Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)

Subject: Lyr Add: ROUND CAPE HORN (Ewan MacColl)
From: Sky Sailor
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 08:10 AM

I couldn't find this in DT. It is from Ewan MacColl's 'The Manchester Angel'.

ROUND CAPE HORN
Ewan MacColl

Our ship, she lay in harbour
A ship of noted fame
She lay in Plymouth harbour
The 'Conway' was her name
She's waiting there for orders
To take her far from home
Proceeding on a voyage
Around the north Cape Horn

As we was a-laying off the sound
A-rigging of the sails
We cleared old Plymouth harbour
And showed the land our tail
From ship to ship they cheered us
As we went sailing on
Proceeding on a voyage
Around the north Cape Horn

Now as we had been a-sailing
Some five months and four days
We sighted Valparaiso
And anchored in the bay
Them Spanish girls come aboard of us
I solemnly declare
They're far beyond your English girls
With their knobby heads of hair

They're far beyond your English girls
Who on you will impose
For when your money is all spent
They'll pawn and sell your clothes
They're far beyond your English girls
For they're both kind and true
For when your money it is all spent
Some more they'll give to you

Farewell to Valparaiso
Farewell, then, for a while
Farewell to yonder green mountains
Farewell to yonder green isle
And when our ship, she gets paid off
We'll certain sing a song
God bless them little Spanish girls
We left around Cape Horn

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: TheSnail
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 08:13 AM

"north Cape Horn" ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Betsy
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 08:16 AM

Is there a bit of overlap with the Gallant Frigate Amphritite ?. Don't know the tune, but the stanza and content are very similar.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Sky Sailor
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 08:39 AM

I'm sure it's a version of the same song. MacColl's tune is different from the 'Standard' A.L. Lloyd version. It leans toward 'The wild colonial boy'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Sky Sailor
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 08:45 AM

He definitely sings 'North Cape Horn'. Panama Canal perhaps?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 09:53 AM

Sky Sailor-

Ewan might mean "North from Cape Horn" after "rounding the corner" so to speak.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 10:07 AM

The version was recorded by MacColl from Sam Larner of Winterton.
We collected a shorter version from an elderly fisherman, John Goffin, a neighbour of Sam's.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Sky Sailor
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 12:35 PM

Thanks Jim
It is the most 'singable' I have heard.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Barry Finn
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 02:37 AM

Ewan oes sing it as "Around the north Cape Horn". There's a longer version of this which includes stopping at the port of Rio to be repaired or outfitted (can't remember which), that versions has it as "Around the Cape of Storms". The tune is not close to the standard tune to tha "Gallant Frigate Amphritite" & nothing like the "Wild C Boy " either. Sorry, I can't put up tunes but I can sing it into a telephone if any wants, pm me for my number.

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 03:40 AM

G'day Sky Sailor and TheSnail,

The other week I saw a documentary about Magellan's 'circumnavigation*' of the globe (*well, he didn't, did he, as he was killed before getting home...).

The pertinent point is that he didn't really "round the Horn" - he sailed through a passage starting some 360 km to the north of the actual Cape Horn - aclled the Strait(s?) of Magellan ... very tortuous - but not facing into the teeth of the Roaring Forties. He came out somewhat closer to the Horn, at the western end - but what nearly defeated his ecpedition was the fact that the Middle Ages has ignored the Greeks' accurate measururement of the diameter of the Earth for a much reduced later guess. (This is also why Columbus was certain he had reached India or China!)

Trouble is, I don't think anyone else went to the trouble of weaving through the Strait(s?) of Magellan ... over just tackling the Forties head on (and, in later years they sailed the "Circular Route" ... heading west all the way. It was much easier to sail around the world with the wind behind you all the way than to turn round and sail back against the Roaring Forties.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Sky Sailor
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 03:56 AM

You can here a clip of the recording at this link: Here

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 04:01 PM

The Straits were an important and much used passage, but many sailing vessels preferred the Drake Passage (around the Horn) because there was more room.
At its narrowest, the Magellan route is 2 to 2 1/2 miles wide. A number of cruise ships make the trip through the Straits.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Howard Jones
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 06:15 PM

It sounds like he's singing "A-rounding of Cape Horn" to me

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: TheSnail
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 07:48 PM

I agree. Makes more sense.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: EBarnacle
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 11:27 PM

Most if not all of the Drake Passage is Chilean territory and a friend told me that it is difficult to get visas to land in case of emergency when coming Easterly.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 11:52 PM

more years back than I care to remember, a college professor introduced me to The Manchester Angel -- I had always liked folk music but never really made it part of my life......then there was this marvellous LP (see how that dates me.....) called The Manchester Angel with the most wonderful songs in the world on it.....The Manchester Angel is still one of my all time favorites......not to mention Geordie.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn - Ewan MacColl
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 11:56 PM

No visa fees for Canadians, UK or U. S. citizens with passports, but I understand that there IS a landing fee, which can be expensive for those not on tours.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 20 Apr 08 - 11:29 AM

Anyone have the fuller version?

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 20 Apr 08 - 12:39 PM

IIRC, the Larner/ MacColl tune is the same as that of "The Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 21 Apr 08 - 05:24 AM

I have to say that 'The Manchester Angel' is my favourite recording of all time - and I had completely forgotten about 'Round Cape Horn'!

As a result of this thread I got the LP out and played it again (it's a wonder it didn't fall to pieces considering how much I played it when I was younger!). There, sure enough, is 'Round Cape Horn' and it all came back to me. Nevertheless, I still think it's the least successful track on the record and the tune is a bit dull and plodding - especially when compared with 'The Gallant Frigate Amphitrite' in the Penguin Book. Perhaps that's why I had forgotten it (?)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 21 Apr 08 - 09:50 AM

I like both versions, though the "Sweet Brown Knowe" is less distinguished than the "Amphitrite" tune.

BTW, as a young teenager, the English poet John Masefield trained as an apprentice on the schoolship HMS Conway in the 1890s. (As a school ship, that particular Conway wasn't sailing anywhere: its permanent berth was in the Mersey.)

Masefield made only two voyages in his teens before leaving the sea. He wrote the nostalgic "Sea Fever" some years later.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 22 Apr 08 - 05:47 AM

See my comments in the notes to 'Rounding the Horn' in the revised edition of The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, published by EFDSS in 2003 as Classic English Folk Songs. I suggest there that 'Conway' was probably the original name ('Amphitrite' being likely introduced by the singer William Bolton); the HMS Conway, laid down in 1828, was at Valparaiso in 1835. Darwin sent letters and specimens back to England on her just prior to embarkation on The Beagle.

http://www.hmsconway.org/

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 22 Apr 08 - 05:58 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HMSConway2.jpg

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 22 Apr 08 - 06:13 AM

The school ship, of course, was not the one referred to in the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 22 Apr 08 - 10:05 AM

Malcolm, you're right of course. I used to assume (always dangerous)before I looked into it that the ships were the same. Some others may also.

As the websites show, there have been several "Conways." Only the first was originally so named. Her replacements were rechristened to carry on the tradition.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST,Seonaid
Date: 24 Jun 24 - 05:49 PM

Thank you all for your contributions to this thread! It has given me not only the lyrics that I was searching for, but background on more than I'd expected. Again, thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: sciencegeek
Date: 24 Jun 24 - 07:00 PM

a long time beloved album, both LP and now the CD... and I remember the long search to figure out just what the heck north Cape Horn meant lol

and the mentions of training ships also has strong tie ins with shanties and sea songs because while the shift from sail to steam made seafaring far safer than ever before, the older sailors had a deeper understanding or feel for the sea and its challenges.. I base this on the writings of Sir Walter Runciman, a Northumbrian sailor who rose from apprentice to master and finally became the owner of a fleet of small steam merchantmen, the ocean tramps, who fought for seaman's rights, fair treatment and also the need for old sailing ships to be used as training vessels to better train apprentices.

It was Sir Walter's immediate family who sang sea shanties and inspired a young nephew, Richard Runciman Terry, to collect and publicly promote sea music and write Shanty Books I & 2 and other works.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Round Cape Horn (Ewan MacColl)
From: RTim
Date: 24 Jun 24 - 10:26 PM

I have a version collected from Frederick White in Southampton Workhouse by Dr. Gardiner,....

Tim Radford

Our Ship’s Called The Convoy

Round Cape Horn - Frederick White H387.
Roud 4706 - (Singer’s title: “Our Ship’s Called The Convoy”)

Our ship’s she called “The Convoy”, a ship of great renown,
Whilst we lay off Plymouth, that beautiful town,
There we received orders, which bore us far from home,
We are bound for Rio Janeiro, and then around Cape Horn.

When we arrived at Rio, we lay there awhile,
A-reeving of new rigging and bending of new sail,
With our hearts as light as feathers as the decks we jog along,
And wishing for fine weather and rounding of Cape Horn.

We had twice five hundred mariners, all standing in a row,
With their white frocks and trousers as white as any snow,
From ship to ship they cheered us as we were sailing along,
And wishing for fine weather and rounding of Cape Horn.

It’s now we’re round the Horn, my boys,
Fine nights and fine days,
The first place we anchored in was Valparariso Bay,
To view those Spanish ladies, I solemnly declare,
They far exceed the English girls for beautiful heads of hair,


But they are not like any English girls, who will on you impose,
Who will rob you of your money then steal all your clothes,
But, when your money is all done, they’ll freely give to thee,
They’ll give you a good hearty kiss when you’re going off to sea.