may be heard aboard American ships, but rarely, for American seamen are better fed than the English, and have therefore less cause for growling at the food. I have heard an old English sailor repeat the following version, as he bowed over the mess-kid containing the salt beef.

First Sailor(in a dismal tone—solo). Old horse! Old horse! what brought 
you here ?
Groaning Chorus. Oho! Oho! Oho!
Solo. 
To make poor sailors curse and swear.
Cho. Oho! Oho! Oho!
I was a Government contractor's hack.
Oho! Oho! Oho! 

From Botany Bay to Hackmatack,
Oho! Oho! Oho!
//

Interesting. So his version is an actuall call-and-response song.


Finishes up with non-chanties.
//
The songs sung in the sing-songs, or sailors' concerts, have lost much of their distinction. The old sea-songs, proper to the sea, have given place, to a great extent, to the peculiar lyrical mechanics of the music-hall. The old songs may still be heard, but they are dying out, for the sailor has lost much of his individuality. The English sailor is generally to be found in steamships, making short passages. He is no longer cut off from his fellow-men for many months at a time. His arts have become more and more the arts of the landsman. There is now but little difference between his mental temper, and that of an average landsman of simple habits.

Music is the one enjoyment of the sailor at sea. In the second dog-watch, in sunny latitudes, after supper, when the work about decks has ceased, the sailing-ship's forecastle hands hold a concert, or sing-song. Sometimes they gather together on the forecastle-head, but more generally they sit about just forward of the forerigging, on the fore-hatch, to "sing their longing songs of home." Their repertoires are limited, but they never tire of the songs they have. They prefer a song with a chorus, so that all can take a part in it. If the song have no chorus, they generally repeat the solo part. When they begin to sing, in the hush of the evening, the reefers in the half-deck also start their sing-song, and the supernumeraries, in " the round-house," make what melody they can; and perhaps the mate comes from his little stuffy cabin, and sits on the booby hatch, and strums his banjo to the stars. I have sailed in a ship in which the mate was musical, and a good singer. He used to play the concertina every evening while he sang patriotic songs in a high sweet tenor voice. One of his songs had a chorus:

Under the good old flag, 
   
Under the good old flag, 

While fighting for England, he met his death 
   
Under the good old flag.

The sailors used to leave their own concerts, to creep as far aft as they dared, to the spare spars in the waist, where they could listen to him. The boatswain and his allies came from the round-house, and the reefers left the halfdeck, where they were mixing hash, till the whole ship's company was listening to the singer. It was something like Orpheus and the beasts.

Of the songs I have heard in these sea singsongs very few were beautiful. The old naval ballad of " Spanish Ladies" was sometimes sung, and this old song was certainly the best of all I heard. There are several versions of the ballad. Those known to me follow more or less closely the version quoted by Captain Marryat in his novel of Poor Jack.
....

Some of the songs I have quoted seem foolish now that they are written down. They are not the sort of songs to print. They are songs to be sung under certain conditions, and where those conditions do not exist they appear out of place. At sea, when they are sung in the quiet dogwatch, or over the rope, they are the most beautiful of all songs. It is difficult to write them down without emotion; for they are a part of life. One cannot detach them from life. One cannot write a word of them without thinking of days that are over, of comrades who have long been coral, and old beautiful ships, once so stately, which are now old iron.
//

His desk-sources: LA Smith, Davis/Tozer (2nd ed.), Bradford/Fagge.
//
Those who wish to study chanties will find Miss Laura Smith's anthology, "Music of the Waters," of service to them. Other collections of value are Dr. Ferris Tozer's excellent "Forty Sailors' Songs or Chanties" (Boosey & Co., 2s. 6d., pp. 78, with music and prefatory note), and the smaller book, " Old Sea Chanties," by John Bradford and Arthur Fagge (Metzler & Co., Ld., Is., pp. 17).

The authors of the latter publication have, I believe, produced with great success a short dramatic sketch, in which some half-dozen famous chanties are sung upon the stage. There are other articles on the subject to be found in the back numbers of The Boy's Own Paper, The Cadet, and The Manchester Guardian.

I wish to thank Dr. Ferris Tozer, and Messrs. Boosey & Co., for permission to quote the musical accompaniments of some famous chanties from the "Forty Sailors' Songs " mentioned above.
//
Masefield does not seem to have been capable of music notation, since he only gives music where it was provided by Davis/Tozer. By why give only the piano accompaniments??

Now, what was this dramatic sketch of a half-dozen chanties? Were these the chanties recorded by the Minster Singers of London circa 1905 (as discussed in the thread on early commercial chanty recordings)? Namely,:

"Blow, My Bully Boys", "Sally Brown", "Whisky Johnny," "Shenandoah", "Rio Grande" and "Blow the Man Down."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 04:51 AM

1903        Webb, Alfred. "Sailors' Chanties." _The Irish Monthly_ (January 1903): 37-42.

Irishman Webb heard/sang chanties in 1853 when he was about 19 yrs old, when he went to Australia for his health (and tried his hand at gold digging). Here he recalls three unique versions of chanties.
//
Fifty years ago I made two long voyages in old wooden sailing ships of the period, of seven hundred and one thousand tons respectively, innocent of double topsails, wire rigging, or modern appliances. Upon the first I took somewhat to sailor work. Upon the second I served with the starboard watch, working on deck and aloft, and in bad weather having to live in the wet clothes and do with the broken rest incident to sailoring. My experiences then will never be forgotten as long as life lasts. …
The cadences of the "chanties" which were then a necessary accompaniment and incentive to the heavier work of a ship, leading men to heave together as they could not do without them, often come back to me. They are now seldom heard, at least by ordinary passengers. The rattle of the steam-winch, of the "falls," and capstan, are different accompaniments to thoughts of departure, passage, and arrival, to the old tunes. And in the general working of a steamer "Yo, ho!" or "Hay ho!" in the pulling on some of the minor tackle is the most that is likely to be heard.
//

"Nothingness" is back:
//
The words were nothing. They were generally invented for the voyage or on the minute. There could be no completeness. Each verse had to stand for itself, for at any moment, and the sooner the more welcome, an abrupt termination would be put to the performance by the boatswain's shrill whistle, "Belay." My notation is of the roughest (would have been rougher but for some kind assistance), yet I hope sufficiently accurate to enable my readers to judge what the originals may have been. All were sung in solo and chorus—the most proficient chantyman of the watch or crew taking the one, and the rest of the voices at the work the other; the pull on the rope being made at recurring intervals, and a momentary pause taken afterwards.
//

CHEERLY as a halyard chanty:
//
The first I shall give is "Cheerily, men!" generally used when hoisting the topsail yards after reefing.
[w/ score, in 4/4]

Cheerily men!
Oh upreef'd topsail hi ho!
Cheerily men!
High in the sky, hi ho!
Cheerily men!
Oh! rouse him up, her, hi ho!
Cheerily, men!
Oh! he hi ho,
Cheerily, men!

I remember a second verse. How nonsense and often worse stick in the memory while the better is forgotten:—

    Cheerily men! 

Who stole my jacket, hi ho!
    Cheerily men! 

Sold the pawn ticket, hi ho!
    Cheerily men! 

Oh, that was shameful, hi ho!
    Cheerily men! 

Oh ! he hi ho,
Cheerily men!
//

After so many sightings of "Mister Stormalong," the STORMY version is back.
//
The next is one of the best known of these chanties, "Storm along."

[w/ score]

I wish I was old Stormy's son.
Storm along, my hearties.
Gathering nuggets all the day,
Storm along, my hearties,
Away, away, away, away.
O'er the roaring seas, my hearties.
Storm along, my hearty boys.
Storm along, my hearties.

No second verses need be given. It will be seen how admirably these chanties are fitted for improvisation. All the performer here has to do, indefinitely to prolong the song, is to think of places where he and his fellows would like to be, and what they would there like to be doing. They can wish to be " in Liverpool town," "drinking whiskey all the day," or "in Erin's Isle," "with my true love all the day," and so on.
//

BOWLINE
//
The third and last of my own recollection I shall give is "Haul the bowline." Different words could be alternated in the second and third bars. It has not been explained why the "bowline" in this and other sea songs is so honoured. It is a rope of secondary importance in the rigging of a vessel, and hauling upon it generally implied the blowing of a contrary wind.

[w/ score]
Haul the bowline, Katey is my darling,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!
//

//
When originally noting down these tunes, I was unaware there was any literature of the subject; but when about to prepare them for the readers of this magazine I thought it best to make inquiries and learned that an article had appeared in Harper's Magazine for July, 1882, and that Boosey & Co., of London had published in a volume Fifty Sailors' Songs and Chanties. The latter, with words and pianoforte accompaniment, is all that could be desired. The notation of the three chanties I have given corresponds in neither of above with mine; but doubtless the renderings were as widely different as the nationalities and experiences of the performers. Fifty Sailors' Songs and Chanties is, to any who have experienced sailor's life, a valuable publication. Although most chanties, under the circumstances as heard sung, gave the impression of depth of feeling and far-awayness I have endeavoured to describe, they are by no means all as original as the three I have noted, and many others in Messrs. Boosey's collection. Some are but variants of well-known tunes. "Highland Laddie" differs little from its Scotch namesake. "Paddy Doyle's Boots" is, if I mistake not, a German folk-tune. "The Girl with the Blue Dress" and "Hoodah Day" are " The Camptown Races." "The Wide Missouri" and "Hanging Johnnie" are, perhaps, a hymn tune—so lovely when sung as an anchor tune that I venture, by the permission of Boosey & Co., to intrude it here.
//
Hmm, so Davis/Tozer's 3rd edition (50 songs) was out by this time?
This is the first I remember seeing Paddy Doyle called a German folk tune.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 02:36 PM

1894        Unknown. "English Harvest Songs." _New York Times_ (2 Sept. 1894): 22.

Not much, just a note to add to the pile of voices talking of chanties as if they had died out.

As the sailors' chanties were used to lighten the labor of hauling and heaving before the days of the steam winch and the patent capstan, so were the harvesters' songs required to help the reapers…

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 02:48 AM

1908        "The Harbor of the Sun." _Los Angeles Times_ (6 Dec. 1908): II4.

Article raving about San Pedro becoming a major shipping port.

//
When that near time comes, then will San Pedro—our Harbor of the Sun—lure to her shimmering waters the ships of every clime. To the eyes of the keeper of the light on Point Firmin's wind-swept bluffs will the flag of every nation become of daily familiarity. There, night and day, will be heard the chanties of deep-sea sailors as they slip the great ships' anchors in the Port o' Heart's Desire.
//

It's funny that it speaks of chanties "night and day" whereas the previous decade's writings had been taking the tone of "chanties are dead." Therefore, I don't know whether to call this evidence to the contrary or if it just reflects the ca.1905-1906 boost of popularity/awareness of the *idea* of chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 04:43 AM

1906        Lubbock, Basil. _Jack Derringer: A Tale of Deep Water_. London: John Murray.

Fiction set aboard a Yankee hell-ship of clipper days. Recall that Lubbock had been at sea in 1899, so this would only reflect that experience and his readings.

RIO GRANDE mentioned in this passage. This was in Lubbock's experience.
//
"Deadbeats and hoboes, every doggoned one
of them," growled the mate; "not a chanty in
'em, neither."

All hands were now tramping steadily round
the capstan.

"Heave an' bust her!" sang out the big bosun.
"Heave an' she comes!"

Presently a slim young Englishman with curly
hair struck up the well-known chanty, "Away,
Rio." …


Jack Derringer, who was a great exponent of
chanties, followed the lead of the curly-headed
one, and in a clean, strong baritone broke out
with:

"As I was walking out one day
Down by the Albert Docks."

There were evidently more sailormen aboard
than either the bosun or Black Davis had calcu-
lated on, for the chorus came with a roar :

"Heave a-way, my Johnnies, heave a-way!"

"I saw the charming maids so gay,
A-coming down in flocks,"

continued Jack.
Then again came the deep-sea roar of

"Heave away, my bully boys,
We're all bound to go! "
//
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES comes from Davis/Tozer.


MOBILE BAY in the following passage comes from Davis/Tozer.
//
The cockney went aft to relieve the wheel,
a somewhat comical figure in some Piccadilly
masher's discarded town coat, with velvet collar
and cuffs, whilst the rest of the watch were
turned out to man the pumps.

They started briskly to work at a cry of
"Shake her up, boys, from the bosun. …

Jack, of course, was not the man to let the
opportunity go by without a chanty, and started
on with :

"Were you never down in Mobile bay?"

The whole watch thundered in the chorus with
the exception of the gambler, who kept all his
breath for his mutinous talk in the foc's'le.

As they swung the bars, deep came the note:

"John, come tell us as we haul away."
(JACK) "A-screwing cotton all the day."
(Chorus) "John, come tell us as we haul away.

Aye, aye, haul, aye!
John, come tell us as we haul away."

Then Jack went on:

"What did I see in Mobile Bay?"
(Chorus) "John, come tell us as we haul away."

(JACK) " Were the girls all fair and free and gay?"
(Chorus) "John, come tell us as we haul away.

Aye, aye, haul, aye !
John, come tell us as we haul away."

(JACK) "Oh! This I saw in Mobile Bay/
(Chorus) " So he tells us as we haul away."
(JACK) "A pretty girl a-making hay."
(Chorus) "So he tells us as we haul away.

Aye, aye, haul, aye !
So he tells us as we haul away."
//


A-ROVING here comes from Davis/Tozer.
//
"Give us another!" was the general cry as the
last verse finished, and away went Jack again
with " A-roving" :

(JACK) "In Amsterdam there lives a maid
Mark you well what I say
In Amsterdam there lives a maid,
And she is mistress of her trade.
I'll go no more a-roving from you, fair maid!"
(Chorut) " A-roving, a-roving, since roving's been my ruin,
I'll go no more a-roving from you, fair maid!"
//

ONE MORE DAY from Davis/Tozer:
//

This also ran its course, then Curly struck up
"One more day for Johnnie":

(CURLY) "Only one more day for Johnnie."
(Chorus) "One more day!

(CURLY) " Oh! rock and roll me over ! "

(Chorus) " One more"

Then the bosun most rudely interrupted the
music.
//

BLOW THE MAN DOWN is also from Davis/Tozer.
//
And he hummed the
famous chanty:

"Blow the man down, Johnny, blow the man down!
To my aye, aye, blow the man down!
If he be white man or black man or brown,
Give me some time to blow the man down."
//

I don't know the source of this BLOW YE WINDS:
//
Taking the upper-topsail halliards to a small
capstan aft, they tramped round strongly to the
weird sailor song, in the wild chorus of which
even Tari joined :

"And it's blow, ye winds, heigh-ho!
Blow, ye winds, heigh-ho!
Blow away the mist and snow!
And it's blow, ye winds, heigh-ho!"
//

LEAVE HER JOHNNY
//
Jim hummed the famous chanty:

"Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
It's time for us to leave her."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 09:00 AM

Our library has the Williams article.

More later.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 05:50 AM

1906        Hutchison, Percy Adams. "Sailors' Chanties." _The Journal of American Folklore_ 19(72) (Jan.-March 1906): 16-28

This is perhaps the first article on chanties by and oriented towards academic Folklore. The disciplinary approach is evident from the beginning, where the author takes in interest in chanties as part of a larger interest in the nature of "communal composition."
//
Whether or not the communal theory should be called upon to account for everything in primitive poetry is a far-reaching question, and one which does not fall within the scope of this paper. All that this paper will attempt to do will be to follow through certain actual instances of communal composition which happened to come under the observation of the author…
//

As I argued in my paper (posted above), folklorists at this time approached chanties as ballad collectors/analysts. Here Hutchinson notes how he is bringing in chanties to illustrate ballad-related ideas.
//
Some years ago it was the fortune of the author to spend part of
his time cruising on merchant sailing-ships, when he became attracted
by the chanties -- those songs sailors are accustomed to sing when
hauling at the sails, walking the capstan round, working the windlass,
or toiling at the pumps. A few of these chanties he collected; but
the collection was soon forgotten, and came no more to his mind
until a short time ago, when he happened to be concerned with bal-
lad problems. Then it was that the chantie-singing to which he had
so often listened appeared in a new light, for it became at once appar-
ent that here was a contemporary, dramatic, and complete exempli-
fication of the communal process.
//

He quotes GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL to demonstrate the "authetic" air of a chanty, contrasted with Kipling's verse. However the version he quotes is that of Davis/Tozer, which is itself rather contrived. Then he says,
//
Clearly, this chantie grew. The reader realizes that it is only by
chance the words are what they are, and where they are; as one
reads, there is entirely lacking any feeling of inevitablenes!; as to
words or lines. That each line has been improvised to suit the
exigencies of the moment is evident; the only necessitation one feels
is in regard to the rhyme-word of the second solo-line. Conscious
structure there is none, or almost none. Line could interchange
with line, stanza with stanza, the whole could be longer or shorter,
and the chantie would be no worse, and no better, structurally, than
it is now. The whole is haphazard, inconsequential, and, excepting
the refrain, absolutely spontaneous.
//
Well, his statements make sense, but too bad about the example.

Continuing with his dicussion of communal composition, he quotes DEAD HORSE.
//
As a further illustration of improvisation and refrain this masthead-
ing chantie is typical: -

As I was going to Rig-a-ma-row,
(CHORUS.) I say so, and I hope so,
I saw an old man go riding by,
(CHORUS.) Poor - old - man.

Said I, old man your horse will die,
I say so, etc.
Said I, old man your horse will die,
Poor old man.

And if he dies I 'll tan his skin, etc.
And from his hide I 'll make my shoes, etc.

The extent to which the anatomy of the horse might be utilized in
such a ballad as this is obviously infinite, and would in
any instance be determined solely by the length of time
required to masthead the sail. Let us assume that to be some smaller piece of top-canvas, and pass to the conclusion of the chantie, which is
apt to go something like this :-

(SOLO.) I thought I heard the first-mate say
He'd give us grog three times to-day.
(ALL.) Belay!
//

He goes on to present WHISKEY JOHNNY, SO HANDY MY BOYS, LEAVE HER JOHNNY, and BONEY. All are obviously from Davis/Tozer, however in some he changes the wording slightly. Not sure what the ethics of that are.

Quotes a bit of the DREADNOUGHT:
//
She's a high-sounding Packet,
A Packet of fame,
She comes from New York,
And the Dreadnought 's her name.
//

Then, BLACKBALL LINE as in Davis/Tozer.

Hutchison goes on to compare the chanties to the ballad the "Hangman's
Tree," which he quotes. After words he comments:
//
It is the tendency of the popular ballad, by reason of its constant
repetition by a folk who are permanent, to become fairly well knit
structurally; the chantie, because the group of men among whom
it originates maintains its homogeneity but a short time, is under no
such law. Hence, in the latter, we are unlikely to pass beyond the
inconsequential stage. Even the most primitive ballad we can bring
forward has, by reason of generations of repetition, become a better
piece of work, structurally, than we can expect any chantie to be.
For this very reason, however, the chantie is especially valuable for
the hypothesis. In the chantie, the solo-lines are so simple, involve
so much repetition, are so conventional (from the point of view of
ship-life, that is to say) and the "motif" in every case so obvious,
that we should suspect communal composition, even if we could not
be sure of it.
//

Something about his sources:
//
Another characteristic common both to the popular ballad and to
the chantie is that there is no text, there are texts. As from time
to time collections of popular ballads are made, so are collections of
chanties made. In preparing this article such a collection has been
used whenever the texts the author had collected were not suited to
the purpose. But in any such compilation the versions given are no
more authentic than would be texts from any other compilation : the
versions given are simply those which happened to be familiar to the
sailor or sailors whom the collector happened to consult, - other
sailors would have furnished him with very different versions.
//
OK, this might make sense, but where does it lead?

Hutchison goes on to compare a few chanty texts, the first two of which he lets on are from the same author, but does not state who that is. Again I find this of dubious ethics. The presumption is that since these are "communal," there is no one agent that gets the credit and/or it is somehow pointless to keep track of variations. (Reminds me of a lot of "folksingers" who invoke "the folk process" and then go on doing opaque covers of "versions" they found.) I don't know where these songs came from. The first is a variation of what Hugill called "Bound to California" and which he got out of C. Fox Smith's 1927 book. The latter collected only the chorus, as here. Something funny seems to be going on. The second song starts like "Sacramento," but then ends like the first song.
//
Take this stanza from a chantie which originated in the earlier
days of the California trade:

Good-bye, my love, good-bye,
I cannot tell you why,
I 'm off to Californy
To dig the yellow gold.

On the very same ship from which this was collected, another
sailor gave this version:-

Blow, boys, blow,
For Californy, O!
We're bound for Sacramento
To dig the yellow gold.
//

He goes on to connect these to BLOW BOYS BLOW and BLOW THE MAN DOWN as found in Davis/Tozer. He is saying that all 4 of these songs are related, but why? Because they say "blow"? How is that significant to say they are related?
//
But this, in turn, is clearly related to the following chantie:

Yankee ship came down the river,
Blow, boys, blow!
Her masts did bend, her sides did shiver,
Blow, my jolly boys, blow!
The sails were old, her timbers rotten,
Blow, etc.
His charts the skipper had forgotten,
Blow, my jolly boys, blow!
Who do you think was skipper of her?
Blow, etc.
"Old Preaching Sam," the noted scoffer,
Blow, etc.
She sailed away for London city,
Blow, etc.
Never got there, what a pity!
Blow, etc.

And if this is not a version of the following, it is, at least, related to
it:-

I 'll sing you a song, a good song of the sea,
To my ay, ay, blow the man down;
I trust that you'll join in the chorus with me,
Give me some time to blow the man down.

If so many variations of one theme have come down to us, how
many more, simply for lack of a recorder, must have perished ? The
man who has succeeded in becoming principal "chantie-man" on
one ship, is, on his next voyage, beaten out by some rival; neverthe-
less, he will often be able to assert himself, -to use the current
slang phrase, which expresses the situation exactly, he will succeed
occasionally in "butting in." The result would be, if we should
report any chantie sung on this latter voyage, that we should have,
not the version either would have given had he been the sole "fore-
singer" of the ship, but we should have a version which would be a
patchwork of those two. But, further, this patchwork would be,
not merely a combination of their two versions, but of many, for,
just as these two have been rival chantie producers on this particular
voyage, each will have had his rival on previous voyages. Hence,
so much of chantie material as each brings with him to this ship
-brings in his memory, of course, not on paper -will be no more
his own than the version which we might take down on this voyage
would be the sole product of either of our two men. And this would
hold true, back and back, as far as one cared to carry it.
//

Talking about the rhythm of a job suggesting chanty form, he eventually quotes SHENANDOAH from Davis/Tozer. He also gives the following, derivative of the song "Old Joe":

//
And this, from a Negro chantie:-

Ol' Joe, bully ol' Joe,
Hi pretty yaller gal!
Kicking up behind, Ol' Joe;
Ol' Joe's got some very fine clo's,
Whar he get 'em nobody knows, -
Hi pretty yaller gal
Kicking up behind, Ol' Joe.
//


MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA
//
In short, any song not too complex to march by can be used for a capstan chantie, and the conditions imposed upon the windlass chantie are not more rigid…A favorite capstan chantie is "Marching through Georgia."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 08:38 PM

Massachusetts-born James H. Williams (1864-1927) was an African-American merchant seaman and labor leader. He went to sea in 1875 or '76 and spent at least a dozen years before the mast. As an officer of the Atlatic Coast Seamen's Union he was instrumental in the preparation of the White Act of 1898 which, in Williams's words, "revised the entire maritime code of the United States."

Williams published at least 37 articles about his seafaring career and the condition of American seamen. Most of these appeared in The Independent, a leading progressive periodical of the early 20th century. He also wrote an autobiography, edited by Warren F. Kuehl as Blow the Man Down! (N.Y.: Dutton, 1959).

Williams also assembled a manuscript collection of shanties. Many of these appeared in his article, "The Sailor's 'Chanties'" (Independent, July 8, 1909, p. 76 ff.). Kuehl quotes a few of Williams's shanties, as did Doerflinger.

The 1909 article includes the words only of the following shanties:

A Long Time Ago
Haul Away the Bowline
Boney was a Warrior
What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?
Fire Down Below!
Homeward Bound ("Good-bye, Fare You Well")
Reuben Rauzo [sic]
Whisky (Johnny)
Salt Horse Chanty ("Old Horse, Old Horse")
Blow the Man Down
A Yankee Ship Came Down the River ("Blow, Boys, Blow")

Williams mentions but does not give texts of "'Santa Ana and 'The Plains of Mexico'" (implying two different songs, but perhaps this is either an error a recognition of two tune patterns and differing verses), "South Australia," "Sally Brown," "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her," "Rio Grande," "Roll the Cotton Down," "Mobile Bay," "Tommy's Gone and I'll Go Too," and both "California Gold" and "Banks of Sacramento," which seem to be another pair of duplicates.

Williams also gives texts of the following forebitters:

The "Cumberland's" Crew
The Cruise of the "Dreadnaught"
Paul Jones ("The Stately Southerner")
A Whaling Song ("The Coast of Peru")

Of shanties in general he makes the following especially interesting points:

"The following are some typical chanties and sea songs taken at random from the repertoire of that almost extinct functionary, the chanty man....It is a peculiar fact that chanties were never sung in any but British and American ships....

"Another thing is that, while many of these songs have stood the test of a century, or perhaps two, and have passed from lip to lip thousands of times over the airs to which they are sung, they have never changed.

"Still another somewhat remarkable fact is that thruout the whole list of known chanties there does not occur a single offensive word, and whenever and indecent language has been injected into one of our favorite chanties, it is at once expurgated by common consent.

"In presenting the following brief record of chanties I hav adhered as strictly as possible to the original text, and in this I have reason to believe that I am as near right as nay man can be.

"I can claim no authorship for these ancient sea songs.

"I only arranged them as we sang them, so they may be read, and I hope they will be appreciated.

"The glory of the sea has departed and chanties are sung no more."

Williams appends an original 67-line poem about shantying, written in the distinctive meter of Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha." In it he tells that he learned "these wond'rous sea-songs" from his shipmates Garry Owen and "Splitnose" Sweeney. If this is literally true, and Williams believed (erroneously) that the shanties never changed, it would seem to imply that he acquired most of his own repertoire on his first voyage in the mid '70s, and that his texts are essentially as he first heard them.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 09:00 PM

Of course that last guest was me.

Worth mentioning too is that Williams's texts are fuller than many. In other words, instead of the two- or three- stanza shanties we often see, his usually to five or six or more. (Only the standard two in "Drunken Sailor," however!)

As to how closely the 1909 texts resemble what Williams learned from Owen and Sweeney: despite what I said earlier, it could be that Williams added occasional stanzas that he'd learned later in the innocent belief that all dated back to a single integral text.

But the repertoire itself, and many of the stanzas, would still be tethered to the 1870s.

A minor point, perhaps, is that the African-American Williams sang the same shanties as the European Americans.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 05:10 AM

Wow, quite a substantial article that Williams! Thanks for posting that, Lighter. If you've still got the text around and you have a chance, it would be especially interesting to know what lyrics he gave for 'South Australia." And what exactly is "California Gold"?

***

Here's a revisit to an earlier mentioned set -- earlier the references were second-hand from a website. Here they are in their original context.

1903        Craig, William. _My Adventures on the Australian Gold Fields._ London: Cassel & Company.

Craig arrives on a vessel (presumably from England) in 1851 in Port Phillip Heads, Hobson's Bay (Melbourne), and finds most of the population has deserted their posts and gone off gold digging. Crew also begins to desert his ship, and while one set is escaping with a boat, we read this:

//
Then with three hearty cheers they took to their oars, and went up the bay, all joining in a song that had become familiar to us when pumping during the voyage—

Oh, fare you well, my own Mary Ann, 
      
Fare you well for awhile.
//

Then,
//
The morning following the desertion of the crew, to the great delight of all on board, a landsman's breeze sprang up. The pilot took charge of the ship, the captain the wheel, and a number of passengers who had learned the '' ropes '' on the voyage out assisted in making sail. Willing hands manned the windlass, the anchor was weighed, and to Dick Robb's song of

When first we went a-waggonin' 
   
A-waggonin' did go, 
   
Drive on my lads, hi ho!

And accompanied by two other ships, we were soon slipping up to our port.
//

I am sorry but it is not obvious to me what action they are doing to the song. Are they using the brake windlass to warp in, or hauling?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 05:24 AM

1906[1905]        Lincoln, Joseph C. _Partners of the Tide._ New York: A.L. Burt Company.

A work of fiction set off Cape Cod among the world of fishing schooners and coal barges. For entertainment purposes, some are singing a song "that every fisherman knows." It has a "storm along" chorus, however it doesn't seem to conform to any of the versions of the chanty. It may be contrived.

//
Peleg Myrick was bearing his concertina to safe quarters in the shanty, and they insisted that he should play it. Peleg protested that it was too wet for music on board that tug, but they threatened to heave the "push-and-pull-pianner" overboard if he didn't play.
"Play somethin' we can sing," ordered Bill Taylor.
Peleg struck up a doleful dirge of the sea. It was loaded to the gunwale with wrecks and disasters.
"Belay that!" cried Barney Small. "We don't want no Come-all-ye's. That's the tune that soured the milk. Give us a hoe-down."
The musician considered. Then he burst into the air that every fisherman knows:

"The grub is in the galley and the rum is in the jug—
Storm along, John! John, storm along!
The skipper's from Hyannis and he gives us bully mug—
Storm along, storm along, John!"

"Chorus!" howled Barney, waving his cap. They joined in with a whoop:

"Storm along, John! John, storm along!
   Ain't I glad my day's work's done! 

Storm along, John! John, storm along!
Ain't I glad my day's work's done!"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 07:50 AM

Gibb-

Interesting verses but I agree they were probably contrived by the author.

Whoop, whoop, indeed!
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:58 AM

My guess is that "California Gold" is just another set of verses to "The Banks of the Sacramento."

The article only mentions the title of "South Australia." Unfortunately it doesn't give the lyrics.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 02:57 PM

Charlie--

Any idea about the "we were soon slipping up to our port"? I'm unclear whether that was always usually done with a windlass (or capstan) or if it was also done by hand (hauling). The passage mentions windlass for getting up the anchor, but I don't think it necessarily implies it for what follows.

Lighter--

Oops, sorry, you said that in your original post! Another late-night goof on my part.
When I see only titles mentioned, though, I begin to suspect they may have been noted from recent published works.

"Mobile Bay," IMO is a stand-out title, and though Williams may have sung it, it may also reflect the recent mention (1909) in Whidden's (Boston-published) book. It would of course be more fascinating if somehow both men being from Mass. there was some correlation between that and knowing "Mobile Bay." [Davis and Tozer may have been the only other text to mention "Mobile Bay" at this point.]

The "California Gold" and "Banks of Sacramento" may be duplicates -- I suppose now you are saying it's like listing both "Santa Anna" and "Plains of Mexico." When I first read your post I thought you were referring to the 1906 Hutchison article I posted, in which he has these two different choruses, one after another:

Good-bye, my love, good-bye,
I cannot tell you why,
I 'm off to Californy
To dig the yellow gold.

and

Blow, boys, blow,
For Californy, O!
We're bound for Sacramento
To dig the yellow gold.

The second doesn't quite fit "Sacramento," but otherwise it suggests it. I imagine the first one could be titled "California Gold." Therefore, I wondered whether this grouping of the two, title-only, by Williams, might have reflected some reading he did. He need not necessarily have read Hutchison; the latter seemed to have drawn most of his chanty examples from print, so there might be another source.

Then again, it may just me being way too skeptical, again.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 03:11 PM

Gibb, it's possible to be too skeptical as well as too trusting. Unfortunately, it's also possible not to be sure when or whether it's happening.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 08:00 PM

Gibb-

"we were soon slipping up to our port"

There's reference to a tug, I believe, which implies that they were using a capstan shanty for hauling up the anchor. Then a hawser would be passed from the tug to the ship (or the other way around) and they would have been towed up to the docks. Some docks might have capstans installed to warp the ships in for their final mooring, but the crew aboard ship wouldn't be singing shanties for the dockyard gang who was doing that work.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 09:36 PM

Thanks, Charlie!

So it's quite possible that the "The Jolly Waggoner" ballad verse quoted was not being used as a shanty. The individual mentioned singing it is earlier noted in the text as being the ship's "comedian" (or something like that) who was always seeing old English songs. Maybe he was just singing it for fun at this point.

I'm noting this because the earlier source we had from this, an Australian maritime website, was quoting it with the indication that it was used to heave anchor.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 06:00 AM

re: The James H. Williams article, it seems pretty significant, and I finally tracked it down for myself. I'll just add a couple notes to Lighter's exposition.

BLOW THE MAN DOWN is very similar to the one in Luce's NAVAL SONGS, 1883/1902. The editor does mention that work at the start of the article, saying that Williams' lyrics differ a lot. And they do. But not on this one song.

RIO GRANDE contains the perhaps interesting phrase, "bonny brown maid."

BOWLINE is mixed with "Haul Away Joe" in its chorus.

The FIRE DOWN BELOW here is the one Hugill calls version "B" -- that is, with a "weigh heigh ho" as opposed to "fetch a bucket of water." So far in this thread the only other *specific* appearance of that has been in Hatfield's Pensacola > Nice account. However, I have been using the FIRE DOWN BELOW tag when that title is mentioned alone, and it's possible the two chanties are getting confounded.

Meloney, who wrote in 1915 and took many of his lyrics from Masefield or Davis/Tozer, took his LONG TIME AGO, BOWLINE, GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL, WHISKEY JOHNNY, BONEY, and DRUNKEN SAILOR from Williams. This means that little if any of Meloney's article is original.

Williams' lyrics, however, do appear to be quite unique.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 11:07 AM

Thanks, Gibb, for saving me the trouble of comparison.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Mar 11 - 07:03 AM

1908        Broadwood, Lucy E., Percy Grainger, Cecil J. Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frank Kidson, J.A. Fuller-Maitland, and A.G. Gilchrist. "[Songs Collected by Percy Grainger]." _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_ 3(12) (May 1908): 170-242.

Some chanties come towards the end of the article.

MR. STORMALONG has the flip-flop of choruses here. Several melodic phrases variants, and details of ornamentation, are noted in the accompanying score.
//
STORM ALONG. Wind'us (Windlass) Chanty
Collected and noted by H.E. Piggott and Percy Grainger
Sung by Mr. John Perring, of Dartmouth, at Dartmouth, Jan. 18th and 25th, 1908.

Old Stormy's dead and [/aden] in his grave.
A, a, a, Mister Stormalong.
Stormy's dead and in his grave.
With me a-yo [/To me way hey we'll] stormalong.
//

About the demand for good chantymen, it says:
//
Mr. Perring has been a deep-sea sailor to most shores of the world, in the capacity of chantyman; often merely singing for the others while they did the actual work. He tells tales of sea-captains vying with each other in their efforts to secure for their own ships any renowned chantyman, sure that his enlivening presence would stir their crews to unwonted briskness…
//

On regulation verses, improvisation, and non-narrative character of lyrics:
//
Mr. Perring explained that, as the length of a chanty depends upon the duration of the shipboard work to which it is sung, only a few of its verses are fixed and wide-spread, the remainder being made up on the spur of the moment. Thus the words are often devoid of any real plot or story, each verse frequently painting a separate picture of its own, or lightly recalling some striking situation of the sailing days. He says he has always been in the habit of extemporizing the bulk of his verses. Therefore it is not surprising that two performances by him of the same chanty differ widely as to text, and considerably as to musical variants.

Thus, on January 18th, I908, he sang the words of "Storm Along" as follows:

(1) As above.
(2) Old Stormy here and Stormy there.
Stormy here and Stormy there.
(3) Our captain said: "We shall sail to-day."
Our captain said: " We sail to-day."
(4) To India that's far away.
What we don't see ev'ry day.
(5) And a place we don't see every day.
A place, etc.
(6) Old Stormy said, in the Biscay Bay. (twice).

while on January 25th, I908, they ran:

(1a) Oh, Stormy's dead and in his grave.
Stormy's dead, etc.
(2a) We'll dig his grave with a golden spade. (twice)
(3a) And lower him down with a silver thread. (twice)
(4a) Oh, storm to-day and storm no more.
Storm to-day, etc.
(5a) Until we reach our native shore. (twice)
(6a) I wish I was old Stormy's son. (twice)
(7a) I'd build a ship five thousand ton. (twice)
(8a) I'd build a ship to go round Cape Horn. (twice)
//

Gilchrist adds the note,
//
"Storm Along," "Tom's gone to Hilo," and "Lowlands" are all chanties which strike me as negro in character, if not in origin. A. G. G.
//
She does not say why it strikes her so.

Another MR. STORMALONG
//
STORMY. (PumpingChanty.)
Noted by Percy Grainger, July 24th, 1906.
Collected and sung by Mr. Charles Rosher.

1. Old Stormy he is dead and gone.
Hi, hi, hi, as we storm along.
Sormy he is gone below.
To my way O [/ho] storm along.

2. We'll dig his grave with a golden spade,
We'll lower him down with a silver chain.

Mr. Rosher has collected a rich-store of fine sea-chanties, learning to sing them in real sailor fashion when at sea.
//

//
LOWLANDS.
(or: DOLLAR AND A HALF A DAY.)
(WINDLASS CHANTY.)
Noted by Percy Grainger, July 24th, 1906.
COLLECTED AND SUNG BY MR. CHARLES ROSHER.

[w/ score]

A dollar and a half is a poor man's pay.
Lowlands, lowlands away, my John.
A dollar and a half it won't clear my way.
My dollar and a half a day.
//

It goes on to give another example of LOWLANDS AWAY that is evidently taken from the _Yachting Monthly_ of Oct. 1906. Not having seen it myself, I am aware that article was wriiten by Whall, but evidently it was unsigned. They give his version with the notes "American chanty" and "A windlass chanty, 1862." The notation differs slightly from what appeared in Whall's later book, speaking to the difficulty of notating the rhythm of Lowlands.

Another version. Its melody is unfamiliar.
//
DOLLAR AND A 'ALF A DAY.
(CAPSTAN CHANTY.)
Collected and noted by H. E. Piggott and Percy Grainger.
SUNG BY MR. JOHN PERRING, AT DARTMOUTH, JANUARY 18TH, 1908.

[w/ score]

1. Five dollars a day is a white man's pay.
Way…
Five dollars a day is a white man's pay.
My dollar and a 'alf a day.

2. But a dollar and a half is a nigger's pay. (twice)

3. The nigger works noth night and day. (twice)

(4) But the white man, he works but a day. (twice)

Mr. Perring said this is a "tipical" Negro chanty, sung by black sailors in the
East Indian trade, in complaint at their being harder worked and lower-waged than
white seamen.
//

Gilchrist notes a stevedore's song she evidentily heard from a friend, without music notation, "Tapiocum":
//
Another negro chanty, "Tapiocum," (learnt on shipboard by a friend from the
singing of an old coloured seaman), is of a more cheerful cast. It describes the
happy darkies hauling in the cargo "on de lebby " (levy = river embankment or
wharf), with a gay chorus of

"Working on de cotton-boat, ten bob a day, oh,
Pompey, can yo prick upon de banjo"? etc.
A. G. G.
//

Two versions of SANTIANA
//
SANTA ANNA.
(WINDLASS CHANTY).
Noted by Percy Grainger, JuIy 24th, 1906.
COLLECTED AND SUNG BY MR. CHARLES ROSHER.

[w/ score]

Santa Anna's dead and gone.
Away, Sante Anne.
O Sante Anne is gone below.
All on the plains of Mexico.

SANTA ANNA.
SECOND VERSION.
Collected and noted by Hon. Everard Feilding, London, June 19th, 1908.
SUNG BY MR. ROYSTON CLIFFORD.
[w/ score]
Far away there's a land they say.
Heave away, Sante Anna.
Sante Anna won the day.
On the banks and plains of Mexico.

Mr. Clifford sometimes reverses the order of succession of the first and second
half of the tune. He remembers no other verse but the following, which he says
is the last verse:

Thought I heard the chief mate say:
        By the banks, etc.
One more pull and then belay.
        Heave away, etc.
//
So, the reversal was evidently somewhat common.

Kidson makes the following VERY INTERESTING note about the age and geographic origins of chanties:
//
When the history of the Sailor's Chanties comes to be written a great many difficult problems will have to be faced. For instance, it will have to be asked how it comes about that so many are, obviously, of American origin. Also, how it is that so many seem to centre round Mexico, or have place-names belonging to that quarter of the American Continent. Also, why we do not find any English, or other European coast or port included in the random rhymes which are strung together in chanties. Miss Gilchrist's note [a melody comparison to High Barbaree] is of considerable interest, but I doubt very much the "Coast of Barbaree's " connection with the American chanties. It seems exceedingly strange that among, the great number of chanties lately noted there are none that we can confidently assign to a period as early as the 18th century.
//
Why was it so strange? Why was it so difficult? It would only seem so if it was assumed chanties were English/European and prior to the 19th century. But who says that was to be assumed? Who started that assumption on track, such that Kidson would be faced with the "difficulty" of placing chanties in the Gulf/Mexico rather than just saying, "Hey guys, there are lots of songs focused here so, if anything, let's assume they started there"?

TOMMY'S GONE. Note the unusual pumping and capstan ascriptions.
//
TOM'S GONE TO ILO.
(PUMPING CHANTY.)
Noted by Percy Grainger, April 3rd, 1907.
COLLECTED AND SUNG BY MR. CHARLES ROSHER.

[w/ score]

1. Tom has gone, and I'll go too.
Away, haul e Ilo.
O Tom has gone and I'll go too.
Tom's gone to Ilo.

(2) Tom he was my dearest friend. (twice)
(3) Tom has gone to Dixie's land. (twice)

Mr. Rosher says that the verses from "Storm Along," "We'll dig his grave, etc.," and "We'll lower him down, etc.," often got worked into this chanty.
…
TOM'S GONE TO ILO.
(CAPSTAN CHANTY.)
SECOND VERSION.
Collected and noted by H. E. Piggott and Percy Grainger.
SUNG BY MR. JOHN PERRING, AT DARTMOUTH, JANUARY 18TH, 1908.

[w/ score]

(1) Tom is gane (gone) and I'll go too. (twice)
(2) Tom is gane, what shall I do? (twice)
(3) He's gane away across the sea. (twice)
(4) When he comes back he'll marry me. (twice)
(5) And he'll no longer go to sea,
    But stay at home along with me.

This is one of the most interesting and characteristic variants I have seen, and strikes me as distinctly negro in flavour. The avoidance of the leading-note is worth noting. Gapped scales-with one or sometimes two notes missing-are noticeable amongst other negro melodies, such as the plantation-hymns of the Jubilee singers. This fact has led to the assumption that such negro tunes are of Scottish extraction. -A. G. G.
//
OK, so Gilchrist has expanded on the sort of reason for her earlier comments.

SHALLOW BROWN
//
SHALLOW BROWN.
(HAULING CHANTY.)
Collected & noted by H. E. Piggott & Percy Grainger.
SUNG BY MR. JOHN PERRING, AT DARTMOUTH, JAN. 18TH AND 25TH, 1908.

[w/ score]

1. Shallow Brown, you're going to leave me.
Shallow, Shallow Brown.
Shallow Brown, you're going to leave me.
Shallow, Shallow Brown.

(2) Shallow Brown, don't ne'er deceive me. (twice)
(3) You're going away across the ocean. (twice)
(4) But you'll ever be my heart's devotion. (twice)
(5) For your return my heart is burning. (twice)
(6) When you return, we'll then get married. (twice)
(7) I'll not regret I ever tarried. (twice) etc.

This is supposed to be sung to Shallow Brown, as his ship is weighing anchor, by a woman standing on the quay, Mr. Perring said.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Mar 11 - 04:00 AM

1906        Gilchrist, Annie G., Frank Kidson, Lucy E. Broadwood, Cecil J. Sharp, and J.A. Fuller-Maitland. "Sailors' Songs, Collected by Annie G. Gilchrist." _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_ 2(9): 236-249.

Gilchrist got the songs from a Mr. W. Bolton, a 66 yr old retired sailor of 35 yrs (merchant and navy), last voyage in 1887. His navy career ended in 1857, so I presume his merchant service was 57-87. In addition to the "forecastle songs" and chanties presented, Gilchrist notes that he also sang "Boney was a Frenchman," "The Banks of Sacramento,"
and" Paddy on the Railway," to tunes that compared well to the ones in Davis/Tozer. Gilchrist recorded Bolton in Southport in 1905-1906.

Forecastle songs are:
Admiral Benbow
Gilderoy
The Wreck of the "Gilderoy"
The Greenland Whale Fishery
The Golden Vanity
I'll Go No More A-roving
The Wreck of the "Industry"

Chanties:
Shangadore
Across the Western Ocean
The Hawk's Eye Man

One of the forecastle songs looks like "A-Roving." However, despite obvious similarities, it is really a different song.
//
I'LL GO NO MORE A-ROVING.

Oh, if my child should chance to die,
Mark well what I do say,
Oh if my child should chance to die,
The bells should ring so sweet-e-ly,
And I'll go no more a-roving
For roving's been my ruin
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.

…
The tune is a version of "The Maid of Amsterdam" (see " A·roving," in Toz.er's
Sailors' Songs for the more usual form)-a well-known chanty derived from a ballad
which Mr. John Masefield traces back to the time of Elizabeth… But only the refrain of Mr. Bolton's song has any connection with the words of this other chanty. -A. G. G.

The burden in this is the same as in the well-known sailors' song above-mentioned,
one version of which is printed in The Scottish Students' Song·Book, and begins "At
Number Three, Old England Square." -F. K.
//

SHENANDOAH is the first chanty. Bolton must have known an indecent version.
//
SHANGADORE. Pumping Chanty.

O, Shangadore, I love your daughter,
Aray, ye rolling river!
I love my grog much more than water,
Ah-ha-ha! I'm bound away,
'Cross the wide Missouri.

Mr. Bolton refused to give me the rest of the words! "Shangadore" is a corruption of "Shenandoah "-the American river of that name. …this well known American chanty, …The tune appears to be of negro
origin; it is at least of negro character…. The tune is a difficult one to bar correctly, from the evident tendency of the chorus (as I understand in chanties generally) to overlap the solo….
//

And Ralph Vaughan-Williams adds,
//
I have noted a close variant of this chanty under the name" Shenandoah" from Mr. Danger, at King's Lynn.
//

//
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN. Hauling Chanty.

Solo: Xxxxx
Cho. Xxxxx
Solo: A dollar a day is a nigger's pay,
Cho. Across the western ocean.
//
Bolton could not remember the words at the beginning.

HOGEYE
//
THE HAWK'S-EYE MAN. Capstan Chanty.

Oh, the 'awk's-eye man is the man for me,
And when he comes ashore he has a jolly spree,
And the 'awk's-eye—
Roll the boat ashore, And the 'awk's-eye—
Roll the boat ashore, And the 'awk's-eye, Ho!
She wants the 'awk's-eye man.

Scraps of other verses were recollected as follows:

Sally in the garden sifting sand,
And Jenny in the house with the hawk's-eye man.

With his hawk's-eye ...
And when he comes ashore
He rattles at my door,
Oh, Johnnie is my hawk's-eye man.

This curious tune has, I think, like "Shangadore," a decided negro flavour.
//

Finally, Gilchrist and Kidson respond to Whall's idea (in his Yachting Monthly article) that "chanty" derives from lumberjacks.
//
It may be noted that the writer derives the name "shanty" from Canadian lumber-or shanty-men "who were ever great singers," but were, and still are, called "shanty-men" because they lived in shanties. -A. G. G.

I think the foregoing derivation of the puzzling words" chanty" or "shanty" is very probably correct. I cannot agree with its supposed French origin, and certainly "Chantyies," so far as the term goes, have come to us from "across the Western Ocean," though a French-Canadian source might point to the word used in a French sense. -F. K.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 02:28 AM

1914        Unknown. "The Recollections of a West Indiaman, Being the Reminiscences of a Steamship Officer of His Apprenticeship in a Windjammer." The Master, Mate and Pilot 7(2) (July 1914): 38-40, 60.

A publication of The American Association of Masters, Mates, and Pilots.

Author was an apprentice in a West Indiaman, from October 1864. Served in a barque out of Liverpool, to the Leeward and Windward Islands (Barbados, Antigua) and the Guianas. He was a sailor for 46 years.

Could this be Bullen writing? 1864/1865 would not necessarily contradict his earliest voyage to the West Indies, as I understand it.

Re: his second voyage to Barbados, discharging cargo, and subsequent voyages, he notes the role and quality of Black chantymen. He remarks on what were presumably "hitches" in their singing. SHENANDOAH, LOWLANDS AWAY, and something called "Ladies, fare-ye-well" are the chanties cited.

//
The cargo had be discharged by hand—that is, by a crab winch. Eight men manned the winch and it was hard work in the hot sun and very slow. It took fifteen to twenty minutes to heave a weight out of the hold into the lighters alongside. Of course the negroes gave a hand and the men would start a chantey, and when there were seven or eight ships in the bay with crews engaged in similar occupations we heard some verv fine singing. The negroes were the finest chanteymen. Their choruses were exquisite to listen to….

Owing to the trouble that our captain had had at various times with drunkenness amongst English crews he decided in the future to ship only negroes in the forecastle, and for the remaining years of my apprenticeship I sailed with colored crews. Many of them hailed from Baltimore and the cotton ports of the southern United States. They were fine sailors, these men, quiet, strong and respectful: but my pleasantest memory in regard to them was their chanteying. They sang the choruses in weird falsetto notes and with the fascinating pronunciation of the Southern darkey. They sang a chantey for every little job and the way they thundered out such plaintive melodies as "Shenandoah, I Love your Daughter" or "My Lowlands Away" made them a treat to listen to. I once heard a well-known prima donna in Liverpool say that our singing was the finest harmony she had ever heard, and I have seen crowds of people on the dock head there listening to our colored "jacks"' warping out to "Ladies, fare-ye-well" (an outward-bound song), and, as sailors say, "their tears were running down into the dock."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 02:50 AM

1919        Paine, Ralph D. _The Old Merchant Marine: A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors._ New Haven: Yale University Press.

Brief quotations of "Blow the Man Down," "Shenandoah," "Blow Boys Blow", and (elsewhere in the text) "The Dreadnaught," all called "chantey".

Pg 152:
//
Most of the famous chanteys were born in the packet service and shouted as working choruses by the tars of this Western Ocean before the chanteyman perched upon a capstan and led the refrain in the clipper trade. You will find their origin unmistakable in such lines as these:

As I was a-walking down Rotherhite Street,
        'Way, ho, blow the man down; 

A pretty young creature I chanced for to meet,
      Give me some time to blow the man down.

Soon we'll be in London City,
        Blow, boys, blow, 

And see the gals all dressed so pretty,
       Blow, my bully boys, blow.

Haunting melodies, folk-song as truly as that of the plantation negro, they vanished from the sea with a breed of men who, for all their faults, possessed the valor of the Viking and the fortitude of the Spartan. Outcasts ashore — which meant to them only the dance halls of Cherry Street and the grog-shops of Ratcliffe Road — they had virtues that were as great as their failings. Across the intervening years, with a pathos indefinable, come the lovely strains of

Shenandoah, I'll ne'er forget you, 

    Away, ye rolling river, 
   
Till the day I die I'll love you ever,
    Ah, ha, we're bound away.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: open mike
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 02:51 AM

i will have a radio show focussing on chanties on April 9. Look for more info and links.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: open mike
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 02:54 AM

every time i see this thread title i have been
tempted to post this in reply...i am now
giving in to the temptation..

The Advent and Development of Panties

so,there.

bloomers, bvd's, boxers, bikinis, jockeys, etc.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 04:08 AM

Don't forget about g-strings...and 'Commando.'

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 04:16 AM

Here's a few more quotes from Dana, _Two Years_, that didn't make it into this thread. They don't add much except,

--reinforce ubiquity of CHEERLY (used for catting anchor and halyards);
--"yo-ho-ing" as Dana's way of referring to singing-out;
--another mention of "Time for us to go";
--Dana was using "yo heave ho" at the windlass, rather than songs/chanties.

pg321
//
We pulled off with a will, saying to ourselves (I can speak for myself at least)—" Good-by, Santa Barbara! —This is the last pull here !—No more duckings in your breakers, and slipping from your cursed south-easters!" The news was soon known aboard, and put life into everything when we were.getting under weigh. Each one was taking his last look at the mission, the town, the breakers on the beach, and swearing that no money would make him ship to see them again; and when all hands tallied on to the cat-fall, the chorus of " Time for us to go!" was raised for the first time, and joined in, with full swing, by everybody.
//

pg349
//
For a few minutes, all was uproar and apparent confusion: men flying about like monkeys in the rigging; ropes and blocks flying; orders given and answered, and the confused noises of men singing out at the ropes. The top-sails came to the mast-heads with "Cheerily, men!" and, in a few minutes, every sail was set; for the wind was light. The head sails were backed, the windlass came round ' slip—slap' to the cry of the sailors ;—" Hove short, sir," said the mate;—" Up With him !"—"Aye, aye, sir."—A few hearty and long heaves, and. the anchor showed its head. "Hook cat!"—The fall was stretched along the decks;—all hands laid hold;—" Hurrah, for the last time," said the mate; and the anchor came to the cat-head to the tune of " Time for us to go," with a loud chorus.
//

pg396
//
Our spirits returned with having something to do; and when the tackle was manned to bowse the anchor home, notwithstanding the desolation of the scene, we struck up "Cheerily ho!" in full chorus.
//

pg413
//
When we came to mast-head the top-sail yards, with all hands at the halyards, we struck up "Cheerily, men," with a chorus which might have been heard half way to Staten Land.
//

Homeward bound in the Alert (pg. 428):
//
The very yo-ho-ing of the sailors at the ropes sounded sociably upon the ear.
//

On returning to moor in Boston, the following occurred (pg 458):
//
All hands manned the windlass, and the longdrawn "Yo, heave, ho!" which we had last heard dying away among the desolate hills of San Diego, soon brought the anchor to the bows…
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 11:16 AM

Bullen was well-known for "The Cruise if the Cachalot" (1898). I haven't compared the two, but it would be unlikely for a 1914 publication not to give him a byline - unless the passage was simply plagiarized. That too seems unlikely.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 19 Mar 11 - 03:04 AM

I just wanted to get these texts into this thread, for search/comparison purposes. The thread dealing with this article is, of course, here.

1909 Buryeson, Fred H. ['El Tuerto']. "Sea Shanties." _Coast Seamen's Journal_ 22(40) (23 June).

//
WINDLASS SHANTIES.

SHENANDOAH

Shenandoah, I love your waters;
And away, you rolling river
I love your clear and rushing waters
Ah, ah, ah, we're bound away, across the wide Missouri.

The ship sails free, a gale is blowing;
Her braces taut and sheet a-flowing.

Shenandoah, I love to hear you;
Shenandoah, I long to see you.

Black-eyed Sue is sure a beauty;
To sing her praise it is our duty.

Shenandoah, I'll ne'er forget you,
But think of you and love you ever.

Give me a good old Yankee clipper,
A bully crew and swearing skipper.

Shenandoah, my heart is longing
To see again your rolling waters.

Good shipmates always pull together,
No matter what the wind or weather.

Shenandoah, I'd love to see you,
And hear again your tumbling waters.

Shenandoah, my thoughts will ever
Be where you are, sweet rolling river.
//

Buryeson's note after the lyrics suggests the possible relationship between, or crossing with, ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN.
//
Note. -- This shanty is said to have originated with negro roustabouts on the Mississippi River boats, many of whom were from the Shenandoah
Valley. The saltwater interpolations in the text were no doubt inserted later by some white shantyman for the purpose of appropriateness. Indeed, many shantymen shipmates of mine, to give this shanty a still more pronounced saltwater tang, used the substitute "Western Ocean" for
"wide Missouri" in the second chorus.
//

//
SALLY BROWN

Sally Brown was a nice young lady,
'Way, heigh, roll and go.
Just as bright and pretty as they make 'em.
I spent my money on Sally Brown.

Sally wasn't either tall or slender,
But her eyes were both blue and tender.

Sally's father kept a little tavern
Just at the head of India basin.

Seven long years, I courted Sally,
But Sally didn't want no coasting sailor.

And so I shipped on a China packet
Just for to be a flyin' fish sailor.

Seven more years I did sail the seas, boys,
When, one day, I received a letter

Telling that Sally had married a tinker
With nary a shilling--and seven small children.

So it's me for the life of a sailor
And I'll spend no more money on Sally.
//

//
RIO GRANDE.

In Rio Grande I'll take my stand,
'Way, you Rio.
For Rio Grande's the place for me.
We are bound for the Rio Grande.
Oh, Rio, Rio; 'Way, you Rio.
Sing fare you well, my bonny young girl,
We are bound for the Rio Grande.

One day I espied a damsel fair
With cherry-red lips and nut-brown hair.

"Where are you going my pretty, fair maid."
"I'm going a-milking, kind sir," she said.

"May I go with you my pretty, fair maid?"
"Oh, no, sir; that never would do," she said.

"Why may I not come, my pretty, fair maid?"
"My father would be angry, sir," she said.

"We are bound for the Rio Grande," I said;
"And, please, won't you come along, fair maid?"

"Oh, no, sir, that never can be," she said,
"For roving is not for a poor young maid."

And away she walked, this pretty, fair maid.
"I must go a-milking, kind sir," she said.

So in Rio Grande I'll take my stand,
For Rio Grande's the place for me.
//

//
DIXIE'S ISLE.

Oh then Susie, lovely Susie, I can no longer stay,
For the bugle sounds the warning that calls me far away.
It ca11s me down to New Orleans, the enemy for to rile;
And to fight the Southern soldiers, 'way down upon Dixie's Isle.

The owners they gave orders no women they were to come.
The captain, likewise, ordered that none of them were to come;
For their waists they are too slender, and their figures are not the style
For to go fight the Southern soldiers, 'way down upon Dixie's Isle.

Oh, my curse attend those cruel wars when first they began;
They robbed New York and Boston of many a noble young man.
They robbed us of our wives, our sweethearts and brothers while
We went fighting the Southern soldiers, 'way down upon Dixie's Isle.

Note.-- The last line of each verse constitutes the chorus.
//

//
BLOW FOR CALIFORNIA.

We're bound for California I heard the old man say;
To me hoodah, to me hoodah.
We're bound for California this very good day.
To me hoodah, hoodah day.
Blow, boys, blow for California;
there is plenty of gold, so I've been told,
on the banks of the Sacramento.

As I was a-walking one day up and down
I spied a gay damsel she seemed outward bound.

I fired my bow-chaser, the signal she knew;
She backed her main topsail, for me she hove to.

I hailed her in English, she answered me thus:
My name is Sally Gubbins, and I'm bound on a cruise.

Then I gave her my hawser and took her in tow,
And into an alehouse together we did go;


And drank ale and brandy till near break of day,
When I went a-rolling down home Tigerbay.

She had rifled my lockers while I filled my hold,
And aboard of my packet I had for to scull.

With a hookpot and pannikin I got under weigh
Seven bells in the morning, the very next day.

And when I have finished a-singing my song
I hope you'll excuse me if I have sung wrong.

She was a fine frigate you must understand,
But one of those cruisers who sail on dry land;

A reg'lar old fire-ship, rigged out in disguise,
To burn jolly sailors like me, damn her eyes.

We're bound for California this very good day;
We're bound for California I hear them all say.

Note.-The "hoodah day," etc., I have spelt according to the way those words sounded to me when the chorus was sung, but I have no idea of their meaning or source, if, indeed, they ever had any meaning.
//

//
SANTA ANA.

Santa Ana has gained the day.
Hooray, Santa Ana.
From Vera Cruz to Manzanas Bay.
All along the plains of Mexico.

He marched his soldiers all o'er the land;
At Orizaba he took his stand.

He drove the gringoes into the sea,
And hung their leader to a gallows tree.

I wish I were in old Mobile Bay,
A-screwing cotton this blessed day.

Though Santa Ana has gained the day
A dollar a day is a nigger's pay.

But seven dollars is a white man's pay
For screwing cotton ten hours a day.

Then heave her up, boys, and let her go;
For now we're heading for Mexico.

I heard the skipper say yesterday
We're going to Matamoros Bay.

So heave a pawl, boys, the wind is fair,
Likewise the donnas who live down there.

For Santa Ana has gained the day
From Vera Cruz to Manzanas Bay.
//

//
MISTER "STORMALONG."

"Storma!ong" was a good old man,
Aye, aye, aye, Mister "Stormalong."
For he served his sailors grog by the can.
To me 'way, "Stormalong."

He gave us plenty of spud-hash, too,
And every Sunday we had black-ball stew;

With soup and boulli and lots of duff,
Of soft-tack, also, we got enough.

"Stormy" never put us on our whack;
No pound and pint "according to the Act."

Then shake her up and away we'll go;
We're bound to sail, blow high or low.

I wish I was with "Stormalong"
A-drinking of his rum so strong.

For "Stormalong" was a good old rip,
As good as ever sailed a ship.
//

//
MAID OF AMSTERDAM.

In Amsterdam there lived a fair maid.
Mark well what I do say;
In Amsterdam there lived a fair maid,
And this fair maid my trust betrayed.
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid;
A-roving, a-roving, since roving's been my ruin,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.

I asked this fair maid to take a walk,
That we might have some private talk.

Then I took this fair maid's lily-white hand,
In mine as we walked along the strand.

Then I put my arm around her waist,
And from her lips snatched a kiss in haste.

Then a great, big Dutchman rammed my bow,
And said, "Young man, dis bin mein vrow."

Then take a warning, boys, from me,
With other men's wives don't make too free.

For if you do you will surely rue,
Your act, and find my words come true.
//

//
HOMEWARD BOUND.

We are homeward bound, come, let us all sing.
Good-by, fare you well; good-by, fare you well.
We are homeward bound, strike up with a ring.
Hurrah, my boys, we are homeward bound.

Then I thought I heard our old man say
That our store of grog gave out yesterday.

So heave her up, we are bound to go
Around Cape Horn through frost and snow.

Hurrah, my boys, we are homeward bound;
We are homeward bound to Liverpool town.

And when we get there we'll have money to spend,
With lots of good cheer, boys, and lashings of rum.

The landlord will greet us with a bow and a smile,
A-saying, "Get up Jack and let John sit down."

But when your money it is all gone
Then in comes the landlord with a frown.

A-saying, "Young man, it is time you were gone,
1 have a ship for you bound out to Hongkong."

So shake her up, bullies; let us be gone,
And sing the good news, we are homeward bound.
//

//
HEAVE AWAY, LADS.

Then heave away, my bully boys; the wind is blowing fair.
Heave away, my bullies; heave away, lads.
Our ship will soon be rolling home to merry England's shores.
Heave away, my bully boys; we are all bound to go.

Then hreak her out and square away; we are all bound to go.
Our course lies through those latitudes where stormy winds do blow.

When I was young and in my prime I sailed in the Black Ball line.
They were the finest ships e'er seen upon the ocean brine.

One morning Bridget Donahue came down the dock to see
Old Tapscot 'bout a steerage berth, and presently said she:

"Good morning, Mr. Tapscot, sir." "Good morning, ma'am," says he.
"And have you got a packet ship to carry me over the sea?"

"Oh, yes. I've got a packet ship to carry you over the sea,"
"And, please yet Mr. Tapscot, sir, what may the fare then be?"

"It 'may be' fifty pounds," says he, "and it 'may be' sixty, too;
But eight pound ten we'll call enongh, my pretty dear, for you."

"And here's the money, sir," says she. "Step right onboard," says he;
"The tide is up, the wind is fair, and soon we'll tow to sea."

"At last," says Bridget, "I am off to the far away
Where Barney went two years ago, the land of Americay."

So shake her up, my bully boys, this day we're bound to go;
The anchor is a-weigh, and now for home we'll sing heigh-ho.
//

//
THE DREADNOUGHT.

I sing of a packet, and a packet of fame;
She's commanded by Samuels, the Dreadnought's her name.
She sails to the west'ard where the stormy winds blow;
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the west'ard we'll go.

It's now we are lying in the River Mersey,
Waiting for the Constitution to tow us to sea.
We'll tow 'round the black rock where the Mersey does flow;
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the west'ard we'll go.

It's now we are sailing on the ocean so wide,
Where the deep and blue waters dash by her black side;
With our sails set so neatly, and the red cross will show;
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the west'ard we'll go.

It's now we are sailing 'cross the Banks of Newfoundland,
Where the lead shows sixty fathoms and bottom of sand;
With icebergs all around and northwesters do blow,
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the west'ard we'll go.

It's now we are sailing by the Long Island shore,
Where the pilot he does board us as he [sic] often done before.
And it's "back your main topsail, your fore tack let it go";
She's a Liverpool packet, brave boys, let her go.

And now to conclude and to finish my song,
I hope you'll excuse me if I have sung wrong.
For the song was composed while the watch was below;
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the west'ard we'll go.
//

//
TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY.

I sing of a brave and a gallant ship, a brisk and a lively breeze
A bully crew, and a captain, too, to carry me over the seas.
To carry me over" the seas, my boys, to my truelove so gay.
She has taken a trip in a government ship, ten thousand miles away.
Then blow you winds, heigh-ho, for it's roving I will go.
I'll stay no more on England's shore, so let your music play.
I'm off by the morning train to cross the raging main,
For I'm on the move to my own truelove, ten thousand miles away.

My truelove she is beautiful, and my truelove she is young,
Her eyes as bright as the stars at night, and silvery sounds her tongue.
And silvery sounds her tongue, my boys, but while I sing this lay
She is doing it grand in a distant land, ten thousand miles away.

It was a dark and a dismal morn when last she left the strand.
She bid good-by with a tear-dimmed eye, and waved her lily-white hand.
And waved her lily-white hand, my boys, as the big ship left the bay.
"Adieu," said she, "and remember me ten thousand miles away."

Then I wish I were a boatswain bold, or even a bombardier,
I'd hire a boat and hurry afloat, and straight to my truelove steer.
And straight to my truelove steer, my boys, where the dancing dolphins play,
And the whales and sharks are having their larks ten thousand miles away.

May the sun shine through a London fog; may the Thames run bright and clear;
May the ocean brine be turned to wine; may I forget my beer.
May I forget my beer, my boys, and the landlord his quarter-day,
If ever I part with my sweetheart, although so far away.

Note.--The last two shanties, as well as "Dixie's Isle," were sung more especially when pumping ship, and would therefore, perhaps, be more properly classed as pump shanties.
//

//
TOPSAIL HALYARDS SHANTIES.

TOM IS GONE TO ILO.

Tom is gone and I'll go to.
Away, Ilo.
Tom is gone and so may you.
Tom is gone to Ilo.

For times are hard and wages low;
It's time for you and me to go.

When I was young I served my time
On board the coasting brig "Sublime."

I had but sailed a voyage or two
When I fell in love with a sweet young maid.

Straight to my captain I did go
And told him of my sad grief and woe.

"I love one girl as I love my life,
And what wouldn't I give if she were my wife."

"Go along, go along, you foolish boy,
To love this girl you'll never enjoy.

"Your love's got sweethearts, it may be,
And she'll be married before you are free."

"Never mind, never mind, but I'll go and try;
Perhaps my love will fancy none but I.

"Perhaps her favor I may enjoy
Although I am but a 'prentice boy."

And when me and my shipmates went on the spree
I asked my love would she drink with me.

And she drank with me and was nowise shy.
Although I was but a 'prentice boy.

Note.--At this juncture the shantyman having, perhaps, run out on the shanty proper, and noting that the leaches of the topsail were yet slack,
would proceed somewhat as follows:

Then up aloft that yard must go,
And down on deck we'll coil this fall.

We're bound to go through frost and snow;
We're bound to go, blow high or low.

For growl we may but go we must;
It's on to Liverpool or bust.

Then I thought I heard our chiefmate say,
I thought I heard him say "Belay!"

This was a delicate hint to the mate that, in the opinion of the singer, the sail had been stretched sufficiently; and his "Belay!" was usually so well timed that the mate would then and there roar out, "Belay! Haul taut the lee brace."

The foregoing, and a number of others of a similar tenor, were the "stock verses" to which I referred in my introductory remarks. As many
of the shanties were composed in the same measure, these verses could be tucked in snug among the verses proper whenever "padding" might become necessary.
//

//
'RANZO, BOYS, 'RANZO.

'Way down in Anjou county.
'Ranzo, boys, 'Ranzo.
There lived one Reuben 'Ranzo.
'Ranzo boys, 'Ranzo

Oh 'Ranzo took a notion
That he'd cross the Western Ocean.

So he shipped onboard of a whaler
Along with Captain Taylor.

But 'Ranzo was no sailor,
And neither was he a whaler.

So they put him in the galley,
But he spoiled our morning coffee.

Then they took him to the gangway
And lashed him to a grating.

And gave him five and forty
Of stripes across his backside.

The captain was a good man;
He took him in his cabin

And gave him wine and brandy,
And taught him navigation.

Now 'Ranzo is a captain,
And navigates a whaler.

But he hasn't yet forgotten
When they lashed him to that grating.

So he treats his sailors kindly,
And gives them grog a-plenty.

Note.-'Ranzo is said to be a contraction of Lorenzo, formerly a common name among the whalemen of New Bedford. Mass., a majority of whom were either Portuguese or of Portuguese extraction.
//

//
WHISKEY, JOHNNY.

Oh, whiskey is the life of man,
Whiskey, Johnny.
For who can do what whiskey can?
Whiskey for me, Johnny.

Hard is our life and short our day,
So I'll drink whiskey while I may.

For whiskey is the friend of man,
So drink it down, boys, all you can.

It's whiskey hot and whiskey cold;
That's how we spend our hard-earned gold.

Oh, whiskey killed my father dead,
And whiskey broke my mother's heart.

It drove my sister on the street,
And sent my brother to the jail.

And whiskey made me leave my home
In foreign countries for to roam.

For whiskey is what brought me here;
It surely is the devil's cheer.

So drink it down, boys, good and strong,
And let us have another song.

Oh, whiskey is the life of man,
For who can do what whiskey can?
//

//
BLOW, BOYS, BLOW.

And it's blow, my boys, for I love to hear you.
Blow, boys, blow.
I love to hear you roll it, bullies.
Blow, my bully boys, blow.

Then blow, my boys, for finer weather
And for a fair wind. and blow together.

A Yankee ship came down the river
And proudly flew her Irish pennants.

And who d'ye think was the captain of her?
Why, "Bucko" Brown, that damned old driver.

And what d'ye think they had for breakfast?
A chunk of salthorse and deviled lobcouse.

And what d'ye think they had for dinner?
A monkey's lights and a bullock's liver.

And who d'ye think was "the chief mate of her?
'Twas "Lily" White, the big Georgia nigger.

And as we passed her by to leeward
Our skipper hailed that nigger chief mate:

"And how's things 'way down in Georgia?"
"Why, red hot, sah, an' still a-heating."

Then blow to-day and blow to-morrow
And blow away all care and sorrow. '

No matter what the wind or weather,
We are the boys can blow together.
//

//
BLOW THE MEN DOWN.

Oh, blow the men down, bullies, blow the men down.
To me 'way, heigh, blow the men down.
An~ blow the men down from Liverpool town.
Give me sometime to blow the men down.

Oh, blow the men down on board of this craft
For blow the men down is the word from aft.

As I was a-walking down South Castle street
A cheeky policeman I chanced for to meet.

He opened his gob, and he gave me some jaw,
And I laid him out stiff with me Erin go bragh.

I up with my helm and ran for Lime street,
And there an old skirt-rigged craft I did meet.

"Oh, Jack," says she, "will you stand a treat?"
"Oh yes, my dear, when next we meet."

She up with her fist and she knocked me down.
"I'll show you," says she, "how to blow the men down."

So blow the men down, bullies, blow the men down,
For that is the style of Liverpool town.
//

//
JOHN FRANCOIS.

Oh, Bonny was a warrior,
To me 'way, heigh-ho.
But we licked him at Trafalgar.
John Francois.

He tried to conquer all Europe,
But he couldn't, conquer old England.

Oh, Donny went to Russia,
To Austria, Spain and Prussia.

And Bonny went to Moscow,
But Moscow was a-burning.

There he lost a bunch of roses,
A bonny bunch of roses.

Twas a token of disaster;
Bold Wellington was his master.

At Waterloo we caught him
And sent him to Saint Helena.

Oh, Bonny was a warrior,
But he couldn't conquer old England.

For he lost his bunch of roses,
His bonny bunch of roses.
//

//
FORESHEET SHANTIES.

JOHNNY BOWKER.

Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, come, rock and roll me over;
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, do.

Come, rock and roll me over from Calais town to Dover.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, the ship she is a-rolling.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, the old man is a-growling.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, the wind it is a-howling.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, I'd like to marry your daughter,
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, and take her across the water.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, come, give us finer weather.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, come, let us pull together.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, the gale is still a-blowing.
Come, do. my Johnny Bowker, this sheet is still a-flowing.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, our arms are sore and aching.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, our hearts are nigh to breaking.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, the sheet is now a-straining.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, and nothing are we gaining.
(Belay!)
//

//
HAUL ON THE BOWLINE.

Haul on the bowline, the bonny, bonny bowline.
Haul on the bowline, the bowline, haul.

Haul on the bowline, for something is a-holding.
Haul on the bowline, we'll either bend or break her.
Haul on the bowline, and if she won't we'll make her.
Haul on the bowline, we are the boys so handy.
Haul on the bowline, but that one was a dandy.
Haul on the bowline, and fiddlest ring her braces.
Haul on the bowline, we'll give her merry blazes.
Haul on the bowline, the mate says, "Haul 'em tauter."
Haul on the bowline, and send her 'cross the water.
Haul on the bowline, she's making heavy weather.
Haul on the bowline, and buckle off together.
Haul on the bowline, and drive the ship along, boys.
Haul on the bowline, let's drive her good and strong, boys.
Haul on the bowline, a gale of wind is coming.
Haul on the bowline, and then she'll go a-humming.
Haul on the bowline, we'lI either bend or break her.
Haul on the bowline, and may the devil take her.
(Belay!)
//

Interesting here the "bunch of posies" lyric.
//
HAUL AWAY, JOE.

Away, haul away, boys, and haul away, my rosies.
Away, haul away, and haul away, Joe.

Away, haul away, boys, and haul, my bunch of posies.
Oh, once I loved an Irish girl, she damned near drove me crazy.
And then I loved a Deutscher girl, she was so fat and lazy.
And then I loved a Spanish girl, she was so proud and haughty.
And then I loved a French girl, oh my, but she was naughty.
And then I loved a Yankee girl, she was so tall and slender.
And then I loved an English girl, her eyes were blue and tender.
And then I loved a Scotch lass, she was so fair and bonny.
But she wouldn't look at me for either love or money.
Then away, hau1 away, boys, I'm through with all love-making;
And away, haul away, boys the game is too heart-breaking. '
(Belay!)

Note.--If more verses happened to be needed they were usually borrowed from Johnny Bowker or Haul on the Bowline.
//

Also mentions timber stowing songs "Miss Rosa Lee" "Somebody Told Me So" "Yankee John, Storm Along."
//
In addition to our sea shanties proper we also had timber shanties, sung when loading heavy timbers into a ship's hold. As, however they originated with, and were mostly sung by 'longshore timber stowers, I have not deemed it advisable to include them in the present collection.
The most popular of the timber shanties were Miss Rosa Lee, Somebody Told Me So, and Yankee John, Storm Along. They are still sung by the negro timber stowers in the seaports of the South.

Then, too, we used to sing a shanty -- if shanty it can be called -- when rolling the bunt of a heavy sail up on the yard. After all the slack of the sail had been gathered into the bunt, and we had gotten a firm hold of the "skin," the shantyman would sing:

"'Way, heigh, heigh-ho."

To which all hands chorused:

"And we'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots."

This would be repeated at every toss until the bunt had finally been rolled up on the yard. Paddy Doyle, by the way, was a Liverpool shoemaker, known to a11 the "packet-rats" sailing out of that port for the excellency of his sea-boots, and beloved for his readiness to trust any of the boys for the price of a pair when they were outward bound across "the big pond."
//


His comment on the relative value of the solo lyrics is very quotable:
//
…with us sailors the tune and the chorus counted, in point of importance, as nine-tenths or the shanty, the remaining tenth being just a convenient peg on which to hang the other nine. To be sure, the more ornamental and handsome the peg, the better we
liked it. But on a pinch any old song would do, rhyme or no rhyme, relevancy or no relevancy, provided, of course, it would fit the tune. …
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Mar 11 - 08:31 PM

1908        Williams, James H. "Joseph O'Brien, Irishman." _The Independent_ 64(3090) (20 Feb. 1908): 395.

Nothing new or exciting here. Just a logging of this writing by James H. Williams that came the year before his 1909 article devoted to chanties. He his relaying (perhaps embellished) and story from his experience (i.e. circa mid-1870s-1880s), in the context of which he takes the liberty to quote his version of HAUL AWAY JOE.

At the time of writing, Williams had "returned" to New York and was working as editor of a magazine for the Sailor's Union. Does anyone know what magazine that would be exactly?

Another question: F.P. Harlow quotes a few of Williams' chanties, which he vaguely attributes to an article published around 1920. I don't find any more specific info. I browsed The Independent for that year, but have not yet found anything. I am thinking it might be the Sailor's Union magazine that it was in (?).

//
We had belayed our braces and were hauling away on the fore-sheet to the strains of that good old fore-sheet chanty:

"Haul away the bowlin',
The packet ship's a-rolling';
Away haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

Haul away together,
We'll either break or bend her;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

Oh, haul away, my bully boys,
We're sure to make her render;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

Oh, once I had an Irish girl,
And she was fat and lazy;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

And now I've got a Yankee girl,
She almost sets me crazy;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Mar 11 - 03:53 AM

Here's a sort of run-down of what's in (or what jumped out at me from in) Harlow's posthumously collected work. It does not do it justice, but it is all I can muster right now. Basically it is a list of the contents (song titles) with some identifying information of what the chanties were used for, who sang them or where Harlow learned them from, and some miscellaneous observations. Better to read to book, but perhaps this will serve some function in this thread for comparison and search purposes. At this point, I have been anxious at least to have some sort of break down of Harlow's chanties in order to fit them into the scheme of "trajectory of chantying development," so...

1962        Harlow, Frederick Pease. _Chanteying Aboard American Ships._ Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishing Co.

Footnotes indicate that Harlow had read: Dana, Smith, Masefield, Whall, Lubbock (Around the Horn), Luce, Clark (The Clipper Ship Era), Terry, Colcord, Buryeson, and Williams. Does anyone knowabout the Capt. Botterill and Capt Nye that he talks about? Some of the chanties came from them.

Harlow was son of a Methodist minister in Newport RI. December 1875 shipped out of Boston, to Austrtalia and Java, on the medium clipper Akbar of Peabody's Australian Line.

1928, The Marine Research Society published Harlow's account _The Making of a Sailor or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger._

A section of the book appeared in installments in 1948 in the periodical _The American Neptune._

Harlow says: Chanties were so common in the 70s, that they were sung on all square riggers, even in brigs and topsail schooners.
Good chanteyman was often paid more.
Often dirty lyrics.
Some people "would string out a chantey by repeating every line, using words with no meaning and sometimes without regard to rhythme or metre. But if he were original, he would make up verses as he sang, bringing in incidents of voyage in such a vivid way that the crew redoubled their efforts…"

Classification of 4 different kinds of chanties:

CAPSTAN – capstan or windlass
LONG DRAG – topsail halyards
SHORT DRAG – sheets/tacks/bowline
HAND OVER HAND – hoisting light sails, 2-3 men on halyards. Includes Drunken Sailor in this.

Early chanties were more in minor keys. Mentions Antebellum cotton screwing of Negroes and give example:

WE'RE ALL SURROUNDED

Whites imitated "heavy" harmonious chorus of Blacks.

Chanties reached zenith in 1870s. Then declined under steam in 1880s.

Lots about sing-outs, w/ specific phrases.

Section: "Chanteying On the Akbar"

-HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (WE'RE ALL BOUND TO GO)
Jerry at the windlass. "Heave away my Johnnies, heave away/heave away, my Johnny boys, We're all bound to go"
-HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES II
"As sung by Fred. H. Burgeson, San Francisco"
-CLEAR THE TRACK, LET THE BULGINE RUN. Jerry at windlass sang at
pumps; Later, Brooks sings it at pumps.
"Ah-he, ah-ho, are you most done? So, clear the track, let the bulgine run"
-WHISKEY. Handsome Charlie begins with sing-out at topsail halliard.
Then Jerry came and sang this:"Oh, whiskey, Johnny!/Oh, whiskey for my Johnny!"
-THE DRUNKEN SAILOR (UP SHE RISES)
Jerry at main topgallant, hand over hand
- JOHN FRANCOIS (BONEY WAS A WARRIOR), fore topgallant.
-PADDY DOYLE AND HIS BOOTS, Jerry bunting.
-SOUTH AUSTRALIA, Dave at windlass.
-GOLDEN VANITEE (slower), windlass
-CAN'T YOU DANCE THE POLKA (faster), windlass
-SANTY, Brooks at windlass. "And hurrah! You Santy, my dear
honey/Hurrah! You Santy, I love you for your money.
-SANTA ANA (ON THE PLAINS OF MEXICO).
"Hurrah! Santa Ana!/On the plains of Mexico."
-ONE MORE DAY, An "ancient chantey"
Minor chanties sung in hot weather!
-HEAVE AWAY CHEERILY, Brooks, pumps.
-HANGING JOHNNY, Brooks at main topsail. "words were of Negro
extraction." Also fore topsail.
Footnote says Harlow heard this in June 1878 during a voyage to Barbados in the barque Conquest of Boston.
"The negro stevedores at the fall where the cargo was hoisted by hand, sang this chantey day after day, suing words for all relations, including hanging the baby as well as the bull pup, the pigs and the goats. The harmony of their voices outshone any college quartet ever heard. It was a standoff between Hanging Johnny and I Love the Blue Mountains of Tennessee as to which they liked best.
It was in the month of June and those negroes worked in the hot sun, singing away as they worked, until the leading chanteyman was out of breath, only to be relieved by another nearly his equal. Such singing I never expect to hear again under similar circumstances…
The leading chanteyman…The whites of his eyes shone brightly as he pulled at the fall and the whipcords in his neck stood out like a pair of swifters showing the strain he was under as he sang hour after hour. He improvised words as only a negro poet could, at times so comical as to cause his companions to laugh heartily when forced to use too many words in the metre to make up the rhyme…"
-A-ROVING (THE MAID OF AMSTERDAM), Pumps.
-A-ROVING II – "Words by Burgeson"
-THE SAILOR'S ALPHABET pumps, (not the version actually heard)
-THE HOG-EYE MAN, pumps
-CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, pumps
-ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN, Main topsail halliards:
-A LONG TIME AGO – "Capt. J. L. Botterill", Fore upper topsail:.
-A LONG TIME AGO II
-A LONG TIME AGO III, "Another set of words by the colored writer,
Williams:" It's like in his 1908 article.
-WHISKEY II, Topgallant halliards, walk away. "Capt. J.L. Botterill"
-WHISKEY III, reproduced from elsewhere – Crayfish theme
-BLOW BOYS BLOW, for light sails
-POOR OLD MAN, Fore upper topsail halyards.
-THE DEAD HORSE (with indication that it goes to same tune as previous).
Tells of the ceremony, quoting a writer (who is unclear to me), and seems to imply that he never saw this ceremony first hand.
-A FAL-DE-LAL-DAY, a "whistling chantey" performed by Brooks at the
pumps (also windlass).
-RIDING ON A DONKEY, Brooks at halliards. But the version given is
credited to Capt. J.L. Botterill.
-TOMMY'S GONE TO HILO. Main topgallant.
-SHORT DRAG, ("Corn broom…") Taking in slack of topsail sheet
-HAUL AWAY JOE, sung by second mate, Mr. Sanborn, while rousing home
the main sheet. Also for fore sheet.
-STORM ALONG JOHN at mizzen topsail halliards. It's MR. STORMALONG
in "flipped" form.
-STORM ALONG JOHN II. Halyards, hand over hand. It's STORMY ALONG
JOHN.
-STORM ALONG JOHN III. Halyards. Another version of MR.
STORMALONG, not flipped.
-STORMY, hand over hand, halyards. Also MR. STORMALONG, not flipped.
"Storm Along John was very popular on all merchantmen, but the 'Badian negroes took great delight in singing the words in many variations and when once started would sing one after another, changing the air to suit their mood."
-STORMY II, halyards, hand over hand. "Way-oh, Stormalong John."
-OLD STORMY hand over hand. Another STORMY ALONG JOHN.
-POOR OLD JOE, halyards, hand over hand. This is like Poor Old
Man/DEAD HORSE.
-SUN DOWN BELOW halyards. "Words by Masefield"
"Sun Down Below, Mobile Bay, Way Sing Sally and Hilo, My Ranzo Way, are purely West Indian negro chanteys sung while hoisting cargo from the hold of ships and seldom if ever sung by sailors at the halliards."
-MOBILE BAY, hand over hand, "Were you ebba in Mobile Bay?"
-WAY SING SALLY, hand over hand. "'Badian coon chantey"
-HILO, MY RANZO WAY, hand over hand
"Ranzo is purely a Southern negro term used in the cotton ships at Mobile and New Orleans, and also sung by the 'Badian negros at the fall."
-REUBEN RANZO, by Brooks at topsails, also used as hand over hand.
-BLOW THE MAN DOWN, topgallant halyards.
-BLOW THE MAN DOWN II (more lyrics)
"This chantey was usually sung by white sailors, ending the chorus on the key note. But the negroes in Barbados sang it, employing their harmonious functions by ending the chorus strong on the fourth above, which was very effective and pleasing to the ear."
-HAUL THE BOWLINE, Brooks at fore sheet
-JOHNNY BOKER, rousing home the tack
-SLAPANDER-GOSHEKA, tacks and sheets. "What would my mother say to
me, if I should come home with Big Billy?"
-LEAVE HER JOHNNY, LEAVE HER, pumps
-CRUISE OF THE DREADNAUGHT, capstan
-THE BLACK BALL LINE, capstan
-THE BLACK BALL LINE II. This is a version from Williams in a magazine
around 1920
-JOHNNY GET YOUR OATCAKE DONE (JAMBOREE), Capstan. These words
were given him by Captain Nye. "When I was a boy I used to sing it using the words, "Johnny get your hoe-cake done."
-EARLY IN THE MORNING – a set of words supposedly used to the tune of
Jamboree
-BANKS OF SACRAMENTO, Archie at the capstan.
-RIO GRANDE, capstan.
-SHENANDOAH, capstan, Archie
-FROM SURABAYA TO PASOEROEAN, capstan "Javanese Chantey"
-AH-HOO-E-LA-E, Rolling Sugar "Javanese Chantey"
-TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY, capstan
-HOMEWARD BOUND (GOOD-BYE FARE YOU WELL), capstan, Archie
-SALLY BROWN (ROLL AND GO). Capstan
-FIRE DOWN BELOW, pumps with and "ohio", different parst of the ship
-FIRE DOWN BELOW II. This is from Williams (Get a bucket of water.)
-SHALLOW BROWN, "sung at the fall by the 'Badian negroes."
-LOWLANDS capstan
-BLOW YE WINDS IN THE MORNING Capstan.
-THE MERMAN – This comes from Luce
-ROLLING HOME, Capstan, Archie
-ROLLING HOME II – from Whall
-OUTWARD BOUND Capstan
-OH, POOR PADDY WORKS ON THE RAILWAY, Capstan
-SO HANDY, MY BOYS, SO HANDY, topsail halyards
-I LOVE THE BLUE MOUNTAINS topgallant "These words are of negro
origin and different from those used by our crew."
-ROLL THE COTTON DOWN, halyards
-SONG OF THE FISHES, halyards
-THE MERMAID, capstan, Archie
-A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, hand over hand, Williams

Section: "Chanties and Sea Songs"

-BOSTON, capstan, from Whall.
-THE BOS'UNS'S STORY, "walk away". Sung to Harlow by Captain J.L.
Botterill, who said it was sung on barque Samantha. Could only 1935. That version came from Capt. A.G. Cole of Isle of Wight. Harlow puts these lyrics with Botterill's tune. ""'Tis a hundred years," said the bo'sun bold, "since I was a boy at sea."
-NANCY LEE, capstan, attributed to Stephan Adams
-HIGH BARBAREE, capstan, from Luce?
-ALONG THE LOWLANDS, capstan
-BARNACLE BILL THE SAILOR, pumps
-THE PRIEST AND THE NUNS, pumps
-DO ME AMA, pumps, from Whall
-ADIEU TO MAIMUNA, capstan, sung in the early fifties American ships
-LET GO THE REEFY TACKLE – strictly speaking, not a chantey
-JAPANESE SHORT DRAG , heard when Japanese sailors were heaving
sacks of potatoes: "yoya sano sa!"
-THE PIRATE OF THE ISLE "Sung by Wm. R.B. Dawson, an old-time
chanteyman."
-MARRIED TO A MERMAID, capstan "English"
-THE YANKEE MAN-OF-WAR (Stately Southerner)
-THE YANKEE MAN OF WAR II, sung to Harlow by Wm. RB Dawson
-THE SHIP LORD WOLSELEY, tune of Yankee Man-of-War, composed by
Dawson
-THE CONSTITUTION AND THE GUERRIERE
-SHANNON AND CHESAPEAKE, from Whall
-YANKEE TARS, from Luce
-NANTUCKET P'INT, from the New York Sun
-THE NANTUCKET SKIPPER, by J.T. Fields
-THE FATE OF THE NANCY BELL, by W.S. Gilbery
-THE BARBER SONG, from Vineyard Gazette
-THE LIVERPOOL GIRLS, capstan, from Bone
-JOHN, JOHN CROW, hand over hand, "Barbadian negro chantey,
unloading cargo." "Every Sunday mornin' John, Hohn Crow. When I go a-courtin', John, John Crow."
-GWINE TO GIT A HOME BIME BY, 'Badian hand over hand
-LINDY LOWE, 'Badian hand over hand
-THE DARKY SUNDAY SCHOOL, 'Badian hand over hand
-DIXIE'S ISLE, from Buryeson
-ABOARD THE HENRY CLAY, O Susannah-like melody

Section: "Whaing Songs"

-IT'S ADVERTISED IN BOSTON, windlass, "Cheer up my lively lads"
-'TWAS A LOVE OF ADVENTURE
-A HOME ON THE MOUNTAIN WAVE, as his brother Wiley sang it
-OLD NANTUCKET WHALING SONG
-EDGARTOWN WHALING SONG, same tune as above
-THE COAST OF PERU
-THE WHALE, from Whall
-THE GREENLAND WHALE, capstan, sung by Black sailor Richard Duncan.
-THE HORN OF THE HIRAM Q, by L.E. Richards
-ROLLING DOWN TO OLD MAUI
-BAFFIN'S BAY, as sung by Fred Stone, to tune of Yankee Man-of-War
-THE WHALEMEN'S WIVES, by Capt. R.W. Nye of the barque Guy C. Goss,
given to Harlow

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 27 Mar 11 - 08:01 AM

Hey, Gibb, this jumped out at me on your list:

"It was a standoff between Hanging Johnny and I Love the Blue Mountains of Tennessee as to which they liked best."

I've never heard of "I Love the Blue Mountains of Tennessee"! Is this the "long-lost" possible connection of some Appalachian Mountain music with sea chanties? I'd be interested to know if anybody comes up with anything on this. And how did this get to Barbados!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 27 Mar 11 - 08:17 AM

Well, apparently "I Love the Blue Mountains of Tennessee" was a minstrel song and was used as a chanty. Here is a snippet from a journal article in WESTERN FOLKLORE, Vol. 22:

http://books.google.com/books?id=p4wLAAAAIAAJ&q=%22The+Blue+Mountains+of+Tennessee%22&dq=%22The+Blue+Mountains+of+Tennessee%22&h

Roger Abrahams quotes the passage from Harlow in DEEP THE WATER, SHALLOW THE SHORE, (p. 9), but doesn't say anything about "I Love the Blue Mountains". Maybe somebody can look up the article in WESTERN FOLKLORE.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 03:31 AM

Here are the full lyrics for Harlow's "I Love the Blue Mountains."

I LOVE THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
Halliards

Oh, I love the Blue Mountains
    The Blue Mountains of Tennessee.
That's the place for you and me,
    I'm bound for Tennessee.

In eighteen hundred and sixty-three,
That's where my mass set me free.

My wife is there with her pickaninny,
And soon I'll have him upon my knee.

The ship sails free for you and me,
When I get there I'll quit the sea.


The minstrel song medium does seem like the most likely way for this song about the Appalachians to have reach Barbados.

The style of the song reminds me of both "Poor Lucy Anna" / "Oh, Louisiana" (also in Abrahams) and "Good Morning Ladies All (Hugill's version 'A')". I guess I wouldn't be surprised if they were all (originally at least) minstrel songs create about the same time.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 03:41 AM

John,
The Western Folklore article is just Abrahams' brief review of Harlow's posthumous collection. Not much to it. He doesn't say anything more about the song than you already noted -- he just quotes it and cites it alongside of Golden Vanitee to demonstrate the variety/range of songs in the collection.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 10:57 AM

Gibb, thanks for posting those lyrics. I don't know why I didn't think to actually look in Harlow! The "obvious"....! And thanks for checking out the Western Folklore article. Those snippets can drive you crazy. I would be interested to see if anyone turns up any other reference to this song. I couldn't find it in the minstrel collections, but it was a quick look.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 11:20 AM

There's something about this song that doesn't ring true for me. The sentimental attachment to the "Blue Mountains of Tennessee" sounds very post-minstrel, very 1890s or even later. The rest seems more believable - though the abundant internal rhymes of the last stanza seem awfully self-conscious.

Is this Harlow's unreliable reconstruction, in the 1920s or later, of something he only dimly remembered? It would seem so. What's this business about "These words are of negro origin and different from those used by our crew"? If they weren't used by the crew, where'd he get them? What does "negro origin" mean here, exactly?

I don't want to think about it.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 02:36 PM

There's a typ-o in my lyrics transcription: "massa".

John M --

Nor have I been able to find anything on the song after poking around a little. And the usual translation to "minstrel language" phrases "I lub de blue mountains ob Tennessee" did nothing. Ha!


Lighter--

Thanks for booking a fare on my Doubting Harlow Train! :)

The lyrics really do sound "off." Actually, to put it in an unhelpful and subjective way: to me they just sound bad! You may be on to something in suspecting a later dating.

After this reading of Harlow, I got the feeling that perhaps most of his "negro" (not minstrel) shanties are labeled as such based on his profound experience and observations in Barbados on that one trip. Certainly all the songs labeled as "'Badian hand over hand" throughout the book are likely from that incident.

"Harlow's unreliable reconstruction" sounds like a good possibility. He wanted to give the song as he'd heard it in Barbados, but could not remember the exact wording. He used evocative lynchpins like "massa" and "pickaninny," but his efforts came out in his own, later language.

By his statement, "These words are of negro origin and different from those used by our crew", I'd guess that he presumed the song to be of Black origins due to its popularity with the Bajans. His own crew, I'd guess, picked up the song afterwards, but used different lyrics. Here, Harlow is attempting to recall what he believed were the original words.

FWIW the melody also sounds awkward to me in the way it fits the words. Certain melodic and rhythmic emphases don't seem as "natural" as they could be. Perhaps they are just unfamiliar, and from my current perspective I perceive them as less natural.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 03:07 AM

Here's my attempt to derive the contents of Davis & Tozer's 2nd edition (unseen), from circa 1890. The first edition (which I believe was not widely read) had 24 chanties. The second version added 16 "of a more modern character." The third added 10 more -- most or all adapted from LA Smith. By comparing texts and thinking which may have come from Smith, I was able to remove the Smith songs and derive this 2nd edition. Well, one of the songs I was unsure about.

1. Sally Brown
2. Away for Rio
3. We're All Bound to Go
4. The Wide Missouri
5. Leave Her, Johnnie
6. Can't You Dance a Polka?
7. The Black Ball Line
8. Hoodah Day
9. Homeward Bound
10. Hame, Dearie, Hame

I stand on deck, my dearie, and in my fancy see,
The faces of the loved ones that smile across the sea; 

Yes, the faces of the loved ones, but 'midst them all so clear, 

I see the one I love the best--your bonnie face, my dear."
And its hame, dearie, hame! oh, it's hame I want to be,
My topsails are hoisted, and I must out to sea;
For the oak, and the ash, and the bonnie birchen tree,
They're all a-growin' green in the North-a-countree."

11. As Off to the South'ard We Go

The wind is free and we're bound for sea,
Heave away, cheerily, ho, oh!

ETC


12. On the Plains of Mexico

Oh, Santa Anna won the day,
Away Santa Anna.
Santa Anna won the day
On the plains of Mexico

Oh, Santa Anna fought for fame,

ETC

13. Haul the Bowlin'
14. Whiskey for My Johnnie
15. Reuben Ranzo
16. Blow, Boys, Blow
17. Blow the Man Down
18. Tom's Gone to *'Ilo
19. What to Do with a Drunken Sailor

What shall I do with a drunken sailor,
What shall I do with a drunken sailor,
What shall I do with a drunken sailor,
Early in the morning
[Cho.] Aye, aye, up she rises,
Oh, aye, up she rises,
Aye, aye, up she rises,
Early in the morning.

ETC.

20. Boney Was a Warrior

Boney was a warrior,
Oh aye, oh,
Boney was a warrior,
John Franzo.

Boney marched to Moscow,

Moscow all a-blazing,

Boney had to turn again,

Boney went to Waterloo

Boney met a warrior,

Boney had to run away,

Boney was a warrior,

Boney was a prisoner,
Boney was a prisoner,

Boney broke his heart and died,
Boney broke his heart and died,

MIDI: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/bwarrior.html

21. Highland Laddie

There was a laddie came from Scotland,
Highland laddie, bonnie laddie.
Bonnie laddie from fair Scotland,
Highland laddie, ho!

22. Hanging Johnnie
23. The Sailor's Loves

The maiden, oh, the maiden, oh,
The sailor loves the maiden, oh!
So early in the morning,
The sailor loves the maiden, oh!
[cho.] A maid that is young, a maid that is fair,
A maid that is kind and pleasant, oh
So early in the morning, the sailor loves the maiden, oh!

ETC

24. So Handy, My Boys

Oh, up aloft the yard must go,
So handy, my boys, so handy.
Oh, up aloft from down below,
So handy, my boys, so handy.

ETC

25. Haul Away, Jo
26. I'm Bound Away to Leave You
27. Johnny Bowker

Oh do, my Johnnie Bowker,
Come rock and roll me over,
Do, my Johnnie Bowker, Do.

28. A Hundred Years Ago
Smith?
A hundred years is a very long time,
Ho, yes, ho!
A hundred years is a very long time,
A hundred years ago.

29. Paddy Doyle's Boots

30. One More Day for Johnnie

Only one more day for Johnnie,
One more day.
Oh! rock and roll me over,
Only one more day.

ETC.

31. A-Roving
32. Storm Along
33. The Saucy Sailor Boy

He was a saucy sailor boy
Who'd come from afar,
To ask a maid to be the bride
Of a poor Jack tar.

The maiden, a poor fisher girl,
Stood close by his side;
With scornful look she answered thus;
I'll not be your bride.

You're mad to think I'd marry you
Too ragged you are;
Begone, you saucy sailor boy,
Begone you Jack tar.

I've money in my pocket, love,
And bright gold in store;
These clothes of mine are all in rags,
But coin can buy more.

Though black my hands my gold is clean
So I'll sail afar,
A fairer maid than you, I ween,
Will wed this Jack tar.

Stay! Stay! you saucy sailor boy,
Do not sail afar;
I love you and will marry you,
You silly Jack tar.

'Twas but to tease I answered so,
I thought you could guess
That when a maiden answers no
She always means yes.

Begone you pretty fisher girl,
Too artful are you;
So spake the saucy sailor boy,
Gone was her Jack tar.

MIDI: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/saucy.html

34. Mobile Bay
35. Fire Down Below

Fire in the galley, fire in the house,
Fire in the beef kid, scorching the scouse.
Fire, fire, fire down below,
Fetch a bucket of water,
Fire down below.

Fire in the cabin, fire in the hold,
Fire in the strong room melting the gold.

Fire round the capstan, fire on the mast,
Fire on the main deck, burning it fast.

Fire in the lifeboat, fire in the gig,
Fire in the pig-stye roasting the pig.

Fire in the store room spoiling the food,
Fire on the orlop burning the wood.

Fire on the waters, fire high above,
Fire in our hearts for the friends that we love.

MIDI: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/fire.html

36. The Girl with the Blue Dress

A girl asleep with a blue dress on,
Shake her, Johnnie, shake her.
An unsafe couch she's resting on,
Shake her, and so wake her.

ETC.

37. The Ox-Eyed Man

The ox-eyed man is the man for me,
He came a sailing from o'er the sea
Heigh ho for the ox-eyed man.

Oh, May in the garden a shelling her peas,
And bird singing gaily among the trees.

Oh, May looked up and she saw her fate
In the ox-eyed man passing by the gate

The ox-eyed man gave a fond look of love,
And charmed May's heart which was pure as a dove,

Oh, May in the parlour a-sitting on his knee,
And kissing the sailor who'd come o'er the sea

Oh, May in the garden a-shelling her peas,
Now weeps for the sailor who sail'd o'er the sea.
Heigh ho for the ox-eyed man.

MIDI: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/oxeyed.html

38. Eight Bells
39. Salt Horse
40. The Dead Horse

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 11:12 AM

Gibb-

I'm curious if any one here has or can find more clues to the origin of the rowing shanty "Haul Awa." It's unclear if the reference by Thomas Burke to the song being "an old Malayan chanty" means that it was originally a traditional Malayan rowing song or sung by sailors who frequented that part of the world. The author of LIMEHOUSE NIGHTS, Thomas Burke, was not himself a deep-water sailor but a writer who grew up in London's sailortown. The fragment Burke transcribed is as follows:

Love is kind to the least of men . . .
Eee-awa! Eee-awa!

Here's the song as it's now sung with some notes:

HAUL AWA'

(Traditional after singing of Lucy Simpson and Robin Roberts (now Robin Howard)
Recorded by the Boarding Party on 'TIS OUR SAILING TIME, © 2000 Folk Legacy Records, Inc.)

Love is kind to the least of men,
Haul awa', haul awa',
Though he be but a drunken tar
Haul awa', awa'.

Once I had a star-eyed maid…
I was content with her to lay…

In the comfort of her bed…
Let me lay until I'm dead…

Take my body to the shore…
Star-eyed maid, I'll sail no more…

Here's my blessing (story) – let it be…
May you love as she loved me…*

Love is kind to the least of men…
Though he be but a drunken tar…*

* New verses added by Lucy Simpson

Notes edited from CD:

Robin learned the song from a Massachusetts woman, a Mrs. Walsh, who had gotten it in turn from "a retired clipper ship sailor." Robin recorded the chorus as "Ee awa."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 05:11 PM

Hi Charlie!

I had poked into this when you posted it, but only now just getting time to sort out my notes and reply.

Your question about what Burke means by "Malayan chanty" is certainly the crux of it! If it was a chanty sung by Malays, why the English text? I haven't found an answer, however, I *think* he means to imply that it was indeed a song sung by gents of Malay ethnicity.

Burke mentions the chanty (twice) in his earlier book, _Nights in Town: a London Autobiography_ from 1915. Although this book (as opposed to Limehouse Nights) was of a more journalistic, non-fiction style, my understanding is that the idea Burke grew up in sailortown is something of a myth. However, I think he had been observing these haunts recently as an adult, so is writing from his actual observations. And I don't see any reason to doubt that he actually heard a chanty (or some song that he classed as a chanty) that said "Love is kind to the least of men". In fact, it seems to have really made an impression on him if he is to quote it twice in Nights in Town and twice in Limehouse Nights.

Nights in Town gives what seems to be the context in which he actually heard it, though it still doesn't answer our main questions about whether it was truly "Malay" and (my question) what sort of chanty it might have been (related to a steamship?). Here is the passage, from pg 207 of the American edition:

Sheer above the walls of East India Dock rose the deck of the Cawdor Castle, as splendidly correct as a cathedral. The leaping lines of her seemed lost in the high skies, and she stood out sharply, almost ecstatically. Against such superb forces of man, the forces of Nature seemed dwarfed. It was a lyric in steel and iron. Men hurried from the landing-stage, up the plank, vanishing into the sly glooms of the huge port-holes. Chains rang and rattled. Lascars of every kind flashed here and there: Arabs, Chinkies, Japs, Malays, East Indians. Talk in every lingo was on the air. Some hurried from the dock, making for a lodging-house or for The Asiatics' Home. Some hurried into the dock, with that impassive swiftness which gives no impression of haste, but rather carries a touch of extreme languor. An old cargo tramp lay in a far berth, and one caught the sound of rushing blocks, and a monotonous voice wailing the Malayan chanty: "Love is kind to the least of men, EEEE-ah, EEEE-ah!" Boats were loading up. Others were unloading. Over all was the glare of arclights, and the flutter of honeyed tongues.

Interesting that this earlier version was "EEEE-ah" rather than "Eee-awa". The "awa" seems like it might have inspired the "haul away" adaptation.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 06:18 PM

An interesting artifact of one of the ideas of chanty development here. In 1914, Bullen had come out with his collection in which he states, "...the majority of the Chanties are Negroid in origin." This issue of _The Crisis_ (NAACP Journal started by W.E.B. Dubois) took note, in October 1914:

According to Frank T. Bullen in London Tit Bits, the majority of chanties, sea-songs sung by sailors, come from the Negroes of the southern states, the crude songs being sung to lighten hours of labor.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 08:09 PM

A "Malayan" shanty? With the untraditional-sounding "Love is kind to the least of men"?

I doubt it.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 08:19 PM

Gibb-

Thanks for the additional notes on the "Malayan" shanty. I always assumed that the chorus phrase was Malayan but the verses were translations and add-ons.

I was hoping that someone would come up with Malayan words for the verses as well.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 09:01 PM

I always assumed that the chorus phrase was Malayan but the verses were translations and add-ons.

Yes, that's what I'm also assuming. But how would Burke translate? one wonders.

"Malayan" could refer to several different subjects, I suppose.

If Burke mentions it 4 times and calls it "Malayan," it seems odd there wouldn't be *some* kind of connection. Exoticizing I can understand, but why not just call it a "chanty" the other times? Why emphasize "Malayan" here, for instance?:

Pg252
Love, says an old Malayan chanty which I learned at West India Dock—Love is kind to the least of men. God will it so!

It seems to have become Burke's pet reference. Perhaps he was so struck by it that he asked someone the meaning when he heard it, and rendered it in his literary way.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jun 11 - 12:17 AM

Here's a corn-shucking reference, to a JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO form and other chanty-like call-and-response forms, that I missed up until now.

1863        Fedric, Francis. _Slave Life in Virginia and Kentucky._ London: Wertheim, Macintosh, and Hunt.

Escaped slave Fedric(/Frederick) lived circa 1805-1882. This passage would seem to refer to circa 1820s to 1833. There seem to be 3 different corn songs, among more details of what corn-shucking competitions were like. The choruses don't seem to coordinate any work; they are just a feature of the genre, I guess.

Pg47-50:
//
In the autumn, about the 1st of November, the slaves commence gathering the Indian-corn, pulling it off the stalk, and throwing it into heaps. Then it is carted home, and thrown into heaps sixty or seventy yards long, seven or eight feet high, and about six or seven feet wide. Some of the masters make their slaves shuck the corn. All the slaves stand on one side of the heap, and throw the ears over, which are then cribbed. This is the time when the whole country far and wide resounds with the corn-songs. When they commence shucking the corn, the master will say, "Ain't you going to sing any to-night?" The slaves say, "Yers, Sir." One slave will begin:--

"Fare you well, Miss Lucy. 
                        
ALL. John come down de hollow."

The next song will be:--

"Fare you well, fare you well. 
                        
ALL. Weell ho. Weell ho. 
                        
CAPTAIN. Fare you well, young ladies all. 
                        
ALL. Weell. ho. Weell ho. 
                        
CAPTAIN. Fare you well, I'm going away. 
                        
ALL. Weell ho. Weell ho. 
                        
CAPTAIN. I'm going away to Canada. 
                        
ALL. Weell ho. Weell ho."

       One night Mr. Taylor, a large planter, had a corn shucking, a Bee it is called. The corn pile was 180 yards long. He sent his slaves on horseback with letters to the other planters around to ask them to allow their slaves to come and help. On a Thursday night, about 8 o'clock, the slaves were heard coming, the corn-songs ringing through the plantations. "Oh, they are coming, they are coming!" exclaimed Mr. Taylor, who had been anxiously listening some time for the songs. The slaves marched up in companies, headed by captains, who had in the crowns of their hats a short stick, with feathers tied to it, like a cockade. I myself was in one of the companies. Mr. Taylor shook hands with each captain as the companies arrived, and said the men were to have some brandy if they wished, a large jug of which was ready for them. Mr. Taylor ordered the corn-pile to be divided into two by a large pole laid across. Two men were chosen as captains; and the men, to the number of 300 or 400, were told off to each captain. One of the captains got Mr. Taylor on his side, who said he should not like his party to be beaten. "Don't throw the corn too far. Let some of it drop just over, and we'll shingle some, and get done first. I can make my slaves shuck what we shingle tomorrow," said Mr. Taylor, "for I hate to be beaten."
       The corn-songs now rang out merrily; all working willingly and gaily. Just before they had finished the heaps, Mr. Taylor went away into the house; then the slaves, on Mr. Taylor's side, by shingling, beat the other side; and his Captain, and all his men, rallied around the others, and took their hats in their hands, and cried out, "Oh, oh! fie! for shame!"
       It was two o'clock in the morning now, and they marched to Mr. Taylor's house; the Captain hollowing out, "Oh, where's Mr. Taylor? Oh, where's Mr. Taylor?" all the men answering, "Oh, oh, oh!"

Mr. Taylor walked, with all his family, on the verandah; and the Captain sang,

"I've just come to let you know. 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. The upper end has beat. 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. But isn't they sorry fellows? 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. But isn't they sorry fellows? 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. But I'm going back again, 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. But I'm going back again. 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. And where's Mr. Taylor? 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. And where's Mr. Taylor? 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. And where's Mrs. Taylor? 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. I'll bid you, fare you well, 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. For I'm going back again. 
                        
MEN. Oh, oh, oh! 
                        
CAPTAIN. I'll bid you, fare you well, 
                        
And a long fare you well. 
                        

MEN. Oh, oh, oh!
       They marched back, and finished the pile.

//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 02:41 AM

Hi All,

I am trying to return to this project a bit after an absence.

With most of the [conveniently accessible] 19th century references covered, I think, I am going to keep working on analyzing/comparing works from the early 20th. This still leaves most of the major well-known collections. The articles have mostly been covered, I think (except for a few in the Folk Song Society journal) and what references I have seen casually tend to be derivative. They don't add anything original, so there are many that I have ignored. Again, the main focus of mine will be on the published collections. (Eventually, that will be followed by audio-recorded works.)

I've finally gotten the recent references in this thread into my notes, and put the data in my lists. I won't post the "timeline" just now. However, it may be interesting to see the update of the repertoire lists.

The usual disclaimers apply. The lists are "for what they are worth", to provide a broad sketch.

Here's the list of attested repertoire by decade:

c.1800s-1820s

CHEERLY (2)
FIRE FIRE (1)
Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!"

1830s

Black although she be"
BOTTLE O (1)
Captain gone ashore!"
CHEERLY (2)
Heave round hearty!"
Heave, to the girls!"
HIGHLAND (1)
Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
Jack Cross-tree,"
Nancy oh!"
Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
ROUND THE CORNER (2)
SALLY BROWN (1)
TALLY (1)
Time for us to go!"

1840s

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (1)
BOTTLE O (1)
CHEERLY (3)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (1)
GROG TIME (1)
Hah, hah, rolling John" (1)
HAUL HER AWAY (1)
Heave her away"
Heave him up! O he yo!"
Ho, O, heave O"
HUNDRED YEARS (2)
LOWLANDS AWAY (1)
O ee roll & go"
O! hurrah my hearties O!"
PADDY DOYLE (1)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (1)
ROUND THE CORNER (1)
STORMY (1)
TALLY (1)
WHISKEY JOHNNY (1)

1850s

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (1)
BOWLINE (3)
BULLY IN ALLEY (1)
CHEERLY (4)
FIRE FIRE (1)
HAUL AWAY JOE (1)
Highland day and off she goes"
HILO BOYS (1)
Miranda Lee"
MOBILE BAY (1)
MONEY DOWN (1)
MR. STORMALONG (1)
Oh, fare you well, my own Mary Ann"
ONE MORE DAY (1)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (1)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (1)
REUBEN RANZO (1)
RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN (1)
SANTIANA (2)
SHENANDOAH (1)
STORMALONG JOHN (1)
STORMY (6)
STORMY ALONG (1)
WHISKEY JOHNNY (1)
Whisky for Johnny!"

1860s

And England's blue for ever"
BLACKBALL LINE (1)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (1)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (2)
BLOW YE WINDS (1)
BONEY (3)
BOWLINE (3)
BUNCH OF ROSES (1)
Cheerily she goes"
CHEERLY (1)
CLEAR THE TRACK (1)
GOOD MORNING LADIES (1)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (1)
Hand ober hand, O"
HANDY MY BOYS (1)
HANGING JOHNNY (1)
HAUL AWAY JOE (2)
Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes"
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (2)
HIGHLAND (1)
HILO BOYS (1)
HOOKER JOHN (1)
JOHN CHEROKEE (1)
John, John Crow is a dandy, O"
JOHNNY BOWKER (1)
Johnny's gone"
Ladies, fare-ye-well"
Land ho"
LOWLANDS AWAY (2)
Nancy Bell"
Oceanida"
OH RILEY (1)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (1)
PADDY LAY BACK (1)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (2)
REUBEN RANZO (1)
RIO GRANDE (2)
SACRAMENTO (1)
SAILOR FIREMAN (1)
SALLY BROWN (2)
Sally in the Alley"
SANTIANA (3)
SHENANDOAH (5)
SLAPANDER (1)
ST. HELENA SOLDIER (1)
STORMY (2)
TOMMY'S GONE (1)
WALKALONG SALLY (1)
WHISKEY JOHNNY (4)

1870s

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (1)
A Fal-De-Lal-Day"
A-ROVING (3)
BLACKBALL LINE (4)+3
BLOW BOYS BLOW (4)+3
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (5)+3
BLOW YE WINDS (1)
BONEY (5)+4
BOTTLE O (1)
BOWLINE (6)+3
CAN'T YOU HILO (1)
CHEERLY (1)
CLEAR THE TRACK (1)
DANCE THE BOATMAN (1)
DEAD HORSE (4)+3
DERBY RAM (1)
DONKEY RIDING (1)
DREADNAUGHT (1)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (2)
CHEERLY (1)
FIRE DOWN BELOW (2)
FISHES (1)
GALS OF CHILE (1)
GOLDEN VANITY (1)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (6)+4
GOODBYE MY LOVE (1)
GOOD MORNING LADIES (1)
HANDY MY BOYS (3)+2
HANGING JOHNNY (3)
HAUL AWAY JOE (6)+3
Haul the Woodpile Down"
HEAVE AWAY CHEERILY (1)
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (7)+4
HIGHLAND LADDIE (1)
HILO BOYS (1)
HOGEYE (2)
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (1)
HUNDRED YEARS (1)
I Love the Blue Mountains"
JAMBOREE (2)
JOHNNY BOWKER (5)+4
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (3)
LONDON JULIE (1)
LONG TIME AGO (2)
LOWLANDS AWAY (2)
MERMAID (1)
MR. STORMALONG (3)
NEW YORK GIRLS (3)
ONE MORE DAY (2)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (2)
PADDY DOYLE (4)
PADDY LAY BACK (1)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (3)
RANDY DANDY (1)
RANZO RAY (1)
REUBEN RANZO (7)+4
RIO GRANDE (4)+3
ROLLING HOME (2)
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (2)
ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG (1)
SACRAMENTO (3)
SAILOR'S ALPHABET (1)
SALLY BROWN (3)
SANTIANA (4)
SHALLOW BROWN (2)
SHENANDOAH (6)+4
SLAPANDER (1)
SLAV HO (1)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (2)
STORMY (3)+2
STORMY ALONG JOHN (1)
TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY (1)
TOMMY'S GONE (3)
WALKALONG SALLY (1)
Walk away" (1)
WHISKEY JOHNNY (8)+4

1880s

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (3)
A-ROVING (3)
Baltimore Bell"
BLACKBALL LINE (2)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (5)+2
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (8)+3
BONEY (5)+4
BOTTLE O (1)
BOWLINE (3)
California Gold"
CHEERLY (1)
CLEAR THE TRACK (1)
DEAD HORSE (2)
Dixie's Isle"
DREADNAUGHT (1)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (3)+2
FIRE DOWN BELOW (3)
GOLDEN VANITY (1)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (6)+2
GOODBYE MY LOVE (1)
HAME DEARIE (1)
HANDY MY BOYS (1)
HANGING JOHNNY (3)
HAUL AWAY JOE (5)+2
HEAVE AWAY CHEERILY (1)
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (4)+3
HOGEYE (3)+2
HIGHLAND (1)
HILONDAY (1)
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (1)
HUNDRED YEARS (1)
JOHN BROWN'S BODY (1)
JOHNNY BOWKER (3)+2
JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO (1)
Largy Kargy"
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (4)
LONG TIME AGO (1)
LOWLANDS AWAY (2)
MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA (1)
MOBILE BAY (2)
MR. STORMALONG (7)
Nancy Rhee"
NEW YORK GIRLS (2)
ONE MORE DAY (1)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (1)
PADDY DOYLE (4)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (2)
REUBEN RANZO (7)+3
RIO GRANDE (7)+3
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (1)
RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN (2)
SACRAMENTO (5)+3
SALLY BROWN (6)+3
SANTIANA (7)+3
Saucy Sailor Boy"
SHALLOW BROWN (1)
SHENANDOAH (5)+2
SHINY O (1)
Sing, Sally, ho!"
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (3)+2
STORMY ALONG (1)
TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY (1)
TOMMY'S GONE (4)+2
Up a Hill"
Way down low!"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (7)+3
YEO HEAVE HO (1)

1890s

A-ROVING (1)
BLACKBALL LINE (1)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (1)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (2)
BONEY (1)
BOWLINE (3)
DEAD HORSE (2)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (1)
GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN (1)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (2)
HAME DEARIE (1)
HANGING JOHNNY (1)
HAUL AWAY JOE (1)
HEAVE AWAY CHEERILY (1)
JOHN BROWN'S BODY (1)
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (2)
LONG TIME AGO (2)
LOWLANDS AWAY (2)
MR. STORMALONG (3)
PADDY DOYLE (2)
REUBEN RANZO (1)
RIO GRANDE (2)
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (1)
SACRAMENTO (3)
SALLY BROWN (1)
SANTIANA (3)
SHALLOW BROWN (1)
SHENANDOAH (1)
TOMMY'S GONE (2)
WHISKEY JOHNNY (2)

1900s

Australian Girl, The"
BLACKBALL LINE (3)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (4)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (3)
BONEY (2)
BOWLINE (2)
Capstan Bar, The"
CHEERLY (1)
COME ROLL ME OVER (1)
DEAD HORSE (4)
DREADNAUGHT (2)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (1)
HANDY MY BOYS (2)
HAUL AWAY JOE (2)
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (2)
HIGH BARBARY (1)
HUNDRED YEARS (1)
JOHN BROWN'S BODY (1)
JOHNNY BOWKER (1)
JOHNNY COME MARCHING HOME (1)
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (4)
LOWLANDS AWAY (4)
MR. STORMALONG (3)
PADDY DOYLE (2)
REUBEN RANZO (3)
RIO GRANDE (5)
ROLL ALABAMA ROLL (1)
ROLLING HOME (2)
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (1)
ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT (1)
SACRAMENTO (4)
SALLY BROWN (5)
SANTIANA (2)
SEBASTOPOL (1)
SHENANDOAH (3)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (1)
STORMY ALONG JOHN (1)
TOMMY'S GONE (2)
TOMMY'S ON THE TOPSAIL YARD (1)
TRAMP TRAMP TRAMP (1)
WHISKEY JOHNNY (4)
YANKEE MAN-O-WAR (1)

1910s

1920s

Along the Lowlands"
Barnacle Bill the Sailor"
Bos'uns's Story, The"
Married to a Mermaid"
Nancy Lee"
Priest and the Nuns, The"

The following list gives a sense of the cumulative repertoire through the 1880s, with the number of times each was cited. Lower case typeface means the song, for whatever reason and in my assessment, is less clearly established as an item of repertoire -- e.g. we don't know what exactly the song was or it was incidentally used.

Cumulative (through 80s)

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (6)
A Fal-De-Lal-Day"
And England's blue for ever"
A-ROVING (6)
Baltimore Bell"
Black although she be"
BLACKBALL LINE (7)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (10)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (15)
BLOW YE WINDS (2)
BONEY (13)
BOTTLE O (4)
BOWLINE (14)
BULLY IN ALLEY (1)
BUNCH OF ROSES (1)
CAN'T YOU HILO (1)
California Gold"
Captain gone ashore!"
Cheerily she goes"
CHEERLY (15)
CLEAR THE TRACK (3)
DANCE THE BOATMAN (1)
DEAD HORSE (6)
DERBY RAM (1)
Dixie's Isle"
DONKEY RIDING (1)
DREADNAUGHT (2)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (6)
FIRE DOWN BELOW (5)
FIRE FIRE (2)
FISHES (1)
GALS OF CHILE (1)
GOLDEN VANITY (2)
GOOD MORNING LADIES (2)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (13)
GOODBYE MY LOVE (2)
GROG TIME (1)
Hah, hah, rolling John" (1)
HAME DEARIE (1)
Hand ober hand, O"
HANDY MY BOYS (5)
HANGING JOHNNY (7)
HAUL AWAY JOE (13)
HAUL HER AWAY (1)
Haul the Woodpile Down"
Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes"
HEAVE AWAY CHEERILY (2)
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (13)
Heave her away"
Heave him up! O he yo!"
Heave round hearty!"
Heave, to the girls!"
HIGHLAND (4)
Highland day and off she goes"
HILO BOYS (3)
HILONDAY (1)
HOGEYE (5)
Ho, O, heave O"
HOOKER JOHN (1)
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (2)
HUNDRED YEARS (4)
Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
I Love the Blue Mountains"
Jack Cross-tree,"
JAMBOREE (2)
JOHN BROWN'S BODY (1)
JOHN CHEROKEE (1)
John, John Crow is a dandy, O"
JOHNNY BOWKER (9)
JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO (1)
Johnny's gone"
Land ho"
Largy Kargy"
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (10)
LONDON JULIE (1)
LONG TIME AGO (1)
LOWLANDS AWAY (7)
MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA (1)
MERMAID (1)
Miranda Lee"
MOBILE BAY (2)
MONEY DOWN (2)
MR. STORMALONG (11)
Nancy Bell"
Nancy oh!"
Nancy Rhee"
NEW YORK GIRLS (5)
O ee roll & go"
O! hurrah my hearties O!"
Oceanida"
Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne"
OH RILEY (1)
Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!"
ONE MORE DAY (4)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (5)
PADDY DOYLE (9)
PADDY LAY BACK (2)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (9)
Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
RANDY DANDY (1)
RANZO RAY (1)
REUBEN RANZO (16)
RIO GRANDE (13)
ROLLING HOME (2)
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (3)
ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG (1)
ROUND THE CORNER (3)
RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN (3)
SACRAMENTO (9)
SAILOR FIREMAN (1)
SAILOR'S ALPHABET (1)
SALLY BROWN (12)
Sally in the Alley"
SANTIANA (16)
Saucy Sailor Boy"
SHALLOW BROWN (3)
SHENANDOAH (16)
SHINY O (1)
SLAPANDER (2)
SLAV HO (1)
Sing, Sally, ho!"
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (5)
ST. HELENA SOLDIER (1)
STORMALONG JOHN (1)
STORMY (12)
STORMY ALONG (3)
TALLY (2)
TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY (2)
Time for us to go!"
TOMMY'S GONE (8)
Up a hill"
Walk away"
WALKALONG SALLY (2)
Way down low!"
When first we went a-waggoning"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (19)
Whisky for Johnny!"
YEO HEAVE HO (1)


The above includes 137 items of repertoire. 63 of the items were cited at least twice - I think that gives a better sense of the size of the regular repertoire. In terms of what the most commonly mentioned chanties were, through the 1880s, I have this set:

Top (through 1880s):

WHISKEY JOHNNY (19)
REUBEN RANZO (16), SANTIANA (16), SHENANDOAH (16)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (15), CHEERLY (15)
BOWLINE (14)
BONEY (13), GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (13), HAUL AWAY JOE (13), HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (13), RIO GRANDE (13)
SALLY BROWN (12), STORMY (12)
MR. STORMALONG (11)
***

A cumulative list, through the 1920s (tentative), looks like this:

Cumulative (through 1920s)

ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (6)
A Fal-De-Lal-Day"
Along the Lowlands"
And England's blue for ever"
A-ROVING (7)
Australian Girl, The"
Baltimore Bell"
Barnacle Bill the Sailor"
Black although she be"
BLACKBALL LINE (11)
BLOW BOYS BLOW (15)
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (20)
BLOW YE WINDS (2)
BONEY (16)
Bos'uns's Story, The"
BOTTLE O (4)
BOWLINE (19)
BULLY IN ALLEY (1)
BUNCH OF ROSES (1)
CAN'T YOU HILO (1)
California Gold"
Capstan Bar"
Captain gone ashore!"
Cheerily she goes"
CHEERLY (16)
CLEAR THE TRACK (3)
COME ROLL ME OVER (1)
DANCE THE BOATMAN (1)
DEAD HORSE (12)
DERBY RAM (1)
Dixie's Isle"
DONKEY RIDING (1)
DREADNAUGHT (4)
DRUNKEN SAILOR (7)
FIRE DOWN BELOW (5)
FIRE FIRE (2)
FISHES (1)
GALS OF CHILE (1)
GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN (1)
GOLDEN VANITY (2)
GOOD MORNING LADIES (2)
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (16)
GOODBYE MY LOVE (2)
GROG TIME (1)
Hah, hah, rolling John" (1)
HAME DEARIE (2)
Hand ober hand, O"
HANDY MY BOYS (7)
HANGING JOHNNY (8)
HAUL AWAY JOE (16)
HAUL HER AWAY (1)
Haul the Woodpile Down"
Heave and she goes, stamp and she goes"
HEAVE AWAY CHEERILY (3)
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (15)
Heave her away"
Heave him up! O he yo!"
Heave round hearty!"
Heave, to the girls!"
HIGH BARBARY (1)
HIGHLAND (4)
Highland day and off she goes"
HILO BOYS (3)
HILONDAY (1)
HOGEYE (5)
Ho, O, heave O"
HOOKER JOHN (1)
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (2)
HUNDRED YEARS (5)
Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
I Love the Blue Mountains"
Jack Cross-tree,"
JAMBOREE (2)
JOHN BROWN'S BODY (3)
JOHN CHEROKEE (1)
John, John Crow is a dandy, O"
JOHNNY BOWKER (10)
JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO (1)
JOHNNY COME MARCHING HOME (1)
Johnny's gone"
Land ho"
Largy Kargy"
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (16)
LONDON JULIE (1)
LONG TIME AGO (3)
LOWLANDS AWAY (13)
MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA (1)
Married to a Mermaid"
MERMAID (1)
Miranda Lee"
MOBILE BAY (2)
MONEY DOWN (2)
MR. STORMALONG (17)
Nancy Bell"
Nancy Lee"
Nancy oh!"
Nancy Rhee"
NEW YORK GIRLS (5)
O ee roll & go"
O! hurrah my hearties O!"
Oceanida"
Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne"
OH RILEY (1)
Oh Sally Brown, Sally Brown, oh!"
ONE MORE DAY (4)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND (5)
PADDY DOYLE (13)
PADDY LAY BACK (2)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (9)
Priest and the Nuns, The"
Pull away now, my Nancy, O!"
RANDY DANDY (1)
RANZO RAY (1)
REUBEN RANZO (20)
RIO GRANDE (20)
ROLL ALABAMA ROLL (1)
ROLLING HOME (4)
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (5)
ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG (2)
ROUND THE CORNER (3)
RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN (3)
SACRAMENTO (16)
SAILOR FIREMAN (1)
SAILOR'S ALPHABET (1)
SALLY BROWN (18)
Sally in the Alley"
SANTIANA (21)
Saucy Sailor Boy"
SEBASTOPOL (1)
SHALLOW BROWN (4)
SHENANDOAH (20)
SHINY O (1)
SLAPANDER (2)
SLAV HO (1)
Sing, Sally, ho!"
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (6)
ST. HELENA SOLDIER (1)
STORMALONG JOHN (1)
STORMY (12)
STORMY ALONG (1)
TALLY (2)
TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY (2)
Time for us to go!"
TOMMY'S GONE (12)
TOMMY'S ON THE TOPSAIL YARD (1)
TRAMP TRAMP TRAMP (1)
Up a hill"
Walk away"
WALKALONG SALLY (2)
Way down low!"
When first we went a-waggoning"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (25)
Whisky for Johnny!"
YANKEE MAN-O-WAR (1)
YEO HEAVE HO (1)

Top (through 1920s):

WHISKEY JOHNNY (25)
SANTIANA (21)
REUBEN RANZO (20) BLOW THE MAN DOWN (20), BOWLINE (19), RIO GRANDE (20), SHENANDOAH (20)
SALLY BROWN (18)
MR. STORMALONG (17), BONEY (16), CHEERLY (16), GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (16), LEAVE HER JOHNNY (16), SACRAMENTO (16), HAUL AWAY JOE (16)
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (15)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 07:14 AM

Thanks, Gibb. This really lays out the picture for us and is a good summary of the work so far. I'm glad to see you back at it. Happy 4th. J.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 11:53 AM

Gibb-

I think you're missing one of my oldest favorites "Fire Maringo."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 03:29 PM

Hi, Charlie--

Wise or unwise, the decision I made way back was to restrict this list to "shanties" in the slightly more narrow but customary sense as songs for deep water sailing work. All of the related song references (cotton screwing, corn shucking, boat rowing, etc) are included in the more detailed "timeline", but not in these. "Maringo" didn't make the cut! :)

Gibb

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 05:37 PM

Looking at Whall's work here. I have not been able to see his earliest writings. However, with the exception of one or two songs, and with the exception of any bowdlerizing, I think his chanties represent what he heard during his time at sea, 1861-1872. His choice of what chanties to print, and what he says about them, does skew the overall impression, but that is a separate issue.

Whall first published chanties in two articles, neither of which I have seen. However, I presume that all the material from the articles was re-used for his later collection. The articles are:

1906        Whall, W.B. "Sea Melody." _The Nautical Magazine_ 76.

1906 [Whall, W.B.] "The Sea Shanty." _Yachting Monthly_ (October 1906).

The second article is reported to have contained 14 chanties. Among these were,

MR. STORMALONG
LOWLANDS AWAY
SANTIANA
"John's gone to Hilo"
HOGEYE
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN
SHENANDOAH

I have not seen the first edition of Whall's collection,

1910        Whall, Captain W.B. Sea Songs and Shanties. Brown, Son and Ferguson.

Therefore, I cannot say whether he added any to those 14, though I assume there must have been a few more -- that is, more *chanties*. The addition of non-chanty songs is given.

The preface from this edition (Nov. 1910) stated that, he did not consult other texts, and these versions were as heard. Deliberate use of "shanty" spelling; doubting French origin. Songs were harmonised by Whall's brother, R.H. Whall (a trained musician).

The second edition, 1912, added more songs. The Preface, dated Feb 1912, mentioned the popularity of shanties among landsfolk as the reason for such a rapid reprint.

The third edition contains no new preface, and I gather it to be the same as the 2nd.

The 4th edition adds more material.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 05:42 PM

Here's an outline of the [chanty-focused] contents of Whall's 3rd edition.

1913        Whall, W.B. _Ships, Sea Songs and Shanties._ Third edition, enlarged. Glasgow: James Brown & Sons.

Intro:
Sea Songs are gone. Doesn't say that the ships are necessarily, gone, but that they are now manned by "Dutchmen and Dagos" and that the packet ships (and packet rats) are gone, and tha the current crop can't sing shanties that have no meaning for them.

Complaynt of Scotland, etc.

Mentions popularity of shanties (untimely) and books by Masefield, Christopher Stone, Navy Records Society

Obscenity and chanties:
//
xii) Now, seamen who spent their time in cargo-carrying sailing ships never heard a decent Shanty ; the words which sailor John put to them when unrestrained were the veriest filth. But another state of things obtained in passenger and troop ships; here sailor John was given to understand very forcibly that his words were to be decent or that he was not to shanty at all. (As a rule, when the passengers were landed and this prohibition was removed, the notorious "Hog-Eye Man" at once made its appearance.)
//

This passage suggests that all his chanties were learned in the 1860s-early 70s.
//
Going to sea then, in 1861, in the old passenger-carrying East Indiamen, these sailor Songs and Shanties struck me as worthy of preservation.
During my eleven years in those ships I took down the words and music of these songs as they were actually sung by sailors, so that what I present here may be relied upon as the real thing. Since 1872 I have not heard a Shanty or Song worth the name. Steam spoilt them. A younger generation of seamen took the place of the old sea dog. (In my
first year or two at sea I was shipmates with old men-of-war's men who had served at sea before 1815, the year of peace, and who were of the old school.) With the new generation true sea Songs and Shanties practically disappeared. Echoes of them, it is true, still exist, but that is all. The real thing has gone for ever.
//

Whall has strong biases that come through in the assumptions he makes about repertoire. Despite his vague claim that he did not consult chanty collections, his conclusions on a number of pieces (where, for example, he downgrades the role of America in the origination of chanties) seem to reflect the influence of reading. As a matter of fact, he might be the first author/collector (besides the English folklorists of a few years earlier) to try to explain origins and dating before presenting the song.

[SHENANDOAH] Whall claims to have heard sung in the late 1850s/early60s *on land*, and that it appeared in "old public school collections." It was originally a "song" before a chanty.
//
Shenandoah. [w/ score]
Missouri she's a mighty river.
Away you rolling river.
The redskins' camp lie on its borders.
Ah-ha I'm bound away 'cross the wide Missouri.
[etc]
//

After this, he notes that Dana supposedly quoted "Cheer up, Sam" as being used as a chanty—Though we have yet to locate this in Dana.

Next is supposedly in the same "class" as "Shenandoah," so I guess a capstan chanty?
//
ANOTHER of the same class as the preceding, which, down to quite a recent date, was a
favourite in American ships, was "Adieu to Maimuna," sung to an old German air,
" The Mill Wheel " :—

Adieu to Maimuna.

The boatmen shout, 'tis time to part,
No Longer can we stay;
'Twas then Maimuna taught my heart
How much a glance can say.
'Twas then Maimuna taught my heart
How much a glance can say.
[etc]
//

Discussion of [OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND] includes reference to "Pensacola town" (which appears elsewhere, some copying going on somewhere or other)
//
Homeward Bound.

At the Blackwall docks we bid adieu
To lovely Kate and pretty Sue;
Our anchor's weigh'd and our sails unfurl'd,
And we're bound to plow the wat'ry world,
And say we're outward bound,
Hurrah, we're outward bound.
//

[ROLLING HOME]
//
There are numerous versions both of words and music :
I have one such in an American book of sea songs dated 1876 ; Mr. Masefield gives another version in his "Garland"; two other versions appeared some time back in the Shipping Gazette; and I have still another. I have therefore—legitimately, I think—chosen from all these the lines common to all, and for the rest have taken those that seemed to me the best. The tune I give—out of several variants—is the one familiar to me, though, as I have said, there are others.

Rolling Home.

Call all hands to man the capstan,
See the cable run down clear,
Heave away, and with a will, boys
For old England we will steer;
And we'll sing in joyful chorus
In the watches of the night
And we'll sight the shores of England
When the grey dawn brings the light.
Rolling home, rolling home, rolling home across the sea;
Rolling home to dear old England, rolling home, dear land to thee.
//

[DREADNAUGHT] is given, but not indicated as a chanty. First Whall gives a "Dreadnaught" version, text only,
//
There's a saucy wild packet—a packet of fame—
She belongs to New York and the Dreadnought'''s her name,
She is bound to the westward where the strong winds do blow,
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the westward we'll go.
[etc]
//

Then comes "La Pique", with score.
//
O, 'tis of a fine frigate, La Pique was her name,
All in the West Indies she bore a great name;
For cruel bad usage of ev'ry degree,
Like slaves in the galley we ploughed the salt sea.
[etc]
//

"Doo Me Ama". Non-chanty.
//
Doo me Ama.
As Jack was walking thro' the square,
He met a lady and a squire.
Now Jack he heard the squire say,
Tonight with you I mean to stay.
Doo-me ama, Dinghy ama, Doo-me ama day.
[etc]
//

"Spanish Ladies", not presented as a chanty.
//
Farewell and Adieu.
Farewell and adieu unto you, Spanish ladies,…
…thirty-five leagues.
[etc]
//

//
Sling the Flowing Bowl.

Come, come, my jolly lads, the wind's abaft,
Brisk gales our sails shall crowd…
[etc]
//

[BLOW YE WINDS] as a "song of the midshipman's berth."
//
Blow Ye Winds, in the Morning.

As I walked out one sunny morn to view the meadows round,
I spied a pretty primrose lass come tripping o'er the ground,
Singing, Blow, ye winds, in the morning,
Blow, ye winds, Hi! Ho!
Brush away the morning dew.
Blow, ye winds, Hi! Ho!
[etc]
//

Supposedly this is a chanty (?) but no description is given.
//
THIS is an example of the purely professional song, dear to the old-time sailor, and full of
seamanship. It was a favourite with the prime old shellback, and was all the more
successful in that it had a good chorus about the girls.
Unmooring.
"All hands on board!" our boatswain cries…
…And we'll think on those girls when we're far, far away.
[etc]
//

"Boston" – "very popular between the years of 1860 and 1870":
//
Boston.

From Boston harbour we set sail,
When it was blowing a devil of a gale,
With our ringtail set all abaft the mizzen peak,
And our Rule Britannia ploughing up the deep.
With a big Bow-wow! Tow-row-row!
Fal de ral de ri do day!
[etc]
//

"The Female Smuggler"
//
O come, list awhile, and you soon shall hear,
By the rolling sea lived a maiden fair…
…Like a warlike hero that never was afraid.
[etc]
//

"The Voice of Her I Love."
"Come, Loose every Sail to the Breeze."
"Will Watch"
"Shannon" and "Chesapeake."

[SALLY BROWN]
//
THIS song is referred to by Marryat in his account of a visit to America in the '30's where he went as a passenger in a packet-ship. It was a great favourite when heaving up the anchor, but is not a hauling song. It has no regular story like some of the better shanties, and its musical range is rather large, so that the top notes were always yelled out fortissimo, while the second chorus was low down in the register. It is evidently of negro origin. The verses given are a fair specimen of those generally sung. What the "wild-goose nation" is I do not know ; the phrase occurs in other shanties. It is of a somewhat debased type, but that is to be
expected in a collection of songs used by rough uneducated men, as sailors were in the old days.

Sally Brown.

O Sally Brown she's a bright mullatta,
Way-ay, roll and go!
O she drinks rum and chews tobacca,
Bet my money on Sally Brown.
[etc]
//

[NEW YORK GIRLS] without description.
//
Can't you Dance the Polka?

As I walk'd down the Broadway, one ev'ning in July,
I met a maid who axed my trade, "A sailor John," says I;
And away you santee, my dear Annie.
O you New York girls, can't you dance the polka?
[etc]
//

[ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN] as a hauling song.
//
Across the Western Ocean.

O the times are hard, And the wages low,
Amelia, whar' you bound to?
The Rocky mountains is my home,
Across the Western Ocean.
[etc]
//

[LEAVE HER JOHNNY' is also acknowledged, with a few verses.
//
O, the times are hard and the wages low,
Leave her bullies, leave her;
I guess it's time for us to go,
It's time for us to leave her.
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] for heaving anchor.
//
Good-bye, Fare You Well.

O, fare you well, I wish you well!
Good-bye, fare you well; good-bye, fare you well!
O, fare you well, my bonny young girls!
Hoorah, my boys, we're homeward bound!
[etc]
//

[TOMMY'S GONE], hauling song
//
John's Gone to Hilo.

O Johnny's gone; what shall I do?
Away you, Hee-lo.
O Johnny's gone; what shall I do?
John's gone to Hilo.
[etc]
//

[RIO GRANDE]
//
Bound for the Rio Grande.

O, say, was you ever in Rio Grande?
O, you Rio!
It's there that the river runs down golden sand,
For I'm bound to the Rio Grande.
And away, you Rio! O, you Rio!
Sing fare you well, my bonny yound girls,
For I'm bound to the Rio Grande.

Now, you Bowery ladies, we'd have you to know,
We're bound to the Southward, O Lord, let us go !

So it's pack up your donkey and get under way,
The girls we are leaving can take our half-pay.

We'll sell our salt cod for molasses and rum,
And get back again 'fore Thanksgiving has come.

And good-bye, fare-you-well, all you ladies of town,
We've left you enough for to buy a silk gown.
//

[ONE MORE DAY], a homeward bound shanty.
//
It has a plaintive, somewhat mournful melody, and is a windlass,
not a hauling, song.

One More Day.

Only one more day, my Johnny,
One more day!
Oh come rock and roll me over
One more day!
[etc]
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] for windlass and pumps.
//
We're All Bound to Go.

O, as I walked down the Landing Stage all on a Summer's morn,
Heave away…my Johnnies, heave away…ay
It's there I spied an irish gal a looking all forlorn,
And away, my Johnny boys, we're all bound to go.
[etc]
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
It is of American origin and comes from the cotton ports of the old Southern States.
This is, I think, certainly the first time it has been set in the least degree correctly to music.
I am aware of two previous attempts, both hopelessly in error.
It is also, like the previous song, a windlass shanty : and it was a favourite for pumping ship.

Lowlands.

Lowlands, Lowlands, Away, my John,
O my old mother she wrote to me,
My dollar and a half a day.
She wrote to me to come home from sea,
Lowlands, Lowlands, Away, my John.
She wrote to me to come home from sea.
My dollar and a half a day.
[etc]
//

[A-ROVING]. Mentions the Heywood/"Lape of Lucrece" idea.
//
A-Roving.
In Amsterdam there liv'd a maid
Mark well what I do say,
In Amsterdam there liv'd a maid, And she was mistress of her trade.
I'll go no more a-roving with you fair maids.
[cho.] A-roving, a-roving, Since roving's been my ruin,
I'll go no more a-roving with you fair maids.
[etc]
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
In the days I speak of, the shanty was always sung to
the regulation words, and when the story was finished there was no attempt at improvisation ; the
text was, I suppose, considered sacred. I never heard any variation from the words here given.

Reuben Ranzo.

Oh, pity poor Reuben Ranzo!
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Oh, poor old Reuben Ranzo!
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
[etc]
//

[STAND TO YOUR GROUND] without description
//
Stand to your Ground.

Sally am de gal dat I lub dearly.
Way, sing Sally;
O, Sally am de gal dat I lub dearly.
Hilo, John Brown, stand to your ground.
[etc]
//

[MR. STORMALONG] "…seldom was any attempt made at improvisation."
//
Stormalong.

O Stormy, he is dead and gone;
Tom my way you storm along.
O stormy was a good old man;
Ay, ay, ay, Mister Stormalong.
[etc]
//

[PADDY ON THE RAILWAY]
//
Poor Paddy Works on the Railway.

O in eighteen hundred and forty-one,
My corduroy breeches I put on….
[etc]
//

[SANTIANA]
//
The Plains of Mexico.

O Santy Anna gained the day,
Hooray, Santy Anna;
He gained the day at Monteray,
All on the plain of Mexico.
[etc]
//

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
Blow, Boys, Blow.

Oh, blow, my boys, I long to hear you!
Blow, boys, blow!
Oh, blow, my boys, I long to hear you!
Blow, my bully boys, blow!
[etc]
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
THIS comes from the old Atlantic sailing packet ships. " Blow " in those days was equivalent to "knock." The third mate in those ships was endearingly termed the third "blower and striker," the second mate being the "greaser."

Blow the Man Down.

O blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down!
Way-ay, blow the man down,
O blow the man down in Liverpool town!
Give me some time to blow the man down.
[Paradise street, policeman, etc]
//
Also the "Black Ball" version is given.

[FISHES], but not as a shanty.
//
The Fishes.

Oh, a ship she was rigg'd, and ready for sea…
…Windy weather! Stormy weather!
When the wind blows we're all together.
[etc]
//

However, Whall says that the song was later used as a shanty to the chorus of "Blow the Man Down." In other words, not this song, but its couplets were utilized.

"The Whale" (= Greenland Whale Fishery)

"Admiral Benbow".

Of [DRUNKEN SAILOR], Whall states that it was, with "Cheer'ly" a shanty allowed sometimes in the Royal Navy.
//
…particularly in revenue cutters and similar craft, and sotto voce in larger vessels. Both songs were used in the old Indiamen of "John Company."

Early in the Morning.

Hoorah! And up she rises;…
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?...
Put him in the long-boat and make him bale her…
Put him in the guardroom till he gets sober.

These were the only two verses.

…It was the only song used for a "stamp and go," and when crews were reduced and it was no longer possible to " walk away" with anything, the song at once dropped out of use.
//

"High Barbaree", not as a shanty.

[CHEERLY], without notes.
//
Cheer'ly Man.

O Nancy Dawson, Hio!
Cheer'ly man;
She'd got a notion, Hio-o
Cheer'ly man;
For our old bo'sun, Hio!
Cheer'ly man,
O! Hauley, Hio-o!
Cheer'ly man.
[etc]
//

[JOHNNY BOWKER], for sweating up.
//
Johnny Boker.

O do my Johnny Boker, Come, rock or roll me over.
O do, my Johnny Boker, do!
[etc]
//

[PADDY DOYLE]
//
Paddy Doyle.

To my way-ay-ay ah!
We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.
[gin, chin, etc]
//

[BONEY], for short pulls. 2 pulls indicated for each chorus.
//
Boney.
O Bony [sic] was a warrior,
Away-ay-ah
A warrior, a terr(i)or,
Jean Français.
[etc]
//

[HAUL AWAY JOE], "used as a last short pull for sweating up." Major mode melody.
//
Haul Away, Jo.

Away [/you], haul away, O haul away together.
[cho.] Away, haul away, O haul away, Jo!
[Irish gal/nigger one, King Louis, etc]
//

[HOGEYE]
//
The Hog-Eye Man.

Oh, go fetch me down my riding cane,
For I'm goin' to see my darlin' Jane!
And a hog-eye
Railroad nigger, with his hog-eye!
Row de boat ashore, and a hog-eye O!
She wants the hog-eye man.
[etc]

As nautical readers know, much of this shanty is unprintable ; but it was so very much in evidence in the days of shanties that a collection would be imperfect without it.
//

[SHALLOW BROWN]
//
Challo Brown.

O Challo, in the morning,
O Challo, O Challo Brown!
Just as the day was dawning,
O Challo, O Challo Brown!
She was a bright mulatta,
O Challo, O Challo Brown!
She hailed from Cincinatta,
O Challo, O Challo Brown!
[etc]
//

'The Saucy "Arethusa"' – "a shore manufactured sea song."

"The Buffalo"

[HANDY MY BOYS], without description.
//
So Handy, My Girls.

So handy, my girls, so handy!
Why can't you be so handy, O?
Handy, my girls, so handy!
For we are outward bound, you know,
Handy, my girls, so handy!
O up aloft that yard must go,
Handy, my girls, so handy!
[etc]
//

[HANGING JOHNNY] without description.
//
Hanging Johnny.

O! they call me Hanging Johnny,
Hooray!
Because I hang for money,
So hang, boys, hang!
[etc]
//

[WHISKEY JOHNNY] without description.
//
Whisky.

O, whisky is the life of man,
O whisky, Johnny!
I'll drink whisky when I can,
O, whisky for my Johnny!

Whisky is the life of man,
Whisky from an old tin can.
[etc]
//

[RANZO RAY] without description.
//
We'll Ranzo-Way.

O, the boys and the girls went a huckleberry hunting,
To my way,…Ah!
O, the girls began to cry, and the boys they stop'd hunting,
To my hilo, we'll ranzo-way.
[etc]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 06:11 PM

Whall's 4th edition adds yet more songs. It seems as though in earlier editions he sought to include only songs he deemed worthy of value. Note that he is prejudiced against what he calls "nigger songs", though it is not clear to me exactly when he means minstrel songs or songs sung by Black chanteymen. He mentioned in the 3rd edition that he deliberatly omitted "Sacramento". In the 4th edition, he seems chagrined to admit he is compeled, due to popular demand, to include "Sacramento" and other "nigger songs," of which he says there were hundreds. Incidentally, if there really were "hundreds" and our survey of the 19th century has turned up less than 150 shanties, even though the latter doesn't represent *all* shanties, "hundreds" would imply the majority of shanties.

**1920        Whall, W.B. Fourth edition.**

There is a section inexplicably called "Shakings." Several were reproduced by Hugill under the rubric of "sing-outs." The first song is not labeled, and it appears like a ballad, and not a work song. It begins,

//
On the twenty-fourth November, boys,
'Twas in the Channel we lay…
//

Then, "timber droghers would sing,"
//
Was you ever in Quebec…
//

"The West Indiaman had":
//
Give me the gal can dance fandango…
//

"the Calashie whine of"
//
Kis ki ma doo day calasie… (heard in Calcutta)
//

Kanaka "good-bye song"
//
Good-bye, my flennie…
//

French shanty (words only) given him by an ambassador:
//
C'est le capitaine du "Mexico,"
Hurrah, my boys, hurrah!
Qui donne á boire á ses matelots
A grands coup d'anspect sur le dos,
Hurrah, my boys, hurrah!
//

And, untitled, something of {HOOKER JOHN]:
//
O my Mary, she's a blooming lass
To my Ooker John, my Oo-John
O my Mary, she's a blooming lass
To my Ooker John, my Oo-John
Way, fair lady
O way-ay-ay-ay-ay
My Mary's on the high land
O yonder's Mary—yonder.
//

Then a section on "Nigger Songs."

//
The white seaman in smart ships seldom condescended to sing "nigger" songs. Perhaps the only one which gained anything like general acceptance was "Run, let the Bulgine run," one of the poorest of all. …Nigger shanties there were by the hundred. Some were better than others, but nearly all were of a poor class. … In nigger singing appeared many falsetto appoggiaturas, and a sharp rise to a "grace" note a fifth up, thus: (a sort of yelp; I can think of no other word to express it)… Both these musical tricks were freely used by untutored English ballad singers of folk-songs and such, and are not soley negro….In previous editions I have only given one example of the purely nigger shanty—"Stand to your ground." But it seems to be the wish of some of my readers that I should go further afield.
//

[SACRAMENTO]
//
The Banks of Sacramento.

The Camptown ladies sing this song,
And a hoodah and a hoodah!
The Camptown race track's five miles long,
And a hoodah, hoodah day!
Blow, boys, blow, for California, O!
[etc]
//

[CLEAR THE TRACK]
//
Clear de Track, Let de Bulgine Run.

O de worl' was made in six days and ended on de seven;
Ah he! ah, ho! are you most done
But accordin' to de contrac' it orter been eleven,
So clear de track, let de bulgine run.
//

[JAMBOREE]
//
Jamboree.

The pilot he looks out ahead,
O a hand in the chains, O a heaving of the lead!
The Union Jack at our masthead,
O I wonder if my clothes are out of pawn!
O Jamboree, O Jamboree!
O its get away, you black man, don't you come a-nigh me!
Jamboree, O Jamboree!
O I wonder if my clothes are out of pawn!
//

[BLACKBALL LINE] for windlass.
//
The Black Ball Line.

In the Black Ball I served my time
To my way, hoo-ro-ya!
In the Black Ball I served my time
Hoorah for the Black Ball Line!
//

A hauling song, favourite in London ships
//
O Fare-you-well, My Bonny Young Girls!

O fare you well, my bonny young girls
Hurrah! sing fare you well!
O fare you well! I wish you well
Hurrah! sing fare you well!
//

[HUNDRED YEARS]
//
A Hundred Years Ago.

A hundred years is a very long time!
O, yes, O!
A hundred years is a very long time,
A hundred years ago!
//

"Cawsand Bay"

"The Twenty-fourth of February"

[RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN]
//
It had no set of words, but was popular. It is of a debased kind, and was quite unworthy of its popularity.

Run, Let the Bulgine Run.

O a bulgine once was a heaving
O run, let the bulgine run
Way, Ah, oh…
Run, let the bulgine run.

O, New York town is a-burning, &c.
//

Not a shanty.
//
The Dead Horse.

They say, old man, your horse will die!
And they say so and they hope so.
They say, old man, your horse will die!
Oh, poor old man!
[etc]
//

"Maryland" – a Civil War song used as a shanty
//
I hear the distant thunder hum,
Maryland, my Maryland.
//

A variation of the familiar Dixie song.
//
Dixie.

Im wish I was in the land of cotton
Cinnamon seed and a sandy bottom
In the land, in the land, in the land, in the land.
[etc]
//

[ST. HELENA SOLDIER]
St. Helena Soldier.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 07:44 PM

Gibb,

Whall 1910 contains the following songs:

Shenandoah
Adieu to Maimuna
Homeward Bound
Rolling Home
La Pique
The Dreadnought
Doo Me Ama
Farewell and Adieu
Sling the Flowing Bowl
Blow, Ye Winds, in the Morning
Unmooring
Boston
The Female Smuggler
The Voice of Her I Love
Come, Loose Every Sail to the Breeze
Will Watch
Shannon and Chesapeake
Sally Brown
Can't You Dance the Polka
Across the Western Ocean
Goodbye, Fare You Well
John's Gone to Hilo
Bound for the Rio Grande
One More Day
We're All Bound to Go
Lowlands
A-Roving
Reuben Ranzo
Stand to Your Ground
Stormalong
Poor Paddy who Works on the Railway
The Plains of Mexico
Blow, Boys, Blow
Blow the Man Down
The Fishes
The Whale
Admiral Benbow
Early in the Morning
High Barbaree
Cheer'ly Man
Johnny Boker
Paddy Doyle
Boney
Haul Away, Jo
The Hog-Eye Man

By the 3rd Ed., both "La Pique" and "The Dreadnaught" are gone for some reason.

I haven't seen the 2nd Ed., which is said to be "enlarged." The 3rd, published in 1913 within a few months of the 2nd adds the following songs to the 1910 list (not in order):

The 24th of February
Hanging Johnny
Jamboree
Nigger Songs
Cawsand Bay
The Buffalo
So Handy, My Girls
Challo Brown
Dixie
St. Helena Soldier
O Fare-You-Well, My Bonny Young Girls!
Johnny Boker
Shakings
A Hundred Years Ago
Dead Horse
Whisky
Black Ball Line
We'll Ranzo Way!

In the 6th Ed. (1927) only the following have been added since the 3rd:

Boney
The Banks of Sacramento
Clear de Track, Let de Bulgine Run
Run, Let the Bulgine Run

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 09:52 PM

1918        Burton, Natalie Curtis, rec. _Hampton Series Negro Folk-songs._ Book III. New York: Schirmer.

A cotton-stowing song from Savannah Georgia, as remembered, was recorded and reproduced in this early 20th century work. At first glance, it is exciting to see the musical transciption. However, the form and workings of this song seems like they were different from the 'chants' of Nordhoff's days. This song, which contains 'grunts' that coincide with exertions *between* singing, is more like, say, the worksongs of prisoners that Lomax recorded. Basically, they don't have a sing-along chorus. I suppose the singing style of cotton stowers changed quite a bit from the 1830s to the end of the century. It's also possibly that the style varied regionally. We've had reference to cotton stowers singing in Savannah, but not to lyrics/style.

Pg28ff
//
COTT'N-PACKIN' SONG
Recorded front the singing of 
JAMES E. SCOTT
From Georgia comes this chant of the black laborers at the docks, brought to Hampton by a young Negro, James Scott…
In old times the City of Savannah was a great place for the shipping of cotton, and the wharves hummed and rattled as the wheeled hand-trucks, heaped with cotton-bales, were whirled by running Negroes to the side of the vessels. Then a derrick from the ship let down a great hook and hoisted a bale on which knelt a Negro to balance the load. Up went the hook, while cotton and Negro moved slowly through the air; then down through the open hatch into the hold the bale was lowered, to be seized by the waiting packers and stowed away while the hook swung up and out again with the dangling Negro clinging to it. Bale after bale with its human ballast was thus lifted and dropped.
The black packers in the hold, in gangs of from five to ten men, stowed the cotton by means of iron "screws" which squeezed the bales tightly and compactly into the smallest possible space. Each gang was directed by a "header," or head-man, for the labor required precision and skill as well as strength.
To the Negro, to work in unison means to sing; so as the men strained at their task, a laboring chant arose whose fine-toned phrases were regularly cut by a sharp high cry, "heh!", which emphasized the powerful twisting of the screws by the rhythmic muscular movement of the singers. Verses without number were made up, and many were the cotton-packing chants of which the one here recorded is a typical example. Though a song of such rudimentary simplicity as this—mere vocalized rhythm—is often intoned in unison without harmony, yet sometimes a singer, musically inclined, would strike in with a tenor or bass part of his own, or add a little embellishing melodic curve to the block-like crudity of the phrases…

Screw di cott'n,
heh!
Screw di cott'n,
heh!
Screw di cott'n,
heh!
Screw it tight—
heh!

Screw di cott'n,
heh!
Screw di cott'n,
heh!
Screw di cott'n,
heh!
Wid all yo' might—
Heh!

Here we come, boys,
heh!
Here we come, boys,
heh!
Here we come, boys,
heh!
Do it right—
heh!

Don't get tired,
heh!
Don't get tired,
heh!
Don't get tired,
heh!
Time ain't long—
heh!

Keep on workin'
heh!
Keep on workin'
heh!
Keep on workin'
heh!
Sing dis song—
heh!

(These last two verses are modern) 

Pay-day here, boys,
heh!
Pay-day here, boys,
heh!
Pay-day here, boys,
heh!

I hear dem say—
heh!

We'll have money,
heh!
We'll have money,
heh!
We'll have money
heh!

Dis yere day—
heh!

[Followed by musical score]
//

This is followed by a "CORN-SHUCKIN' SONG" from Virginia, which really comes from memories of Booker T. Washington (and which I will post separately). Not sure where they got the tune from, however (Washington only gave lyrics).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 10:14 PM

Lighter--

Thanks for the contents of Whall's first ed.! That's very helpful.

I think we are mixed up on our third edition, however.

I am looking at the contents of the 3rd edition I have. After all the 1st edition songs, it adds:

Challo Brown
The Saucy Arethusa
Buffalo
So Handy, My Girls
Hanging Johnny
Whisky
We'll Ranzo Way!

Again, I'm guessing that these were the same songs that "enlarged" the 2nd edition.


The rest you mention, ...

The 24th of February
Jamboree
Nigger Songs (a section title)
Cawsand Bay
Dixie
St. Helena Soldier
O Fare-You-Well, My Bonny Young Girls!
Johnny Boker
Shakings (a section title)
A Hundred Years Ago
Dead Horse
Whisky
Black Ball Line

and,
The Banks of Sacramento
Clear de Track, Let de Bulgine Run
Run, Let the Bulgine Run

...Don't come until the 4th ed. La Pique/The Dreadnaught is there un the 3rd.

Here's an on-line version of 3rd ed.:
http://www.archive.org/stream/shipsseasongssha00whal#page/n17/mode/2up

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 10:35 PM

1909        Washington, Booker T. _The Story of the Negro._ Vol. 1. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.

This contains a passage describing corn-sucking bees, and an example of lyrics. I presume this comes from Washington's experience, which would mean what is being desctibed pertains to a Virginia plantation in the early 1860s. The song lyrics quoted compare well with those in Fedric's "Slave Life in Virginia…"

Pp158-60
//
Hog-killing time was an annual festival, and the corn shucking was a joyous event which the whites and blacks, in their respective ways, took part in and enjoyed. These corn-shucking bees, or whatever they may be called, took place during the last of November or the first half of December. They were a sort of a prelude to the festivities of the Christmas season. Usually they were held upon one of the larger and wealthier plantations.

After all the corn had been gathered, thousands of bushels, sometimes, it would be piled up in the shape of a mound, often to the height of fifty or sixty feet. Invitations would be sent around by the master himself to the neighbouring planters, inviting their slaves on a certain night to attend. In response to these invitations as many as one or two hundred men, women, and children would come together.

When all were assembled around the pile of corn, some one individual, who had already gained a reputation as a leader in singing, would climb on top of the mound and begin at once, in clear, loud tones, a solo — a song of the corn-shucking season — a kind of singing which I am sorry to say has very largely passed from memory and practice. After leading off in this way, in clear, distinct tones, the chorus at the base of the mound would join in, some hundred voices strong. The words, which were largely improvised, were very simple and suited to the occasion, and more often than not they had the flavour of the camp-meeting rather than any more secular proceeding. Such singing I have never heard on any other occasion. There was something wild and weird about that music, such as I suspect will never again be heard in America.

One of these songs, as I remember, ran about as follows:
I.
Massa's niggers am slick and fat,
    Oh! Oh! Oh! 

Shine just like a new beaver hat,
    Oh! Oh! Oh!

Refrain:
Turn out here and shuck dis corn,
    Oh! Oh! Oh!
Biggest pile o' corn seen since I was born,
    Oh! Oh! Oh!

II.
Jones's niggers am lean an' po';
    Oh! Oh! Oh! 

Don't know whether dey get 'nough to eat or no,
    Oh! Oh! Oh!

Refrain:
Turn out here and shuck dis corn,
    Oh! Oh! Oh! 

Biggest pile o' corn seen since I was born,
    Oh! Oh! Oh!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Jul 11 - 10:52 PM

Thanks, Lighter. Mine has the dates 1910, 1927, 1948 and 1963. The lists make it a copy of the 3rd edition, but I wasn't sure if the dates 1927, etc., were just reprint dates or more juggling had been done.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 05 Jul 11 - 12:46 PM

Thanks for the clarification, Gibb. What I'd thought to be the 3rd appears actually to have been the 4th ed. (I got it on interlibrary loan many years ago, but that doesn't excuse the error.)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Jul 11 - 04:16 PM

1843 [Dec.]        Unknown. "Sketches of East-Florida (Part Three)." _The Knickerbocker_ 22(6) (Dec. 1843). 560-567.

This section of these "sketches" is speaking generally about travel to St. Augustine, but from earlier parts one gets the sense that the author's experiences came from 1836, perhaps up through the publication date (1843).

There are references to Black workers singing while threshing, described as "sad and wild." In Savannah, the singing of cotton-stowers is mentioned. The author only mentions Black slave workers. In other words, the interaction with workers of other ethnicities, which might have led to the exchange giving birth to some chanties, is not there. One possible explanation is that Savannah was a different "scene" from the Gulf. However, another fascinating, possible explanation is that non-Blacks had yet to join this work. When Gosse wrote about 1838, he didn't mention other ethnicities. The observations of C. Erskine and Nordhoff, where European sailors were taking part, did not come until at least 1845. Here, the author is talking about 1836-1843. So one speculate that it was the early 1840s when Euro/American workers began to join in cotton-stowing.

//
But we have forgotten St. Augustine.,,The pleasantest route is by way of Savannah, …
On the edge of the bluff, which looks down upon the rice-fields and the river, there is a small circular opening in the live-oaks; and standing about that circle, are fifty to a hundred blacks threshing out rice. There are old men and women, and young men and maidens, and all varieties of dress, …all with a head-dress of some kind, and all singing whatever happens to be the impromptu of the occasion The boys question and the girls answer in a kind of chant, and this is repeated opera-fashion once or twice, when the young and old all join in a regular break-down, and then the flails come down all as one, and exact as the bow-tip of an orchestra-leader. The young girl sings with a roguish cast of the eye, and a smile on her lip, but the old men, and the old hags of women, how frantic they look as they burst into the chorus! Here and there is an old African, who hardly knows what it all means, but with a guess at the subject, he joins in with his native lingo, and his notes are as well timed and unearthly as the best of them. The song may affect to be lively and joyous, but it is not so. There is something so sad and wild about it, that I defy any one who knows the tones of the heart, to look on and listen without something of a shudder. …and on the other side of the group is an old, blind, gray-headed negro sitting in the straw, …Occasionally he starts, as though he heard and understood the song of the threshers, and with a fling of his arms, as if there again at his old post, he breaks out with some old, forgotten ditty,…
In this lounging way a day or two passes pleasantly, during which the ship has drifted up to Savannah, …The wide street that opens to the south (every one knows how beautiful are the streets in Savannah) leads past a cemetery, where of course it is very still and solemn, but it is equally so in every other, save the one that skirts the river bank; and even there the cawing of the crows a mile distant over the river comes to the ear as distinctly as in the shut-up mountains of the Highlands. Fifty feet below are the outwardbound ships, stowing away their cotton for the East, and from their gloomy depths comes up the half-smothered, never-ending song of the negro slave. All day long you may hear the same monotonous, melancholy cry, a little exaggerated as the labor varies; …
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Jul 11 - 04:54 PM

1913        Douglas, Charles Noel. _Uncle Charlie's Story Book._ Brooklyn, NY: Charles Noel Douglas.

A story in this collection, "Ghosts of the Mississippi," makes passing reference to the idea of singing whilst stowing cotton. The year given is 1888 and the place is St. Louis on the Mississippi. The story is fiction, but based in some reality (the boat checks out), even if the time isn't accurate. It sounds like this cotton-stowing, on steamboats, is to carry the cotton down river to port, so it is not necessarily the cotton "screwing" we are generally concerened with.

Pg49
//
(The story narrated by the pilot is one of actual facts, the author having merely tried to record the various incidents as they fell from the lips of one who participated in one of the many grim tragedies enacted on the turbid bosom of the great Father of Waters.)
It was in the fall of the year i888 that I was a passenger on board the Mississippi steamer, Annie P. Silver, which in those days plied between St. Louis and New Orleans….

I found myself standing on the lower deck of the huge phantom-like steamer, surrounded by perspiring negroes who were crooning snatches of song, quaint melodies peculiar to their race, as they busily stowed away countless bales of cotton consigned to New Orleans and the markets of the old world.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Jul 11 - 05:24 PM

1864[1863]        Parton, James. _General Butler in New Orleans._ New York: Mason Brothers.

History of New Orleans before and leading up to the Civil War, describing earlier life (1850s and earlier), and specifically life at the time of the Union's Blockade in May 1861. Mentions cotton work and singing.

Pg255
//
The double blockade—blockade above and blockade below—struck death to the commerce of New Orleans, a city created and sustained by commerce alone. …Cotton ships, eight or ten deep; a forest of masts, denser than any but a tropical forest; steamboats in bewildering numbers, miles of them, puffing and hissing, arriving, departing, and threatening to depart, with great clangor of bells and scream of whistles; cotton-bales piled high along the levee, as far as the eye could reach; acres and acres covered with hogsheads of sugar; endless flotillas of flat-boats, market-boats, and timber-rafts; gangs of negroes at work upon every part of the levee, with loud chorus and outcry; and a constant crowd of clerks, merchants, sailors, and bandanna-crowned negro women selling coffee, cakes, and fruit. It was a spectacle without parallel on the globe, because the whole scene of the city's industry was presented in one view.
What a change was wrought by the mere announcement of the blockade! The cotton ships disappeared; the steamboats were laid away in convenient bayous, or departed up the river to return no more. The cotton mountains vanished; the sugar acres were cleared. The cheerful song of the negroes was seldom heard, and grass grew on the vacant levee. The commerce of the city was dead; and the forces hitherto expended in peaceful and victorious industry, were wholly given to waging war upon the power which had called that industry into being, defended it against the invader, protected and nourished it for sixty years, guiltless of wrong. The young men enlisted in the army, compelling the reluctant stevedores, impressing with violence the foreign born.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Jul 11 - 06:07 PM

1908        Hubbard, W.L., ed. _History of American Music._ Toledo: Irving Squire.

This volume contains a chapter on "Patriotic and National Music" (i.e. of America). In the description of chanties, it's interesting to see, the authors have taken the view that they were mostly born of cotton-stowers' and Black work-songs. They seem to have used sources like RC Adams, Alden, and Davis/Tozer. The perspective, I suspect, is mainly coming from Alden. This would have been before the time, I argue, that voices were putting chanties as a mainly British product.

Pp133-135
//
Though not properly coming under the heading of patriotic and national music, a word relative to American sea songs in general may here be appended. These songs are an essential feature toward the performance of good concerted work, and they are common to the sailors of all maritime nations. Although they may vary with individual characteristics of nationality, the theme is much the same and they are all sung to the accompaniment of the "thrilling shrouds, the booming doublebass of the hollow topsails, and the multitudinous chorus of ocean."

Most of the songs or chanties — the name being derived from a corruption of the French chansons or chantees — of the American sailor of today are of negro origin, and were undoubtedly heard first in southern ports while the negroes were in engaged in stowing the holds of the vessels with bales of cotton, while some few of them may be traced back to old English tunes. They were of two kinds — pulling songs and windlass songs. The pulling songs were used as an incentive to the men to pull together. One can better understand this from the rhythmic flow of the following stanza, which has its counterpart in the sailor songs of varied nationalities:

Haul on the bowlin', the fore and maintop bowlin', 

Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin', Haul!

At the close of each stanza the word "Haul" is given with marked emphasis, and the tug on the rope necessarily becomes stronger. The song imparts a unity of spirit and purpose to the work at hand.

The windlass songs beguile the men into temporary forgetfulness while working the pumps or weighing the anchor. One man, from his power of voice and ingenuity at improvisation, is looked upon as the leader. He begins by singing the chorus, as an intimation to the men of the manner in which it is to be sung; then he sings his solo, very seldom more than one line, and the men, from his musical intonation of the last word, catch the words and pitch with the inspiration intended. One of the best of windlass songs, in which the melody rises and falls in a manner suggestive of the swell of the ocean, runs:

I'm bound away this very day,
    (Chorus) Oh, you Rio!

I'm bound away this very day,
    (Chorus) I'm bound for the Rio Grande! 
   
And away, you Rio, oh, you Rio!
I'm bound away this very day,
(Chorus) I'm bound for the Rio Grande!

A favorite windlass song is that known as "Shanandore," the title being a corruption of Shenandoah, upon which river the song undoubtedly originated with the negroes:

You, Shanandore, I long to hear you;
      (Chorus) Hurrah, hurrah you rollin' river! 

You Shanandore, I long to hear you,
(Chorus) Ah, ha, you Shanandore.

In the West and South the chanties still may be heard. You may catch their strains upon the sweeping Mississippi, whose forest environment first caught the chansons of the French voyageurs. Even now the boat songs and working songs of the sailors in the neighborhood of St. Louis and New Orleans are suggestive of French influence. Along the Ohio, too, and other water-ways, these melodies in form of a low, hoarse chant, are still reminiscent of the old chanties.

On the Atlantic coast the fisher fleets are perhaps the only vessels which still make use of these almost forgotten melodies, for the steam-worked windlass, the pumps, the clatter of the cog-wheels, the shrieking whistles and hissing steam are not conducive to song, and the sailor of the Twentieth Century, like the landsman, has caught the spirit of rush and speed, and no one dare attempt to revive the old chanty songs on board the steamships of today…
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Jul 11 - 07:33 PM

1911        Morrison, K.E. "For a Scout's Honor." _Boys' Life_ 1(4) (June 1911).

A Play in Four Acts, Presented by Troop 2, Norwich, Conn., Boy Scouts of America.

In the middle of the play, the scouts are instructed to sing a specially arranged medley.

It is indicated that it should be sung to the tune of "Australia". It seems like the CAPE COD GIRLS form. Pg40:
//
Old Norwich City is a great old town.
(Chorus) Heave away! Heave away!
With its streets and alleys up and down.
(Chorus) Heave away! Heave away!
(All) Heave away, my bonny, bonny boys. Heave away; Heave away. Heave away, my bonnie, bonnie boys. We're out in the country…
//
Followed by couplets about "Norwich scouts" and "Norwich coin", etc.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Jul 11 - 09:15 PM

1902[April]        Parsons, W.D. "Charleston and the Exposition with Impressions of the South." _Inter-state Journal_ 4-5(6) (April 1902).        

Opinions/observations on Charleston at turn of century from a New Englander. Mentions stevedores singing, described as "peculiar."

//
The colored laborers do the manual toil in the South which the Dagoes and other European riff-raff do at the North, and a prominent wholesale merchant of Charleston expressed himself as unwilling to make an exchange if he could. Whatever we may say of him, the negro is not an Anarchist, nor a serious menace to society; the stevedores at the docks heave their loads to the accompaniment of a peculiar musical song or cry, and everywhere the negro is light-hearted and happy at his work; …
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Jul 11 - 09:49 PM

1936        Eisdell, J.W. _Back Country or the Cheerful Adventures of a bush parson in the eighties._ London: Oxford UP.

During a voyage to Melbourne 1882, on the SS NORTHUMBERLAND. Three chanties.

Haven't seen the book; getting this second hand through site of Warren Fahey, http://warrenfahey.com/maritime-3.htm.

[DEAD HORSE]
//
I came to a river but I couldn't get across
Chorus: And we say so & we hope so
Solo - so I gave ten bob for an old blind horse

Chorus: Oh poor man
[etc]
//

//
Old Dad

O my old Daddy, he went for a swim etc
Be hung his clothes on a hickory limb
Now there were some boys who thought it great fun etc
So they stole his clothes and away they did run etc
Now my old Mammy went fishing for chad etc
And the first thing she caught was my old dad etc
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Jul 11 - 05:56 AM

The following source contains several original versions or variations of chanties. Many of these were later reproduced by Stan Hugill. The notes in the chanties are not very insightful; I've mainly broken out the lyrics here.

1914        Sharp, Cecil J., A.G. Gilchrist, and Lucy R. Broadwood. "Sailors' Chanties." _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_ 5(18):31-44.

Several chanties collected by the authors, from individuals who presumably learned them in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

From Charles Robbins (age 66): [HAUL AWAY JOE], sung in 1908.
//
1. Haul Away, Joe.

Away, audle away, O audle away my rosy,
O away, audle away, O audle away Joe

O once I had a nigger girl
She had a nigger baby;
O away, audle away,
O audle away Joe.

O now I've got an English girl,
I treat her like a lady;
O away, etc.

We sailed away for the East Indies,
With spirits light and gay;
O away, etc.

We discharged our cargo there, my boys,
And we took it light and easy;
O away, etc.

We loaded for our homeward bound,
With our minds so free and easy;
O away, etc.

We squared our yards and away we ran,
With the music playing freely;
O away, etc.

Now up aloft this yard must go,
We'll pull her free and easy;
O away, etc.

Another pull and then belay,
We'll make it all so easy;
O away, etc.

Now when we landed in English Town,
We landed free and easy;
O away, etc.

We made her fast and made her run,
And made her free and easy;
O away, etc.
//

[SANTIANA] Sung in 1909
//
2. Santy Anna.

O Santy Anna gained the day,
O away O Santy Anna;
O Santy Anna gained the day,
Ordle on the plains of Mexico.

Mexico is a place of renown, etc.

We'll spread her wings and let her go, etc.
O up aloft this yard must go, etc.

We're homeward bound with a pleasant gale, etc.

We're bound away for Liverpool Town, etc.

We gave three cheers and away we ran, etc.

We sailed away with our spirits light and gay, etc.
//

[BLACKBALL LINE] as capstan chanty. Sung in 1908.
//
6. The Black Ball Line.

O the Black Ball Line I served my time,
Haul a way, Haul away O,
The Black Ball Line I served my time,
Then Hurrah! for the Black Ball Line.

O the Black Ball line is the line for to shine, etc.

We sailed away from Liverpool Bay, etc.

We sailed away with spirits light and gay, etc.

We sailed away for Mobile Bay, etc.

It was there we discharged our cargo, boys, etc.

And we loaded cotton for the homeward bound, etc.

We sailed away with spirits light and gay, etc.

Up aloft this yard must go, etc.

And when we arrived at Liverpool Docks, etc.

We ran our lines unto the pier, etc.

We have around with the same ordle (old) song, etc.

We made her fast all snug and taut, etc.

Now the skipper said, " Now that will do my boys," etc.
//

[REUBEN RANZO], topsail hailyards. Sung in 1908.
//
Ranzo.

O Ranzo was no sailor,
O Ranzo, boys, Ranzo;
O Ranzo was no sailor.
O Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.

He shipped on board of a sailer, etc.

They took him to the gangway, etc.

They gave him five and twenty, etc.

They sailed to Mobile Bay, etc.

It was there they discharged their cargo, etc.

They shipped another cargo, etc.

We are homeward bound to Liverpool, etc.

Now the captain he being a good man, etc.

He took him to the cabin, etc.

He learned him navigation, etc.

O that was the end of Ranzo, etc.
//

[RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN] sung in 1908. Capstan.
//
9. The Bullgine.

O the Bullgine ran in the morning,
O run, let the Bullgine run;
We-O, Away, Ha! Ha!
Run, let the Bullgine run.

We sailed away for Mobile Bay, etc.

We spread our sales with a favourable gale, etc.

Now up aloft this yard must go, etc.

We're homeward bound for Liverpool docks, etc.

Now we gave three cheers and away we went, etc.
//

[SALLY BROWN] sung in 1909. With chromatic or blue note sort of melody.
//
12. Sally Brown.

I shipped on board of a Liverpool liner,
Way-Ho, a rolling go,
And we shipped on board of a Liverpool liner,
For I spent my money 'long with Sally Brown.

Now up aloft this yard must go, etc.

And we spread her wings and we let her go free boys, etc.

Now we sailed three days when a storm arose boys, etc.

We screw in cotton by the day boys, etc. (i.e. screw it in bales).

O Sally Brown was a bright mulatter, etc.

Now we spread her wings and away we sail boys, etc.

O seven years I courted Sally, etc.

And now we're married and we're living nice and comfor'ble, etc.
//

[FISHES] Sung by Wm. Wooley (aged 84) in 1908.
//
3. Blow the Wind Wester.

First Version.

It's up jumps the sprat, the smallest of them all;
She jumped on the foredeck, well done, my lads all.
So blow the wind wester, blow the wind blow!
Our ship she's in full sail, how steady she goes.

Then up jumps the eel, with his slippery tail;
He jumped on the fore deck and glistened the sail.

Then up jumps the nirl-log, with his pretty spots;
He jumped on the fore deck and looked on the top.

Then up jumps the shark, with his rolling teeth;
He said: " Mr. Captain, shall I cook your beef ?"

Then up jumps the roter, the king of the sea;
He jumped on the fore deck and turned the key.
//

Second Version. Sung by Mrs. L. Hooper, 1904.
//
Up jumps the salmon, The largest of 'em all;
He jumps on our foredeck, Saying: Here's meat for all.
O blow the wind whistling, O blow the winds all!
Our ship is still-hearted boys, How steady she go!

Up jumps the shark, The largest of all;
He jumps on our fore-deck: You should die all!

Then up jumps the sprat, The smallest of all;
He jumps on our fore-deck, Saying: We shall be drowned all!
//

[TALLY] Sung by Mr. Rapsey (age 58) in 1906.
//
4. Tiddy I-O

O now you forbid us to bid you adieu,
Tiddy i-o io;
We're homeward bound to Bristol town,
Tiddy i-o i-o i-o.

We're homeward bound with sugar and rum,
Tidy i-o, i-o;
We're homeward bound with sugar and rum,
Tidy i-o, i-o.

When we arrive in the Bristol Docks
Tidy i-o, i-o;
Now the people come down in flocks,
Tidy i-o, i-o.
//

[LEAVE HER JOHNNY], a capstan chanty
//
Leave Her, Johnny.

The times is hard and the wages low,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her;
The bread is hard and the beef is salt,
But it's time for us to leave her.

O the mill to the pump is our relief
I thought I hear our captain say.

Ten long months on salt beef all
O now I hear our captain say.
//

[REUBEN RANZO] Attributed to "Sailors at Liverpool" Quite a different and unusual tune.
//
Oh, Ramso was no sailor!
Ramso, boys, Ramso!
Oh, Ramso was no saior!
Ramso, boys, Ramso!
He shipp'd on board a whaler,
Ramso, boys, Ramso!
He shipp'd on board a whaler,
Ramso, boys, Ramso!

But he could not do his duty, etc.
So they gave him six and thirty, etc.

Now the captain was a very good man, etc.
He taught him navigation, etc.

Now Ramso got so handy, etc.
That he drank all the captain's brandy, etc.
//

[RANZO RAY] marked as 'Capstan Chanty' Sung by W. Bolton, retired sailor (age 66) in 1905.
//
Ranzo.
I'm bound away to leave you, But I never will deceive you,
Ranzo, Ranzo, away, away;
We're bound to Giberaltar And our cargo's bricks and mortar,
Ranzo, Ranzo, 'way.
//

Another [RANZO RAY], capstan chanty, sung by James Saunders (age 77) in 1910.
//
8. The Bully Boat is Coming.

The bully boat is coming, Don't you hear her paddles roaring?
Ranzo, Ranzo, away
We've ploughed the ocean over, And we're all bound for Dover,
It's my Ranzo, Ranzo away.
//

[HOGEYE]. sung in 1910.
//
11. The Hog-eyed Man.

O a hog-eyed man is the man for me
O a long black beggar and you don't ride me.
With his hog eye,
And you rowed about the shore, Says the hog-eyed man.

[HOGEYE] Sung by John Allen (age 67), in 1909. A "warping" chanty.
//
O who's been here since I've been gone,
A Yankee boy with his sea boots on,
Ha! Ha!
Ha! Ha!
//

//
13. Shanadar.

O Shanadar I'll have your daughter;
Way-o, you rolling ruin;
I love her as I love the water,
Ha! Ha!
I'm bound away across the wild Missouri.

O Shanadar what is the matter ?
Way O, you rolling ruin;
Your daughter's here and I am at her,
Ha ! ha!
I'm bound away across the wild Missouri.
//

Also quotes Whall's version of HOGEYE from his Yachting Monthly article. It's like his later collction, only says "rare old" instead of "railroad."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 06 Jul 11 - 08:26 AM

Let me say again, under my own name this time, that I'm glad to see you back at it, Gibb. This is some good work and I appreciate having it available like this. And I do hope you had a good 4th. J.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Jul 11 - 07:48 PM

Here's the last of the chanty articles by the Folk-Song Society crew, that I know of, to be discussed.

1916        Sharp, Cecil J., A.G. Gilchrist, Lucy E. Broadwood, Frank Kidson, and Harry E. Piggott. 1916. "Sailors' Chanties." _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_ 5(20):297-315.

Another batch of chanties, collected by Cecil J. Sharp and Harry E. Piggott.

[JAMBOREE], for capstan. Sung by Harry Perrey (age 61) in 1915. Perrey was a American who spent 40+ years in sailing ships. So, his songs may go back to the 1870s.
//
Whip Jamboree.

First version.

O now, my boys, we'll give three cheers,
For the Irish coast is drawing near;
Tomorrow we will sight Cape Clear,
O Jenny, get your oat cake done.
O Jamboree, whip Jamboree,
O you long-tailed black man step it up behind me,
O Jamboree, whip Jamboree,
O Jenny, get your oatcake done.

Now my boys, we're off Holyhead,
No more salt beef, no more salt bread,
One man in the chains for to heave the lead,
O Jenny get your oat-cake done.
O Jamboree, etc.
//

"Southern Ladies" is a song I've never seen elsewhere (except in Hugill's reprint). (Incidentally, I used it as the tune for my chanty dedicated to Barry Finn). Given as a capstan chantey, sung by Perrey in 1915.
//
19. Southern Ladies.

What will you fetch your Julia?
Way-ay-ay-ay,
What will you fetch your Julia?
She's a southern lady…all the day.

One bottle of Floridy water.
Way-ay-ay-ay.
One bottle of Floridy water,
She's a southern lady all the day.

This is a negro labour-song of the cotton stations of the Southern States which, like many others of a similar character, has been commandeered by the sailor.
-C. J. S.
//

[BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND] appears here, for the first time, I think, as a capstan chanty.
//
20. The Banks of Newfoundland.

You rambling boys of Liverpool, I'll have you to beware,
When you go a-packet sailing No dungarees don't wear;
But have a monkey jacket All unto your command,
For there blows some cold nor'westers On the banks of Newfoundland.
We'll wash her and we'll scrub her down, With holy stones and sand.
And we'll bid adieu to the Virgin Rocks On the banks of Newfoundland.

We had one Lynch from Balla na Lynch,
Jimmy Murphy and Mike Moor;
It was in the winter of sixty-two
Those sea-boys suffered sore.
They pawned their clothes in Liverpool
And sold them out of hand,
Not thinking of the cold nor'-westers
On the banks of Newfoundland.

We had one lady passenger on board,
Bridget Riley was her name;
To her I promised marriage
And on me she had a claim.
She tore up her flannel petticoats
To make mittens for our hands,
For she couldn't see the sea-boys frozen
On the banks of Newfoundland.

Now my boys, we're off Sandy Hook
And the land's all covered with snow;
The tug-boat will take our hawser
And for New York we will tow;
And when we arrive at the Black Ball dock
The boys and girls there will stand;
We'll bid adieu to packet-sailing
And the banks of Newfoundland.
//

Also here for the first time as a capstan chanty is [LIVERPOOL GIRLS].
//
21. Row, Bullies, Row.
[The Liverpool Girls.]

From Liverpool to 'Frisco a-roving I went,
For to stay in that country it was my intent;
But drinking strong whiskey, like other damned fools.
I was very soon shanghai'd back to Liverpool.
Singing row…row, bullies, row,
Those Liverpool girls they have got us in tow.

One day off Cape Horn, sure I ne'er will forget,
O it's O don't I sigh when I think on it yet;
The mate was knocked out and the sails was all wet
And she was running twelve knots with her main sky-sail set.
Singing row, row, etc.

O it's now we are sailing down on to the line,
When I think over it yet, sure we had a hard time;
The sailors was pulling the yards all around,
Trying to beat that flash clipper called the Thacka McGowan.
Singing row, row, etc.

O it's now we're arrived in Bramley-Moor Dock,
Where the fair maids and lasses around us will flock.
The barley's run dry and sixty dollars advance,
I think it's high time to get up and " dust." [i.e. " strike out for another
country."]
//

[SHALLOW BROWN], a "pulling" chanty.
//
Shallow Brown.
[I'm Going Away to Leave You.]

I'm going away to leave you,
Shallow, O Shallow Brown.
I'm going away to leave you,
Shallow, O Shallow Brown.

Get my clothes in order.

The steam-boat sails to-morrow.

I'm bound away for Georgia.

No more work on plantation.
I'll cross the wide Atlantic.

I'll cross the Chili mountains.

To pump them silver fountains. [i.e. work the silver mines.]
//

[FIRE DOWN BELOW] for capstan.
//
23. Fire! Fire!

First version.

Fire! Fire! Fire! My boys, Don't you kick up any noise,
To my way-ay-ay-ay-ay.
O it's fire in the foretop and in the hole below,
It's fire down below.
The Captain's on the poop with his spyglass in his hand,
To my way-ay-ay-ay-ay.
The mate is on the focosle head a-looking out for land,
O it's fire down below.
//

[JAMBOREE] sung by George Conway (age 70) in 1914. This melody in major mode.
//
Whip Jamboree. Second Version.

O Jamboree, O Jamboree,
Long time a-coming that pretty, little yaller girl,
O Jamboree, O Jamboree,
O Jenny get your oat-cake done.
//

[FIRE DOWN BELOW]
//
Second Version.

Fire up the middle door, Fire down below,
O Fire in the maintop, Fire down below.
[cho.] Fire! Fire! Fire! O here's an awful go!
Let's hope that we shall never see fire down below.

Fire in the mizen top.

Fire in the fore-top.
//

[HANDY MY BOYS], a "pulling" chanty, sung by Robert Ellison (age 78) in 1914.
//
O handy, my boys, we're bound away,
So handy, my boys, so handy,
O handy, my boys, we're bound away,
So handy, my boys, so handy.

I thought I heard the Captain say.

At daylight, boys, we're bound away.

Bound away for Botany (Hobson's) Bay.

Whenever you go to Playhouse Square.

Gipsy Pole she do live there.
//

A pulling chanty. Sure, it's similar to "Sally Brown," but not necessarily any more so than other chanties. My quick rendition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsHHHbnY9Vc
//
25. What is in the Pot A-boiling?

What is in the pot a-boiling?
O row, heave and go.
Two sheep's spunks and an apple dumpling,
O row, heave and go.
//

[RIO GRANDE] for windlass, sung by John Rerring in 1912.
//
26. Rio Grande.

I thought I heard our Captain say,
Oh Rio
I thought I heard our Captain say
"We are off to Rio Rande"
Then away Rio…Away Rio,
So fare you well my bonny young girl,
We are off to Rio Grande.

So heave up your anchor and let us away.

We've a jolly goo(I ship and a jolly good crew.
A jolly good mate and a good captain too.

So set all your sails, 'tis a favouring wind;
Say good-bye to the lass you are leaving behind.

For twelve long months we'll be away.
And then return with our twelve months' pay,
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] for windlass.
//
27. Heave Away, My Johnny.

As I was walking Liverpool streets a-wearing out my shoes,
Heave away, my Johnny, heave away…
I stepped into a shipping office, just to hear the news.
Heave away, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go.

"Good Morning, Shipping Master," " Good Morning, Jack," says he.
"O have you got a fine ship to carry me over the sea "

"Oh yes, I have a fine ship, a ship of noted fame;
She's lying in the Canning Dock, the Annie is her name.

The wages are a pound a month, and half a month's advance;
And whilst you haven't got a ship, you'd better take the chance."

So I went on board the Annie and I sailed to a foreign clime;
But I'll ne'er forget the girl I loved and left in tears behind.
//

[HEAVE AWAY CHEERILY] "hauling"
//
Off to the South'ard We'll Go.

Oh our ship is refitted, we are going for a trip,
Cheer'ly my lads, let her go
We're a jolly fine crew and a jolly fine ship,
As off to the south'ard we'll go.

So set all your sails, it's a favouring wind,
Say good-bye to the friends you are leaving behind,

We shall soon clear the Channel and be well off the land;
Then the steward will serve out the grog to each man.

But the wind is increasing, we must reduce sail.
Take a reef in the topsails and weather the gale.

Under low canvas four days we have been.
Four passing ships homeward bound we have seen.

But now we will set all our sails again.
And think nothing more of the wind and the rain.

The chanty of this name in Tozer's Sailors' Songs is a modern production both tune and words-but seems to have been founded on something older…A.G.G.
//

[HANDY MY BOYS], "hauling"
//
A Handy Ship.

A handy ship and a handy crew,
So handy, my boys, so handy.
A handy ship and a handy crew,
So handy, my boys, so handy.

A handy mate to pull us through.
A handy mate to pull us through.

The mate will tell us when to belay.
I think that's just what he's going to say

So up aloft on this yard we must go.
So up aloft on the yard we must go.
//

Piggott gives a note to acknowledge improvisation and stock verses, as explained by his informant.
//
… In connection with this and the chanties which follow, it must be remembered that the words are extemporized and often trans-
ferred from one chanty to another. Mr. Perring said to me " Of course, I can't think of words to sing now. I am out of practice. Besides it is so different singing in a room. If I were on board, with all the fellows round me, I should know their names and all about them and I was a good hand at making up little rhymes which would fit in; I should think of the next verse while they were singing the chorus." He went on to explain how he had certain rhymes or jingles which he fell back upon when he could no longer think of topical verses, such as:
" The captain is a-growling,
The wind it is a-howling."
" Haul and pull together,
Haul for better weather."
//

[HAUL AWAY JOE], a "setting up" chanty
//
Haul Away, Joe.

Away haul away, Haul away together,
Away, haul away, haul away Joe!

Away, haul away,
The gale it is a-brewing;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

Away, haul away,
Haul and pull together;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe !

Away, haul away,
The captain is a-growling;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

Away, haul away,
All for better weather;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

The "setting up " or " sweating up " chanties were sung as a solo or by a few voices; all joining in with a shout on the last word, as they fell back on the rope.
-H. E. P.
//

[JOHNNY BOWKER] for "setting up"
//
Johnny Poker.

Oh, do my Johnny Poker, Oh! will you not give over?
Oh do, my Johnny Poker, Do!

This is sung in the same manner as the last, with impromptu variations to the second strain, such as :

"The captain is a-growlin'."
"The gale it is a howlin'."
"We'll either break or bend her."
"My sweetheart young and tender." -H. E. P
//

[BOWLINE] "setting up"
//
Haul on the Bowline.

Haul on the owline, the main to'gallant bowline.
Haul on the bowline, the bowline, Haul.

Haul on the bowline, the captain is a-growlin',
Haul on the bowline, the bowline, haul.

and so on, with such variations as:

" Our ship she is a-rolling."
" Haul for better weather."
" Haul and pull together."
"The wind it is a-howlin'." etc.

The last note is sometimes indicated simply as a shout. This is probably one of our oldest English chanties….-A. G. G.

This is apparently the opening phrase of a variant of the tune made famous by Tom Moore's arrangement as " The Song of Fionnuala" (" Silent, oh Moyle "). Moore took his air from Holden's Irish Tunes, where it appears as " Arah, my dear Evleen." Holden's version is spoilt by its sharpened seventh; Moore retained this, and Sir Charles Stanford has changed it to what he believes to be the old form (see below). The Irish tune " Savourneen Deelish " (used by Moore for his song "'Tis gone, gone for ever," and by Thomas Campbell for his poem " There came
to the beach a poor exile of Erin "), seems allied to " Arah, my dear Evleen." The opening phrases of the songs are given here for comparison, and very interesting notes on them are in Moffat and Kidson's Minslrelsy of Ireland, pp. 224, 262, and Appendix, p. 341.-L. E. B.
[with tunes given for comparison]
//

Gilchrist and Broadwood, above, were keen on connecting the last chanty to earlier English or Irish sources.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 07:03 PM

1914        Sharp, Cecil K. 1914. _ English Folk-Chanteys._ London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd.

60 chanteys. Majority heard from John Short of Watchet, Somerset.
The format is similar to Sharp's publication in issues of the Folk Song Society journal (e.g., sort sets of verses, lots of stringing out/half-couplets), but the entries have a dual purpose in that they are set to piano arrangements, as if they are to be performed. Indeed, the notes for the items are put (inconveniently, for our purposes) in a separate section at the end.

In his intro to the collection, Sharp reveals his basic intent and biases. His a priori assumption is that this repertoire primarily belongs to a song tradition of the English people. Therefore (for example), he seeks to connect the tunes to other English folk or popular songs – not necessarily a bad move in all cases, but an assumption, nonetheless, that closes the door on other possibilities. He talks about songs exhibiting "Negro influence", which seems to me a way of assuming again that some core English repertoire is at the center, which Black songs can only "influence"; Black song traditions cannot be at the center in this sort of discussion.

What is wonderful about Sharp's collected shanties is that we have them for posterity, and more so that he has recorded the musical and lyrical peculiarities of specific singers (i.e. he has been descriptive). This is as opposed by giving a 'generic' quasi-composite version of the chanties, such as some of the earlier authors had done. However, that benefit is somewhat diminished in this particular collection; unlike in his journal articles, Sharp does create composite/ideal/prescriptive versions to some extent.

One can also critique Sharp's relative ignorance of the subject. He had gained familiarity by this point, but I think that what he didn't know about shanties comes through now and again in misperceptions of what his informants sang. (Incidentally, when Hugill went on to re-present many of these items, he "corrected" some of the lyrics to reflect what one better acquainted with the subject would assume must have been the intended words.)

The opening of the intro reflects Sharp's assumption that chanties were at the core of some ~ancient~ English song tradition. He thought they were a hold-over from a larger body of English work songs…the rest of which mysteriously vanished. He does not think that the dearth of other work songs besides chanties might indicate that they were borrowed from non-English culture!
//
THE sailors' chantey is, I imagine, the last of the labour-songs to survive in this country. In bygone days there must have been an enormous number of songs of this kind associated with every rhythmical form of manual labour ; but the machine killed the landsman's work-song too long ago for it now to be recoverable. The substitution, too, of the steam-engine for the sail in deep-sea craft has given the death-blow to the chantey; …
//

Origin ideas, with little evidence. Does not distinguish "Complaynt" from more recent work songs, and yet the issue is "beyond question."
//
How old the chantey may be it is impossible to say, but that the custom
amongst sailors of singing in rhythm with their work was in vogue as far back at least as the fifteenth century, the vivid description of the voyage in " The Complaynt of Scotland" (c. 1450) places beyond question.
//

Etymology, orthography. Doesn't use much literature to make an argument; seems just like a random decision.
//
Notwithstanding the antiquity of the chantey the word itself is quite
modern ; indeed, the compilers of the Oxford Dictionary are unable to cite its use in literature earlier than 1869. Moreover, although the authorities are more or less in agreement regarding the derivation of the word (Fr. chante), its spelling is still in dispute. The Oxford Dictionary (1913) gives the preference to "shanty"; Webster's New International
Dictionary (1911) to "chantey"; while the Century Dictionary (1889) prints both forms "chantey" and " shanty." Clark Russell and Kipling write it " chantey," and Henley "chanty." As the balance of expert opinion appears to favour "chantey " that spelling is adopted here.
//

Prior writings consulted; he seems to have looked at collections mainly, and perhaps not other articles and sources.
//
Considering the interest which this subject must have for antiquaries,
musicians, folk-lorists and others, its bibliography is remarkably slender. //

Mentions LA Smith, Davis/Tozer, Whall, Bullen.
//
Of these, the last two are at once the most recent and, in my opinion, the
most authoritative. Each is the compilation of a professional sailor and
avowedly a one-man collection, containing those chanteys only which its
author had himself heard and learned at sea. Here, of course, Mr. Whall and Mr. Bullen have the advantage of me. I have no technical or practical knowledge whatever of nautical matters ; I have never even heard a chantey sung on board ship. But then I approach the subject from its aesthetic side my concern is solely with the music of the chantey and with its value as an art-product and this I contend is quite possible even for one who is as ignorant as I am of the technical details of the
subject.
//
So, he is mainly interested in tune-forms, and connecting them to other folk song tunes.

Personal sources.
//
Counting variants, I have collected upwards of 150 chanteys, all of which
have been taken down from the lips of old sailors now living in retirement at St. Ives, Padstow, Watchet, Bridgwater, Clevedon, Bristol, Newcastle and London.
//

Sharp's criteria for inclusion, which includes the funky decision not to include "popular" songs whose tunes are "not of folk-origin" – meaning that very many of the common shanties would have to be excluded…and also meaning that Sharp assumes shanties that are included do not have popular origins (for example, Haul Away Joe).
//
In making my selection for the purposes of this book I have been
guided by the following considerations. I have limited my choice to those
chanteys which I had definite evidence were actually used within living
memory as working-songs on board ship; I have excluded every example
of the sea-song or ballad, which is, of course, not a labour-song at all; I have omitted certain popular and undoubtedly genuine chanteys, such as
"The Banks of the Sacramento," " Poor Paddy works on the Railway," "Can't you dance the Polka," "Good-bye, Fare you Well," etc., all of which are included, I believe, in one or other of the Collections above enumerated on the ground that the tunes are not of folk-origin, but rather the latter-day adaptations of popular, "composed" songs of small musical value; and finally, to save space, I have excluded several well-known chanteys, e.g. "Farewell and Adieu to you, Ladies of Spain," "Cawsand Bay," "The Coasts of High Barbary," etc., all of which have been repeatedly published.
//

On Sharp's informants.
//
A reference to the Notes will show that thirty-nine of the chanteys in this
Collection have already seen the light in some form or other. The remaining twenty-one are, I believe, now published for the first time.
Fifty-seven of the chanteys in my Collection, and forty-six of those in this
volume, were sung to me by Mr. John Short of Watchet, Somerset. Although seventy-six years of age he is apparently, so far as physical activity and mental alertness go, still in the prime of life. He has, too, the folk-singer's tenacious memory and, although I am sure he does not know it, very great musical ability of the uncultivated, unconscious order. He now holds the office of Town Crier in his native town, presumably on account of his voice, which is rich, resonant and powerful, and yet so flexible that he can execute trills, turns and graces with a delicacy and finish that would excite the envy of many a professed vocalist. Mr. Short has spent more than fifty years in sailing-ships and throughout the greater part of his career was a recognised chanteyman, i.e. the solo-singer who led the chanteys. It would be difficult, I imagine, to find a more experienced exponent of the art of chantey-singing, and I account myself peculiarly fortunate in having made his acquaintance in the course of my investigations and won his generous assistance. Of the other singers who have been good enough to sing to me, Mr. Perkins of St. Ives and the late Mr. Robbins of London deserve especial mention. …
//

A word more on John Short (1839-1933), who our friend Tom Brown has helped us to know better through the Short Sharp Shanties project. Short ("Yankee Jack") started his deepwater career circa 1857/8 and retired from that circa 1873-75.

Many of the shanties which Sharp got from Short are ones rarely collected elsewhere. Quite often, the only other version is one supplied –miraculously?—by Hugill. TomB made the following observation on Mudcat in March '09:

"It's fascinating to find that, of those shanties that Sharp/Terry published from John Short, which were not in other publications, Stan almost invariably a his own version either from 'Harding the Barbadian' or 'picked up in the West Indies'. Makes you wonder!"

The next passage, which begins a theory of the origins of worksongs, includes a phrase matching what Harlow later included as a sing outs.
//
…A simple way of securing this end was explained to me by a practical seaman, who told me that on such occasions he would recite, slowly and impressively and to the following rhythm, this sentence,

[musical score w/ lyrics:]
I sell brooms, squeegees and swabs.

instructing the men to make their effort on the word swabs….
//

On the nature of lyrics, and how the present collection treats them:
//
In most chanteys, e.g. " Ranzo," it is one line only in each stanza that has to be improvised, so that the demands made upon the singer's powers of invention are not overwhelming. Every chanteyman, too, has a number of stock lines, or "tags," stored up in his memory, such as

"Up aloft this yard must go," "I think I heard the old man (i.e. the captain) say"

upon which he can always draw when inspiration fails him. The
paucity of singable words vitiates to some extent the practical
value of a Collection such as this; on the other hand it should not be difficult for the amateur to emulate the chanteyman and invent words of his own. It should, perhaps, be added that the words in the text are those that were actually sung to me. I have not "edited" them in any way beyond excising a few lines and softening two or three expressions.
//
So, he bowdlerized a bit.

On singing style—possibly reflects how his aged informants were singing to him:
//
Traditionally, the chantey is sung very slowly and deliberately and the
tune embellished especially by the chanteyman himself with numberless
trills and graces, with every now and again a curious catch in the voice (a
kind of hiccough), and numerous falsetto notes. These embellishments are highly characteristic, but they are very difficult, and the amateur would be well advised not to attempt to imitate them. He must remember, however, to sing the chanteys slowly and impressively and, the majority of them at any rate, without accompaniment. Accompaniments, it is true, are given in the text, but this is only that the melodies may, if required, be played as instrumental airs.
//

Origins again, and Sharp's assumptions about the inherently English nature of chanties, or the essentialized English sailor.
//
The origin of the chantey-tune is a question beset with difficulty. A great many of the airs I should be inclined to say a majority of them must originally have been drawn from the stock of peasant-tunes with which the memory of every country-bred sailor would naturally be stored. In most cases these have, in the process of adaptation, undergone many changes, although there are instances where the folk-ballad has been "lifted " bodily into the service of the chantey without any alteration whatever, as for example "Blow away the Morning Dew " (Whall, p. 35) and "Sweet Nightingale " (Songs of the West, No. 15). The latter was given me as a capstan-chantey by Mr. Short who told me that he had himself converted it into a chantey, and that it had always become a favourite with the crews he had sailed with. Very often too for the sailors' taste is comprehensive rather than particular popular street-songs were added to the sailors' repertory of chanteys, e.g. " Champagne Charlie," "Doo-dah-day," etc. Another source, too, from which the chantey seems to have been replenished is the hymn-book ; at any rate there are many chanteys that have hymn-tune characteristics, e.g. "Leave her Johnny" (No. 3), etc.
The resemblance may be adventitious, i.e. the short, concise phrases peculiar to the chantey may have led naturally to the construction of tunes of this character ; or, on the other hand, as the sailor is a great singer of hymn-tunes of the more emotional type, it may be that he has consciously or unconsciously introduced some of the phrases of his favourite tunes into the chantey.

Lastly, there is the vexed question of negro influence. Mr. Arnold, the musical editor of Mr. Bullen's Collection, holds that " the majority of the chanteys are negroid in origin." I cannot subscribe to this opinion, although I admit that the negro has undoubtedly left his impress upon a certain number of chantey-tunes. The technical peculiarities of negroid music are not easy to define with precision. Mr. A. H. Fox Strangways has, however, drawn my attention to the prevalence in negro music of the "melodic-third," i.e. of a shape of melody which implies a preference for harmonising in thirds, instead of the fourth, which is, of course, the basic interval of European folk-song … Then there is that characteristic form of syncopated rhythm, popularly known as "rag-time," which, however, although undoubtedly negro in origin, is found very rarely, if at all, in the chantey. … That the chantey should have been affected by the negro is not surprising when we remember that sailing-ships, engaged in the Anglo-American trade, commonly carried " chequered " crews, i.e. one watch of coloured men and one of white. It is necessary, however, to distinguish between music of negroid origin and European music that has been modified by the negro.
…However, I do not wish to be dogmatic. Sufficient material has not yet
been amassed upon which to found a sound theory of the origin of the chantey-tune ; and it may be that when further evidence is available the somewhat speculative opinions above expressed will need material modification.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 07:38 PM

[[CAPSTAN CHANTEYS]]

[SANTIANA] John Short.
//
1. Santy Anna.

Santy Anna run away;
Ho-roo, Santy Anna ;
Santa Anna run away all on the plains of Mexico

General Taylor gained the day,

Mexico you all do know,

The Americans'll make Ureta* [Huerta] fly,
//


[LEAVE HER JOHNNY] First Version. John Short.
//
2. Leave Her Johnny.

O the times are hard and the wages low;
Leave her Johnny leave her;
O the times are hard and the wages low,
It's time for us to leave her.


The bread is hard and the beef is salt,

O, a leaking ship and a harping crew,

Our mate he is a bully man,
He gives us all the best he can.

I've got no money, I've got no clothes,

O, my old mother she wrote to me

I will send you money, I will send you clothes.
//

Second Version. Richard Perkins.
//
3. Leave Her Johnny.

The times are hard and the wages low,
Leave her Johnny leave her,
O the times are hard and the wages low,
It's time for us to leave her.
//

[OLD MOKE] John Short.
//
… " Hoo-roo " may be a reminiscence of "Shule Agra," and the reference to "the railroad " a memory of " Poor Paddy works on the railway." Both words and tune show negro influence. The chantey is not included in any other collection…

4. He-back, She-back.

He-back, she-back, daddy shot a bear,
Shot him in the back and he Never turned a hair,
I'm just from the railroad, too-rer-loo,
Oh the old moke picking on the banjo.
Hoo-roo! What's the matter now?
I'm just from the railroad, too-rer-loo,
I'm just from the railroad, too-rer-loo,
Oh the old moke picking on the banjo.
//

[HOGEYE] John Short.
//
…The tune of this chantey shows negro influence, especially in the curious and characteristic rhythm of the chorus.

5. The Hog-eyed Man.

O who's been here since I've been gone?
Some big black nigger with his sea-boots on,
And a hog-eye, Steady up a jig and a hog-eye,
Steady up a jig, And all she wants is her hog-eyed man.

The hog-eyed man is the man for me,
He brought me down from Tennessee.
//

[CLEAR THE TRACK] George Conway. This may be the first to use contain the somewhat sketchy phrase "clear away", which I *think* earmarks some Revival versions sourced from Sharp.
//
… The tune, the final cadence of which is very similar to that of Santy Anna, is clearly related to that of Shule Agra…

6. Clear the Track.

I wish I was in London town
Ha-hee, ha-oo, are you most done
I wish I was in London town ;
So clear away the track and let the bullgine run.
With my hi-rig-a-jig and a low-back car,
Ha-hee, ha-oo, are you most done,
To My pretty little yaller girl fare thee well,
So clear away the track and let the bullgine run.

Twas there I saw the girls around.
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR] James Tucker. The melody has the typical shape, and yet it's different – almost like a harmony part to the usual tune.
//
… The tune in the text — obviously a bagpipe air…

7. Drunken Sailor.

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
What shall we do with a drunken sailor
Early in the morning?
Way ay and up she rises,
Way ay and up she rises,
Way ay and up she rises
Early in the morning.

Put him in the long-boat till he gets sober.

Keep him there and make him bail her.
//

[DOODLE LET] Makes its first appearance. John Short.
//

… Mr. Short always sang " doodle let me go."…

8. Do Let Me Go.

It's of a merchant's daughter belonged to Callio;
Hooraw, my yaller girls, do let me go
Do let me go, girls, Do let me go,
Hooraw, my yaller girls, do let me go.
//

[JAMBOREE] John Short. I suspect The Spinners' interpretation was developed from this?
//
Now Cape Clear it is in sight,
We'll be off Holy head by tomorrow night,
And we'll shape our course for the Rock Light;
O Jenny get your oatcake done.
Whip jamboree, whip jamboree,
O you long- tailed black man poke it up behind me,
Whip jamboree, Whip jamboree,
O Jen-ny get your oatcake done.

Now my lads, we're round the Rock,
All hammocks lashed and chests all locked,
We'll haul her into the Waterloo Dock,
O, Jenny, get your oat-cake done.

Now, my lads, we're all in dock
We'll be off to Dan Lowrie's on the spot;
And now we'll have a good roundabout,
O, Jenny, get your oat-cake done.
//

This "Roll and Go" is distinct from the typical "Sally Brown". John Short.
[One of my favourite chanties! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9MrvUgTMMU]
//
10. Roll and Go.

Way ay roll and go.
O Sally Brown she promised me,
A long time ago.
She promised for to marry me;
Way ay roll and go
O she promised for to marry me,
A long time ago.

O, Sally Brown's the girl for me,
O, Sally Brown, she slighted me.

As I walked out one morning fair,
It's then I met her, I do declare.
//

[SHENANDOAH] John Short.
//
11. Shanadar.

O Shanadar I love your daughter,
Hooray you rolling river.
Shanadar I love your daughter
Ha Ha, I'm bound away to the wild Missouri.


O seven years I courted Sally.

And seven more I couldn't gain her.

She said I was a tarry sailor.

Farewell my dear I'm bound to leave you;
I'm bound away but will ne'er deceive you.
//

[ROLLER BOWLER] first time. John Short.
//
12. Roller, Bowler.

Hooray you roller, bowler;
In my hi-rig-a-jig and a ha ha.
Good morning ladies all.
O the first time that I saw her
'Twas down in
Playhouse Square,
To my hi-rig-a-jig and a ha ha.
Good morning ladies all.

As I walked out one morning,
As I walked out one morning,
Down by the river side,

O ladies short and ladies tall,
O ladies short and ladies tall
I love them all,
//

[RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN] John Short.
//
13. Let the Bullgine Run.

We'll run from night till morning.
O run, let the bullgine run.
Way yah, oo-oo oo-oo-oo,
O run, let the bullgine run.

We'll run from Dover to Calais.

We sailed away from Mobile Bay.

We gave three cheers and away we went.

Now up aloft this yard must go.

We're homeward bound for Liverpool Docks.
//

[HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] John Short.
//
14. Huckleberry Hunting

The boys and the girls went a huckleberry hunting;
To my way-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay yah;
All the boys and the girls went a huckleberry hunting;
To my Hilo, my Ranzo-ray.
//

[ONE MORE DAY] John Short.
//
15. One More Day.

One more day, my Johnny,
For one more day;
O rock and roll me over
For one more day.

There is one thing more that grieves me
There is my poor wife and baby

I'm bound away to leave you
Don't let my parting grieve you
//

[JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] John Short.
//
… Presumably, Hilo is the seaport of that name on the east coast of Hawaii Island…

16. O Johnny Come to Hilo.

O a poor old man came a-riding by,
Says I : old man your horse will die.
O Johnny come to Hilo,
O poor old man.
O wake her, O shake her,
O shake that girl with the blue dress on,
O Johnny come to Hilo;
Poor old man.
//

[GOOD MORNING LADIES] John Short.
//
17. Good Morning, Ladies All.

Aye yo o, aye yo o.
I thought I heard our captain say:
Aye yo. O, aye yo o.
O go on board your pilot boat And roll her down the bay.
Ha, ha, my yaller girls, Good morning, ladies all.

Our Captain on the quarter-deck
Was looking very sad.
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY] Henry Bailey.
//
… The words of the fourth verse were given me by Mr. Short. "Matelors "
means " sailors," as Mr. Short well knew ; and an "oozer," he said, was a
cotton stevedore…

18. Lowlands Away.

Lowlands, lowlands away, my John ;
I'm bound away, I heard him say,
My lowlands away, my John ;
A dollar and a half is a oozer's pay,
A dollar and a half a day.

A dollar and a half won't pay my way ;
A dollar and a half is a white-man's pay.

We're bound away to Mobile Bay ;

What shall we poor matelors do ?
//

[RANZO RAY] John Short.
http://www.wildgoose.co.uk/wildgoose-media/samples/WGS381CD-T10.mp3 (Tom Brown)
//
… Mr. Short always sang " rodeling " for " rolling."…

19. The Bully Boat.

Ah the bully boat is coming,
Don't you hear the paddles rolling?
Rando, rando, hooray, hooray
The bully boat is coming,
Don't you hear the paddles rolling?
Rando, rando, ray.

Ah! the bully boat is coming
Down the Mississippi floating.

As I walked out one May morning
To hear the steam-boat rolling.
//

[STORMY ALONG JOHN} John Short.
//
20. Stormalong John.

I wish I was old Stormy's son ;
To my way–ay Stormalong John.
I wish I was old Stormy's son,
Ha ha, come along get along, Stormy along John.

I'd give those sailors lots of rum.

O was you ever in Quebec?

A-stowing timber on the deck.

I wish I was in Baltimore.

On the grand old American shore.
//

[RIO GRANDE] John Short.
//
21. Rio Grand.

I think I heard the old man say:
o you Rio,
I think I heard the old man say:
We're bound for Rio Grand.
And away for Rio,
O you Rio,
So fare you well, my bonny young girl,
We're bound for Rio Grand.

O Rio Grand is my native land.

It's there that I would take my stand.

She's a buxom young maid with a rolling black eye.

She came from her dwelling a long way from here.

I wish I was in Rio to-day.

Buckle [bucko] sailors you'll see there,

With long sea-boats and close cropped hair.
//

[LUCY LONG] John Short.
//
22. Lucy Long.

Was you ever on the Brumalow,
Where the Yankee boys are all the go?
To my way-ay-ay ha, ha
My Johnny, boys, ha ha
Why don't you try for to wring Miss Lucy Long?

O! as I walked out one morning fair,
To view the views and take the air.

'Twas there I met Miss Lucy fair,
'Twas there we met I do declare.
//

[BLACKBALL LINE] John Short.
//
23. The Black Ball Line.

In Tapscott's line we're bound to shine ;
A way, Hooray, Yah;
In Tapscott's line we're bound for to shine,
Hooray for the Black Ball Line.

In the Black Ball Line I served my time.

We sailed away from Liverpool Bay.

We sailed away for Mobile Bay.

It was there we discharged our cargo, boys.

We loaded cotton for the homeward bound.

And when we arrived at the Liverpool Dock.

We ran our lines on to the pier.

We made her fast all snug and taut.

The skipper said: That will do, my boys.
//

[FIRE DOWN BELOW] John Short.
//
24. Fire! Fire!

There is fire in the galley, There is fire down below,
Fetch a bucket of water, girls, There's fire down below.
Fire! Fire!
Fire down below.
It's fetch a bucket of water girls, There's fire down below.

There is fire in the fore-top,
There's fire in the main;
Fetch a bucket of water, girls,
And put it out again.

As I walked out one morning fair
All in the month of June.
I overheard an Irish girl
A-singing this old tune.
//


[A-ROVING]
//
25. A-Roving.

In Plymouth town there lived a maid;
Bless you, young women;
In Plymouth town there lived a maid ;
O mind what I do say ;
In Plymouth town there lived a maid
And she was mistress of her trade;
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
A-roving, a-roving, Since roving's been my ru-i-in
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.

I took this fair maid for a walk,
And we had such a loving talk.

I took her hand within my own,
And said: I'm bound to my old home.
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] John Short.
//
26. Heave Away, My Johnny.

It's of a farmer's daughter, so beautiful I'm told
Heave away my Johnny, heave away.
Her father died and left her five hundred pound in gold;
Heave away. my bonny boys, We're all bound away.

Her uncle and the squire rode out one summer's day.

Young William is in favour, her uncle he did say.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 07:40 PM

[[PULLING CHANTEYS]]

[HAUL AWAY JOE] John Short.
//
… Short described it as a "tacks and sheets" chantey…

27. Haul Away, Joe.

Haul away, haul away, haul away, my Rosie,
Way, haul away, haul away, Joe.
O you talk about your Aver [Havre] girls,
And round the corner Sally ;
Way, haul away, haul away, Joe.

But they cannot come to tea
With the girls in Booble Alley.

O ! once I loved a nigger girl,
And I loved her for her money.

O ! once I had a nice young girl,
And she was all a posy.

And now I've got an English girl,
I treat her like a lady.

We sailed away for the East Indies,
With spirits light and gay.

We discharge our cargo there, my boys,
And we took it light and easy.

We loaded for our homeward bound,
With the winds so free and easy.

We squared our yards and away we ran,
With the music playing freely.

Now, up aloft this yard must go,
We'll pull her free and easy.

Another pull and then belay,
We'll make it all so easy.
//

[SALLY BROWN] Charles Robbins. Chromatic tune. This was also in Sharp's 1914 JFSS article. Incidentally, I think this is the first "along with Sally Brown" that I've seen. Is this a place where Sharp "softened" the phrase (no pun intended)? It is likely the source of Sweeney's Men's (and Planxty's) popular, adapted version of the song.
//
28. Sally Brown.

I shipped on board of a Liverpool liner ;
Way, ho, rolling go;
And I shipped on board of a Liverpool liner,
For I spent my money 'long with Sally Brown.



Sally Brown was a Creole lady.

O Sally Brown was a bright mulatto.

O seven years I courted Sally.

And now we're married and we're living nice and comfor'ble.
//

[ISLAND LASS] Richard Perkins.
//
29. Lowlands Low.

Lowlands, Lowlands, Lowlands, lowlands, low.
Our Captain is a bully man;
Lowlands, Lowlands, lowlands, low.
He gave us bread as hard as brass;
Lowlands, Lowlands, lowlands, low.
//

[SHALLOW BROWN] First version. John Short.
//
30. Shallow Brown.

Shallow O, Shallow Brown,
Shallow O, Shallow Brown.
A Yankee ship came down the river;
Shallow O, Shallow Brown.
A Yankee ship came down the river ;
Shallow O, Shal-low Brown.

And who do you think was master of her ?

A Yankee mate and a lime-juice skipper.

And what do you think they had for dinner ?

A parrot's tail and a monkey's liver.
//

[MUDDER DINAH] George Conway.
//
31. Sing, Sally O.

O I say my Mammy Dinah, What is the matter?
Sing Sally O ; Fol lol de day.
O hurrah! hurrah ! My Mammy Dinah.
Sing Sally O ; Fol lol de day.

O have you heard the news to-day ?
For we are homeward bound.
//

[REUBEN RANZO] John Short.
//
32. Poor Old Reuben Ranzo.

Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.
O poor old Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo
O Poor old Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.

O! Ranzo was no sailor.

He shipped on board a whaler.

He shipped with Captain Taylor.

The man that shot the sailor.

He could not do his duty.

He couldn't boil the coffee.

The Captain being a good man.

He taught him navigation.

We took him to the gratings.

And gave him nine and thirty.



O ! that was the end of Ranzo.
//

[GENERAL TAYLOR} John Short.
//
33. General Taylor.

General Taylor gained the day;
Walk him along, Johnny, carry him along.
General Taylor gained the day;
Carry him to the burying ground.
Oo oo oo.... oo you stormy,
Walk him along, Johnny, carry him along;
oo-oo you stormy,
Carry him to the burying ground.

Dan O' Connell died long ago;
Dan O' Connell died long ago
//

[MR. STORMALONG] John Short.
//
34. Old Stormey.

I wish I was old Stormey's son;
To my way, yah, stormalong,
I'd give those sailors lots of rum;
Aye, aye, aye, Mister Stormalong.

I'd build a ship both neat and strong
To sail the world around all round.

Old Stormey's dead, I saw him die.

We dug his grave with a silver spade.

We lowered him down with a golden chain.

And now we'll sing his funeral song.
//

[BULLY IN ALLEY] John Short.
//
35. Bully in the Alley.

So help my bob I'm bully in the alley ;
Way-ay bully in the alley,
So help my bob I'm bully in the alley;
Way-ay bully in the alley.
Bully down in our alley ;
So help my bob I'm bully in the alley,
Way-ay bully in the alley ;
Bully in Tin-pot alley
Way-ay bully in the alley.

Have you seen our Sally ?

She's the girl in the alley.
//

[YANKEE JOHN STORMALONG] John Short.
//
36. Liza Lee.

Liza Lee she promised me ;
Yankee John, Stormalong ;
She promised for to marry me;
Yankee John, Stormalong.
//

[BOWLINE] John Short.
//
37. Haul on the Bow-line.

Haul on the bowline, O Kitty you are my darling,
Haul on the bowline, the bowline, haul.
Because she had a foretop, fore and main to bowline;
Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul.

Because she had a main-top main and mizen to bowline ;
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.

Haul on the bowline, O Kitty you are my darling,
Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul.
//

[PADDY DOYLE] John Short. bunting
//
38. Paddy Doyle.

To my way ay. ay ay ay yah,
We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots…

We'll order in brandy and gin.

We'll all throw dirt at the cook.

The dirty old man on the poop.
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN] John Short.
//
… I have supplemented Mr. Short's words — he could only remember two stanzas — with lines from other versions…

39. Knock a Man Down.

[Cho.] Knock a man down, kick a man down ;
way ay knock a man down,
knock a man down right down to the ground,
O give me some time to knock a man down.

The watchman's dog stood ten foot high ;

A lively ship and a lively crew.

O we are the boys to put her through

I wish I was in London Town.

It's there we'd make the girls fly round.
//

[JOHNNY BOWKER] John Short. bunting
//
40. Johnny Bowker.

Do my Johnny Bowker. Come rock and roll over
Do my Johnny Bowker, do.
//

[TALLY] Mr. Rapsey. Published in earlier journal article.
//
41. Tiddy I O.

O now you forbid us to bid you adieu ;
Tid-dy I - o, I - o;.
O now you forbid us to bid you adieu ;
Tiddy I-o, I-o, I-o.

We're homeward bound to Bristol Town.

We're homeward bound with sugar and rum

And when we arrive in Bristol docks.

O then the people will come down in flocks.
//

[ROUND THE CORNER] John Short.
//
42. Round the Corner, Sally.

O around the corner we will go;
Around the corner, Sally,
O Mademoiselle we'll take her in tow ;
Around the corner, Sally
We will take her in tow to Callio ;
Around the corner, Sally.

O ! I wish I was at Madame Gashees.

O ! it's there, my boys, we'd take our ease.
//

[HANDY MY BOYS] John Short.
//
43. So Handy.

So handy, my girls, So handy.
Be handy in the morning;
So handy, my girls, So handy,
Be handy in the morning;
So handy, my girls, So handy.

Be handy at your washing, girls.

My love she likes her brandy.

My love she is a dandy.

I thought I heard our Captain say :

At daylight we are bound away.

Bound away for Botany Bay.
//

[LONG TIME AGO] has an unusual 'tag' chorus at the end. James Tucker.
//
44. A Long Time Ago.

Away down south where I was born ;
To my way-ay-day, Ha !
Away down south where I was born ;
A long time ago.
'Twas a long, long time and a very long time,
A long time ago

O ! early on a summer's morn.

I made up my mind to go to sea.
//

[CHEERLY] John Short.
//
… Mr. Short told me this was the first chantey he learned and he thought it must have been the " first chantey ever invented." …

45. Cheerly Man.

O oly-i-o Cheerly Man.
Walk him up O
Cheerly man.
Oly-i-o, oly-i-o
Cheerly Man.
//

[BOTTLE O] John Short.
//
46. The Sailor Likes His Bottle O.

So early in the morning The sailor likes his bottle O.

A bottle of rum and a bottle of gin,
And a bottle of old Jamaica Ho!
So earIy in the morning The sailor likes his bottle O.
//

[DEAD HORSE] John Short.
//
47. The Dead Horse.

A poor old man came a-riding by,
And they say so, And I hope so,
A poor old man came a-riding by,
O poor old man.

Says I : Old man your horse will die.

And if he dies I'll tan his skin.

And if he don't I'll ride him again.

After very hard work and sore abuse.
They salted me down for sailors' use.

And if you think my words not true,
Just look in the cask and you'll find my shoe.

But our old horse is dead and gone,
And we know so, and we say so,
//

[WHISKEY JOHNNY] James Tucker.
//
48. Whisky for My Johnny.

Whisky is the life of man
Whisky, Johnny,
Whisky is the life of man,
Whisky for my Johnny.

I'll drink whisky while I can.

Whisky in an old tin can.

Whisky up and whisky down.

Pass the whisky all around.

Whisky polished my old nose.

Whisky made me go to sea.

My wife drinks whisky, I drink gin.

Whisky killed my mam and dad.

Whisky killed our whole ship's crew.

Whisky made me pawn my shirt.
//

[BONEY] John Short.
//
49. Bonny Was a Warrior.

Bonny was a warrior; Way-ay-yah
Bonny was a warrior, Jean François.

Bonny went to Moscow.

Moscow was on fire.

It took the Duke of Wellington

O to defeat old Bonny.

Hurrah, hurrah, for Bonny.

A bully, fighting terrier.
//

[BLOW BOYS BLOW] John Short.
//
50. Blow, Boys, Come Blow Together.

Blow, boys, come blow together ;
Blow, boys, blow.
Blow, boys, come blow together ;
Blow, my bully boys, blow.

A Yankee ship came down the river.


And who do you think was Master of lier ?

Why Bully Brag of New York City.

And what do you think we had for supper ?

Belaying-pin soup and a roll in the gutter.
//

[HANGING JOHNNY] John Short.
//
51. Hanging Johnny.

And they calls me hanging Johnny;.
Hooray, hooray.
And they calls me Hanging Johnny,
So hang, boys, hang.

They hanged my poor old father.

They hanged my poor old mother.

They say I hanged for money.

But I never hanged nobody.
//

[HUNDRED YEARS] John Short.
http://www.wildgoose.co.uk/wildgoose-media/samples/WGS381CD-T4.mp3 (Jeff Warner)
//
52. A Hundred Years on the Eastern Shore.

A hundred years on the eastern shore ;
O yes O
A hundred years on the eastern shore ;
A hundred years ago.

A hundred years have passed and gone.

And a hundred years will come once more.
//

[SHENANDOAH] Second version. James Thomas. 4 pulls are indicated in one chorus!
//
… This, a shortened form of No. 11, was one that Mr. Thomas often heard
on " The City of Washington," in which ship he sailed to America in 1870….

53. Shanadar.

Shanadar is a rolling river, E-o, I-o, E-o, I-o.
//

[LONG TIME AGO] Captain Hole.
//
54. In Frisco Bay.

In Frisco bay there lay three ships
To my way ay ay o,
In Frisco bay there lay three ships
A long time ago.

And one of those ships was Noah's old Ark,
And covered all over with hickory bark.

They filled up the seams with oakum pitch.

And Noah of old commanded this Ark.

They took two animals of every kind.

The bull and the cow they started a row.

Then said old Noah with a flick of his whip :
Come stop this row or I'll scuttle the ship.

But the bull put his horn through the side of the Ark ;
And the little black dog he started to bark.

So Noah took the dog, put his nose in the hole ;
And ever since then the dog's nose has been cold.
//

[SHALLOW BROWN] Second version. Robert Ellison.
//
55. Shallow Brown.

O I'm going to leave her
Shallow O Shallow Brown.
O I'm going to leave her
Shallow O Shallow Brown.

Going away to-morrow,
Bound away to-morrow.

Get my traps in order.

Ship on board a whaler.

Bound away to St. George's.

Love you well, Julianda.

Massa going to sell me.

Sell me to a Yankee.

Sell me for the dollar.
Great big Spanish dollar.
//

[WON'T YOU GO MY WAY] John Short. First time.
//
56. Won't You Go My Way.

I met her in the morning ;
Won't you go My way?
I met her in the morning ;
Won't you go My way?

In the morning bright and early.

O Julia, Anna, Maria.

I asked that girl to mairy,

She said she'd rather tarry.

Oh marry, never tarry.
//

[STORMY] Robert Ellison.
//
57. Wo, Stormalong.

Whenever you go to Liverpool ; Wo, stormalong;
When ever you go to Liverpool ; Stormalong, lads stormy.

And Liverpool that Yankee School.

And when you go to Playhouse Square,

My bonny girl she do live there.

We're bound away this very day.

We're bound away at the break of day.
//

John Short.
//
58. O Billy Riley.

O Billy Riley, little Billy Riley,
O Billy Riley O;
O Billy Riley, wake him up so cheer'ly.
O Billy Riley O.

O Mister Riley, O Missus Riley.

O Miss Riley, O Billy Riley.

O Miss Riley, screw him up so cheer'ly.
//

[TOMMY'S GONE] John Short.
//
59. Tom is Gone to Hilo.

My Tom is gone, what shall I do?
Oo - way, you I - o - o - o,
My Tom is gone, what shall I do?
My Tom is gone to Hilo.
//

John Short. A significantly different tune.
//
… Mr. Short said that this was used not only as a pulling chantey but also when they were screwing cotton into the hold at New Orleans …

60. Tommy's Gone Away.

Tommy's gone, what shall I do ?
Tommy's gone away,
Tommy's gone, what shall I do ?
Tommy's gone away.
//

[END]

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 08:27 PM

Gibb-

More good work.

Keep it coming.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 11:58 AM

Gibb, I really like your rendition of "Roll & Go" that you mention above. Somehow I missed that version of "Sally Brown" when I was going through your collection. And just so it stands out and is easily available for others, here it is again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9MrvUgTMMU

Also, I was interested in what Sharp had to say about hymns and hymn tunes. To my - limited - knowledge, this is the only time in our discussion where hymns have been mentioned as a source for chanties. I have wondered about this in the past. And I have wondered why there seem to be no connections between Black "spirituals" as call/response songs and chanties.

I appreciate your treatment of Sharp and your making his collection available like this.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 06:29 PM

Thanks, Charlie and John, for giving some company!

John--

Thanks for the link and your compliment. Making these links on Mudcat has always been a pain, and I forget to do 'em when I pasted my text from elsewhere.

The brief mention of hymn-tunes by Sharp is quite possibly a reference to what he had been reading. His intro to the book reads as a dialogue with or comment on what had recently been published. Masefield was one person that said a couple tunes (Shenandoah and Hanging Johnny) sounded like hymns. But it was Bullen (or perhaps Arnold, in that book) who said more. He did in fact make a connection. If I had to guess, Sharp was acknowledging that (he deferred to the 'experience' writers) rather than proposing an original idea. I hope to have notes up on Bullen, soon.

I would imagine that these authors, all English, were familiar with these "hymn" tunes from the "spirituals" of the touring Fisk Jubilee Singers and such.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 02:50 AM

1914        Bullen, Frank. T. and W.F. Arnold. _Songs of Sea Labour._ London: Orpheus Music Publishing.

Bullen, born c.1858, first went to sea in 1869 at age 11.

Bullen's collection is a unique and detailed repository of chanties as learned by a "hardcore" chantyman of the 1870s, without the prejudice of Captain Whall's earlier selections. Bullen's singing was transcribed by Arnold, an academically trained musician.

While Sharp read and acknowledge the work, it does not seem to have had much/any influence on later performers (/the Revival) until Hugill re-printed some of the items. Bullen was known for a couple books earlier. I wonder what happened with this one. Was it poorly distributed? Did it not carry much clout for some reason?

Intro, dated 1913. Critiques predecessors for not having experience.
//
But I, unwillingly enough, had to spend over a decade of my sea life in various sailing ships' forecastles, engaged in trades where Chanties were not only much used on board, but where many new ones were acquired in the harbours; I allude to the West Indies and the Southern States of America.

Being possessed of a strong and melodious voice and a tenacious memory, Chanty singing early became a passion with me, and this resulted in my being invariably made Chantyman of each new vessel I sailed in, a function I performed until I finally reached the quarter-deck, when of course it ceased…I was before the mast in sailing ships from 1869 to 1880…I was never apprenticed and consequently was a member of many different ships' companies and sailed in many varying trades in that time.
//

The nature of chanty lyrics: Impromptu, dirty.
//
The stubborn fact is that they had no set words beyond a starting verse or two and the fixed phrases of the chorus, which were very often not words at all. For all Chanties were impromptu as far as the words were concerned. Many a Chantyman was prized in spite of his poor voice because of his improvisations. Poor doggerel they were mostly and often very lewd and filthy, but they gave the knowing and appreciative shipmates, who roared the refrain, much opportunity for laughter… And although many a furtive smile will creep over old sailors' faces, when they hear these Chanties and remember the associated words that went with them, those words are not down here.
//

Notes on "The Music of the Chanties," by Arnold, 1913.
//
Seeing that the majority of the Chanties are Negroid in origin, perhaps a few remarks on Negro music will not be out of place here…
//

Musicological talk follows. About pentatonic scale. Comparison with example from "Slave Songs of the United States." "Snap" rhythm. Ending melodies on other tones than the tonic. "Rag-time" vs. "raggy" nature of chanty tunes. Comparison to Sankey hymns (and also quoting Jekyll's work on Jamaican music).
//
Many of the Chanty tunes bear a strong resemblance to hymn tunes of the Sankey and Moody type. …after the War of Emancipation troupes of negro singers toured the Northern States of America, introducing the traditional slave tunes to all classes of the community, including the negroes of the North, who adapted some of the songs into their religious services. …negro songs and singers became "the rage." …many of the traditional tunes already used as hymns by the negroes, and others because of their quasi religious flavour, were adapted to words of a devotional nature. Mr. Bullen himself told the writer that on one occasion he overheard a South Carolina negro, employed on a sperm whaling ship as harpooner, crooning what was ostensibly a Sankey hymn, but, on being questioned, the singer submitted the information that he had never heard of either Sankey or Moody, and what he was singing was a South Carolina slave song, "The little Octoroon"… Mr. Bullen however, knew the tune as "Ring the bells of heaven" one of the best known of the Sankey collection. …There is not the slightest doubt that many of the hymns in that famous collection had their origin in the old traditional negro tunes…The tunes of both the Chanties and the American Revival Hymns spring from one common source—negro music.
//

"Note to the Chanties"
//
It is a wild thought of mine I know, but I have imagined the improvising of words to these Chanties becoming a favourite country house Drawing Room diversion…
//

Chanties not sung off duty.
//
Unlike the old folk-songs, which are used for pleasure or diversion, the Sailor's Chanties were never sung in the forecastles after labour, nor in all my experience have I ever heard a song sung in a ship's forecastle that would be recognized as a sailor's song.
//

//
…But the great majority of these tunes undoubtably emanated from the negroes of the Antilles and the Southern states, a most tuneful race if ever there was one, men moreover who seemed unable to pick up a ropeyarn without a song… I have never seen any men work harder or more gaily than negroes when they were allowed to sing….
//

[[WINDLASS AND CAPSTAN CHANTIES]]

[MUDDER DINAH] Sharp also gave this (from informant Conway), and we know it as a rowing song from South Carolina.
//
…when I first heard the Chanty which I have called "Mudder Dinah!"…We were discharging general cargo in the Demerara River off Georgetown, and all the wonder I could spare, being a first voyage laddie, was given to the amazing negroes who, not content with flinging their bodies about as they hove at the winch, sang as if their lives depended upon maintaining the volume of sound at the same time… I became most anxious to learn it, so I asked one of our two boat-boys to teach me…HE set about his pleasnt task at once but was very soon pulled up by his mate who demanded in indignant tones what he meant by teaching "dat buckra chile" dem rude words. They nearly had a fight over it and then I learned that the words didn't matter, that you varied them according to taste, but as taste was generally low and broad the words were usually what my negro friend called, in cheerful euphemism, rude.

1. Mudder Dinah.

Good mornin' Mudder Dinah, how does yer shabe yer peepul?
Sing! Sally oh! Right fol de ray!
Hooray-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay, For ole mudder di-inah-h
Sing Sally oh. Right fol der ray.
//

//
In this way [i.e. from stevedores in Demerara on his first voyage] I acquired numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 in this collection and I have never heard them anywhere else. They are negro Chanties all right enough, but they were not in common use on board ship.
//

[SISTER SUSAN] Harlow also gave this as a stevedore's song.
//
2. Sister Seusan.

Sister Seusan my aunt Sal
Gwineter git a home bime-by-high!
All gwineter lib down Shinbone Al,
Gwineter git a home bime-by.
Gwineter git a home bime-by-e-high
Gwineter git a home bime-by.
//

//
3. Ten Stone.

I nebber seen de like sence I ben bawn!
Way ay ay ay ay!
Nigger on de ice an a hoe-in up corn
Way ay ay ay ay
Ten stone! Ten stone, ten stone de win' am ober!
Jenny git along Jenny blow de horn,
As we go marchin' ober!
//

A "Shenandoah" lyrical theme, however, the form/tune here is unique. This is probably related to the now-popular "Down Trinidad/Sunnydore" song, and perhaps to "Shiny O".
My rendition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1be-0VjCtxE
//
4. Shenandoah

Oh Shenandoh my bully boy I long to hear you holler;
Way ay ay ay ay Shenandoh
I lub ter bring er tot er rum en see ye make a swoller;
Way ay ay ay Shenandoh!
//

[SALLY BROWN] Bullen notes with this (and later with "Drunken Sailor") having heard it sung for enjoyment by gentlemen of London's Savage Club. Am I to suppose that many of the Club's members would have included retired seamen (does anymone know more about it)? I guess the question for me would be what period he is talking about and what that would imply. To wit, was this after the era (first decade of 20th c.) when chanties had spread to the general public – in which case these two songs were, in a way, pop songs? Or, was it at an earlier time, such that the singers had all really remember the songs from their working experience?
//
…But my most pleasant memory of it is not when weighing the anchor or working the flywheel pumps, but on sundry Saturday nights at the Savage Club, when the delighted Savages did their best to lift the roof off the great Clubroom at Adelphi Terrace, and the mighty volume of sound must have been heard on the farther bank of the Thames….

5. Sally Brown.

Sally Brown she's a bright Mulatto
Way ay –ay roll and go!
She drinks rum and chews terbacker;
Spend my money on Sally Brown.
//

First appearance of this, though we've had WALKALONG SALLY. Tune resembles "Tom's Gone to Hilo" a bit.
//
…typically negro and no white man could hope to reproduce the extraordinary effects imparted to it by a crowd of enthusiastic black men.

6. Walk Along Rosey.

Rosy here an Ro-o-sy dere,
A way you Rosy walk along
Oh Rosy here, an Rosy dere!
Walk along my Rosy!
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
…an old, old favourite with the white sailor, but it is full of melancholy…probably more frequently sung than any other Chanty when getting under weigh either outward or homeward bound.

7. Good-bye, Fare-you-well.

I thought I heard our old man say
Good bye fare you well , good bye fare you well
I thought I heard our old man say
Hurah my boys we're ho-omeward bound!
//

[MR. STORMALONG]
//
8. Storm-along.

Stormy he was a good old man.
To my way, You Stormalong!
Oh Stormy he is dead and gone!
Ay! Ay! Ay! Mister Stormalong.
//

[LEAVE HER JOHNNY]
//
To sing it before the last day or so on board was almost tantamount to mutiny, and was apt even at the latest date to be fiercely resented by Captain and Officers.

9. Leave her Johnny.

Leave her Johnny and we'll work no-o more
Leave her Johnny, leave her!
Of pump or drown we've had full store;
Its time for us to leave her.
//

[JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] was supposedly last heard off Calcutta by Bullen – in the 1870s, I suppose. Interesting in the lyrics here is the "[A]merican man." Bullen gives the lyrics in a Black [eye-]dialect, and in that context I'm not sure just what was meant by "American." Is the singing subject supposed to be a Black man of the Caribbean, or….?
//
…brings to my mind most vividly a dewy morning in Garden Reach where we lay just off the King of Oudh's palace awaiting our permit to moor. I was before the mast in one of Bates' ships, the "Herat," and when the order came at dawn to man the windlass I raised this Chanty and my shipmates sang the chorus as I never heard it sung before or since…I have never heard that noble Chanty sung since…

10. Johnny Come Down to Hilo.

I nebber seen de like, Since I ben born
When a 'Merican man wid de sea boots on
Says Johnny come down to Hilo.
Poor old man!
Oh! wake her! Oh! Shake her
Oh wake dat gal wid der blue dress on,
When Johnny comes down to Hilo!
Poor old man!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 02:52 AM

Bullen 1914, cont.

[SHENANDOAH] (usual style)
//
…ordinary windlass or pump type…

Shanandoh, I long ter hear ye;
A way, you rolling river;
Oh Shanandoh I can't get near ye
Ha ha! I'm bound away on the wide Missouri!
//

[A-ROVING]
//
…sounds suspiciously like some old English melody that has been pressed into sea service as a chanty…

12. A-Roving.

In Amsterdam there lived a maid and she was tall and fair,
her eyes were blue, her cheeks were red and she had auburn hair
but I'll go no more a ro-oving with you fair maid.
A roving, a roving since rovings' been my ru-i-n
I'll go no more a ro-oving with you fair maid.
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
13. Lowlands Away.

Lowlands away I heard them say
Lowlands, lowlands away my John
Lowlands away I heard them say,
My dollar an' a half a day.
//

[RIO GRANDE]
//
14. Rio Grande.

Oh Captain, oh Ca-apten heave yer ship to;
Oh! you Rio
For I have got letters to send home by you.
And I'm bound to Rio
Grande
And away to Rio Oh to Rio
sing fa-are you well my bonny young gal,
For I'm bound to Rio grande.
//


The tune of the following is rendered here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDb1oGugh2E
//
…so mournful that one suspects it of being the lament of some just sold slaves sent from one State to another without reference to any human ties they may have possessed. This Chanty was very seldom used except where negroes formed a considerable portion of the crew…

15. Poor Lucy Anna.

Oh the mountens so high an de ribbers so wide
Poor Lucy Anna
De mountens so high an' de ribbers so wide
Ise just gwine ober de mounten!
//

[SANTIANA]
//
…I first made its acquaintance in Sant Ana itself, a lawless mahogany port in the Gulf of Mexico.

16. Santy Anna.

Santy Anna's gone away
Hurrah! Santy Anna!
Santy Anna's go-one a way
Across the plains of Mexico.
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR] Interesting seeing eye-dialect here ("de mawnin'").
//
…I gladly confess that my most pleasnt recollections of it are connected with the Savage Club where its fine chorus used to be uplifted strenuously by the full force of the brother Savages assembled.

17. What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor.

What shall we do with a drunken sailor,
what shall we do with a drunken sailor,
what shall we do with a drunken sailor,
Early in de mawnin'
Hooray an up she rises,
hooray an up she rises,
hooray an up she rises,
Early in de mawnin'.
//

[PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] Bullen says he didn't like this one, and never sang it as chantyman.
//
18. Poor Paddy.

In eighteen hundred an sixty one I thought I'd do a li-itle run,
I thought I'd do-oo a li'itle run
an' work up on a railway a railway
I'm weary on a railway
Oh! Poor Paddy works on the railway.
//

[HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING]
//
Oh! what did you give fer yer fine leg o' mutton
To me way ay ay you Ranzo way
Oh-h what did yer give fer yer fine leg o' mutton,
to me Hilo: me Ranzo way.
//

[HOGEYE]
//
20. Hog-eye Man.

Oh! de hog-eye man is de man for me,
He wuk all day on de big levee
Oh! Hog-eye Pig-eye!
Row de boat a shore fer de hog-eye O!
an all she wants is de hog eye man.
//

[NEW YORK GIRLS]
//
21. Can't You Dance the Polka.

My fancy man is a loafer, he loafs along de shore!
Git up you lazy sailor man an lay down on de floor!
Away! You santy my dear man
Oh you New York gals, cant ye dance the polka
//

[SACRAMENTO] Tune is closer to "Camptown Ladies" than to the "traditional" Sacramento.
//
22. The Banks of the Sacramento.

New York City is on fire
With a hoodah an a doodah!
New York City is on fire
hoodah doodah day.
Blow boys blow for Californyo
There's plenty of gold, so I've been told,
on the banks of the Sacramento.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 02:53 AM

[[HALLIARD CHANTIES]]

[TOMMY'S GONE]
//
23. Toms Gone to Hilo.

Tommy's gone an' I'll go too
Away, to Hilo O
O Tommy's gone to Liverpool
Tom's gone to Hilo.
//

[HANGING JOHNNY]
//
24. Hanging Johnny.

Oh they call me hangin Johnny
Away ay ay ay
Because I hang fer money
Oh hang, boys, hang!
//

[ONE MORE DAY]
//
25. One More Day.

Only one more day my Johnny,
One more day
To rock an' roll me over,
One more day.
//

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
//
26. Bound to Alabama.

Oh I'm bound to Alabama
Ter rollthe cotton dow-own
I'm boun ter Alabama ter roll the cotton down.
//

[YANKEE JOHN STORMALONG]
//
27. Liza Lee

Oh you Lize-er Lee
Yankee John Stormalong
Lize-er Lee is de gal fer me
Yankee John Stormalong
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
28. Reuben Ranzo.

Poor old Reuben Ranzo
Ranzo boys Ranzo!
Poor old Reu-uben Ranzo
Ranzo boys Ranzo.
//

[DEAD HORSE]
//
29. Poor Old Man. (Dead Horse.)

Poor old man your horse will die
an' they say so, an' they hope so
Poor old man your horse will die,
Oh poor old man!
//

//
…I learned it from a Spaniard, a stevedore engaged in stowing a cargo of mahogany which I shipped when I was mate of a pretty little barquentine in Tonala, Mexico. They, the stevedores, used many Chanties hauling the big logs about the hold, but this was a new one to me and hearing it so often I absorbed it, feeling that it was a very good one.

30. Hilo Come Down Below.

Said the black bird to the crow
Hilo, come down below
Come down below wid de whole yer crew,
Hilo come down below
//

[BONEY]
//
31. Boney Was a Warrior. (John François.)

Boney was a warrior
Way ay yah!
Boney was a warrior
John France-wah!
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
32. Blow the Man Down.
Oh blow the man down bullies blow him away
Way ay! Blow the man down
Oh blow the man down bullies blow him away
Gimme some time to blow the man down.
//

[COAL BLACK ROSE]
//
33. Coal Black Rose.

[cho.] Oh my Rosy Coal black Rose
Don't you hear de banjo Pinka a pong a-pong
[cho.] Oh my Rosy Coal black Rose.
//

[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
//
34. Whiskey Johnny.

Oh Whisky is the life of man,
Whisky Johny
oh Whisky is the life of man,
oh Whisky for my Johnny.
//

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
35. Blow Boys Blow.

A Yankee ship came down de ribber,
Blow boys blow
A Yankee ship came down de ribber
Blow my bully boys blow!
//

[RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN]
//
36. The Bullgine.

Oh she's lovely up alo-oft an' she's lovely down below
Oh run let de Bullgine run
Way ya a Ah-o-oh
oh-oh run let de Bullgine run.
//

[[FORE SHEET CHANTIES]]

[BOWLINE]
//
37. Haul the Bowlin'.

Haul the Bowline, the skipper he's a growlin
[cho.] Haul the Bowline, the Bowline haul! (_shout_)
//

[JOHNNY BOWKER]
//
38. Do My Johnny Bowker.

Do my Johnny Bowker, come rock and roll me o-over,
[cho.] Do my Johnny Bowker do.
//

[HAUL AWAY JOE]
//
39. Haul Away Jo.

Way haul away For Kitty she's me da-arlin.
[cho.] Way haul away haul away Joe!
//

[[BUNT CHANTY}}

[PADDY DOYLE]
//
40. Paddy Doyle's Boots.

Ay way ay yah
We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.
//

Then, sea songs, "41. Farewell and Adieu to You Spanish Ladies" (minor mode melody) and "42. Lowlands Low" [GOLDEN VANITY].

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 08:47 AM

Gibb, thanks for the Bullen materials. I've read all of this before but it's always amazing what one misses! I find this statement intriguing:

"The tunes of both the Chanties and the American Revival Hymns spring from one common source—negro music."

Is it possible that we have parallel developments going on with "chanties" and "spirituals" both evolving from the plantation slave work songs? The call-response pattern, before the "spirituals" were polished up, is common to all three genres. And of course we could add the fourth group which would be modern chain gang songs. What continues to be striking here is that "chanties" come from the same source as "spirituals" and "chain gang songs".

Having a common source in things like corn-shucking songs would partially explain why chanties didn't "come from" spirituals. It still puzzles me though that there was not more crossover between spirituals and chanties. Maybe the "sacred/profane" boundary was strict on board ship.

I'm wondering if Sharp wasn't more likely referring to "English" hymnody than to the spiritual tradition. He showed a marked lack of interest in "Black music" on his Southern Appalachian tours.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 08:54 AM

These are too good, and interesting to miss: "Shenandoah" & "Poor Lucy Anna"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1be-0VjCtxE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDb1oGugh2E

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 04:41 PM

Gibb, nice work! I don't think any of Bullen's shanties (except "Ten Stone"?) have ever been recorded.

His "Shenandoah" really is hardly more than a chant, but with a whole crew behind it it must have sounded "wild"...in the 19th Century Romantic sense.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 05:02 PM

1915        Terry, Richard Runciman. "Sea Songs and Shanties."_ Journal of the Royal Music Association_ 11(41): 135-140.

On May 18, 1915, R.R. Terry (1865-1938) addressed members of the [Royal] Musical Association. Terry, an expert in liturgical music and the organ, was presumably in the midst of his project of collecting chanties. Here he uses a bit of his clout as a descendant of sea-farers to gain some leverage among his colleaugues. This is a transcript or summary of his address, from the proceedings of the meeting, followed by points from the discussion.

Terry is jumping into the fray after the 1914 showdown between Bullen and Sharp.
//
There is a great deal of literature on the subject, but the lecturer has been long familiar with Shanties from hearing his own sailor relatives sing them. There is this to be said about sailors' Shanties: there are so many variants of all the tunes that there is plenty of material for a lecture without having recourse to compiling from existing literature.
//
So, he proposes to make is own musicological contribution.

On spelling:
//
As regards the spelling of the word" Shanties," every person
who has had any connection with the Sea knows that the word
is pronounced in that way; there is no reason therefore why the
spelling should not correspond.
//

//
A Shanty was not sung by way of recreation, but was used to
lighten labour. …They flourished with the sailing ship and the coming of steam has killed them. Their origin so far as the composers are concerned is not known. In those unsophisticated days some sailor on
board ship more musical than the others probably collated the
tunes he knew, and the result was the Shanty. It had been
asserted that most of them were of negro origin, and that they
suggest ragtime. But there is nothing less suggestive of ragtime
than the Shanty; it has a clean, definite, rhythm which would
help the men at their work.
//
This is a response to Bullen.

He continues,
//
The negro in the West Indies is not the American negro. It is the latter that sings ragtime, and not so much he as the people who caricature him. The negro of the more primitive type is a person with a keen sense of persistent rhythm. In the West Indies one can hear Shanties to this day.
Here, perhaps, if one wants to get it, can be found the derivation
of the word Shanty, for the negro huts are called by this name. When a negro quarrels with his neighbour, and the relations between them are too strained for them to live any longer together, then one arranges to have his shanty moved. They are moved on trolleys, which are pulled by men at the end of ropes stretching down the road; and as they pull, the shantyman sits on top of the roof astride and sings the solo part of
some "pull and haul" Shanty. If the word is derived by some
from the French verb chanter, possibly this West Indian custom
is also a plausible explanation.
//
This may be the start of the "hut" theory? I'm not sure; I've tended to gloss over that in readings. What I find more interesting is the way he negotiates Bullen and Sharp. To essentialize their positions (!): Bullen says "Chanties are mainly Negro origin…I know through lived experience", Sharp says, "No, not really…I doubt it based on my musicological analysis." And Terry says, "OK, Negro, but *Caribbean*…this explains the musical inconsistencies." Personally, I think they are mixing up dance song and work song, which share some features (being a product of the same culture's musical system), but which shouldn't be compared so closely.

Seems to be rehashing Bullen, on the nature of shanty lyrics:
//
As regards the words, there are a few stereotyped verses at
the beginning and then the shanty-man used to invent the rest
which had to do with shipping, politics, personal characteristics.
the food, &c., all of which came in for a share of sarcasm
according to his extemporising capacity. Napoleon was a
favourite subject of the men, and so was a certain mythical
person called Starmy. [sic] The average sailor Shanty after the first
verse or so was simply unprintable, and that is especially so with
"The Hog's Eye Man," one of the most beautiful of the lot.
On an East Indiaman it was a great event for the passenger to
come and listen to the sailors' Shanties, and this particular one
was a great favourite on nearing port, but the singing of it was
absolutely forbidden except when the Captain could be assured
that a printable version would be used.
//

Taking a jab at Sharp's ilk here—interesting for someone familiar with modes from Latin liturgical music (his expertise):
//
One hears a great deal about modal evidence in Shanties.
The mistake of most Shanty books is that modal melodies are
often treated as if they were in keys, while on the other hand
there are a great many which are really either major or minor,
but are called modal. Modes seem to have a fascination for the
folk-song hunter; he finds Mode in everything; but a tune may
fulfil the conditions of Modal melody and yet not be in a Mode.
//

Minstrel sources recognized.
//
There are several types of Shanty which are without doubt
taken from published songs, some of them sung by the original
Christy Minstrels. Many a Christy Minstrel melody was adopted
on board ship, for anything could be made into a Shanty.
//

A plug for his forthcoming book?:
//
The ideal collection has yet to come. The sailor must combine
with the musician, and there must be a distinction between
tunes in Modes and in keys, but all is lost labour unless there is
real sympathy with and a certain practical knowledge of the
[li]fe at sea.
//

Following this, a choir performed some examples, then, discussion.

//
THE CHAIRMAN: It is quite clear that Dr. Terry is steeped in
Shantyism! …However, Dr. Terry did not go to sea [and thus didn't perish], and so we have been able to enjoy the benefit of his research and of his accumulated knowledge concerning shanties. As to his philological
remarks about the spelling of the word, I would seriously advise
him not to set foot in the class-rooms of Oxford University, and
utter such fearful heresy about "shanty." More than a dozen
professors would rise and ask if he had ever been to school, and
if so whether he had forgotten the Latin verb cano, which surely
must be the original root of words standing for singing and
chanting. We must not have a philological discussion, but I
cannot agree as to his spelling of "shanties," it hurts one's eyes
terribly. The suggestion has been made that it has connection
with the shanty or hut of the negroes, which is very ingenious and
clever. And there are shanties in Ireland, funny little places
where you get something stronger to drink than water. Well, the
imbibing of such potations leads to a certain amount of singing,
therefore it might be said that the word "shanties" comes from
these places where you get whisky! …
//
So, the "ch" spelling had been fairly well entrnched up to this point (e.g. in Englishmen Sharp and Bullen, though not in Whall), and what now seems to be the Commonwealth spelling preference of "sh" did not form until later.

Feedback from the Chairman on the lyrical nature:
//
…The words may seem foolish and silly if looked at coldly, but I
remember a time when in singing certain songs they did not think
so much of the words as of the music; to make out the rhythm
and accent and carryon the measure to the end they used to
insert all sorts of words. So with the sailors, they had to finish
their measure, and if necessary improvise words, there is nothing
very remarkable in that. As to some of the lines being
unprintable, I have in my collection Campion's Songs, written for
the lute, bass viol, and voice. He was a musician in the time of
Queen Elizabeth, and wrote some beautiful hymns and poetry, but
some of the songs are unprintable, though they stood for the feeling
of the day. Sailors in singing their shanties were not supposed
to have listeners, and they just said anything that came into their
head; one cannot blame them for that.
//

//
Mr. J. H. MAUNDER: Dr. Terry referred to the Christy
Minstrels in connection with shanties. Does he know if some of
the Christy Minstrels' songs were taken from shanties or vice versa,
and could he give us an idea of the time the Christy Minstrels
started? I remember hearing as a boy that the Moore and
Burgess troupe was developed from the Christy Minstrels.
//
JOHN, GRAHAM: …I have heard lectures on shanties on several
occasions, but I have not come across anyone with such a grip
of his subject as Dr. Terry has shown, nor with his enthusiasm.
I think the plan adopted this afternoon is peculiarly interesting. I
do not think it has been done before--that of giving a number
of shanties in a set. It seems to me there is a great chance of
shanties being sung by men's choirs and so on in this form.
Whereas one shanty might be put aside as being insignificant,
when we have a kind of fantasia of them in this way they become
exhilarating. I have enjoyed the singing; there has been a real
hit of British style about it: and in the coming years probably
we shall cultivate more and more of the rollicking, true John
Bull kind of song and tune.
//

//
Dr. TERRY: I am pleased to find that my -few n:marks have
been well received; but I am disappointed that I have not had
the man-handling I expected on several debatable points raised
with the express purpose of provoking discussion. I was not
unmindful of the derivation given by the Oxford Dictionary. My
suggestion has been spoken of as clever and ingenious. leaving it
to be inferred that like most clever, ingenious things, it is
worthless because too clever by half. But I would point out that
the British tar seems to have derived hardly any words from a
foreign tongue. An important reason why we should spell the
word as shanty, is that we want future generations to pronounce
the word as the sailors did; even our Chairman once or twice
pronounced it "shanty." [Does he mean "tchanty"?] As to the derivation of the word given in the Oxford Dictionary, some quite good authorities dissent from it.

I have been paid too great a compliment in having it thought
that I have dived deeply into an out-of-the-way subject. Had I
not come of a sailor family, or had I been living in London all
my life, it would have taken a considerable amount of time to
collect the material. As it was, it has been no trouble: I could
not help it, I have grown up with it: therefore I cannot claim
the credit of having spent long laborious nights wasting the
midnight oil collating information; one could not help imbibing
these things as a youngster. In regard to what has been said about
words being unprintable, I remember once being asked by a
Musical Club to give them something that had not been in print,
something old that had not been printed in England before.
Well, I arranged a quartet, and we sang it in public-myself,
a professional singer, a minor Canon, and another clergyman,
I think-something in medireval Italian which we pronounced as
modern Italian. You can imagine how startled and shocked we
were to find later what we had really been saying! Luckily no
scholar of medireval I talian happened to be present, so it was
never found out. As to the question raised about the Christy
Minstrels, .I went into that point, and showed that some shanties
were derived from Christy Minstrels and vice versa. I ought to
know the date when Christy Minstrels began, but I do not. But
Mr. Britten, whom I see here, is an authority on all these matters.
I am sorry Mr. Britten has not spoken, for it would have been an
enlivening and intellectual exercise.
Mr. BRITTEN: The date was about 1858.
Dr. TERRY: If Mr. Britten says 1858 or thereabouts you may
take it that he is right.
//
Britten was wrong! :-)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 08:00 PM

1920        Terry, R.R. "Sailor Shanties (I)." _Music and Letters_ 1(1):35-44.

This would be Terry's first published work on shanties, the first of 2 articles which would later become his book collection.

After some generic/stereotypical comments, Terry takes note of the literature on chanties that had grown since their demise in practice.
//
When the sailing ship ruled the waters and the shanty was a
living thing, no one appears to have paid heed to it. To the
landsman of those days—before folk-song hunting had begun—the
haunting beauty of the tunes would appear to have made no appeal.
This may be partly accounted for by the fact that he would never
be likely to hear the sailor sing them ashore, and partly because of
the Rabelaisian character of the words to which they were sung
aboard ship. We had very prim notions of propriety in those
days, and were apt to overlook the beauty of the melodies, and to
speak of shanties in bulk as "low vulgar songs." Be that as it
may, it was not until the early 'eighties—when the shanty was
beginning to die out with the sailing ship—that any attempt was
made to form a collection. W. L. Alden in Harper's Magazine,
and James Runciman—in the St. James' Gazette [1884, I think – LA Smith quoted him] and other papers—wrote articles on the subject, and gave musical quotations.
//

Critique of LA Smith:
//
In 1888 Miss L. A. Smith of Newcastle-on-Tyne published The Music
of the Waters, a thick volume into which was tumbled indiscrimi-
nately and uncritically a collection of all sorts of tunes from all
sorts of countries which had any connection with seas, lakes,
rivers, or their geographical equivalents. Scientific folk-song
collecting was not understood in those days, and consequently all
was fish that came to the authoress's net. Sailor shanties and
landsmen's nautical effusions were jumbled together higgledy-
piggledy, …But this lack of discrimination, pardonable in those days,
was not so serious as the inability to write the tunes down cor-
rectly. So long as they were copied from other song-books they
were not so bad. But when it came to taking them down from the
seamen's singing the results were deplorable. Had the authoress
been able to give us correct versions of the shanties, her collection
would have been a valuable one. One example (of what runs all
through the book) will be sufficient to show how a lack of the rudi-
ments of music renders valueless what would otherwise have been
a document of importance. This is the Tyneside version of "Johnny Boker," one of the best known of all shanties :
[score]

Here follows the version of Miss Smith; she gives no words, and
entitles it "Johnny Polka" :—
[score]

It will be seen that the notes are given correctly, but their respective
time values are all wrong, and the barring which this involves
makes the version a travesty.
//

Continues, comparing his Tyneside work to Smith's.
//
The book contains altogether about thirty-two shanties collected
from sailors in the Tyne seaports. [Actually, probably only 14-18 of them at most were collected by Smith.] Since both Miss Smith and
myself hail from Newcastle, her "hunting ground " for shanties
was also mine, and I am consequently in a position to assess the
importance or unimportance of her work. I may therefore say
that although hardly a single shanty is noted down correctly, I can
see clearly (having myself noted the same tunes, in the same dis-
trict,) what she intended to convey, and furthermore can vouch
for the accuracy of some of the words which were common to north
country sailors, and have not appeared in other collections. As
examples I may mention those of " Rio Grande," " Lowlands,"
" Blow the man down," " Hilo my Ranzo Way," " Santy Anna,"
and " Heave away my Johnny." If I have dealt at some length
with Miss Smith's book it is not because I wish to disparage a well-
intentioned effort, but because I constantly hear The Music of
the Waters quoted as an authoritative book on sailor shanties ;
and since the shanties in it were all collected in the district where
I spent boyhood and youth, I am familiar with all of them, and can
state definitely that they are in no sense authoritative. I should
like however to pay my tribute of respect to Miss Smith's industry,
and to her enterprise in calling attention to tunes that then seemed
in a fair way to disappear.
//

Now, on to critiquing Davis/Tozer:
//
About the same time appeared a collection entitled Sailors'
Songs or Chanties, in which the music was "composed and arranged on traditional sailor airs " by Dr. Ferris Tozer. These two
pieces of information rule the book out of court, since (a) a sailor
song is not a shanty, and (b) to "compose and arrange on traditional
airs" is to destroy the traditional form.
//

On Whall.
//
Other collections have since appeared, but (for reasons into which
I prefer not to enter here) none of them are genuinely authoritative
save Capt. W. B. Whall's -Sea Songs, Ships, and Shanties. Capt.
Whall studied music under Sir John Stainer, consequently we have
the necessary combination (which all the other collections lack) of
seamanship and musicianship.
//

Establishing his authority.
//
Since I follow the profession of a
church organist, it may reasonably be asked "by what authority "
I speak concerning shanties, and shanty collecting. I ought there-
fore to explain that my maternal ancestors have followed the sea
as far back as the family history can be traced. I have "grown
up with" sailor shanties,—sung to me by sailor uncles and grand-
uncles since I was a child. I have in later years collected shanties
from all manner of sailors, but chiefly from Northumbrian sources.
I have collated these later versions with the ones which I learnt at
first hand from sailor relatives as a boy. And lastly, I lived for
some years in the West Indies,—one of the few remaining spots
where the shanty is still alive.
//

Etymology/spelling again.
//
The derivation of the word is unknown. Two have been pro-
posed, but without producing any evidence that could satisfy a
philologist. One of them, (un) chanti has the disadvantage of
suggesting that the word rhymes with "auntie"; and when, in
consequence of this derivation, the word is spelt "chanty," the
ordinary reader is led to pronounce it " tchahnty " which arouses
the irritation and contempt of the sailor, who always, everywhere
makes it alliterate with " shall " and rhyme with " scanty." Its
pronunciation is best represented by "Shanty " as in the Oxford
Dictionary, which assigns 1869 for its introduction into literature.
There is very little to be said for the derivation from shanty, a hut,
but that from (un) chani will not bear serious inspection.
As to the origin of shanty tunes I have a third explanation, but
it cannot be printed. They would appear to have been sung in
British ships as early as the 15th century. But as Capt. Whall
deals with this point in his book, nothing further need be said here.
The varied character of the sailor's tunes indicates a variety of
sources. Mediterranean voyages would account for Italian in-
fluence, as, for example, in the following, which has not been
printed before. Although sung to me by a Northumbrian sailor,
it is redolent of the languor of Venetian lagoons, of moonlight, and
swift stealing gondolas, and the tinkling guitar, with ite unchanging
tonic and dominant harmonies :—

My Johnny. [w/ score]

We're homeward bound today But where is my Johnny;
My own dear Johnny, My own dear Johnny,
Well drink and court and play, But always think of Johnny.
My lively Johnny, Goodbye.

This is clearly a definite song annexed wholesale, and fitted with
English words. Its modern tonality will not attract folk-song
collectors, but my sailorman informed me that it was a favourite
"interchangeable" shanty in his ship.
//
The above "Italian influenced" song was reprinted in Hugill, and I've rendered it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04a09UGm_X8

Begins to present his uniquely collected items, with [BILLY BOY]:
//
Folk-songs learnt ashore in his native fishing village provided
much of the material from which the sailor's shanty was fashioned.
Sometimes there would be no adaptation, and the song (especially
if it had a double refrain) would be sung complete, as in the following
example. It is Northumbrian in origin, and deals with the same
topic as "My boy Billy" collected by Dr. Vaughan-Williams.

Both words and tune are different from Dr. Vaughan-Williams's,
but the idea is the same :—" Billy " has been out courting, and
undergoes cross-questioning concerning the qualifications of his
lady-love as housewife. The theme seems common (with varying
words and tune) to several English counties.

BILLY BOY.

Where hev ye been aal the day, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Where hev ye been aal the day, me Billy Boy?
I've been walkin' aal the day with me charm-in' Nancy Grey,
And me Nancy kittl'd [=tickled] me fancy,
Oh me charmin' Billy Boy.

Solo Is she fit to be yor wife, Billy Boy, Billy Boy ?
Chorus Is she fit to be yor wife, My Billy Boy ?
Solo She's as fit to be me wife As the fork is to the knife,
Chorus And me Nancy kittled, etc.
//

[GOOD MORNING LADIES ALL]
//
Although I had the following from a Northumbrian sailor, I
should hesitate to ascribe the tune to a Northumbrian source with-
out further corroboration. Again the theme—or at least the title—
is a familiar one, but I have not come across the tune (or variants
of it) in any other part of the country. It was used as a halliard
shanty :—

GOOD MORNING, LADIES ALL.

Now a long good-bye to you my dear.
With a heave Oh haul!
And a last farewell and a long farewell.
And good morning ladies all.
//

Another item that Terry remembers from youth in a fishing village. However, its use as a chanty is dubious.
//
The following beautiful tune I used to hear when a child in the
fishing villages of Cresswell and Hauxley. I have the authority of
Mr. James Runciman for its being used as a capstan shanty. I
cannot remember the words, but Mr. Runciman printed two verses
in his book The Romance, of the Coast. I can now find no one
in the district who remembers the song, and my efforts to recapture
the words (by enquiries in Newcastle newspapers) have so far
proved fruitless. Sir Walter Runciman—who knows practically
all the shanties which had a vogue in Blyth ships—tells me that he
nevef heard this particular tune so used. He thinks it must have
been " made into a shanty " only aboard the ship in which Mr.
James Runciman heard it. I give the chorus, as my memory is
not to be trusted for the rest of the words :—

Hev ye seen owt o' maa bonny lad.
And are ye sure he's weel—Oh?
He's gyen ower land, Wiv his stick in his hand.
He's gyen te moor the keel—Oh.
//

A long explanation why he thinks some chanties were localized in his native area. Basically, well-trained sailors tended to stay with the same ship.
//
In my boyhood the Northumbrian coast was specially rich in
folk-songs known to the inhabitants of every fishing village. A
considerable proportion of these were bilinear in form, with a lilt
or refrain after each line. The presence of this double chorus
made such folk-songs specially suitable for shanties. Up to now
I do not think it has ever been satisfactorily explained in print why
shanties' of this type were so strictly localised. The facts would
seem to be these. At Blyth and Amble, for example, there was a
flourishing Seaman's Union. Its objects were not so pronounced
as the Seamen's Unions of to-day. It was to some extent a benefit
club, and only on matters of grave importance did it approach
shipowners in its corporate capacity. The duty on which it most
prided itself, and which it carried out with the utmost rigour was
the examination of apprentices when they bad completed their
indentures. Every apprentice when " out of his time " aspired to
a position as Able Seaman either aboard' the vessel in which he had
served his apprenticeship, or some other ship belonging to the
same port. But sailors in those days were very jealous of their
prestige and their privileges. In their pride of seamanship they
resented the presence of a lubber aboard their ship. Consequently
before they would consent to sail with any time-expired apprentice,
the latter was obliged to appear before a small board or committee
of the sailors of the union, and undergo a very searching exami-
nation on all points of practical seamanship. If he passed this
severe test he was at liberty to sail in any ship, and was received
by any crew as a comrade and an equal. If he failed, he could
only ship aboard a vessel as " Half Marrow," receiving only half
an ordinary AB's pay. In such contempt was the Half Marrow
held, that many ships' crews would not sail with one, and I have
even known engagements (contracted during apprenticeship) broken
off because a girl's pride would not allow her to marry a sailor
whom she regarded as a discredit to his profession. I have also
known cases where a Half Marrow, scorned by every ship in his
native seaport, was obliged to migrate to the Tyne or even to
Bristol, in order to obtain employment aboard a type of ship which
carried a miscellaneous crew, and where the corporate pride of
seamanship was not so pronounced. In those days sailors became
so attached to their ship that they were content to spend their
whole lives in her, and almost broke their hearts if circumstances
obliged them to make a change. It will thus be seen that any
local folk-song which obtained a footing aboard the ships of any
one port would not be likely, owing to the more or less fixed
personnel of the crews, to travel farther afield.
//

I am surprised how much his [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] resembles Bullen's, and that after just referring to Bullen's ideas. It is very similar, and yet seems to be subtley changed at liberty! (And what's the deal with not mentioning Bullen by name?
//
Another source of shanties was undoubtedly negroid. The
following well-known shanty is a type with which sailors would
necessarily become familiar at cotton seaports :—

ROLL THE COTTON DOWN.

I'm bound to Alabama
Oh roll the cotton down,
I'm bound to Alabama
Oh roll the cotton down.

I have seen it stated in the preface to a recent collection of
shanties that those of negro origin are characterized by what we
should now call ragtime. This is far from being the case. If there
is one thing more than another which distinguishes negro music,
it is its direct and insistent rhythm. Everything the negro does
is rhythmic… Ragtime is a product of the stage nigger,
not of the real negro. I never found any negro use syncopation.
The popular impression that he does so is no doubt due to careless
observation of the way in which he beats time to any given tune,
viz :—by a tap of the foot followed by a clap of the hands. The
foot-tap always comes on the strong beat, and the hand-clap on
the weak one. Since the bare foot makes no sound, the casual
observer does not notice its action, but he does both see and hear
the hand-clap (off the beat) and thinks he is listening to syncopation.
A moment's reflection will show that ragtime or any other form of
syncopated music is just the thing which could not be used for a
shanty where the pull on the rope must necessarily occur on the strong beat of the music.
//
I can agree that the "business" parts of a chanty are not to be syncopated, but to say that Black music contains no syncopation…???!

"American influence." [SHENANDOAH]
//
American influence both as regards music and phraseology is
traceable throughout the history of the shanty. One quotation
of a beautiful tune—known to every sailor—will suffice :—

SHENANDOAH.

Oh, Shenandore, I long to hear you
Away you rolling river;
Oh, Shenandore, I long to hear you,
Away I'm bound to go 'cross the wide Missouri.
//

Mention of borrowing from longshore material, eg [A-ROVING], [JOHN BROWN'S BODY], [SACRAMENTO].
//
Another source about which there is a certain amount of mis-
apprehension is to be found in popular airs which were annexed in
their entirety. " A-roving," " John Brown's Body," and others
were used in this way. "Camptown Races" became "The Banks
of Sacramento " and so on. As an old sailor once said to me " You
can make anything into a shanty."
//

Then makes an argument for a different origin of [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY], saying it was developed from or originally was a shanty. I believe his facts are not straight!
//
Bullen included in his collection the equally well-known " Poor Paddy works on the Railway," and his expressed dislike for it was doubtless due to the commonly accepted opinion that it was not a genuine shanty, but
had been imported wholesale from "The Christy Minstrels" who
flourished in the 'fifties. But I think it is not sufficiently under-
stood that just as sailors borrowed and adapted tunes from any
and every source, so did the Christy Minstrels. Without wishing
to be dogmatic, I have the following reason for thinking that "The
Christies " annexed " Poor Paddy " from the sailor, and not vice
versa. Mr. James Runciman (who died in 1891 [born 1852!]) gave me a shanty which he had learnt from a great-uncle of his, the melody of which
is nothing more or less than that of " Poor Paddy." I place the
two side by side for purposes of comparison :—

THE SHAVER.

When I was a little tiny boy, I went to sea in Stormy's employ.
I sail'd away across the sea, When I was just a Shaver, a Shaver.
It's I was weary of the sea, when I was just a Shaver.

Solo Oh they whacked me up, and they whacked me down.
The Mate he cracked me on the crown.
They whacked me round, and round, and round.
Chorus When I was just a Shaver. It's I was weary, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEIfuL_dIOY

POOR PADDY WORKS ON THE RAILWAY.

In eighteen hundred and forty one, My cordaroy breeches I put on,
My cordaroy breeches I put on, To work upon the railway, the railway. I'm weary of the railway, Oh poor Paddy works on the railway.

So here at any rate we have an instance of a tune, universally
attributed to the Christy Minstrels, but which (whatever its original
source) was actually sung at sea before the Christy Minstrels came
into existence. [OK, but they came into existence in 1843.] (A " Shaver "—by the way—is the north country equivalent of the Cockney term " Little Nipper.")
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Jul 11 - 07:42 PM

1920        Terry, R.R. "Sailor Shanties (II)." _Music and Letters_ 1(3) (July 1920):256-268.

Continuation of Part I. Here, Terry moves on to give more shanties, filed under type.

A general observation: Many of the examples given seem to me suspiciously like they were drawn from earlier collections (of which Terry sticks to just the major ones, without delving into any side articles or historical literature). They are not wholesale reproductions, but rather, composites, in order to create what Terry might have thought were 'ideal' forms. Terry does mention, at every turn, his credentials—his experience hearing chanties whilst growing up. But while he may have been familiar with the songs generally, I am skeptical as to whether he actually remembered their musical and lyrical details and whether he isn't, rather, using the works of previous others to create his examples. Many have the feel of Bullen's melodies, but the lyrics are fleshed out from other sources.

I know that Terry, like Sharp, utilized John Short as an informant. That would certainly explain some similarities. However:
1) At this point, Terry is not citing his informants, nor is he citing his desk-sources specifically. This suggests a sort of cavalier attitude, more indicative of a performing musician than a folklorist, where the songs are presumed to be "out there" as de-contextualizable (??) objects, regardless of their singers, place, time, etc. In other words, it's OK (it doesn't matter much) if one mixes up details from different sources, and there's no need to mention a sources because any other source would be the same.
2) Trying to compare all the sources, from which I argue Terry may have drawn to make his composites, is difficult. They all need to be in front of you, and it's a time-consuming process that must be done song-by-song. I am not going to do it right now. And, I am going to wait until studying Terry's big collection to see what he claims to be the source of each item.

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
LOWLANDS.

Lowlands, Lowlands, Away, my John!
Lowlands, away, I heard them say,
My dollar and a half a day.
A dollar and a half a day is a Hoosier's pay.
Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John!
A dollar and a half a day is very good pay.
My dollar and a half a day.
//

[JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO]
//
Of the more rhythmic capstan shanties, the following rollicking tune (known to every sailor) is a fair sample:-

JOHNNY COMES DOWN TO HILO.

I nebber see de like since I bin born,
When a big buck nigger wid de sea boots on,
Sez Johnny come down to Hilo, O poor old man.
Oh wake her, Oh shake her, Oh wake dat gel wid de blue dress on,
When Johnny comes down to Hilo, O poor old man.
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
GOODBYE FARE YE WELL.

I thought I heard the old man say,
Goodbye, fare-ye-well, Goodbye, fare-ye-well.
I thought I heard the old man say,
Hooray, my boys, we're homeward bound.
//

//
Hauling shanties…required for "the short pull" or "sweating up." (Americans called them the long and the short drag).
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
REUBEN RANZO

Oh pity poor Reuben Ranzo.
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.
Oh poor old Reuben Ranzo.
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.
//

[BOWLINE], "sweating up"
//
HAUL THE BOWLIN'.
We'll haul the bowlin' so early in the morning.
[cho.]We'll haul the bowlin', the bowlin' haul.

So much effort was now required on the pull that it was difficult to sing a musical note at that point. The last word was therefore usually shouted.
//

[PADDY DOYLE]
//
One tune of this type (when a special collective effort was required) was that used to " bunt up " the foresail or mainsail in furling. In this operation the canvas of the sail was doubled in-tensively until it formed a smooth conical bundle. This was called a "bunt," and a strong collective effort was required to get it onto the yard. Only one short tune was ever used for this bunting operation. It differs from all other shanties in being sung tutti throughout:-

PADDY DOYLE'S BOOTS.
To me Way-ay-ay-ah.
We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his BOOTS.

The same words were sung over and over again, but very occasionally a different text would be substituted. Capt. Whall gives two alternatives which were sometimes used: "We'll all drink brandy and gin" and "We'll all shave under the chin." Mr. Morley Roberts also told me that a variant in his ship was "We'll all throw dirt at the cook."
//

The following passage shows that Terry had little or no experience with shanties as they were sung aboard ship.
//
For "pull-and-haul" shanties, the shantyman took up his position near the workers (he did no work himself) and announced the shanty,-sometimes by singing the first line. This established the tune to which they were to supply the chorus. For capstan shanties he usually did the same. He is generally shown in pictures as sitting on the capstan, but so far as I can learn, he more usually took up his position on or against the knightheads.
//

Nature of lyrics again, extemporized, often dirty.
//
Each shanty had one or two stereotyped verses, after which the shantyman extemporised on any topics he chose. There was no need for any connection or relevancy between one verse and another, nor were rhymes required. The main thing that mattered was that the rhythm should be preserved, and that the words should be such as would keep the workers merry. Great license was taken in this respect, and the intimacy of the shantyman's topics was such as to make his extemporised verses unprintable. As Capt. Whall says-no seaman in a cargo-carrying ship ever heard a "decent " shanty, and in passenger vessels the shantyman was given the option of "decent words or no shanty." He mentions the notorious "Hog's-eye man" (to which I refer later) as a case in point.
//

[HAUL AWAY JOE]
//
It is curious that some of the loveliest melodies were those to which the lewdest kind of words were usually fitted. The following is an instance. Only a few verses are fit for print: --

HAUL, HAUL AWAY.

Way haul away, We'll haul away the bow lin'.
[cho.] Haul away, Haul away JOE.

King Louis was the King of France, Before the Revolution.
Way haul away, etc.

King Louis got his head cut off, And spoiled his constitution.
Way haul away, etc.
//

Some quasi-narrative chanties.
//
A few shanties had a definite narrative which was adhered to, extemporaneous verses being added only if the regulation ones did not spin out to the end of the job in hand. One of the most popular of these was " Reuben Ranzo " above quoted. It had two usual versions, one with a happy ending (the captain took him into his cabin and "learned him navigation," afterwards marrying him to his daughter) and the other concluding with the tragedy of Ranzo being led to the gangway to receive "five-and-furty " lashes for his dirty habits. (In yet another version the indignant crew threw him overboard).
//

Role of shantyman.
//
The importance of a shantyman could not be overestimated. A good shantyman with a pretty wit was worth his weight in gold. He was a privileged person, and was excused all work save light or odd jobs.
//

The next part gives clear evidence for my suspicions of Terry's shady presentation. After slamming scholars for looking for "modes", he claims [STAND TO YOUR GROUND" is "modal." However, what he has done is reproduce Whall's example having removed the accidentals (G#'s)! I just don't get it.
//
Like all traditional tunes, some shanties are in the ancient modes, and others in the modern major and minor keys. It is the habit of the " folksonger " (I am not alluding to our recognised folk-song experts) to find "modes " in every traditional tune. It will suffice therefore, to say that shanties follow the course of all other traditional music. Many are modern, and easily recognisable as such; others are modal in character, e.g.:

STAND TO YOUR GROUND
Sally am de gal dat I lub dearly.
Way, sing Sally;
O, Sally am de gal dat I lub dearly.
Hilo, John Brown, stand to your ground.
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR]
//
WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE DRUNKEN SAILOR.

What shall we do with the drunken sailor?
What shall we do with the drunken sailor?
What shall we do with the drunken sailor,
Early in the morning. etc.
//

[HOGEYE] It compares to Sharp's / Short's version in English Folk-Chanteys.
//
THE HOG'S-EYE MAN.

Oh, de Hog's eye man is de man fer me;
He war raised'way down in Tennessee
Oh, Hog's-eye, oh;
Row de boat a- shore fer de Hog's-eye,
Steady on a jig with the Hog's-eye, Oh;
She wants de Hog's-eye man.
//

[MR. STORMALONG]
//
Others fulfil to a certain extent modal conditions, but are never-theless in keys.

STORMALONG.

Old Stormy he was a bully old man,
Tib-by way-oh Stormalong.
Oh poor old Stormy's dead and gone,
Ay, ay, ay, Mister Storm along.
//

Major and minor key switch. Much speculation.
//
Like many other folk-songs, certain shanties originally no doubt in a mode were, by the insertion of leading notes, converted into the minor, key. There was also the tendency on the part of the modem sailor to turn his minor key into a major one. I sometimes find sailors singing in the major nowadays, tunes which the very old men of my boyhood used to sing in the minor. A case in point is "Haul away Joe," already quoted. Miss Smith is correct in giving it the minor form which once obtained on the Tyne, and I am inclined to hazard the opinion that that was the original form, and not, as now, the following …
In later times I have also heard The Drutnken Sailor (a distinctly modal tune) sung in the major as follows…
I have generally found that these perversions of the tunes are due to sailors who took to the sea as young men in the last days of the sailing ship, and consequently did not imbibe to the full the old traditions. With the intolerance of youth they assumed that the modal tum given to a shanty by the older sailor was the mark of ignorance since it did not square with their ideas of a major or minor key.
//

In this long passage, Terry talks up his awareness of fieldwork issues, yet he then justifies his presentation of ideal forms, deprecating the "variant" collection of Sharp's ilk and putting down "undeducated" informants.
//
This experience is common to all folk-tune collectors. Other characteristics, for example :-(a) different words to the same melody, (b) different melodies to the same or similar words, need not be enlarged upon here as they will be self-evident when a definitive collection is published. Of the usual troubles incidental to folk-song collecting it is un-necessary to speak. But the collection of shanties involves difficulties of a special kind. In taking down a folk-song from a rustic, one's chief difficulty is surmounted when one has broken down his shyness and induced him to sing. There is nothing for him to do then but get on with the song. Shanties however, being labour songs, one is "up against" the strong psychological connection between the song and its manual acts. …An incident related to me quite casually by Sir Walter Runciman throws a similar light on the inseparability of a shanty and its labour. He described how one evening several north country ships happened to be lying in a certain port. All the officers and crews were ashore leaving only the apprentices aboard, some of whom as he, remarked were " very keen on shanties," and their suggestion of passing away the time by singing some was received with enthusiasm. The whole party of about thirty apprentices at once collected themselves aboard one vessel, sheeted home the main topsail, and commenced to haul it up to the tune of "Boney was a warrior," changing to " Haul the Bowlin' " for " sweating up." In the enthusiasm of their singing and the absence of any officer to call " 'Vast hauling" they continued operations until they broke the topsail yard in two, when the sight of the wreckage and the fear of consequences brought the singing to an abrupt conclusion. In my then ignorance, I naturally asked "Why couldn't you have sung shanties without hoisting the topsail? " and the reply was:-" How could we sing a shanty without having our hands on the rope? " …The only truly satisfactory results which I ever get nowadays from an old sailor are when he has been stimulated by conversation to become reminiscent, and croons his shanties almost sub-consciously. Whenever I find a sailor willing to declaim shanties in the style of a song I begin to be a little suspicious of his seamanship... Of course I have had sailors sing shanties to me in a fine declamatory manner, but I usually found one of three things to be the case :-the man was a "sea lawyer"; or had not done much deep-sea sailing; or his seaman-ship only dated from the decline of the sailing vessel. It is doubtless interesting to the folksonger to see in print shanties taken down from an individual sailor with his individual melodic twirls and twiddles. But since no two sailors ever sing the same shanty quite in the same manner, there must necessarily be some means of getting at the tune, unhampered by these individual idiosyncrasies, which are quite a different thing from what folk-song students recognise as "variants." The power to discriminate can only be acquired by familiarity with the shanty as it was in its palmy days. The collector who now comes upon the scene at this late time of day must necessarily be at a disadvantage. The ordinary methods which he would apply to a folk-song break down in the case of a labour song. Manual actions were the soul of the shanty; eliminate these and you have only the skeleton of what was once a living thing. It is quite possible, I know, to push this line of argument too far, but everyone who knows anything about seamanship must feel that a shanty nowadays cannot be other than a pale reflection of what it once was. That is why I deprecate the spurious authenticity conferred by print upon isolated versions of shanties sung by individual old men. When the originals are available it seems to me pedantic and academic to put into print the comic mispronunciations of well-known words by old and uneducated seamen. And this brings me to the last difficulty which confronts the collector with no previous knowledge of shanties. As a mere matter of dates, any sailors now remaining from sailing ship days must necessarily be very old men. I have found that their octo-genarian memories are not always to be trusted. On one occasion an old man sang quite glibly a tune which was in reality a pasticcio of three separate shanties all known to me. I have seen similar results in print, since the collector arrived too late upon the scene to be able to detect the tricks which an old man's memory played him. I have already spoken of shanties which were derived from popular songs, also the type which contained a definite narrative. Except where a popular song was adapted, the form was usually rhymed or more often unrhymed couplets. The topics were many and varied but the chief ones were (1) popular heroes such as Napoleon, and " Santy Anna." …(2) The sailor had mythical heroes too; e.g. " Ranzo " (already mentioned) and " Stormy" who was the theme of many shanties. …(3) High sounding, poetic, or mysterious words such as " Lowlands," " Shenandoah," " Rolling river," " Hilo," " Mobile Bay," " Rio Grande " had a great fascination, as their constant recurrence in many shanties shows. (4) The sailor also sang much of famous ships, such as "The Flying Cloud," " The Henry Clay," or " The Victory," and famous lines such as " The Black Ball."... (5) Love affairs (in which Lizer Lee and other damsels constantly figured) were an endless topic. (6) But chiefly did Jack sing of affairs connected with his ship. He never sang of "the rolling main," " the foaming billows," " the storm clouds," etc. These are the stock-in-trade of the landsman; they were too real for the sailor to sing about. He had the instinct of the primitive man…
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES]
//
WE'RE ALL BOUND TO GO.

Oh Johnny was a rover and today he sails away.
Heave away my Johnny, Heave away-ay
Oh Johnny was a rover and today he sails away.
Heave away my bully boys, We're all bound to go.

As I was walking out one day, Down by the Albert Dock.
Heave away, etc.
I heard an emigrant Irish girl Conversing with Tapscott.
Heave away, etc.

Good morning, Mr. Tapscott, sir; "Good morn, my gel," sez he.
Heave away, etc.
It's have you got a Packet Ship All bound for Amerikee.
Heave away, etc.
//

The example of "knock a man down" that he uses in the following argument does not work. Because Adams (and others), not only Sharp, had attested a "knock a man down." Moreover, Sharp got the version from John Short – is Terry alleging that Sharp changed the lyrics?
//
…One feature of the words may be noted. The sailor's instinct for romance was so strong that in his choruses at least (no matter how " hair curling " the solo might be) he always took the crude edge off the concrete and presented it as an abstraction if possible. For example; he knew perfectly well that one meaning of "to blow " was to knock or kick. He knew that discipline in Yankee packets was maintained by corporeal methods; so much so that the mates (to whom the function of knocking the " packet rats" about was delegated) were termed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd " blowers" or strikers, and in the shanty he sang "Blow the man down." " Knock " or " kick " (as I have recently seen in a printed collection) was too crudely realistic for him. In like manner the humorous title "Hogs-eye" veiled the coarse intimacy of the term which it represented. And that is where--when collecting shanties from the " longshore " mariner of to-day--I find him (if he is un-educated) so tiresome. He not only wants to explain to me as a landsman the exact meaning (which I know already) of terms which the old type of sailor, with his natural delicacy, avoided discussing, but he tries where possible to work them into his shanty,-- a thing the sailor of old time never did. So that when one sees in print expressions which sailors did not use, it is presumptive evidence that the collector has been imposed upon by a salt of the "sea lawyer" type. Perhaps I ought to make this point clearer. Folk-song collecting was once merely an artistic pursuit. Now it has become a flourishing industry of high commercial value. From the commercial point of view it is essential that results should be printed and circulated as widely as possible. Some knowledge of seamanship is an absolute necessity where folk-shanties are concerned. The mere collector nowadays does not possess that knowledge; it is confined to those who have had practical experience of the sea, but who will never print their experiences. The mere collector must print his versions…
//

Getting profound… then a bit snide, about insider knowledge. And more notes on the nature of "dirty" lyrics.
//
…What is unprinted must remain unknown; what is printed is therefore accepted as authoritative, however misleading it may be. Many highly educated men, of which Captain Whall is the type, have followed the sea. It is from them that the only really trustworthy information is forthcoming. But so far as I can judge, it is uneducated men who appear to sing to collectors nowadays, and I have seen many a quiet smile on the lips of the educated sailor when he is confronted with printed versions of the uneducated seaman's performances. For example, one of the best known of all Shanties is "The Hog's-eye man." I have seen this entitled "The Hog-eyed man," and even "The Ox-eyed Man." Every old sailor knew the meaning of the term. Whall and Bullen, who were both sailors, use the correct expression, "Hog-eye." The majority of sailors of my acquaintance called it "Hog's-eye." Did decency permit I could show conclusively how Whall and Bullen are right and the mere collector wrong. It must suffice, however, for me to say that the term " Hog's-eye " or "Hog-eye" had Nothing whatever to do with the optic of the "Man" who was sung about. I could multiply instances, but this one is typical and must suffice. We hear a great deal of the coarseness and even lewdness of the shanty, but I could wish a little more stress were laid on the sailor's natural delicacy. Jack was always a gentleman in feeling. Granted his drinking, cursing, and amours; but were not these until Victorian times the hall mark of every gentleman ashore? The Rabelaisian jokes of the shantyman were solos, the sound of which would not travel far beyond the little knot of workers who chuckled over them. The choruses--shouted out by the whole working party -- would be heard all over the ship, and even penetrate ashore if she were in port. Hence, in not a single instance do the choruses of any shanty contain a coarse expression.
//

Terry makes a distinction in shanty performance style that I have not seen before. I'm not sure what to make of it yet.
//
One final remark about collectors which has an important bearing upon the value of their work. There were two classes of sailing vessels that sailed from English ports, --the coaster or the mere collier that plied between the Tyne or Severn and Boulogne, and the Southspainer, under which term was comprised all deep-sea vessels. On the collier or short voyage vessel the crew was necessarily a small one, and the Shanty was more or less of a makeshift, adapted to the capacity of the limited members of the crew. Purely commercial reasons precluded the engagement of any Shantyman specially distinguished for his musical attainments. Consequently, so far as the Shanty was concerned, "any old thing would do." On the Southspainer, however, things were very different. The Shantyman was usuallv a person of considerable musical importance, who sang his songs in a more or less finished manner; his melodies were clean clear-cut things without any of the folk-songer's quavers and wobbles. I heard them in the 'seventies and 'eighties before the sailing-ship had vanished, consequently I speak of the things I know.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Jul 11 - 10:23 PM

1921        Terry, Richard Runciman. _The Shanty Book, Part I._ London: J. Curwen & Sons.

As Bradford & Fagge's short set was the score to the earliest commercial chanty recordings, Terry's collection went on to become a main source for chanties during the 1920s commercial/mainstream shanty boom. Terry had his feet in the world of "legitimate" classical music performances; he was known in that world. And perhaps that is why his work was adopted over Sharp's. (Sharp's would be used by the folklore-oriented Revival performers.) Bullen's work, at least directly speaking, was ignored by performers. As noted earlier, however, my personal suspicions are that many of Terry's forms (most aside from those that were unique to his "Tyneside" collecting experiences) were composite, "ideal" that he created in part through referencing the major collections that preceded him (i.e. like Hugill). He justified this by citing his general familiarity with chanties that came from growing up around sailor relatives. His creations, as performance models, may be "good enough," so far as performances are expected to vary. But I am cautious of using them uncritically as evidence for historical scholarship on chanties.

From the Foreword by Sir Walter Runciman, praising Terry's a a unique new collection of someone who has the life experience to match musical skill, and validating the musical forms. Also notes shanties as part of [British] "folk-music".
//
Whatever landsmen may think about shanty words—with their cheerful inconsequence, or light-hearted coarseness—there can be no two opinions about the tunes, which, as folk-music, are a national asset.
I know, of course, that several shanty collections are in the market, but as a sailor I am bound to say that only one—Capt. W.B. Whall's 'Sea Songs, Ships, and Shanties'—can be regarded as authoritative. Only a portion of Capt. Whall's delightful book is devoted to shanties, of which he prints the melodies only (without accompaniment); and of these he does not profess to give more than those he himself learnt at sea. I am glad, therefore, to welcome Messrs. Curwen's project of a wide and representative collection. Dr. Terry's qualifications as editor are exceptional, since he was reared in an environment of nineteenth-century seamen, and is the only landsman I have met who is able to render shanties as the old seamen did. I am not musician enough to criticize his pianoforte accompaniments, but I can vouch for the authenticity of the melodies as he presents them, untampered with in any way.
//

Most of the introductory/background material comes from Terry's articles in Music & Letters (reproduced verbatim), and I will not repeat it.

More claiming of experience:

//
It may reasonably be asked by what authority a mere landsman publishes a book on a nautical subject. I may, therefore, plead in extenuation that I have all my life been closely connected with seafaring matters, especially during childhood and youth, and have literally 'grown up with' shanties. My maternal ancestors followed the sea as far back as the family history can be traced, and sailor uncles and grand-uncles have sung shanties to me from my childhood upwards. During boyhood I was constantly about amongst ships, and had learnt at first hand all the popular shanties before any collection of them appeared in print. I have in later years collected them from all manner of sailors, chiefly at Northumbrian sources. I have collated these later versions with those which I learnt at first hand as a boy from sailor relatives, and also aboard ship. And lastly, I lived for some years in the West Indies, one of the few remaining spots where shanties may still be heard, where my chief recreation was cruising round the islands in my little ketch. In addition to hearing them in West Indian seaports, aboard Yankee sailing ships and sugar droghers, I also heard them sung constantly on shore in Antigua under rather curious conditions. West Indian negro shanties are movable wooden huts,…
//

And on etymology and spelling again. He says that shanties were English, in contradistinction to French, but with his "hut" theory of etymology vaguely implies he believes shanty origins to lie in the Caribbean.
//
…The 'literary' sailors, Clark Russell and Frank Bullen, have also spelt it 'chanty,' but their reason is obvious. The modest seaman always bowed before the landsman's presumed superiority in 'book-larnin'.' What more natural than that Russell and Bullen, obsessed by so ancient a tradition, should accept uncritically the landsman's spelling. But educated sailors devoid of 'literary' pretensions have always written the word as it was pronounced. To my mind the strongest argument against the literary landsman's derivation of the word is that the British sailor cultivated the supremest contempt for everything French, and would be the last person to label such a definitely British practice as shanty-singing with a French title. If there had been such a thing in French ships as a labour-song bearing such a far-fetched title as (un) chanté, there might have been a remote possibility of the British sailor adopting the French term in a spirit of sport or derision, but there is no evidence that any such practice, or any such term, achieved any vogue in French ships. As a matter of fact, the Oxford Dictionary (which prints it 'shanty') states that the word never found its way into print until 1869…
If I wished to advance another theory more plausible still, and equally unconvincing, I might urge that the word was derived from the negro hut-removals already mentioned. Here, at least, we have a very ancient custom, which would be familiar to British seamen visiting West Indian seaports. The object moved was a shanty; the music accompanying the operation was called, by the negroes, a shanty tune; its musical form (solo and chorus) was identical with the sailor shanty; the pulls on the rope followed the same method which obtained at sea; the soloist was called a shantyman; like the shantyman at sea he did no work, but merely extemporized verses to which the workers at the ropes supplied the chorus; and finally, the negroes still pronounce the word itself exactly as the seaman did.
I am quite aware of the flaws in the above argument, but at least it shows a manual labour act performed both afloat and ashore under precisely similar conditions as to (a) its nature, (b) its musical setting; called by the same name, with the same pronunciation in each case; and lastly, connected, in one case, with an actual hut or shanty. Against this concrete argument we have a landsman's abstract speculation, which (a) begs the whole question, and (b) which was never heard of until a few years before the disappearance of the sailing ship. I do not assert that the negroid derivation is conclusive, but that from (un) chanté will not bear serious inspection.
//

More bibliographic notes:
//
…Of all these collections Capt. Whall's is the only one which a sailor could accept as authoritative. Capt. Whall unfortunately only gives the twenty-eight shanties which he himself learnt at sea. But to any one who has heard them sung aboard the old sailing ships, his versions ring true, and have a bite and a snap that is lacking in those published by mere collectors.
Davis and Tozer's book has had a great vogue, as it was for many years the only one on the market. But the statement that the music is 'composed and arranged on traditional sailor airs' rules it out of court in the eyes of seamen, since (a) a sailor song is not a shanty, and (b) to 'compose and arrange on traditional airs' is to destroy the traditional form.
Bullen and Arnold's book ought to have been a valuable contribution to shanty literature, as Bullen certainly knew his shanties, and used to sing them capitally. Unfortunately his musical collaborator does not appear to have been gifted with the faculty of taking down authentic versions from his singing. He seems to have had difficulty in differentiating between long measured notes and unmeasured pauses; between the respective meanings of three-four and six-eight time; between modal and modern tunes; and between the cases where irregular barring was or was not required. …
//

Method of presentation. He is respecting unique variants – when it comes to melodies, not lyrics. Bowdlerie lyrics.
//
As regards the tunes, I have adhered to the principle of giving each one as it was sung by some individual singer. This method has not been applied to the words. Consequently the verses of any given shanty may have derived from any number of singers. Since there was no connection or relevancy between the different verses of a shanty, the only principle I have adhered to is that whatever verses are set down should have been sung to me at some time or other by some sailor or other.
Of course I have had to camouflage many unprintable expressions, and old sailors will readily recognize where this has been done. Sometimes a whole verse (after the first line) has needed camouflage, and the method adopted is best expressed as follows:

There was a young lady of Gloucester
Who couldn't eat salt with her egg,
And when she sat down
She could never get up,
And so the poor dog had none.


Personal sources/thanks:
//
Amongst those to whom I owe thanks, I must number the Editors of The Music Student and Music and Letters, for allowing me to incorporate in this Preface portions of articles which I have written for them. Also to Capt. W.J. Dowdy, both for singing shanties to me himself, and affording me facilities for interviewing inmates of the Royal Albert Institution, over which he presides. I also wish to express my gratitude to those sailors who have in recent years sung shanties to me, especially Capt. R.W. Robertson, Mr. Geo. Vickers, Mr. Richard Allen, of Seahouses, and Mr. F.B. Mayoss. And last, but not least, to Mr. Morley Roberts, who has not only sung shanties to me, but has also given me the benefit of his ripe nautical experience.
//

[[Windlass and Capstan Shanties:]]

[BILLY BOY] As in 1920, with 2 verses added.
//
1. Billy Boy

This is undoubtedly a coast song 'made into a shanty.' I heard it in Northumberland, both on shore and in ships, when I was a boy. …The version of line 1, page 3, bars 2 and 3, is older than the one given in my arrangement for male-voice chorus (Curwen Edition 50572), so, upon consideration, I decided to give it here. There are many more verses, but they are not printable, nor do they readily lend themselves to camouflage. The tune has not appeared in print until now.

1. Where hev ye been äal the day,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?

Where hev ye been äal the day, me Billy Boy?

I've been walkin' äal the day
With me charmin' Nancy Grey,

And me Nancy kittl'd me fancy

Oh me charmin' Billy Boy.

2. Is she fit to be yor wife
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?

Is she fit to be yor wife, me Billy Boy?

She's as fit to be me wife
As the fork is to the knife

And me Nancy, etc.



3. Can she cook a bit o' steak
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?

Can she cook a bit o' steak, me Billy Boy?

She can cook a bit o' steak,
Aye, and myek a gairdle cake

And me Nancy, etc.



4. Can she myek an Irish Stew
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?

Can she myek an Irish Stew, me Billy Boy?

She can myek an Irish Stew
Aye, and "Singin' Hinnies" too.

And me Nancy, etc.
//

[RIO GRANDE] learned from an uncle. Looks like a composite.
//
2. Bound for the Rio Grande

The variants of this noble tune are legion. But this version, which a sailor uncle taught me, has been selected, as I think it the most beautiful of all. I used to notice, even as a boy, how it seemed to inspire the shantyman to sentimental flights of Heimweh that at times came perilously near poetry.

1. I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea.

Oh Rio.

I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea

And we're bound for the Rio Grande.

Then away love, away,
'Way down Rio,

So fare ye well my pretty young gel.

For we're bound for the Rio Grande.

2. Sing good-bye to Sally, and good-bye to Sue,
And you who are listening, good-bye to you.

3. Our ship went sailing out over the Bar
And we pointed her nose for the South-er-en Star.

4. Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain
And we're all of us coming to see you again.


5. I said farewell to Kitty my dear,
And she waved her white hand as we passed the South Pier.

6. The oak, and the ash, and the bonny birk tree

They're all growing green in the North Countrie.
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] As in 1920, with added verses.
//
3. Good-bye, fare ye well

This is one of the best beloved of shanties. So strongly did its sentiment appeal to sailors that one never heard the shantyman extemporize a coarse verse to it.

1. I thought I heard the old man say

Good-bye, fare ye well,
Good-bye, fare ye well.

I thought I heard the old man say,

Hooray my boys we're homeward bound.

2. We're homeward bound, I hear the sound. (twice)
3. We sailed away to Mobile Bay. (twice)
4. But now we're bound for Portsmouth Town. (twice)
5. And soon we'll be ashore again. (twice)
6. I kissed my Kitty upon the pier
And it's oh to see you again my dear.
7. We're homeward bound, and I hear the sound. (twice)
//

[JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] as in 1920, with added verses.
//
4. Johnny come down to Hilo
This is clearly of negro origin. I learnt several variants of it, but for its present form I am indebted to Capt. W.J. Dowdy.

1. I nebber see de like since I bin born,

When a big buck nigger wid de sea boots on,

Says "Johnny come down to Hilo.
Poor old man."

Oh wake her, oh, shake her,
Oh wake dat gel wid de blue dress on,

When Johnny comes down to Hilo.
Poor old man.
2. I lub a little gel across de sea,

She's a Badian beauty and she sez to me,

"Oh Johnny," etc.
3. Oh was you ebber down in Mobile Bay

Where dey screws de cotton on a summer day?

When Johnny, etc.

4. Did you ebber see de ole Plantation Boss

And de long-tailed filly and de big black hoss?

When Johnny, etc.
5. I nebber seen de like since I bin born

When a big buck nigger wid de sea boots on,

Says "Johnny come down," etc.
//

[CLEAR THE TRACK] Learned "in boyhood".
//
5. Clear the track, let the Bulgine run

The tune was a favourite in Yankee Packets. It does not appear in Whall. [It did appear in the 4th edition, however] 'Bullgine' was American negro slang for 'engine.' I picked up this version in boyhood from Blyth seamen.

1. Oh, the smartest clipper you can find.

Ah ho Way-oh, are you most done.

Is the Marget Evans of the Blue Cross Line.

So clear the track, let the Bullgine run.

Tibby Hey rig a jig in a jaunting car.

Ah ho Way-oh, are you most done.

With Lizer Lee all on my knee.

So clear the track, let the Bullgine run.


2. Oh the Marget Evans of the Blue Cross Line


She's never a day behind her time.

3. Oh the gels are walking on the pier


And I'll soon be home to you, my dear.

4. Oh when I come home across the sea,

It's Lizer you will marry me. 


5. Öh shake her, wake her, before we're gone;

Oh fetch that gel with the blue dress on.
6. Oh I thought I heard the skipper say

"We'll keep the brig three points away."

7. Oh the smartest clipper you can find


Is the Marget Evans of the Blue Cross Line.
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY] As in 1920, with added verses. From John Runciman.
//
6. Lowlands away

…It was well known to every sailor down to the time of the China Clippers. My version is that of Capt. John Runciman, who belonged to that period. I have seldom found it known to sailors who took to the sea after the early seventies. The tune was sung in very free time and with great solemnity…. In North-country ships the shantyman used to make much of the theme of a dead lover appearing in the night. There were seldom any rhymes, and the air was indescribably touching when humoured by a good hand. A 'hoosier,' by the way, is a cotton stevedore. …

Lowlands, Lowlands,
Away my John,

Lowlands, away,
I heard them say,

My dollar and a half a day.



1. A dollar and a half a day is a Hoosier's pay.

Lowlands, Lowlands,
Away my John.

A dollar and a half a day is very good pay.

My dollar and a half a day.



2. Oh was you ever in Mobile Bay.

Screwing the cotton by the day.


3. All in the night my true love came,

All in the night my true love came.


4. She came to me all in my sleep. (twice)



5. And hër eyes were white my love. (twice)



6. And then I knew my love was dead. (twice)
//

[SALLY BROWN]
//
7. Sally Brown

Although its musical form is that of a halliard shanty, it was always used for the capstan. I never heard it used for any other purpose than heaving the anchor. The large-sized notes [LA TI DO] given in the last bar are those which most sailors sing to me nowadays; the small ones [RE MI DO] are those which I most frequently heard when a boy.

1. Sally Brown she's a bright Mulatter.

Way Ay-y Roll and go.

She drinks rum and chews terbacker.

Spend my money on Sally Brown.

2. Sally Brown shë has a daughter

Sent me sailin' 'cross the water.



3. Seven long years Ï courted Sally. (twice)



4. Sally Brown I'm bound to leave you

Sally Brown I'll not deceive you.



5. Sally she's a 'Badian' beauty. (twice)



6. Sally lives on the old plantation

She belongs the Wild Goose Nation.



7. Sally Brown is a bright Mulatter

She drinks rum and chews terbacker.
//

[SANTIANA]
//
8. Santy Anna

1. Oh Santy Anna won the day.

Way-Ah, me Santy Anna.

Oh Santy Anna won the day.

All on the plains of Mexico.
2. He beat the Prooshans fairly.
Way-Ah, etc.

And whacked the British nearly.
All on, etc.



3. He was a rorty gineral;

A rorty snorty gineral.



4. They took him out and shöt him.

Oh when shall we forgët him.



5. Oh Santy Anna won the day

And Gin'ral Taylor run away.
//

[SHENANDOAH] learned as a boy. As in 1920, with additional verses.
//
9. Shenandoah

…This version (sung to me by Capt. Robertson) is almost, but not quite, identical with the one I learnt as a boy. …

1. Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you.

Away you rolling river.

Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you.

Away, I'm bound to go
'Cross the wide Missouri.

2. Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter. (twice)



3. 'Tis seven long years since last I see thee. (twice)



4. Oh Shenandoah, I took a notion

To sail across the stormy ocean.



5. Oh Shenandoah, I'm bound to leave you.

Oh Shenandoah, I'll not deceive you.



6. Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you. (twice)
//

[STORMY ALONG JOHN]
//
10. Stormalong John

This is one of the many shanties with 'Stormy' as their hero. Whatever other verses were extemporized, those relating to digging his grave with a silver spade, and lowering him down with a golden chain, were rarely omitted. Other favourite verses were:
(a) I wish I was old Stormy's son.

(b) I'd build a ship a thousand ton.

1. Oh poor old Stormy's dead and gone.

Storm along boys,
Storm along.

Oh poor old Stormy's dead and gone.

Ah-ha, come along, get along,
Stormy along John.


2. I dug his grave with a silver spade. (twice)


3. I lower'd him down with a golden chain. (twice)


4. I carried him away to Mobile Bay. (twice)

5. Oh poor old Stormy's dead and gone. (twice)
//

[HOGEYE]
//
11. The Hog's-eye Man

Of the numberless versions of this shanty I have chosen that of Capt. Robertson as being the most representative. Of the infinite number of verses to this fine tune hardly one is printable. There has been much speculation as to the origin of the title. As a boy my curiosity was piqued by reticence, evasion, or declarations of ignorance, whenever I asked the meaning of the term. It was only in later life that I learnt it from Mr. Morley Roberts. His explanation made it clear why every sailor called it either 'hog-eye' or 'hog's-eye,' and why only landsmen editors ever get the word wrong. …That is all the explanation I am at liberty to give in print.

1. Oh the hog's-eye man is the man for me,
He were raised way down in Tennessee.
Oh hog's eye, oh.
Row the boat ashore for the hog's-eye.
Steady on a jig with a hog's-eye oh,
She wants the hog's-eye man.
2. Oh who's been here while I've been gone?
Söme big buck nigger, with his sea boots on?[3]

3. Oh bring me down mÿ riding cane,
For I'm off to see my darling Jane.

4. Oh Jenny's in the garden a-picking peas,
And her golden hair's hanging down to her knees.
5. Oh a hog's-eye ship, and a hog's-eye crew,
And a hog's-eye mate, and a skipper too.
//

[HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] from Capt. Jogn Runciman.
//
12. The Wild Goose Shanty

…Allusions to 'The Wild Goose Nation' occur in many shanties, but I never obtained any clue to the meaning (if any) of the term. The verse about 'huckleberry hunting' was rarely omitted, but I never heard that particular theme further developed.

1. I'm the Shanty-man of the Wild Goose Nation.

Tibby Way-ay Hioha!

I've left my wife on a big plantation.

Hilo my Ranzo Hay!

2. Now a long farewell to the old plantation. (twice)



3. And a long farewell to the Wild Goose Nation. (twice)


4. Oh the boys and the girls went a huckleberry hunting. (twice)


5. Then good-bye and farewell yöu rolling river. (twice)



6. I'm the Shanty-man of the Wild Goose Nation.

I've left my wife on a big plantation.
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] as in 1920, with added verses.
//
13. We're all bound to go

I used to hear this tune constantly on the Tyne. It is one of the few shanties which preserved a definite narrative, but each port seems to have offered variants on the names of the ships that were 'bound for Amerikee.' 'Mr. Tapscott' was the head of a famous line of emigrant ships. The last word in verse 5 was always pronounced male. This has led to many shantymen treating it not as meal, but as the mail which the ship carried. As the shanty is full of Irish allusions, the probabilities are that the word was meal, to which the sailor gave what he considered to be the Irish pronunciation. Whenever I heard the shanty it was given with an attempt at Irish pronunciation throughout.

1. Oh Johnny was a rover
And to-day he sails away.

Heave away, my Johnny,
Heave away-ay.

Oh Johnny was a rover
And to-day he sails away.

Heave away my bully boys,
We're all bound to go.

2. As I was walking out one day,
Down by the Albert Dock.

I heard an emigrant Irish girl
Conversing with Tapscott.


3. "Good mornin', Mister Tapscott, sir,"
"Good morn, my gel," sez he,

"It's have you got a Packet Ship
All bound for Amerikee?"



4. "Oh yes, I've got a Packet Ship,
I have got one or two.

I've got the Jenny Walker
And I've got the Kangeroo."



5. "I've got the Jenny Walker
And to-day she does set sail,

With five and fifty emigrants And a thousand bags o' male."

6. Badluck to thim Irish sailor boys,
Bad luck to thim I say.
For they all got drunk, and broke into me bunk
And stole me clo'es away.
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR] for "windlass and capstan." As in 1920, with added verses.
//
14. What shall we do with the drunken sailor?

This fine tune—in the first Mode—was always a great favourite. Although mostly used for windlass or capstan, Sir Walter Runciman tells me that he frequently sang to it for 'hand-over-hand' hauling. …It is one of the few shanties that were sung in quick time.

1. What shall we do with the drunken sailor,

What shall we do with the drunken sailor,

What shall we do with the drunken sailor

Early in the morning?

Hooray and up she rises,

Hooray and up she rises,

Hooray and up she rises

Early in the morning.


2. Put him in the long-boat until he's sober. (thrice)


3. Pull out the plug änd wet him all over. (thrice)


4. Put him in the scuppers with a hose-pipe on him. (thrice)


5. Heave him by the leg in a running bowlin'. (thrice)


6. Tie him to the taffrail when she's yard-arm under. (thrice)
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Jul 11 - 10:26 PM

[[Halliard Shanties]]

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
15. Blow, my bully boys


1. A Yankee ship came down the river,

Blow, boys blow.

Her masts and yards they shine like silver.

Blow my bully boys blow.


2. And how d'ye know she's a Yankee packet?

The Stars and Stripes they fly above her.



3. And who d'ye think was skipper of her. (twice)



4. 'Twas Dandy Jim, the one-eyed nigger;
'Twas Dandy Jim, with his bully figure.



5. And what d'ye think they had for dinner?

Why bullock's lights and donkey's liver.



6. And what d'ye think they had for supper?

Why weevilled bread and Yankee leather.



7. Then blow my boys, and blow together.

And blow my boys for better weather.



8. A Yankee ship came down the river.

Her masts and yards they shine like silver.
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
16. Blow the man down

This is the shanty which is perhaps the best known among landsmen. 'Winchester Street' is in South Shields, and in the old days was the aristocratic quarter where only persons of high distinction—such as shipowners, and 'Southspainer' skippers—lived.

1. Oh blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down.

To me Way-ay, blow the man down.

Oh blow the man down, bullies, blow him away.

Oh gimme some time to blow the man down.

2. We went over the Bar on the thirteenth of May.

The Galloper jumped, and the gale came away.


3. Oh the rags they was gone, and the chains they was jammed,
And the skipper sez he, "Let the weather be hanged [damned]."



4. Äs I was a-walking down Winchester Street,

A saucy young damsel I happened to meet.



5. Ï sez to her, "Polly, and how d'you do?"

Sez she, "None the better for seein' of you."



6. Oh, it's sailors is tinkers, and tailors is men.
And we're all of us coming to see you again.



7. So we'll blow the man up, and we'll blow the man down.
And we'll blow him away into Liverpool Town.
//

[CHEERLY] Chopinesque!
//
17. Cheer'ly, men

This particular version was sung to me by Capt. R.W. Robertson. It differs but slightly from the version which I originally learnt from Sir Walter Runciman. Very few of the words were printable, and old sailors who read my version will no doubt chuckle over the somewhat pointless continuation of the verses concerning Kitty Carson and Polly Riddle. They will, of course, see the point of my having supplied a Chopinesque accompaniment to such a shanty.

1. Oh, Nancy Dawson, I-Oh.

Chee-lee men.

She robb'd the Bo'sun, I-Oh.

Chee-lee men.

That was a caution, I-Oh.

Chee-lee men.

Oh Hauly, I-Oh,

Chee-lee men.

2. Oh Sally Racket. I-Oh,
Pawned my best jacket. I-Oh,
Sold the pawn ticket. I-Oh, &c.



3. Oh Kitty Carson

Jilted the parson,

Married a mason.



4. Oh Betsy Baker

Lived in Long Acre,

Married a quaker.



5. Oh Jenny Walker

Married a hawker

That was a corker.



6. Oh Polly Riddle

Broke her new fiddle.

Right through the middle.
//


[GOOD MORNING LADIES ALL] As in 1920, with additional lyrics.
//
18. Good morning, ladies all

The title belongs to other shanties as well; but, so far as I know, this tune has never been printed until now. I learnt it from Northumbrian sailors when a very small boy, and have never heard of its use in any other than Blyth and Tyne ships. It may be a Northumbrian air, but from such knowledge as I have gleaned of Northumbrian folk-tunes, I incline to the conjecture that it may have been picked up in more southern latitudes by some Northumbrian seaman.

1. Now a long good-bye to you, my dear,

With a heave-oh haul.

And a last farewell, and a long farewell.

And good morning, ladies all.

2. For we're outward böund to New York town;

And you'll wave to us till the sun goes down.


3. Änd when we get to New York town,

Oh it's there we'll drink, and sorrows drown.



4. When we're back once möre in London Docks,

All the pretty girls will come in flocks.



5. Änd Poll, and Bet, and Sue will say:

"Oh it's here comes Jack with his three years' pay."



6. So a long good-bye to you, my dear,

And a last farewell, and a long farewell.
//

[HANGING JOHNNY]
//
19. Hanging Johnny

This cheery riot of gore is wedded to the most plaintive of tunes, and is immortalized by Masefield in his 'Sailor's Garland.' Nowadays one occasionally meets unhumorous longshore sailormen who endeavour to temper its fury to the shorn landsman by palming off a final verse, which gives one to understand that the previous stanzas have been only 'Johnny's' little fun, and which makes him bleat:
'They said I hanged for money,
But I never hanged nobody.'

I also possess a shanty collection where the words have so clearly shocked the editor that he has composed an entirely fresh set. These exhibit 'Johnny' as a spotless moralist, who would never really hang his parents, but would only operate (in a Pickwickian sense of course) on naughty and unworthy people:
'I'd hang a noted liar,
I'd hang a bloated friar.

'I'd hang a brutal mother,
I'd hang her and no other.

'I'd hang to make things jolly,
I'd hang all wrong and folly.'

Imagine a shantyman (farceur as he ever was) making for edification in that style!

1. Oh they call me hanging Johnny.

Away, boys, away.

They says I hangs for money.

Oh hang, boys, hang.

2. Änd first I hanged my daddy. (twice)



3. Änd then I hanged my mother,


My sister and my brother.



4. Änd then I hanged my granny. (twice)



5. Änd then I hanged my Annie;

I hanged her up see canny. 



6. Wë'll hang and haul together;

We'll haul for better weather.
//

[HILO BOYS]
//
20. Hilo Somebody

This is another of the shanties I learnt as a boy from Blyth sailors, and which has never been printed before. I fancy that 'blackbird' and 'crew' must be a perversion of 'blackbird and crow,' as the latter figure of speech occurs in other shanties.

1. The blackbird sang unto our crew.

Hilo boys, Hilo.

The blackbird sang unto our crew.

Oh Hilo somebody, Hilo.

2. The blackbird sang so sweet to me. (twice)



3. We sailed away to Mobile Bay. (twice)



4. And now we're bound for London Town. (twice)



5. The up aloft this yard must go. (twice)



6. I thought I heard the old man say:—

"Just one more pull, and then belay."



7. Hooray my boys, we're homeward bound. (twice)



8. The blackbird sang unto our crew. (twice)
//

[RUN LET THE BULGINE RUN]
//
21. Oh run, let the Bullgine run

The reference to the 'Bullgine' seems to suggest Transatlantic origin. There were endless verses, but no attempt at narrative beyond a recital of the names of places from which and to which they were 'running.' This version was sung to me by Mr. F.B. Mayoss, a seaman who sailed in the old China Clippers.

1. Oh we'll run all night till the morning.

Oh run, let the Bullgine run.

Way-yah, Oh-I-Oh,
run, let the Bullgine run.
2. Oh we sailed all day tö Mobile Bay.



3. Oh we sailed all nïght äcross the Bight.

4. Oh we'll run from Dover to Cällis.



5. Öh drive her captäin, drïve her.



6. Öh captain make her nöse blood.



7. She's a dandy packet and a flier too.



8. With a dandy skipper, and a dandy crew.



9. Oh we'll run all nïght till the mörning.
//

[REUBEN RANZO] Alden's (1882) version is part of the composite. Adds verses to 1920 article version.
//
22. Reuben Ranzo

Alden gives this version, and I fancy it may have once been fairly general, as several of my relatives used to sing it. The version I mostly heard from other sailors, however, began:… [melodic phrase variant – same as the one in his 1920 article]
But from Mr. Morley Roberts I had the following:… [melodic phrase variant]
Capt. Robertson's version ran thus:… [melodic phrase variant]

I think he[Whall] is right about the absence of improvization on extraneous topics, but I used to hear a good deal of improvization on the subject of Ranzo himself. I knew at least three endings of the story: (1) where the captain took him into the cabin, 'larned him navigation,' and eventually married him to his daughter; (2) where Ranzo's hatred of ablutions caused the indignant crew to throw him overboard; (3) where the story ended with the lashes received, not for his dirty habits, but for a theft:
'We gave him lashes thirty
For stealin' the captain's turkey.'

I have also heard many extemporaneous verses relating his adventures among the denizens of the deep after he was thrown overboard.

1. Oh poor old Reuben Ranzo,

Oh Ranzo boys, Ranzo.

Ah pity poor Reuben Ranzo.

Ranzo boys, Ranzo.

2. Oh Ranzo was no sailor

He shipped on board a whaler.



3. Old Ranzo couldn't steer her,
Did you ever hear anything queerer?



4. Oh Ranzo was no beauty
Why couldn't he do his duty?


5. Oh Ranzo washed once a fortnight

He said it was his birthright.


6. They triced up this man so dirty

And gave him five and thirty. 


7. Oh poor old Reuben Ranzo
Ah pity poor Reuben Ranzo.
//

[DEAD HORSE]
//
23. The dead horse

This shanty was used both for hauling and for pumping ship. It seems to have had its origin in a rite which took place after the crew had 'worked off the dead horse.' The circumstances were these: Before any voyage, the crew received a month's pay in advance, which, needless to say, was spent ashore before the vessel sailed. Jack's first month on sea was therefore spent in clearing off his advance, which he called working off the dead horse. The end of that payless period was celebrated with a solemn ceremony: a mass of straw, or whatever other combustibles were to hand, was made up into a big bundle, which sometimes did, and more often did not, resemble a horse. This was dragged round the deck by all hands, the shanty being sung meanwhile. The perambulation completed, the dead horse was lighted and hauled up, usually to the main-yardarm, and when the flames had got a good hold, the rope was cut and the blazing mass fell into the sea, amid shouts of jubilation.

1. A poor old man came riding by.

And they say so, and they hope so.

A poor old man came riding by.

Oh poor old man.

2. I said "Old man your hoss will die." (twice)



3. And if he dies I'll tan his skin. (twice)



4. And if he lives you'll ride again. (twice)



5. I thought I heard the skipper say. (twice)



6. Oh one more pull and then belay. (twice)



7. A poor old man came riding by. (twice)
//

[TOMMY'S GONE]
//
24. Tom's gone to Hilo

…I have chosen the version sung to me by Mr. George Vickers, although in the first chorus it differs somewhat from the version I learnt as a boy:…
I give Mr. Vickers's verses about 'The Victory' and 'Trafalgar,' as I had never heard them sung by any other seaman. I have omitted the endless couplets containing the names of places to which Tommy is supposed to have travelled.

1. Tommy's gone and I'll go too,

Away down Hilo.

Oh, Tommy's gone and I'll go too.

Tom's gone to Hilo.

2. Tommy's gone to Liverpool,


3. Tommy's gone to Mobile Bay.



4. Tommy's gone, what shall I do?


5. Tommy fought at Tráfalgár.

6. The old Victory led the way.
The brave old Victory led the way.


7. Tommy's gone for evermore.

Oh, Tommy's gone for evermore.
//

[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
//
25. Whisky Johnny

1. Oh whisky is the life of man.

Whiskey Johnny.

Oh whisky is the life of man.

Whisky for my Johnny.

2. Oh whisky makes me pawn my clothes.

And whisky gave me this red nose.



3. Oh whisky killed my poor old dad.

And whisky druv my mother mad.



4. Oh whisky up, and whisky down.

And whisky all around the town.



5. Oh whisky here and whisky there.

It's I'll have whisky everywhere.



6. Oh whisky is the life of man.

It's whisky in an old tin can.
//

[BONEY]
//
26. Boney was a warrior

I never met a seaman who has not hoisted topsails to this shanty…

1. Boney was a warrior.

Way-ay Yah.

Boney was a warrior.

John France-Wah.

2. Boney beat the Rooshians. (twice)



3. Boney beat the Prooshians. (twice)



4. Boney went to Möscow. (twice)



5. Moscow was a-fïre. (twice)



6. Boney he came back again. (twice)



7. Boney went to Elbow. (twice)



8. Boney went to Waterloo. (twice)



9. Boney was defeated. (twice)



10. Boney was a prisoner

'Board the Billy Ruffian. 


11. Boney he was sent away,

'Way to St. Helena.



12. Boney broke his heart, and died. (twice)



13. Boney was a warrior. (twice)
//

[[Fore-Sheet or Sweating-up Shanties:]]

[JOHNNY BOWKER] fore-sheet
//
27. Johnny Boker

This popular shanty was sometimes used for bunting-up a sail, but more usually for 'sweating-up.' Although I have allowed the last note its full musical value, it was not prolonged in this manner aboard ship. As it coincided with the pull, it usually sounded more like a staccato grunt.

1. Oh do my Johnny Boker,
Come rock and roll me over.

Do my Johnny Boker, do.

2. Oh do my Johnny Boker,
The skipper is a rover.

Do my Johnny, &c.



3.Oh do, &c.
The mate he's never sober.
Do my, &c.



4.Oh do, &c.
The Bo'sun is a tailor.
Do my, &c.



5.Oh do, &c. We'll all go on a jamboree.
Do my, &c.



6.Oh do, &c.
The Packet is a Rollin'.
Do my, &c.



7.Oh do, &c.
We'll pull and haul together.
Do my, &c.



8.Oh do, &c.
We'll haul for better weather.
Do my, &c.



9.Oh do, &c. And soon we'll be in London Town.
Do my, &c.



10.Oh do, &c.
Come rock and roll me over.
Do my, &c.
//

[HAUL AWAY JOE] fore-sheet. As in 1920 article, with added verses.
//
28. Haul away, Joe

The major version of this shanty (which appears in Part II) was more general in the last days of the sailing ship; but this minor version (certainly the most beautiful of them) is the one which I used to hear on the Tyne. The oldest of my sailor relatives never sang any other. This inclines me to the belief that it is the earlier version. The verses extemporized to this shanty were endless, but those concerning the Nigger Girl and King Louis never seem to have been omitted.

1. Way, haul away, We'll haul away the bowlin'.

Way, haul away, Haul away Joe.

2. Way haul away. The packet is a-rollin'.



3. Way haul away. We'll hang and haul together.



4. Way haul away. We'll haul for better weather.


5. Once I had a nigger girl, and she was fat and lazy.


6. Then I had a Spanish girl, she nearly druv me crazy.


7. Geordie Charlton had a pig, and it was double jointed.


8. He took it to the blacksmith's shop to get its trotters pointed.


9. King Louis was the king o' France before the Revolution.


10. King Louis got his head cut off, and spoiled his Constitution.



11. Oh when I was a little boy and so my mother told me.



12. That if I didn't kiss the girls my lips would all go mouldy.



13. Oh once I had a scolding wife, she wasn't very civil.



14. I clapped a plaster on her mouth and sent her to the divvle.
//

[BOWLINE] fore-sheet. As in 1920, with added verses.
//
29. We'll haul the bowlin'

This was the most popular shanty for 'sweating-up.' There are many variants of it. The present version I learnt from Capt. John Runciman. In this shanty no attempt was ever made to sing the last word. It was always shouted.

1. We'll haul the bowlin' so early in the morning.

We'll haul the bowlin', the bowlin' haul!

2. We'll haul the bowlin' for Kitty is my darlin'.



3. We'll haul the bowlin'; the fore-to-gallant bowlin'.



4. We'll haul the bowlin', the skipper is a growlin'.



5. We'll haul the bowlin', the packet is a rollin'.


6. We'll haul the bowlin' so early in the morning.
//

[[Bunty Shanty:]]

[PADDY DOYLE]
//
30. Paddy Doyle's boots. As in 1920. A composite.

This shanty differs from all others, as (a) it was sung tutti throughout; (b) it had only one verse, which was sung over and over again; and (c) it was used for one operation and one operation only, viz. bunting up the foresail or mainsail in furling. In this operation the canvas of the sail was folded intensively until it formed a smooth conical bundle. This was called a bunt, and a strong collective effort (at the word 'boots') was required to get it on to the yard.
Although the same verse was sung over and over again, very occasionally a different text would be substituted, which was treated in the same manner. Capt. Whall gives two alternatives, which were sometimes used:
'We'll all drink brandy and gin,'
and—
'We'll all shave under the chin.'
Mr. Morley Roberts also told me that a variant in his ship was—
'We'll all throw dirt at the cook.'

1.        To my way-ay-ay-ah,

2.        We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.
Alternative verses.
2. We'll all throw dirt at the cook.


3. We'll all drink brandy and gin.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 09:39 AM

Lighter was musing above whether any other Bullen's shanties had been recorded. Barry Finn and Neil Downey (Finn & Haddie) recorded a spirited rendition of the shanty version of "Coal Black Rose" on Fathom This!, © 2007. "Coal Black Rose" has been traced back to a popular minstrel song of the same name and shares a verse or two. Neil (in the CD track notes) derived his version from "Tommy O'Sullivan while recording at sea on the Unicorn in the early 80's."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 10:44 AM

Thanks, Charley.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 03:55 PM

Whether he meant it or not (hi, Jon!), the key part of Lighter's observation for me is that Bullen's collection has generally been neglected as a source for performers. Tom Sullivan's interpretation, from the _Salt Atlantic Chanties_ album, was based in *Hugill's* "Coal Black Rose."

And this is something to wonder -- why Bullen was ignored. It's clear why Hugill's was popular in later years. But why was Bullen less-used in earlier years? Poor distribution? Unattractive presentation? My guess, in addition to those, is that Sharp's name had pull with the folklore-oriented people, and Terry had pull with the conservatory musician people. But while they both had some disagreements with, or complained about aspects of Bullen's work, Sharp and Terry's own works were informed by Bullen. As was Hugill's.

I am trying to imagine what Hugill's work would have been like without earlier models. Although presumably he still could have given, say, his "Coal Black Rose" learned from Harding, I imagine that earlier authors' versions refreshed his memories!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 04:05 PM

Gibb, another reason what Bullen was ignored, I think, is that he only gave one or two stanzas per song. Nobody wants to sing just one or two stanzas! Furthermore, he emphasized the African-American side of the subject, which may have lessened the interest for white singers and musicians of the period.

Exactly why shanties have been so generally shunned by African-Americans (and African-Britons) is another minor cultural mystery.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 05:13 PM

Lighter,

The reasons you suggest are interesting. The first suggests that his work simply was not as useful/practical. The second suggests a possible bias.

I was thinking more along the lines of Bullen being *ignored* or unread in the first place, not being reviewed and then rejected.

Your idea about the 1-2 stanzas makes a lot of sense to me. Funny that Bullen gave piano accompaniment, as if the songs were meant to be performed, and yet did not give enough verses to perform! It's highly doubtable that the score-reading conservatory musicians would actually go through with improvising verses, as Bullen suggested! His work shows a horrible clash between two worlds. I think he knew and "understood" chanties as well or as or better than any of the authors on the subject. What to do then, when the conventions of his time compelled him to present them in such a format that was at odds with essential aspects of the genre?

Your second idea is quite profound, especially in terms of some of the discussion that have gone on in this thread. My opinion is that what Bullen said about shanty origins, while less attract-ing, would not necessarily have put off readers. However, I really can't know that. The more interesting question that it does raise is whether *in general* people (readers, not scholars in this case) would have been put off by Black cultural associations, affecting a turn away from that direction, or if those associations were ignored or over-written due to emphasis (and some manufacturing) of strong English cultural associations. In other words, if, as I believe to be true, there was a shift to favoring English "origins", etc., was it because the writers that had the dominant voice were saying that, and their voices came across more loudly? Or were other voices, saying different things, actively rejected. It could have been both. But I lean towards the former. Where the latter happened, I think, was at the level of writing (not reading). Audiences have seemed more open to accept whatever is presented.

All just opinions, and maybe not very clear at that!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 10:13 PM

Having read one of Bullen's semi-autobiographical books I would certainly go along with the idea that he thoroughly understood the world of the tall ship sailor. No doubt it was a struggle at the time to find a way to get a book of sailor work songs published, and it's still a struggle!

Oh, here's the lyrics to Neil Downey's recorded version of "Coal Black Rose":

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
Don't ye hear the banjo
Ping-a-pong-a-pong?
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
Up aloft
This yard must go!
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
Strung up like a banjo,
Taut an' long,
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
The yard is now a-movin',
Hauley-hauley, ho!
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
The Mate he comes around, boys,
Dinging an' a dang!
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
Back in to it, boys,
Rock an' roll 'er high!
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
One more pull, boys,
Rock an' roll 'er high!
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
Don't ye hear the banjo
Ping-a-pong-a-pong?
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
Skipper's on the beach
An' he can't get none!
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
Up aloft
This yard must go!
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!

O, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose,
One more pull,
An' then belay!
On, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose!!!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 11:52 PM

In the next few posts I am going to dissect Doerflinger's collection. He has it organized by working-task -- something that, while popular for a while with writers, is not that useful. Like Sharp and Terry and several predecessors, he also followed the practice -- frustrating for my purposes -- of putting notes separate, in the appendix. The goal is, to some extent, to present the items as a collection of songs to enjoy. So much of his notes that accompany the scores are somewhat vague and unsupported. In almost all cases, I think his comments are quite reasonable, and I'm sure they are supported at least by what he has read. But, at this stage in the game (this stage of chanty-writing) most of his commentary IMO is not very interesting. It is an accumulation or repetition of prior knowledge. The specific notes on specific songs are interesting to see how ideas were shaped about them *individually*, but for general purposes, the notes don't add much. So, I'm trimming most of the notes except for ones attributed to informants.

And, I am rearranging the presentation in terms of his sources.

1951        Doerflinger, William Main. _Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman_. Macmillan: New York.

I'm going off the original version. I haven't compared the revised version of 1970, which I assume only adds comments in light of more recent works like Hugill's, but which does not affect the collected raw material. I don't have my copy of the revised around, so I haven't compared it.

General comments.

Preface dated March 1950.
Songs gathered in New York, Nova Scotia, 30s and early 40s.

Omitted some verses unsuitable for printing. However, he didn't *change* anything, rather it was all transcribed meticulously, with individuals variation given. That's what makes his distinct from almost every other chanty collection.

Had editors to transcribe the music that he'd recorded.
Mary Elizabeth Barnicle made available some recordings of Dick Maitland Also consulted J. Colcord.

On vocal style, notes.

…high breaks, or "hitches," as Captain Tayluer called them……shrill breaks in the voice on one or two notes in each stanza.

I think this is the first time such ornaments were called (in print) "hitches." Something that Hugill would follow up on.

Speaks of "a revival in shantying." The ermergence of shanties circa 1830s was, in his view, a RE-emergence.

Says the white sailors brought shanties with them to cotton ports, and then left with Negro songs. This would become Hugill's "shanty mart" idea.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 11:58 PM

Doerflinger consulted the manuscript collection of James H. Williams. All of these items appeared in Williams' 1909 article in The Independent, which we've already discussed.

Haul Away, Joe (II) [HAUL AWAY JOE]
Boney (II) [BONEY]
Whiskey, Johnny (II) [WHISKEY JOHNNY]
Blow the Man Down (II) [BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
Blow, Boys, Blow (II) [BLOW BOYS BLOW]
A Long Time Ago (II) [LONG TIME AGO]

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 12:13 AM

From manuscript of Nathaniel Silsbee of Cohasset, Mass. Silsbee learned chanties (if I may generalize) at sea in 1880s, set them down in 1893. Melodies were taken down from his singing by Mrs. George C. Beach.

[DAMERAY]
//
John Dameray

Manuscript indicates "braces".

Aloft we all must go-oh,
John come down the backstay
In hail and frost and snow-oh,
John come down the backstay,
John Dameray!

John Dameray - John come down the backstay
John Dameray - John come down the backstay
John Dameray! [all twice]

My ma she wrote to me,
"My son, come home from sea."

Got no monay and no clo'es,
Am knocking out of doors.

My home I soon will be in,
And then we'll have some gin.

From sea I will keep clear,
And live by selling beer.
//

[BUNCH OF ROSES]
//
Come Down, You Bunch of Roses, Come Down

Oh, yes, my lads, we'll roll a-lee,
[Come down, you bunch of roses, come down,]
We'll soon be far away from sea,
[Come down, you bunch of roses, come down.]

Oh, you pinks and poses,
Come down, you bunch of roses, come down.
Oh, you pinks and poses,
Come down, you bunch of roses, come down.

Oh, what do yer s'pose we had for supper?
Black-eyed beans and bread and butter.

Oh Poll's in the garden picking peas.
She's got fine hair way down to her knees.

I went downstairs and peeked throug a crack,
And saw her staling a kiss from Jack.

I grabbed right hold of a piece of plank
and ran out quick and gave her a spank.
//

Notes also that Silsbee's collection has a variant of [GIMME DE BANJO] called "Banjyee".

***

Found in a journal of the 1860s, kept at sea by Capt. James A. Delap of Nova Scotia.

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
Lowlands (III)

A bully ship and bully crew,
Lowlands, lowlands, hurrah, my John,
And a bully mate to put us through,
My dollar and a half a day.

I wish I was in Liverpool,
With the Liverpool girls I would slip round.

Oh, heave her up and away we'll go
Oh, heave her up from down below.

Oh, a dollar and a half is a shellback's pay,
But a dollar and a half is pretty good pay.

Oh, rise, old woman, and let us in,
For the night is cold and I want some gin.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:02 AM

Richard Maitland (1857, NY-1942). Went to sea at 12 (circa 1869/70) as a trainee in NY schoolship MERCURY for 2 years, at which time interest in shanties began. Art of shantying was at its peak then, and older sailors took pains to teach the boys. Frisco, Liverpool, Hong Kong voyages, in American and Bluenose ships.

Doerflinger recorded him at Sailors' Snug Harbor, Staten Island. If I counted correctly, this represents a repertoire of 32 chanties.

[HAUL AWAY JOE] Hauling aft the foresheet. Dorian mode.
//
Haul Away, Joe (I)

Away, haul away, rock and roll me over,
Away, haul away, haul away Joe! (or pull!)

Away, haul away, roll me in the clover,
Away, haul away, haul away Joe! (or pull!)

[Etc, around the corner Sally, Saccarappa sailors, turf and praties, Irish gal, German girl, Yankee gal/ break or bend, haul away for roses, haul together, better weather]
//

[BONEY]
//
Boney (I) (Jean François)

Boney was a warrior
Way-ay-yah,
A reg'lar bull and tarrier,
John François!

He beat the Austrians and Rooshians,
The Portugees and Prooshians.

Boney went to school in France,
He learned to make the Prooshians dance.

[etc]
//

[JOHNNY BOWKER]
//
Johnny Boker

Do, my Johnny Boker, we'll bust or break or bend her;
Do, my Johnny Boker, do!

Oh, do, my Johnny Boker; get around the corner Sally!
//

[BOWLINE]
//
Haul on the Bowline

Haul on the bowline, the long-tailed bowline,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!

[Etc. bully ship's a-rollin', kitty me darlin', old man growlin']
//

[PADDY DOYLE]
//
Paddy Doyle

Way ah, we'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!

Who stole poor Paddy Doyl's boots?

We'll bowse her up and be done!
//

[HANDY MY BOYS]
//
So Handy

Handy high and handy low,
[Handy me boys, so handy]
Oh, it's handy haigh and away we'll go,
[Handy, me boys, so handy!]

You've got your advance and to sea you must go
A-round Cape Horn through frost and snow

Growl you may, but go you must.
Just growl too much and your head they'll bust

Now, up aloft from down below,
Up aloft that yard must go.

Now, one more pull and we'll show her clew!
Oh, we're the boys that'll put her thourgh,

With a bully ship and a bully crew,
And a bully Old Man to drive her through!

We're bound away around Cape Horn,
And we'll get there as sure as you're born!

Now one more pull and that will do!
Oh, We're the gang that'll shove her through.

Now, here we are at sea again;
Two months' advance we're up against.

We're the gang that can do it again!
Oh, we're the boys that'll do it once more.
//

[DEAD HORSE]
//
Poor Old Man

As I walked out up-on the road one day,
[For they say so, and they know so,]
I saw 'n old man with a load of hay,
[Oh, poor old man!]

Says I, old man, your horse is lame,
Says I, Old man that horse will die

Now if he dies he'll be my loss
And if he lives he'll be my horse.

And if he dies I'll tan his skin
If he live I'll ride him again

Round Cape Horn through frost and snow,
Round Cape Horn I had to go.

Growl you may, but go you must
If you growl too loud your head they'll bust.
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
Blow the Man Down (III)

Oh, blow the man down, Johnny, Blow him right down, 

To me way - ay, blow the man down, 

Aw, blow the man down for a half a crown, 

Gimme some time to blow the man down! 



As I was a-walking on Paradise Street, 


A sassy policeman I chanced for to meet,



Says he, "You're a Yank by the cut of your hair, 

And you've robbed some poor Dutchman of the clothes that you wear." 



"Oh no, Mister Policeman, I know you are wrong! 

I'm a deep-water sailor just home from Hong Kong."
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
Reuben Ranzo (I)

Oh, poor old Reuben Ranzo,
[Ranzo boys, Ranzo!]
Oh Ranzo was no sailor
[Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!]

But he was a Boston tailor,
He went on a visit to New Bedford.

He was shanghaied on a whaler
He could not do his duty.

So they put him to holystoning,
They took him to the gangway,

They tied him on the grating,
And they gave him five and forty.

The captain's youngest daughter
Begged her father for mercy.

The captain loved his daughter,
And he heeded her cries for mercy.

He put Ranzo in the cabin,
And taught him navigation.

Ranzo married his daughter,
And now he's skipper of a whaler,

And he's got a little Ranzo!
And he's got a little Ranzo!
//

[TOMMY'S GONE]
//
Tommy's Gone To Hilo

From the nitrate trade around Cape Horn to the West Coast of South America came "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (pronounced "high-lo"). Ilo, as the inhabitants call it, is the port in southern Peru. The name of any port could be worked into Tommy's travels by a resourceful shantyman.

1. My Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Away, Hilo!
My Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Tommy's gone to Hilo!

2. My Tommy's gone to Liverpool,
My Tommy's gone to Liverpool,

3. Now, Tommy's gone and I'll go too,
My Tommy's gone and I'll go too.

4. Now, pull away and show her clew.
We'll h'ist her up and show her clew.

5. One more pull and that will do.

6. Tommy's gone to Baltimore
And where they carry the cotton shore.

7. Now, pull away, my bully boys,
Oh, pull away and make some noise.

8. Now, Tommy's gone to Mobile Bay.
Tommy's gone to Mobile Bay.

9. A-screwing cotton by the day.

10. My Tommy's gone, they sat to Bombay.
Tommy's gone, they say to Bombay.
//

[HANGING JOHNNY]
//
Hanging Johnny

Now they call me Hanging Johnny
[Away, ay-ay,]
Oh, they say I hang for money,
[Hang, boys, hang!]

They say I hung my daddy
[Hooway-ay hay hay!]
Oh they say I've hung my mam-my,
[Hang, boys, hang!]

I hung my sister Sally,
Now they say I 've hung the fam'ly

Oh, we'll hand , and hang together,
And we'll hang for better weather.

Now, get around the corner Sally
Oh, we'll make you, Saccarappa!
//

[HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING]
//
Huckleberry Hunting

Now, the boys and the girls went out huckleberry hunting,
To me Hilo, me Ranzo boy!
Oh, the girls, they fell down down and the boys they ran after them,
To me Hilo, me Ranzo boy!

One little boy he says to his beau, "I saw your little garter,"
To me Hilo, me Ranzo boy!
"If you'll take me for your beau, I'll be with you ever after,"
To me Hilo, me Ranzo boy!
//

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] Supposedly to the tune of 'A Long time Ago'
//
Roll the Cotton Down (II)

Down in Alabama I was born,
[Roll the cotton down;]
Way down in Alabama I was born,
[And I rolled the cotton down.]

When I was young and in my prime;
[Oh, roll the cotton down;]
I thought I'd go and join the Line
[And roll the cotton down]

And as a sailor caught a shine;
[roll the cotton down]
I shipped on board of the Black Ball Line;
[and roll the cotton down]

Now the Black Ball Line is the line for me;
[roll the cotton down]
That's when you want to go on a spree
[And roll the cotton down]

In the Black Ball Line you can cut a big shine;
[oh, roll the cotton down:]
For there you'll wake at any old time,
[And roll the cotton down]

Now see the Black baller prepareing for sea;
[then roll the cotton down]
You'll split your side luaghing, the sights to see,
[and roll the cotton down]

There's tinkers and tailors, shoemakers and all,
[Roll the cotton down]
They're all shanghaied on board the Black Ball
[And roll the cotton down]

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
//
Roll the Cotton Down (III)

Way down South where I was born
[Roll the cotton down:]
I worked in the cotton and the corn,
[Oh, roll the cotton down.]

When I was young and in my prime,
I thought I'd go and join the Line,

And for a sailor caught a shine,
I joined on a ship of the Swallowtail Line.
//

[ROLL ALABAMA]
//
The Alabama (I)

When the Alabama's keel was laid
[Roll, Alabama, Roll!]
They laid her keel in Birkenhead,
[Oh, Roll, Alabama, Roll!]

Oh, she was built at Birkenhead,
she was built in the yard of Jonathan Laird.

And down the Mersey she rolled away,
And Britain supplied her with men and guns

And she sailed away in search of a prize,
And when she came to the port of Cherbourg,

It was there she met with the little Kearsarge.
It was there she met the Kearsarge.

It was off Cherbourg harbor in April, '65,
That the Alabama went to a timely grave.
//

[ROLL ALABAMA] Maitland learned it on the schoolship MERCURY in 1870 or 71. Sung at pumps AND halyards.
//
The Alabama (II)

In eighteen hundred and sixty-one,
[Roll Alabama, roll!]
The Alabama's keel was laid,
[And roll, Alabama, roll!]

Twas laid in the yard of Jonathan Laird
At the town of Birkenhead

At first she was called the 'Two Ninety two'
For the merchants of the city of Liverpool

Put up the money to build the ship,
In the hopes of driving the commerce from the sea.

Down the Mersey she sailed one day
To the port of Fayal in the Western Isles.

There she refitted with men and guns,
and sailed across the Western Sea,

With orders to sink, burn and destroy
all ships belonging to the North.

Till one day in the harbor of Cherbourg she laid,
And the little Kearsarge was waiting there.

And the Kearsarge with Winslow was waiting there,
And Winslow challenged them to fight at sea.

Outside the three mile limit they fought (repeat)

Till a shot from the forward pivot that day
Took the Alabama's steering gear away

And at the Kearsarge's mercy she lay
And Semmes escaped on a British yacht.
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago (III)

When I was young and in my prime,
[To me way-ay-ay yah,]
I thought I'd go and join the line,
[Oh, a long time ago.]

And as a sailor caught a shine
In a lot they called the Black Ball Line

Now come all you young fellers that's going to sea,
And just listen a while unto me.

I'll sing you a song and I won't keep you long.
It's all about the Black Ball Line

Just see the Black Ballers preparing for sea
You'd split your sides laughing the sights you would see

there's tinkers 'n' tailors, shoemakers 'n' all,
For they're all shipped as sailors on board a Black Ball.

Now, one more pull and we'll let her go
We'll h'ist her up through frost and snow

Just one more pull and we'll show her clew,
And another long pull and that will do.

additional verses:

Around Cape Horn you've got to go;
That's the way to Callao.

In the Black Ball Line I served my time
I sailed in the Webb of the Black Ball Line.
//

[SHALLOW BROWN] Maitland said it was "mainly a Negro shanty." Useful when there's only half dozen pulls. Generally used, "for bowsing down tacks and hauling aft sheets."
//
Shallo Brown

Shallo Brown, now what's the matter?
[Shallo, Shallo Brown!]
Oh, Shallo Brown, what's the matter?
[Shallo, Shallo Brown!]

I'm going to leave you
[Shallo Brown]
Oh, I have left the wife and baby
[Shallo, Shallo Brown!]

The baby's in the cradle,
[Shallo, Shallo Brown.]
(Lines missing)

additonal verses

The packet sails tomorrow,
I'm leaving you in sorrow

And the baby in the cradle.
My love I won't decieve you!
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR]
//
The Drunken Sailot, or, Early in the Morning

Oh, what shall we do with a drunken sailor…
Early in the morning?

Put him in the longboat till he gets sober,…

Way, hay, and up she rises,
//

[ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG]
//
We'll Roll the Golden Chariot Along

We'll roll the golden chariot along X3
[cho.] And we'll all hang on behind!

If the devil's in the road we'll roll it over him,

As given by 1927 Wood, Thomas. The Oxford Song Book, II. Oxford University Press.:

[cho.] Roll the old chariot along x3
And we'll all hang on behind

A plate of hot scouse wouldn't do us any harm x2
It would roll, roll, roll the old chariot along

A new plum duff wouldn't do us any harm,

A glass of whiskey hot wouldn't do us any harm, etc.
//

[PADDY LAY BACK]
//
Paddy, Get Back

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London.

I went down the Shadwell Docks to get a ship.
Paddy get back. Take in the slack!

Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!

'Bout ship and stations, there, be handy,

Rise tacks 'n' sheets, 'n' mains'l haul!
There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin.

Shipping master told me she was going to New York.
If I ever get my hands on that shipping master,

I will murder him if it's the last thing that I do!
When the pilot left the ship, the captain told us

We were bound around Cape Horn to Callao!
And he said that she was hot and still a-heating,

And the best thing we could do was watch our step.
Now the mate and second mate belonged to Boston,

And the captain b'longed in Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them were rough-'n'-tumble fighters.

When not fighting amongst themselves, they fought with us.
Oh, they called us out one night to reef the tops'ls.

There was belayin' pins a-flyin' around the deck.
We came on deck and went to set the tops'ls.

Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.
Oh, the mate he grabbed ahold of me by the collar.

"If you don't sing a song, I'll break your blasted neck!"
I got up and gave them a verse of "Reuben Ranzo."

Oh, the answer that I got would make you sick!
It was three long months before we got to Callao,

And the ship she was called a floating hell.
We filled up there at Callao with saltpetre,

And then back again around Cape Horn!
(Alternate last verse)


We filled up with saltpetre to the hatches

And then bound around Cape Horn to Liverpool.
//

[A-ROVING]
//
A-Roving (I)

In Amsterdam there lived a maid, And she was mistress of her trade,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid!
A-roving, a-roving, Since roving's been my ruin,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid!

This last six months I've been to sea,
And boys this maid looked good to me.

[etc, both cheeks, badly bent, red-hot Yank, up to Callao]
//

[NEW YORK GIRLS]
//
Can't They Dance The Polka!

Shipmates, if you'll listen to me, I'll tell you in my song
Of things that happened to me When I came home from Hong Kong.
To me way, you Santy, my dear honey!
Oh, you New York gals, can't they dance the polka!

As I waked down through Chatham Street, etc…

[etc, for Boston I am bound, something nice to eat, hailed a passing car, Bleeker Street, head went round and round, ship was at Shanghee, stark naked in the bed]

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES]
//
Heave Away (II)

Sometimes we're bound to New York town (New Orleans, etc.), and others we're bound to France,
Heave away, my jollies, heave away, ay!
But now we're bound to Liverpool to see the English girls dance
And away, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go!

The pilot he is waiting for the turning of the tide,
And then we are off with a good westerly wind.

[etc, the American Bar, look for a ship once more, John DaCosta's]
//

[RIO GRANDE]
//
Rio Grande (II)

Now I was born on the Rio Grande
Way, Rio!
I was born down on the Rio Grande,
And I'm bound for Rio Grande!
And away, Rio, Away, Rio
So fare you well, my bonny young gal,
We're bound for Rio Grande!

Rio Grande [New York town, Boston town, etc.] is no place for me;
I'll pack my bag and I'll go to sea.

The anchor is weighed and the sails they are set,
The girls we are leaving we'll never forget.

I'll ship down at New Orleans,
She's loaded with cotton and bound to Liverpool.
//

[SACRAMENTO]
//
Sacramento (II)

As I was out upon the road one day,
With me hoodah, and a hoodah,
As I was out upon the road one day,
And it's hoodah, doodah, day!
Blow, boys, blow, for Californyo.
There is plenty of gold, so I've been told,
On the banks of Sacramento!

Says I, "Old man, your horse is lame,"

[etc, More verses from Poor Old Man minstrel song]
//

[SACRAMENTO]
//
Sacramento (III)

As I was walking out upon the road one day,
I met a fair maid, on her arm a milk pail,

[etc, milkmaid verses]
//

[JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO]
//
Johnny Walk Along to Hilo

Oh, wake her, oh, shake her,
Oh, wake that gal with the blue dress on!
Then Johnny walk along to Hilo,
Oh, poor old man!
Oh, I once knew a nigger and his name was Ned,
And he had no hair on the top of his head,
//

[JOHN BROWN'S BODY]
//
John Brown's Body

John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave
[Then it's hip, hip, hip, hurrah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
Glory, glory, hallelujah
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
Then it's hip, hip, hip, hurrah!]

There's my girl with the blue dress on,
//

[SALLY BROWN]
//
Sally Brown (I)

Sally Brown was a gay old lady,
Way-ay, roll and go!
Sally Brown was a Creole lady,
Spent my money on Sally Brown

She had a farm in the isle of Jamaica,
Where she raised sugarcane, rum, an' terbacker.

[Etc, fine young daughter, seven long years I courted Sally, would not have a tarry sailor, married to a nigger soldier, left her with a nigger baby, why did you ever jilt me]
//

[SHENANDOAH]
//
Shenandoah

Shanadore, I love your daughter,
Hooway, you rolling river,
Oh, Shanadore, I love your daughter,
Hyah, bound away, To the wild Missouri!

For seven long years I've courted your daughter.
Oh, Shanadore, I want to marry.

Now, Shanadore, will you give me your word to?
Oh, Shanadore, give me your word to,

To marry your daughter, I love her dearly.
//

[SANTIANA]
//
Santy Anna (I)

Santy Anna gained the day,
Hooray, Santy Anna!
Santy Anna gained the day,
All on the plains of Mexico!

Santy Anna fought for fame,
That's how Santy gained his name,

'Twas on the field of Molino del Rey,
Old Santy lost his leg that day,
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
Lowlands (I)

Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.
Five dollars a day is a stevedore's pay;
Five dollars and a half a day.

A dollar a day is a nigger's pay.
Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.
I thought I heard our old man say,
Five dollars and a half a day

That he would give us grog today,
When we are leaving Mobile Bay.
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
Lowlands (II)

In the Virginia lowlands I was born,
Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.
I worked all day down in the corn,
My dollar and a half a day.

I packed my bag and I'm going away;
I'll make my way to Mobile Bay.

In Mobile Bay, where they work all day,
A-screwing cotton by the day,

Five dollars a day is a white man's pay,
A dollar and a half is a colored man's pay.
//

[MR. STORMALONG]
//
Stormalong

Old Stormalong was a gay old man,
[To me, way, old Stormalong!
Old Stormalong was a grand old man,
[Aye, aye, aye, Captain Stormalong.]

But now he's dead, poor old Stormy's gone;
We buried old Stormy off Cape Horn,

Poor old Stormy we'll ne'er see again.
We buried Poor Stormy off Cape Horn!

We rolled him up in a silvery shroud
We lowered him down with a golden chain.

Although he's gone, he's left us a son.
How I wis I was old Stormy's son!

I'd build a ship of a thousand ton
I'd load her down with New England Rum

I'd sail this wide world round and round
And every day my crew would get their rum!

I'd pour out two drinks for the shantyman (twice)

I'd pour out drinks for every man
And a double cup for the shantyman!
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
Homeward Bound (I)

"We're homeward bound!" I've heard them say; 

Good by, fare you well, good bye, fare you well! 

We're homeward bound to Mobile Bay. 

Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound! 



When we get there, won't we fly round! 

With the gals we find there we will raise merry hell. 


When we are hauling in the Waterloo Dock, 

Where the boys and the gals on the pier-head do flock, 



And one to the other you'll hear them say, 

"Here comes jolly Jack and his eighteen months' pay!" 



Then we'll go up to the Dog and the Bell, 

And the landlord he'll come in with his face all in smiles, 



Saying, "Drink up, Jack, for it's worth your while!" 

But when you money is all gone and spent, 



There's none to be borrowed nor none to be lent. 

Then you'll see him come in with a frown, 



And then you'll hear him to the other man say, 

"Get up there, Jack, and let John sit down!" 



When your pocketbook's full and your name it is John, 

But when you are broke then your name it is Jack.
//

The following 2 come from recordings shared by Barnicle.

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
Blow, Boys, Blow (I)

Oh, blow away, I long to hear you,
Blow, boys blow!
Oh, blow away, I long to hear you,
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

[Etc., today/tomorrow, grief/sorrow, Congo River, from Bangor, from Arizona]
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES]
//
Heave Away (I)

As I was a-walking one morning down by the Clarence (Waterloo) dock:
Heave away, my Johnny, heave a way-ay,
I overheard an emigrant conversing with Tapscott;
And a-way, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go!

"Good morning, Mr. Tapscott… etc

[etc, carry me over the sea, Joshuay Walker and the other the Kangaroo, ton of yallow male, Channel of St. George, stole all me yallow male!, stay all my life on the shore]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:05 AM

John O'Brien, Sailors' Snug Harbor, contributed the solo on 3 chanties for Doerflinger. They are all rather short.

[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
//
Whiskey, Johnny (I)

Whiskey here and whiskey there,
Whiskey, Johnny!
Oh, whiskey her and whiskey there,
Whiskey for me Johnny!

'Twas whiskey made me wear old clothes.
//

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
//
Roll the Cotton Down (I)

Oh, roll the cotton, roll me, boys,
[Roll the cotton down;]
Oh, roll the cotton, roll me, boys,
[Oh, roll the cotton down.]

2.When I was young and in my prime,

3. I thought I'd jine the Black Ball Line.
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
Homeward Bound (II)

"We're homeward bound," I hear them say:
Good-bye, fare you well, good-bye, fare you well!
"We're homeward bound," I hear them say:
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound!

[etc., nine months' pay, New York town, near broke my heart]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:12 AM

Harry Steele (b.1869), Sailors' Snug Harbor. Was a deep-water sailor 1886-1910. Born in erstwhile Prussia, came to America in 1886 and sailed in American, British, Canadian, German vessels.

He led this one chanty.

[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
//
Whiskey, Johnny (III)

Whiskey is the life of man,
Whiskey, Johnny
Oh, whiskey is the life of man,
Oh, whiskey for my Johnny!

I'll drink whiseky when I can,
I'll drink whiskey out of a big tin can,

Whiskey killed my poor old dad,
Whiskey drove my old girl mad.

[Etc., brother Ben, whiskey mill, tell me true]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:22 AM

Captain Patrick Tayluer. Born in Eastport, Maine, but spent a good deal of life in parts of British Empire. Frist went to sea circa 1885. American and British vessels. His recordings are in the Archive of American Folk-Song, Library of Congress.

Seemed to have been a great improviser, and some of his chanties are quite extensive in their verses.

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
Blow the Man Down (I)

Now, come all you young sailors and listen to me,
With your way, hay-y, blow the man down,
Ah, come all you young sailors and listen to me,
And we'll give 'em some time for to blow the man down!

[etc, boot him around, home from Hong Kong, Ratcliffe Highway, both bound to hell]
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
Reuben Ranzo (II)

Oh, pore old Roving Ranzo,
[Ranzo, boys, a-Ranzo]
Oh, pore old Roving Ranzo
[Ranzo boys, a-Ranzo!]

Now, Ranzo he was (Aw, Ranzo was) no sailor.

So pore old Roving Ranzo,

Now (So) they shipped him on board of a whaler!

Now the captain he liked Ranzo.

So the captain he taught him how to read and write.

He taught him navigation.

when he got his first mate's papers,

He became a terror to whalers!

He was known all over the world as

As the worst old bastard on the seas!

He would take his ship to Georgiay.

And there he'd (he would) drag for sperm whale.

He lost the only ship he had
His first and last and only ship

Was the Morgan, and she's known everywhere.

Now (oh), he's gone to hell and we're all glad!

Now, I've told you he was no sailor.

He was a New York tailor.

Whether (oh, whether) a tailor or a sailor

He sure became a Ranzo!
//

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
Blow, Boys, Blow (III)

Now, it's blow, you winds, 'Ow I long to hear you;
Blow, boys, blow!
Oh, blow, you winds, 'Ow I long to hear you;
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

[etc yonder in the river, bronco mate, Massandatter, Boston slugger, donkey's liver, dirty big brother]
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago (IV)

Oh, a long, long time and a very long time,
[To me way, ha-ay, hay yah!]
Oh, a long, long time, and a very long time
[Oh, a long time ago]

Old Noah, he built a Hark for to sail (to go)

Around (Oh, around) the world and home again

Now I wend down to the docks one morn for a ship

There was an old wooden packet a-lyin' there,

So I wnet on board and sked for a job.

Oh, it (she) must have been the old Ark that Noah built.

Her hatch you had never saw nothing before!

About thirty-six feet long and nowhere insured.

Oh, her knees were so thick that you could not discern.

It's a long, long time and a very long time

Now this is the hatch (where) the animals must have gone down.(went down)

The gangway it was built of timber six foot high

I thought that I had struck an 'ome at last,

Where I could make a pay-day and go

Out to the western shores and away

But I had (I had) made a mistake when I judged her that way,

For at last, when we got out and to sea

Her bow it was bluff and her counter was round

Her fores'l would come to within about six points,

Her fo'c'sle was low and her poop was so high

That she looked just like a Dutch galley-old-yacht [galleotte]

So it's a long, long time and a very long time
Oh it's a long long time and a very long time, etc.
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago (V)

[One strung-out verses, the repeat often began with "Oh"]

There was an old lady who lived in Dundee,
[To me way, hay, hay, yah]
There was an old lady who lived in Dundee,
[Oh, a long time ago]

Now her sons (they) grew up and they all went to sea

One became mate and the other a sailor

But the one that I'm going to tell you of, the story is:

He joined a Hark bound out for the East

And not as a sailor nor yet as a mate

He joined as the master of that fine clipper ship

Now, you all remember the ship that I mentioned.

'Twas the Catty Sark, (and) her name was so high

Now (Oh) he took her out East and he lost his old ship (his whole trip)

He took her out East as these words I have told you

Out to Foochow and then home again

Now, un'appily for him, he married out there

A nice little girl with a long pigtail!

Oh, she wore the trousers and he wore the shirt

But when I can tell you the voyage 'e made 'ome.

Now it's a long, long time and a very long time
Oh a long, long time and a very long time

One hundred and eight days, (oh)he did sail.

And 'e used to look at 'is Chinese wife and say,

If it 'adn't a been for your unluck on board!

Now, a long, long time and a very long time.

Now, I told you he was always a-growlin' at 'is wife,

But when in London he did arrive,

The owners they told him he had made a record voyage!

So what did he do but he's blessed his young wife

And instead of callin' her Mong Sallee

He called her the sweet name of Mong Cutty Sark
//

[A-ROVING]
//
A-Roving (II)

[intro] Now, a-roving, a-roving, Since roving has been my downfall,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid!
Mark well what I do say!
[cho.] Oh, a-roving, a-roving
Since roving has been my downfall,
I'll go no more a roving with you, fair maid!

1. When I laid my hand upon her knee,
She said, "Young man, you're being rather free!
Won't you please go 'way and leave me, your fair young maid?"

2. Now, when I laid my hand upon her old bustle,
She said, "Young man, you're a-goin' to have a tussle!"
So we'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid!

3. So at last we chatted and chaffed away;
She said, "Young man, you're a-goin' today!"
When all I want to leave is for me, fair maid.

4. When I laid my hand on her shoulders then,
She looked at me and gently cried,
"You're going away today, you are, so farewell now!"
//

[RIO GRANDE]
//
Rio Grande (I)

Heave away, Rio! Heave away, Rio! 

Singin' fare you well, my bonnie young gal,

And we're bound to Rio Grande! 



"May I come with you, my pretty maid?" 

Heave away, Rio! 

"Oh, may I come with you, oh, my pretty maid?" 

When you're bound to Rio Grande! 



"You can please yourself, young man," she did say, 


Now, when I can come to you with open arms, 
 


God bless you, may I only hope for your hand, 



Now, there is one thing that I would like to say, 
 


I pray you tell, oh, may I have your hand? 
 



Now, if you'll come back, as you went away-- 


I'll marry you when I come back and we'll say, 
 

//

[SACRAMENTO]
//
Sacramento (I)

It was in the year eighteen hundred and forty-nine,
With me hoodah, and me hoodah,
It was in the year eighteen hundred and forty-nine,
A-with me hoodah, hoodah-ay!
Blow, boys, blow, for Californiay!
Ah, there is lots of gold, oh, so I've been told,
Upon the banks of the Sacari-mento!

[Etc, Horn and home again, one day in May, there did sail, a quartering waind, dipped her nose, we took them in, climbed for a week]
//

[SALLY BROWN]
//
Sally Brown (II)

Aw, Sally Brown, well I loves your daughter,
[next line was "too forthright to print"]

Aw, Sally Brown, I been a long while a-courtin' ya,

Aw, Sally Brown, you know you didn't ought to do,

Etc, court of the sailormen, for fourteen years have I been courtin' ya, buyin' joolery, ]
//

[SANTIANA]
//
Santy Anna (II)

[Solos begin with "Oh" when repeated]

Oh, Mexico, my Mexico,
Heave away, Santy Anno!
Oh, Mexico, my Mexico,
All along the plains of Mexico.

The ladies there, oh, I do adore,

Where I began my lifelong store.

Now, the girls are pretty with their long black hair.

[etc, I do belong, senora right there, you know what you are, you've taught me well, Sannajooves tonight, tight-waisted girl]
//

[CAMPANERO]
//
The Campañero

Intro:

Oh, whenever I went away, The story I'd like to tell,
About an 'andy little bark, the Campanero.

Chorus:
Oh, it's between the cook and the pump,
Well they drive me off me chump
On the 'andy little bark, the Campanero!
If I ever go to sea,Well, it won't be up to me
To go in that handy little bark, the Campanero!

Oh, the skip-per he is a bulldozer, And you never did hear
The words that come from a man's mouth so often
The mate he wants to fight, and then durin' every night,
the boys around the hatch they all surround him.

Well, I'd have you all to know that wherever you do go,
If you see the name a-running fore-and-aft her,
Don't jine her anywhere, or you'll never forget the day
That you jined that 'andy little bark, the Campenaro!

You may ring around the world, and go just where you please,
She's a livin' at a single time for days and months.
But if you';; take a sailor's advice, you'll get married once or twice
Before you jine that 'andy little bark, the Campanero!
//

[JA JA JA] Pump shanty.
//
Ja, Ja, Ja!

O mitsch mein inkum stinkum buckerroom and mein ja, ja, ja,
Mitsch mein inkum stinkum buckerroom and mein ja, ja, ja,
Vell, ve'll git up on der shteeples and ve'll spit down on der peoples,
Mitsch mein ja, ja, ja!
//

[LEAVE HER JOHNNY]
//
Time For Us to Leave Her (Leave Her, Johnny)

Now, the time are hard and the wages low,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her!
Ah, the times are hard and the wages low,
It is time for us to leave her!

Oh, we'll leave her now and we'll leave her very soon.

Oh, no more cracker-hash and dandyfunk!

[etc. give us our pay, leave her very soon, it's this old way, along to the Horn, left her for good]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:26 AM

Leslie Nickerson of Freeport, Nova Scotia. Followed the sea "for some years." No dates given. Doerflinger met him in 1930. 2 chanties.

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
Blow the Man Down (IV)

Verses from the ballad "The Twa Corbies".

There was three crows sat on a tree,
Way, hay, blow the man down,
And they was black as black could be.
Gimme some time to blow the man down!

[etc]
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN] w/ Captain Weber.
//
Blow the Man Down (V)

Old Horse, Old horse, what brought you here,
[Way, hay, blow the man down,]
After ploughing the turf for many a year;
[Gimme some time to blow the man down!]

With kicks and cuffs and sad abuse,
We're salted down for sailor's use.

Between the mainmast and the pump,
We're salted down in great big hunks.

And when the mate comes from the rudder
He takes a piece of this old blubber.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:32 AM

From Adolph Colstad of Sailors' Snug Harbor.

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
Blow, Boys, Blow (IV)

I served my time in the Black Ball Line

A Yankee ship comes down the river

[Etc. dinner, then Sailor's Grace lines]
//

**************

William Laurie, born 1862 in Greenock, Scotland. Went to sea circa 1876.

Doerflinger recorded him in 1940 at Sailors' Snug Harbor.

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago (I)

Away down South in Old Tennessee,
[Way, hay, hay, yah,]
Away down South in old Tennessee,
[Oh, a long time a-go]

It is a long time, a very long time
A long time, a very long time

Since my young lady has written to me, (twice)

Saying, "Willie dear, come home from sea." (twice)

It is a long time, a very long time,
Oh, a long time, a very long time

If ever I get my foot on the shore (twice)

Oh I will go to sea no more!
Oh I will go to the sea no more!

If ever I get my foot on the land, (twice)

I will be some lady's fancy man!
Oh, I will be some lady's fancy man!

It is a long time, a very long time
It's a long time, a very long time, etc.
//

[GIMME DE BANJO] Laurie first heard it around age 15 in 1877 on American ship _Kit Carson_. Checkerboard watch.
//
Gimme de Banjo

Oh, dis is de day we pick on de banjo
[Dance, gal, gimme de banjo!]

Oh, dat banjo, dat tal-la-tal-la-wan-go

Oh, dat ban-jo, dat seben-string ban-jo

I was only one an' twenty

Ah was sent to school fer to be a scholar!

Mah collar was stiff, an Ah could not swaller.

Oh, dere's mah book, down on de table

An' you kin read it if you're able!
//

[SOUTH AUSTRALIA]
//
South Australia

Oh, in South Australia where I was born,
Heave away, haul away!
In South Australia 'round Cape Horn,
I'm bound for South Australia!
Heave away, you ruler king,
Heave away, haul away!
Heave a way, don't you hear me sing?
We're bound for South Australia!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:40 AM

Captain James P. Barker (ca.1875, Cheshire, England-1949), master of America's last commercial ship TUSITALA of NY. Went to sea 1889. Commanded British ships in Cape Horn trade, later became American citizen. Rounded Cape Horn 41 times.

[LONG TIME AGO] There is a tune variant here – I've used the TUNE in this recording:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q25dLNyaBK4
//
A Long Time Ago (VI)

Then up aloft this yard must go,
[To me, way, ay, ay, yah,]
Then up a-loft this yard must go,
[For it's a long time a-go.]

I placed my hand upon her knee

"I think, young man, you're rather free!"

Then one more pull and that will do.

Oh, one more pull and then it's belay!
//

[HELLO SOMEBODY] One of the best shantymen he'd known was American Negro, "Lemon" Curtis, crew of ship DOVENBY HALL of Liverpool in the 1890s. Barker heard him, and no others, sing this one.
//
Hello, Somebody

[intro] [Hello, Somebody, hello!]
There's Some-bod-y knock-ing at the garden gate;
[Hello Somebody, hello!]
There's Somebody knocking at the garden gate;
[Hello Somebody, hello!]

Somebody wants to know mah name

It's Nigger Dick from New Brunswick
//

[RISE HER UP] Pulling and Walkaway Shanty. Sung by Barker in the style of Curtis
//
Rise Me Up From Down Below

Oh, I come from the world below.
That is where the cocks do crow.
[Whis-key oh, John-ny oh!
Oh, rise me up from down below,
Down below, oh, oh, oh, oh
Up aloft this yard must go, John!
Rise me up from down below!]

I come from the world below!
That is where the fires do roar.
//

[HIGHLAND] The men sang it in chorus throughout.
//
Highland Laddie

Ay, Ay, and away she goes,
Bonnie laddie, Hieland laddie,
Ay, ay, and away she goes,
Bonnie Hieland laddie!

'Way she goes, heels and toes,

This is the day we sail this way,
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:43 AM

Eliezer Zinck, Nova Scotia

[SUSIANA]
//
Susiana

We'll heave him up from down below
[Hooray, oh, Susiana!]
We'll heave him up and away we'll go,
[Away right over the mountain!]
//

**********

Jones O. Morehouse, Sandy Cove, Digby Neck, Nova Scotia.

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
Homeward Bound (III)

"We're homeward bound," I hear our captain say:
Good-bye, fare ye well, good-bye, fare ye well!
"We're homeward bound for Liverpool town,
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound!"

When I get home I will tell my mama
That the girls in Liverpool won't let me alone!

As I walked down Ratcliffe Highway
A pretty maid I chanced for to meet.

[etc, milkmaid lyrics]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:50 AM

Captain Barker gave the sing-out:

//
Hellie hellie shumra, shumra, shumra,…[etc]
//

Hugill reproduced it. It goes something like this:
Hellie hellie shumra


And that's it for my notes on Doerflinger.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 04:39 AM

1942        Parrish, Lydia. _Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands_. New York: Creative Age Press.

Parrish first heard this music in Feb. 1909 when she took up residence on St. Simon's Island. However, she's not specific about when particular items were heard, and her presentations may be based on several hearings. Some items were recorded in the 1930s.

Music transcribed by Creighton Churchill and Robert MacGimsey.
Chapter 6 on "Work Songs".

She read Colcord and Terry, and Allen's _Slave Songs_. Also Fanny Kemble's _Journal_. Quotes NGJ Ballanta who wrote of the connection between song and work in Africa.

Talks about field-calls, which include a break in the voice. Says that these "old ways" died after 1880s in her neighborhood (Southern New Jersey).

//
In Brunswick, vessels are still loaded to the musical chant of "Sandy Anna"; freight cars at the sugar terminal are shunted for short distances to the rhythm of "Old Tar River," and the cabin in front of my house was moved on rollers from Kelvin Grove to the significant tune of "Pay Me My Money Down!"
//

Joe Armstrong and Henry Merchant of St. Simon's Island were both at one time leaders of stevedore crews. Loaded lumber, stowed cotton.
Floyd White, Henry Merchant, and others gave her shanties. Employed "the old-fashioned falsetto tones"

"Free at Last" used for "blockin' timber."

[BLOW BOYS BLOW] Used to hoist the gaff:

//
What do you think he had for dinner?
Monkey soup an' gray molasses.
Blow, my bully boys, blow!
//

And

[CLEAR THE TRACK]
//
Clear the track an' let the bullgine back.
//

And

//
O bring me a 'gator
O gal when you come off the islan'.
A ring-tail 'ator
O gal when you come off the islan'
A Darien 'gator
O gal when you come off the islan'
//

[HANGING JOHNNY] Used in loading timber on board vessel, 6 men on each side of rope hauled.
//
Call me hangin' Johnny
        O hang boys hang.
You call me hangin' Johnny
        O hang boys hang. [etc]
Yes, I never hang nobody
I never hang nobody
O we'll heave an' haul together
We heave an' haul forever
They hang my ole Grandaddy
They hang him for his money
O they hang him for his money
They hang him for his money
They call me hangin' Johnny
O I never hang nobody
//

[SANTIANA]
//
Sandy Anna

Seaman, what's the madda?
        Hoo-ray 'o-ray
Seaman, what's the madda?
        Hooray, Sandy Anna.

Seaman stole my dolla'
He stole it in Savannah

He spend it in Havana
I caught 'im in his colla'

I shake 'im till he holla'
Seaman stole my dolla'
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
KNOCK A MAN DOWN

Whoever heard talk about Little Johnny Brown
        Oh Ho knock a man down
        Knock a man down from London town
        Oh gimme some time to knock a man down.

Knock a man down bullies an' kick him aroun'
        Oh Ho knock a man down
        Knock a man down from London town
        Oh gimme some time to knock a man down.

Y'u ever hear dtalk about Little Johnny Brown
        Oh Ho knock a man down
        Fines' cap'n on Doboy Sound
        Oh gimme some time to knock a man down.
//

[MONEY DOWN]
//
PAY ME MY MONEY DOWN

Pay me, Oh pay me
        Pay me my money down
Pay me or go to jail
        Pay me my money down.
Oh pay me, Oh pay me
        Pay me my money down
Pay me or go to jail
        Pay me my money down.

Think I heard my captain say
T'morrow is my sailin' day

(chorus)

Wish't I was Mr. Coffin's son
Stay in the house an' drink good rum

(chorus)

You owe me, pay me
Pay me or go to jail

(chorus)

Wish't I was Mr. Foster's son
I'd set on the bank an' see the work done
//

//
DEBT I OWE

Debt I owe, Lord, debt I owe
I ain' gonna pay no debt I owe
Debt I owe, Lord, debt I owe
I ain' gonna pay no debt I owe
        Debt I owe in Brunswick sto'e
I ain' gonna pay no debt I owe
O Mister Watchman don't watch me
I ain' gonna pay no debt I owe
Watch that nig'ah right behine that tree
I ain' gonna pay no debt I owe
//

//
RAGGED LEEVY

Ragged Leevy! Oh—Ho!
        Do ragged Leevy
Ragged Leevy! O boy!
You ragged like a jay bird!
Mr. Sipplin! Han-n-nh
Goin' to buil' me a sto'e fence
In the mornin'—Oh—Ho!
Soon in the mornin'.
Hos' an buggy—Oh—Ho!
Hos' an' buggy
Hos' an' buggy—O boy!
Dey's no one to drive 'um.
Mr. Sipplin' Ha-n-nh
In de mornin'
When I rise
I goin' to sit by de fire.
In the mornin'—Oh—Ho!
O soon in the mornin'
In de mornin'
When I rise I goin' to sit by de fire.
Mauma Dinah Oh—Ho!
Do Mauma Dinah
Mauma Dinah
O gal I can't suppo't you.
Mr. Sipplin! Ha-n-nh
Do Mr. Sipplin
Walkin' talkin'!
O buil' me a sto'e fence.
Sweet potato Oh—Ho!
Sweet potato
Sweet potato O boy
There's two in de fire.
Mr. Sipplin! Ha-n-nh
Goin' to buil' me a sto'e fence
In de mornin' Oh—Ho!
When I rise I goin' to sit by de fire.
//

//
OLE TAR RIVER

Chorus: O, On the ole Tar river
        O-e-e-e
O, On the ole Tar river
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river
Tar river goin' run tomorrow
        O-e-e-e-
Tar river goin' run tomorrow
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river.

Tar river run black an' dirty
        O-e-e-e
Tar river run black an' dirty
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river
Tar river goin' to water my horses
        O-e-e-e
Tar river goin' to water my horses
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river

Ole Tar river is a healin' water
        O-e-e-e
Ole Tar river is a healin' water
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river
Ole Tar river run free an' easy
        O-e-e-e
Ole Tar river run free an 'easy
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river

Chorus: Way down, way down in the country
        O-e-e-e
Way down, way down in the country
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river
//

Bit similar to TOMMY'S GONE.
//
GOOD-BYE MY RILEY O

Riley, Riley where were you?
        O Riley, O man!
Riley gone an' I'm goin' too
        Goodbye my Riley O!

Riley, Riley, where were you?
Riley gone to Liverpool

You Democrat Riley
You Democrat Riley

Riley, Riley, where were you?
When I played that nine spot through
//

[SHALLOW BROWN]
//
SHILO BROWN

Shilo Ah wonduh what's tuh mattuh?
        Shilo, Shilo Brown.
Shilo Ah wonduh what's tuh mattuh?
        O Shilo, Shilo Brown.

Stivedore's in trouble [x2]

Take yo' time an' drive 'um [x2]

Shilo gone to ruin
Shilo gone to ruin I know
//

//
THIS TIME ANOTHER YEAR

This time another year
I may be gone
In some lonesome graveyard
O Lord how long!
My brother broke the ice an' gone
O Lord how long!
My brother broke the ice an' gone
O Lord how long!

Befo' this time another year
I may be gone
In some lonesome graveyard
O Lord how long!
Mind my sister how you walk on the cross
O Lord how long!
Your right foot slip an' y'ur soul get los'
O Lord how long!
//

[SOUTH AUSTRALIA]
//
HAUL AWAY, I'M A ROLLIN' KING

Haul away, I'm a rollin' king
        Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
Yonder come a flounder flat on the groun'
Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
Belly to the groun' an' back to the sun
Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
Ain' but one thing worry me
Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
I leave my wife in Tennessee
Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
Haul away, I'm a rollin' king
Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
//

//
SUNDOWN BELOW

This tune was sung at the end of the day as a hint to the captain, when the hold was too dark for the stevedores to see what they were doing.

Sun is down an' I must go
Sundown
Sundown below
Sun is down in the hole below
Sundown
Sundown below
I hear my captain say
Sundown
Sundown below
Sun is down an' I mus' go
Sundown
Sundown below
//

//
MY SOUL BE AT RES'

One a dese mornin's—it won't be long
        My soul be at res'.
One a dese mornin's—it won't be long
        My soul be at res'.
Be at res'—goin' be at res'
        My soul be at res'.
Be at res' till Judgement Day
        My soul be at res'.
It won't be long—it won't be long
        My soul be at res'.
Be at res' till Judgement Day
        My soul be at res'.
One a dese mornin's—it won't be long
        My soul be at res'.
Goin' t'hitch on my wings an' try the air
        My soul be at res'.
One a dese mornin's—it won't be long
        My soul be at res'.
You a'ks fo' me an' I'll be gone
        My soul be at res'.
//

//
ANNIBELLE

Of all the shanties, this concerning Anniebelle appears to be adaptable to the most varied uses, and to be the most widely distributed. Joe tells me he learned it over forty years ago from the stevedores who loaded lumber on the vessels at the Hilton-Dodge mills, but its main use was for "spikin' steel" on the railroads. I notice, however, that he puts the song to equally good use in chopping wood or swinging the weed cutter. In the mines it is called a "hammerin'" song."

Anniebelle
        Hunh!
Don't weep
        Hunh!
Anniebelle
        Hunh!
Don't moan
        Hunh!
[etc]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 06:01 PM

Somehow along the way I forget to register the chanteying references in Melville. (Lighter's recent post about use of chanties in a new Moby-Dick film reminded me.) I'm going to dig those up now, with the help of Stuart Frank's essay,

1985        Frank, Stuart M. "Cheer'ly Man": Chanteying in Omoo and Moby-Dick. The New England Quarterly 58(1) (Mar., 1985), pp. 68-82.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 11:45 PM

1847[March]        Melville, Herman. _Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas_. London: John Murray.

Written in 1846. Melville's sea experience was 1841-42, in whaling ship to South Pacific (Marquesas). He'd also seen Liverpool.

The chanteying references are consistent with what we know about chanteying for the time period, i.e. the popularity of "Cheer'ly Man," the vague "singing" of untitled (and perhaps non-distinct) songs, and, indeed, the overall lack of references to familiar chanteys. Melville was such a richly descriptive writer, and it would be surprising if there was lots of notable chanteying going on but he did not make effort to explain it. On the other hand, maybe he just wasn't interested in dotting his prose with verse all the time, unlike lots of other 19th century authors.

First reference is to [CHEERLY] while catting anchor. [151]
//
The decks were all life and commotion; the sailors on the forecastle singing, "Ho, cheerly men!" as they catted the anchor;
//

In the other reference, sailors ashore are "Farming in Polynesia." They decide to try to make the work of clearing land go more smoothly by brining in one of their windlass songs. "Shorty" in the passage is a Cockney character. [206]
//
"Give us a song, Shorty," said the doctor, who was rather sociable, on a short acquaintance. Where the work to be accomplished is any way difficult, this mode of enlivening toil is quite efficacious among sailors. So, willing to make every thing as cheerful as possible, Shorty struck up, "Were you ever in Dumbarton?" a marvellously inspiring, but somewhat indecorous windlass chorus.
//

Stuart Frank notes that Doerflinger collected "Were you ever in Dumbarton?" from a lumberjack. But while the line is reminiscent of "Highland Laddie" and other chanties, they don't resemble each other in other ways that I can see. Rather, Doerflinger notes the similarity between this and the song in 1832's _The Quid_, i.e.

"Oh! if I had her,
Eh then if I had her,
Oh! how I could love her,
Black although she be."

The similarity comes in the chorus of "Dumbarton." I must say that the "Quid" lyrics do scan quite nicely over the version of "Dumbarton" collected by Doerflinger. I'm even more enthusiastic about the similarity than Doerflinger seemed to be. Doerflinger's is in 3/4 meter. Though tempo comes into play as a variable, my guess is that such a song would not have worked well at the brake/pump windlass, but would have been just fine at the spoke windlass. My hunch is that Melville's ship(s) would have still been fitted with the spoke windlass. I've said before the idea that the adoption of the new brake windlass may have been a factor in ushering in the new kind of worksongs. Perhaps, by the same token, the obsolescence of the old windlass contributed to older songs dying out.

Doerflinger called "Dumbarton" a Scottish folk song, which seems reasonable based on its content, however, I'm not finding any info on the song outside of references to Omoo and Doerflinger's book.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 11:50 PM

1851[Oct.]        Melville, Herman. _Moby-Dick_.

The first reference is to a windlass song mentioning girls of Booble Alley. Stuart Frank (1985) drew a connection to "Haul Away Joe," but IMO that part of his article is weak. He seemed to base it on revival versions of the song, which may have been influenced by Sharp's presentation of John Short. So, not to say that "Booble Alley" could not or was not referenced in potentially any chantey (John Short's is proof), but rather that a connection to "Haul Away, Joe" is unlikely. We have seen that Maryat in 1837 also referenced that place, in his description of [SALLY BROWN] at what seems to have been the newly patented brake windlass. [98 in my Signet edition]
//
…the hands at the windlass, who roared forth some sort of a chorus about the girls in Booble Alley, with hearty good will.
//

The next reference tells us that singing happened at the pumps [pg 238]
//
Nor in the solitary and savage seas far from you to the westward, gentlemen, is it altogether unusual for ships to keep clanging at their pump-handles in full chorus even for a voyage of considerable length;
//

Singing is mentioned during the "cutting in" process of a whale. They are heaving at the windlass while singing a "wild chorus" (in order to flense the animal by means of tackle fastened to blubber) [294-296]
//
And now suspended in stages over the side, Starbuck and Stubb, the mates, armed with their long spades, began cutting a hole in the body for the insertion of the hook just above the nearest of the two side-fins. This done, a broad, semicircular line is cut round the hole, the hook is inserted, and the main body of the crew striking up a wild chorus, now commence heaving in one dense crowd at the windlass…

….The heavers forward now resume their song, and while the one tackle is peeling and hoisting a second strip from the whale, the other is slowly slackened away, and down goes the first strip through the main hatchway right beneath, into an unfurnished parlor called the blubber-room. Into this twilight apartment sundry nimble hands keep coiling away the long blanket-piece as if it were a great live mass of plaited serpents. And thus the work proceeds; the two tackles hoisting and lowering simultaneously; both whale and windlass heaving, the heavers singing, the blubber-room gentlemen coiling, the mates scarfing, the ship straining, and all hands swearing occasionally, by way of assuaging the general friction.
//

[CHEERLY] is used at braces. [Pg492]
//
Instantly the yards were squared, to the lively song of "Ho! the fair wind! oh-he-yo, cheerly men!" the crew singing for joy, that so promising an event should so soon have falsified the evil portents preceding it.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Aug 11 - 02:13 AM

1951[reissued 2004] Various Artists. _American Sea Songs & Shanties_. Duncan Emrich, ed. The Library of Congress, Archive of Folk Culture. Rounder, CD, 18964-1519-2.

Incidentally, this is one of the recordings I listened to in college that got me interested in singing chanties.

The author of these notes made great use of Doerflinger, Colcord, and Masefield in order to write the intro notes to each song. These notes are not of much use to us; I am focused on the content of the recordings, some of which includes explanations by the singers.

Notes the slow tempo of the singers.
//
To those who may be acquainted with certain of these songs through the radio or from the singing of trained vocalists, one thing is at once apparent --the slow tempo of the singing. This tempo is true to the tradition, and any faster tempo is a falsification of the shanties. The shanties were work songs, and the work was slow and arduous; …
//

Richard Maitland. Rec by Alan Lomax, 1939.

[BOWLINE]
//
HAUL THE BOWLINE

This is the oldest known short-haul shanty, and, according to John Masefield, goes back to the days of Henry VIII. …

"Now this is a short song that's usually used in pulling aft a sheet or hauling down a tack."

Haul the bowline, the long-tailed bowline,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul. (That's the chorus")

Haul the bowline, Kitty, oh [YOUR], my darling,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.

Haul the bowline, we'll haul and haul together,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.

Haul the bowline, we'll haul for better weather,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.

Haul the bowline, we'll bust, we'll break our banner, [or bend her]
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR]
//
THE DRUNKEN SAILOR

"Now this is a song that's usually sang when men are walking away with the slack of a rope, generally when the iron ships are scrubbing their bottom. After an iron ship has been twelve months at sea, there's a quite a lot of barnacles and grass grows onto her bottom. And generally, in the calm latitudes, up in the horse latitudes in the North Atlantic Ocean, usually they rig up a purchase for to scrub the bottom. You can't do it when the ship is going over three mile an hour, but less than that, of course, you can do so. But it all means a considerable walking, not much labor, but all walking. And they have a song called 'The Drunken Sailor' that comes in for that."

Now what shall we do with the drunken sailor,
What shall we do with the drunken sailor,
What shall we do with the drunken sailor
Early in the morning?

Oh, chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober,

Ay hey and up she rises,

Oh, what shall we do with the drunken soldier,

Oh, put him in the guardhouse and make him bail her,
Put him in the guardhouse till he gets sober,
Put him in the guardhouse till he gets sober
Way hey and up she rises,

Oh, here we are nice and sober,

Oh, way hey and up she rises,
//

[A-ROVING]
//
A-ROVING

"Now this is a song that we usually sing on the capstan, heaving the anchor up, before the days of steam come in to help us out•••also to heave the ship in from different parts of the dock to other berths made for her, when she had to shift around."

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
And she was mistress of her trade,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid;
For a-roving, a-roving, since roving's been my ruin,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.

Her eyes were like twin stars at night,
And her cheeks they rivalled the roses red,

I asked this fair maid where she lived,
She rooms up on Skidansky Dyke.

I took this fair maid for a walk,
For I liked to hear her loving talk.

I placed my hand upon her knee,
Says she, "Young man, you're getting free."

This last six months I've been to sea,
And, boys, this gal looked good to me.

In three weeks time I was badly bent,
And then to sea I sadly went.

On a red hot Yank bound 'round Cape Horn,
My clothes and boots were in the pawn,
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES]
//
HEAVE AWAY

One morning as I was a-walking down by the Waterloo Docks,
Heave away, my Johnny, heave away,
I overheard an emigrant conversing with Tapscott,
And away, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go.

"Good morning, Mr. Tapscott, good morning, sir," says she,
"Oh, have you any ship or two that'll carry me over the sea?"

"Oh, yes, my noble young Irish blade, I have a ship or two,"
"One is the Joshua[y] Walker, and the other's the Kangaroo,"

"Now the Joshua[y] Walker on Friday she will make sail,"
"The present day she's taking on board a thousand bags of male,"

Bad luck to the Joshua[y] Walker and the day that she made sail,
For the sailor's got drunk and broke upon the trunk, and stole all me yallow male!
//

//
PADDY DOYLE

"Now this is a song that's just used in the one place•••on the•••when the men are all together on the yards, one of the lower yards. they call it the main or foreyard •••and they're rolling up the sail. They get the sail all ready for the one big bowsing up, and the man in the bunt will sing•••

Way ay ay yah,
We'll all fling dung at the cook!

With that last word, 'cook,' all hands gives a bowse on it, and that hauls the sail up•••but you'll never get it up with one pull, so the man sings out then…

Way ay ay yah,
Who sold poor Paddy Doyle's boots?

And another pull. Well, if it isn't satisfactory, if you want one more •••

Way ay ay yah,
We'll all go down and hang the cook.

Well, if the sail is bowsed up, that's all there is to be said about it•••but there's never any more than about six verses to that same song."
//

[PADDY LAY BACK]
//
PADDY, GET BACK

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London,
I went down the Shadwell docks to get a ship.

Chorus:
Paddy, get back, take in the slack,
Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
'Bout ship and stations there be handy,
Rise, tacks and sheets and mainsail, haul!

("This is a capstan shanty now•••")

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin,
Oh, they told me she was going to New York.

If I ever lay my hands on that shipping master,
Oh, I'll murder him if it's the last thing that I do.

When the pilot left the ship way down the channel,
Oh, the captain told us we were going around Cape Horn.

The mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
And the captain hailed from Bangor down in Maine.

The three of them were rough and tumble fighters,
When not fighting amongst themselves, they turned on us.

Oh, they called us out one night to reef the topsails,
Now with belaying pins a-flying around the deck.

Oh, and we came on deck and went to set the topsails,
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.

We had tinkers, we had tailors and firemen, also cooks,
And they couldn't sing a shanty unless they had the book.

Oh, wasn't that a bunch of hoodlums
For to take a ship around Cape Horn!

M: "Now this song•••I forgot to explain it in the first place•••it commences•••The solo is sung by the shantyman sitting on the capstan head, where he always does sing•••sit in case of singing shanties. The shantyman sits there and does nothing, while the crew, walking around the capstan, are singing. The chorus begins at:

Paddy, get back, take in the slack,
Heave away the capstan, heave a pawl,
'Bout ship and stations there be handy,
Rise, tacks and sheets and mainsail, haul!

L: "And show us where the pull.••where the••.comes•••"
M: "That's what I'm telling them now. This 'Paddy, get back' is the chorus••• "
L: "And that's where they pull?"
M: "There's no pull in a capstan shanty! They're walking around the capstan with the bars!"
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (II)

As I was a-walking down Paradise Street,
Way hey, blow the man down,
A dashing young damsel I chanced for to meet,
Give me some time to blow the man down.

I hailed her in English, and hailed her all 'round,
I hauled up alongside, and asked where she was bound,

She'd left the Black Arrow bound for the Shakespeare,
We went in and had two big glasses of beer,
//

[HANDY MY BOYS]
//
SO HANDY, ME BOYS, SO HANDY

Now handy high and handy low,
Handy, me boys, so handy,
Oh, it's handy high and away we'll go,
Handy, me boys, so handy.

Hoist her up from down below,
We'll hoist her up through frost and snow,

We'll hoist her up from down below,
We'll hoist her and show her clew.

One more pull and that will do.
Oh, we'll sing a song that'll make her go.

Now it's growl you may, but go you must,
If you growl too much, your head they'll bust.

Now one more pull and then belay,
And another long pull and we'll call it a day.

Now handy high and handy low,
Oh, one more pull and we'll send her alow.

We'll hoist her up and show her clew,
And we'll make her go through frost and snow,

Lomax: What kind of a shanty is that?
Maitland: Well, that's a pulling shanty. You see where they --"handy, me boys" Is that thing going?
L: Uh-huh.
M: That's a hoisting shanty, it goes -- you can either take a single long pull except when the mate is out of humor, and he sings out to "double up, double up," then you take a pull at "handy, me boys, so handy."
L: Was that a very popular shanty?
M: Yes, sure it's very popular!
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A LONG TIME AGO

Maitiand: Now this is a song that's very popular in the vessels bound across with cotton from Mobile, New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, any place where they load cotton, and it's usually sang with a gusto when they do sing it.

Way down South where I was born,
Way ay ay yah,
I've picked the cotton and hoed the corn,
Oh a long time ago.

In the good old State of Alabam' ,
So I've packed my bag, and I'm going away,

When I was young and in my prime,
Oh, I served my time in the Black Ball Line.

I'm going away to Mobile Bay,
Where they screw, the cotton by the day.

Five dollars a day's a white man's pay,
And a dollar and a half is a black man's pay.

When the ship is loaded, I'm going to sea,
For a sailor's life is the life for me,
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Aug 11 - 02:16 AM

cont.,

Sung by Noble B. Brown at Woodman, Wisconsin. Recorded by Helene Stratman-Thomas and Aubrey Snyder, 1946.

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
BLOW, BOYS, BLOW!

A Yankee ship came down the river,
Blow, boys, blow,
A Yankee ship came down the river,
Blow, boys, bonny boys, blow.

And how do you know she's a Yankee clipper?
Oh, how do you know she's a Yankee clipper?

The stars and bars they flew behind her, [x2]

And who do you think was the skipper of her?
A bluenosed Nova Scotia hardcase.

And who do you think was the chief mate of her?
A loudmouthed disbarred Boston lawyer.

And what do you think we had for breakfast?
The starboard side of an old sou'wester.

Then what do you think we had for dinner?
We had monkey's heart and shark's liver.

Can you guess what we had for supper?
We had strong salt junk and weak tea water.

Then blow us out am blow us homeward,
Oh, blow today and blow tomorrow.

Blow fair and steady, mild and pleasant,
Oh, blow us into Boston Harbor.

We'll blow ashore and blow our pay day,
Then blow aboard and blow away.

We'll blow until our blow is over,
From Singapore to Cliffs of Dover,
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
REUBEN RANZO

Poor old Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boy, Ranzo,
Poor old Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boy, Ranzo.

He shipped aboard a whaler,
But Ranzo was no sailor,

He could not do his duty,
For neither love nor beauty.

He could not find his sea legs,
Used clumsy, awkward land pegs.

He could not coil a line right,
Did not know end from rope's bight.

Could not splice the main brace, [laughs]
He was a seasick soft case.

He could not box the compass,
The skipper raised a rumpus.

The old man was a bully,
At sea was wild and woolly.

Abused poor Reuben plenty,
He scourged him five and twenty.

He lashed him to the mainmast,
The poor seafaring outcast.

Poor Reuben cried and pleaded,
But he was left unheeded.

Some vessels are hard cases,
Keep sailors in strict places.

Do not show any mercy,
For Reuben, James, nor Percy.

The ocean is exacting,
Is often cruel acting.

A sailor never whimpers,
Though shanghaied by shore crimpers,

"I learned that aboard a sailing ship on a voyage from San Francisco to Falmouth, England."
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (I )

…The first version, sung by Noble B. Brown, is rather unusual because of the use of "heave away" rather than "to me way hay" in the first chorus line. …

We will haul, we will pull, we will all heave away,
Heave away, away, blow the man down,
We will haul in the night and we'll pull during day,
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down.

We will pull, we will haul, hearty, healthy, and gay,
Like husky strong seamen to earn able to pay,

We will pull, the commands of our skipper obey,
We will haul till we hear the command to belay,

We'll expend all the energy we can afford,
We'll joyfully heave the dead horse overboard.

We will heave with all might, we will heave with all main,
We will heave till the main brace needs splicing again.

We will heave when we're sickened by roughness of sea,
We will heave when recovering from a big spree.

We will heave when the salt horse and hog becomes rank,
We will heave for good treatment -- our officers think.

To heave is what seamen should know how to do,
And sometimes a vessel is forced to heave, too [heave-toJ•

We'll heave heaving lines to a tender ashore,
Leave heaving of cargo to strong stevedore.

We will heave everywhere on the world's surface round,
We will heave the most joyfully when homeward bound.

Blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down,
We'll heave the most joyfully when homeward bound,
//


Capt. Leighton Robinson.
First set at Mill Valley, California, 1951. Recorded by Sam Eskin.

THE SAILOR'S ALPHABET – not a shanty.


[DEAD HORSE]
//
THE DEAD HORSE

"They would get a tar barrel and get 'Chips' to make a horse's head to it, and put a tar brush in the stern of it and for a tail•••and then they would mount it on this thing [a sort of cart], and generally the shantyman would get astride of it and, as I say, it being fine weather, why they'd start and pull this thing along the deck. And then the shanty-man would sing the song, what they called 'Poor Old Man' or 'The Burying of the Dead Horse.' Having worked up thirty days, why, then the next day they were going on pay. They were really earning some money then. 'Course they'd be into the slopchest probably for a few beans, but at the same time they'd feel that they'd begun to earn their money. And this is the way that that went•••

A poor old man came riding along,
And we say so, and we hope so,
A poor old man comes riding along,
Oh, poor old man.

Poor old man, your horse he must die,
Poor old man, your horse he must die,

Thirty days have come and gone.

Now we are on a good month's pay.

I think I hear our old man say.

Give than grog for the thirtieth day.

Up aloft to the main yard arm.

Cut him adrift, and he'll do no harm,

I might explain to you that we hoisted him up to the main yard arm, and then there was a fellow up there•••we generally used the clew garnet, you know, just to hoist him up there, we had to put a strop around the barrel ••and then they would just cut him adrift. And then you'd see this old thing floating astern."
//

[JOHNNY BOWKER] Seems to make an assumption about Robinson's "shore" singing, based on what he'd read.
//
JOHNNY BOKER

…Capt. Robinson, in his shore singing of it, lengthens the do! beyond the normal manner in which it would have been sung at sea. References: Doerflinger, p. 9; Colcord, p. 44.

"…Well, that's a shanty, of course, when you're taking a drag on the main sheet. You get all hands, say, on deck about the time when you're changing the watches•••and you don't want to put a watch tackle on it or take it to a capstan, and it's not blowing too hard, why, you can get a short drag on that and get a little slack in."

Oh, do, my Johnny Boker, come rock and roll me over,
Do, my Johnny Boker, do!

Oh, do, my Johnny Boker, we're bound across to Dover,
Do, my Johnny Boker, do!

//

The following were recorded at Belvedere, California, 1939, by Sidney Robertson Cowell. The younger Robinson does seem a bit more lively – than the other singers, too.

//
RIO GRANDE

Oh, Rio Grande lies far away,
'Way Rio!
Oh, Rio Grande lies far away,
And we're bound for the Rio Grande.

Chorus: And away Rio, it's away Rio!
Singing fare you well, my bonny young girl,
And we're bound for the Rio Grande.

I thought I heard our old man say,
I thought I heard our old man say,

Two dollars a day is a sailor's pay.
So it's pack up your donkey, and get under way.

Oh, I left my old woman a month's half pay.

So heave up our anchor, away we must go,
Oh, heave up our anchor, away we must go,
//

//
WHISKY JOHNNY

Oh, whisky here, and whisky there,
Whisky Johnny,
Oh, whisky here, and whisky there,
Oh, whisky for my Johnny,

Oh, I'll drink whisky when I can,
Oh, I'll drink whisky while I can,

Oh, whisky gave me a broken nose.

And whisky made me pawn my clothes.

Oh, if whisky were a river, and I were a duck.

I'd swim around till I got right drunk.

Oh, whisky landed me in jail.

Oh, whisky in an old tin pail,
//

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
//
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN

Oh, away down South where I was born,
Oh, roll the cotton down,
Away down South where I was born,
Oh, roll the cotton down.

A dollar a day is the white man's pay,
Oh, a dollar a day is the white man's pay,

I thought I heard our old man say.

We're homeward bound to Mobile Bay.

Oh, hoist away that yard and sing.

"That's enough."
//

[ROLLING HOME]
//
ROLLING HOME

Pipe all hands to man the windlass, see our cable run down clear,
As we heave away our anchor, for old England's shores we'll steer.

Chorus: Rolling home, rolling home, rolling home across the sea,
Rolling home to merry England, rolling home, dear land, to thee.

Man your bars, heave with a will, lads, every hand that can clap on,
As we heave away our anchor, we will sing this well known song.

Fare you well Australia's daughters, fare you well sweet foreign shore,
For we're bound across the waters, homeward bound again once more.

Up aloft amongst the rigging, where the stormy winds do blow,
Oh, the waves as they rush past us seem to murmur as they go.

Twice ten thousand miles before us, twice ten thousand miles we've gone. Oh, the girls in dear old England gaily call us way along.

'''Vast heaving!"
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
HOMEWARD BOUND

We're homeward bound, I hear them say,
Goodbye, fare you well, goodbye, fare you well,
We're homeward bound, I hear them say,
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

We're homeward bound this very day,
We're homeward bound this very day,

We're homeward bound for 'Frisco town.

Oh, heave away, she's up and down.

Our anchor, boys, we soon will see.

We're homeward bound, 'tis a joyous sound.

Oh, I thought I heard our old man say.

Oh, 'Frisco Bay in three months and a day.

Oh, these 'Frisco girls they have got us in tow.

And it's goodbye to Katie and goodnight to Nell.

Oh, it's goodbye again and fare you well.

And now I hear our first mate say.

We've got the fluke at last in sight,
We've got the fluke at last in sight,

" 'Vast heaving!"
//

WHEN JONES'S ALE WAS NEW, forecastle song, sung by John M. (Sailor Dad) Hunt of Marion, Virginia. Recorded at Washington, D.C., 1941, by John A. Lomax.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Aug 11 - 09:35 PM

1927        Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy and Mary Winslow Smyth. _Minstrelsy of Maine: Folk-songs and Ballads of the Woods and the Coast_. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin.

[Some question marks due to illegible spots in my copy.]

Deep-Sea Songs:

The Stately Southerner
The Flying Cloud
Tacking Ship Off Shore
The Banks of Newfoundland
Sailors' 'Come-All-Ye'
Old Horse
The Greenland Whale Fishery
The Pretty Mohea
The Sailors' Alphabet

Chanteys:

Contributed by Laura E. Richards of Gardiner, ME, March 1926. Said the verses were learned by her mother in 1852, on board a sailing vessel from Italy to America.

[TOMMY'S GONE]
//
Tom's Gone Away

Oh, Tom he was a darling boy,
        Tom's gone away!
Oh, Tome he was the sailor's joy,
        Tom's gone away!
And hurrah for Jenny, boys,
        Tom's gone away!
And hurrah for Jenny, boys,
//

[HELLO SOMEBODY]
//
Hilo

Arise, old woman, and let me in!
        Way! hi-lo!
Hi-lo, somebody! hi-lo!
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago

I wish I was in Baltimore,
        I-i-i-o!
A-skating on the sanded floor,
        A long time ago;
Forever and forever,
        I-i-i-o!
Forever and forever, boys,
        A long time ago!
//

Mrs. Seth S. Thornton of Southwest Harbor, Maine, Nov. 1926. Said this topsail halliards chantey "used to be sung on board ship in my father's day."

[CLEAR THE TRACK] is the dominant bit of this, but it also has aspects of "Mobile Bay" and "Roller Bowler."
//
Mobile Bay

Was you ever in Mobile Bay?
        A hay! a hue! Ain't you most done?
A-screwing cotton by the day?
        A hay! a hue! Ain't you most done?
Oh, yes, I've been in Mobile Bay
A-screwing cotton by the day;
So clear the track, let the bullgine run,
With a rig-a-jig-jig and a ha-ha-ha,
Good morning ladies all!
//

Contributed by Frank Stanley of Cranberry Isles, Maine, Nov. 1925. Looks like Stanley took all these texts from Clark's _The Clipper Ship Era_.

[LOWLANDS AWAY] [PADDY DOYLE] "Rolling John" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] [WHISLEY JOHNNY]

From Captain J.A. Creighton of Thomaston, Maine, Aug. 192?. Wrote, "This is a chanty the writer has never seen in print but [?-ed] to sing over forty years ago. There must have been fifty verses to this chanty, and it told of a sailor's life from beginning to end and was one of the best chanties the writer ever heard…"

[LIVERPOOL GIRLS]
//
First to California, Oh, Fondly I went

First to California, oh, fondly I went,
For to stop in that country it was my intent;
But the drinking of whiskey, like every damn fool,
Soon got me imported back to Liverpool.

Refrain:
Singing, Row, Row, Row, bullies, Row.
Oh, the Liverpool girls they have got us in tow,
Singing, Row, Row, Row, bullies, Row.
Oh, the Liverpool girls they have got us in tow.

And now we are down and on the line,
The Captain's a-cursing, he's all out of wine,
We're hauling and pulling these yards all about,
For to give this flash packet a quick passage out.

And now we are down and off Cape Horn,
The boys have no clothes for to keep themselves warm,
She's diving bows aunder and the decks are all wet,
And we're going round Cape Horn with the main skysail set.
//

//
Too-li-aye

A negro chantey. Of this and the preceding, Captain Creighton wrote, 'These two chanties do not amount to much without the music, but they never fail to bring down the house when sung by a few old salts that know how to get the funny yodel-like notes that were common in the good old times of the "down-east square-rigger."'

A Yankee ship and a Yankee crew,
Jan Kanaganaga too-li-aye.

Refrain.
Too-li-aye, too-li-aye,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.

A Yankee ship with a lot to do,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.

A Yankee ship with a Yankee mate,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.

If you stop to walk he'll change your gait,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR]
//
…learned by the [??] editor's grandmother, probably considerably over a hundred years ago as she used to hear the sailors singing as they tacked in going up the Penobscot.

What shall we do with the drunken sailor?...
So early in the morning?

Put him in the long-boat and let him bail her;

Ay, ay, up she rises!
//

A "coastwise chantey". Sung by Capt. Rufus H. Young of Hancock Maine, Oct. 1925, 92 years old. Said was favorite for "getting under way". Had 40-50+ verses. Girl is chewing gum (!). So, not until after 1870, maybe not even till after 1890s. Tune is "When Johnny comes marching home."
//
Johnny, Fill Up the Bowl

Johnny and Jenny by the fireside say,
Hoorah! Hoorah!
Johnny and Jenny by the fireside say,
Hoorah! Hoorah!

Johnny and Jenny by the fireside say,
And Johnny saw Jenny's mouth open and shet,
And Johnny saw Jenny's mouth open and shet,
[??..] all drink stone-blind,
Johnny, fill up the bowl!
//

Taken down ca.1904 by WM Hardy of Brewer, Maine, from the singing of Captain William Coombs of Islesboro, Maine. The following 2 are local fishermen's chanteys. Short because the small sails were quickly hoisted.
//
Isle o' Holt (Highland Laddie)

Was you ever on the Isle o' Holt,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie?
Where John Thompson swallowed a colt,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie?
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie;
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie Hielan' laddie.

I opened an orange and found a letter,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie.
And the more I read it grew better and better,
Bonnie Hielan' laddie.
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie,
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie Hielan' laddie.
//

//
Church and Chapel

I rode to church, I rode to chapel,
Pull down!
With a hickory horse and a white-oak saddle,
        Pull down below!
Pull down, pull down, pull down together,
Pull down, pull down, my dandy fellows,
        Pull down!
//

From L.I. Flower of Central Cambridge, New Brunswick, 1926, who thought these were the favorite chanties among guys in the lumber woods.

[SHENANDOAH]
//
Shenandore

Heave her up from down below, boys!
Hooray, you rolling river!
Heave her up and let her go, boys!
Aha! Bound away o'er the wild Missouri.

Shenandore, I long to see you! X2

Shenandore! I love your daughter,
I love the roar of your rushing waters,
//

Only the chorus remembered. This is connected to a Great Lakes song, "The Cruise of the Bigelow," which was probably not a chanety
//
Buffalo

Stop her! Catch! Jump her up in a juba-ju!
Give her the sheet and let her go!
We are the boys can crowd her through.
You ought to have seen her travel, the wind a-blowing free,
On her passage down to Buffalo from Milwaukee!
//

Says the Black Ball Line sailed from Saint John (New Brunswick), and he remembers them from 55 years ago.
//
Blow the Man Down

'Twas in a Black-Baller I first served my time,
To my yo-heave-ho! blow the man down!
'Twas in a Black-Baller I wasted my prime,
O! give me some time to blow the man down!

'Twas when a Black-Baller was leaving the land,
Our captain then gave us the word of command,

'Lay aft,' was the cry, 'to the break of the poop,'
'And I'll help you along with the toe of my boot,'

'Twas when a Black-Baller came home to the dock,
The lad and the lasses around her did flock,
//

From Susie C. Young of Brewer, Main, 1926.
[HIGHLAND]
//
Highland Laddie

Was you ever to Quebec,
Halan' Laddie, bonnie Laddie!
Where they hoist their timber all on deck,
With a Halan' bonnie Laddie?
Heave-O! me heart and soul,
Halan' Laddie, Bonnie Laddie,
Heave-O! me heart and soul,
To me Halan', Bonnie Laddie.

Was you ever to the Isle of France,
Where the girls are taught to dance
//

Young said apparently of Negro/West Indian origin, sung in Orland for several generations. Thinks her grandfather may have learned it at sea.
//
Shove 'er up! Shove 'er up!
Keep shoving of 'er up!
Shove 'er up! Shove 'er up!
Keep shoving of 'er up!
Shove 'er in the gangway!
Shove 'er in the boat!
I'd rather have a guinea than a ten-pound note.
        Though a guinea it will sink
        And a note it will float,
I'd rather have a guinea than a ten-pound note.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Aug 11 - 03:54 PM

Thought I had caught all the Folk-Song Society articles, but here's one more!

1928        Thomas, J.E., Lucy E. Broadwood, Frank Howes, and Frank Kidson. "Sea Shanties." Journal of the Folk-Song Society 8(32):96-100.

Collected in West Cornwall by J.E. Thomas

Sung by Mr. W. Tarr, 27 May 1924.
//
Whisky, You're My Darling

For 'tis good-bye Mick and good-bye Pat, and good-bye Mary Ann,
I'm goin' away this very day to the dear Americo,
For the ship lies in the harbour, As ev'rybody knows,
And here's to good old Ireland where the dear old shamrock grows. Whisky, you're my darling, Whisky, you're my friend,
Whisky, you're my darling drunk or sober.
//

The following two songs were sung by John Farr (age 76), 6 Dec. 1926.

[SALLY BROWN]
//
Sally Brown

O Sally Brown was a creole lady,
Way O roll and go,
Sally Brown was a creole lady,
Spent my money on Sally Brown.

Sally Brown is a captain's daughter (twice)

Sally Brown is a bright Mulatter,
She drinks rum and chews terbaccer.
//

Not a shanty.
//
The Banks of the Newfoundland

O you Western Ocean Labourers, I would have you all beware,
That when you're aboard of a packet-ship, no dung'ree jumpers wear,
But have a big monkey-jacket always at your command,
And think of the cold Nor'westers On the banks of the Newfoundland.

2 As I lay in my bunk one night
A-dreaming all alone,
I dreamt I was in Liverpool
'Way up in Marylebone,
With my true love beside of me
And a jug of ale in hand,
When I woke quite broken-hearted
On the banks of Newfoun(dland.

3 We had one Lynch from Bally Ack
Jimmy Murphy and Mike Moore,
'Twas in the year of 'sixty-two
And the sea-boys suffered sore.
For they pawned their clothes in Liverpool,
And sold them right out of hand,
Not thinking of Newfoundland.
4 We had one female passenger,
Bridget Riley was her name,
Unto her I promised marriage,
And on me she had a claim.
For she tore up all her petticoats
To make mittens for my hand,
Saving "I can't see my true-love freeze
On the banks of Newfoundland."

5 And now we're round Sandy Hook, my boys
The Island is covered with snow,
The steam-boat she's ahead of us
And to New York we will go.
So we'll rub her round and scrub her round
With holy stone and sand,
And say farewell to the Virgin Rocks
On the banks of Newfoundland.
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] Sung by John Farr, 10 Jan. 1926.
//
Heave Away, My Johnny

Sometimes we're bound for Liverpool town,
sometimes we're bound for France,
Heave away O my Johnny, heave away
Sometimes we're bound for Liverpool town,
sometimes we're bound for France,
Heave away O my jolly boys we're all bound to go.
//

[MR. STORMALONG] Sung by John Farr, 25 Jan 1926.
//
Mister Stormalong

O whisky is the life of man,
Hi! hi hi! Mister Stormalong,
O whisky is the life of man,
To my way-o Stormalong.

I wish I was old Stormy's son,
I'd give the boys a plenty of rum.

Old Stormy he is dead and gone (twice).
//

Sung by John Farr, 7 Feb. 1927.
[LOWLANDS]
//
Lowlands Away

Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John,
I thought I heard our captain say.
Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John,
We're sailing straight for Mobile Bay,
My dollar and a half a day.

I thought I heard our captain cry
A dollar and a half is a whiteman's pay.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Aug 11 - 03:56 PM

From one of Gordon Grant's sketchbooks:

1931        Grant, , Gordon. _Sail Ho!: Windjammer Sketches Alow and Aloft_. New York: W.F. Payson.

Pg 6. For brake windlass.
//
"Some say we're bound for Liverpool,
Some say we're bound for France,
I think we're bound for Frisco boys,
To give the girls a chance.
…
Heave away! my bully boys;
Ho! Heave and bust her!
Hang your beef, my bully boys;
Ho! Heave and bust her!"
//
Hugill printed this, saying, "A capstan shanty, the verses of which are related to the former song ["The Gals of Dublin Town"], has been sent to me by Mr. W.A. Bryce of Sutton Coldfield. Unfortunately he could not remember the tune..." Evidently Bryce had taken it from this book.

A sweating up song.
//
SWAYING OFF

They have set the main topgallant staysail…

"Ho, Molly come down,
Come down with your pretty posey,
Come down with your cheeks so rosy.
Ho, Molly, come down.
He O! He O!"
//
Hugill also mentioned this in connection with a similar sing out by Harlow and with the "Bunch of Roses" chanty. Mr. Bryce also sent him this.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 05 Aug 11 - 04:04 PM

Maybe Jenny was chawin' terbaccer, not gum.

"Johnny Fill Up the Bowl" was the immediate melodic predecessor of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." Both are frequently mentioned in Civil War memoirs, and the choruses were often blended together.

Carpenter also collected a brief shanty version.

JL

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 06:43 PM

1924        Frothingham, Robert, ed. _Songs of the Sea and Sailors' Chanteys_. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Contains a section with chanties (i.e. in addition to the nautical poetry that fills the rest).

The chanty selections look like they are based in various secondary sources, especially Davis & Tozer (the formatting of titles and such use it as a guide, at least), along with Masefield and RR Terry. However, the author has also taken the liberty of ~improving~ the songs a bit. Tunes are changed, perhaps based on what Frothingham believed they "should" have been. In "Tom's Gone to Ilo," for example, the contour follows D&T, but rather than the distinctive leaps between 6th and tonic, it has the major 7th degree in there – odd, I think, and contrived.

Did Frothingham have any access to primary sources, or any personal experience with these? He came out with numerous poetry/song anthologies on various themes, so I am assuming at this point that he was a compiler without significant first-hand knowledge. Would like to know more.

Hugill made use of plenty of the verses from this when harvesting for his SfSS collection.

Here is a list of the chanties. They are "typical", and, in my opinion, probably don't add to our historical knowledge of the genre. This evidently was, however, a work that was read and used as a source for later writers.

pg241. SAILORS' CHANTEYS [With score.]

LONG DRAG

[LONG TIME AGO] A Long Time Ago
[BLOW BLOYS BLOW] Blow, Boys, Blow
[BLOW THE MAN DOWN] Blow the Man Down
[BONEY] Boney Was a Warrior
[DEAD HORSE] Dead Horse
[HANGING JOHNNY] Hanging Johnnie
[LEAVE HER JOHNNY} Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her
[REUBEN RANZO] Reuben Ranzo
[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] Roll the Cotton Down
[TOMMY'S GONE] Tom's Gone to Ilo
[WHISKEY JOHNNY] Whisky for my Johnnie

SHORT DRAG

[HAUL AWAY JOE] Haul Away, Joe
[BOWLINE] Haul the Bowline
[JOHNNY BOWKER] Johnny Boker
[PADDY DOYLE] Paddy Doyle

CAPSTAN

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] Homeward Bound
[SACRAMENTO] Hoodah-Day
[SANTIANA] The Plains of Mexico
RIO GRANDE] Rio Grande
[SALLY BROWN] Sally Brown
[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] We're All Bound to Go
[SHENANDOAH] The Wide Missouri

PUMPING

[ONE MORE DAY] One More Day
[MR. STORMALONG] Storm-Along

OLD SEA SONGS

A-Roving
Spanish Ladies
Farewell, and Adieu to You
Rolling Home
High Barbaree
The Golden Vanity

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 07:58 PM

What interests me about Frothingham's publication is that it appeared in the middle of the whast I consider the first revival of sea shanties, as entertainment rather than for assisting with nautical work. His readers were supposed to be people who would want to sing these songs.

The bulk of the book is nautical poetry, and I found that part interesting in identifying forgotten nautical poets such as Bill Adams, Harry Kemp, and Burt Franklin Jenness who had experience at sea. Much of their poetry I've since posted to Allpoetry.com, and some I've set to music.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 09:44 PM

IIRC, Frothingham's shanties are all taken from Stanton H. King's _Book of Chanties_ (Boston, 1918).

During WWI, the U.S. Merchant Marine Shipping Board Recruiting Service named King its "official chanty-man," though I believe it only meant that he led sailors in mass singing, a popular morale-builder of the day.

According to King's preface, "The chanties in this book are as I heard them sung, and have often sung them myself when a sailor on our deep water American sailing ships."

According to Who's Who in New England (1909), King was born in Barbados in 1867. He apparently went to sea in 1880, served six years in merchant ships and then six more as an enlisted man in the U.S. Navy. Who's Who lists him as a "sailors' missionary." He was Superintendent of the Sailors' Haven, Charlestown, Mass., for many years.

Carpenter recorded some material from King in the late '20s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 10:48 PM

Sounds good, Charley. And thanks for that info, Lighter, that would explain things somewhat -- insofar as the chanty lyrics have a nice "ring" of authenticity for the most part, though there are also probably some borrowings going on to beef up the presentations. It would also rule out Terry as a possible source of borrowings.

If you you guys have a notion, I'd be curious to get your reaction to Frothingham's (King's?) presentation of "Tom's Gone to Ilo," which I've posted to the "Origins: Hilo" thread. My opinion is that it's very likely not "from tradition," in which case that confirms that Frothingham/King's chanties were influenced by publications.

One of my interests, as you know, is to get some semblance of an idea of what chanties were commonly sung and where/when/etc. That explains why I am interested in monitoring whether certain print appearances are all or "mostly" drawn from earlier publications, i.e. so the "tally" does not get too skewed.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 12:09 AM

The following reference suggests that the word "chantey" was still somewhat obscure for the general public. Recall that in the 1880s, several authors used the term, however these were mainly nautical writers, and the term was used in quotes. Here, in 1890, it is still being treated as something that would be unfamiliar to readers.

1890[July]        Unknown. "Jack Tar's Vernacular." _New York Times_ (20 July, 1890).

"Some of the Odd Words and Phrases Used at Sea. A Dialect which the Landsman Could Never Hope to Master Except on Shipboard."

//
Jack's ditties, too, are frequently vehicles of his emotions. When he does not know how to "growl" fairly, he will put his feelings into a topsail-halyard song, and often has the anchor come up to a fierce chorus compounded of improvised abuse of the ship and the skipper, to which expression could not be given in a quieter method. Unfortunately the list of melodies is somewhat limited, but the lack of variety is no obstruction to the sailor's poetical inspiration when he wants the "old man" to know his private opinions without expressing them to his face, and so the same "chantey," as the windlass or halyard chorus is called, furnishes the music to as many various indignant remonstrances as Jack can find injuries to sing about.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 01:18 AM

1850[Sept. 1849]        Melville, Herman. _Redburn: His First Voyage_. New York: Harper & Bros.

Singing out at a rope, evidently for sweating up. pp.63-64.
//
While I stood watching the red cigar-end promenading up and down, the mate suddenly stopped and gave an order, and the men sprang to obey it. It was not much, only something about hoisting one of the sails a little higher up on the mast. The men took hold of the rope, and began pulling upon it; the foremost man of all setting up a song with no words to it, only a strange musical rise and fall of notes. In the dark night, and far out upon the lonely sea, it sounded wild enough, and made me feel as I had sometimes felt, when in a twilight room a cousin of mine, with black eyes, used to play some old German airs on the piano. I almost looked round for goblins, and felt just a little bit afraid. But I soon got used to this singing; for the sailors never touched a rope without it. Sometimes, when no one happened to strike up, and the pulling, whatever it might be, did not seem to be getting forward very well, the mate would always say, "Come, men, can't any of you sing? Sing now, and raise the dead." And then some one of them would begin, and if every man's arms were as much relieved as mine by the song, and he could pull as much better as I did, with such a cheering accompaniment, I am sure the song was well worth the breath expended on it. It is a great thing in a sailor to know how to sing well, for he gets a great name by it from the officers, and a good deal of popularity among his shipmates. Some sea-captains, before shipping a man, always ask him whether he can sing out at a rope.
//

pg. 156
//
A thorough sailor must understand much of other avocations. …he must be a bit of a musician, in order to sing out at the halyards.
//

[CHEERLY} again for catting anchor. pg.303
//
Owing to a strong breeze, which had been blowing up the river for four days past, holding wind-bound in the various docks a multitude of ships for all parts of the world; there was now under weigh, a vast fleet of merchantmen, all steering broad out to sea. The white sails glistened in the clear morning air like a great Eastern encampment of sultans; and from many a forecastle, came the deep mellow old song Ho-o-he-yo, cheerily men! as the crews catted their anchors.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 02:00 AM

The first "chantey sing"?

1926        Unknown. "Sea Chanteys Kept Alive. Sailors' Club in London is Collecting and Preserving the Old Songs of Sail." New York Times (7 Nov. 1926).

Seven Seas Club of London, holding monthly dinners. After formalities, people invited to sing chanteys. Examples mentioned: [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] ("O Blow the man down from Liverpool Town…") and [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] ("I nebber see de like since I bin born, When a big buck nigger wid his seaboots on, Says Johnny come down to Hilo, Poor ole man…") and "The Stately Southerner" (author of this article mixes up work and non-work songs) and [SACRAMENTO] ("As I was walking on the quay, Hoodah, to my hoodah…") and [SANTIANA] ("He won the day at Monterey, All on the plains of Mexico…") and [BONEY] ("Prooshians…") and [REUBEN RANZO] ("Now he's Captain Ranzo…") and [DRUNKEN SAILOR}and [SHENANDOAH] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [A-ROVING] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] ("Heave Away! My Bullies" and [RIO GRANDE] and "High Barbaree."

They were singing "Terry's" version of "JCD to Hilo".

This is the group for which Sampson was requested to compile his shanty book.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 02:16 AM

Brief statement on how RW Gordon viewed (part of) the development of chanties.

1927        Gordon, Robert W. "The Folk Songs of America: A Hunt on Hidden Trails." _New York Times_ (2 Jan. 1927).

//
With the sailor chanteys he did much the same thing [as with camp-meeting hymns > spirituals]. The negro on the docks heard them sung by white sailors. He borrowed them with minor variations. Those he liked he rebuilt to suit better his own tasks and later he invented new chanties on the old model.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 04:54 AM

Gordon published a series of articles related to his work in the NYT in 1927. My last post comes from the first, introductory article in the series. The following is his work-songs article, which is focused on songs collected from Black men in the Southeast U.S. Evidently, though he uses the term "chantey" for these (yet also says they are "related to chanteys"), he has kept them distinct from the deepwater songs he collected.

1927        Gordon, Robert W. "Folk Songs of America: Work Chanteys." _New York Times_ (16 Jan. 1927).

Observes that texts are fluid. Only rhythm, basic tune, and refrain remain the same.

Section: "Related to Chanteys"

Songs collected on southern coast of Georgia,
First 2 are pulling chanteys.

Says "Riley" is
//
…in fact an adaptation of the white chantey "Old Stormy" though the tune is different. "Hilup, Boys, Hilo" probably came to the negro through the crew of some timber schooner. "Zekiel" is pure negro.
//
These seem to me poor examples in supporting an argument of the adaptation of White men's songs. The only connection I *see* to "Stormy" is the verse about wishing you were Such-n-such's son. But Gordon goes through pains to emphasize the fluidity of texts, so I see no reason to suggest it is an "adaptation" of the "white chantey"!

"Riley": "typical song often used on the docks". I think it has the flavour of [TOMMY'S GONE]:
//
Riley, Riley, where were you?
        Ho, Riley, ho, man!
Riley, Riley, where were you?
        Ho, Riley, row!

Riley gone to Liverpool. [x2]

Wish I were Cap'n Riley's son.

I'd lay down town an' drink good rum.

Riley lived till his head got bald.

Got out de notion o' dyin' at all.

Think I heard my captain say
"Tomorrer is our sailin' day!"
//

"quick time" chanty [HILO BOYS]. Is this the original source of a similar song that Charley has in his notes (supposed to have been reproduced in Southern's _Music of Black Americans_)?
//
O dis de day to roll an' go,
        Hilup, boys, hilo!
O dis de day to roll an' go,
        Hilup, boys, hilo!

De captain say "Tomorrow day"
"Tomorrow is my sailin' day"

O hit her hard and jam her lo.
O roll dat cotton in de hol'.
//

for slow time:
//
O Zekiel, when de Lord called Zekiel
        Tell dem dry bones live again!
O Zekiel, when de Lord called Zekiel
        Tell dem dry bones live again!

Think I heard my captain say, sir,
"Tomorrow is our sailin' day, sir,"

Think I heard my header say, sir,
"In de hold his [dis?] piece mus' go, sir"

Noble cap'n an' a bully crew, sir,
Need a bar to make him go, sir,

…
Ole hen cackle an' de rooster crow, sir
In de hol' dis a piece a mus' a go, sir,

Think I heard my captain say, sir,
One more heave an' dat will do, sir,
//

Notes that songs used in hammering are quite different. They have the coordinated grunt rather than a chorus.

Section: "Haunting Rowing Songs"

Formerly used along coastal regions of Geogia and the Carolinas. "…there is in many of them a depth of feeling not to be found in the other work songs." Suggests they are like "spirituals slightly made over". Too late to collect them, long boats with 6-8 men have pract disappeared. Up to Civil War, great island plantations had boat crews that took intense pride in both their rowing and singing skill.

On "Butler's" they wore uniforms. Largest boat of that plantation was called The Whale (destroyed in 1898) – but long before that singing crews were a thing of the past.

Leader sang in tenor, response in lower key. Lines overlapped "with curious effectiveness." All three of the following songs were sung to Gordon by men who had rowed in The Whale.

"Kneebow/kneebone". Feels a bit like [SHALLOW BROWN]

//
Kneebow when I call you,
        O Lord, kneebow!
Kneebow, O knee bow,
        O Lord, kneebow ben'!

Kneebow in baptism groun'.
Kneebow to de buryin' groun'.

Kneebow, O kneebow.
Kneebow to the elbow.

Bend my knees in de mornin'.
Kneebow ben' to save my soul.

Bend my knees in de evenin'.
Kneebow ben', de soul set free.

Elbow, O elbow.
I bend my knees, de boat do fly.
//

"My Army Cross Over"
//
O Lord, my army.
        My army cross over!
O Lord, my army.
        My army cross over!

How you do de crossin'?
Jedus [sic] help me over.

Cross him once a'ready.
Cross de mighty water.

Cross de river of Jordan.
Cross de mighty water.

Help me cross de ocean!
Jedus help me over!

Tell my Sister Sarah good-bye
Tell my sisters good-bye.

Cross dat mighty water. [x2]

Humor seldom appears in the rowing songs. Most are sad in tone and sung to slow and rather mournful tunes.
//

an exception:
//
Sandfly bite me, sen' for de doctor.
        Farewell, Lord, I gwine!
Sandfly bite me, sen' for de doctor.
        Farewell, Lord, I gwine!

O-o-oh, carry me over! [x2]

When I git over yonder I kick back Satan!
Git over yonder I kick back Satan!

O my lovin' mother!
I done forever!

Sandfly bite me, sen' for de doctor.
I done forever!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Aug 11 - 04:38 AM

In 1931, JM Carpenter published a series of 3 articles on his shanty research in the NYT. Here are excerpts from his second article. I've not yet attempted to collate these texts with others appearing in his collection.

1931        Carpenter, James M. "Life Before the Mast: A Chantey Log." New York Times (19 July 1931).

This installment describes typical chanteying events, supported by text examples. The surrounding notes are rather generic and I've not reproduced them.

[RIO GRANDE]
//
Boys, man the capstan and let us away.
Away-ay-ay-ee, Rio!
Boys, man the capstan and let us away.
For we're bound for the Rio Grande.
Then away-ay, Rio!
Away-ay-ay-ee, Rio!
Sing fare you well, my bonny young gal,
For we're bound for the Rio Grande!

Where are you going to, my pretty maid!
I'm going a milking, kind sir, she said,
//

Continues the capstan scene with [SACRAMENTO]
//…the crisp staccato of "The Banks of the Sacramento," which, with its Negro exuberance, tickles the heels of the sailors as they grind around the capstan:

When I was young and in my prime,
And a-hoo-dah! And a-hoo-dah!
I served my time in the Black Ball Line,
And a-hoo-dah, hoo-dah-day!
For Californi-o-o!
Blow, boys, blow!
There's plenty of gold, so I've been told,
On the banks of Sacramento!

Punkin puddin', an' a Injun pie,
De black cat kick out de gray cat's eye.
Oh, my ole missus she tole me
That when she die, she gwina set me free.
//

Doesn't say this verse from [BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND] was a chanty, but I think its being in the article implies it.
//
As I was a-lying in my bunk
And lying there alone,
I dreamt I was in Liverpool
Or down in the Marlebone,
With a rosy lass upon my knee,
And her at my command.
//

[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
//
Oh, whisky is the life of man
Whisky, Johnnie!
Oh, I'll drink whisky when I can,
Whisky for my Johnnie!

And when we doubled Old Cape Horn,
I was so cold and, oh, forlorn.

I wish I had some whiskey now,
I'd tip her up, and down she'd go.

Whisky made the Old Man cough,
Whisky made the bo's'n laugh.

Oh, my Old Duchess she likes gin,
And gin she'll have when she's got the tin.
…
Whisky killed my poor old dad,
Whisky druv my mother mad,
//

[HAUL AWAY JOE]
//
Way. haul away, Oh, haul away,my Rosy!
Way, haul away! Haul away—Joe!

Oh, once I had an Irish girl, and she was fat and lazy,

And then I had a Scotch girl, and she was thin and crazy,

And next I had a Yankee girl, and she was just a daisy,

And then I had a nigger girl, and she drove me ravin' crazy.

Oh, will you haul away, we will either bust or bend her,

Oh, will you haul away, if we bust her we can mend her.
//

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
A Yankee ship comes down the river,
Blow, boys, blow!
Her masts and yards they shine like silver,
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

Then came tbe question, "Who d'ye s'pose wsa ca.ptaln of her?" To
this there was a a series of ribald answers, such as:

One-eyed Kelly, the bowery runner,
Snowball Sam, the flat-foot nigger,
Bully Jones, the California digger,
Bully Brown, the limejuice robber,
Captain Drunk, the horse-bull driver.

And after that the chanteyman had more fun with the query,
"What d' ye s'pose they had for dinner?" Here imagination ran
riot with responses like:

Pickled eel's feet and nigger's liver.
Monkey's gizzard and cock-a-roach liver.
Mosquito's heart and sandfly's liver.
Belaying pin soup and monkey's liver.
The starboard side of an old sou'-wester.
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
Oh, poor old Ruben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Oh, pity poor Ruben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!

Oh, Ranzo was no sailor,
He might have been a tailor,

Now Ranzo took a notion
That he would plough the ocean.

So he sold his plough and harrow
And his pony to a laidy.

He went to London City
Where the barmaids are so pretty.

And now he's Captain Ranzo,
And he ploughs the briny ocean.
//

[HANGING JOHNNY]
//
Oh, they call me Hanging Johnnie,
Hurrah, hurrah!
Because I hang so many,
So it's hang, boys, hang!

Oh first I hung my mother
And then I hung my brother.

I hung my sister Sally;
I swung her in the galley,

I hung my brother Billy
Because he seemed so silly.
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
We're homeward bound for New York Town.
Good-bye, fare you well! Good-bye, fare you well!
We're homeward bound lor New York Town.
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound!

And when we arrive in the Carrier Dock,
There the boys and girls around us will flock.
And one to another you'll hear them say,
"O here comes Jack with nine months' pay!"
Now it's "John, get up and let Jack sit down,
For you know that he is homeward bound!"
//

[ROLLING HOME]
//
Call all hands to man the capstan,
See your cable runs all clear,
For very soon we'll weigh our anchor,
And for Old England we will steer.
If you all heave with a will, boys,
We will soon our anchor trip,
And upon the briny ocean
We'll steer our gallant ship.

Rolling home, rolling home!
Rolling home across the sea!
Rolling home to dear Old England,
Rolling home, dear land, to thee!
//

[JAMBOREE]
//
Now my boys, be of good cheer,
For the Irish lands are drawing near;
Tomorrow night we'll rise Cape Clear,
Oh, Jenny, get your hoe-cake done!
//

[ONE MORE DAY]
//
Only one more day, me Johnnie,
One more day!
Oh, come rock and roll me over.
Only one more day!

Only one more day a-reefing,
Only one more day a-furling.
//

[LEAVE HER JOHNNY]
//
The work was hard, the voyage long,
Leave her, Johnnie, leave her!
The seas were high, the gales were strong,
It's time for us to leave her!

The skipper's name was Bully Brown,
If you looked at him, he would knock you down,
//

[GO TO SEA NO MORE]
//
While my money did last, I went full fast;
I got drunk as drunk could be;
I was roving round all day, me boys,
And at night I did far more.
Then I made up my mind with fellows blind
To go to sea no more.

No more, no more!
No more, Oh, no more!
If ever I'm landed safe again,
I'll go to sea no more!
…

I'll take your advance and give you a chance
Once more, once more!
Once more, Oh, once more!
To try the sea once more!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 02:32 AM

1978        Rosenberg, Neil V. and Deborah G. Kodish, ed. _"Folk-songs of America": The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932_. Library of Congress. LP.

Two major phases of Gordon's work seem of most interest to this topic. One is his collecting in the San Francisco Bay area; the other is his collecting in Georgia. As seen in the 1927 article of his posted above, he connected deepwater chanties with Black folk songs.

From the Introduction of the liner notes:

//
…Gordon spent much of his time collecting songs on the Oakland and San Francisco waterfronts, where he won the cooperation of stevedores, sailors, captains, hoboes, and convicts…

During his years in California, 1917-24, Gordon gathered more than one thousand shanties and sea songs, at least three hundred of which he recorded on cylinders, making his the largest collection of maritime songs then in existence. Gordon was not interested in the sheer number of texts; instead he hoped to learn from this large body of data something of the role that Afro-American traditions and popular minstrel show materials played in the development of the sea shanty. He was successful in his fieldwork, but most of his colleagues in Berkeley's English department failed to recognize it. Few of them knew what he was doing on the waterfront, and many expressed the wish that he would spend his time in more orthodox academic pursuits…
//

Here are the relevant items on this album.

Two chanties in Frisco Bay.
//
…almost certainly recorded in the San Francisco Bay Area, probably in Oakland, in the early twenties. The singer appears to have been a veteran of sailing ships, for he begins the first song with appropriate instructions to the short-haul crew.
//

First, a relative if [ROLL THE WOODPILE], in a sweating-up style.
//
…Aside from it's use as a shanty, it has stylistic and historical connections with the minstrel stage. Doerflinger (p.350) dates it from an 1887 songster, Delaney's Song Book No.3, where the words are credited to Edward Harrigan. Sheet music copyrighted in 1887 by William A. Pond & Co., New York, also credits the words to Harrigan, gives the score to Dave Braham, and adds the information "As sung in Edward Harrigan's drama, "Pete"(in Harrigan and Braham's Popular Songs As Sung by Harrigan and Hart, Volume 2, New York: Wm. A. Pond & Co., 1892, pp.51-52)…

HAUL THE WOODPILE DOWN
Gordon cyl.50, ms. Cal. 104B 

Anon,
Bay Area, California,
Early 1920s

Spoken:
Cast her up! Sweat up that weather main brace.
Fetch on there, boys, look to it, come on,
Shake a leg, all together now.

Sung:

Yankee John with his sea boots on,

Haul the woodpile down.

Yankee John with his sea boots on,

Haul the woodpile down.

Way down in Florida,
Way down in Florida,
Way down in Florida,

Haul the woodpile down.
//

[ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT]
//
"Roll the Old Chariot Along" has direct connections with black folk music of the nineteenth century, appearing in most of the standard collections of spirituals (Dett, pp. 192-93; Fenner and Rathbun, pp. 106-7; Johnson, pp. 110-11). Sandburg published a variant (pp. 196-97), and it has also been noted by collectors of shanties, including Hugill (pp. 150-51) and Doerflinger (pp. 49-50, 357). A version of this was sent to Gordon by an Adventure reader (3758) and he collected another text in California (Cal. 243). There were many black sailors on the crews of nineteenth-century vessels. They brought with them traditions of work songs, and their songs, religious and secular, were usually rhythmic and thus suited for the many kinds of gang labor needed on the big sailing ships. Gordon devoted a chapter in Folk-Songs of America to "Negro work songs from Georgia" (pp. 13-19).

ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG
Gordon cyl. 50, ms. Cal. 104A

Anon,
Bay Area, California,
Early 1920s

Roll the old chariot along

And we'll roll the old chariot along

And we'll roll the old chariot along

And we'll all hang on behind.
If the devil's in the way,
We'll roll it over him

If the devil's in the way,
Why we'll roll it over him,

If the devil's in the way,
We'll roll it over him.

And we'll all hang on behind.
//

Continuing Gordon's bio,
//
By Christmas 1925, Gordon had been living away from his family for more than a year. The separation was difficult, emotionally and financially, and he decided to move to a field station on the southern coast of Georgia--to Darien, the childhood home of Mrs. Gordon. The reunited family occupied a two-room house, and Gordon resumed work, eagerly setting out to record the Afro-American traditions of the Georgia coast. The rowing songs and the boat songs which he discovered are represented on this record by the performances of Mary C. Mann and J. A. S. Spencer. Mary Mann, a deaconess at a local black church, had organized a school in Darien in which she taught young black women the domestic skills they needed to find employment. Mary Mann had a large repertoire herself, and she encouraged her students and members of her church to contribute their songs to Gordon as well…

In July 1928, Herbert Putnam, the Librarian of Congress, appointed Gordon "specialist and consultant in the field of Folk Song and Literature." Gordon later proposed a title that he thought would appeal more to the imagination of the general public: director of the Archive of American Folk Song.
During the first year of the archive's existence, Gordon remained in Darien collecting the shouts, rowing songs, rags, reels, and turning songs that were of primary importance in the study of American folk song and of special significance in learning how folksongs start and spread….
//

One recorded example is a rowing song.
//
Mary Mann's second song is, in her words, a "boat song". Such songs are familiar in the Georgia Sea Islands. In "Negro Work Songs From Georgia," Gordon described the rowing songs which he collected. He found them "very close to spirituals—some of them are spirituals slightly made over." …
This song, like Mann's first, shares the non-stanzaic construction noted by Gordon for rowing songs. The contrast between strophic construction found in European folksong and the litany form found in Africa supports Gordon's argument that these songs in Mann's repertoire represent an early stage in the progress from African to Afro-American folksong traditions. Gordon collected several other rowing songs from Mann; he also collected another version of "Finger Ring" from a Darien informant (A285, GA75). Mann's statement at the end refers to Mrs. (Roberta Paul) Gordon, whom Mann had known since childhood.

FINGER RING
Gordon cyl. A345, Item GA122

Mary C. Mann,
Darien, Georgia,
April 12, 1926

I lost mama's finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring,

I lost mama finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring,

I lost my mama finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring.

I lost my mama finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring.

I know how, I know how to row the boat,

I know how, I know how to row the boat,

I know how to row the boat,
I can row the boat just so, finger ring, the finger ring.

I can row the boat just so, finger ring, the finger ring.
I can row, I can row the Bumble Bee,

I can how, I know how to row the Bee,

I know how to row the Bee, Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.
I know how to row the Bee, the Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.

I know how to row the boat, the Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.

I know how to row the boat, the Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.

I lost mama, I lost mama finger ring,

I lost mama, I lost my mama finger ring, finger ring,
the finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring.

I know how to row the boat, Bumble Bee, Bumble Bee.

Spoken:
This is Miss Roberta Paul's, Paul's "boat song" that I have sung just now—the "Finger Ring."…
//

Then come tracks from Georgia of shanties.
//
From rowing songs to sea shanties in black song tradition is a logical step, for during the nineteenth-century black seamen and dock workers had an important effect upon shantying traditions.
//

First version of [BLOW BOYS BLOW]:
//
J. A. S. Spencer's "Blow Boys Blow" is what Gordon called a "quick time" shanty (Gordon, p. 14) with an unusual text and a familiar refrain. Doboy sound is on the Atlantic coast of Georgia, just north of Darien.

BLOW BOYS BLOW (1)
Gordon cyl. A479, Item GA252

J. A. S. Spencer
Darien, Georgia [?]
 May 11, 1926

The prettiest girl in Doboy town,

Blow, boys, blow.

Her name is fancy Nellie Brown,

Blow, my bully boys, blow.



Heave her high and let her go,

Heave her high and let her blow,


The prettiest girl I ever knew,

She wear the red morraca shoe,

The prettiest girl I ever saw,

She's always riding the white horse,


The prettiest boy in Doboy town,

His name is Little Johnny Brown,

Heave her high and let her go,

Heave her high and jam her low,
//

Second version of [BLOW BOYS BLOW]:
//
It is not known where or when Gordon recorded A. Wilkins, who sang good versions of both "Blow Boys Blow" and "Haul Away" in a splendid voice. Adventure correspondents sent Gordon four other versions of this "Blow Boys Blow" (770, 1033, 1642, 2362). …

BLOW BOYS BLOW (2)
Gordon cyl. G100, Item Misc.188

A. Wilkins [?]
Place and date unknown

Oh, blow, my boys, for I love to hear you,

Blow, boys, blow;

Oh blow, my boys, for I long to hear you,

Blow, my bully boys, blow.

Oh, a Yankee ship dropping down the river,

It's a Yankee ship dropping down the river,

Now, how do you know she's a Yankee clipper?

Her spars and decks they shine like silver,
Oh who do you think was the chief mate of her?

Oh, Skys'l Taylor, the Frisco slugger,

And who do you think was the chief cook of her?

Oh big black Sam, the Baltimore nigger,

And what do you think we had for dinner?
A monkey's legs and a monkey's liver,

And what do you think we had for supper?

The starboard side of an old sou'wester,

//

[HAUL AWAY JOE]
//
…The testimony of sailors is that this song was one to which improvisation occurred freely, and the verses which Wilkins sings here are a mixture of the familiar (verse one) and the novel (verse two). …Gordon collected a version of this in California (Cal. 249).

HAUL AWAY
Gordon cyl. G100, Item Misc.190

A. Wilkins [?]
Eastern U. S. [?]
1930-32 [?]

Away, haul away, a-haul away, my Rosie,

Away, haul away, a-haul away, Joe.

I wish I was in Ireland, a diggin' turf an' taters,


But now I'm in a Yankee ship, a-pullin cleats [sheets] and braces,


Once I loved an Irish gal and she was double jointed,


I thought she had a double chin but I was disappointed,


Away, haul away, the old man he's a-growlin',


Away, haul away, our oats are growing mouldy;


Away, haul away, the bloody ship is rollin',

//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 03:21 AM

I have included here the chanties or chanty-relevant songs contained in Gordon's manuscript collections that were filed in the bawdy-songs "Inferno" collection. This was only because that collection was available to me on-line. Does anyone know if transcripts of the other manuscripts are publicly accessible on-line, or must one go to the Library of Congress?

Written down by R.M. Davids, Cross X Ranch, Woodmere Florida, c. 1924. Sent in to R.W. Gordon by J.C. Colcord 12/21/29.

[A-ROVING]
//
I'LL GO NO MORE A ROVING
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

Now mark well what I say.

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

And she was mistress of a trade.
I'll go no more a roving, for you fair maid,

I'll go no more a roving, for rovings been my ruin,

I'll go no more a roving, for you fair maid.

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

And she did have a maidenhead.
I laid this maid down on the bed,
 

And slote away her maidenhead.
I laid this maid over in such style

That in nine months she had a child.
//


Texts acquired by Robert Winslow Gordon while he lived in California, ca. 1920-23.

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN] Contributor unidentified.
//
BLOW THE MAN DOWN.---
Oh blow the man down, bullies blow him away

To my Way-Hay-ay Blow the man down

Oh blow the man down, bullies blow him away

Give me some time to blow the man down.

As I was a walking down Paradise Street

A pretty young damsel, I happened to meet.

I said where are you ging, my pretty maid

I'm going a-milking, kind sir she said.

Then I smiled at this damsel, so beautous to see

And said-pretty maiden will you milk me.

Oh no Sir she answered, oh no sir not I

If I was to milk you I'd milk you too dry.

I gave her 5 shillings, she took me in tow

And away to her stateroom we quickly did go.

As I stripped off my dunnage and jumped into bed

This fair maid she scared me till I was nearly dead.

Her catheads came off when she took off her dress

Also with her bonnet came off her bright tress.

Then she unscrewed her left leg-unhooked her right ear

By that time believe me, I was feelin' dam queer.

When she spat out her teeth, and gouged out her right eye,
I grabbed up my dunnage, and left her to die.

Take warnin' my hearties, when you go ashore

Steer clear of false riggins & moor to a whore.

A.M. Turner, 8/24/23.
[FIRE DOWN BELOW] "Pumping or Capstan chanty"
//
FIRE DOWN BELOW
Oh there's fire in the fo'c'sle, all hands on deck

Fire down below

There's fire in the fore-peak, comin' thru the deck

There's fire down below.

There's fire in the fore-top, fire in the main

We thought we had it drownded, there it comes again.

There's fire in the cabin, fire in the poop,

There's a fire in the galley, burnin' up the soup.

The old man he's a terror, allays cussin' at the crew,

If this old wagon burns, me boys, he'll only get his due.

The old woman she's a pissin', she's spoutin' like a whale

The ocean is a risin' way 'bove the t'gallant rail.

Pass along the buckets boys, and let the old girl spout

Double bank the pump my sons, we'll drownd the ----- out.
//

[HANDY MY BOYS] "To' gallan's'l halyards chanty."
//
HANDY, ME BOYS, BE HANDY.
As I was a strollin' one fine summer day

So handy, my boys, so handy,

A rosy cheeked damsel, I met on the way

By handy, me boys, be handy.

She passed out her hawser and took me in tow

I shortened all sail and away we did go.


She led me to her father's halls

To a beautiful garden inside the walls.

And there I embraced this pretty maid

And love me, Oh love me, kind sir, she said.


Then she led me to her snowhite bed

And I hugged her there till she was dead.
//

[BLOW YE WINDS] "Fragment—Capstan Chanty"
//
Three times they give you peasoup

Three tines they give you duff

On Saturdays they give you rice

To make you blow and puff .
So blow ye winds in the mornin'
Blow ye winds Aye Oh

We're outward boun' in the ship Renown

To the port of Callao.
//

[SACRAMENTO]?
//
RIKKI DIKKI DOO DA DAY
One night I slept with an English maid

Dooda dooda

A virgin pure as the snow--she said

Rikki dikki doo da day.

She swore that I was her very first love

And gave me her maidenhead by the Gods above.

I spent all my payday in buying her clothes

But all that she gave me was a dam dirty dose.

So every night when I go out to piss

I curse the whore who gave me this.

Now all you young sailors take my advice

Don't play with virgin women, for you'll have to pay the price.
//

J.N. West, Bayonne, New Jersey, 11/10/24.
[SALLY BROWN]
//
SALLY BROWN
Oh Sally Brown my love grows bigger

But for Heavens sake don't f-ck that nigger.
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A LONG TIME AGO
I wish to God that I'd never been born

To me way-hey-heyan.

To go rambling round and round Cape Horn,

A long time ago.

Around Cape Horn where the wild winds blow,

Around Cape Horn through sleet and snow.

It's a long, long time since I've had a glass rum

Oh, if I was the skipper I'd give the crew some.

Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a "short time".
[This and some more lines of like character were repeated twice.]
Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a good "f-ck",

Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a good "f-ck".


And it's a long, long time since I've had a sore cock.


And it's a long, long time since my last "chancre" went.


Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a "whole night".
//


[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] with (?)[GO TO SEA NO MORE]
//
"I cannot remember some lines that are missing and
anyway this whole thing seems garbled to me but that's
how I heard it from an old Irishman."

ROLL THE COTTON DOWN
Oh, when last I was in Frisco Town

Roll the cotton down,

I never ever will forget

Oh, roll the cotton down.

I was drinking steam beer all day long

Until I could drink no more, no more.

And I felt in my mind full inclined

That I would go to sea no more.

Oh, last night I slept with "Angelina"

An' she was afeared and wouldn't turn in.

But when I woke up next morning

All my clothes and money then had fled.

Oh, when I was walking down the street

All the whores and pimps were roaring.

See there goes poor Jack to sea once more

So I went down to a boarding house.

Which was kept by Mister "Shang Haj" Brown

Says he, I'll give you a chance and take your advance.

And send you to sea once more

So he shipped me on a whaler.

Who was bound for the cold antartic seas

An' I had no money to buy clothes.

And Lord almighty how I froze.
//


John R. Spears, Utica, New York, 3/20/25.
[RIO GRANDE]
//
"Then they began at the top and sang it over again
until the cable was up and down. They were supported—
at least once I remember--by the captain--a Norwegian.-
I remember that when I went to Greenland on the bark Argenta for a load of cryolite the sailors usually sang
Sunday School songs, learned at the bethels, instead of
chanteys, and those were sung at the windlass only.
They never sang when making sail. On smother bark in
the port (Ivighet [?]) the men sang 'Away Rio' over and
over again--no other song of any kind."

AWAY RIO
Oh where are you going to my pretty maid?

Away Rio!

Oh where are you going to my pretty maid?

And we're bound to Rio Grande.

"I'm going out milking, sor," she said.

May I go with you my pretty maid?

"Oh, yes, if you please, kind sir," she said.

Well then will you diddle me, my pretty maid?

"Oh, yes, if you please, kind sir," she said.
//


R.W. Yearley, Quincy, Illinois, 5/28/26
[SLAPANDER]
//
A young Dutch soldier came over the Rhine,

Schnapoo, schnapoo,

A young Dutch soldier came over the Rhine,

Schnapoo, schnapoo,

A young Dutch soldier came over the Rhine,

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -,
Schnapoo, schnapoo,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Schnapoo.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No, my daughter is too young,

Schnapoo, schnapoo,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

O no, mother, I'm not too young,

O no, mother, I'm not too young,

Oh no mother, I'm not too young,

It's often been tried by Richard and John,

//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 11:01 AM

Gibb, thanks for putting up the Carpenter and the Gordon materials, especially from Gordon's "Inferno" collection. At least we know that there were chanties being sung in San Francisco area in the 1920's! I don't suppose Gordon gives any indication about how far back these songs might go in that area. This is the kind of material that I had hoped to find 75 years earlier, but without success on the "San Francisco to Sydney" thread.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 11:30 AM

Gibb-

Do we know any more about "R.M. Davids, Cross X Ranch, Woodmere Florida, c. 1924"?

I suppose if the Colcord archives at the Penobscot Maritime Museum were in any kind of order, one could find some information there. But unfortunately they are in almost total disarray.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 03:57 PM

Hi guys,

I am just collating this material from online. It's starting to make a little more sense to me now that I have a better perspective on Gordon's bio. The retrospective album on Gordon's work is here:
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Gordon/AnnotationsandTexts.html

And a reproduction of the Inferno collection is here:

http://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1910s/1917-1933_gordon_inferno_collectio

I drew out only the texts I considered to be relevant to chanties development. There are of course other sailor-ly songs like Abrahm Brown, Madamoiselle from Armentierres, etc.

In addition to these, there are the texts from Gordon's 1927 NYT articles, that I put above.

There are Gordon's articles in _Adventure_ magazine.

There's the 1938 book, which I haven't seen, based on stuff Gordon Collected, _Folk-Songs of America_.

Lighter provided a list of shanties recorded by Gordon, posted upthread on Feb. 22. However, I am confused by the discrepancy between that number of items and the supposedly "over 300" sailor song items that the LP liner notes say he recorded.

If you guys have any other texts from the Gordon manuscript collections (there are supposedly hundreds?), picked up here or there, please consider posting them.

To answer your question, Charley, my guess is that Colcord collected some "unprintable" songs during her research. I seem to remember my friend Revell Carr saying these unprintable songs were gathered somewhere in manuscript form. I don't know if the one's she sent to Gordon, i.e. those in Inferno collection, correspond. The Inferno has 13 items, but I only considered 1 (A-Roving) to be useful here.
I know there has been discussion of this, but don't remember where. The question would be whether any of Colcord's informants would have sung indecent songs in her presence. If they didn't perhaps it is only these 13 items that she got, which had to be written down and "submitted" by someone else to alleviate the awkwardness. Just speculating.

I don't have Colcord's book with me. Is RM Davids mentioned as an informant?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 04:23 PM

R. M. Davids is acknowledged, among others, as an informant and a former seafarer who had "swallowed the anchor." Preface, p. 11, Songs of American Sailormen, Joanna C. Colcord, Bramhill House, NYC, © 1938.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 04:53 PM

Thanks, Charley.

That brings up the question of whether Colcord went to Florida, or if the information Davids gave was purely through written correspondence.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 08:20 PM

I realize that the posts I've been making recently may seem haphazard. This is partly because I am going through bits here and there where I've noted references to chanties, and just now trying to consider them.

But the other thing I am working on, slightly more coherent, is the recorded field sources. These included:

-The stuff from Library of Congress on the American Sea Songs and Shanties album (posted earlier)
-A couple more tracks from Capt. L. Robinson from those sessions
-Gordon collection stuff
-Carpenter collection stuff
-Lomax stuff

These are what's on my radar right now. I'd appreciate other sources.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 08:30 PM

1977        Jones, Bessie & The Georgia Sea Island Singers. _Georgia Sea Island Songs_. New World Records 80278.

From the Notes by Alan Lomax.

1960 Lomax made his first trip to the Sea Islands and recorded people led by singers surviving from Parrish's day.
//
Lydia (Mrs. Maxfield) Parrish, wife of the painter, had much to do with the authenticity of the songs in this collection…

She sponsored the formation of a society of the best singers and dancers, the Spiritual Singers of Georgia, whose members each received a button distinguishing him or her as a "Star Chorister" and signified that he or she was a folk singer and dancer in the old tradition. The regular meetings and performances of this group afforded an opportunity for the best singers on the island to continue their art and to keep alive a
remarkable body of songs and an even more remarkable musical style, very African in character. I first heard them when I visited St. Simons in l935, in the company of Zora Neale Hurston, the great black folklorist, who had worked with Mrs. Parrish. When I returned twenty-five years later with a stereo rig adequate to record this multipart music, I was greeted as an old friend. During that visit I recorded Group A (as designated in the notes that follow), led by surviving members of the original island singers, Joe Armstrong and Willis Proctor.
//

Later, the group "the Sea Islands Singers," was formed to tour the country and present the style, composed of Big John Davis, the community leader; Bessie Jones, song leader; Peter Davis, bass; Henry Morrison, Emma Ramsay, and Mable Hillary.

A few work songs are on the album, but I've only seen fit to excerpt two here. And the first, "Raggy Levy," is only to elucidate Parrish's text. Though classified it under the category of chantey, I am having a hard to envisioning it as the sort of song that could correspond with sailor worksongs. It has the "grunt" that, like in menhaden chanties, comes *after* a line of singing. The performers are the touring troupe: John Davis, leader; Peter Davis, Bessie Jones, Henry Morrison, and Willis Proctor.
//
Raggy Levy

In this black stevedore's song (part of the family that inspired so many better-known chanties) made for lifting or pulling heavy weights, the pulls come at the end of every pair of lines. The meaning is obscure. The song peers back into a long-dead time of rising soon (early) in the morning to sit by the fireplace and breakfast off sweet potatoes roasting in the ashes, and of fences built by hand of piled-up stones. Who Mr. Sippelin was or what ill fate overtook poor Raggy Levy to reduce him to a
jaybird's condition I could not determine. However, it's a great song for singing.

Leader: Oh, Raggy Levy,
Group: Oho! Raggy Levy,
L: Oh, Raggy Levy,
G: Poor boy, he's ragged as a jaybird.

L: In the mornin',
G: Oho! soon in the mornin',
L: In the mornin'
G: When I rise, I'm goin' ta sit by the fiah.

L: Mr. Sippelin,
G: Hi gonna build me a stone fence,
(Repeat)

L: Sweet potato,
G: Oho! Sweet potato,
L: Sweet potato,
G: Poor boy, got two in the fiah,

L: Mr. Sippelin,
G: Hi gonna build me a stone fence.

L: Sweet potato,
G: Oho! Sweet potato,
L: Oh, sweet potato,
G: Poor boy, got two in the fiah.

L: Old Mr. Sippelin,
G: Hi build another stone fence.

L: Raggy Levy,
G: Oho! Raggy Levy.
L: Raggy Levy,
G: Poor boy, just raggy as a jaybird.
//
When Lomax said that this kind of song inspired chanties, I think perhaps he is just vamping off the idea, so far as that formally the genres are a bot different. However, Lomax's choice of wording, "the pulls come at the end of every pair of lines," reminds me of Nordhoff's description of cotton screwing. Perhaps it was that the cotton screwers did not exert themselves at timed points within the text, but rather after the lines, with a grunt. If so, that would alow for songs to be sung slow, ametrically, and with rubato/melisma. Nordhoff didn't mention grunts ("hunh!"), but then again, neither does Lomax, here.

One can hear a sample of the track and the following one here:

http://www.allmusic.com/album/georgia-sea-island-songs-r88371

The other chantey is [MONEY DOWN]. This rendition, I believe, is a sort of reproduction of the version collected by Parrish. Recorded in 1960, with Joe Armstrong, leader; Jerome Davis, John Davis, Peter Davis, Bessie Jones, Henry Morris, Willis Proctor, and Ben Ramsay.
//
Pay Me
(arr. Lydia Parrish)

A stevedore song long ago preempted and made famous by the Weavers…

Chorus
Pay me, oh, pay me,
Pay me my money down.
Pay me or go to jail,
Pay me my money down.

Think I heard my captain say,
Pay me my money down,
Tomorrow is my sailin' day,
Pay me my money down.
(Chorus)

Wish I was Mrs. Alfred Jones's son,
Pay me my money down.
I'd stay in the house and drink good rum,
Pay me my money down.
(Chorus)
//

I am surprised they are also singing this with "hunh!" Parrish did not indicate that. And yet (unlike Raggy Levy), this does have a halyard chanty form and would not seem to call for the grunts.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: RTim
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 08:38 PM

This Thread should be printed as a book!!!!!!!

Tim

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Aug 11 - 04:43 PM

Carpenter's writing is of much interest for its role in the discussions both of how chanties developed and how *writing about* chanties developed. His belief was that African-American work songs were a major contributing element to the form of chanties, and that chanties did not exist in great numbers until after Dana's time. These are the sort of ideas that have been voiced on this thread (though all may not agree, it is my opinion at least), after studying the literary evidence available. What is significant is that Carpenter arrived at those ideas without so much of a literary survey (though he did read certain things, say Alden's 1882 article, though I'm not sure of the extent of what else). Rather, his material was the recordings he gathered and the statements of his informants. Living at the time he did, he was able to do real ethnography and oral history. The troupe of folklorists in Sharp's school did also do fieldwork, but their style differed in that they always accomopanied their discussions with a run-down of what prior authors on the subject had said. I think that all that secondary reading, though necessary in scholarship, colored their presentations in a way that Carpenter's, perhaps, was not.

Carpenter, Gordon, and to some extent, Lomax, all ended up with similar thrusts of emphasis and conclusions about chanty development. These, I think, were on a different "track" than those of the early British folklorists *and* the writers who followed in the vein of what one might call "secondary-source collating." It may be significant that all three men were American and all did extensive field recording in America.

1931        Carpenter, James M. "Lusty Chanteys from Long-dead Ships." New York Times (12 July 1931).

1st of 3-article series.

Notes that 3 of his informants were on the sea by 1850.

One went to sea in 1846. Sang:
[HUNDRED YEARS]
//
'Watchman, watchman, don't take me,
O-o-o, yes, O!
I've got a wife and a small family,
A hundred years ago.
//

More chanties…

[HOGEYE]
//
Oh, the hog-eye men are all the go
When they come down to San Francisco!
With a hog-eye!
Railroad niggah an a hog-eye!
Row the boat ashore in a hog-eye!
O-o-o! An She wanted was a hog-eye man!
//

On the advent of chanties – arising in era of packet and clipper ships. Maybe 10 of the known chanties were from an earlier time.
//
As a natural consequence of the greatly increased crews of the clippers and large packets, with their massive spars and enormous spread of sail. there arose the chanteys. Perhaps half a score are of earlier origin, but by far the greater number belong to this period. For out of the twelve "choruses" listed by Dana…only one has come down to us, "Cheerily Men." And of these "choruses" "Cheerily Men" was the only one known to the three veteran sailors I have mentioned, who were at sea in 1849, although two of them gave me twenty-seven chanteys that were current during the period, and had heard six others. One of these men, who was at sea from 1846 to 1877, sang seventeen that are among the best known of the chanteys, and had heard seven others. So It is safe to say that the
greater majority arose between 1836 and 1877, the period of the clipper
ships.
//

Sailors "discovered" Black work songs.
//
These working choruses, frequently taken from the Negro laborers of different countries, especially the Southern States, existed in large numbers, for the Negro required a song to lighten his work. I have found scores that have never been published. Most of them are of the simplest nature, being little more than a rhythmical, melodious drone of nonsense syllables. But created In the midst of toil and chanted over and over again for the brief respite that they gave trom its weary monotony, they bear a hidden charm that the sailor was quick to discover. In the more pensive ones he must have found something of the strange satisfaction and restfulness of the chant.
//

Mentions sugar screwing here. I don't recall (though I wasn't looking for it?) Carpenter OR Gordon talking about cotton-screwing. The narrative of chanties developing from cotton screwing was there in writing about chanties, and the fact (?) that these two researchers aren't quick to relay that narrative MAY suggest that they were relatively uninfluenced by the published narratives. By the same token, drawing the comparison to sugar screwing, may suggest that Carpenter independently arrived at a similar idea.
//
A good example is furnished by a "sugar-screwing" chorus picked up
from the Negroes of Havana. Four men, gathered about a large press,
swung the four handles of a horizontal plane, one leading the chant,
the others failing in on the refrain:

A-hum-bl-ee! A-hum-bl-o! (solo)
Ah-ha! And a-hum-bl-ey! (refrain)
A-hum-bl-ee! A-hum-bl-o!
Ah-ha! And a-hum-bl-ey!

But here more than in other songs the words are futile without the
tune.
//

A hammering song is compared.
//
Another, taken from Negro pile drivers of the Southern ports, illustrates a rhythm adapted to the alternate blows of two laborers as they struck the same pile with huge sledges:

You's nothin' but a humbug! (First Singer.)
So they say! So they say! (Second Singer.)
You's nothin' but a humbug!
That's all I know!

This was sometimes varied so that it went:

Catfish grow on a huckleberry vines!
So they say! So they say!
Catfish grow on a huckleberry vines!
That's all I know!
//

And an actually capstan chantey, which Carpenter implies may have been a Black work-song:
//
A slightly more potent type came to be used aboard ship as a capstan
chantey:

Oh, I went to church. 1 went to chapel!
Pull down below!
And on the road I found an apple!
Pull down below!
Oh, hee-dle-allie!
Pull down below! (Crew)
Oh, hee-dle-allie in the valley!
Pull down below!
//

More chanties. [A-ROVING]
//
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
Mark well what I do say!
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
And she was a mistress of her trade,
And I'll go no more a-roving
With you, fair maid.
A-roving, a-roving,
Since roving's been my ruin!
I'll go no more a-roving
With you, fair maid!
//

[TOMMY'S GONE]
//
Oh, Tommy's gone, what shall I do!
Hilo! Hilo!
My Tommy's gone and I'll go, too,
My Tom's gone to Hilo!
//

A very interesting statement of opinion on the songs of Dana's voyage, and their contrast with later songs:
//
And with each racing voyage around the boisterous Horn, across
the world to Australia, or through the typhoon-infested China Seas,
larger, faster, and more beautiful ships were constantly appearing, creating for the seafarer a new world. It is little wonder that the insipid "Yo-heave-ho" ing and the characterless "choruses," "Heave Round Hearty," "Heave to the Girls," and "Hurrah. Hurrah, My Hearty Fellows," that had served the drab decades preceding should give place to the virile, exuberant, and colorful cbanteys, "Blow The Man Down," "Sally Brown," "The Rio Grande" and "Shanadore."
//

Making the point that chanty texts weren't much about "the sea" per se.
//
Approached, then, as records of absorbing interest, they are at first
a little baffling in that they deal with almost every topic besides the sea. For despite the fact that they were created upon the sea, sung
upon the sea and handed down from chanteyman to chanteyman
for decades upon the sea, the 340 versions that I have collected mention
the sea in the most casual way only eighteen times. The expressions
are: "Went to sea," "bound to sea," "across the sea," "out to sea," "ready for sea," "across the Western Ocean," and, in a banterIng
tone, "the briny sea."

Obviously the sailors felt no need for lengthy descriptions of the sea, since the wild rude rhythm of their melodies and the bald, disjointed
meter of their verse entailed and inevitably had the wash and roll of the sea as an accompaniment.

If not the sea, what, according to their records, was uppermost in
their minds? A cross-section from their favorite chanteys will best
answer:… [chanties already quoted elsewhere]…

Here then, in the first stanzas of their favorite chanteys, is a fair
answer: Ships, "blowing the man down," drinking, love adventures,
burlesque heroes and real heroes.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Aug 11 - 04:53 PM

Copied from Vaughan's post above, for a point of reference on the "3 informants" that Carpenter was saying, in his article, were on the sea by 49/50...well, 2 of them. Not sure who the third was (yet), or if I misread something.

* Edward Robinson - born 1834 - to sea 1846
* Mark Page - born 1835 - to sea 1849
* James Forman - born 1844 - to sea 1856.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 01:26 PM

The third and final article in JM Carpenter's NYT series.

1931        Carpenter, James M. "Chanteys that 'Blow the Man Down.'" New York Times (26 July 1931).

Case study of "Blow the Man Down" to show the fluid and adaptable nature of chanties. Excerpts follow.

//
"Blow the Man Down."…In its numerous versions - I have
collected thirty in the United States and the principal ports of England,
South Wales, Scotland and Irelan - it has woven into itself two fore-castle
songs, "Radcliffe Highway" and "Tiger Bay"; two ballads, "Blow the Winds Westerly" and "The Farmer's Curst Wife"; one broadside, "The Indian Lass"; a Scottish bothy song, "Erin Go Bra"; four chanteys, "Knock A Man
Down," "The Black Ball Chantey Song," "The Flying Fish Sailor" and "The Ship Neptune"; and love adventures in Radcliffe Highway, Paradise Street, Denison Street, Waterloo Road, Winchester Street, Tiger Bay, Lemon Street, Cleveland Square. Scarborough Town, the outskirts of Bristol and two or three without a local habitation or a name.
//

Review of print sources: Chambers's 1869, Alden 1882, Adams 1879. But then supplemented by field sources, finding the song attributed to mid 1850s.
//
I had thought until a short time ago that this unusual ehantey was
of recent origin. since it was not included in lists given by Chambers Journal (1869), "On Board the Rocket" (1879), and Harper's Magazine
(1882). But recently I found two saIlors, both more than 90
years old, who stated that they bad heard it In 1854 and 1855. At
all events, a stanza. learned by a sailing-ship master in 1870,

We'll blow a man down and we'll knock a man down,
Give us some time to knock a man down.

is of unusual significance in its bearing on the origin of the chantey.
For in its earliest printed form, In 1879, it appears as "Knock
a Man Down":
[quotes Adams]

With this compare the version of a sea captain from Salem, Mass.,
who first went to sea in 1868;

I wish I was in Mobile Bay,
Way, hey, blow the man down!
A screwing cotton by the day,
Give me some time to blow the man down!

"Knock a Man Down" is clearly the original form of the chantey.
The tune unmistakably is of Negro origin. probably trom the cotton
screwers of the Southern ports. Barring the chorus, the air is
closer to that of a Negro chantey that I found recently than to the
current tune of "Blow the Man Down," which first appeared with
tbe printed version of 1883 [i.e Luce's Naval Songs]. There
the piece listed as "Black Ball Chantey Song," shows signs of a
thorough over-hauling and re-working:

Come all you young fellows that follow the sea,
With a yeo, ho! blow the men down!
And pray pay attention, and listen to me;
Oh, give me some time to blow the men down! [from Luce 1883]
//

//
…An encounter with a policeman, evidently a parody on the Black
Ball version, deals with the same theme:

As I was a-walking down Radcliffe Highway,
To me, way, hey, blow the man down!
I met a policeman and to me he did say,
Oh, give me some time to blow the man down!

"I know you're a buck by the cap that you wear;
I can tell you're a buck by the red shirt that you wear.

"You've sailed on a packet that flies the Black Ball;
You've robbed some poor Dutchman of boots, clothes and all."

"Oh, no, Mr. P'liceman, you do me great wrong,
I'm a Flying Fish sailor, just come from Hongkong!"

They gave me three months in Gamboree Jail
For booting and kicking and blowing him down.

A version from ScotIand gives new detail. After the verse beginning,
"I'm a Flying Fish sailor," it continues:

"My name is Pat Campbell, I live in Argyle;
I've traveled this nation for many the long mile.

"Through England, through Ireland, through Scotland ava,
And the name I go under is 'Bold Erin Go Bra.'"

Thus is revealed the source of the chantey "Erin Go Bra," current in
Scotland as a bothy ballad, whose lively scene depicts the discomfiture
of the sailors' old enemy, the police. Two stanzas from a colorful
version that I found last Summer will illustrate the chanteyman's
method of treating his material:

Ae nicht in Auld Reekie [Edinburgh] as I walked doon the street,
A saucy policeman I chanced for tae meet;

He gloored in me faca an' I gied him some jaw;
Says, "When came ye over frae Erin Go Bra!"

The policeman goes on to say, "I ken ye're a Paddie by the cut o' yer
Hair," and he concludes that "since ye're a Paddie, ye sudna be here." But

A switch o' black thorn that I held in my fist.
I made it aroon his big body tae twist;

The blood frae his napper I quickly did draw,
I showed him a game played in Erin Go Bra.
//

//
A fanciful version of "The Fish of the Sea," sung by an American
chanteyman to the tune of "Blow, Boys, Blow," was popular once
both in England and the United States. It seems better adapted to
the movement ot "Blow the Man Down," as sung by a chanteyman
in the north of England:

Now pray pay attention and listen to me,
To me way, hey, blow the man down!
And I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea.
Oh, give me some time to blow the man down!

Up jumps the cod with his big chuckle head,
He jumps in the chains for to heave the iron lead.

Oh, up jumps the flounder, the bottom to swim.
You fat-headed monster, don't do that again.

Then up jumps the porpoise with his long snoot;
He waltzes round the deck, sing" Ready, aboot!"

The next fish that came was a hoary old shark.
I'll eat you all up, if you play any lark!"

A short time ago I found a very old sea song, "Haul Together, Boys," which seems to be the source of the version quoted above. It was given to me by a fishwife, 88 years old, who learned it as a child from the "Iron Horse," another very old fishwife, so called on account of her great strength and imperviousness. to cold. The tune is the most suggestive of the sea that ever I have heard. The ballad begins:

An' it's up starts the herrin', the king o' the sea,
Singin' "Farewell to thee, boys,
Oh, farewell to thee!'"

So it's haul together, boys!
Stor-r-my weather, boys!
Let the wind blo-o-ow!
Stor-r-rmy weather, boys!
We shall sail slo-ow!
//

//
The sailors found keen amusement in the old ballad "The Farmer's
Curst Wife," just as the ballad singers of Scotland enjoyed "The
Wee Cooper of Fife," a ballad with a kindred theme. "The Farmer's
Curst Wife" appears in varying forms in four versions of "Blow the
Man Down," two from America and two others, more regular, from
England. Richard' Warner's version, one of the English renderings,
runs:

Now listen to me, and a story I'll tell,
To me way, hey, blow the man down!
Oh, listen to me, and a story I'll tell,
Give me some time to blow the man down!

There was on old farmer, as I have heard tell;
He had on old wife and he didn't wish her well.

Now the Devil he came to him one day at the plough;
"I want your old woman, I've come for her now.

"And if you're not civil, I'll take you as well."
So off with the old woman, right straight down to Hell.

There were three little devils chained up to the wall;
She took off her clog and she walloped them all.

Now these three little devils for mercy did bawl,
"Chuck out the old hag, or she'll murder us all!"

The American versions are rather more vigorous and colorful, showing, in one instance, the sailor's leaning toward a racy sea yarn:

As I was a-walking one morning in Spring,
Way, hey, blow the man down!
I walked into a country inn,
Oh give me some time to blow the man down!

I set meself down, and I called for some gin,
And a commercial traveler next came in.

We talked of the weather and things of the day;
Says he, "My friend, a story I'll tell.

"lt's of an old tailor in London did dwell;
The Devil came to him one day out of Hell.

"Says he, 'My friend, I've come a long way
Especially you a visit to pay.'"

Thereupon the frightened tallor calls out, "Oh, please, Mr. Devil,
don't take me away," and Satan replies soothingly:

"It's not you nor your daughter nor your son that I crave;
It's your grumbling old wife, the drunken old Jade."

The story continues as in the former rendering, but with ingeniously
improvised incident and vigorous idiom. …

A Scottish version adds a quaint touch. After the devil had pronounced his ultimatum and delivered the unwanted woman to her husband, the narrative concludes:

She was seven year gaun an' seven year comin'
An' she cried for the sawens she left in the pot.
//

//
…But among the chanteys' motley array of renderings, perhaps the
drollest portray the cruises down Tiger Bay, Radcliffe Highway.
Paradise Street, and numerous other landlocked harbors well
known to sailors. The taste for the incongruous, even to the point
of the grotesque, which preferred to "blow" rather than "knock" a
man down, to regard the fishes of the sea as sailors and the latter as
hangmen Johnnies or a "mixture of an Indian, a Turk, and a chimpanzee,"
would be expected to find in a drab London alley "flash-looking"
packets.

An incident of a land cruise related of a chanteyman illustrates the nature ot the raw material that was finally etherealized into the body...or the epics. For ten years he had been a packet sailor under the rough-and-ready code of ethics which deprived the men at the forecastle "of the pleasure of stealing from each other." During an
amour ashore, therefore, he stole a gold watch belonging to his sweetheart's mistress. His thick, massive shoulders and powerful stature, even at 86, lent easy credence to the story told by one of his mates that the chanteyman, entrapped the following evening by several men who were awaiting his return, smashed off the cumbersome part of a chair against a wall and used the long slats to the complete discomfiture of his adversaries.

So with contagious enthusiasm and picturesque symbolism the
chantey singer tells his crew:

I'll put on my long boots, and I'll blow the man down,
Way, hey, blow the man down!
I'll put on my long boots and I'll blow him right down,
Oh, gimmie some time to blow the man down!

As I was a-cruising down Paradise Street,
A flash-looking packet I chanced for to meet.

I fired off my bow gun to make her heave to,
She backed her main topsail. The signal she knew.

I hailed her in English and asked her the news,
"Thia morning from Sally Port, bound for a cruise."

Then I hove out my tow-rope and took her in tow,
And yard-arm to yard-arm to the grog shop did go.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 01:31 PM

1932        Hutchison, Percy. "Walking the Capstan 'Round." The New York Times (20 March 1932).

Hutchison (born 1875) reviews David Bone's collection. In the course, he offers this anecdote.

//
The present writer recalls the time when he first heard a capstan chanty. He was in the roadstead of Bridgetown, Barbados, and a short distance
away lay an English brig that was getting up anchor, the crew aided by a gang from the shore that made a business of such assistance for vessels carrying few hands. Since the ship the writer was aboard, a four-masted barkentine, had a donkey-engine forward, the anchor was never handled by sailors walking the capstan 'round; and although he had for weeks listened to halyard and close-haul chanties, had himself swung on the ropes in unison with others, he was unfamiliar with the marching rhythms with which stolid men lightened their weary rounds of the fo'c's'l head. Hence a reader can imagine his pleasure when he caught the wistful strains of "Shenandoah" drifting across the water from the deck of the brig.
//

He wrote an article on chanties in 1906, so I'd guess this incident was before then.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 01:12 AM

1938        Carpenter, J.M. "Chanteys in the Age of Sail." _New York Times_ (30 October 1938). Pg. XX6.

Carpenter had around 3 more years of fieldwork under his belt when he wrote this later article. I wish, however, he'd have matched the names of his informants to the texts!

An "unfamiliar" song, and [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN]:
//
During half a dozen years of knocking about British ports, by rallying the excellent memories of old salts, I have made a record of several hundred versions of chanteys not in the familiar collections.
Take this:

O I joined a ship to make a trip
Away to the Suth-ron Seas.
Blow high! Blo-o-ow lo-o-ow!

Or this:
Away, we're bound to go
Across the Western Ocean!
//

[HIGHLAND]
//
…Scottish chanteymen took aboard ship their bagpipe tune, "Hieland Laddie." And the spirited air and rhythm, born to the march-step of kilted clansmen, echoed for years to the clump of circling teet and the clack of capstan pawl as sailors weighed anchor out of the ports of the world. A Scottish chanteyman from Sunderland gave me the following version:

Whae hae ye been all the day,
Bonnie Lassie, Hieland Laddie?
I've been courtin' Allie Gray,
My bonnie Hieland Laddie!

Whae, hey, and awa we go!
Bonnie Lassie, Hieland Laddie!
Hey, hey, fair Hieland ho!
My bonnie Hieland Lassie!

But in the scuffle of the Chanteyman's workaday world, most of the romance of the ballad was shorn away, as in the following stanza:

Were you ever in Quebeck,
Hieand Laddie, Bonnie Laddie?
A-stowing timbers on the deck,
My bonnie Hieland Laddie!

Whay, hey, and away she goes!
Hieland Laddie, Bonnie Laddie!
Whay, hey, and away she goes,
My bonnie Hieland Laddie!
//

Tune + rhythm more important than text.
//
…For the ballad singer, having a story to tell, aimed at sense, coherency--and usually attained it. But in the chanteys tunes and rhythm count for everything; the words for next to nothing. For the chanteyman was not concemed with sense, but with sound. Occasionally he created glorious nonsense.
//

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
//
One swinging chantey tune…came obviously from Negro stevedores (in New Orleans or Mobile), sweating, laughing, showing rows of gleaming teeth as they sang:

O have you been in New Orleans!
Roll the cotton down!
O-O-O, rolling cotton day by day
O roll the cotton down!

It's there I worked on the old levee,
Roll the cotton down!
A-screwing cotton by the day,
O roll the cotton down!

Indeed, it is not surprising to find a fairly large proportion of the chanteys coming from the American South. Chanteymen were naturally
quick to press into service aboard ship the Negro gang-work songs--with their droll fun, languorous cadences, and well-worn rhythm.
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
The Southern chantey that follows, sung to slow plaintive melody, suggests the shimmer of dancing heat waves and the sleepy drone of grasshoppers of a Summer day:

Away down South where I was born,
To me way, hey, hey-yah!
Among the fields of yellow corn,
A long time ago!

O they set me free from s1avery,
But they shipped me aboard and sent me to sea,

My first voyage was around Cape Horn,
Where the nights were short and the days were long.
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
Belonging to this group--at least in its slow pensive tune and dreamy atmosphere--is a.curious chantey, "Low-lands." The refrain "low-land," is common to a great many songs. One Scottish song begins.

"Low in the low-lands a wee, wee boy did wander"—

And In the ballad, "The Golden Vanity"…

…Usually in the chantey the refrain seems to have been employed purely for its music and for its atmospheric effect, as shown In the following stanza, quoted from Miss Colcord's collection:

I dreamed a dream the other night,
Low-lands, low-lands, away my John!
I dreamed a dream the other night,
My low-ands, away!

To carry torward the story, stanzas from Sir Richard Terry's collection read:

All in the night my true love came;
She came to me all in my sleep.

And her eyes were white my love.
And then I knew my love was dead.


…But my version, veering away, as usual, from the romance of the
story, moves toward the sailors' world of winds and sails and seas:

One night In Mobile the Yankees knew,
Low-lands, low-lands! Away my John!
The nor'west winds most bitter blew,
My dollar and and a half a day!

Our Captain was a grand old man,
His name it was Jack Tannerand-tan.

He called us aft and to us did say
'Now, my boys, we're bound to sea.'
//

Stock verses.
//
Whatever the chantey theme, the inarticulate burden in the back of
every sailor's mind ran:

Then up aloft this yard must go,
To where the wind in the sail will blow."

Or it ran:

To the sheave hole she must go,
Let the wind blow high or low!
//

[SACRAMENTO]
//
Blow, boys, blow
For Californie-O!
There's plenty of gold, so I've been told,
On the banks of the Sacramento!
//

[RIO GRANDE]
//
Where are you going to, my pretty maid,
Away-ay-ay, Rio!
I'm going amilking, kind sir, she said,
On the banks of the Rio Grande.
And away Rio! Away, Rio!
Sing fare you well, my bonnie young gal,
For we're bound for the Rio Grande!
//

[MR. STORMALONG]
//
…The chantey usually began:

Stormalong was a good old man,
Aye, aye, aye, Mr. Stormalong!
O Stormalong was a good old man,
Heave away, Old Storm!

But the version of a typical American deep-sea sailor runs:

O Storm today and storm no more,
Aye, aye, aye, Mr. Stormalong!
We storm today on sea and shore,
To me way-ay-ay, Mr. Stormalong!
Old Stormy's dead, what shall we do?
Old Stormy's dead, what shall we do?
We'll dig his grave with a silver spade, .
And lower him down with a golden chain.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 03:21 AM

1903        Stone, Herbert Lawrence. "The Reckoning: A Story of the Sea." Short Stories vol. 52 (Oct-Dec. 1903). Edited by Alfred Ludlow White. New York: The Current Literature Publishing Co. 190-

Though a fictional short story, the chanties mentioned would seem to be based in reality. The material looks original, at least.

The story concerns a ship bound out of Frisco.

[LEAVE HER JOHNNY] is set at the capstan.
//
This Tam-o'-Shanter was anchored in the stream not far from the Vigilant, and as Captain Bradshaw was put aboard his own ship again, he could see her sixteen men gathered on the top-gallant forecastle, their bodies bent over the capstan bars as the cable was hove in. And the refrain of the chanty that arose therefrom and drifted across the narrow stretch of water to the listeners on the Vigilant, ran:
          —"Leave her, Johnny, leave her. 

Oh, there's six feet o' water in her lower hold, 

So leave her, Johnny, leave her."
//

Later capstan songs are "Down the Bay of Mexico", which likely refers to this song,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OilQra0NlRg
and "Walk Her Round" and "West Australia" ([SOUTH AUSTRALIA], I suppose]. And at the halyards there is [JOHNNY BOWKER] (not a customary use?) and [TOMMY'S GONE].
//
Soon the click of the iron pawl dropping into place drifts aft, then the words of "Down the Bay of Mexico" rise in loud, crude tones, followed by "Walk Her Round" and "West Australia," to the rhythm of which the shuffling feet keep time. The iron cable comes slowly in, a link at a time, grating harshly on the hawsepipe, the mate now leaning out on the bumpkin to watch it, now admonishing the men to "walk her round briskly." Suddenly he straightens up, raises a hand to the men to cease heaving and shouts aft: "Up and down, sir!"

"Break her out, Mr. Dunning," answers the captain, and the bodies bend lower over the bars and muscles swell as the strain on the capstan increases. The songs have ceased and in their places are heard, here and there, the muttered words "Heave and raise the dead," "Dig your nails in, now," "Break her out." Slowly the anchor leaves its bed at the bottom of the bay and when it is at last clear and the strain on the cable is eased, the men break into a run and soon have it, dripping and muddy, hanging at the fore-foot…

…The wind being fair, the gaskets are soon off the topsails and the sails sheeted home. The upper topsails are mastheaded to the tunes of "Johnny Bowker" and "My Tom's Gone to Hilo," the ex-boarding master being driven from one halyard to another, where he "tailed out" with the crew as well as his aching arm would allow.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 10:54 PM

I've been trying to get my head around the Carpenter Collection, and to somehow fit that evidence into this huge survey of the chanty materials. Of course, without being on-site with the Carpenter materials, that can't be done completely. But this "phase" of the survey -- the broad strokes -- requires some short cuts! Anyway, I have been greatly assisted by prior posts by many on Mudcat and especially by Snuffy (who has done much work analyzing and organizing info related to the available recordings). Also helpful have been these articles:

1998        Jabbour, Alan and Julia C. Bishop. "The James Madison Carpenter Collection." Folk Music Journal 7(4): 399-401.

1998        Bishop, Julia C. "'Dr Carpenter from the Harvard College in America': An Introduction to James Madison Carpenter and his Collection." Folk Music Journal 7(4): 402-420.

1998        Walser, Robert Young. "'Here We Come Home in a Leaky Ship!': The Shanty Collection of James Madison Carpenter." Folk Music Journal 7(4): 471-495.

Of course, Bob Walser's is the most helpful, since he is working on the shanties in the archive. Yet, the article is quite old at this point. I'm assuming his work with the material has progressed very very much since then. Alas, with the online access in its current state, this is the best we bystanders have for now.

As many will know, and as reflected in the non-pukka, current online database, the Carpenter materials are often sketchy. It is often unclear who sang what. However, based on the info suggested in the database, I have collated the information of singers with songs. (I am concerned *only* with those songs marked as chanties -- inevitably that will lead to some error, but hopefully a minor one.) And, yes, the sketchy information will lead to some error about who sang what. This is a rough attempt based on available info. In light of the work needed for the total survey, I am not at this point trying to do an absolutely thorough study of the Carpenter materials!

Of the collection, Walser wrote in 1998,

the recordings of maritime material, made primarily in the British Isles, comprise about 750 items. Allowing for Carpenter's duplicating, this yields about 375 original recordings. Among these, at least 141 different songs were sung by a number of singers, 34 of whom are identified with a last name and either first name or initials. In addition, the manuscripts and typescripts include shanties gathered by Carpenter in the United States; these include only words, and come from both printed sources (for example, Alden's Harper's Magazine article) and his own collections made in Massachusetts and elsewhere.

As I mentioned, I am only concerned with the shanties. And, I am ignoring the secondary sources that Carpenter archived, as we've dealt with all those before. (One thing I have not done is compare Stanton King's shanty collection with the items he sang for Carpenter.) With this in mind, and taking into consideration that 1998 was at a much earlier stage of Walser's work with the archive, I'm not sure where he got "34" singers from. My own survey has turned up around 61 singers.

Also worth noting is that I think in the Folktrax release of Carpenter recordings, some of the songs are misattributed. However, I have taken them at face value, which means there may be some duplication of items, i.e. the same song being attributed to 2 different singers, due to the CD and archive having different attributions. In the greater scheme of things, at this stage, that error shouldn't really affect our getting an idea of the scope of the chanties represented in the collection, however.

Following will be a consolidated form of my notes mapping the repertoire represented in the Collection.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 11:10 PM

The dates indicate when the song was said to have been heard/learned or, in lieu of that, an estimate of when the singer(s) may have learned it (often based on the dates of their sailing careers). For many there was no informations, and I simply filed them under "1920s or earlier".

1846-1877

- [HOGEYE] and "Can't you give us a bucket of water, chaps/There's a fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and [PADDY DOYLE] and "Hilo, boys, hilo" [HILO BOYS] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and "Juley, Juley, she bode ah-ha-a-a Juley!" [LONDON JULIE] and [HIGHLAND] and [JAMBOREE] and [BONEY] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "In eighteen hundred and fifty one" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and "Hurrah, Santa Anna" [SANTIANA] and "Well done and clever, heigh ho/Cheerily men" [CHEERLY], Edward Robinson, incl. ship Halcyon? (1846), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "John Brown's body in the alley" [BULLY IN ALLEY], Edward Robinson, Sunderland/ cotton-screwing (Carpenter rec.)

1849-1879

- [HOGEYE] and [HANGING JOHNNY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Camp Town races nine mile long" [SACRAMENTO] and "In eighteen hundred and fifty-one" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN] and "I put my hand upon her toe" [VICTORIO] and "How can I row the boat ashore without a paddle or an oar" [BILLY BOY?] and "And a hoojun John, a hoojah/My Mary's on the island" [HOOKER JOHN] and [RIO GRANDE] and [DEAD HORSE] and "When first in London I arrived ('On a Visit Sunday')" and [HIGHLAND] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY], Capt. Mark Page, incl. ship Smark[?], Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1854

- "Old mammie Dido had a lovely daughter" [MUDDER DINAH?], David Anton, Tayport / (Carpenter rec.)

1856 >

- "Oh, oh, I'm Billy in the Alley" [BULLY IN ALLEY], James Forman, Leith, Scotland/ (Carpenter 1928)

1856-1900-

- "Very well done, Jim Crow" [VICTORIO] and "Johnny was a warrior" [BONEY] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [BOWLINE], James Forman, Leith, Scotland/ (Carpenter 1928)

1863-1903

- "Poor little Liza, don't say so" and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [LONG TIME AGO] and [NEW YORK GIRLS] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [SACRAMENTO] and [SALLY BROWN] and "Highlow, Heelo/Tom's gone to Heelo" [TOMMY'S GONE] and "Heave away, heave away/Cause we're bound for South Australia" [SOUTH AUSTRALIA] and "I'm going on board the Rosabella" [ROSABELLA] J.S. Scott, incl. Clan Graham (Glasgow, 1903), London/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1864-1911

- [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [SALLY BROWN] and [OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND] and [SANTIANA] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BOTTLE O] and [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] and [RUN LET THE BULGINE], James Wright, Leith/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "Way, hey, hey, hey, hey/Fire, Fire" [FIRE FIRE FIRE], James Wright, Leith/ West Indian Blacks loading sugar casks, pushing, with crowbars (Carpenter rec.)

1866-1914-

- [BOWLINE] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "We're homeward bound for New York town" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [LONG TIME AGO] and [MR. STORMALONG] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY], Harry Perry, incl. ship Daylight (1914), 'S.S. Leviathan'/ (Carpenter 1928)

1867-1885

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [BONEY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [HIGHLAND] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [PADDY DOYLE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [SALLY BROWN] and [SANTIANA] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Oh shirts I've got one and the collar it's wore done" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and [BOWLINE] and [RIO GRANDE] and [SACRAMENTO] and [A LONG TIME AGO] and [SHENANDOAH] and "Fire down below, walk over/Fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [A ROVING] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR], Jack Murray, incl. ship Zedring (Saint John, New Brunswick, c.1874/5), Luke Simcoe (c.1883), Star of Dundee (c.1885), Aberdeen / (Carpenter rec.)

1868 <

- "Whitee manee, he no savey! Kizee, Makazee, yah", Capt. Edward B. Trumbull, incl. barque Taria Topan (Zanzibar > Boston), Salem, Mass./ worksong of Zanzibar locals (Carpenter 1927)

- [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Away, haul away, haul away my Josie" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [BOWLINE] and "Old horse! Old horse! How came you here?" [SALT HORSE RHYME?] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [SACRAMENTO] and [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SANTIANA] and [SHENANDOAH] and [SALLY BROWN], Capt. Edward B. Trumbull, incl. barque Taria Topan (Zanzibar > Boston), Salem, Mass./ (Carpenter 1927)

1869-1879

- "Humble-lee and a humble-lo/A-ha, humble-lay", Robert Yeoman, Dundee/ Blacks in Havana screwing sugar (Carpenter rec.)

- [TOMMY'S GONE] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [REUBEN RANZO?] and [SALLY BROWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [BONEY] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [SANTIANA] and [HIGHLAND] and [JAMBOREE] and [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [DEAD HORSE], Robert Yeoman, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1869-1905

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [RIO GRANDE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY], George Houghton, ship Lancaster (1869), Cormarthan Castle (1905), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1870 <

- [ALL FOR ME GROG, *tallied earlier], George Methias, brigantine William & Annie (Madeira > Newfoundland) / (Carpenter rec.)

1871 <

- [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "As I was a walking down the street ('Down in the Meadows')" and "Tell me, Susan, tell me dear, what makes you look so gay?" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES], Roderick, Enderson, London/ (Carpenter 1928)

1872

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], James Henderson, whaler Active, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1872 <

- "A yankee ship comes down the river" [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Oh have you been in New Orleans?" [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and "Where ha ye been all the day" [HIGHLAND] and "Santy Anna sailed away" [SANTIANA] and "Ranzo, boys, a-Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO], David Atkinson, Glasgow/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [DEAD HORSE] and [LONG TIME AGO] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [HIGHLAND] and "Oh haul her on the bowline" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [PADDY DOYLE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [HANGING JOHNNY] and "O Juber mind the bee, and mind it while I sing" and [SANTIANA] and [ROLLING HOME], Andrew Salters, Greenock, Scotland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)


1872-1888

- [HIGHLAND] and "From New York to Frisco, California we went" [ROLL BULLIES ROLL], Capt. H.J. Hammond, Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1872-1913

- [A ROVING] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BONEY] and "Old man come riding by" [DEAD HORSE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "All for the grog, the jolly, jolly grog" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and "'We're the Boys to Drive Her Right'" and [BOWLINE] and [SANTIANA], James Henderson, whaler Active, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1873

- "Victoria, Victoria/Very well done Jim Crow" [VICTORIO], Andrew Salters, Greenock, Scotland/ heard in West Indies (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1874 <

- [NEW YORK GIRLS] and [JAMBOREE], Jack Murray, ship Zedring (Saint John, New Brunswick, c.1874/5), Aberdeen / (Carpenter rec.)

1875 <

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [JAMBOREE] and [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] and [BONEY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [SANTIANA], Jimmie Cronin, English ships, one American (1884), London/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1876 <

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Away down South where I was born" [LUCIANNA] [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [SHENANDOAH], James Garricy, Cardiff/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1877 <

- "Way sing Sunny Dore!/Bound down Trinidad to look for Sunny Dore" [DOWN TRINIDAD], Richard Warner, incl. Oxford, Cardiff/ screwing sugar in Barbados, screwing cotton in US (Carpenter 1928)

- [HANDY MY BOYS] and [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [LONG TIME AGO] and "Times are hard and wages low" [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN], Richard Warner, incl. Oxford, Cardiff/ (Carpenter 1928)

c.1878

- [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "To me way-ay hilo man" [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] and "For it's windy weather, stormy weather/When the wind blows, we'll haul together", William Fender, Swansea Cape Horners, South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

- "Haul in the bowline, keep the ship a rollin" [BOWLINE], unknown singer/ tug of war contest in Aberdeen (Carpenter rec.)

1878-1883

"Tally-i-o, tally-i-o/Sing tilly-i-o, you know: [TALLY], James Wright, ship ACCRINGTON, Liverpool > Calcutta, Leith/ Black cook sang this chanty (Carpenter rec.)

- "Ranzo, Ranzo Ray" [RANZO RAY], James Wright, tea clipper CLETA, Leith/ windlass (Carpenter rec.)

1878-1890

- [MR. STORMALONG] and [REUBEN RANZO], Edward Robinson Jr., Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1878-1900

- "Fire in the fore-top, fire in the main-top/Fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and "Here we come home in a leaky ship" and "My dollar and a half a day" [LOWLANDS AWAY] and [BONEY] and "Aye, aye, aye, Bendigo ('Down in those Valleys')" and [MR. STORMALONG] and [SHALLOW BROWN] and "Sometimes we are bound for Liverpool town and others bound to France" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and "The bulgine's come and we all must go-o" [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [SANTIANA] and [BOWLINE] and [PADDY DOYLE], William Fender, Ship Ingomar (1880, Valparaiso), South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1879 <

- "Oh I went down the river in an old steamboat ('In the Morning')" W. Thomas, Haford, South Wales/ in a Norwegian ship (Carpenter rec.)

1879-1894

- [HANDY MY BOYS] and [A ROVING] and [SHALLOW BROWN] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [SHENANDOAH] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Mind how you swing your tail" and [DEAD HORSE], John Middleton, Leith/ (Carpenter rec.)

1879-1908

- "I went to church, I went to chapel/Pull down below" [CHURCH CHAPEL] and "The priest from the parish with his gallant band" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Johnny come down to Hilo/Oh pull down below" and [JAMBOREE] and "Whilst walking out one morning, down by the Clarence Docks" [IRISH EMIGRANT] and "This old girl, she had no hat" [NEW YORK GIRLS] and "O Sally on the mainyard picking up the bunt" [HOGEYE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and "Raise her up from down below/Haul away Rosie. Rosie haul" and "Heave away, haul away/For we are bound for South Australia" [SOUTH AUSTRALIA] and [BONEY] and [RANZO RAY?] and [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] and [HIGHLAND] and "Oh, Johnny's gone, and I'll go too/John's gone to Hilo" [TOMMY'S GONE] and [HAUL AWAY JOE].
Rees Baldwyn, South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "You're nothin' but a humbug!", Rees Baldwyn, South Wales/ learned from Black pile drivers, Savannah/New Orleans, (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1880-1895

- "There was a jolly ploughboy, ploughing on the land" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "O I had a little boat, a jolly little boat" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [PADDY LAY BACK] and "Fire on the gundeck, fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW], Willie Rennie, South Shields/ (Carpenter rec.)

1880 <

- [HIGHLAND] and "Oh now my lads be of good cheer" [JAMBOREE] and "We'll scrape her down and scrub her around" [GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN] and [ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG] and "One night off Cape Horn, I remember it well" [ROLL BULLIES ROLL], John Boyd, Belfast, Ireland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], G. Douglas, Lanarkshire/ (Carpenter 1928)

- "I shipped on board the Rosabella" [ROSABELLA] and [HIGHLAND] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR], John McPherson, ship Aristides (1880), South Shields/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [ROLLING HOME], John McPherson, ship Aristides (1880), South Shields/ marked as both forebitter and shanty (Carpenter rec.)

1880s <

- [LONG TIME AGO] and [A ROVING] and BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Oh blow the man down, bullies, knock him right down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [BOWLINE] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "They call me Hangman Johnnie" [HANGING JOHNNY] and [DEAD HORSE] and "Only one more day of pumping" [ONE MORE DAY] and [PADDY DOYLE] and "Rio Grande is no place for me" [RIO GRANDE] and [SALLY BROWN] and [SANTIANA] and [SHENANDOAH] and [MR. STORMALONG?] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "'Haul Together'" [FISHES], Stanton King, Boston/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1882 <

- "Now me boys, you need not fear" [JAMBOREE] and "I saw an elephant chase a flea" and "Oh, John Surran was a little old man" and "Oh goin down the river ('Billibirumpidoodlupiday')" and [HOGEYE], Capt. John Conway, Wiclow, Ireland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1883 >

- "Oh in eighteen hundred and forty one" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and [HANDY MY BOYS] and "'I'm Just Gone Over the Mountain'" [LUCIANNA], William "Paddy" Gaul, London/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1883-1910

- [LONG TIME AGO] and "O there's fire in the fore-top" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and [PADDY LAY BACK] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "I hear, old man, you've been and bought a horse" [DEAD HORSE] and "Whose that gal with the blue dress on" [SACRAMENTO] and "As I was a walking one morning in May" [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW], Thomas Ginovan, Bristol, England/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1885

- "I wish I was in Mobile Bay" [LOWLANDS AWAY], William Fender, ship INGOMAR > Valparaiso, South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

c.1885

- "To my hilo, to my Ranzo way" [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING], Jack Murray, AURORA, Aberdeen / American capstan shanty (Carpenter rec.)

- "Go down below, you pretty girls, go down below", Jack Murray, whaler Star of Dundee (c.1885), Aberdeen / halyards (Carpenter rec.)

1885-1902

- [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "One morning I took a ramble down by the Bramleymoore Dock" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [SHALLOW BROWN] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [SACRAMENTO] and [PADDY DOYLE] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [BOWLINE] and [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] and [RIO GRANDE] and [SALLY BROWN] and [ALL FOR ME GROG], Alexander Henderson, American ships, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1886-1919

- [SHALLOW BROWN] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [REUBEN RANZO] Thomas Carfrae, Boyne of Findhom (1895), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1887

- "Down below, oh ho oh ho/ Hoist her up from down below" [RISE HER UP], J.S. Scott, GILROY, London/ halyards (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1888

- "Walk along you Saucy Anna" William Fender, South Wales/ stevedore's song in West Indies (Carpenter rec. 1929)

c.1888-1889

- "Blow high, blow low/Blow high, blow low", George Simpson, incl. ship Castleroy (1888), Dundee/ sheets (Carpenter rec.)

- [LONG TIME AGO], George Simpson, incl. ship Castleroy (1888), Dundee/ heard in South of US (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [MR. STORMALONG?] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [SALLY BROWN] and [ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and [SANTIANA] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [DEAD HORSE?] and [SHENANDOAH] and [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [A ROVING] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [ROLLING HOME], George Simpson, incl. ship Castleroy (1888), Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1889-1894

- "I'm bound right over the mountain" [LUCIANNA], J.S. Scott, London/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1892 <

- "Lay me down, itchy-go, Mrs McCay" [IRISH EMIGRANT] and [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] John Ferries, South Sheilds/ (Carpenter rec.)

1895

- [HIGHLAND] Thomas Carfrae, Boyne of Findhom (1895), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1920s >

- "A hundred years is a very long time" [HUNDRED YEARS] William Beggs, Belfast/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Oh row, oh row, we're bound to go/A-ha, London Julie" [LONDON JULIE] Captain Alexander Blue, Greenock, Scotland/ heard in West Indies (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Fire away Lily, come down below", Captain Alexander Blue, Greenock, Scotland/ attributed to Blacks screwing cotton (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "Have you been in Mobile Bay" [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO?] and [TEN STONE], Captain Alexander Blue, Greenock, Scotland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Heave away me boys it's John's a rookey ookey", Joseph Bound, Pill, England/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Hurrah! Hurrah! for Old Mother Dinah/Sing Sally-O! Whack, fol-deray!"
[MUDDER DINAH] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "I have an old shoe with never a back or tongue" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [HANGING JOHNNY] [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and [BLOW YE WINDS] and "Oh Johnny's gone; what shall I do?" [TOMMY'S GONE], Harry Bowling, Los Angeles/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [CHEERLY] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW], George Boyle, Glasgow / (Carpenter rec.)

- [PADDY LAY BACK] and [SALLY BROWN], Benjamin Bright, Fairport (1908), Mafalda (Norwegian) (1910), Belmont (1911), Brynhilda, (1922), Golden Gate CA/ (Carpenter rec.)

"Oh Captain row me ashore" and [HIGHLAND], Capt. W. Dalziel, Glasgow/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "Victorio, Victorio" [VICTORIO] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and [PADDY LAY BACK] and "Run with the bulgine" [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN] and [HIGHLAND] and "Oh [railroad?] had a steamboat on the old canal/But now she is the keeper of Louisiana [fal?]", James Dwyer, Glasgow/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "Where are you going to, my pretty maid" [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO], Walter, Eade, Edinburgh/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [SANTIANA], A.E. Foster, Sailors' Snug Harbor/ (Carpenter rec. 1927, 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Old horse! Old horse! How came you here?" [SALT HORSE RHYME?] and [SALLY BROWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "The next fish that came was a hoary old shark" [FISHES?], Francis L. Herrshoff, Marblehead, Mass/ (Carpenter 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], James Moncrieff, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [MR. STORMALONG?] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] Harry Johnson, London/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Once I had a good hat, an a good hat was he" [ALL FOR ME GROG], Tom Lucas, Cricklade, England/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [REUBEN RANZO], John Macaulay, Kelvinhaugh/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [HUNDRED YEARS], Albert Morris, Marblehead, Mass, / (Carpenter rec. 1927)

- [LONG TIME AGO] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], Capt. D.F. Mullins, New Bedford, Mass./ (Carpenter rec. 1927/28)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [LONG TIME AGO], Dennis O'Connors, Sailors' Snug Harbor/ (Carpenter 1927, 1928)

- [NEW YORK GIRLS] and "Sometimes we're bound for Liverpool" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [FIRE DOWN BELOW], William Prosser, London/ (Carpenter 1928)

- [PADDY LAY BACK], John Vass, Invergordon/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [DEAD HORSE], James Stevenson / (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [A ROVING] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [SACRAMENTO] and "Where are you going to my pretty maid?" [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW], Charlton L. Smith, Marblehead, Mass./ (Carpenter 1928)

- [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "We're outward bound for Melbourne town" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL], Harry Turner, Sandport St./ (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Oh our ship is in the harbor" [RANZO RAY?] and [LONG TIME AGO] and "Haul taut the bowline" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "As I was a strolling one morning in May" [RIO GRANDE] and [MR. STORMALONG?], Frank Waters, Sailors' Snug Harbor/ (Carpenter 1927/1928)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 11:22 PM

The Carpenter Collection contains some 98 different chanty-forms, by my tally. Here they are, followed by the numbers of time a variant of each occurs.

A ROVING (6)
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (2)
ALL FOR ME GROG (8)
Billibirumpidoodlupiday" ("Oh goin down the river…")
BLOW BOYS BLOW (17)
Blow high, blow low"
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (26)
BLOW YE WINDS
BONEY (8)
BOTTLE O
BOWLINE (9)
BULLY IN ALLEY (2) [remove one]
Captain row me ashore"
CHEERLY (3)
CHURCH CHAPEL
Dance Callidio"
DEAD HORSE (8) + DEAD HORSE?
Down in the Meadows" ("As I was a walking down the street")
Down in those Valleys" ("Aye, aye, aye, Bendigo")
DOWN TRINIDAD
DRUNKEN SAILOR (5)
Fire away Lily, come down below"
FIRE DOWN BELOW (5)
FIRE FIRE FIRE
FISHES + FISHES? (2)
GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN (2)
Go down below, you pretty girls, go down below"
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (5)
HANDY MY BOYS (3)
HANGING JOHNNY (5)
HAUL AWAY JOE (14)
Haul away Rosie. Rosie haul"
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (10)
Here we come home in a leaky ship"
HIGHLAND (13)
HILO BOYS
HOGEYE (4)
HOOKER JOHN (2) [remove one]
How can I row the boat ashore without a paddle or an oar"
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (6)
Humble-lee and a humble-lo"
HUNDRED YEARS (6)
I saw an elephant chase a flea"
In the Morning" ("I went down the river in an old steamboat")
IRISH EMIGRANT ("Lay me down") (2)
JAMBOREE (7)
John Surran was a little old man"
JOHNNY BOWKER (7)
JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO (2) + JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO?
John's a rookey ookey"
Juber mind the bee, and mind it while I sing"
Kizee, Makazee, yah"
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (6)
LONDON JULIE (2)
LONG TIME AGO (11)
LOWLANDS AWAY (2)
LUCIANNA (3) + LUCIANNA?
Mind how you swing your tail"
MR. STORMALONG (3) + MR. STORMALONG? (4)
MUDDER DINAH + MUDDER DINAH?
NEW YORK GIRLS (4)
Nothin' but a humbug"
On a Visit Sunday" ("When first in London I arrived…")
Once I had a good hat, an a good hat was he"
ONE MORE DAY (5)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND
PADDY DOYLE (6)
PADDY LAY BACK (5)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (4)
Poor little Liza, don't say so"
Pull down below" ("Johnny come down to Hilo…")
RANZO RAY + RANZO RAY? (2)
REUBEN RANZO (14) + REUBEN RANZO?
RIO GRANDE (10)
RISE HER UP ("Hoist her up from down below" )
ROLL BULLIES ROLL (2)
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (7)
ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG (2)
ROLLING HOME (3)
ROSABELLA (2)
RUN LET THE BULGINE (5)
SACRAMENTO (7)
SALLY BROWN (14)
SALLY RACKET? ("Old mamie Hackett")
SALT HORSE RHYME? (2)
SANTIANA (13)
SHALLOW BROWN (4)
SHENANDOAH (6)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (2)
TALLY
TEN STONE
TOMMY'S GONE (8)
VICTORIO (4)
Walk along you Saucy Anna"
We're the Boys to Drive Her Right"
Were you ever in Fairy [?]"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (17)
White Man Thinks that a Nigger Can't Steal"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 11:55 PM

Way back in his 1998 article, RY Walser gave a chart presenting the most common chanties in the Carpenter Collection. I can't tell if he meant that this tally came from only those chanties on audio recordings, or if it also included those for which there is text but no audio.

Walser's list (w/ my tags added, for comparison purposes):

//
Figure 1 lists the most numerous shanties, shown in order of frequency, of which recordings survive in Carpenter's collection.

Blow the Man Down [BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
Haul Away Joe [HAUL AWAY JOE]
Ranzo [REUBEN RANZO]
Whisky Johnny [WHISKEY JOHNNY]
Santy Anna [SANTIANA]
Blow Boys Blow [BLOW BOYS BLOW]
Bonnie Hielan Laddie [HIGHLAND]
Sally Brown [SALLY BROWN]
Poor Old Man [DEAD HORSE]
Shenandoah [SHENANDOAH]
Boney [BONEY]
Jamboree [JAMBOREE]
Leave Her Johnny [LEAVE HER JOHNNY]
Run Let the Bulgine Run [RUN LET THE BULGINE]
Tom's Gone to Hilo [TOMMY'S GONE]
Heave Away Me Johnnies [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES]
Paddy Doyle [PADDY DOYLE]
Haul for the Grog [ALL FOR ME GROG]
Rio Grande [RIO GRANDE]
Johnny Boker [JOHNNY BOWKER]
//

I've drafted my own list based on my work with the available info. It includes any shnty-form for which there were at least 6 instances. Ranked from most to least common. The number following the names, in parenthesis) tells how many instances there were. The number with "W" refers yo the ranking on Walser's list.

1. (W1) BLOW THE MAN DOWN (26)

2a. (W4) WHISKEY JOHNNY (17)
2b. (W6) BLOW BOYS BLOW (17)

3. (W3) REUBEN RANZO (14) + REUBEN RANZO?

4a. (W8) SALLY BROWN (14)
4b. (W2) HAUL AWAY JOE (14)

5. (W5) SANTIANA (13)

6. (W7) HIGHLAND (13)

7. LONG TIME AGO (11)

8a. (W19) RIO GRANDE (10)
8b. (W16) HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (10)

9a. (W9) DEAD HORSE (8) + DEAD HORSE?
9b. BOWLINE (9)

10a. (W15) TOMMY'S GONE (8)
10b. (W11) BONEY (8)
10c. (W18) ALL FOR ME GROG (8)

11a. SACRAMENTO (7)
11b. ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (7)
11c. MR. STORMALONG (3) + MR. STORMALONG? (4)
11d. (W20) JOHNNY BOWKER (7)
11e. (W12) JAMBOREE (7)

12a. (W10) SHENANDOAH (6)
12b. (W17) PADDY DOYLE (6)
12c. (W13) LEAVE HER JOHNNY (6)
12d. HUNDRED YEARS (6)
12e. HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (6)
12f. A ROVING (6)

(W14) RUN LET THE BULGINE


Like Walser, I found BLOW THE MAN DOWN the most. As earlier discussed, Carpenter wrote an article on variants of that chanty, and I wonder if maybe it was a personal mission of his to collect as many variations as possible. We don't know (?) his exact fieldwork methodology, and it may have been that he influenced what songs were sung, say, by requesting them or reminding informants about them.

Anyway, it's hard to compare my list and Walser's precisely, because his does not indicate ties in the ranking. Sure, it's only a rough guide. FWIW however, we may note that LONG TIME AGO, BOWLINE, SACRAMENTO, ROLL THE COTTON DOWN, and MR. STORMALONG (among the first 20 of my list) did not make his set. I'm not sure why. And his RUN LET THE BULGINE did not make my list.

The one surprise for me was the frequency of ALL FOR ME GROG, which up to this point has not appeared in this survey of chanty literature. Could this be another song that Carpenter perhaps requested from informants? Might he have filed it incorrectly as a shanty? Again, I am not sure.

One can also compare the repertoire to my list of shanties SO FAR most common up through the 1880s.

WHISKEY JOHNNY (20)

REUBEN RANZO (16), SANTIANA (16), SHENANDOAH (16)

BLOW THE MAN DOWN (15), CHEERLY (15)

BOWLINE (14)

BONEY (13), GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (13), HAUL AWAY JOE (13), HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (13), RIO GRANDE (13)

SALLY BROWN (12), STORMY (12)

MR. STORMALONG (11)


Blow the Man Down was certainly common, but Carpenter's set seems skewed. "Blow Boys Blow" also has a high ranking in Carpenter, and it's another that, judging from his writing, he took particular interest in. "Shenandoah" was lower in the rankings of Carpenter than one might expect, and I might speculate that it was a little more common with American singers rather than the British singers that Carpenter interviewed. "Cheerily Men" is poorly represented in Carpenter's, which we know to be because it was a song of an earlier era.

I supposed I'd have to compare only the chanteys of the core time of Carpenter's singers -- 1860s, 70s, 80s -- for a better representation of the similarities and differences.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Sep 11 - 12:52 AM

Here's a sketch of the "most common" chanties of the 60s-70s-80s, from my charts...with the rationale being that most of Carpenter's singers would have been learning shanties in that era.

WHISKEY JOHNNY (25)

SHENANDOAH (22), REUBEN RANZO (22)

BONEY (21), BLOW THE MAN DOWN (21)

HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (20)

RIO GRANDE (19), GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (19)

HAUL AWAY JOE (18)

SANTIANA (17)

JOHNNY BOWKER (15), BOWLINE (15), BLOW BOYS BLOW (15)

SALLY BROWN (14)

SACRAMENTO (12)

TOMMY'S GONE (10), MR. STORMALONG (10), BLACKBALL LINE (10)

DEAD HORSE (9)

PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (8), PADDY DOYLE (8)

As compared with this list, notably absent from the "top" shanties among Carpenter's singers are GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL and BLACKBALL LINE. As compared with this list, notably PRESENT in Carpenter's set are ALL FOR ME GROG, LONG TIME AGO, JAMBOREE, and HIGHLAND. The last *might* be explained by Carpenter's emphasis on Scottish locales (?). LONG TIME AGO is supposed to have been more popular in later days, i.e. 1890s, which is why it might not be in my list.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 06:23 AM

1918        Howard, Henry. "Manning the New Merchant Marine." _Pacific Marine Review_ 15 (August 1918).

By the Director of Recruiting, U.S. Shipping Board.

Section on "Training Merchant Crews" gives the daily schedule on training (steam) ships. 6-9pm included recreation, about which it says,

//
Recreation includes singing, for each ship is supplied with a piano. The musical program includes old-time chanties, in which the young men are instructed by a veteran deep-water chantie man.
//

I would guess that the "veteran" was Stanton King – though it seems like more than one "veteran" would need to have been recruited.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 07:01 AM

1918        Collins, James H. "Vikings of the Future." _St. Nicholas_ 45 (10) (August 1918).

Another mention of the merchant marine training program set up by Howard, and the role of chanteys.

//
… Only men of draft age—twenty-one to thirty —are taken, and the novices are taught the rudiments of their new calling in six weeks of intensive instruction aboard one of the training-ships.

There are four of these training-ships in commission now, three of them located at Boston and one at San Francisco, while others are to be stationed at Norfolk, New Orleans, and Seattle. They are big, comfortable, roomy ships. One is a former ocean greyhound which held some speed records in her day. Another, the Calvin Austin, a former coastwise passenger-ship, with her load of recruits in training was the first ship to reach Halifax after the disaster there.

The young man who takes this training is equipped with a uniform and receives thirty dollars a month while he is in training. The students are grouped in squads of ten, with an instructor for each squad. Eight hours a day are consumed in the study of the compass, knots and splices, the nomenclature of ships, both sail and steam, the handling of life-boats, and other important things…

Mr. Howard has put spirit into the training by reviving the old sailing-ship practice of chantey singing. The sea chantey is a slow, melodious song whose measures fall into the rhythm of a gang of sailors hauling on a rope. Mr. Stanton H. King, of Boston, an old deep-water sailor, is the chantey instructor; and now on our modern, standardized, steam vessels of wood or steel, or even concrete, are to be heard such ancient windjammer tunes as "Shenandoah," "Blow the Man Down," and "Bound for the Rio Grande."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 10:05 AM

On another thread long ago and far away, I mentioned my neighbor who, as a navy recruit, had trained on the Constellation in 1918.

He said the only time he'd heard any singing was when "drunk and on liberty." Possibly compulsory mass singing wouldn't have counted.

He couldn't remember any specific songs, but he was sure that nobody was caroling shanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 08:15 PM

Lighter --

Could the distinction there, in your neighbour's case, have been between Navy and Merchant Marine?

***

Here's an announcement that I would guess fairly well dates the time when Stanton King was first appointed Merchant Marine chanteyman. Interesting that his reputation (at the Sailors' Home) preceded him, and I wonder if we might consider him one of the people who proverbially "kept shanties alive" during what seems to have been a gap period in the U.S. I recall the interest in chanties in some American articles from the turn of the century, but most of the other interest in evidence in the first couple decades was coming from Britain.

1918         Unknown. "Official Chantey Singer." New York Times (27 Jan. 1918). Pg. 46.

//
A new war job under the sun has
been created. It is Official Chantey
Man for the American Merchant
Marine. Stanton H. King of Boston
has been appointed to revive singing
among merchant sailors who will
Join the country's new cargo ships
through the United States Shipping
Board Recruiting Service. Chanteys,
sea sharps say. insure team work when
a crew is pulllng on ropes, even aboard
a steamer, while the bullding of a large
number of American schooners means
increased demand for men who can "reef, hand, and steer" on sailing vessels,
where chantey singing used to
flourish.
    Mr. King is probably the best known
chantey singer in the, country. He is
now the head of the Sailors' Haven
Mission at Charlestown, Mass., widely
known for its religious work among
sailors. Chantey singing is a part of
the service, and many go there to hear
Mr. King lead his sailor friends in
"Bound for the Rio Grande" or "'Blow
the Man Down." The Official ,Chantey
Man is an old salt and learned chantey
singing in its home, on board deep-sea-golng vessels.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 08:34 PM

Here is more about the popularization of chanteys via the U.S. Merchant Marine of the time, foreshadowing the appearance of chanteys on record.

1918        Unknown. "Carrying the Sea Atmosphere Inland." _Shipping_ 5(7) (16 November 1918): 13-5.

//
Folks back home at Bangor, Maine, or Mesa, Arizona, who have boys in the Merchant Marine, may soon hear real sea songs, as they now look on scenes aboard ship, without leaving their own neighborhood —sailors' "chanteys" are being preserved on phonograph records for home use—life on square-riggers, cargo steamers and merchant marine training ships, has become material for the "Movies"—altogether an interesting phase of a "back to the sea" movement of national proportions.
…In this educational effort for it is such, purely, undertaken from various angles by various people, but under authority of the United States Shipping Board, official sponsor for the merchant marine --some novel effects are being worked out. For example, in due time it may be expected that sailors' songs and sailors' "chanteys"--as sung in forecastles and at tasks on deck when Jack the merchant mariner was a personage afloat and ashore, as he is getting to be again --will be reproduced in the records of the family phonograph.

"Chanteys" for the Music Machine.

Chantey singing is being revived in the merchant marine, at least on the training ships which are preparing Young America, at the rate of 4,000 lads a month, for service on our vast new commerce fleets, and under the new order of things it will be possible for Bangor, Maine, and Mesa, Arizona to hear in the same hour the actual notes and phrases of such famous chanteys as "Shenandoah," "Bound for the Rio Grande" and "Blow the Man Down," for the record may have them hard and fast before spring flowers bloom again. …
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 09:31 PM

Munsey's Magazine, Feb. 1918, p. 71:

"One of the most interesting innovations in the American army and navy camps is the teaching of mass singing to the soldiers and sailors. This is being done not merely as a pastime, but with the distinct object of making better fighting men as a result of such training."

The official repertoire appeared in a USGPO publication called "Songs of the Soldiers and Sailors." The closest it came to shanties were "Sailing, Sailing" and "A Life on the Ocean Wave."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 11:41 PM

1839        "The Old Sailor." "A West India Sketch." _Chambers's Edinburgh Journal_ 367 (9 Feb, 1839).

The author is on the Mahaica river in British Guiana. He interrupts his narrative to remark on the rowing songs of the Black oarsmen. If indeed the author was an "Old Sailor," it is notable that he does not compares these to any sailor songs.

Although it seems completely original, it's remarkable how similar this description is to others of the time.

//
Suddenly, on a signal from their spokesman, the negroes struck up a song, to which they kept time with their oars. The leading songster sang a line solo, taking up any occurrence that crossed his mind at the moment, or that took place in our progress. Thus, when the looms of the oars were thrown aft to replunge the blade in the water, the leader sang his line, whatever it might be, and as they one and all took their stroke together, every voice united in a general chorus. The first subject was connected with our voyage. The leader commenced—
Wo da boy for pull da boat,
to which the rest instantly rejoined—
Sing cheerly row!

then the first line was repeated, and the response again followed; and it was extremely rare that a subject was alluded to more than once; indeed, as the scenery and circumstances were changing, he was seldom at a loss for a theme; and when it flagged, some sly hit at the manager, myself, or their fellow-negroes, supplied the deficiency. There was something extremely musical in the tone and manner of singing, that rendered it any thing but unpleasant; and as it acted upon the energies of the negroes, to incite them to greater exertion, we had no objection to it. Two or three other lines I remember were—

Sun him get abub da bush,
Sing cheerly row; 

Sun him get abub da bush,
Sing cheerly row.

Captain hab da grog-bottell,
        Sing cheerly row; 

Captain hab da grog-bottell, 

Sing cheerly row.

At one time the voice of the leader became low and solemn as he pronounced—

Poor Charley neber cum again.
Nigger boy cry oh! 

Poor Charley neber cum again, 

Nigger boy cry oh!

There was something exceedingly plaintive in the tone of the leader, as well as the response, and Mitchell informed me that they referred to the death of a favourite slave belonging to his plantation, who had been drowned at that very spot about twelve months previous. The motion of the oars was equally slow with the utterance of the singer, and several other allusions to the deceased were made in the same mournful strain, till all at once the leader shouted—

Alligator in da mud. 

Sing cheerly row;
Alligator in da mud. 

Sing cheerly row.
//

Later in the account, more verses are given, and the narrator refers to the rowing song as a "chaunt."
//
The boatmen could hear very little if any thing of our conversation; but seeing us earnestly engaged, they ceased their chaunt, for they guessed poor Charley's history was the theme: still they narrowly watched our looks, and spoke in an under tone to each other; and when my friend could no longer repress his feelings, the spokesman suddenly burst forth in a loud song that was really startling, on account of the previous stillness, though it e: the honest sentiments of the negroes' hearts—
Massa Mitchell bery good man.
Sing cheerly row; 

Massa Mitchell bery good man,
Sing cheerly row.
…
…I was going to inquire who Hammerton was, but the question was delayed by the peculiar mournful cadences of the negroes as they continued their chaunt. Their voices sank yet lower, as the leader, having looked towards a clump of plantain and papaw trees, uttered,
Old man tan upon da shore,
Sing saafly row; 
[I'm not sure of "saafly", but it's not "cheerly"]
Old man tan upon da shore. 

Sing saafly row.
"Hush, Sam—hush I" said Mitchell; "leave off your song: he is indeed there, bending over the grave of his child."
"Massa Hammerton like for hearee we peaka too much sorry," answered Sam, the leader of the chaunt.
//

And later, a guy ("Caesar") refers to the singing as "chant":
//
"Go, massa, go," continued the negro; "you no top longer; Golamity bless Massa Mitchell; go den quick, and no let em boys sing em chant hearee, spose you please."
//

This suggests that rowing songs (perhaps, specifically those in the style of New World Africans) were sometimes called "chaunt" or "chant", both by "outsiders" and "insiders". There seems to be a correspondence between the terms, as if perhaps "chaunt" was "proper English" and "chant" was dialect. However, I'm not sure what this says about pronunciation. My assumption is that "chaunt" would have been with "sh" sound, while "chant" (as a dialect term in that spelling) would have had "ch/tsh" sound.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 02:13 AM

A net-fishing reference to 1840s Jamaica.

1851        Gosse, Philip Henry and Richard Hill. A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.

July 1885, west coast of Jamaica. Fishermen are using seine nets. Their songs are...WILD!!

//
The sound of human voices in melody falls now upon the ear, the song of the negroes who have begun to haul in the seine. Rude their music is and artless their tune; yet, mellowed and softened by distance, now swelling in chorus, now feeble and faint, it has considerable sweetness, as the human voice always has under such circumstances. Yonder we see them, forming two lines in the water, ten or a dozen men in each row, hauling upon the two ropes; the outmost up to the neck in the sea, and the inmost on the beach; all naked, regardless of the burning sun that now pours down his beams upon their woolly heads and glossy backs. It is a slow operation ; and as they all throw their weight upon the line together, they sway backward and forward in time with the wild air whose notes they are singing.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 02:45 AM

1831[Oct. 1830]        Ormond, Cyprian. "The Star of St. Philippe." In _The Amethyst_, ed. by Nathan Covington Brooks. Baltimore: N.C. Brooks.

A story set in New Orleans. "Wild yet rich" rowing songs, called a "rude chaunt."

//
By this time we had arrived upon the levee. The City, with its white stuccoed houses, lay on the interior of the high embankment, and the shipping, with its dark hulls and its forests of spars and rigging, upon the outside in equally profound repose. It was as bright as the sunshine of noon. The sea breeze, whose steady current came freshly up the river, wafted the musquitoes from the shore, gave us a pure reanimating atmosphere to breathe and fanned the feverish brow of my companion, who opened his bosom to the cooling air. The stillness was now and then broken by the shrill, harsh creaking of the ungreased wheels of one of those water carts, that ply daily and nightly through the streets, piercing the tortured ears of the stranger, till his hardened auriculars become habituated to the sound. In the pauses of this melody came music, floating over the waters, of a finely contrasted description. It was the rude chaunt of some negroes returning down the river to their master's plantation, and beguiling the toil of their oars with a wild yet rich and well harmonized chorus.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 03:22 AM

1851[March]        Dixon ("A Rugbaen"). _Transatlantic Rambles; or, A Record of Twelve Months' Travels in the United States, Cuba, & the Brazils._ London: George Bell.

A visitor from England to Virginia. Makes a generic comparison of Black songs to deep-water chanty. Being ca.1850/51, "chanty" wasn't in common use, but rather than call the sailor song a "song", he calls it a "chaunt."

Pg54
//
I am told that negroes, although living in " Old Virginny," never did, and never would, sing such songs as Old Dan Tucker and Lucy Neale, which only originated in the brains of their sham Ethiopian personifiers. The songs they do sing are almost always of a religious turn, something between a nautical anchor-hauling chaunt and the "Old Hundredth."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 04:22 AM

1835        Hoffman, Charles Fenno. A Winter in the Far West. Vol. 2. London: Richard Bentley.

Contains a letter dated March 25th, 1834. The author is embarking upon a trip out of St. Louis on a steamboat.

//
The hoarse panting of the high-pressure engines, the rattling of the drays on the paved wharfs, and the discordant cries in every tongue mingling with the song of the negro boatmen, as their wild chaunt on coming into port would rise ever and anon above the general din, made a confusion of sights and sounds that was bewildering.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 06:29 AM

Fanny Elssler is back! This time she is in Havana, rather than New Orleans, and the stevedores are rolling cargoes rather than hoisting them. Their song is a "lively chaunt."

1843        Unknown. "Fanny Elssler at the Havanah." Fraser's Magazine 168(28) (December 1843).

Havana, Jan. 1841. A rough translation of Elssler's own accounts.

//
Before me lay the harbour, beautiful in shape, and its fine quays thickly lined with hundreds of vessels of all nations. …Great masses of idle people were standing contemplating our arrival, the vessels teeming with negroes, oddly attired, were at work rolling cargoes in and out, and accompanying their labour with a lively chaunt, both musical and strange.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 07:20 AM

Gibb, the OED gives no support for that pronunciation of "chaunt."

It lists it simply as an 18th and 19th century spelling variant of "chant," with the "ch" in "church" and the "au" as in "palm."

This suggests to me that if "shanty" had come directly from "cha(u)nt," it would almost certainly have had the "hard ch" from the very beginning. But if it had, I doubt anyone would have suggested French as an origin.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 05:33 PM

xxxx1850        Baird, Robert. _Impressions and Experiences of the West Indies and North America in 1849._ Vol. 1. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons.

Early 1849, Antigua.

//
Nothing to break the calm silence of the scene, save the occasional chaunt of a negro band, who were engaged, at some distance, putting up the sails of a windmill, and whose chorus, rude and imperfectly heard as it was, sounded pleasantly in the ear, as the indication of light hearts.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 05:50 PM

The "xxxx" in my last post doesn't mean anything (just a marker in my notes).
***

1835        Atkinson, Samuel Coate, ed. "Going to Bed without Your Dinner (from Leave From a Log: A West India Story)." Atkinson's Casket 1 (January 1835).

Published Philadelphia.
Commenting on a sight in "the West Indies" – Trinidad? Calls Black work songs "a kind of Creole chaunt."

//
1 now passed the estate belonging to Monsieur Honnemaison: the field-gang were cutting canes, and the muleteers loading their animals,—all were chaunting a short song. Negro songs are always short; it was what on French estates is called a "belle air," a kind of Creole chaunt, almost agreeable enough to merit its appellation.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 07:21 PM

1854        Hogg, James, ed. "A Letter from Mauritius." Hogg's Instructor. Vol. 3. (July-December 1854). Edingurgh: James Hogg.

Mauritius. Observer calls sailors chantying "chanting".
//
The little bay looks active and busy with shipping; loading and unloading goes on merrily to the chanting of the sailors, which sound is borne pleasantly across the water with every little breath of wind;
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 07:43 PM

1833        Unknown (Johnstone, ed.). "Sierra Leone and its Capitol, Freetown." _The Schoolmaster_ 34(2) (23 March 1833).

About the "Kroumen" and their singing when rowing. Recall that Alden (1882) made a comparison to, "the lawless, halfmournful, half-exulting songs of the Kroomen."
//
The habitations of the Krou people, Krou Town as it is called, are, in the direction of this spot adjoining Freetown, a complete Indian village; the houses formed, like all the huts in the colony, of clay, twigs, and thatch. These men are an emigrant and industrious race, natives of a part of the Grain Cost, in the neighbourhood of Cape Palmos, about thret hundred and fifty or four hundred miles south-east of this, who come here for a few years only—let themselves out for hire to ships or as servants on shore—make a little money—return home again, and are succeeded by some more of their fortune-pushing countrymen- They are, in fact, the Scotsmen of Africa. They are a remarkably strong, active, hardy and intelligent race of men. Their skin varies from a dark copper colour to black, tattooed about the face, chest and arms. They are distinguished by a tattooed arrow on each temple with its point to the eye; and almost all of them have the front teeth of the upper jaw filed to a point, or some portion of each tooth removed, according to the fancy of the wearer or those who begat him, which gives them a savage appearance. Their only article of dress is a piece of printed cotton cloth round the middle. None of them have their wives and families here; these are left at home under the guardianship of their own relations, and the protection of their chief, to whom, on returning home, they always carry a present of cloth, muskets, gunpowder, or some article of dress, as a sort of tribute and acknowledgment for his protection.
Every ship of war on arriving at Freetown, enters certain number of these Kroumen over and above her compliment, for the purpose of manning her boats when the may be sent on any service where there is likely to be much exposure to the sun or rain, and to the mephitic exhalation from the soil, such as weeding and watering so that our unassimilated seamen may be subjected as little as possible to the deleterious influence of the climate.
We received upwards of twenty of them on board, chiefly young men, all of them more muscular and athletic, though not generally taller, than our own people;…

In rowing, they have always a song of some sort or other at command, to which they keep time with the oar, someimes melodious, but usually harsh and untuneful, having generally for its subject something connected with the ship, or the officers, or the duty that is going on, each chanting a subject in turn, while the rest join in the chorus.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 08:02 PM

1871        King, Rev. F. "In the Bahamas." _Mission Life_ (1 June 1871). 309-13.

On Abaco.
//
"There are large sugar cultivations on the mainland," writes Mr. Philpot from Abaco, "and the fields of waving cane, with their delicate green leaves and golden tassels, look very pretty, especially when they relieve a dark background of sombre pine-wood. A windmill crushes the cane, and when wind fails, manual labour is called in—a number of negroes turning the windlass to the wild chaunts of their own country."
//

On Bimini. A "hilo" song while working cargo.
//
Shocking as it may seem to our notions, the main source of wealth and employment to the Bahama islander used in former times to consist in "wrecking." Wrecks then were more often designed than accidental, and the goods rescued from the ship were bought at a nominal sum, and sold afterwards by the wreckers at a considerable profit in Nassau. …

"When the ship is above water, the work is pleasant enough. Blocks and ropes are fixed, hatchways opened, and sturdy arms at work, while strong lungs shout the wrecking songs—

'High low, high low,
Johnny come blow the organ! 

Walk him up and walk him down, 

High low, high low!'

and the cotton-bales and sugar-boxes seem to fly into the boats. But when it is a sunken wreck, and the goods have to be dived for out of the hold, then comes the danger. The diver descends into the ship with a line tied round him, which he jerks when he wishes to ascend. Woe betide him if he gets entangled in the ship's hold and cannot come out! and this is not seldom the case."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 08:26 PM

1903        Des Voeux, Sir G. William. _My Colonial Service in British Guiana, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Fiji, Australia, Newfoundland, and Hong Kong with Interludes._ Vol. 1. London: John Murray.

December 1863-ca. 1867, a magistrate in Demerara. The observer talks about rowing songs led by a Barbadian, including [JOHN BROWN'S BODY]. Pp24-25

//
As I was destined to spend a large proportion of the next four years in them, it may be as well to give here a short description of the boats used for travelling in Guiana by Europeans and the upper class of coloured people….
The rowers were usually negroes or "coloured men," who, when they got away from town and drink, showed marvellous endurance. I have known them of their own accord labour steadily at the oars for sixteen to eighteen hours, with scarcely any intermission, when they had any special desire to reach their destination quickly. At first when they began to tire I used to give them spirit, but I soon found by experience that this was worse than useless. It put some additional life into the stroke for a short time, but always caused a very quick collapse afterwards. At night the pace was increased when they sang in chorus. The songs, usually led by a Barbadian negro, were much of a kind described in Marryat's Peter Simple, remarkable neither for sense nor tune. Only one of these songs, as far as I remember, had in it anything approaching to melody. That was the Union battle-song of "John Brown," with the refrain of " Glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on." And even that, reiterated many times, became, to say the least, monotonous; especially during the night hours when sleep in view of the next day's work was desirable. But however wanting in other respects, this singing was always in good time and no doubt lightened the labour, as it seemed absolutely essential to good going; so that whenever there was necessity for expedition I never put an end to it.

[footnote]
The chorus of one of them, which I took down in writing and happen to have preserved, ran as follows:—

"He hi ha, bow wow wow, the days of the petticoats are coming, 

Never mind the weather, but get over double trouble; 

Then we're bound for the happy land of Canaan."

The verses, of which there are many, preceding this chorus were equally nonsensical. For instance :—

"Tom Sayers and Heenan, they made a night to brag, 

They swear'd they'd beat all creation; 

But the little Malitia Boy did tap him on the nose, 

And knocked him in the happy land of Canaan."

This was, o course, a reference to the celebrated prize fight which had recently taken place in England, "Malitia" being evidently intended for "Benicia," and the singers quite innocent of the fact that the "Benicia Boy" was Heenan himself.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 09:10 PM

1879        Featon, John. The Waikato War 1863-4. Capper Press.

ca.1863 New Zealand, during the Waikato War. Pg69. Deep-water shanties adapted for rowing, with SHENADOAH and an ambiguous other.
//
The majority of the men who volunteered for the Water Transport Corps, were, as may be imagined, those who had been used to a sea-faring life, and accustomed to boats and rowing. They were a rough-and-tumble lot, and many are the wild stories told of their escapades. The boats' crews (8 and 12 oars), used generally to sweep up against the stream to the chorus of a sailors shanty song, "I'm bound away," or "Ye rolling rivers," usurping the canoe chant of the natives.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 09:39 PM

The last author, 1879, used the phrase "shanty song" (without quotes). This author, same year, puts it in quotes as "shantee."

1879        MacMichael, Morton. _A Landlubbers Log of a Voyage Round the "Horn"._

From a journal kept. By a passenger in the ship PACTOLUS, (of New York) captained by Colcord (aged 30), from Philadelphia to San Francisco via Cape Horn. Left Philly in July 1879. The passage is from August 1879.
//
The men, who are now prevented from working about deck or aloft at their usual jobs, are only worked at tending the sails, and between orders stay under the lee of the forward house. They look very odd, being swelled to nearly twice their natural size by their thick clothes, over which they wear oil-skin coats and pants, and also rubber " sou'wester" hats. Those that have new suits of oil-skins look like mammoth canary birds, the color of the garments being a bright yellow. Through all their hardships, and this weather is really very hard on them, they seem as cheerful as possible, and sing their queer monotonous songs with a vim when pulling on the ropes, where all hands, or a whole watch is needed. At these times the carpenter is expected to lend a hand, and when on deck I too catch hold and help pull. The song or " shantee" as they call it, and which is sung when a whole watch or more are hauling, consists in the leader singing a line, then all hands the chorus, which is only one line long, and at the same time giving two long steady pulls; as the leader chants the next line the men rest, then another chorus and pull, and so on until the yard is hoisted or the sail sheeted home.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 10:02 PM

1853        Bright, Henry Arthur. Free Blacks and Slaves. Would Immediate Abolition Be a Blessing? London: Arthur Hall Virtue & Co.

Just something as a point of reference to the speculative idea that has popped up here and there that, if African-Americans were at the forefront of introducing the concept and/or the repertoire for the "modern" chanties, a subsequent shift in that development may have been due to the disappearance of Black labor in certain trades. Or, the development and spread of chanties may have been affected by the movement of non-Blacks replacing them, taking over the reins and perhaps acquiring the chanties.

A letter from an anti-abolitionist.

Quotes from a letter to the Maryland Colonization Journal from Mr. Latrobe of Baltimore, Oct. 1851.
//
Again, I would quote in support of my position a few facts from Mr. Latrobe's letter :—he is speaking of the effect of competition between the two races—"In Baltimore, ten years since, the shipping at Fell's Point was loaded by free coloured stevedores ; the labour at the coal-yards was free coloured labour. In the rural districts round Bal timore, the principal city of a slave state, free coloured labourers, ten years ago, got in the harvest, worked the mine banks, made the fences, and indeed supplied, to a great extent, all agricultural wants in this respect. Now all this is changed. The white man stands in the black man's shoes—or else is fast getting into them. In Cincinnati, the labour that used to be performed by free blacks in the great pork establishments, is now performed by white men. The firemen on the steam-boats on the western waters are now whites, where they used to be free coloured men ; and the negro's song, as he filled his furnaces, has ceased on the Ohio and Mississippi."
//

So, dating the death of the steamboat firemen's songs to the turn of the 1850s and saying that much of the free Black labor – at which time Whites would have worked relatively "side by side"—was in the 1840s. That's the decade in which I believe we see the burgeoning of chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 12:50 AM

1893        Ralph, Julian. "The Old Way to Dixie." _Harper's New Monthly Magazine_ 86(512) (Jan. 1893).

Headed down the Mississippi on the old fashioned steamboat CITY OF PROVIDENCE. The refrains of roustabouts (who earn "a dollar a day") are noted. One has the famus floating lyric of "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" and "Hog-eye", i.e. "Who's been here since I been gone?"
Pg174
//
At one stop which we did make, Captain Carvell ordered a barge pushed out of the way—"so's we shan't make a bunglesome landing," he said. The nearest great landingstage, a long gang-plank hung by the middle from a sort of derrick,and capable of connecting the boat with a hill or a flat surface, was let down on the bank. The unavoidable flour-barrels came head foremost along a wooden slide this time.and a darky on the boat sang an incessant line, "Somebody told me so," as a warning to the men below that another and another barrel was coming. They are fond of chanting at their work, and they give vent to whatever comes into their heads, and then repeat it thousands of times, perhaps. It is not always a pretty sentence, but every such refrain serves to time their movements. "O Lord God! you know you done wrong," I have heard a negro say with each bag that was handed to him to lift upon a pile. "Been a slave all yo' days; you 'ain't got a penny saved," was another refrain: and still another, chanted incessantly, was: "Who's been here since I's been gone? Big buck nigger with a derby on." They are all "niggers" once you enter the Southern country. Every one calls them so, and they do not often vary the custom among themselves.
These roustabouts are nothing like as forward as the lowest of their race that we see in the North. …They earn a dollar a day, but have not learned to save it. …Though they chant at their work, I seldom saw them laugh or heard them sing a song, or knew one of them to dance during the voyage. The work is hard, and they are kept at it, urged constantly by the mates on shore and aboard, as the Southern folks say that negroes and mules always need to be. But the roustabouts' faults are excessively human, after all, and the consequence of a sturdy belief that they need sharper treatment than the rest of us leads to their being urged to do more work than a white man.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 01:40 AM

1889        J., F.H. "Negro Music of the United States." In _A Dictionary of Music and Musicians_, ed. by Sir George Grove. Vol. 4. London: Macmillan. 728-730.

Early edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Reflects the "common knowledge" about African-American musical style that probably would have informed C. Sharp and Arnold (w/ Bullen) in their comments from their collections.

Just one excerpt here on work-singing, by stevedores and firemen:

//
They [African-Americans] have songs for all occasions where they move in concert, such as loading or unloading ships, or working at the pumps of a fire engine. Their rhythmic sympathies are most strongly active on these occasions. Often one of a gang acts as a precentor, giving a line or two by himself, and the chorus coming in with the refrain. This leader, when his supply of lines gives out or his memory fails, resorts to improvisation.
//

No mention of any sailors' songs in this volume.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 02:59 AM

1903[Dec.]        Gilbert, Paul Thomas. The Great White Tribe in Filipinia. Cincinnati: Jennings and Pye.

Dec.1901, Oroquieta, Phillipines. A ship is wrecked off shore, and this incident happens with one of the rescued officers. He sings [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]

//
The mate, aroused by the example of the chief, rendered a "Tops'l halliard shanty," "Blow, Bullies, Blow." It was almost as though a character had stepped from Pinafore, when the athletic, gallant little mate, giving a hitch to his trousers, thus began: "Strike up a light there, Bullies; who's the last man sober?"

Song.

"O, a Yankee ship came down the river—
      Blow, Bullies, blow! 

Her sails were silk and her yards were silver—
      Blow, my Bully boys, blow!

Now, who do you think was the cap'n of 'er?
      Blow, Bullies, blow! 

Old Black Ben, the down-east bucko—
Blow, my Bully boys, blow!"

"'Ere is a shanty what the packeteers sings when, with 'full an' plenty,' we are 'omeward bound. It is a 'windlass shanty,' an' we sings it to the music of the winch. The order comes 'hup anchors,' and the A one packeteer starts hup:

"'We're hom'ard bound; we're bound away;
        Good-bye, fare y' well.
We're mone'ard bound; we leave to-day;
        Hooray, my boys! We're home'ard bound.
We're home'ard bound from Liverpool town;
        Hooray, my boys, hooray!
A bully ship and a bully crew;
        Good-bye, fare y' well.
A bucko mate an' a skipper too;
        Hooray, my boys, we're home'ard bound!'"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 05:56 PM

1894        Burn Murdoch, W.G. _From Edinburgh to the Antarctic._ London: Longmans, Green and Co.

During the Dundee Antarctic Expedition of 1892-93. Barque BALAENA.
Passenger/observer notes several instances of chanties. He spells the word two ways: "shantie" and "chantie". I believe the experiences were genuine, however he seems to utilize Davis/Tozer to "refresh" his memory of the chanties.

[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
//
Men and boys there were of every sailor type: old Arctic whalers, red cheeked and bearded; tanned South Spainers with shaven chins and faces lined with the rough and smooth; quiet men and boys from the East Coast fishing villages, and gentle men from the Shetlands. Fifty men from all the world; strangers an hour ago, brothers now—in the one spirit of whisky, devilment, and adventure.
What a picture they made as they swung together at the topsail halyards, their eyes gleaming, with open, thirsty mouths shouting the old shantie, 'Whis—ky John — nie. Oh—whisky makes the life of man. Whis—ky for—my Johnnie,' with the shantie man's solo, 'Oh, whisky made me pawn my clothes,' and all together again, with a double haul and a shout of 'Whis—ky—John—nie,' that makes the blood tingle even to remember it.
//

[MR. STORMALONG]
//
A Danish ship passed us to-day; she came up from leeward, passed under our stern, and faded out of sight in a veil of mist ahead of us and to windward. She was sailing quite two points closer than we could. She had a windmill working her pump, an arrangement much despised by our sailors—without reason, I think, as it saves an immense amount of work. We have to pump ship every four hours, and it takes about ten minutes each time. After heavy weather and the ship has been straining we have to pump her for about half an hour out of each watch. The pump stands at the foot of the mainmast inside the fife-rail, and has a handle on either side; some of the watch turn the hands and the rest stand in a line along the deck and haul on a rope attached to the pump handle each time it comes up. As we pump, the chantie (pronounced shanty) man trolls out some old sea song, and after each line all hands join in the refrain. Some of our men have a large stock of these songs. Most of them are sung to sad, minor tunes, with sometimes almost meaningless, but time-honoured words. The airs have much of the dignity of early Norse and Gaelic tunes, quite unlike any modern music ; when and where they originated I should like well to know. Here is one of them that the men sung frequently. It refers to some ideal skipper, beloved by his crew, who had died and gone to his rest a long time ago. [w/ score]

Oh, Stormie's gone, the good old man.
Aye, aye, aye, Mister Stormalong.
Oh, Stormie's gone, that good old man,
To be with you Stormalong.
We dug his grave with a golden spade, 

Aye, aye, aye, Mister Stormalong;
His shroud of finest silk was made, 

To be with you, Storm-along.
We lowered him with a silver chain, 

Aye, aye, aye, Mister Storm-along;
Our eyes were dim with more than rain, 

To be with you, Storm-along.
And now he lies in an earthen bed,
Aye, aye, aye, Mister Storm-along; 

Our hearts are sore, our eyes are red, 

To be with you, Storm-along.
Old Stormie heard the Angel call,
Aye, aye, aye, Mister Storm-along; 

So sing his dirge now one and all, 

To be with you, Storm-along.

Think of this very slowly chanted, in time to the clank of the pump, the waves surging over the decks, sky and sea grey, and the wind booming through the shrouds overhead, and you have as dreary a scene as can well be pictured.
//

The [DEAD HORSE] ceremony is described.
//
OCTOBER 6th.—Lat. 30.30 ; long. 20.4. Old Horse day.
The cat's wind has held fair, and the Balaena, with a white feather in her teeth, bowls merrily southward.
The Old Horse came out in great style. The sailors consider that they do their first month's work at sea for nothing, having received the month's pay in advance when they signed articles, and the old horse is made an emblem of this month, and is hanged. I fail to see the analogy between an old horse and an unpaid month's work, but I am told that it is quite evident. However, I relate the incident as I saw it. It may be a custom of the past in a few years, for the reason that men are now trying to have their wages paid weekly. They would like to have a portion of their first pay handed them in advance, and would like their wives to receive their half pay in weekly, instead of in monthly, instalments. There are several other regulations they wish to have formed as to their pay; for instance, that in case of shipwreck, they should receive pay up to date of reaching home, or at least till they make land, or a port. If we were to lose this ship in the Antarctic and lived in the boats or on the ice for a month or so, and then had the good fortune to be picked up by one of our companion vessels and brought home alive, the men would only be entitled to claim pay up to the moment the ship went down, and instead of returning with their pockets full of money, they would arrive in debt to their employers for the cost of their board on the vessel that took them home, whilst the owners by insurance might lose nothing, and might even profit by the wreck. This seems hardly a considerate arrangement in regard to the men; and if employers would still be employers, they ought to be very considerate in this respect, or the time will come for sailors to work for their united interest, and the consideration of the employers will be of no account.

For some days reports have come aft from the focsle that the horse was being constructed. When I heard an unfamiliar song being chanted this afternoon, I went forward and found the men hauling on two lines that led down to the focsle-hatch. At the end of the lines came the dummy horse, made of wood and canvas, bestrode by Braidy, arrayed in a scarlet flannel jacket and a black jockey's cap. The horse was supported on either side and at its latter end by some of the old hands. As the hatch is very steep, they had some difficulty in hauling up the horse and its rider properly and in time to the chant. At last they got him on deck and then began a slow march round the ship, going aft on the starboard side, round the poop, and forward again by the port side. The procession really made a splendid picture-subject, the colouring of the men's clothes in the sunlight was so varied and so harmonious; there was faded blue, and purple, and pale green, and a sky-blue Tam-o'-Shanter, and all the faces and arms were dyed nut-brown by the sun. In the middle of the group sat Braidy in his scarlet coat, with the brown unpainted wood of the bulwarks and the blue sea above forming a back-ground. Round the deck they went singing 'The Old Horse,' chanting the time-honoured song with all solemnity, making the old horse plunge at times, for they had to pull it along the deck in short jerks to keep time to the tune. In the lee channels the sea was frothing white, and I thought Braidy would come off, for the horse grew very restive there; but he held to its neck.

Under the foreyard the procession halted, and a running bowline was dropped over the horse's head, and Braidy got off, and to a second mournful chant it was hauled up to the yard's-arm. It was a curious, quaint, and pretty performance; the solemn seriousness of the whole affair and the suppressed childish fun were in extreme contrast. For a minute the horse hung swinging against the bright sky, then a man lay out along the yard and drew his knife across the line, and the 'Poor Old Horse' dropped with a splash into the blue waves and floated sadly astern: These are some of the words of the song, and the air as nearly as I can remember it.

THE OLD HORSE [w/ score]

They say my horse is dead and gone,
And they say so, and they hope so!
They say my horse is dead and gone;
Oh, poor old man!

For one long month I rode him hard, 

And they say so, and they hope so! 

For one long month I rode him hard; 

Oh, poor old man!

But if he's dead I 'll bury him low,

And they say so, and they hope so! 

But if he's dead I'll bury him low; 

Oh, poor old man! 


Then drop him to the depths of the sea, 

And they say so, and they hope so! 

Then drop him to the depths of the sea; 

Oh, poor old man!
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
Now a chantie is started as the crew haul on the main topsail halyards. Lately the chanties have been few, and half drowned by the racket of the storm and hail-showers; but this morning there is a ring of triumph in the hearty voices, and the white sails that have been imprisoned so long seem to signal to the gale as they unfurl that we have beaten it, and are ready to face it again.
It is a new chantie to me, this old song, which one of our harpooneers trolls out—sung in the ark, probably, when Noah hauled in the gangway. Marshall has an endless stock of these chanties, and brings out a new one when we get tired of the last.

Chantie man: Ran-zo was a tailor,
All together: Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Chantie man: Now he's called a sailor,
All together: Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
The skipper was a dandy, 

Ranzo, boys, Ranzo! 

And was too fond of Brandy, 

Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
They call him now a sailor! 

Ranzo, boys, Ranzo! 

The master of a whaler! 

Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!

There is a fine sudden ring in the chorus that goes well with the wind and squalls. 'Belay,' shouts the mate, and the crew repeat' belay,' and the chantie stops in the middle of a Ran-zo.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 06:52 PM

1895        Manchester Literary Club. _Papers of the Manchester Literary Club._ Vol. 21. Manchester: John Heywood.

4 Feb., 1895, at one of the weekly meetings of the Manchester Literary Club, J.B. Shaw presented a paper on chanties. It was accompanied by performances, with piano accompaniment.

Two sentences are verbatim copy of Alden's 1882 article, so that was used as a source on background. If they had piano accompaniment, there is a good chance they were using Davis & Tozer's Third Edition, published in the early 1890s, as it was the only source then with accompaniment. However, they might have made their own accompaniment.

This event is interesting because it marks perhaps the first (or first I've seen!) instances of chanties being performed by "laymen". Although we don't know if, perhaps, some or all of the performers were ex-seamen, it seems to me that most or all were simply interested amateurs. They speak of preserving the songs – the first rumblings of a revival? As I said, Davis/Tozer's volume, which doesn't seem to have gotten much notice until its third edition, looks to have been the only publication in the 19th century that was created to facilitate performance of chanties by laypersons.

The brief reads as follows.
//
Sailors' Chanties.
Mr. J. B. Shaw contributed the principal paper. It dealt with Sailors' Chanties and other Sea Songs, and was illustrated by the singing of a number of these "chanties" and songs by Messrs. Derby, Butterworth, Dinsmore, Edmeston, Mercer, and Wilcock, who were accompanied on the piano by Mr. W. Noel Johnson. The reader said that "Sailors' Chanties" belonged to a time now no more. The typical "Jack " of the pre-propeller age has utterly vanished, has passed into the dusty domain of the archaeologist, and his real habits and customs will soon be forgotten. We should therefore make an effort to preserve the memory of his songs before the last man who heard them and can give testimony in regard to them is gone. The "Chanty-man," the chorister of the old packet ship, has left no successors. In the place of rousing "pulling songs" we now hear the rattle of the steam-winch, and the steamwinch or pump give us the rattle of cog-wheels or the hiss of steam instead of the wild choruses of other days. Sailors' songs might be divided into two classes, pulling songs and windlass songs. The former were used merely to aid the men when pulling on a rope, to pull at the same precise instant. The latter were intended to beguile the men while getting up the anchor or working the pumps into temporary forgetfulness of their prosaic labour. These songs are worth studying from various points of view. Musically they are most valuable, as showing how much they are characteristic of their subject, vocationally as proving the amount of impetus or encouragement needed by the singer in his work, and poetically by making known the feelings which animate a sailor's breast with regard to his home, his wife, his captain, and all that concerns him.
In the conversation which followed the reading of the paper, Messrs. Milner, Kay, Crosland, Chrystal, and Newton took part.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 07:20 PM

1894        Walling, Lieutenant Burns T. "The Wreck of the Kearsarge." The Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute 21(4).

Feb 1894, the famed USS KEARSARGE is wrecked on Roncador Bank, off the east coast of Central America. At one point during the activities, singing of chanties is described.

The men sang "Shantee songs", [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [A-ROVING].
//
What preparations could be made for the approach of daylight were now pushed ahead. Three rafts were constructed from the light spars and lumber, their heads resting on the rail forward, all being ready to launch in case the other boats should fare no better than had the second cutter. As much extra provision and fresh water as possible was brought up, limited only in amount by a desire to keep the gangway clear for a rush forward in case she should break in two.

The galley fires were started and coffee was made and served out, reinforced by cigars and cigarrettes from the wine mess stores. The men kept at their work singing cheerily a number of 'Shantee songs, the most popular being "Heigho, knock a man down" and "No more I'll go a-rovin' with you, fair maid.''
//

It's interesting as another appearance of the "knock a man" variation.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 09:08 PM

1895        Stedman, Thomas L., ed. Twentieth Century Practice: An International Encyclopedia of Modern Medical Science. Vol. 3. New York: William Wood and Co.

Chanties inducing nausea!

Not much info here except to add to our sense of how familiar laypersons may have been with the genre in the 1890s, i.e. the phrase, in quotes, is "chanty song."

//
A distinguished surgeon in the United States Navy, formerly associated with me on duty, who, although he had passed half of his twenty-five years of service at sea, was always a great sufferer from seasickness, assured me that he could at any time excite in himself feelings of nausea, by recalling occasions and circumstances of former attacks. Charteris quotes Henry Ward Beecher as relating how "many years after his first voyage across the Atlantic, he heard some sailors in a Brooklyn dock singing the same old 'chanty song' that he had heard when ill at sea, and that the mere listening to it produced the creepy feeling of seasickness;"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 09:32 PM

1896        Hawley, G. "The Foundations of the Sea." The Pall Mall Magazine 14(57).

Nov. 1891, ship Manilla > Honolulu. Can't quite tell if this is supposed to be fiction (I presume) or possibly a true account. Uses the phrase "shanty song."

//
The rest of the crew staggered out, carrying those who were beyond walking. Fresh air and cold water galvanised them into something like life; but the rest of the voyage was a sad lot. The greyness had eaten into us, and the clank of the pump brakes, watch in, watch out, took the place of the cheery, shanty song. The ship leaked like a basket, the heat having started the pitch from the caulking in every seam, and we made Honolulu with three feet of water in the hold.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 Oct 11 - 12:55 AM

2011-2012        Various Artists. Short Sharp Shanties: Sea Songs of a Watchet Sailor. Wild Goose Studios. 3 CDs.

I compared (well, collated) the John Short items presented by Tom Brown and co. on this project with the C Sharp and RR Terry collections, to see what items were unique to the unpublished manuscripts. I realize of course that the published versions aren't exactly the same as the manuscripts, however my understanding is that what Sharp and Terry attributed to Short in their publications was based in the manuscripts, even if the editors made composite versions that come out different. My interest here is purely to track the unique appearances of chanty items.

Anyway these are the unique (i.e. not previously "tallied") items I came up with. Hopefully I didn't mess up. Corrections appreciated.

NEW YORK GIRLS
SACRAMENTO
WHISKEY JOHNNY
DIXIE'S LAND
CLEAR THE TRACK
GOODBYE FARE YE WELL
LOWLANDS AWAY
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY
REUBEN RANZO
ROSABELLA

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Jun 12 - 08:18 PM

A recently digitized source.

1890            Bassett, F.S. "Songs of the Sea." _Brainard's Musical World_ [Chicago] 27(313) (January 1890): 7-8.

Nothing too interesting here, though I consider any 19th century article of chanties to be of some notability. Each contributes in some way to broadening the audience and solidifying standardized print knowledge.

So this one is basically whipped up based in L.A. Smith's _The Music of the Waters_ (1888). I see no unique info. On the other hand, the author tweaks some lyrics here and there. For instance, "I am bound to the Rio Grande" becomes "I am off to Rio Grande." And "Slapandergosheka" becomes "Slopandergosha." However, despite such differences, and in light of several mistakes, it is absolutely clear to me that this knowledge is derived from Smith's text. There is no evidence that the author had his/her own direct knowledge of chanties.

Notable is the tweak of the text for "Lowlands", wherein Smith's "Lowlands a-ray" has become here "Lowlands away." I believe in this case that this was a rationalization, not a correction.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 08:40 AM

Gibb-

You probably got a lot of feedback from your lecture at the recent Mystic Sea Music Festival. Would you be willing to summarize the reaction? My friends were very interested in your presentation but were skeptical of your conclusions. Maybe they just needed to review this thread.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 10:05 AM

I confess that I feel somewhat skeptical too. Surely one of the most lyrical and melancholy trad songs can't have been created step by step by careless and romantic 20th century editors!

But Gibb's evidence that it was isn't easily disputed. I'm going to think about it some more, however.

As to Hugill, he certainly had no reason to expect that the shanty collections were fooling him. Maybe he learned the song from print even before he went to sea, then taught it to his shipmates.

At least that would make the "dead lover" "Lowlands" a real shanty, even if sung by only one real shantyman! (Two if Masefield had ever sung it.)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 02:56 PM

Gibb,
Any chance of posting your research somewhere please? For those of us on t'other side of the pond.

Jonathan
Was Masefield a 'shantyman'? Is there evidence for this? I'll have to check my copy of his 'sea songs'.

Gibb,
I've suggested this before to other thread leaders. This thread is so long even on my new superfast computer it takes a while to download this thread. All that is needed is to start a new thread , part 2...part 3 etc every couple of hundred posts.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 03:28 PM

Steve-

If you first click on "the number of replies" rather than the thread name, the thread will come up in sets of 50, much more manageable.

Masefield did sail a couple of years as an apprentice, and was trained aboard the "Conway" as a cadet in England. He certainly was familiar with shanties as sung and most likely chorused along as he worked but it's not clear if he actually led them.

Masefield had very bad luck with both his first and second captains and finally jumped ship in New York City, getting jobs as a waiter in sailortown dives and eventually getting a job via a friend he met in a textile mill in New Jersey. Eventually he quit that job and steamed back to England and eventually became a successful poet. His mother was most distressed to learn he was throwing away "his career."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 03:29 PM

I guess it's actually called "messages."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 03:38 PM

Hi Steve

As Charley says, Masefield seems to have been familiar with a number of chanties in direct experience, though he indicates that chanties were on their way out or otherwise not in their prime when he was working.

In my paper, I argue that despite what Masefield's familiarity may have been with some chanties, in the case of "Lowlands," he had no experience (or else chose to ignore it).

I'll PM you link to paper on-line.

Gibb

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 04:13 PM

To add to the confusion:

On Nov. 26, 1932, the Irish song collector Sam Henry published the following text (with tune)in the Coleraine "Northern Constitution":   

I dreamt I saw my own dear bride,
Lowlands, lowlands away, my John.
I dreamt I saw my own dear bride,
My lowlands away.

[similarly:]

And she was dressed in shimmering white.

All dressed in white, like some fair bride.

And then she smiled her sweetest smile.

She sang and made my heart rejoice.

The salt seaweed was in her hair.

It filled my heart with dark despair.

And then I knew that she was dead.

Then I awoke to hear the cry.

"All hand on deck! Oh, watch ahoy!"

This appears on p. 144 of _Sam Henry's Songs of the People_ (1990).

The infuriating note by the editors says: "Source not given."

If this text has appeared upthread, I apologize. It was easier to copy it than to search the entire thread.

Comments?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 06:06 PM

Hi, Jonathan,
I think this is the version I used to sing many years ago. I must say I could never figure out how it ever could have been sung aboard as a shanty.

Thanks, Gibb,
I've seen the link on the other thread now.

I wasn't questioning Masefield's sea experiences, only calling him a 'shantyman'! Surely someone with so little experience would not have been allowed to take on this prestigious role.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 10 Dec 12 - 09:12 PM

There is evidence that "Drunken Sailor" goes back considerably further than we thought.

This site:

http://www.pdmusic.org/1800s.html

includes a MIDI for the composition "Drunken Sailor (Rondo/Divertimento)" by Christopher Meineke (1782-1850). The piece is said to have been published in 1825.

Its first strain is the major version of the shanty tune (essentially "One Little Two Little Three Little Indians"). At least one shanty authority (can't remember which one) states that this was a "modern" variant.

Either way, Meineke's composition suggests that the shanty, with one tune or the other, was in use long before the Civil War.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 03:08 AM

Further than who thought? ;)

We certainly have Olmsted's whaling voyage of 1840 that cites it as a work-song.

Then there is the claim in Eckstorm & Smith (1927) that it was heard before 1827.

I have heard this Drunken Sailor composition, but guessed it was inspired by the sailor song. I have no trouble believing that the sailor song dates back to at least 1820 (though without contemporaneous proof).

I call "Drunken Sailor" a shanty, but only after the fact. So far as its form was different from almost every other shanty, and it's use was so particularly circumscribed (walk-away), and (it seems) it was allowed in the navy, I understand it to be one of the work-songs that predated most chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 07:37 AM

Well, if the 1825 date is accurate, that beats 1840 and tends to corroborate the otherwise uncorroborated 1827.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 02:16 PM

Sure...but we need more info! (Will we ever not? haha)

My perspective would be that the development of shanties and the origins of the song "Drunken Sailor," two different inquiries, do have a relationship...but not so relevant a relationship (this is where my opinion comes in) as some might feel.

I think the idea that the song DS is based in a previously known "air" -- in particular, one of a marching type....as might be played on fife/fiddle (the instruments of motivation in Navy ships) -- is very plausible.

In this case, the evidence is not, as Lighter obliquely suggests, that the song "Drunken Sailor" was "in use" i.e. as a shanty. Rather it presents the possibility that the composer had borrowed from a sailor song that was existing by the 1820s, or that some time after the 1820s sailors based a work song on a composer's popular air. Both seem plausible to me at this point.

That being said, I consider the *use* of DS as a shanty to be something appreciably distinct from the origin of its component parts.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 03:32 PM

> the possibility that the composer had borrowed from a sailor song that was existing by the 1820s, or that some time after the 1820s sailors based a work song on a composer's popular air. Both seem plausible to me at this point.

If the "Three Little Indians" tune antedates Meineke's composition, it would increase the likelihood that the shanty already existed. If not, not.

It's probably impossible to show that the tune did *not* exist earlier.

The point is that there are two sources of evidence to suggest the shanty was in existence more than decade before Olmsted's voyage.

That isn't a very exciting claim, but it's about the best that can usually be made in 19th C. folk music research.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 05:04 PM

To me the DS tune is very close to 'Roll the Old Chariot Along'. How far back has that been traced? I'm sure there's also an old Scottish tune that is pretty similar. It has the smack of a Highland Pipe tune.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 05:35 PM

What you say is true, Lighter. I simply take a more strict approach to reading the evidence in that I require some indication that a song was used as a shanty. Dating a song is one thing; dating its use as a shanty is another. The 1830s-ish existence of minstrel song "Coal Black Rose," for instance, which at some point was adapted to be a work song, does not suggest to me (n itself) that that sort of song had a life as a shanty in earlier days.

Steve, the info on "Chariot" suggests circa 1880s genesis of its shanty use. FWIW I group Chariot and DS in my mind (for right or wrong) due to their formal similarity to each other and their distinct difference from other songs that, and the end of it all, are grouped as "shanties." I can picture "Chariot" being developed as a shanty through the use of DS as a model. Just a thought.

The history of these two tunes is interesting, but at the same time (again a reflection of my personal disposition) I view them both as sort of "outliers" of the shanty phenomenon/genre. One is "too early," they other is too late!

"John Brown's Body" is a similar sort of song, I think, formally speaking.

Definitely shades of bagpipe tunes, I think, but I wouldn't limit it to that. The tune style could possibly be generalized to British Isles / Ireland music (?)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 06:11 PM

Gibb,
These long threads take a long time to download even on my quite fast new computer. Have you considered breaking up the thread at some point to make it more manageable? It could have a tag of 'part 2' quite easily. I suggested this successfully to Richie on his thread. Just a thought.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 07:11 PM

I hear a vague resemblance between DS and RTOCA. It may simply mean that the use of one (presumably DS) unconsciously influenced some singer(s) to adopt the other for shipboard use. Or it may be completely coincidental.

Years and years ago I noticed an Irish reel that I thought was surprisingly reminiscent of DS, but I don't remember the name and can't say whether the resemblance would seem as striking today.

It was probably in O'Neill's collection (1903), so even if it's quite similar it could have been influenced by the shanty rather than the other way around. Most frustrating.

FWIW, my view is that DS counts as a "real" (if perhaps unusual)shanty because not only was it used as one and thought of as one by various shanty collectors, it seems not to have been sung in non-shanty contexts.

It's minor point, however.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 07:45 PM

Lighter, I also think that Drunken Sailor counts as a "real" shanty. But that is by my inclusive and ex post facto definition of "shanty." When I am thinking specifically of shanties as a body of songs developed in the merchant trade for double pulls on the halyards and heaving windlasses (my category, to be sure), I tend to qualify DS.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 07:49 PM

I believe I was mistaken. A note penciled into my copy of O'Neill thirty years ago says that the opening bars of the reel "Green Fields of America" are just about identical except in tempo to the first line if "Haul on the Bowline."

In fact, you can listen here:

http://thesession.org/tunes/695

Coincidence? There's no telling.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 01:09 AM

I've been taking a closer look at the recordings by Alan Lomax in the Caribbean, 1962. Not studying them in depth per se, but just trying to pull out all the chanties and get them logged for future reference. My notes on each, therefore, are mainly to "tag" them and make them notable for later comparisons, etc. As people know, Lomax's titles are often hasty and cryptic, so some sort of minimal notes are necessary.

I've not made any systematic comparison to Abraham's and Beck's collections -- just going on memory, being haphazard. Another disclaimer would be that I have listened to these in a poor acoustic environment, and haven't made too much effort to decipher words.

The main object is simply to have pulled these out of an enormous body of recordings, to gather together what might be relevant for further study.

Lomax (or the people at Cultural Equity) have used tags like "chantey", "sailor song" and "work song" without any particular rigor. I suspect Lomax's preconceived ideas about the chantey repertoire affected his methodology in collecting. There is one notable interview where he is awkwardly plying an interviewee for "A-Roving", and other times he asks vaguely about "pulling up the anchor" and "pulling on the main sheet" (!). Not so effective, I imagine, but of course Lomax's style, very useful in its own way, was to capture the whole "forest" and so miss a lot of "trees." I am generally considering them all to be chanties of some sort (or relevant to the topic).

Generally speaking, I think most of the work songs in the collection struck me as relevant. However, this goes only for the English language ones. There are work songs in other languages, too, but they sound appreciably different from "chanties" to my ear. So these are just *my* "picks"; someone else going through it all might find other songs of relevance. It's a start.

I apologize that I can't spare the time to make all of the links click-able. Sorry.

Here's the first batch.

Trinidad and Tobago

25 April 1962
Diego Martin (None), Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago)

> Down Below (Mosquito And Sand-Fly) (cf. "Helluva wedding…", [BLOW BOYS BLOW])
sandfly married to baboon daughter…
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27627

30 April 1962
Plaisance (Rio Claro-Mayaro), Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago)

>And Away, Ah Ah
O Captain, captain, what's your cargo?
We are traveling to Dover,
And Away, Ah Ah
Travelling 90 knots an hour,
And Away, Ah Ah
Asking captain what's its cargo,
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26075

>Miss Nancy Oh
Oh, Miss Nancy have a wooden foot
Heave er away, miss Nancy oh,
Miss Nancy ey, Miss Nancy oh
Heave er away, miss Nancy oh,
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26076

>O Eliza (I) (cf. Carpenter collection: "Poor Little Liza," by JS Scott)
Miss Liza, Miss Liza we're going away tomorrow…
O Eliza, don't say so
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26072

>O Eliza (II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25816

>Tom Gone Away (I) (cf. "Man o' War" in Beck (?) etc)
I wish I was a fisherman boy aboard de man-o-war oh
Tom gone away, aboard a man o' war
From Dover to Scotland is 40 miles an over, boys…
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26074

>Tom Gone Away (II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26078

> Juliana
Ah Juliana, you say you never been there
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26077

8 May, 1962
San Juan (San Juan-Laventille), Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago)

> Mister Ram Goat-O (I) (not a chanty, but of the course the melody of [HAUL HER AWAY]/Sally Rackett
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26293

18 May 1962
Rampanalgas (Sangre-Grande), Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago)

>Diana Hey, Diana Ho (cf. "Helluva wedding…", "Down below" (above), [BLOW BOYS BLOW])
What you think they had for dinner?
Diana Hey, Diana Ho
Mosquito liver and sandfly liver (leggo)
Diana Hey, Diana Ho

Helluva wedding across the river,
Mosquito marry to sandfly daughter,
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26418

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 01:22 AM

Next batch.

Anguilla

4 July, 1962
The Valley (North Side) (None), North Side (Anguilla)
>A Sailor Likes a Bottle-o [BOTTLE O]
So early in the morning the sailor likes a bottle O
A bottle of this and a bottle of that
And a bottle of very good brandy O
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27472

>We All Going Ashore
Captain captain where are you going
We all going ashore (cf. HIGHLAND LADDIE for cotton stowing in Hill 1893)
Going ashore but not to stay
We are going ashore this evening
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27473

>Dio, The Tree Fall Down
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27474

>Sundown, I'm Going Home
We hear Martin bawling now…
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27476

>Miss Nancy Went To The Corner
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27477

>Haul 'Em So Long
haul 'em ~below
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26564

>Sally Brown [SALLY BROWN]
Sally Brown, the bright mullata
O sing Sally
Sally belly ~
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26565

>Ivan Boy You'll Clear My Ground
dance all night till the morning come
oh oh oh!
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26567

>Tom Gone Away (cf. [TOMMY'S GONE])
I wonder where my Stormy gone
Tom gone away
He gone on board of the ~mountain ship
Tom gone away
He gone away, the world don't know
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26569

>Peter, Remember You're Courting Her
Peter don't go ~
Peter!
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26570

The Valley (None), North Side (Anguilla)

>Drive Her Home (cf. [BILLY BOY]. "Driver her home" also a popular song in Jamaica)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26626

4 July, 1962
South Hill Village (None), South End (Anguilla)

>Boney (cf. [BONEY])
The Russians and the Prussians
Sing Nanny O!
Poor old Boney
Sing Nanny O!
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26598

>Bowline [BOWLINE]
oh, ho, the bowline hi!
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26597

>Early in the Morning, The Sailors like their bottle-o [BOTTLE O]
So early in the morning the sailors the bottle o
A bottle of rum, a bottle of gin
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26586

>Fight On, the American Bullies
Hurray, boys, hurray!
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26592

>Haul Away (cf. Hugill p. 357, from Harding - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZn7H_Ivlx4)
haul away, boys, haul away
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26596

>I Can't Go Long Pond
? – audio not working
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26777

>Yankee John, Storm Along ([YANKEE JOHN STORMALONG], cf Abrahams, etc)
O me Liza Lee
Who been here since I been gone?
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26595

>You Never Get a Sail
? – audio not working
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26775

5 July 1962
Copse Eastern (None), Anguilla (unspecified) (Anguilla)

>Island Deh [cf. [HILONDAY]
~ gone on the mountain
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26628

>Somebody 'Round
Everybody singing
Everybody calling
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26629

>Tom Gone Away ([TOMMY'S GONE])
I wonder where my Stormy gone
My Stormy gone, the world don't know
My Stormy to read and write
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26631

>Haul Away
I spend 40 shilling and I spend no more
Haul away, haul away!
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27633

>Tell Mister Duncan I Want No More Coil Rope (cf. "Diana hey", above; [FIRE MARENGO])
fire 'em away, fire 'em away
~ steamboat
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26634

>II
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26635

>Interview with a performer about Tell Mister Duncan I Want More Coil Rope
A donkey or a hog with long hair… haul up a steamboat. "coil rope" means a fuss.
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26636

>Spit Fire, Throw Away
Boiling mother!
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26637

>Interview with a performer about Spit Fire, Throw Away
"Spit Fire" is a boat going so fast that she is boiling the water
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26638

>We All Goin' Ashore (cf. another version, above)
We all going ashore but not to stay
We all going ashore!
Captain, captain lend me a boat
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26645

>Hombre
Say ~ahmbrey
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26646

>Sundown, I Goin' Home
Sundown, I never know
Sundown!
I hear Martin bell ring
Sundown!
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26647

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 01:59 AM

Next batch.

Nevis

10 July 1962
Newcastle (Saint James Windward), Nevis (St. Kitts and Nevis)

>Interview with Walter Roberts about chanties
Roberts seems to accidentally (?) say "shankey" a couple times, like he is getting it mixed up with "Sankeys" (hymns). Sometimes "k" gets substituted for "t" in Caribbean dialects; but is this significant?
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26690

>Do, My Jolly Boy (I) ([JOHNNY BOKER; cf. Abrahams)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26672

>(II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27023

>(III)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26678

>Pull My Jolly Boys (I) [JOHNNY BOKER]
[done while pulling boat]
Long and strong, me hearty man
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25904

>(II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26695

>Caesar Boy, Caesar (cf. Abrahams)
You look 'pon Caesar, you no look 'pon me
Caesar, boy, Caesar
Caesar drum a-go boom-boom-boom
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26671

>(II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26687

>(III)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26696

>Bear Away Yankee, Bear Away, Boy (I) (cf. Abrahams)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26673

>(II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26692

>Blow Boys Blow (I) [BLOW BOYS BLOW]
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26674

>(III)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26694

>Blow, Bully, Blow Boy (cf. [BLOW BOYS BLOW])
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26675

>See Me Nanny-o (I) (cf. "Boney", above; Abrahams, "Woman belly full of hair")
Woman belly full o' hair
See me nanny-o
I see it when I went there
See me nanny-o
Hurrah for de golden
See me nanny-o

You want to see a monkey kick
Bus' a pepper 'pon his prick
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26676

>(II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26689

>Blow the Man Down [BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
Blow the man down in the hold below
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26679

>Yankee John, Stormalong (I) [YANKEE JOHN STORMALONG]
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26681

>(II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26696

>Long Time Ago [LONG TIME AGO]
A long time me never know you, bully
A long long time in the hold below
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26683

>Bull Dog Goin' Bite Me (cf. Abrahams, Barouallie Whalers, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM9ziMvI2ms)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26684

>Feeny Brown (I) (cf. Abrahams; cf. [SALLY BROWN])
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26685

>(II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26686

>Interview with Walter Roberts about chanties.
They sing when pushing the boats and when rowing.
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26690

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 02:01 AM

Grenada

29 July, 1962
Six Roads (None), Carriacou (Grenada)

>Hi Lo Boys (cf. [HILO BOYS])
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25921

>Interview with Newton Joseph about sailor songs
Doesn't know "A-rovin".
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25919

>Long Time Ago (Caesar Boys)
Caesar, boy, I know you well
Long time in Mobile Bay
Bully, long time ago
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25920

30 July, 1962
L'Esterre (None), Carriacou (Grenada)
>Ride 'Em Trinidad (I) (cf. [SHINY O] [DOWN TRINDAD], Bullen's [SHENANDOAH])
{from Lighter:}
Brandy and wine, whisky and soda
       Hey-ey! Shiny O!
Shannydo, my bully boy, where you land that cyahgo?
       Right down Trinidad, brandy and wine!
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25925

Ride 'Em Trinidad (II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27038

>Yankee John (Stormalong) [YANKEE JOHN STORMALONG]
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25926

>Hi Lo Boys (cf. [HILO BOYS])
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25927

>Steamboat Due Tomorrow (cf "Drive her captain"/ "And Away ay-ah", above)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25928

>Roseanna (cf. poor [LUCIANA], in Bullen, Abrahams)
The mountain so high and the valley so low
Poor Lucy Anna
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25930

>Shiloh, Boys, Shiloh (cf. [HILO BOYS])
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25931

>Yard-o, Yard-o (I) (cf. Abrahams, "Bell a-Ring")
Bell a-ring a yard o
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27034

>Yard-o, Yard-o (II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27522

Ring Down Below (cf. Beck)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27035

Rosibella (I) ([ROSABELLA]; cf. Beck, etc)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27036

Rosibella (II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27037

(early) August 1962
La Resource (None), Carriacou (Grenada)

>Blow the Man Down [BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
The Yankee give lumber to build collie so
Give me the rum, I will blow she away
Come blow, come blow, she bound to go
…she can't say no
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27107

>Shame, Shame, Shame For Uncle Riley (cf [BILLY RILEY])
Shame Jimmy Riley oh!
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27113

>Long Time Ago (Caesar Boy) [LONG TIME AGO]
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27114

>Long Time Ago (Caesar Boys)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27039

>Roll, Roll, Roll and Go (cf [SALLY BROWN])
Roll and go Blackeyed Susianna
Spend my money the I can't get ashore
I want to get ashore and I cannot get ashore
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27115

>It's Time For A Man Go Home
It time, it time it time it time
It time for man go home!
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27116

>Roll My Riley
Seven long years I was courting
I was courting Mrs. Jemimiah
Hurroh, my Riley [grand chorus]
Immediately when I spoke to her she was down by the police station
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27040


5 Aug. 1962
La Fortune (Saint Patrick), None (Grenada)

> Roll, Roll, Roll And Go (I) (cf. [Sally Brown])
I spend my money and I can't get ashore
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27157

>(II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25935

> Jean Jean-o (I) (cf. [DAN DAN], Hugill, Abrahams)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27159

>(II)
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27603

> Sound Me Doctor, Sound Me
Sound me, I tell you, sound me doctor
My head to me elbow
Sound me doctor, sound me forever
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27163

> John Gone Away (cf. "Man o' War")
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25933

> Hurrah-lo, Put Me Ashore
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=25938


7 Aug 1962
La Filette (Saint Andrew), Carriacou (Grenada)

>Hilo Boys, Hilo (cf. [HILO BOYS])
hilo, bully boy, hilo!
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27231

> Going Away
We are going away to London town
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27232

> Fare You Well, Captain, Give The Men A Blow
Blow, blow, blow she away
Give the man a blow and let him go away
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27233

> Way-o, Way-o
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27234

>In My Own Native Land
In my own beloved land
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27235

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 02:03 AM

Last set,

Tobago

18 August, 1962
Pembroke (None), Tobago

>Island Day [HILONDAY]
Oh poor Miss Mary
Island day
Miss Mary gone a mountain
Island day
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27278

>A Long Time Ago [LONG TIME AGO]
Johnny ~Matto was a fisherman's son
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27266

> Blow, Boys, Blow, Boys
Nancy o, blow my diggy man!
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=27276

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 04:18 AM

hmm, I missed a few....Hope I didn't miss many more.

> Oh The Yellow Line Fall
[has harmony, minor key]
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26587

> Oh Mother Dinah (cf. [MUDDER DINAH] in Hugill)
[Melody is curiously similar to preceding "Yellow Line Fall"]
Sing Sally O, fal-de-rol-day!
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26588

> Adieu, Fare-You-Well To The Girls In This Town [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26594

> One Hundred Can't Pay My Way [HUNDRED YEARS AGO]
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=26590

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 08:13 AM

Wow, Gibb! That is a lot of culling with some good results! I really appreciate this kind of sorting. Now to go and begin listening to all of this. Thanks for your good work. J.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Jan 13 - 06:06 PM

Fauset, Arthur Huff. 1931. Folklore from Nova Scotia. New York: The American Folk-lore Society.

This contains a couple stevedores' songs that seem to have been still current in the 1920s, Nova Scotia.

Fauset worked in the field with Elsie Clews Parsons.

Introduction dated 1925. States that the majority of material came from people with Black ancestry. Though popular perception of Americans might be otherwise, in Nova Scotia "the frequency with which one encounters the Negro is not unlike similar experiences in states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania." (pg vii)

Two chanty items, text only. Both were collected by Parsons. Pg. 119.

[BLOW BOYS BLOW] (mis-titled) looks like it might be similar to one of the Caribbean forms in the Lomax recordings. That is just my impression based on the phrasing of the refrain.
//
BLOW THE MAN DOWN

Yankee ship
Coming down the river
Blow boys!
Bully boys blow!

How do you know
She's a Yankee Clipper.
Blow boys!
Bully boys blow!

Knock him down
With a marlin clipper,
Blow boys!
Bully boys blow!

The shipper's [sic] got your grog,
In an old hand dipper,
Blow boys!
Bully boys blow!

The cook is a Swede,
And you want yer supper,
Blow boys!
Bully boys blow!

The mate's arm,
Is just like a hammer,
Blow boys!
Bully boys blow!
//
The above was sung by Basil Robinson, 28, a longshoreman in Yarmouth. Sailor in West Indies, Atlantic Coast. "His parents are colored."

[ROLL THE WOODPILE DOWN]
//
HOLD THE WOOD PILE DOWN

Steamboat comin round the bend,
'Way down in Georgia
Loaded down with colored men,
Hold the woodpile down.
//

This was sung by Clarence Marie, 25, also a longshoreman in Yarmouth. Black man.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 18 Jan 13 - 08:15 AM

Wow! Elsie Clews Parsons collecting sea chanties in Nova Scotia. The last time I came across her she was down on the Rio Grande in New Mexico collecting Pueblo Indian stories. Very interesting find, Gibb.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Jan 13 - 11:35 PM

I am starting to thing maybe chanties should not be called sailors' worksongs but rather, first and foremost, stevedores' worksongs.

If we think about it: Chanties were probably sung more by stevedores. On sea vessels, anchor-raising chanties would only be sung comparatively rarely—mainly in/out of port. So capstan/windlass chanties would not be sung so much, unless these devices were used as an alternative way to hoist yards and such. Halyard chanties would appear more often, but not constantly. Yes, there was pumping, too. It seems that most of the regular singing would be for the adjustments of sail direction and to tautness, i.e the so-called "sing-outs." And yet these sing-outs are not generally placed at the center of the concept of "chanties," and only a few authors on chanties give them much attention (for whatever reason—their relative "insignificance" is easy to imagine).

On the other hand, stevedores would be working "all day" to the singing of chanties. They would be closer in touch with the "land" songs that would inspire new creations.

And yet did many folklorists and such go out to collect songs from stevedores? There are certainly some studies, but are they not mostly studies of Black stevedores specifically? Other stevedore songs get mentioned only in the context of studies of sailors who heard them or also participated in that work. People didn't go out looking for retired stevedores to interview about their songs. (Stevedores, I suppose, did not figure in the national imagination of the "nautical heritage" of places like England.) While White stevedores were there, and I think of them in the observations of cotton stowing, no other observations of them are coming to mind, outside of mention in works about sailors.

It seems to me that this is a big gap, that probably shaped/skewed the narratives about chanties that developed.

In the least, chanties should really be called, IMO, "worksongs of sailors and stevedores." To define them first and foremost as just sailor songs may be a mischaracterization, that inadvertently marginalizes the stevedores' songs as something extra that one would include only when stretching the definition/discussion.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Jan 13 - 11:43 PM

What I mean to say is that stevedores' chanties were more than sailors'. But their cultural context did not form a sort of "framed" picture that would lead people to consider them as a particular "thing" that formed a topic of discussion.

The pattern was to frame "sailors' songs" and then divide that into work and non-work songs, rather than to frame a category of worksongs that straddled the occupations of sailor and stevedore.

In many ways, the lives and identities of sailors and stevedores must have seemed irreconcilable. They did not both fit into the same "file." Yet their songs probably do.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Jan 13 - 12:34 AM

"Wild Goose Shanty" of AL Lloyd, a version of [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] or [RANZO RAY], appears to be developed from an item in W. Roy MacKenzie's _Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia_ (1928). MacKenzie collected it from Ephraim Tattrie of Talamagouche.

Did you ever see a wild goose floating on the ocean?
    Ranzo, ranzo, away, away!
It's just like the young girls when they take the notion
    Ranzo, ranzo, away, away!

Tune is given. The pitches are almost identical to Lloyd's rendition, but, unlike Lloyd's, the tune is in strict meter.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Jan 13 - 08:44 PM

Gibb-

I certainly agree with you that the stevedore work songs have been sadly neglected, and many were most likely the origin of deep sea shanties.

Anyone who wants to find some vintage photos of the stevedores at work should access the portal at the Library of Congress Digital Archives; the photos are available at high resolution, copyright free, and with a little editing are superb.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jan 13 - 03:35 PM

Here's one from the early 1840s confirming Northeastern English sailors were doing some kind of capstan songs—no surprise, but to add the small-ish body of data. The author uses the word "chaunt" to encompass working songs.


1842         M., C. "Songs for the People." _The Musical World_ [weekly, London] 17(17) (28 April, 1942): 130.

Sort of an early essay on "folk song" (though not called that).

//
But if these chaunts have not much meaning, they will not produce the desired effect of touching the heart, as well as animating the arm of the labourer. The gondoliers of Venice while away their long midnight hours on the water, with the stanzas of Tasso; our sailors at Newcastle, in heaving their anchors, &c, use a song of this kind. A society, instituted in Holland for general good, do not consider among their least useful projects, that of having printed, at a low price, a collection of songs for sailors.
//

Hmm, a collection of songs? But were they work songs?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jan 13 - 04:22 PM

Scratch that! The passage in my last post seems to have been developed from a still earlier comment on Newcastle capstan song.

1818         Ford, James. "Suffolk Provincial Songs, Ditties, Healths and Proverbs." In _The Suffolk Garland: or, A Collection of Poems, Songs, Tales, Ballads, Sonnets, and Elegies, Legendary and Romantic, Historical and Descriptive, Relative to that County; And Illustrative of its Scenery, Places, Biography, Manners, Habits and Customs._ Ipswich: John Raw. Pp. 395-404.

//
Songs of trades, or songs of the people, are of very remote antiquity. The Grecians, says D'Israeli in his entertaining work, the "Curiosities of Literature," had songs appropriated to the various trades. There was a song for the corn-grinders; another for the workers in wool; another for the weavers. The reapers had their carol; the herdsmen had a song, which an ox-driver of Sicily had composed; the kneuders, and the bakers, and the galley-rowers, were not without their chaunt. We have ourselves a song of the weavers, which Ritson has preserved in his "Ancient Songs;" and it may be found in the popular chap-book of "the Life of "Jack of Newberry;" and the songs of anglers, of old Isaac Walton, and Charles Cotton, still retain their freshness. Dr. Johnson is the only writer I recollect who has noticed something of this nature which he observed in the Highlands. The strokes of the sickle were timed by the modulation of the harvest song, in which all their voices were united. They accompany every action which can be done in equal time with an appropriate strain, which has, they say, not much meaning, but its effects are regularity and cheerfulness, There is an oar song used by the Hebrideans, and our sailors at Newcastle, in heaving their anchors, &c. use a song of this kind.
//

A song? A single song? Or does he mean a *class* of song? Either way, it sounds limited. But interesting!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jan 13 - 04:36 PM

Now this reference is a comment on slaves of African descent on the island of St. Vincent, in 1833.

1834[1833]        "Manners of West India Slaves." _Chambers' Edinburgh Journal_ no.101 (4 Jan. 1834): 387-8.

It's one of those pieces that shows a European's impression that Africans were making music "all the time."

The verse it quotes, one for entertainment, seems to have the same meter as a typical chanty, and the author says that the same type as shared between different contexts, including work.

The bit on nautical songs is interesting. Why would the author need to compare them to the "Canadian boat song" if, not far away, Newcastle sailors were also using capstan songs? I reason that there must have been something significantly different about the style of song.

I am not sure how to read "Our negro sailors, too, have their nautical songs..." Does me mean that they have songs in addition to the nautical songs of White sailors? Or does he mean that in addition to all the other Black songs I have been naming, they have nautical ones? The fact that he needs to elaborate on what that entails *may* mean the latter was intended.

//
A gentleman, resident in St Vincent's, has sent us a large mass of interesting original information on the condition and character of the slaves on one of the estates in that island; but from the controversial nature of the subject, we are prevented from inserting any portion of the details in our Journal, except that which relates to the manners and customs of the negroes.

"In their manners (says our correspondent) they are more polite than many would be inclined to credit:….
…They are passionately fond of music, and very readily acquire any tune they hear, turning every circumstance or important event into such rude verses as those sung on the day after my arrival at Grand Sable Estate, when they had holiday given them, and something to make merry.

'My Lady Brisbane gone away, 

Massa come and give us holiday.
    Huzza! huzza!'

And these you hear repeated over and over again, as they pass along the road, or down the cane-rows at work. On another occasion, when returning from an excursion, I was amused as well as surprised by hearing a negro boy as he approached me whistling, with great accuracy and precision, and at the same time with some melody and execution, the hunting-song in Der Freischutz. The adult negroes, when working in the fields, have their favourite songs, in which the whole gang unite, iterating or bringing down together a long line of glittering hoes in exact time; the delicate and attenuated voices of the females, blended sweetly and prettily with the full deep tones of the male performers. Our negro sailors, too, have their nautical songs, similar to the 'Canadian boat-song,' and ply the oar, or pull upon the hawser and capstan, adapting the measure to the slowness or rapidity of their movements. Nay, even the little Creole gang of children have some favourite choruses; and a leader, a little improvisature, who composes as he goes along, drawing from the stores of his own imagination, or forming rude verses from the ideas suggested by passing objects: first comes the solo of their leader, and then his little band of followers, joining in one simultaneous and merry chorus, beating the time with their hands or upon their little breakfast tins..."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Jan 13 - 04:52 PM

Gibb-

Very interesting.

I'm sure that the dockyard workers who helped warp the ships in and out of the pools via capstan power also had their work songs. Some day we'll find someone who was interested enough to describe them.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jan 13 - 05:00 PM

The following remembrance of life on the Liverpool docks ca.1830, appears to quote [DRUNKEN SAILOR].

1855         Roberts, Edwin F. "Dock-side; Or, Liverpool Twenty-five Years Ago: A Local Sketch." _The United Service Magazine_ 2(319) (June 1855) 240-8.

Pg. 248
//
On either side a dock-gateman is winding open the enormous watergates. The tide is up to the level of that held in the dock; and, being high water, vessels are now coming in and going out. Here is one entering the gut outward-bound, heavily laden, and looking very trim and compact. Half a dozen men and a gigantic negro are heaving away at the capstan. The topsails are hanging in the brails. As yet she is short-handed, for the whole of the crew are not aboard; but here they come, drunk and sober, leaping and tumbling upon the decks. Some go below to sleep their orgies out, and some aloft and hither and thither—and the vessel's way is quickened.
She is not yet out of the dock gates, and till then the gateman acts as a sort of pilot to her—giving directions and orders in the quick, short, stern tone which is the habit of seamen, from the fact that whatever is to be done must be done instantaneously, at once, without debate or dispute.
"Ship ahoy!" the gateman sings out, while, with a merry tramp and an enlivening song, the capstan bars go round—with some such burthen as this:

"Shove him in the long-boat till he gets sober."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 27 Jan 13 - 05:12 PM

Moore's "Canadian Boat Song" (1804) is a fairly fancy melody, with a text to match.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jan 13 - 05:29 PM

1847        "Auto-Biographical Sketches, by a Merchant Sailor, Illustrative of the State of the British Merchant Service." _The Nautical Magazine_ 16 (Feb. 1847): 73-8

This is at least part 3 of a series, started in volume 15 (1846). I wasn't able to ascertain exactly what years are being remembered. If it's the West India trade, I am guessing 1830s (?). Likewise, I'm not sure if Bay of Kingston refers to Jamaica or St. Vincent or...

Local Black stevedores at a capstan are described singing in a unique way.

//
We arrived in the magnificent Bay of Kingston in the island of _____ after a very fine passage of twenty-nine days. Jemmy and his wife landed, with their traps, and took up. their abode with his relation, a planter, the mate was left in full charge, and I heard the master, among the last words he said, tell him to send to the consignee's store for any thing he wanted. We had no spirits ou board on the passage out for the crew, the master saying that it had been forgotten in Liverpool…
…
To enable the reader to understand the events which occurred on board our vessel, during our stay, it will be necessary to explain the custom of the trade as regards loading the cargoes of produce. The sugar and other articles are all collected at the various estates by small cutters and schooners, carrying from twelve to twenty hogsheads; at some places they are loaded at small jetties, at others, the hogsheads are carried to the droger singly, in a boat constructed on purpose, and called a Moses boat. When there is a strong trade wind, the drogers cannot get the produce loaded in consequence of the surf being too high to permit the Moses boat to land. They, therefore, take every opportunity of procuring sugar during favourable weather, and, in order that no time may be lost, it is the custom for the ship's crew to commence taking in sugar from the droger whenever she comes alongside the vessel, whether Sunday or week-day, day or night. These drogers are all commanded by white men, respectable and trustworthy, generally old mates of vessels; they are well paid, and looked on as a very respectable class; the crew is-always composed of negroes, and always numerous from the heavy nature of the work, the hogsheads weighing often one ton each. When the droger goes alongside to commence discharging, the greater port of her crew generally go on board to assist in heaving the sugars on board, which is done by the capstan, (or, at least, was done at the time I am writing of, now, the double winch is often used, and some vessels have regular cranes, which they set up on deck when taking in or discharging,) the negroes singing the whole time a variety of songs, and beating time with their feet. Many of the negroes are improvisatoires of no mean talent, and many a severe remark is passed while singing, upon both mate and master, if not favourites. On some of the beautifully still, calm, clear, evenings enjoyed in the tropics, when no sound is heard save the chirping of the cricket amongst the rigging, or the dull murmur of the distant surf, the sudden commencement of the negro song, on board some vessel in the bay, taking in sugar, would rouse the mind from its lethargy, and recall the wandering thoughts to the realities around.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jan 13 - 08:35 PM

The following may not be directly relevant to chanties, but it is another example of the observation of Black boatmen's songs, with a text in a familiar topical style, and with a sentiment that reveals the author finds them to be both unusual and interesting.

1856        Lanman, Charles. Adventures in the Wilds of the United States and British American Provinces. Vol. II. Philadelphia: John W. Moore.

The writings come from tours in North America from the previous 10 years, i.e. since 1846.

Up the Chattahoochee River, through Georgia, on steamboat South Carolina, manned by Black slaves (who received some pay).

Pg149:
//
But I must not forget to mention the cheerful aspect which our steamboat presented as she came in sight of Columbus and paddled her way up to the levee. While the captain invited the passengers to assemble on the upper-deck the mate treated his negro boatmen to a drink of whiskey, which was a signal for them to march to the bow of the boat for the purpose of singing a song. There were twenty of them, and the ceremony was commenced by one of the fellows mounting the capstan and pretending to read the words to be sung from a newspaper, which he held upside down. Their voices were exceedingly good, but, instead of a regular song, the music was more of an incoherent chant, wild and mournful, and breathing forth such impromptu words as these:

"We's up the Chattahoochee, 

On de good old South Calina, 

Going to see my true love, 

How is you my darlin?

Now de work is over 

We's all coming home I"

To my unsophisticated ear there was more melody and pure sentiment in this native chant as it echoed over the tranquil waters, than I ever enjoyed in a fashionable concert room.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jan 13 - 09:23 PM

1839         'Knickerbocker.' "Odds and Ends: From the Portfolio of a Penny-A-Liner." _The Family Magazine_ [monthly, Cincinnati] 4. Pp. 76-9.

The author is presumably a native of New York. Another sort of early musing on what might be called "folk music." Describes/praises the singing of Black stevedores in New Orleans. They are hauling by hand, the chantyman gathering up the end of the rope. Also makes reference to TD Rice's minstrel performances.

Pg 78:
//
…What I call unwritten musick, is such as has never been marked and dotted out on five straight lines—such as cannot be bought at Atwill's—such as is never thumbed by the young miss who yawns at her piano. Reader, if you want to hear unwritten musick, go down to the docks, find a ship from New Orleans, with a negro crew, sit down on a cotton bag, and you will hear, while she is unloading, airs that will haunt you for weeks afterward. You will see half a dozen stout fellows, with lungs like a boss chimneysweep, and wind like a bellows, pulling at the rope which raises the cargo from the hold, keeping time to the air which is sung by their ship-mate who coils away, and at the end of every half minute join in the chorus with a heartiness and power that is most edifying to hear and behold. Unwritten musick is to be heard everywhere. The shoemaker keeps time to it, as he pulls out his long waxed-ends; the porter walks to it; it regulates the strokes of the blacksmith, when the heated iron sparkles upon his anvil; the black cook hums it, as she turns the spit, and it is ever falling from the lips of the young, the lovely, the innocent, and the gay.
Musick of all kinds, written or unwritten, is to be had in this city [New York] in great quantities, and at various prices. It costs a dollar to hear Mrs. Wood sing at the Park Theatre; seventy-five cents to hear Mr. Rice execute "Jim Crow" at the Bowery; and for fifty cents we can hear "Sittin' on a rail" done by the great composer himself, at the Franklin.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Apr 13 - 05:34 AM

In his _Singing the Master_ (1992), Roger Abrahams comments,

Songs with the same refrains and tunes as corn shuckings are found in cotton-loading and hoeing songs and sea shanties (including the songs above, "Ju-ran-zie," "Long Time Ago," and "It Rain, Boy, It Rain." (pg120)

Elsewhere Abrahams states that the following song is a version of the sea chantey "Reuben Ranzo"...

The song, from a corn shucking, comes in

Chenault, John Cabell and Jonathan Truman Dorris. _Old Cane Springs: A Story of the War Between the States in Madison County, Kentucky_. Louisville, KY: Standard Print Co., 1937.

pg.47

//
Old marster shot a wild goose

A hundred vices answered from all parts of the field and each mangrabbed a stalk for shucking.

Ju-ran-zie, hio ho.
It wuz seben years fallin'

The multitude of voices cried out as at first—

Ju-ran-zie, hio ho.

It was seben years cookin'.
        Ju-ran-zie, hio ho.

A knife couldn't cut it.
        Ju-ran-zie, hio ho.

A fork couldn't stick it.
        Ju-ran-zie, hio ho.

There was great harmony and perfect concord, although the men were scattered.
//

The "wild goose" in conjunction with "Ranzo" (?) is notable here.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 14 Apr 13 - 07:50 AM

Hey Gibb, a very interesting connection. It, of course, brings to mind Leadbelly's "Grey Goose" song about "the preacher went a huntin'". The refrain there is simply, "Lord, Lord, Lord".

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Apr 13 - 09:45 AM

I don't see any resemblance to "Reuben Ranzo" except for the syllable "ranz" in the refrain.

Are the tunes similar?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Apr 13 - 03:53 PM

No tune.

I share in the sentiment of your comment, Lighter.

I should have mentioned that I thought this was an interesting reference to share because Abrahams' comment about the sharing between corn-shucking and other "inland" work-songs with chanties has been one of the ideas on this thread. I think that when Abrahams did his Caribbean chanties research he may not have realized the extent of sharing, but then later when he wrote this book all about corn-shucking bees he was struck by the similarities.

Whether those overall similarities may have caused him to "stretch" in making some connections is a different matter.

Abrahams presented the "ju-ran-zie' song in the book before making the comment. When I saw the song, I actually immediately thought, "ranzo!" I may be stretching as well! - but looking at the material with similar "eyes" as Abrahams.

But then when I saw his endnote saying this was a "version" of "Reuben Ranzo," I was surprised that he would be so positive about it. I would leave it at the possibility that the phrase "ranzo" courses through a number of song choruses.

I believe Abrahams' rationale here goes beyond the immediate contents of the text in the example. He does also mention the "Grey Goose"—good catch, John Minear! He points out that "Grey Goose" and some other songs have a similar narrative in the solo lines. He considers this what he calls the "Marster-John" theme, about a slave owner trying to kill a slave, but the slave won't go easily. ...so... Abraham reads the story of "Reuben Ranzo," who is whipped and punished by the ship's "master" as being a "re-coded" version of what "might at one point have been a cante-fable."

The very short solo lines, like, "and then this happened. and then this, then this. then this" do seem to characterize Reuben Ranzo, Grey Goose, and the corn-shucking example. Abrahams, I believe, is juggling all the loose characteristics—poetic meter, narrative theme, "ranz" morpheme, working context—and making a connection. This is the type of thing I've been hoping to accomplish with this thread, etc....to read better between the lines after exposure to lots of data.

However, I do balk again when I read another of his statements. "It should be noted that almost all of the corn songs reported here are also widely found as sea chanteys." (pg191) Almost all?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Doodlepip
Date: 09 Jul 13 - 02:04 PM

Lyrics to "I wish I was with Nancy" from Short Sharp Shanties or any other source would be appreciated please

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Jul 13 - 09:58 PM

Hi Doodlepip,

I don't believe there is any other source besides the manuscript from Cecil Sharp (of John Short) on which Tom Brown of "Short Sharp Shanties" based that rendition. If you're having trouble hearing what Tom sings, perhaps you could jot down what you do hear (or think you hear) and we can fill in the gaps.

Tom Brown (doc.tom on Mudcat) could possibly supply the words he sang—only a couple verses of which (correct me if I'm wrong) were actually sung by the chantyman John Short.

There must certainly be other parodies of "Dixie's Land" like this, too.

As far as sailor-generated parodies go, there is one in Hugill's unabridged _Shanties from the Seven Seas_. I don't remember offhand exactly what Hugill printed, but I red between the lines (always a perilous endeavor) and came up with this rendition.
Dixie

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Jul 13 - 10:28 PM

Interesting discussion of "Ranzo."

"Round the Corn, Sally" is certainly similar to "Round the Corner, Sally."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Jun 14 - 02:38 AM

Hello! It has been a busy last year for me with work/living concerns, and that means hard to find the time for this research. But I am working back into a research mode for the next several weeks, and in the process of rediscovering references I had stowed away. Here's one.

1903        "Old Corn-husking Song." _The Wichita Daily Eagle_. 1 December: 7.

The Wichita Daily Eagle for 1 Dec., 1903 which looks to have reproduced a Baltimore Sun article, entitled "Old Corn-husking Song." The anonymous author claims this song was "in vogue in Frederick county, Maryland seventy-years ago." That would make 1833 - which seems impossible to verify. Yet, these songs ended with Emancipation, so 1830s-50s would make sense.

The text of the song follows. The solo parts are improvisational in style. Aside from the first and last couplet, I've omitted the refrains that come after each line.
//
The Jack Snipe said unto the Crane,
    Whiskey Johnnie;
I wish de Lord there would come rain.
    Oh, Hilo!
The Wild Goose said unto the Swan,
The coming winter will be sharp and long,
They say old master's sick again,
He suffers many an ache and pain,
When my old master's dead and gone,
This old nigger will stop husking corn,
Oh, my master's good to me,
And when he dies he'll set me free,
We've possum fat and taters, too,
Good enough for me and you,
If you have cider good and strong,
I'll be to see you before very long,
The watermelons now in their height,
I stol'd two out de patch last night,
The nigger who finds the most red corn,
Will be de next leader 'sho as he's born,
The corn is husked, the supper is o'er,
And now we'll pull the other shore,
And all you niggers start tonight,
So you'll get home before daylight,
And now my friends I'll bid you all adieu,
I've done the best I could for you,
And remember that we niggers all,
Will be on hand next fall,
And now, my friend, again good night,
We husked that corn good and all right,
We stripped the husk off like a shirt,
    Whiskey Johnnie,
And left no silk that would ever hurt,
    Oh, Hilo!
        —Old Timer, in Baltimore Sun.
//

"Hilo" is familiar in this type of song. As for "Whiskey Johnnie": If it didn't originate there, how do you suppose it got there? In a sailor context, I believe the early reference for [WHISKEY JOHNNY] is Clark 1867.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 22 Aug 14 - 10:53 AM

Here's one of the few findable, early chantey references that haven't been posted yet:

"Sunday Chronicle" [San Francisco] (Jan. 23, 1881), p.:

"For the first six weeks all the 'Shanti songs' [sic] known on the sea had been sung. Regularly at each pumping exercise we had 'Santy Anna,' 'Bully in the Alley,' 'Mirama Lee,' 'Storm Along John,' and other operatic maritime gems, some of which might have a place in our modern operas of the Pinafore school. There's a good deal of rough melody when these airs are rolled out by twenty or thorty strong lungs to the accompaniment of a windlass' clank and the wild, shrill sweep of the wind in the rigging above."

I can't guess at "Mirama Lee." (Surely it wasn't "The Spanish Nobilio," noted for his damaged "miralto maree," or even a version of "The Loss of the Ramillies.")

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 22 Aug 14 - 10:55 AM

That's "p. 1."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 22 Aug 14 - 06:07 PM

Lighter,

Thanks for that! It sounded familiar and as it turns out: The same passage (later) appears in Prentice Mulford's _Life by Land and Sea_ (New York, 1889). Perhaps Mulford was the author of the newspaper article/story.

HOWEVER: In Mulford's book, he has "Miranda Lee"! Sounds like a more plausible name, no? Perhaps it was a typo being corrected.

THE PLOT THICKENS: There is an even earlier reference than the one you posted, to "Miranza Lee." I'll try to post it later, but it seems likely composed by the same author again (even though it is anonymous).

"Miranza Lee" gives more to chew on. The mind goes to "My-ranzo-ray", "ranzo-ree", "marengo", etc.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: RTim
Date: 22 Aug 14 - 07:11 PM

Hi all,
This is such an Important Thread - how can we assure that it will ALWAYS be available to anyone interested in the subject? Can Dick Greenhaus turn it into a book?

Tim Radford
Ps - Even I have not read all of this thread, but should..........

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Aug 14 - 07:41 AM

Yes, Mulford was the author.

"Miranda Lee" certainly sounds more likely.

Have you seen the articles "The Chanty Man's Passing Deeply Deplored" (1909)(Anon.) and "Drift from the Seven Seas," by Albert J. Porter (1911)?

They contain a few variant lines of common shanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Aug 14 - 07:56 AM

OK, here are the rest of the Mulford references that I have in my notes.

Prentice Mulford (1834-1891) was born in Sag Harbor, sailed to San Francisco in 1856, where he settled a while and worked as a writer. Returned to New York City in 1872. He wrote for The New York Daily Graphic, 1875-81.

In 1871, he authored this piece in his hometown newspaper:

"Fifteen Years Ago: Reminiscences of San Francisco in 1856." _The Sag-Harbor Express_, 27 July 1871.

The clipper ship WIZARD, from New York, was tied up at the Valejo street wharf. The passage had taken four months. Mulford was one of seven Americans in the multinational crew. Mulford writes,

//
He [Mulford] gave the Wizard a final jump [pump?] out, to the tune of "Miranza Lee," then marched, hat in hand, to the cabin, was paid off at the rate of five dollars per month, and went ashore, just fifteen years ago.
//

So, "Miranza Lee" was a pumping song.

Next, in 1879, Mulford is writing anonymously as a theatre critic. Here he reviews several recent performances on the New York stage:

"A Gallery God's Reminiscences Past and Criticisms Present of the Stage." _The Daily Graphic_ [New York], 29 March 1879.

Meandering into an editorial-like passage, Mulford longs for an "American comic opera" practice to come about (as opposed to, for example, French operettas translated to English). Such would be, he envisions, filled with "the airs of forty years ago," such as "the old negro songs before the days of Christy…" etc. He goes on to say,

//
There's half a dozen old "shanty songs" that are never heard on shore, sung by sailors at work. Such as "The Bully Boat's a Coming," "Santy Anna," Miranza Lee," "Storm along, John." Take any of these chanted by a Blackball liner's crew as they were making everything taut in the dog watch with top gallant sails set and a lively breeze humming through the rigging, and there's music which would, with a little trimming and polishing, out-Pinafore "Pinafore."
//

Again it's "Miranza Lee"—evidently well-remembered from his 1856 voyage. "The Bully Boat's a Coming" is nowadays known also as "Ranzo Ray."

After this comes the reference, recently posted by Lighter, in the SF _Sunday Chronicle_, 23 Jan. 1881. In it, "Bully in the Alley" takes the place of "Bully Boat" in the list of four "Shanti songs." "Miranza Lee" appears to have been misspelled as "Mirama Lee." The Pinafore idea is repeated.

Finally, Mulford's autobiography, _Life by Land and Sea_, comes in 1889. I suppose it is the final, compiled version of what was earlier printed (in pieces?), because it has the same passage as the _Sunday Chronicle_ piece. But now it's "Miranda Lee"!

Here are the two passage, for comparison:

1881:
"For the first six weeks all the 'Shanti songs' [sic] known on the sea had been sung. Regularly at each pumping exercise we had 'Santy Anna,' 'Bully in the Alley,' 'Mirama Lee,' 'Storm Along John,' and other operatic maritime gems, some of which might have a place in our modern operas of the Pinafore school. There's a good deal of rough melody when these airs are rolled out by twenty or thorty strong lungs to the accompaniment of a windlass' clank and the wild, shrill sweep of the wind in the rigging above."

1889:
"For the first six weeks all the "shanty songs" known on the sea had been sung. Regularly at each pumping exercise we had "Santy Anna," "Bully in the Alley," "Miranda Lee," "Storm Along, John," and other operatic maritime gems, some of which might have a place in our modern operas of "The Pinafore" school. There's a good deal of rough melody when these airs are rolled out, by twenty or thirty strong lungs to the accompaniment of a windlass' clank and the wild, shrill sweep of the winds in the rigging above."

I would guess that "Miranza Lee" was perhaps "Eliza Lee"/"Clear the Track," as that was also a pump chanty.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Aug 14 - 08:25 AM

No, I haven't seen those Porter articles.

I do have lots of "new" references in my notes that are not logged in this thread. However, I am SO behind on the work for the book related to this topic that I have felt guilty about taking any time to do things not directly related to it! I spent several weeks this summer just getting the references, bookmarked over the last couple years, into a bibliography.

Anyway, there is one that comes to mind that I'd like to share because it is quite exciting - AND available on-line to boot…

***

This comes from the journal of James Carr, 21 July 1815 ‐ 4 May 1816. It is part of the collection "James Carr Papers," South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

Carr was a captain and shipping merchant, of Bangor, Me. The voyage covered in the journal was Bangor, Me., to Charleston, S.C., and then to Liverpool, England, 21 July 1815 - 4 May 1816, aboard the ship MARY.

Below is a portion I've picked out from a section of the journal provided by the archive in scanned pages from the manuscript.

All of the songs quoted can be connected to later chanties. This illustrates again (e.g. as in Hay's account of Jamaican stevedores in 1811) that these songs were being sung by African-American slaves along the shore/rivers before anything like them was recognized aboard deep sea-going English vessels. It is especially nice to fill in one more step for "Grog Time o' Day". The description of Charleston as like a town in the West Indies resonates along with the line from Hay's 1811 "Grog Time" reference in Jamaica. Important, too, is the early reference to a cotton-screwing gang.

Incidentally, another account of slave rowing songs in Charleston, ca1790s, had been one of the earliest entires in this thread.

N.B. Some spellings may be off from the manuscript, because this is from a transcription made by the South Caroliniana Library. I made a couple corrections myself.

//
I shall now give some little account of Charleston […]
[Page 2]
[…] – before the city on Coopers river is a large marsh covered with coarse grass or rushes – as you approach the city you appear on board your vessel to be higher than the streets. I was told by Mr. Crafts an intelligent gentleman, that the highest of their streets was not more than two feet above the higest tides ­ you frequently meet long narrow barges belonging to plantations or used for packet boats with awnings over the stern to defend the passengers from the intense rays of the sun rowed by 4, 6, & 8 negroes – plantation boats with produce poultry pigs &c for the market – larger river boats laden with rice ­ cotton corn flour wood &c almost all
[Page 3]
of them propelled by oars & managed by negroes, some few of them have [scurvy] looking sails – this appearance with the song of the negroes & the martial sound of a musical instrument about 8 feet long made of a bamboo by the negroes resembling in sound the French horn has all together a very pleasing effect – you are struck by the appearance of the vessels with their awnings. The wharves, the stores & houses built in the West India manner – flights of Turkey buzzards &c taking the tout ensemble –
buzzards, houses, stores wharves vessels negroes french, Spanish black & white inhabitants Charleston is much more like a town in the West Indies than our towns in the United States – As you approach the wharves the Song of the negroes at work greets your eer cheerfully from every quarter, I had so much of it while they were loading the ship, that it made such an impression on my mind as to enable me to give you a few specimens of the african working songs in Charleston:

Cheerly up, and cheerly down;
hey boys hey.
Cheerly up, and cheerly down;
ho boys ho.
Cheerly up, and cheerly down;
high land a.
Cheerly up, and cheerly down;
high land o.
…
[Page 4]
    Sing talio,
Sally is a fine girl,
    sing talio;
Sally is a good girl,
    sing talio, sing talio;
hoora, hoora, sing talio.
Sally in the morning, Susan in the evening;
sing talio, sing talio;
Sally is a sweet girl, Susan is a beauty;
sing talio, sing talio,
hoora, hoora, sing talio.

Ceasar should you like a dram;
Ceasar boy Ceasar.
Ceasar will you have a dram;
Ceasar boy Ceasar.
Ceasar is a smart fellow,
Ceasar boy Ceasar.

Tis grog time a day,
    huzza my jolly boys, tis grog time a day;
Back like a crow bar, belly like a tin pan,
    huzza my jolly boys, tis grog time a day;
Tis grog time a day; tis grog time a day.
huzza my jolly boys, tis grog time a day.

Tis time for to go, tis time for to go;
        Huzza my jolly boys, tis time for to go;
Haul away so, tis time for to go,
        Huzza my jolly boys, tis time for to go.
[Page 5]
Those words underscored is the chorus – those double scored are sung more loud & strong, in which the whole gang join with all their force, and generally much glee – the black having remarkable nice ears for music, are very correct in their time & pauses one & seldom more than two, repeat what they consider the words of the song, all join in the chorus, and whatever work they are doing when in gangs – they work & sing with all their might & whither hoisting hauling – rowing – or heaving at the Jack screw, they keep perfect time in all their motions – this gives them more force as they are united & simultaneous in the exertion – besides it makes their tasks go off hand more cheerily – for five days I had four pr of Jack screws & four gangs of five each at work on board the ships stowing cotton – I was in the midst of them – it often happened that they all had their throats open at the same time as loud as they cou'd ball – you may be able from the discription I have given you to form some opinion of the music – add to that the savoury smell that may be supposed to arise from twenty negroes using violent exercise in warm weather, in the hot and confined hold of ship and you may imagine what a delicious treat I enjoyed, I was happy for business was brisk – things went on well – I retired to rest satisfied and resumed my station the next day with pleasure – A negro alone, seems a solitary being – he delights to work in large gangs – is loquacious & appears perfectly happy.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Aug 14 - 10:45 AM

Really a fabulous discovery, Gibb.

>they work & sing with all their might & whither hoisting hauling – rowing – or heaving at the Jack screw, they keep perfect time in all their motions – this gives them more force as they are united & simultaneous in the exertion.

This is one of the best brief descriptions of shantying I've seen, as well as the earliest by far. The whole passage suggests a well-developed shantying tradition in the Charleston area by 1815, 25 years after the rowing songs of 1790.

It suggests to me that the influence of the increased size of sailing vessels after 1812, while significant, may have been less critical in the development of shanties than has been supposed. The tradition was already there, at least in South Carolina, and the bigger ships and increased commerce merely gave it the opportunity to spread out.

As far as we know.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Aug 14 - 05:15 PM

It suggests to me that the influence of the increased size of sailing vessels after 1812, while significant, may have been less critical in the development of shanties than has been supposed. The tradition was already there, at least in South Carolina, and the bigger ships and increased commerce merely gave it the opportunity to spread out.

Man, you've just summed up one of the major points of my book - if I can ever get it out! …and with full acknowledgements, of course.

In the spirit of acknowledgements: though the South Carolina site does not credit it, my guess is that Prof. Michael Thompson, History, U Tennessee may have been the person to get the Carr journal excerpts in the remotely-accessible world of the Web. Thompson has worked on labor history in Charleston, and I hope one day we'll hear more from him about what he might have seen in archival material.


Although I haven't been very active writing on Mudcat lately, I think it was in the "Visuals of Chanties at Work" thread that I mentioned one of the main issues that has been driving my research lately. Which is, separating out the factor of "need" from the development of chanties. The common narrative, from "rise" to "fall," is based on what is supposed to have been needed. While practical requirements *were* an issue at various points, however, cultural custom was at least as important a factor. One does things a certain way because, well, that's how one does things. So the focus becomes the sites of cultural exchange / acculturation.

As has long been supposed, the cotton screwing trade was one of the sites. Up to a point, it was all slave labor, although not necessarily unwaged. Perhaps another point can be distinguished of when the labor became (in certain ports, thinking of the Gulf) waged ore highly, and practiced by Freemen of color. Then would be the point that White men entered the trade. This would be one of the notable professions, in Antebellum US, where White and Black men both participated. And though I believe the work gangs were segregated, White men taking up cotton screwing in the 1830s (? - by the 1840s) would be entering a space where "chanting" had been a long-established *custom*.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Aug 14 - 06:21 PM

> Man, you've just summed up one of the major points of my book

Oops.

Your diligent research, however, makes you the real expert.

Many of us are looking forward to your shanty book.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Sep 14 - 08:23 AM

Worth listening to:


http://www.mediafire.com/listen/47n101di4sl8n69/Songs+of+the+People+4+-+A.L.Lloyd+-+Sea+%26+Sailors.mp3

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Andrew
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 09:42 AM

Hi All - This is Andrew from Cardiff, Wales, UK.
I've been researching my family tree and find that I come from a family of welsh shipwrights. My Grandfather, born in 1888 had an unusual middle name: Orenso. We have never been able to find the origin of this name (which apparently he was a bit embarrassed about). However there is a reference in this thread to a book called 'Around Cape Horn to Honolulu on The Bark Amy Turner 1880' which appears to refer to an original form of the well known chanty 'Ranzo' being 'Orenso'. Does anyone have the book (By Briggs?) and can help?

Many thanks
Andrew
(e-mail : [e-mail])

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Aug 15 - 12:33 AM

re: Cotton-screwing

I paid a visit to Galveston, Texas this summer to do some research on cotton-screwing. The reason for Galveston is that it seems the knowledge of cotton-screwing as a phenomenon is most alive there, as one might say, in the "cultural memory." For comparison, I also paid a (second) visit to the port of Mobile, and there it seems the local historians are hardly aware of it. Perhaps it is best known in Galveston because, in the last quarter of the 19th century, Galveston became the leading port of cotton export.

Unfortunately, Galveston's cotton-screwing enterprise seems to intersect little with the early history of chanties. We can surely imagine that chanty singing was practiced there, however the histories of cotton-screwing in that port are silent on it. (Well, I do have one reference from the early 1920s that refers to Black chanty-singing cotton screwers in Galveston, but that's it.) Nonetheless, and though the situation in Galveston was quite different from other ports (I'm thinking especially in relation to the ethnic composition of cotton-screwers), there was a little information to be had about the logistics of this type of labor.

As a point of reference, when cotton was screwed in Savannah in the 1810s -- see the journal of Capt. Carr a few posts above (which I also examined in Columbia, SC this summer)-- the work was done completely by enslaved African-Americans. Galveston as a port, of course, did not develop until significantly later: the late 1830s. The harbor was less than ideal. Until 1874, cargo had to be lightered out to ships. It also had to be brought into Galveston by rail, rather than down river as in Mobile and New Orleans. Before 1838, Texas cotton was actually brought to New Orleans.

It seems the cotton stowing work had hardly started by the time the Civil War upset it. However, after the War, the business grew back up to and then far exceeded pre-War cotton output. Again, this later (post-War) history is not very helpful to the study of chanties. Still, it is interesting to note what went on.

Allen Taylor wrote a M.A. thesis for UT Austin on this period (post-War until the decisive end of cotton-screwing), "A History of the Screwmen's Benevolent Association from 1866 to 1924", 1968. Taylor interviewed at least one retired screwman, along with some other people in the business.

What makes the scene very different is that White cotton-screwers formed a union right after the War, excluding the recently freed Black laborers. Black men were excluded from cotton-screwing in Galveston until 1882, and even after that a lot on conflict meant that Black cotton-screwers did not become "significant" in the workforce (after forming two unions of their own) until around 1900 -- the time when cotton-screwing itself was in major decline. Black cotton-screwers were only able to get some leverage in the late 19th century due to a labor shortage; some men were recruited from New Orleans. Galveston paid higher wages. The 4 regular screwers in a gang made about $6 a day, whereas the foreman (5th member, who arranged for the labor through local stevedore agents) made $7.

Each gang carried a pair of jackscrews. The screws weighed about 200 pounds. They were about 3 1/2 feet long, and the screw extended a further 2 1/2 feet. Along with the screws they had other tools, including a stout metal rod called a "dolley." This came into use when needing to sneak in more cotton bales after screwing one. That is, after screwing in a bale, in the space that was gained by the extension of the screw, one needed to insert another bale…without releasing the pressure. This was very tricky business, and the trick of it (in addition to the strength required) is what made cotton-screwing a specialized labor. Taylor describes the process of screwing in his thesis, but I must admit that it is difficult to follow. Several posts, the dolley, and the second jackscrew were needed to be employed, as certain angles, to make it all happen. The second screw in the pair was called the "tuming screw." Yes, tuming -- I suppose related to "tumid," swollen.

Screwing cotton resulted in a gain of 10-15%. Because having cotton screwed (i.e. rather than just placing the bales in there by hand) required more time and expense (to pay the screwmen), this margin was rather tight. Ultimately it was profitable to screw cotton, but the gains were precarious -- and ultimately became negligible as technology progressed.

3-4 gangs were assigned to work each hold. A small vessel might have 9 gangs working at a time, whereas the very large vessels (later) might have 25 gangs.

A transition to steel hulled steamships occurred in the 1880s. This was one of the big technological changes. Earlier, smaller vessels might ship out 1500 bales, whereas later ships could take 20,000.

The real death knell to cotton-screwing was the perfection of a high-density cotton press, by 1900. Up until WWI, there were still some "standard" bales (older level of compression) produced, and cotton stowing was still used for those, here and there. But eventually all bales were "high-density bales." These bales meant 1/3 more cotton could be stowed, and while at first the screwmen tried to screw them, eventually they realized there was no point to it. So, it only made sense to hand-stow (no screw), and the cotton-screwing profession became obsolete.

A few publications I encountered in Galveston used the photo we have seen (Charlie posted), from the New York Public Library. Here, for example, is from the city of Galveston's website:
http://www.galveston.com/juneteenthcottonjammerspark/
Incidentally, I went to look for the site of the Cotton Jammers' Park (this was the Black screwmens' union), exploring on foot, only to discover that this place, once a spot of community functions of Black screwmen, had long been built over with homes.

A brochure in the Galveston and Texas History center, from around 1915, also includes the photo, allowing us to estimate its date between 1900-1915.

Each cotton bale weighed about 500 pounds.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Aug 15 - 07:04 AM

Addendum:

The "one reference" I mentioned in the last post, to cotton-screwers of Galveston singing chanties, came from a statement by Maud Cuney Hare, the daughter of the activist/businessman/politician Norris Cuney who had organized Black screwmen. So she must have been thinking of those let couple decades of cotton-screwing—her remarks come in 1924-ish. An excerpt:

Negro chanteys were sung by the crews of the West Indian vessels that loaded and unloaded at the wharves in Baltimore. Many of the old songs are those of the longshoremen who were employed on the wharves in southern ports to stow cotton in the holds of the ships. The custom still prevails of employing large gangs of both American and West Indian Negroes in the ports of Galveston and New Orleans.

[from _The Crisis_ vol 29, #?]

Cuney-Hare, a conservatory trained musician, would go on to write _Negro Musicians and their music_ (1936).

A curiosity is this letter from her to W.E.B. DuBois, editor of _The Crisis_, asking if he'd be interested in her writing an article for the magazine on "Songs of the sailor -- those of Negro origin."
letter to Du Bois, Nov. 1924

The passage above was simply quoted in The Crisis from Cuney-Hare's piece she mentions in The Christain Science Monitor. It may be that DuBois never took interest in a chanties article, and instead just borrowed the passage after reading this letter.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Aug 15 - 10:59 PM

Re: Charles Nordhoff and his well-known observation of chanty-singing as a merchant seaman --

I was frustrated that I did not have the exact years of his account. After considerably more frustration and too-much time, I believe I have determined:

His observation of cotton-stowers' "chants" in Mobile Bay would have been in the autumn (say, October) of 1848, and his account of "Across the Western Ocean" (returning from Liverpool to Philadelphia) would have been November (or very early December) 1848.

He finished up his merchant sailor life in 1851 (afterwards being a whaler man for a couple years), but he notes no other chanties after that. He goes on to London, to Calcutta, Madras, Sydney, Canton, Mauritius, Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans… Much of his time in the eastern hemisphere he was in British vessels.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 22 Aug 15 - 09:11 AM

So when's the definitive book out then, GS? I appreciate a lot of your research is on here, but in a very haphazard way.

You really ought to start a new thread. It must take those people on slow computers an age to download this lot.

If nothing else, how about a new timeline on mentions of shantying and in what contexts? I am getting the impression that the whole phenomeneon evolved from the workers in port in the Gulf. Which references if any appear to predate the Gulf influence. Is it still thought that British seamen used 'Cheer'ly Man' earlier?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 08:05 AM

Hi, Steve,

These are just addenda.

I am working on a book dealing with the early goings-on, up to about 1845. I prefer devoting the time to that rather than Mudcat housekeeping.

I have several conference/symposium papers. The latest is from the last Mystic Music of the Sea Symposium, and can be seen here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8MBMfZJUEBSLWVXdnFOcE5hS3M/view?usp=sharing

Most of what I have to say (though I hope to eventually say it better) about "Cheer'ly Man" is in this Mudcat thread:
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=152560

I'm not too focused on "Cheer'ly" as such because I don't consider it part of "the chanty genre", but rather one particular shipboard working song that, I think, merely co-exited with chanties. I think it was practically in a class of its own, rather than representative of a genre or a wide-ranging body of songs. And I try to carefully distinguish my main topic, "the chanty genre," from a different topic, vocalizations or singing at work on sailing vessels. They overlap at times, but they aren't the same.

There is much more than port workers in the Gulf to consider. I consider there to be a wide-ranging base of an African-American style work-song paradigm or genre, connected by water indeed, but shared between such contexts as:
Squads of enslaved canoe/boat rowers
Black firefighting companies
Steamboat "deck" crews - firemen, deckhands, and roustabouts
Longshoremen
Cotton-stowers
Corn-shucking on plantations

Some of this activity introduced the genre to sailing ship crews before the Gulf ports were operating. I think the plantations and rivers of the Eastern seaboard of the US, which was then well connected to the Caribbean via ports at the mouths of those rivers, provided the first "layer" of chanty-singing to deep sea craft. We are talking end of 18h c, through 1830s.

I suggest some of the prior established customs of vocalizing at work in Anglophone ships, somewhat limited, primed them for acceptance of the chanty genre. I also think that a new found popular/mainstream appreciation of Black American music may have encouraged the adoption of chanties by non-Black seamen. Another factor was the advent of the lever windlass (discussed in my paper, above) by the mid 1840s.

Cotton-screwing remains, along with seafaring, the only of the above mentioned contexts where non-Blacks participated in chanty performance to a degree, and seems to have been a gateway to the shipboard practices. The cultural/ethnic map of the cotton-screwing is complex and varied. It started in the East (before the Gulf ports were established) and began with Blacks only. Enslaved and free Blacks (the latter who were a significant part of the population in the former French/Spanish parts of the Gulf) both worked. Slaves were "leased" out by their masters, so the pay was relevant to all. In New Orleans, Irish and German immigrants had begun to displace Black American cotton-screwers, and an all White (largely Irish) union of cotton screwers founded in 1850 excluded Blacks. But that is late in the timeline. I can't say at what point exactly, whether in the late 30's or the 40's that the Black-White balance shifted, but those years (end of 30s through mid 40s) looks to be when the next "layer" of chanty practice on ships was laid -- when transient White laborers were in most contact with the earlier-established practices of Black laborers. Things became very segregated after the U.S. Civil War, and shipboard chanty customs of European/White seamen would develop in their separate way.

In the big picture, I think shipboard work may have been the least significant context for chanty-singing. It was, however, a context where White people would become most likely to participate or observe it, resulting in that the history of chanties has tended to be told through the narrow lens of where White writers encountered it.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 10:25 AM

Still eagerly awaiting the book.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Aug 15 - 02:34 PM

Fascinating stuff. And some surprising observations. In England we tend to associate the chanty with the tea clippers and the meat run. A good book charting the different origins and evolutions it seems is long overdue.

I particularly look forward to learning how a work-song aboard can be different to a chanty. And of course those all-important references upto about 1840.

Thanks for the summary.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Oct 15 - 01:24 PM

Here's a significant but all too brief note about the nature of chanteys before the American Civil War.

On Nov. 17, 1916, the Boston Herald printed a letter from Dr. J. E. Crockett who, as he said, had just turned eighty-three. Crockett notes that when he was a youth at sea, the solos of chanteys "were mostly made up or improvised, mostly as hits on matters pertaining to the ship, officers, and crew."

Unfortunately Crockett gives no examples, but at least he confirms what we might suspect.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Oct 15 - 08:48 AM

Gibb et al-

Just checking in for an update. Glad to hear you made it to Galveston. Sad that you were not able to find more photos of cotton screwing/jamming.

I did find a cotton screw-jack at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath but not much information about where it was from or how it was used.

Cheerily,
Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 Jan 17 - 09:50 AM

GS
Apologies if there are already refs on Mudcat but have you got Alan Villiers' books? I have just acquired 'The Set of the Sails' written in 1949 in which he describes his sailing ship experiences in the 20s. There are several pages that describe chanteying. He was an Australian sailor. The book makes fascinating reading. it's an old Pan paperback.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 24 Aug 17 - 09:52 PM

Bit too off topic for the "chantwell" thread.

Morris-ey (22 Mar 10 - 11:41AM):

"Call-and-response goes back to ancient Greek theatre: it is, as a form, very old."

CELEUS'MA (κέλευσμα). The chaunt or cry given out by the cockswain (hortator, pausarius, κελευστής) to the rowers of Greek and Roman vessels, in order to aid them in keeping the stroke, and encourage them at their work. (Mart. Ep. iii. 67. Rutil. I. 370.) The chaunt was sometimes taken up, and sung in chorus by the rowers, and sometimes played upon musical instruments. Auson. in Div. Verr. 17.

Rich, Anthony, A Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities with Nearly 200 Engravings on Wood From Ancient Originals, (London: Longman, Green, & Co., 1884, p.140)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 26 Aug 17 - 05:10 AM

Peregrinatorium Religiosum

When the Priests and Clerks embarked, the Captain made them mount to the castle (round-top) of the ship, and chaunt psalms in praise of God, that he might be pleased to send them a prosperous voyage. They all with a loud voice sang the beautiful hymn of Veni Creator, from the beginning to the end, and while they were singing, the mariners set their sails in the name of God," [singing "Salve Regina ,"] which was the Celeusma of the Middle Age. A Priest having said, that God and his mother would deliver them from all danger if processions were made three times on a Saturday, a procession round the mast was accordingly begun on that day.

Fosbroke, Thomas Dudley, British monachism, (London: M.A. Nattali, 1843, p.331


CELEUSMA (κελεύειυ, to call). In antiquity the celeusma was the shout or cry of boatmen, whereby they animated each other in the work of rowing; or, a kind of song, or formula, rehearsed or played by the master or others, to direct the strokes and movements of the mariners, as well as to encourage them to labour. The word is used by some early Christian writers in application to the hallelujah, which was sung in ecclesiastical assemblies. Apollinaris says, that the seamen used the word hallelujah as their signal, or celeusma, at their common labour; making the banks echo when they sung hallelujah to Christ. In the church, hallelujah was sung by all the people. St. Augustine says, it was the Christians' sweet celeusma, whereby they invited one another to sing praises to Christ.

Farrar, Rev. John, An Ecclesiastical Dictionary, Explanatory of the History, Antiquities, Heresies, Sects, and Religious Denominations of the Christian Church, (London: John Mason, 1853, p.142)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 06:41 PM

The capstan/windlass/pulley/crane (& viticulture & the proceleusmatic metric & much of Western art music's "roots") were invented/developed over 2,500 years ago by the Greeks and Romans. Why wait until circa 1800 for a chanty system?

Answer: We didn't. The modern "practical working" shanty was born with the steam printing press and mass produced sheet music. It is the popular music, vernacular descendant of the Latin lingua franca "celeusma." The latter still means "rower's chant," "sea song" &c in Portuguese, Latin & Greek.

In having popular entertainment to fall back on, Euro-American chanties managed to outlive the steam era altogether.

The more it changes...

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 07:17 PM

wish you'd call them shantys

(chanty is stored under the bed for having a pee during the night!)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 09:48 PM

we call it a guzunder (which is actually a Brummie word, I didn't know that)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 11:41 PM

*Lee rail.

Process of elimination. Can't afford a pot on sailor's pay.

Also: Michael Jackson sang the theme song to Free Willy.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 07:23 AM

It was established on this thread long ago that the etymologically correct spelling is indeed "chantey."

While the pronunciation remains "shanty," for those who care.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 11:16 AM

If ' shanty ' was good enough for Stan Hugill, an actual shantyman, it's good enough for me.

Dave H

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 01:36 PM

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=125224#2848422

This is not really the thread to go around and around again with these 2-bit comments.

In brief: We largely have musicologist and organist Richard Runciman Terry to thank for popularizing the "sh" spelling particularly in spheres of UK and Commonwealth English. Terry was not a chantyman, but rather an academic musician who favored a "sh" spelling because he worried people would mispronounce the French-style orthography "ch" and because he had a theory that the word related to huts/small dwellings. There was also an aversion to things French going on. He was met with resistance by other UK colleagues. Yet due to his classical music clout, not his seafaring or scholarly clout, Terry won out. He put together one of the most handy collections of pre-arranged chanties set to piano accompaniment. The book was a boon to the people in classical and popular music circles -- those people that had no idea how to create music without having the dots on the page. It became the basis of countless performances and recording which, naturally enough, used the "sh" spelling it contained. The American chanty collection editor Concord followed in the steps of Terry, and her own book became poised as a resource for folk revival people like Lloyd and MacColl. Hugely entered the scene after both Terry and Colcord, also borrowing heavily from their works, and added another coat to the varnish.

Any spelling is indeed "good enough" for basic communication, but if you want to do any research on the subject before the 1920s, then you'd better be prepared to use "ch" spellings.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 31 Aug 17 - 02:40 PM

I prefer "fhanty." -

"They have particular laws amongſt themſelves, during thoſe piratical cruiſes; and keep up a certain order and diſcipline. In rowing, at which, from habit, they are dextrous, they have always a ſong as a kind of tačtic, and beat on twobraſs timbrels to keep time. I have known one man on board my little veſſel opportunely, with ſometimes a Molucca, ſometimes a Mindano Mangaio ſong, revive the reſt, who from fatigue, were droufing at their oars; and operate with pleaſing power, what no proffered reward could effect: ſo cheared, they will row a whole night....

...The Moors, in what is called country ſhips in Eaſt India, have alſo their chearing ſongs ; at work in hoiſting, or in their boats a rowing. The Javans and Molucca people have theirs. Thoſe of the Malays are drawling and inſipid. In Europe the French provençals have their ſong: it is the reverſe of lively. The Mangaio is briſk, the Malabar tender. The Greeks and Romans had their Celeuſma or chearing ſong. Martial ſeems to have made one, III. 67."

A Voyage to New Guinea, and the Moluccas, from Balambangan: An Account of Magindano, SooLoo, and other Islands; And Illustrated with Thirty Copperplates. Performed in the Tartar Galley Belonging to The Honourable East India Company, During the Years 1774, 1775, 1776, By Captain Thomas Forrest, pp.303-305

I'll post some of the lyrics in a bit.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 02 May 18 - 12:05 AM

Posted the Combes reference here:

CHANTER, fr. v. a. (De l'ital. ou du lat. Cantare.) (Angl. Song [To]; bas bret. Kana; rus. ??????? [Trioukate].) La marine antique avait l'Hortator (V.) et le Svmplioniaque, dont la voix ou la flûte donnait le mouvement aux rameurs pour obtenir une action simultanée et une nage au besoin courte ou allongée, lente ou précipitée. Le rhythme vocal ou instrumental avait pour effet de soutenir les matelots dans leur travail, et de les encourager tant que durait l'action fatigante à laquelle ils prenarent part. Nous ignorons quand la flûte du symphoniaque disparut; mais nous savons qu'au moyen âge le comité, armé d'un bâton qui n'était pas sans rapport avec celui du Portisculus (V.), était aussi muni d'un sifflet qui donnait le signal aux rameurs, et leur commandait toutes les manoeuvres. Le sifflet et le bâton restèrent sur les galères tant que vécurent ces navires. A la fin du XVIII siècle, les galères furent réformées; mais le sifflet (V.) avait été introduit à bord des vaisseaux ronds, où il communiquait les commandements aux matelots. En même temps que lui, et même avant lui sans doute, le chant de l'Hortator avait passé des navires à rames sur les autres vaisseaux, et chaque bâtiment avait, non pas peut-être un Céleuste à gages pour Chanter dans les manœuvres de force, mais un Chanteur volontaire (rus. ???????????. [Trioukalchtchik]) qui, toutes les fois qu'on voulait hisser un corps d'un poids considérable, haler un cordage qu'il fallait roidir, ou faire toute autre opération du même genre, donnait le signal d'ensemble à l'aide d'un certain cri, d'un certain Chant, répété quelquefois par tous ses camarades.

Ce Chant (angl.-sax. Soe-leoð; chin. Pang) s'est perpétué traditionnellement, et il est encore d'usage à bord des navires du commerce, qui, en général, ont des équipages peu nombreux , obligés de ne rien perdre de leurs forces. Sur les bâtiments de guerre, les Chants ont été supprimés; le sifflet, le tambour et le fifre les remplacent à l'avantage de la discipline, qu'on a basée en partie sur le silence observé pendant la manoeuvre. Dans les arsenaux, les ouvriers, les forçats Chantent pour cercler les mâts, et pour faire les autres opérations qui veulent des efforts simultanés.—V. ?e?e?st??, ?e?e?µa, ?at??at?. — Voici un passage du Voyage en Egypte et en Nubie, par M. Edmond Combes (1846), qui prouve que la tradition antique du Céleusme ou Chant d'en couragement s'est perpétuée dans la marine arabe de la mer Rouge: « Les matelots ne mettent jamais la main à l'œuvre sans Chanter, ou plutôt sans réciter des espèces de litanies sur un rhythme très-monotone, mais qui paraissent les exciter beaucoup. Il en est qui , pour s'encourager, expriment des vœux essentiellement matériels dans un chant improvisé, et l'espoir de voir ces vœux exaucés redouble leur ardeur: « Allah! Allah! fais-moi l'époux d'une esclave blanche,» s'écrie le matelot noir; et tous les autres répètent son refrain avec des transports frénétiques, et les manoeuvres s'exécutent avec plus de promptitude et de vigueur. »M. J.-J. Ampère, dans ses Voyage et recherches en Egypte et en Nubie (Revue des Deux Mondes, t. XIX [15 juillet], p. 215), s'exprime ainsi sur le Céleusme des navigateurs du Nil: — « Les matelots» (des canges, sur le Nil)« Chantent perpétuellement; toutes les fois qu'ils ont à ramer, le Chant est pour eux une nécessité. Ils entonnent alors une sorte de litanie qui marque la mesure, et leur permet de combiner leurs efforts. Cet usage, fondé sur un besoin naturel, paraît bien ancien en Egypte. Dans une représentation qu'on a trouvée deux fois répétée dans ce pays, et qui montre un colosse traîné par un très-grand nombre de bras, on voit un homme qui frappe des mains pour diriger le travail, et paraît Chanter.»

[Glossaire Nautique. Répertoire Polyglotte de Termes de Marine Anciens et Modernes, Par A. Jal, (Paris, Chez Firmin Didot Fréres, Libraires-Éditeurs, Imprimeurs de L'Institut de France, 1848, p.455)]

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 02 May 18 - 12:08 AM

Same dictionary:

CHANTIER, fr.s. m. (Du bas latin Canterium.) (Gr. mod. ?????.) Pièce de bois équarrie. Plusieurs de ces poutres, mises les unes au-dessus des autres, forment des piles plus ou moins hautes, espacées entre elles et solidement attachées au sol. Sur ces piles s'établit la quille d'un navire qui s'y développera, y grandira, et s'y achèvera avec le temps. Ces piles sont les Chantiers. Le bâtiment qui s'édifie sur ces bases, assez élevées pour qu'on puisse librement travailler sous le ventre du vaisseau, est dit Être sur les Chantiers (augl. On the stocks). C'est par extension du sens primitif qu'on a nommé Chantier le lieu où sont établis les Chantiers. Un Chantier de construction (gr. anc. et gr. Litt. mod. ?p??e???, ?e??, 'Es??????, Na?p?????, ?????; gr. Mod. Ne???a, S????; lat. Textrinuin; bas lat. Scharium; ital. Scario, Schario, Squero, Squerro; port. Escaleiro; provenc. Tchiantiero; basq. vulg. Chantiera; bas bret. Chantier, March'-koad; angl. Ship wright's yard; all. Stapel, Werft, holl. Stapel, Werf; dan. Vœrf; suéd. Värf; rus. ????? [Verfe], ?????? [Stapel]; tur. Kiakanè; pers. Derïabend; hongr. Hajó-epitö-hely, Hajó-gyartó-hely; ar. côte N. d'Afr. Mandjèra; mal. Tampat baik-i kapal parang), un Chantier de construction peut contenir plusieurs cales de construction ou plusieurs établissements et files de Chantiers. Il y a des Chantiers couverts (gr. mod. ?e?s?x??). Le Chantier des embarcations (angl. Boat-yard; bas bret. Kal ar embarkasioun) est celui où, dans un arsenal, on construit les chaloupes et les canots. Sur les navires, l'espèce de berceau dans lequel sont fixés, debout et l'un dans l'autre, la chaloupe et quelques canots, s'appelle: Chantier (angl. Scantlings).— «A l'égard de la fluste le Chariot, faites-la acheuer promptement, n'y ayant rien qui préjudicie tant à la bonté des bastimens que de les laisser longtemps sur les Chantiers.» Lettre de Colbertà Desclouzeaux, 28 mai 1678; Ordr. du Roy, vol. XLIV, p. 273 ; Ms. Arch. de la Mar.— «Le Roy,veut à l'aduenir que vous fassiez en sorte que les vaisseaux que vous aurez ordre de faire bastir ne soient pas plus de trois ou quatre mois sur les Chantiers...» Colbert à Demuin, 21 juillet 1678, p. 361, vol. cité. — «Sa Majesté veut aussi qu'il fasse commencer les deux vaisseaux qu'il a eu ordre de faire construire; et comme il sait qu'il n'y a rien de si préjudiciable à leur bonté et à leur durée que de les laisser longtemps sur les Chantiers, c'est à lui à réparer par vne diligence extraordinaire le temps qui a esté perdu, en sorte qu'ils ne demeurent pas sur les Chantiers pendant l'hyuer.» Lettre au sieur Arnoul, intendant de la Mar. à Toulon, 2 juin 1779. Ordres du Roy, vol. XLVI, p. 3o5; v° Arch. de la Mar.

Les instructions qu'on vient de lire constatent l'opinion des charpentiers du XVII* siècle sur une question que nos constructeurs ont résolue, depuis une trentaine d'années , dans un sens tout à fait opposé à celui qu'avait fait prévaloir l'expérience des Hollandais. Aujourd'hui la construction des navires de guerre est partagée en vingt-quatre vingt-quatrièmes; et chaque année on fait deux, trois vingt-quatrièmes, plus ou moins, selon que les ressources du budget sont plus ou moins grandes, ou quel'on a besoin des bâtiments commencés. On trouve, dit-on, cet avantage au mode de construction par vingt-quatrièmes, que le navire restant longtemps sur les Chantiers, son bois est plus sec et moins exposé à la pourriture ; que le vaisseau est d'ailleurs plus léger, et que, pendant sa durée, ses membres sont moins disposés à se déjeter. Le jeu qu'avait à faire la matière ligneuse est fait, et les défauts contractés peuvent être réparés à temps.

[ibid pp.455-56]

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 03 May 18 - 09:08 PM

The same Harry Bowling whom Carpenter recorded in 1928 appears to have been the author of the article "The Chantey Passes" (Los Angeles Times, Nov. 8, 1925, p. B4.) Bowling (1867-1955) was a prominent journalist with the Times between 1912 and his retirement in 1942. He was born in Warwickshire and came to the U.S. in 1895.


Besides giving a few scraps of chantey words, Bowling's article is notable as one more eloquent statement about the nature of chanteys as the writer recalled them in actual use:

"In my boyhood I heard many of these songs straight from the crews of the windjammer, and the story of the last clipper ship and an appropriate requiem brought them back with a strange, sad rush of memory.

"These persistent chanteys had no form, little tune, and less sense. They were neither sweet nor humorous. The tunes were draggy, without beginning, middle, or end, so that they lent themselves to continuous performance. They generally had "grog" as the motif and the misery of Jack afloat for the antiphon. Yet in their right setting of tar and cordage and seamen's kits, rough weather and rougher human nature, they had the same penetrating quality as folk songs, gospel hymns, and negro melodies, in their repective and more respectable spheres.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 09 May 18 - 06:12 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 May 18 - 12:27 AM

Great info, Lighter!

It's good to know that Bowling wasn't a mariner who sang the songs at work, but rather someone with the memory of hearing them from others. And he was conscious of the 1920s revival (or at least the narrative of the "dead/dying genre of the past."

For reference purposes, I have in my notes that the songs Bowling contributed were:

SING SALLY-O [MUDDER DINAH]
[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
ALL FOR THE GROG [ALL FOR ME GROG]
[HANGING JOHNNY]
[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
[DRUNKEN SAILOR]
[BLOW YE WINDS]
JOHNNY’S GONE TO HILO [TOMMY’S GONE]

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 11 May 18 - 05:59 PM

While working on other projects over the years I've collected hundreds of passing comments about traditional music from old books, newspapers, etc.

A lot relate to chanteys. I'll post the most interesting from time to time.

I like Bowling's observation that typically the chanteys had no beginning, middle, or end. Surely this means that he heard few thoroughly fixed texts and that the "performances" (obviously) ended when the mate shouted "Belay!" rather than when the story (as of "Boney," for example) or the verses "ran out." And, of course, if the job was a long one, ad lib verses could be added to any chantey, no matter how "established" the usual text. Hence, "no end," and for thoroughly plotless chanteys, no absolutely prescribed opening stanzas or "beginning."

When I visited Mystic thirty years ago and took a hand at the capstan of "Joseph Conrad," I was impressed by just how unlike a "musical performance" the chantey singing sounded. First (of course) not all the singers were in tune. More importantly, the length and difficulty of the job - not contents of the song - ultimately dictated the text that was sung. (When "Belay!" was shouted, "Blow the Man Down" - ended somewhere in the middle.)

Stan Hugill was present, and when somebody objected that "Blow the Man Down" was *really* a "halliard chantey," he observed that it ultimately depended on the whim of the chanteyman. If a song worked for a particular job, it worked. The familiar chantey categories were pretty loose rather than highly prescribed.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 12 May 18 - 02:53 PM

Jon
If you were at the capstan the call should be 'vast heaving!' You wouldn't be belaying anything on a capstan surely?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 12 May 18 - 04:16 PM

You're right, Steve.

"'Vast heaving!" it was.

...as a few more brain cells bite the dust.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: RTim
Date: 12 May 18 - 05:11 PM

Dr Gardiner collected a version of Leave Her Johnny from Frank Shilley in Portsmouth Workhouse in April 1907 and he finished the song by singing:
- "Heave and Paw"....

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 May 18 - 06:58 PM

heave and paul/pall

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 May 18 - 07:00 PM

Let's try one more spelling!: PAWL

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 May 18 - 07:49 PM

Lighter,

We are already aware though, I think, that chanty singing is non-narrative. As I put it in my teaching: There's a start and a stop, but not a beginning and end. We know it both from earlier authors' statements and from the direct evidence of the texts themselves. What would be notable (though not terribly) about Bowling's statement, in my opinion, is he is saying this in the context of an article that is presumably about the "passing" of the genre/practice and in which one might expect a similar idealization and romanticization as one sees in many other writings of that style/time period. But he doesn't do the latter.

The typology / categorization of chanty repertoire by task, as a concept, may have been put on the table by certain writers (as I outline in _Boxing the Compass_). The truism of "things can vary" is another one but there e.g. by Hugill as a response, something I also address in BTC. The truth is somewhere in the middle. It's clear that certain items of repertoire—more to the point, certain styles of song—were predominantly applied to one task or another. "Blow the Man Down" is overwhelmingly attributed to halyards, specifically topsail halyards, and I think for Hugill to say one might also sing it at the capstan is true but disingenuous, and maybe even part of his M.O. to constantly assert his superior (e.g. more nuanced) understanding over other plebs'. Go ahead and apply lots of different songs to capstan, sure... but try doing the "reverse" and applying them to halyards--Nope! Doesn't work. The "Misleading Capstan Issue" (as I'll call it) causes a lot of confusion; because it appears that one can sing nearly "any" song at the capstan, and because people apply a definition to "chanty" that identifies its place of practice (shipboard) rather than its sound-form, you get this situation where it appears "Tiny Bubble" could be a chanty and where chanties can be said to have come from every cultural group in the world and where they can be any speed and any meter and whatever form, etc... and where ultimately one who asserts some borders may be called (in Hugill's words) "too dogmatic". But that weird dogmatism was some by product of the Revival that Hugill had to deal with. I don't think we are being dogmatic if we are being descriptive, accurately. And anti-dogma rhetoric from Hugill, in my opinion, keeps us from being accurate.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 12 May 18 - 08:20 PM

Hugill may not have wanted to dampen any spirits by interfering with the kitschy fun.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 May 18 - 12:18 AM

I agree, to Hugill's credit!

Some of the other old timers at the festival have told me about Hugill's scheister ways there.

I do think, however, that Hugill's research (for better or worse) changed his ideas about what he thought about this subject versus what he did / might have thought previously and based only on his life experience.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 13 May 18 - 11:43 AM

Victorian writers who mention specific chanteys in contemporaneous use - and express an opinion - often disparage the words, though not usually the music. As a mundane, rather than a vanishing, activity, chanteying was not usually regarded as holding any interest for the educated public. It was at best a diverting curiosity.

From Henry John Webber, "The Voyagers’ Companion and Adviser" (London: The Author, 1885) p.20:


"About every four hours the sailors had to pump the ship; they always did so about half-past seven in the evening, when they would lighten their labours with a song. All their songs were celebrated for strong choruses, but for what else, I will leave you to judge by the following specimens. The burden of one of them was an illustrious lady rejoicing in the name of Brown, the chorus of which was:--

                Sally! Sally! round the corner, Sally Brown!
                Hi! hi! hi! hi! round the corner, Sally!

"No less sublime and beautiful is the following effusion:--

                Huzza! huzza! huzza! my boys, huzza!
                Then fare you well, my bonnie brown gal,
                        Britannia rules the main!

"This is highly patriotic:--

                Victoria! Victoria ! very well done, Jim Crow-o-o!
                Victoria ! Victoria! very well done, Jim Crow!

"The beauty and romance of the following must be apparent to every intelligent observer :—

                Yankee John, storm along;
                        Hurrah for Liza Lee!
                Yankee John, storm along;
                        Hurrah for Liza Lee!"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 13 May 18 - 05:45 PM

Gibb
January 2017 I asked if you were aware of the chanteys in Alan Villiers' books. I presume you are because he wrote an intro for Hugill's SfTSS.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 May 18 - 05:18 PM

"LAST CLIPPER SHIP SAILS AWAY UPON SEA OF MEMORIES," Boston Daily Globe (Oct. 22, 1925), p. 4:

"New York (Oct. 21)...The last American clipper ship has 'set sail' on her final voyage, a journey from the realm of things material to the land of memories. Within a few weeks she will be junked, ground to bits...., torn down because she has outlived her usefulness.

"A little group of sober-faced men ... who had swabbed her decks and oiled her masts in years gone by, men who raced with her round the Horn,...gathered today on the decks of the Benjamin F. Packard, last of the clippers, to bid her farewell.

"...Some little ceremony was planned.Capt. D. J. Martin, who brought the Packard safely through on her last trip, ...grasped the halyards, the little group in the waist faced aft, and with bared heads watched the ensign flutter to the deck.

"But it did not stay down, for Capt. Martin sent it aloft again immediately. ...The response was instantaneous...as an involuntary cheer broke from husky throats.

"'Champagne is good and so is rum,' boomed Capt. P. B. Blanchard. In a flash, the 'crew' was at the main sheet, hauling away and roaring the chorus: 'Whisky for my Johnny.'

"'And beer is good enough for some,
But whisky for my Johnny.'

"...Captained by a phantom skipper, manned by a ghostly crew of bygone days, she will sail on in the remembrance of those who trod today, for the last time, the decks of a clipper ship. Better than a painted ship upon a painted ocean, she will be recalled to sail around many a fireside, when old skippers gather to swap yarns."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 May 18 - 08:05 PM

Hi Steve,

I don't have data from Villiers in my notes, which may mean that I didn't look or it may mean that I've looked through his books (for example, I reviewed a lot of books of that sort at Mystic Seaport's library) and decided the information was not so notable. Probably the former. Could you give us a summary?

Lighter,

The last account is pretty fun, presented as it is as an account of the "last" clipper ship. The attribution of a halyard song (as I believe "Whiskey Johnny" is *without* much flexibility) to the main sheet is something I don't recall seeing before. Which could mean this is either an interesting exception or a misattribution by the author. Hard to say.

The nature of the work of hauling the main sheet, in my experience, does not fit well with chanties in this form. Generally one pulls on the main sheet willy nilly until all the slack is taken out, and then one or a few so called "short drag" chanties may come into play to get the last slack out. Said differently, the task of hauling a sheet entails pulling until a line is taut (well, until the corner of the sail, sometimes stubborn, comes into place), versus hauling a halyard which lifts a yard gradually into place but which doesn't require such force.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 May 18 - 08:23 PM

Tangentially related:

I don't know whether I've shared this before, but I got a group together on a brigantine to try hoisting a fore and aft sail (gaff) with chanties. This is something I've never read of being done, so it was an experiment to see how it might work. Namely, it involves hauling on two different halyards in consort, while commands are given periodically for one or the other halyard haulers to hold. To do this, would you have one chantyman? That's very awkward. So, we tried having a chantyman at each halyard! Granted, the operation could go more smoothly if the crew was more experienced at being attentive to the mate's commands.

Here is an audio recording of the experience. I am chantyman on the throat halyard and one of my students was chantyman on the peak halyard. Note: We decided (based on experience) that towards the end of the haul, which tends to be more difficult, we'd switch from halyard chanties to short drag chants. Since the decision to switch to the short drag was based on the subjective impression of "when the work was getting too hard" (and since this was also affected by the inexperience of the crew, for whom it may have felt "too hard" at an earlier point than is usual), the short drag segments went on a bit long.

https://soundcloud.com/user-225366318/chanty-sing-while-setting-mainsail-on-brig

During the same voyage we conducted numerous upper topsail hoists (with chanties) on the foremast, varying the number of haulers, tempo and style of the chanties. But these did not get recorded.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 May 18 - 09:50 PM

Gibb, you should look up that entire article. It's a model of nostalgic schmaltz - the very best kind, if you ask me.

"Whiskey, Johnny" is the only chantey mentioned. And it's entirely possible that the reporter was a little hazy on what a "main sheet" is.

Meanwhile ...

On June 9, 1934, the Wellington [N.Z.] Evening Post printed a letter from 78-year-old John Hutcheson, listing the titles of chanteys he'd learned as an "apprentice in a Western Ocean packet-ship (Liverpool-New York)" in 1871:

"Reuben Ranzo"
"Johnnie Boker"
"Paddy Doyle"
"Blow, my Bully Boys, Blow"
"Tom's Gone to Hilo"
"John France Wah"
"Whisky for my Johnnie!"
"Hurrah, My Boys, We're Homeward Bound!"
"Santa Anna"
"Shenandoah"
"Heave Away, My Johnnie, Heave Away-ay"
"Old Stormalong"
"Oh! You New York Girls, Can't You Dance the Polka?"

Hutcheson also quotes two lines from the forebitter, "The Stately Southerner," though he doesn't identify the song by name:

"When bending low her bosom in snow,
She buried the lee cathead.’”


Besides the "Western Ocean" shanties, Hutcheson mentions that:

“I have heard the Mississippi Screwmen (the very aristocrats of labour) screwing cotton in the hold till they raised the decks to the sound of 'Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that Flies the Single Star!' etc. I've heard the Jamaica niggers sing 'The Saucy Rosabella' or 'Waitin' for de Steamboat,' or 'Jimmy Riley,' etc., as they rolled the big hogsheads of raw sugar or hove at the winch discharging their coastal drogher; I've heard the coolies in Moulmein chanting as they staged rice over the side; but of all the sea songs, for real life and go, give me the good old vulgar, obscene Western Ocean chanty before them all.


Mention of “The Saucy Rosabella” is valuable. Horace P. Beck also found it being sung in the Caribbean in the 1950s. Hutcheson's 1870s date for "Can't You Dance the Polka?" may be uniquely early. I can't identify "Jimmy Riley" unless (as seems likely) it's "Old Billy Riley."]

Further, Hutcheson mentions that “The language of the average sailorman in those days was, as [the American humorist] Bill Nye puts it, ‘painful and frequent and free,’ and was scarcely fit for polite society. Some of the most popular chanties just could not be written - they'd set the paper afire!” Concerning sung complaints about the officers, the food, and the treatment, “It's wonderful what they got away with when expressed allegorically to music.”

Hutcheson seems unaware that any shanties had ever been printed. “Of course, the music could be scored, but that's a job nobody seems to have done yet.”

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 May 18 - 10:28 PM

Thanks for the more details of Hutcheson! I think you did present that one, partially, before; I have notes from it in my draft writing about cotton screwing. I've been trying to pull together a piece that makes sense of all the data on the topic.

Among the points that I hope to make is that the foremen of the chanty gangs (cotton screwing gangs) belong to the ports. The would scrape up the other four men to constitute the gang. That's opposed to 5 guys, which may have come off a ship, getting hired. This is significant because the foreman is the chantyman, and it suggests that he would be the one based in the local chanty singing practice, to which the migrant laborers would conform when hired.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 16 May 18 - 05:21 PM

One of Villiers' books is 'The Set of the Sails' 1949 which has lots of references to singing chanties. He was from Adelaide in Australia and he sought out the last of the tall ships to sail in in the 20s. I haven't got to hand the date he first went to sea. The useful chanty references in that book are pp 32, 40, 54, 86, 87, 92. There is an unusual text for 'Leave her, Johnny' on p54.

I know Villiers wrote several books. At times he came ashore as a journalist. I had a copy of his biography but passed it on to Les Fromull, I think. This would contain a list of all his works.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 May 18 - 04:24 AM

Hi, Steve-- thanks!

I know about Villiers, but I'm wondering what makes these particular references (in 1949, following the myth-making period and rather late to be memories of eye-witness stuff) distinguishable from other data. For example: Does Villiers provide good assurance that they are first-hand observations? Are they music or verbal texts that appear to be unique? Is Villiers making a commentary that provides quality evidence of the history/genre itself, or does it tell us more about Villiers and his time?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 28 May 18 - 12:22 PM

Difficult to say, Gibb. I don't doubt that he had first-hand experience of Chanty usage in situ. He sailed out of Australia in some pretty basic sailing ships under dodgy conditions and seems to write with authority. He certainly had a great love of sailing the seas. He writes of the competing of tall ships in the run from Australia to the UK. I don't know of many other deep-water men of that time who wrote with authority and served before the mast. However, it wasn't long before he was skippering such ships as there weren't that many left with the required knowledge. In the latter years the tall ships seem to have been manned by very young Scandinavians who knew little about the chanties.


I have recorded chanties myself in the 60s from deep-water seamen and these can be listened to on the British Library Sound Archive. I'll put some details out when I can get the time. I'm working on a presentation at the moment.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 May 18 - 04:07 AM

Steve, you're not catching my subtle implication... which has nothing to do with authority (I consider everyone to be an authority on their own experience), but rather: Just tell us some specifics of the book's contents! ;)

We have 80% (I'm randomly guesstimating!) of available sources posted up here with details here, and we *can* discern whether Villiers' info and/or examples fits into well-worn narratives or if it's fresh etc etc. We can check up on whether his "Leave Her" matches what we've seen before, for example. We just need to know what it is!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 May 18 - 08:45 AM

Got you.
Will do.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 May 18 - 03:22 PM

Apart from his biography the only book of Villiers that I have read so far is 'The Set of the Sails-Adventures of a cape Horn Seaman' 1949.

p32
'The second mate shouted at boys aloft to overhaul buntlines, clear gaskets, see what the hell was in the way of the t'gall'nt sheets. the strong young sailors, drunk to a man, manned the haliards lustily and mastheaded the two tops'l and t'gall'nt yards as if they had been broomsticks. they went at everything with such a will that they never finished a chanty, and the chanties they sang were such as I had never read in any books.' (I think this was his first sea voyage before the mast as a youngster)


p40

'Eight bells! Struck mighty fast , and the clock flogged by the impatient mate.
"All hands close-reef the main tops'l"

We struggled up on deck, where the fierce wind cut into us after the fug of the half-deck. A hurried muster; no shout of relieve the wheel and lookout as usual (they could remain where they were till the tops'ls was subdued), and all hands hastened in their heavy oilskins and sea-boots to the main rigging, port watch to port and starboard to starboard, and in a moment the melodious shouts of the chanty-singers rose against the tumult of the west wind. the yard was lowered to its lifts, the reef tackles manned, and the reef cringles in each leech hauled snug to the yardarms.'

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 May 18 - 03:41 PM

P54
….there were rude comments in the chanties at the many pully-haulie jobs. The soloist in the chanties had traditional liberty to improvise and was free to criticise anything. In this way the sailors let off some steam. no one ever paid attention to their broad and frequently blasphemous hints.....

The favourite time for a rousing chanty was when the tops'l halliards were manned, which was generally at the change of the watches. there was a Welshman for'ard--one of our few Britishers there who sang extremely well and was a first-rate improvisor.
    "Oh, our old man he don't set no sail!" he'd begin, all hands trailing on the stout line ready to come in with two mighty shouts of "Leave her, Johnny, leave her" and two hearty synchronised hauls which would shift the yard about a quarter of a foot.

    "An I could 'a stayed in a lovely jail!" Again the soloist sang melodiously.

"Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her,
With all night in and plenty of ale.
Leave her....
'Stead o' driftin' about the Tasman Sea.
Oh, a Jackshite's life it ain't for me!
Leave her...….
Cos there ain't no grub an' there ain't no pay!
Leave her......
But they tell me we'll come in some day,
Leave her......
Before then we'll be eating hay!
Leave her ......
Now it's time for me to shout belay!


"Belay the halliards there! Do you want to jam the parral in the bloody cross-trees?" Jackie would shout, and a couple of strong men would run to the fore-part of the halliards, by the block, while at a shout of "Come up there!" all the others let go, and the line was quickly belayed round its pin.'

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 May 18 - 03:51 PM

p86
The ship had run out of tobacco while running round the west coast and the sailors wanted to pull into Fremantle to remedy the situation.

'The chantymen in both watches added verses to their chanties drawing pointed attention to their need for a smoke.'

p87
'In any other lime-juice ship the poor food and the ordinary discomforts of the sea life would have formed the basis of dogwatch songs, to be sung round the main hatch to the accompaniment of music played on dilapidated combs. Except for chanties there was little singing in the 'Bellands' that voyage.'


p92
'As at last we warped her through the lock gates at St. Nazaire, the chantyman shouted verse after verse of long-prepared imprecations upon her, for her tobaccoless voyage, her ham-fisted sailing, her food shortage, her long swelter in the doldrums. I sang the choruses as loudly as the rest, but it was not the ship that should have been criticised.'

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 May 18 - 04:00 PM

Here are the online references for some of the chanties I recorded from old capehorners in the 60s. At the British Library Sound Archive if you search my name it will bring up my collection C1009. 2 chanty singers are at C1009/2.

Jack Smith was an east coast bargeman out of Hull, tracks 6 to 20.
Includes
Bold Princess Royal
Rolling Home
Blow the Man Down
A Roving
Dogger Bank
Ten Thousand Miles Away
Wild Rover
Kitty Wells
Tom Bowling

Ted Calcott was a Londoner and old Cape-Horner before the mast
, tracks 21-29 include
Ratcliffe Highway (Blow the Man Down)
Rolling Home
Whiskey Johnny
Rio Grande
Sacramento
Ratcliffe Highway again and talk of Shenandoah
Then some Cockney popular songs from the 1890s

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 May 18 - 04:11 PM

Captain Norman Yates I recorded in 1970. This is on C1009/6 tracks 5 - 23.

Includes
Sailor's Alphabet
Rio Grande
A-Roving
Blow the Man Down
Whiskey Johnny
Drunken Sailor
No more pulling on the lee-fore brace
Spanish Ladies
Rolling Home
Sacramento (Blackball Line)
Roll the Cotton Down
Blow, Boys, Blow
than some repeats
All accompanied on banjo.
I suspect these are more likely to be derivative.

I also have a tape somewhere I have had since the 60s which was passed on to me of a group of seamen singing chanties. I don't remember who gave me it or know who is singing on it. It didn't make it onto the BL online collection because it wasn't something I had recorded myself. It does sound like real seamen singing rather than folksingers. I'll try to find it and at least transcribe what they were singing.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 May 18 - 04:25 PM

Ted Calcott was on the Argentine meat run in tops'l riggers. He talks about shanghaiing sailors on the Barbary Coast and of killing and eating a cabin boy when cast adrift in a lifeboat.

He was born in Willesden in London and first came to Hull (where I recorded him) in 1899. He was 86 when I recorded him in a pub in 1967. Therefore born in 1881.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 May 18 - 04:37 PM

Captain Yates served his apprenticeship in sail and was a Cape-Horner of many years standing. He was 78 in 1970 when I recorded him. He recorded the chanties himself as a sort of voyage scenario with the orders to go with the tasks. The songs I recorded from him were the forebitters and other pieces.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 May 18 - 04:52 PM

Ah, I've found the transcription of the tape. I acquired it in 1969. The quality of recording is very poor but could perhaps be digitised. The singers are German and English seamen on board ship accompanied by an organ/accordeon of some sort.

Among some modern songs they sang Sacramento in German, Rolling Home, and Shenandoah which I haven't transcribed.


Sally Brown (First 3 verse seem pretty standard.)

O Sally Brown, she's a bright mulatto
Way, hay, she roll and go
O she drinks rum and chews terbaccer
Spend my money on Sally Brown

Seven long years I courted Sally
She's my own, my favourite Sally

O Sally Brown was a Creole lady
I know she's got a n.....r baby

O Sally Brown I kissed goodbye ter
I've sailed too long across the water

O Sally Brown has a big buck n.....r
Her bow is big but his starn is bigger.

O Sally Brown she wears red laces
O man aloft the white pull stays'ls (not sure if this is right)


What shall we do with a drunken sailor etc.

Put him in the longboat till he's sober etc.

What shall we do with a drunken skipper? etc.

Rub on the belly with a (not clear) etc.

That's what we do with a drunken sailor. etc.



A hundred years is a very long time
Oh, yes, oh
Yes, a hundred years is a very long time
A hundred years ago.

They thought that the moon was made of cheese
You can believe this if you please.

They thought that the stars were set alight
By some angels every night.

I thought I heard the old man say
that this old ship was leaving today.

(Ever since 69 I have incorporated these last 3 verses into my version of John Kanaka)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Spot
Date: 30 Aug 18 - 08:30 AM

Here is a 'major piece of work' on shanties in case people have not seen it. It is by a well respected blues historian, so may be of interest.


https://www.earlyblues.com/Essay%20-%20Blues%20at%20Sea.htm

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Sep 19 - 09:36 AM

Dr. J. E. Crockett of Boston wrote a *very* brief note to the Boston Herald in 1916 about chanteys he'd sung at sea in his youth:

"The words of the solo of all chanties were mostly made up or improvised, mostly as hits on matters pertaining to the ship, officers, and crew."

He gives on stanza of a chantey that used the pattern of "Sing Song Kitchee Kitchee Ki Me O" (as "Sing song Polly, can't you ri-me-o?")

He gives one couplet to illustrate:

"I knew a fellow and his name was Bill,...
And he went around gathering swill."

Crockett mentioned that he'd recently "turned 83."


So he was presumably at sea about 1850.

The use of couplets (often with a repeated line) with nonsensical refrains to satirize people, places, and things may have reached a pinnacle in World War One's "Hinky Dinky Parlez-Vous."

"Johnny Fill Up the Bowl" (and"When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" functioned similarly in the Civil War.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Sep 19 - 01:18 PM

Question: are y'all positing that the shift from dugout/early boat to sails and requiring a crew brought a *qualitative* change in the worksongs sung? That actually might make sense, given the class distinction between crew and officers which was likely absent in canoes. The dugout folks would certainly have had seafaring work songs. Which we don't call chanteys for a reason which escapes me (2nd question).
I am thoroughly enjoying this thread. Thanks, refresher.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 27 Sep 19 - 03:05 PM

Naval science considers the Battle of Lepanto (1571) to be the turning point from muscle to wind power but large vessels continued to use oars and sweeps as auxiliary propulsion until the advent of steam.

The chanty era began and ended entirely within the steam age. The steam powered rotary printing press had far more effect on popular culture than sails, oars or engines.

Chanties sound less like 18th century plain song or plain chant and more like 19th century popular song because... they were produced, packaged and consumed by 19th century popular culture.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Sep 19 - 09:02 AM

Mrrzy's musing about why rowing song are not usually thought of as chanteys, led me to check the definition of the word in major dictionaries.

Definitions range from extremely specific (Chambers's 1908): "a sailor's song, usually with a drawling refrain, sung in concert while raising the anchor, &c."    (Sorry about "sung in concert": hmmm, meanings change.)

To the most general (Macmillan): "a song that sailors sing."

As for the two most prestigious dictionaries, Oxford allows wiggle room:

"A sailor's song, esp. one sung during heavy work"

that Merriam-Webster doesn't :

"a song sung by sailors in rhythm with their work"

Folklorists generally require that a "chantey" must be sung by sailors for shipboard work. If rowers are sailors and small boats propelled by oars are ships, then folklorists should consider rowing songs to be chanteys.

But they don't, because they're not. On the other hand, the teeming millions who define "sea chantey" as "any song related to the sea" would have no problem applying the word to a rowing song.

And, of course, one may speak "figuratively" too.

So that's settled....

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 Sep 19 - 09:37 AM

So there have been chanteys as long as there have been boats. That's what I thought... Yet the examining of the 19th century ones remains fascinating. Of the English ones at least. Must be Dutch Spanish Portuguese ones too, 19th c I mean.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 28 Sep 19 - 06:10 PM

Maritime work song tradition is measurably older than the English (chanty) + French (chanson) languages laid end-to-end.

And there are more allowances, and synonyms, for 'sailor' than one can count. American cotton screwers were land based unions working alongshore. G. E. Clark's and Charles Nordhoff's chantymen wouldn't meet the dictionary definition of chanty. Neither would T.W. Higginson's gospel singing, U.S.A. infantry oarsmen.

U.S. and Royal Navy fiddle, fife & drum instrumentals or Catholic vespers as capstan cadences would not be a 'qualitative' step backward on any scientific or practical level. Both are older than, and coexisted with, the chanty era.

The usage of the chanty genre label and the practical application of nautical work song have entirely different critical attributes and sorting criteria.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 28 May 20 - 01:33 PM

The Musical Magazine-Musical Courier (Evanston, Ill.) (Apr. 6, 1916), p. 64:

"Dr. Kinkeldey gave a talk with illustrations, on the subject, 'Why Folk Music?' This was a most interesting and well expressed talk. He spoke of the English folk song and sang the humorous song, 'Brisk Young Bachelor.' The sailors' songs, 'Chanteys,' with their rhythmical mood, were illustrated by 'Haul Away, Joe' and 'Johnnie Bowker,' stupid songs, both of them."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 18 Jan 21 - 04:17 PM

Subject: RE: Sea Chanteys All Over The News [TikTok]
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 18 Jan 21 - 03:08 PM

'utterly and completely ignorant of the subject matter?'

Speaking for myself only, the answer is YES!

Which is why we're waiting for you to pronounce in language we can understand.

But you didn't wait:
Gibb presents a very persuasive case that chantying evolved directly from African-American activities.

Henry Dana and the Italians both did 'proto-chanties' or whatever on the 19th century Amercian west coast. The Italian word for (proto)chanty is older than Italian dictionaries.

What is it you need explained and why me?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 18 Jan 21 - 06:14 PM

My turn:

The celeusma has been defined for the last 2400 years as - the rhythmic sounds that sailors make when going about tasks in unison. Clearly, it's not my doing.

How could African-Americans differentiate (proto)chanties so greatly they would not meet the musical definition of a celeusma throughout their evolution?

Whatever else they may be, how are they not celeusma?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Jan 21 - 11:18 AM

Hi Phil,
In that case they obviously are celeusma. Most of us have never come across this term before. We are admitting our ignorance. Okay so chanties are types of celeusma. Now have you any direct evidence that specific songs were carried over from Africa via African Americans in an unbroken chain or is that not what you are saying?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 19 Jan 21 - 01:10 PM

Now have you any direct evidence that specific songs were carried over from Africa via African Americans in an unbroken chain or is that not what you are saying?

Steve: No.you.are.neither.African.nor.American. Put the Black gentlemen down and back away slowly.

Now that you know you are a freshman to your own nautical work song tradition (Western & British) – you, of all people, I shouldn't have to tell where to begin the learning process – in your own tradition – Western & British.

Aeneas and Purcell lived 2000+ years apart but the latter couldn't pick up a European dictionary that didn't describe the Sailor's Chorus with the exact same word Aeneas himself used for his sailors' chorus. There are no West Africans or Americans or Afro-Americans involved. They are still mired in the Iron and Stone Ages respectively. They don't have alphabets as yet much less a unionized maritime industry.

Only after you know your own traditions backwards and forwards will you be able to defend yourself from the American Afro-centric smoke getting blown up your arse about where you & Purcel & Aeneas are coming from.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Jan 21 - 01:24 PM

That's what I like to see, a bit of spirit!

So perhaps you can now inform us what you think the lines of transmission are that finished up with the western oceanic chanty.
And maybe perhaps a little proof?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 19 Jan 21 - 04:40 PM

The Oxford English Dictionary calls "celeusma" "Obsolete" and "rare" in English.

It is defined as "A watchword, battle-cry; the call of the signalman who gives the time to rowers."

Adams's "Compendious Dictionary of the Latin Tongue" (1805) defines it as "the musical cry, by which seamen incited one another to ply their oars."

A "call" or "musical cry."

Something of a regularly shouted command in the former case and a "sing-out" in the latter.

Hardly a chantey in the 19th century sense.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 19 Jan 21 - 04:41 PM

The Greek is "???e?sµa."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 20 Jan 21 - 06:42 AM

Evidently Mudcat doesn't like printing Greek.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 20 Jan 21 - 09:59 AM

Lighter: Evidently Mudcat doesn't like printing Greek.

Tell me about it. I bet it previewed just fine tho...?

Steve & Lighter: I'm only up to the 1600s. Who knows what the Africans are going to do to take them from the Iron Age and no alphabet or maritime traditions - to the most sophisticated form of nautical song the world has known... all without reference to the Western celeusma and in one hundreth the time. Clev-er fellows.

And, not exactly sure just yet but... celeusma seems to have fallen out of usuage about the same time Western sailors stopped using them, c.19th century... weird huh?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 20 Jan 21 - 10:20 AM

Lighter: If you dial the dictionary back to Purcell's century you get this:

Celóma, the mariners-crye when they tug at a cable, weigh anker, or hoife-failes.
Celomare, to cry all together as mariners do, when they weigh anker or hoife-failes.
[Vocabulario Italiano & Inglese, Torriano, 1659]

The biblical definition leans toward "command." Which, I note, is often the first and last word spoken when chanting.

The only thing we're missing to meet the TikTok chanty basics is some late-19th century A&R.

A chanty is more than that but... so much more one can excuse the celeusma altogether from history? Or.... maybe you need to start over at the beginning now that you know what a celeusma is to begin with.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 20 Jan 21 - 11:17 AM

In your opinion, Phil, what is the difference between celeusma and the known sing-outs (repeated phrase like 'Yeo heave' or '1,2,3') which are known to have preceded the chanties by centuries and were still in use alongside the chanties?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 20 Jan 21 - 05:56 PM

Just been trawling through a whole load of early minstrel songs and lots to relate to chanties. Too many to add in here so I'll start a new thread tomorrow.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Jan 21 - 09:09 PM

Yeah, Steve, it's pretty overwhelming. The "language" of minstrel songs is so often the same as the language in chanties. Hard, for me, to know where to start because there is just so much.

That's why when I say that when I squint my eyes (squint my ears?) and listen to "South Australia," I hear a down-home Southern US-style minstrel song that might as well be about being bound for "Alabama" or "South Virginia."

For example, "RING DE HOOP AN BLOW DE HORN":
In Carolina whar I was born
I husk de wood an chop de corn
A roastin ear to de house I bring
But de drivers kotch me an dey sing

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Jan 22 - 06:39 PM

On October 13, 1905, the Boston Evening Transcript printed a letter from former "chantieman" George Meacom of Boston, "Master Mariner." Meacom listed 19 chanteys he recalled siging "more than one half of a century" earler, i.e., in the early to mid 1850s:

"Pumping chanties":

Mobile Bay ("Johnnie come tell us and pump away")
Fire, Fire, Fire Down Below
One More Day
Old Joe (an 1840s minstrel song)

"Anchor chanties":

The Wide Missouri
Leave Her Johnnie
The Black Ball Line
Homeward Bound
Lowlands
Poor Paddy Works on the Railway
"and others"

"Setting sails chanties":

Reuben Ranzo
Blow, Boys, Blow
Storm Aong
Whiskey for My Johnnie
Haul the Bowline
Haul Away Joe
Tom's Gone to Ilo
I Am Bound Away
Paddy Doyle's Boots
"and others"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 11 Jan 22 - 11:08 AM

That's an important resource, Jon. Nice to see this thread back. Any new developments from Gibb?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Jan 22 - 01:34 PM

Thanks, Steve. Sorry for the idiot typos.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 27 Jan 22 - 07:03 AM

How did shantyman(men?) perform more than one task at the same time?

Lighter: A great discovery. In form it looks indistinguishable from a halliard shanty. Such rowing songs almost certainly influenced shanty development. The transference of such songs to halliard work as needed may have been inevitable and must have happened independently a number of times….

...It certainly does support the idea that call-and-response rowing songs were not native to Britain and were presumably an African holdover.

So far, the oldest American reference I've found for rhythmic sound accompanying maritime tasks is 1627 (Smith.) However, it's dirt simple rowing chant and not labeled “call-and-response.”

The Western nautical antiphon dates back 2,400 years. It's universal. Sailors, oarsmen &c coexisted on large sea-going vessels up until the early 1800s and the advent of steam.

“It seems likely...” sailor shanties' wide range of application specific tempos &c must have played second fiddle to the navigator's needs and the rowers' relatively limited/fixed repertoire.

“It seems likely...” shanties could not fully develop or be taken full advantage of unless, and until, sail was a vessel's primary means of propulsion.

When mariners sang sacred & praise music to the rowing tempo, and used one label for all of it, the genre boundaries get even fuzzier.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 Mar 22 - 09:52 PM

Some here might be mildly interested in—or amused by—this graphic I made.

"A Partial Taxonomy of American Maritime Music"

The context for the graphic is to facilitate and consolidate some discussions in a course I teach about "American Maritime Music" (the boundaries in the title of which are deliberately fuzzy). So, what's in the graphic must be very selective and on-point.

The graphic attempts to show, in haphazard combination, SOME* of the relationships between AND approaches to categorization of things under the headings of "maritime music/sound" (quickly zooming into Anglophone sailing ship contexts) and "American music" (focused on parsing certain items relevant to the discussions). The end result, rather than a useful taxonomy in any general sense, is to illustrate 1) the position of the chanty genre/form of song and 2) common ways of conceptualizing "chanty" as a category.

The two "sides" (American Music / Maritime Sound) function to make categories #4 and #5 possible. The overall structure wants to account for dichotomies like: vocal/instrumental, work/leisure, group/individual, maritime/terrestrial, formA/formOTHER, short/long, song/cry. I think each person's perspective on which of such dichotomies are significant, and where they fall on each side of the (prioritized) dichotomies, constitutes in sum their "take."


*Sorry, "celeusma" didn't make the cut.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 23 Apr 22 - 03:55 AM

Gibb: RE celeusma, fwiw, neither is it a legal play in Scrabble.

Like Steve in another thread, I would think you've got your (sub)genre taxonomy backwards. You're diagramming bebop and sorry jazz didn't make your cut.

Otoh, the standard dictionary definitions of celeusma (not yours or mine) wouldn't require an alternate/parallel universe of Western music if Stan Hugill, or any other multilingual chantyman, merely switched to Spanish &c as a gritadore, salomadore &c, &c.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 23 Apr 22 - 04:09 AM

Steve: In your opinion, Phil, what is the difference between celeusma and the known sing-outs (repeated phrase like 'Yeo heave' or '1,2,3') which are known to have preceded the chanties by centuries and were still in use alongside the chanties?

Difference would not be my word choice. Simple cadences; sing outs; fiddle/fife instrumentals; Spanish, French, Italian &c, and pre-19th century anything are not chanties. All are celeusma.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 23 Apr 22 - 04:19 AM

*Correction: Chanties and yeo are English and celeusma.

French, Spanish &c &c would be: calomar, caloma'r, celeuma, celeumaris, celeume, celeusina, celeusma, celeusmata, celeusmate, celeusmatique, celeusme, celeusta, celeustes, celéustica, celéusticamente, celoma, celóma, celomáre, keleusma, keleusme, keleustes, proceleusmatic, salema, saloma, salomador, salomar, salomare, salomear, zalama, zalamar, zaloma, zalomar, zaleuma... or another.

“Yeo” is English for heu. The h is silent.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Jun 22 - 11:55 AM

Concerning Stan Hugill's vocal "hitches"...

Los Angeles Herald (June 26, 1906), reprinted from The London Express:

"To hear a chantey in its full effectiveness, you must needs be sufficiently distant not to catch the jarring falsetto into which mercantile jack inevitably breaks, nor to hear his impromptu anathemas upon the skipper and the mates."

The chanteys mentioned are all familiar, but I haven't noted these words elsewhere:

"'Good-by, fare ye well' ... a sailor chant of farewell to 'a fair little maiden,' who is told 'the does blow, and the ship must go.'"

And in "Homeward Bound" we "come to the West Indee docks."

These are about the only lyrics given in the article.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: meself
Date: 01 Jul 22 - 06:05 PM

Don't know if this is a well-known reference or not, but I've been listening to the audiobook rendition of Jack London's 'John Barleycorn (or Alcoholic Memoirs)', and he recounts a drinking bout with a 'harpooner' and 'sailor' on a docked ship in California, and the three of them singing,

Yankee ship come down de ribber,
Pull, my bully boys, pull!

He was 14 at the time, which would have made it in 1890. It is curious that they apparently employed 'Negro dialect' in their singing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvHA0p7yX8s&list=PL9nYIzaF1_qa_PRy3AzRKj8tvZ2qD7 ... at 1:30:25, approximately.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Jul 22 - 07:49 PM

Have you reached these passages yet?:

“By this time the singing stage [of drunkenness] was reached, and I joined Scotty [a 17-year-old Scottish sailor] and the [19-year-old] harpooner in snatches of sea songs and chanties. It was here, in the cabin of the [sloop-yacht] Idler [on which the harpooner was ‘caretaker’] that I first heard ‘Blow the Man Down,’ ‘Flying Cloud,’ and ‘Whisky, Johnny, Whisky.’ Oh it was brave. I was beginning to grasp the meaning of life.”

P. 56, ref. to San Francisco, 1892 :

“We got to singing. Spider [Healey, ‘a black-whiskered wharf-rat of twenty] sang ‘The Boston Burglar’ and ‘Black Lulu.’ The Queen [‘of the Oyster Pirates,’ Spider’s niece] sang ‘Then I Wisht I Were a Little Bird,’ And her sister Tess sang ‘Oh, Treat My Daughter Kindly.’” [P. 58:] “And Spider sang:

                Oh, it’s Lulu, black Lulu, my darling,
                Oh, it’s where have you been so long?
                Been layin’ in jail,
                A-waitin’ for bail,
                Till my bully comes rollin’ along.”

P. 192, ref. to 1897:

“[In ‘a borrowed whitehall boat’ off Benicia, Calif.] riding on the back of the unleashed elements…I sang all the old songs learned in the days when I went…to the oyster boats to be a pirate — such songs as : ‘Black Lulu,’ ‘Flying Cloud,’ ‘Treat My Daughter Kind-i-ly,’ ‘The Boston Burglar,’ ‘Come All You Rambling, Gambling Men,’ ‘I Wisht I Was a Little Bird,’ ‘Shenandoah,’ and ‘Ranzo, Boys, Ranzo.’”

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: meself
Date: 01 Jul 22 - 08:24 PM

No, but look forward to them! It's possible I slept through the one from "p. 56" - I don't know what page I'm on in the audiobook ... !

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 20 Sep 22 - 09:48 PM

RE: Wallack & Sally Brown lyrics, origins &c: Origins: Faithless Sally Brown

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Oct 22 - 11:08 PM

In _Slave Songs of the United States_ (1967), Allen/etc. offer "Heave Away," which is recognizably the chanty (presumably familiar to most in the sailor version) "Heave Away, My Johnnies." It was a song of Savannah firemen.

Since Stan Hugill ended up reprinting it, I recorded a sample of it back when I was doing all of Hugill's examples:
https://youtu.be/iJXXW94LLbI

The editors of _Slave Songs_ say they got it from Kane O'Donnell, a journalist from Philadelphia.

O'Donnell had been a war correspondent for _The Press_ of Philadelphia, in Savannah in Dec 1864/1865, at the time when General Sherman took the city.

In the Jan. 6, 1865 edition of The Press, O'Donnell's observations of Savannah were printed. One observation was of Sherman's inspection of the city's Black fire companies.

//
It is not generally known that the fire-engines of Savannah are, with the exception of their white captains, entirely manned by the slaves, who are immediately officered by firemen of their own. Two or three thousand of those black firemen, all of them delivered bondmen passed by the Exchange, singing twenty or thirty different songs. Their singing is the great character mark of the negroes. Marshaled by their uniformed foremen (most of whom look like stalwart and intelligent fellows), and carrying banners of welcome on which the words “Union,” “Freedom,” “Gen. Sherman,” and “the rebels” were conspicuous at times, they marched on with enthusiasm, making the air wild with their strange, hoarse, musical voices. No singing in the world is like it, and most of the songs are untranslatable. Half a dozen of these airs or choruses rang in the ear at once, as the firemen passed by, keeping all the while the orderly step of soldiers. The verses for the greater part were extemporized by the leaders, each company joining in its own chorus, for I am informed that the different bands of firemen have tunes peculiar to themselves. I caught a few words of one song:
        “I work all night
        ‘Till broad daylight,
And all his fellows joined in:
        “I cannot work any mo’.”
        This refrain alternated constantly with a line extemporized by the leader, and was a never-wearying repetition. There was another, on the same principle, composed of recitative and a short refrain of powerful volume and wonderful effect, called “Granny Ho!” A contraband friend explained to me another as being a “Hoojah song,” and I learned that the Hoojah was a fellow who stole vessels, but whether this song has any connection with Admiral Dahlgren, the blockade-runners, or the pirate Alabama, I could not exactly discover. The tune, however, was enchanting in its way, and more fresh and musical than any of the airs lately in vogue in the negro minstrelsy of the North, which used to pirate so much from the plantations, while it made fun for the oppressors of the slave. The words were extemporized by a smart-looking foreman, and were full of merry points about General Sherman, the rebels, and the great theme of freedom. The chorus was larger and quicker than usual, and wound up with the meaning or unmeaning interrogatory:
        “Yaller gal, don’t ye want to go?”
        The effect of this song was especially great upon the inspired singers, who sang it through with the seriousness peculiar to the slave, and laughed loudly at the end or between verses. I asked one of the firemen if he could tell me the words, but he grinned: “Lor’, I dunno mass’r; de boys mak’t up as dey go ‘long.” I am satisfied that all effort to transcribe these songs is vain. The firemen did not pride themselves especially upon the day’s display, which was much inferior to their annual parade, and gotten up at short notice to please Gen. Sherman; but to every Northerner it was the rarest entertainment which Savannah has given, and perhaps none enjoyed it more than the conqueror of Georgia. As I learned, the slaves (and now the freedmen) had a hundred different songs which they sung at a fire, and that was the place (my informant told me) to hear them sing in their best humor.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 16 Oct 22 - 04:21 PM

From that "other" thread:

Steve: Also of note is the reference to Americans (likely African Americans) using the songs to greater effect. A lot of Gibb's early references to the earlier songs are of African American rowers, in e.g., the Georgia Sea islands.

You've got Englishmen singing Canadian boat songs to South American Indians and Portuguese Jesuits translating Ch? Nôm to Latin and English, American and Italians trading songs on off the American west coast.
   
Why would African-Americans be likely, notable or... anyways different from the rest of humanity?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 15 Nov 22 - 11:14 AM

"Subject: RE: Maritime work song in general
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 Nov 22 - 09:57 AM

Hi Phil,
Does that Dana Seaman's Manual have any useful info on chanties?

Regarding the discipline and lack of verbal communication on the stricter merchant ships, this was very likely because many of the men and officers would have been ex RN and old habits die hard."

Steve:
Two Years Before the Mast is choc-a-bloce with references to maritime work song. 1842AD: No 'chanties' anywhere by anybody... so far. Agreed?

...this was very likely because... Check your post history in the other thread. What you like to think is the foundation of your chanty narrative. Change the thinker, change the likes.

Me? A singing fifer would be 'not likely.' I find the singing fiddlers and drummers pretty much the same in the pre-1842 document record.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 Nov 22 - 03:47 PM

Phil
I use the word chanty to refer to Dana's examples simply because at least some, if not all, of them are referred to as chanties later on.

So no, not agreed. These specific songs, some from even earlier, are referred to as chanties later on. Okay, so we can say they eventually became chanties when they were used aboard ship, or even by the stevedores with a 'chanteyman'. I'm personally happy with the idea of 'proto-chanties'.

I have had 'Two Years BTM' for many years but the question still stands, does the Seaman's Manual have anything relevant? This I haven't seen.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 15 Nov 22 - 04:57 PM

Steve:
Me: What you like to think is the foundation of your chanty narrative.
You: I'm personally happy with the idea of 'proto-chanties'.

Yes.you.are. And your personal happiness is not pre-1842AD anything.

For scale: I suspect the proto-chanty concept is younger than Mudcat. The nautical fife is older than vowels and spaces between words.

PS Standing question: I've only word searched Seamen's Manual, not read it proper. Fwiw, only hit from 'the list' was "jack-screw" (with the hyphen.)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 23 - 09:11 PM

Delighted to notice a batch of songs collected by Cecil Sharp in New York from a Robert Wheelwright in 1916. They are manuscript notations archived at the VWML. As far as I've seen, Sharp never prepared them for publication (one supposes that Sharp had more or less "finished" what he wanted to say about chanties by this time?).

In a page from Sharp's diary (also archived in VWML), Sharp says briefly of his encounter with Wheelwright that the latter was "a youngish fellow" and that he noted "5 chanteys" from him. Sharp may have been using the term "chantey" loosely in the diary. In the manuscripts, Sharp labels only 3 of the 5 as chanties. The other two are variations of "Van Dieman's Land" and "High Barbaree" which, by current custom, tend to be classified as "sea songs", "ballads" etc. notwithstanding Hugill's generous inclusion of these items in his anthology on the rationale that he found some or other instance of these songs "used as work-songs."

Of the three items labeled as chanties, I posted texts of two in the Mudcat thread about "Caribbean Chanties": "Bulldog Don't Bite Me" and "St. John Seegar."

The third could be considered a variation of "Blow Boys Blow," with the title "Pull my bully boys Pull".

Despite the obvious relationship to "Blow Boys Blow," this variation is set in a minor key and has a different melodic shape. It also has an additional partial line/chorus tacked on the end of the stanza.

TEXT:
A Yankee ship dropped down the river
Pull my bully boys pull
A Yankee ship dropped down the river
Pull my bully boys pull
Yeo ho, heave ho, [one measure only]
O pull my bully boys pull

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Jul 23 - 08:40 PM

Hi, Gibb.

Jack London, “An Odyssey of the North” (1899):

“[He] swayed back, with a hitch to his skin trousers, and began to sing a chanty, such as men lift when they swing around the capstan circle, and the sea snorts in their ears:

                Yan-kee ship come down the ri-ib-er
                       Pull ! my bully boys ! Pull !
                D’yeh want – to know de captain ru-uns her ?
                       Pull ! my bully boys ! Pull !
                Jon-a-than Jones ob South Caho-li-in-a
                       Pull ! my bully —— ”

(London, a skilled sailor, should have known you don't "pull" while "swinging around the capstan circle. but, hey, it's just a story!)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 07:08 AM

1834        Bache, R. _View of the Valley of the Mississippi, or the Emigrants and Traveller’s Guide to the West._ Second edition. Philadelphia: H. S. Tanner.

Preface dated 1832. Chapter 27 on steamboats of the West (Ohio, Mississippi rivers).

Western style steamboats had boilers on the bow rather than in the center of the boat. The firemen (stokers) were full of noise, song, and whiskey.

pp347-8:
// [a passenger looking to pass the time] may even take a seat, as I have done a hundred times, on the boiler deck, and look down upon the movements of the firemen, who are generally coloured men, and listen to their rude, but frequently real wit, and their songs, when rousing up their fires, or bringing on board a fresh supply of wood, and especially when they are approaching or leaving ports. In these musical fetes, some one acts as the leader, himself oftentimes no mean maker of verses, and the rest join with all their might in the chorus, which generally constitutes every second line of the song. These chorusses are usually an unmeaning string of words, such as "Ohio, Ohio, Oh-i-o;" or "O hang, boys, hang;" or "O stormy, stormy," &c. When tired with the insipid gabble of the card-table in the cabin, or disinclined to converse with any one, I have spent hours in listening to the boat songs of these men.
//

This is the earliest reference I've seen for a "Stormy" song. Also the earliest for what seems to be "Hanging Johnny."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Nov 23 - 08:21 AM

Louisville Literary News-Letter (March 7, 1840):

"We were aroused at daylight by the boatswain's hoarse call of 'all hands up anchor;' and, in a few moments, our capstern [sic] bars were
flying to the [hit] tune of 'Old Zip Coon,' flung by snatches from the fife of a sleepy Orpheus."

This was on an American merchant ship bound from Pensacola to Havana.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 07:08 AM

1834        Bache, R. _View of the Valley of the Mississippi, or the Emigrants and Traveller’s Guide to the West._ Second edition. Philadelphia: H. S. Tanner.

Preface dated 1832. Chapter 27 on steamboats of the West (Ohio, Mississippi rivers).

Western style steamboats had boilers on the bow rather than in the center of the boat. The firemen (stokers) were full of noise, song, and whiskey.

pp347-8:
// [a passenger looking to pass the time] may even take a seat, as I have done a hundred times, on the boiler deck, and look down upon the movements of the firemen, who are generally coloured men, and listen to their rude, but frequently real wit, and their songs, when rousing up their fires, or bringing on board a fresh supply of wood, and especially when they are approaching or leaving ports. In these musical fetes, some one acts as the leader, himself oftentimes no mean maker of verses, and the rest join with all their might in the chorus, which generally constitutes every second line of the song. These chorusses are usually an unmeaning string of words, such as "Ohio, Ohio, Oh-i-o;" or "O hang, boys, hang;" or "O stormy, stormy," &c. When tired with the insipid gabble of the card-table in the cabin, or disinclined to converse with any one, I have spent hours in listening to the boat songs of these men.
//

This is the earliest reference I've seen for a "Stormy" song. Also the earliest for what seems to be "Hanging Johnny."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Nov 23 - 08:21 AM

Louisville Literary News-Letter (March 7, 1840):

"We were aroused at daylight by the boatswain's hoarse call of 'all hands up anchor;' and, in a few moments, our capstern [sic] bars were
flying to the [hit] tune of 'Old Zip Coon,' flung by snatches from the fife of a sleepy Orpheus."

This was on an American merchant ship bound from Pensacola to Havana.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Dec 23 - 12:28 AM

Allen Parker was born into slavery in northeastern North Carolina. (According to David Cecelski, the year of birth was 1838). He wrote about slaves' lives as he remembered in
Recollections of Slavery Times. Worcester, MA: Chas. W. Burbank & Co., 1895.

Parker describes Christmas time, when some slaves had a full week free of labor. The young folk gathered on Christmas Eve for a dance. The musicians made of what they could for makeshift instruments and some provided rhythm by pattin' Juba. Songs were improvisational. One of the songs (pp66-67) corresponds to "Hogeye Man" (Parker has it as "honey man"):

"Sally's in de garden siftin' sand,
And all she want is a honey man.
De reason why I wouldn't marry,
Because she was my cousin
O, row de boat ashore, hey, hey,
Sally's in de garden siftin' sand."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 08 Dec 23 - 05:43 AM

1959        Khan, Rafik, ed. Guiana Sings. Delaware, OH: Cooperative Recreation Service.

"Rainy Wedder" – popular at boat races in Guyana

Chicken born widout a fedder,
Waitin’ for da rainy wedder;
Down come da yalla gal
is time for us to go.
Heave away, Heave away, ho

The form of the tune and refrain are similar to the "Heave Away" sung by Black fire companies in Savannah, as presented (score) in Allen's _Slave Songs of the United States_ (1867) and as described by O'Donnel of The Philadelphia Press (Jan. 1865) when he visited Savannah at the end of Sherman's march.

By extension, it's the same species of song as sailor's "Heave Away, My Johnnies" (first mentioned AFAIK in 1868).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Dec 23 - 03:51 AM

New-York Daily Tribune (24 May 1855): 6.

On the Alabama River, April 22, 1855. Steamboat from Montgomery to Mobile. If the boat runs aground,

//
…the crew (mostly negroes) by the aid of a heavy spar, which they work by a capstan, get her again afloat, accompanying themselves by a wild chant—one voice leading and the others joining chorus. At other times they improvise for the occasion such a song as this:

“Work away my dandy boys,
        Work away—work away;
I think I feel her moving now,
        Work away—work away,” &c.

        The glare of the pine torches lighting up the river and the banks, which seem like enchanted gardens—the song of the negroes as the march round the capstan, their wild and picturesque appearance, and the airy fairy boat looming high above the water—all unite to form a scene as novel to our eyes as it is beautiful.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 10 Apr 24 - 04:19 AM

Hubbell, Jay. “Negro Boatmen’s Songs.” Southern Folklore Quarterly 18 (1954): 244-245.

The brief piece serves to reproduce part of a lost / inaccessible article, “An Editorial Voyage to Edisto Island,” _Chicora_ [Charleston] (13 Aug 1842): 47 and (27 Aug 1842): 63.

Quotes from the 1842 article:

//
Regularly and beautifully each oar is dipped into the seemingly glassy water, and as the canoe springs forward at the impulse, “Big-mouth Joe,” the leading oarsman, announces his departure from the city with a song, in whose chorus every one joins—

Now we gwine leab Charlestown city,
        Pull boys, pull!—
The gals we leab it is a pity,
        Pull boys, pull!—
Mass Ralph, ’e take a big strong toddy,
        Pull boys, pull!—
Mass Ralph, e aint gwine let us noddy,
        Pull boys, pull!—
The sun, ’e is up, da creeping,
        Pull boys, pull!—
You Jim, you rascal, you’s da sleeping,
        Pull boys, pull!—
        
And thus in an improvisation of as pleasant melody as ever floated over the waters, we are off on our voyage.
        Mass Ralph, mass Ralph, ’e is a good man,
                Oh ma Riley, oh!
        Mass Ralph, mass Ralph, ’e sit at the boat starn,
                Oh ma Riley, oh!
        Mass Ralph, mass Ralph, him boat ’e can row,
                Oh ma Riley, oh!
        Come boys, come boys, pull let me pull oh,
                Oh ma Riley, oh!

…Everything upon such occasions is turned into song; and as our purpose is to afford a true picture of the habitats of this part of our population, we will be excused in giving a specimen or two of such improvisations, even at the risk of offending those few pretenders to taste, who presume because they have skill enough to adjust a cravat, or fit a coat, they must also possess brains enough to criticise the inherent beauty and propriety of our negro minstrelsy.
        One of the oarsmen lags perhaps at his work. Joe perceives it, and at once strikes up—

        One time upon did ribber,
                Long time ago—
        Mass Ralph ’e had a nigger,
                Long time ago—
        Da nigger had no merit,
                Long time ago—
       De nigger couldn’t row wid sperrit,
                Long time ago—
        And now dere is in dis boat, ah,
                A nigger dat I see—
        Wha’ is a good for nothing shoat, ah,
                Ha, ha, ha, he—
        Da nigger’s weak like water,
                Ha, ha, ha, he—
        ’E can’t row a half quarter,
                Ha, ha, ha, he—
        Cuss de nigger—cuss ’e libber,
                Ha, ha, ha, he—
        ’E nebber shall come on dis ribber,
                Ha, ha, ha, he—

        The delinquent oarsman would sooner die than live under such a rebuke; and hence it is that few failures are ever met with in boat voyages of the kind.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 10 Apr 24 - 08:54 PM

The brief piece serves to reproduce part of a lost / inaccessible article...

Looks like the Chicora never made it through the first year (1842.) Might could put it all back together again from the reprinted bits & pieces though. Here's part of Part I with “Mass Ralph's” intro:

“An Editorial Voyage to Edisto Island. – Have our readers ever visited any of the Sea Islands on our southern coast? During the last week we have done so; and as our journey was not devoid of interest, we shall note a few of its incidents. Our voyage was not after the present improved mode of travelling––under the swift and powerful appliances of steam; but in the old time style of transportation––in a canoe* boat, rowed by eight of the best nerved oarsmen of the African race, to be met with in these parts. Have our readers ever made such a voyage? If not, they can form no adequate idea of its pomp and circumstance. It is not a thing to be resolved upon and accomplished in a moment. There are considerations attendant upon it, too weighty for such expedition. The canoe is to be selected; her capaciousness and swiftness examined; her awning tested as to its water and sun-proof qualities; and her oars and oarsmen tried as to their respective powers of endurance. These being agreed upon, the almanac is carefully to be looked into, whether the tide will suit at Whappoo Cut, or Church Flats, or New Cut––how the wind is likely to blow at Stono, at Dead Man's Bluff, and at White Point––in a word, what are likely to be all the natural phenomena, at all the cuts, flats, bottoms, bluffs, points, et cetera, to be met with on the inland voyages to our Sea Islands. And even these are only the infantile steps of so important and undertaking. The number of fellow mortals to be stowed away under the awning is considered; the correct admeasurement of each estimated; the latest fashions consulted as to the probable size of bustles, and due allowances made for the real or artificial size of the ladies. The children are then enumerated; and the probable time calculated during which they will remain accommodated between uncle Billy's legs, or aunt Peggy's lap, without rehearsing the overture to a nursery opera. Then the pic-nic eatables for the voyage are to be prepared––but of these when we stop to enjoy them. Well, everything is ready; the day has arrived; the morn smiles gloriously and cheeringly upon us. Men, women and children are stowed under the awning; aunt Peggy has done scolding her bandbox; cousin Sally has stopped exclaiming, “good gracious,” about the salt water that has splashed upon her geraniums; and uncle Ralph, having taken a good stiff anti-fogmatic, feels internally convinced that the Temperance reform is a capital thing for everyone but himself; has cursed his last curse at the oarsmen, and is quietly seated at the helm, gazing upon the orient sun, and seeming to defy him to the exhibition of more rubicund face than his. Each oarsman takes his place, releases himself of his jacket, and seems to wonder in his mind, if uncle Ralph goes on drinking, whether his cheeks will not surpass in color said oarsman's red flannel shirt.

Regularly and beautifully each oar is dipped into the seemingly glassy water, and as the canoe springs forward at the impulse, “Big-mouth Joe,” the leading oarsman, announces his departure from the city with a song, in whose chorus every one joins––

Now we gwine leab Charlestown city,
        Pull boys, pull!––
The gals we leab it is a pity,
        Pull boys, pull!––
Mass Ralph, 'e take a big strong toddy,
        Pull boys, pull!––
Mass Ralph, 'e aint gwine let us noddy,
        Pull boys, pull!––
The sun, 'e is up, da creeping,
        Pull boys, pull!––
You Jim, you rascal, you's da sleeping,
        Pull boys, pull!––

And thus in an improvisation of as pleasant melody as ever floated over the waters, we are off on our voyage. The river is crossed; the noise and bustle of the city is only distantly heard; and its view is broken at quick intervals by the frequent meanderings of Whappoo Cut. Uncle...”
[William Gilmore Simms, Scrapbook E, p.89]
[The Simms Initiatives, University of South Carolina]

*Just fyi, an American Sea Island “canoe” would be a type of European wherry or overly large jollyboat 'water taxi.' Not the Pre-Columbian narrow beam birch bark or dugout type.

Slight drift: Chicora was the Carolina folklore version of a New World agricultural El Dorado. In local creole it was a settlement or small community built on stilts. A single raised hut or cabin (cabana) is still a chickee.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 10 Apr 24 - 08:58 PM

The September 1842 Huntress reprinting The New Orleans Picayune. Ever so minor differences to Hubbell:

“[From the N. O. Picayune.]
The editor of the Chicora. in his journal of the 27th ultimo continues his pleasure trip to Edisto Island. Big-mouthed Joe’s minstrelsy forms an important feature in the narration. We gave some specimens yesterday of his powers of improvisatorising—here is another—

Our oarsmen are full of spirit and strength, and in four hours more their journey shall be ended, Alas for the poor fellow who fails, or even lags! Joe will be sure to pasquinade him, and never more will he be trusted among his class as worth a farthing. Every thing, upon such occasions, is turned into song—and as our purpose is to afford a true picture of the habits of this part of our population, we will be excused in giving a specimen or two of such improvisations, even at the risk of offending those few pretenders to taste, who presume that because they have skill enough to adjust a cravat or fit a coat, they must also have possess [sic] brains enough to criticize the inherent beauty and propriety of our negro minstrelsy:

One of the oarsmen lags, perhaps, in his work, Joe perceives this, and at once strikes up—

One time upon dis ribber,
        Long time ago,
Mass Ralph ‘e had a nigger,
        Long time ago!

Dat nigger had no merit,
        Long time ago—
De nigger could’nt row wid sperit,
        Long time ago!

And now there is in dis boat, ah,
        A nigger dat I see—
What is a good for nuttin’ shoat, ah,
        Ha, ha, ha, he!

Dat nigger’s weak like water—
        Ha, ha, ha, he!
'E can’t row a half quarter —
        Ha, ha, ha, he!

Cuss de nigger! —cuss ’e libber!
        Ha, ha, ha, he!
'E nebber shall come on this ribber—
        Ha, ha, ha, he!

The delinquent oarsman would sooner die than live under such a rebuke, and hence it is that few failures are ever met with in boat voyages of this kind.”
[The Huntress, Washington City D.C., 24 Sept., 1842, p.3]
https://archive.org/details/sim_huntress_1842-09-24_6_37

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Oct 24 - 08:09 PM

Anyone interested in this thread should read the brand-new, very enlightening articles by Stephen Winick about the American chanteyman Patrcik Tayluer (1856-1948).

Winick includes a few of Tayluer's recordings, made for the Library of Congress in 1942. (He sings with the "hitches" later made famous by Stan Hugill):

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/09/patrick-tayluer-the-man-behind-the-sea-shanties/

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Nov 24 - 11:28 AM

Apparently another reference to Hugill-style, old-time "hitches":

Evening News (Sydney), Dec. 19, 1903, ref. to "many years ago:

"The accomplished chanty-man of the old-time ships, with a twist, and a quiver, and a roll, and a gurgle in his voice, would put fresh life into a toil-worn and despondent crowd, that had, maybe, been hard at it shortening sail, for sixteen hours on a stretch, in the teeth of four or five gales of wind, all tied together."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Nov 24 - 12:00 PM

Nice notes!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Nov 24 - 05:34 PM

I found the Evening News (1861-1931) article in TROVE, the National Library's digital index & corrected the OCR errors.

Deep Sea Chanties - some working songs of the sea by J.A. Barry Written for the Evening News Christmas Supplement. Page 4.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Dec 24 - 01:03 PM

The North Carolina Standard (Aug. 23, 1843) printed a topical political song whose structure suggests it was inspired bu the chantey. Aside form the choruses, the lyric are unrelated.

The first few lines:

Away down in Johnston town,
   Blow boys blow!
I drank my grog and wore my gown,
   Blow boys blow!
'Twas there upon a certain day,
   Blow boys blow!
That I first heard of Henry Clay,
   Blow boys blow!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Dec 24 - 10:01 PM

Good reference, Jon!

There is very little documentation of sea-going chanties, in what I'd call the familiar form, in publication before the late 1840s.


In my article published last month in American Music (ignore the weird publication date of "2023"), I attempt to take stock of these "1840s" (ship) chanties (pp370-371), namely: "A Hundred Years Ago," "Across the Western Ocean," and "Stormy." Well, and then there's "Sally Brown" in 1839.

To be clear, that is not to say the songs of this sort didn't exist earlier, just that to place more songs requires inference, deduction, supposition (eg "So-and-So said in the 1870s that he started his sea career in the 1840s and he learn this song at the beginning of his career").

In the article, this assessment obliquely supports my thesis that although the advent of the brake windlass (by the mid-'40s, in most cases) was not the condition that allowed chanty singing in ships, it may have been what helped the genre begin to really flourish in that context.

Accessing the article might require institutional access etc. If anyone without access wants it, they can reach out to me and I can try to provide a copy.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 14 Dec 24 - 08:51 PM

The shanty genre label itself is mostly retrospective.

The strongest correlation for work song method was in the size of the work party. A sailor could expect to perform in more than one mode, on any one given vessel/voyage, let alone an entire career.

The most rigid version says the largest crews worked in silence simply because they were large (eg: Royal Navy.) Not so.

The larger the work detail, the more likely a musician was hired. Fiddle, fife and drum, in that order. These “all-hands” anchor, capstan, windlass songs &c. were/are not shanties, nor were/are maritime musicians considered shantymen.

A typical six-eight man rowing crew (or brake windlass detail, as depicted in the Ytube videos) would be at the opposite end of that spectrum. Borderline to having a working crewman filling the role of song leader and saving the overhead of a dedicated middle manager altogether. A cohortive strokesman, as opposed to exhortive patroon. These were boat songs. Maybe “rowing” or “pulling” shanties in retrospect, maybe not. Depends mostly on who is doing the sorting. (eg: Edisto Island rowers.)

The bulk of the current, standard model, 'classic' shanty(man) genre lived somewhere in the middle. The exact boundaries… depends. And most of the time, folks will not have lyrics to sort by.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Dec 24 - 01:27 PM

And dig this. Same region, same time period:

Jones Valley Times (Birmingham, Ala.) (Nov. 2, 1905), p. 3: “An old song, sung by the negroes of South Carolina sixty years ago …

My old cow is a good old cow,
        Blow boys, blow,
She gives milk and butter too.
        Blow boys, blow."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Dec 24 - 06:19 AM

For whatever it's randomly worth (without supporting discussion, I know), I think "blow" in these songs means "sing."