Origins: The Sailor's Way / Across the Line

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sailor's Way / Across the Line
From: GUEST,Santa
Date: 19 Jul 05 - 09:40 AM

The version I'm most familiar with, based on the C Fox Smith poem, speaks of "across the roads to Newcastle" which makes no sense in the song's context of up and down the west coast of the Americas, but does in an Antipodean version. But that phrase doesn't appear in the NZ variants. Any comments? Is this evidence of a missing intermediate version or just Miss Smith slipping a little?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sailor's Way / Across the Line
From: GUEST,Santa
Date: 19 Jul 05 - 09:21 AM

Rollicks is right: it is the "working" pronunciation of rowlocks. Presumably these are knnown as oarlocks in that other tongue they speak across the Great Water.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sailor's Way / Across the Line
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 05:25 PM

A really nice discussion of this song.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: AROUND THE HORN AND HOME AGAIN (W. Smith)
From: GUEST,Lighter w/o cookie
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 03:57 PM

William H. Smith (1867-1955) of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, first went to sea about 1880. Sixty years later he dictated his sea songs to his son, and the late Edith Fowke published the manuscript (with a comparable manuscript by Fenwick Hatt) as _Sea Songs and Ballads from Nineteenth Century Nova Scotia_ in 1981.

One of Smith's songs is "The Sailor's Way," under the title of "Around the Horn and Home Again." Smith's note says "Sea ballad sung on our old ships, British and those out of Liverpool, N.S."

I've sailed among the Yankees,
Brazilians and Chinese,
Enjoying myself with those dark-eyed girls
Beneath the tall palm trees.
I've crossed the Line and Gulf Stream,
Way round by Table Bay;
Around the world and home again,
And that's the sailor's way.

At night we see the north star,
A-shining on our bow;
We're steering straight for old England;
My thoughts are in her now.
What a jolly time for the girls on shore,
While we are drawing pay;
Around the world and home again,
And that's the sailor's way.

While Ned goes to his parents,
And Dick goes to his dear,
And Bill to wife and family,
And Tom to pints of beer.
While Jack goes to the dance-hall,
To hear the fiddle play;
Around the world and home again,
And that's the sailor's way.

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 14 Oct 04 - 12:29 AM

Rowlocks = Oarlocks Gutbucket - Ain't it great the way these threads about great songs resurface - Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 14 Oct 04 - 12:17 AM

It's great to see new interest in a post I started way back in 1999. Gosh, that's 5 years ago!

Anyway, when I originally posted the lyrics, they were as best as I could make out of the Chants De Marins CD from New Zealand. I also included additional versus from Hugill and Doerflinger. However, I was never sure of the line:

Rollicks creaking, a thumping swell, a wind that would make you ache.

I now sing it as oarlocks.

Jim Dixon, thanks for the link to the chords

Gutbucketeer.

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 13 Oct 04 - 11:48 PM

Well put Uke and Jim - All I can add of the NZ version is...

First recorded by the 'Song Spinners' on "Songs of the Whalers" - Kiwi 45E{ M 31-1 ca early-mid 60s - John Godden was vocalist. Yeah Uke, the tune was by Neil Colquhoun, who 'musicalised' many other NZ songs. Radriano, the words could fit a capstan chanty.

Geographical Note = to go with the southern NZ placenames.

We've sailed away to Northward, we've hauled away to East,
We've skimmed our sail in the teeth of a gale and stood in the calmest seas.
We've set our course by a Southern Star, by Stewart through the Strait,
Westward round by Milford Sound, for that is the sailor's fate.

Stewart Island, where I happen to live, is NZ's southernmost inhabited island (popn <400) - Foveaux Strait is the ditch beteen us and South Island.

..Eastward round by Dusky Sound, and Pegasus -through the Strait,
Port Cooper, Ocean, Tom Kain's Bay, for that is the coaster's fate.

Mumble... Dusky Sound is a rather re,pte [art of the SW corner of Soth Island (NZ). Port Cooper etc.. are on the east coast.

If you use the above lines when singing and want to be REALLY pedantic, use via Pegasus OR The Strait 0 Port Pegasus is at the south end of Stewart Island = you need to be scitzo to [ass ther, and Foveax Strait on the same eastabout trip. If weather was OK the sailing ships went through the Strait - if shitty you went south into rougher water - but at least thter was searoom.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Oct 04 - 10:01 PM

This chantey is in the DT with the title ACROSS THE LINE, but no source is given.

There is another version, also called ACROSS THE LINE, with chords, at this New Zealand folk song page, and it has some interesting notes.

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: GUEST,Uke
Date: 12 Oct 04 - 09:05 PM

Pretty sure the version on the Chants De Marins CD is a New Zealand version of the song. The first verse and chorus was collected in the 1910s by a writer named James Cowan. The first verse words go like so:

I've traded with the Maoris, Brazilians, and Chinese
I've courted dark eyed beauties beneath the Kauri trees
I've traveled along with a laugh and song in a land where they call you mate
Around the Horn and home again for that is the sailors fate.

The tune is the composition of Neil Colquhoun, who published this song in "Song of a Young Country" (NZ folksongs) in the 1970s. I think he penned the second verse too.

Word has it, this book is being re-issued soon around these parts (NZ)... you might be able to get it 2nd hand online...

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Oct 04 - 05:27 PM

No technowizardry, just obsessive listening. I wish I could get all the words off these old recordings. Maybe the Carpenter project is doing better.

One trick is to focus as closely as possible on the individual sounds of uncertain words, write them down and try to imagine what muffled or deleted sounds would create a sensible word. This particular track is "cleaner" than most of the others on the CD to begin with; in other words, few actual scratches and jumps. It's the low fidelity and, in some spots for me, the singer's accent that creates difficulties.

"Nor'east trades" only came after rejecting "Bering Straits," "St. Mary's Straits" (Lake Huron), and the evidently imaginary "Maori, Maury's, [etc.] Straits."

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: Snuffy
Date: 12 Oct 04 - 04:50 PM

Thankyou Lighter, you must have better ears than me, or have you been able to digitally clean up the old recordings?

Most of your readings seem preferable to mine, but I still think I hear Chinee rather than Hayti

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: radriano
Date: 12 Oct 04 - 02:30 PM

By the way, I would not call this a shanty. A shanty is specifically a work song and this sounds more like a song sung for pleasure.

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: radriano
Date: 12 Oct 04 - 02:28 PM

I sing a version of "Sailor's Way" that I got from English singer Graeme Knights (he's now recorded it on his album "Echo from Afar"). Graeme's version is pretty much the same as GutBucketeer's first post here with just some minor differences in phrases. For the last verse, Graeme Knights uses the second verse from Doerflinger.

"Sailor's Way" as sung by the Johnson Girls sounds much more like a music hall version to me. The melody I got from Knights is more lyrical and traditional sounding to my ear.

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Oct 04 - 11:06 AM

George Simpson, of Dundee, Scotland, spent about ten years at sea between 1888 and 1899. He provided carpenter with ten shanties an a text of "The Golden Vanity."

Simpson called the present song, "Around the Horn." Though its tune is somewhat reminiscent of Hugill's, the text is quite different.


Whilst sailing down the nor'east trades one moonlight night at sea,
We're gathered on the fo'c'sle head, so hearty gay and free,
Conversing of the pretty girls that we loved far away,
Around Cape Horn an home again - that is a sailor's way!

Across the Line and Gulf Stream, and bound around Table bay,
Around Cape Horn and home again - that is a sailor's way!

I've traded [down?]America [plowed? bound? plyed?][all along Hayti?],
I've courted all those [bold gay?] girls beneath the old palm tree;
I've travelled the world far and nigh from the Horn to Bot'ny Bay,
Around Cape Horn and home again - that is a sailor's way!


    Bracketed words remain obscure, but the suggested readings may be plausible. I tried to fit in Yokohama, Hong Kong, and the Broomielaw but they wouldn't cooperate! ; )

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 11:33 PM

I think that the words that "The Johnson Girls" sing to this chantey on their album are different. Can anyone post the words to their version here ?    SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 08:07 PM

Both Captain Cook and Captain Marryat used "knots an hour." They were pretty sea-wise too. ; )

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 07:08 PM

Carpenter's version was collected from a Mr George Simpson in Dundee in 1928/29. The quality of the wax cylinder recording is extremnely poor and many words are almost impossible to decipher. Almost the only words I can be sure of are the names of the various ports. This is what I make of it, but any corrections would be msot welcome:

I'm sailing down the [Boysen of lovely Midar Quay?]
[Let down the boom of?] Yokohama [hold me gay and free?]
[Converging?] on the Broomielaw, [that we might far away?]
Around Cape Horn and home again, that is a sailor's way.
Across the Line, the Gulf Stream, been [homan?] in Table Bay
Around Cape Horn and home again, that is a sailor's way.

I've courted girls in [Boycar, played hoy along?] Chinee
I've courted girls in far Hong Kong, [she squeezed me old and free?][I've hobled the world?] Port Said, [got broken for?] Botany Bay
Around Cape Horn and home again, that is a sailor's way.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 06:15 PM

Knot may be defined as one nautical mile according to Webster's - but "not used technically." According to a cruise ship's officer I talked to, he gets asked the 'how many knots' question every day. He quit trying to explain long ago.
Mention of a nautical mile (1852 meters, U.S. since 1959) or any attempt to discuss a minute of arc results in glazing of the eyes.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 05:39 PM

Dave-

"How many knots a day?" is by George Bell and you're probably correct in assuming that he's an armchair sea poet.

C. Fox Smith and Masefield were much better at this kind of thing, each having direct experience at sea and knowing old shellbacks.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 05:23 PM

Hate to be picky, but the poet doesn't seem very sea-wise.

"How many knots a day?"   Awww, come onnn!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 10:24 AM

Jeri-

Thanks for nailing this one with regard to C. Fox Smith. Otherwise it would still be rattling round in my brain files.

Observer-

You are certainly correct to credit Danny Mcleod and Alan Fitzsimmons for most recently reviving interest in C. Fox Smith's sea poems and adapting them for singing. Others are now adapting more of her poems as well, and several poems now have alternative tunes.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 06:11 AM

JM Carpenter collected a version in 1929, which is included on the Foltrax double CD of the Carpenter collection. I'll look up the details when I get home

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: GUEST,observer
Date: 11 Oct 04 - 05:22 AM

Charley,

The C.Fox poem you refer to is probably sung by Tom, however I believe that it is one of the poems set to music by Alan Fitzsimmons of Keelers and "A Pinch of Salt" a collaboration with Danny Mcleod and Peter Wood.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 06:29 PM

Hugill's tune for "The Sailor's Way" doesn't remind me in any way, shape, or form of Doerflinger's "Dixie Brown."

Of course, I've been wrong before....

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 05:24 PM

The Traditional Ballad Index lists only the Doerflinger version, and gives a cross-reference to "Dixie Brown." Here are the entries:

Sailor's Way, The

DESCRIPTION: The sailor tells of all the places he's been and seen: "I've sailed among the Yankees, the Spaniards and Chinese.... But I'll go to the dance hall and hear the music play, For around Cape Horn and home again, oh, that is the sailor's way!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936
KEYWORDS: sailor dancing rambling
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger, p. 109, "The Sailor's Way" (1 text, reference for tune)
Roud #8239
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7] (tune)
File: Doe109

---

Dixie Brown [Laws D7]

DESCRIPTION: Arriving in (San Francisco), a sailor goes on a spree and ends up broke. He is taken in by [Dixie] Brown, who alleges he owes a score and uses that as a lever to force him back to sea. The sailor warns others to avoid the sea and this sort of trap
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923
KEYWORDS: sailor poverty robbery shanghaiing
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws D7, "Dixie Brown"
Doerflinger, pp. 107-109, "Off to Sea Once More" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 494-496, "Jack Wrack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 140-141, "Off to Sea Once More" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 702, GOTOSEA
Roud #644
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor's Way" (tune)
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot)
cf. "The Shirt and the Apron" [Laws K42] (plot)
cf. "Maggie May" (plot)
cf. "Can't You Dance the Polka (New York Girls)" (plot)
cf. "The Poor Chronic Man" (plot)
cf. "The Winnipeg Whore" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ben Breezer
Go to Sea Once More
Notes: Dixie "Shanghai" Brown was a particularly notorious San Francisco boarding master, noted for not only supplying sailors for the whalers but going so far as to lure, rob, or trick sailors into his hands. Even among San Francisco boarding masters (who in this period were little better than slavers), he stood out as a particularly bad seed.
It should be noted that many versions of this song do not mention San Francisco or Brown; they simply tell of how a sailor arrived in port (often Liverpool), got drunk, spent all his money, and had to return to sea. The line "(he must) go to sea once more," however, seems highly characteristic. - RBW
There was an equally notorious Liverpool boarding master called "Rapper" Brown, whose name is often found in British versions of this song. - PJS
File: LD07

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
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The Ballad Index Copyright 2004 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 05:15 PM

"Across the Line" sure looks like an offspring of "The Sailor's Way." The sensuous (look it up!) nature of the details suggests to me it's post-Masefield's "Sea Fever" (1911).

I believe Hugill's 1969 text (with tune) was the first full traditional text in print.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 05:05 PM

Charlie, you're a degree or two off, but otherwise, steady on.

Se The Cape Horner:
When it was
'Round the Horn and 'ome again, that's the sailor's way,
'Crost the road to Newcastle, back to 'Frisco Bay,
Up the coast to Oregon, down to Callao,
Round the Horn and 'ome again -- forty years ago.

Then there's The Half Loaf, with:
South away to Singapore, North away to Nome,
An' round the world and back again is one way 'ome.

There 'Across the Line' in the DT. Is it a version of 'Sailor's Way'?

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The Sailor's Way'
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 04:26 PM

The phrase "Round the world and home again, That's the sailor's way!" sounds very familar. I'm thinking there is a C. Fox Smith poem that picks it up which may have been sung by Tom Lewis. I'm probably way off shore here but I'll do some checking.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: HOMEWARD BOUND (William Allingham)
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 01:56 PM

The Irish poet and editor William Allingham is best known today for his short poem "The Fairies," beginning,

             Up the airy mountain,
                Down the rushy glen,
             We daren't go a-hunting,
                For fear of little men.

Less familiar is this lyric from "Songs, Ballads and Stories" (London: George Bell, 1877), p. 209:

                     HOMEWARD BOUND
            
             Head the ship for England !
                Shake out every sail !
             Blithe leap the billows,
                Merry sings the gale.
             Captain, work the reck'ning ;
                How many knots a day ?--
             Round the world and home again,
                That's the sailor's way !

             We've traded with the Yankees,
                Brazilians, and Chinese ;
             We've laugh'd with dusky beauties
                In shade of tall palm trees ;
             Across the Line and Gulf-stream--
                Round by Table Bay--
             Everywhere and home again,
                That's the sailor's way !

             Nightly stands the North Star
                Higher on our bow ;
             Straight we run for England ;
                Our thoughts are in it now.
             Jolly time with friends ashore,
                When we've drawn our pay !--
             All about and home again,
                That's the sailor's way !

             Tom will to his parents,
                Jack will to his dear,
             Joe to wife and children,
                Bob to pipes and beer ;
             Dicky to the dancing-room,
                To hear the fiddles play ;--
             Round the world and home again,
                That's the sailor's way !

             Round the world and home again,
                That's the sailor's way !

    Traditional versions of "The Sailor's Way" appear in Doerflinger's "Shantymen and Shantyboys" (1951) and, most notably, in Stan Hugill's "Shanties and Sailor's Songs" (1969). There's an old Mudcat thread as well (search for "sailor's way"). It includes an even more modern rewrite from New Zealand.

    The origin of Hugill's tune remains unknown, but to me it sounds like a circa 1900 product: waltzy, with accidentals.

    There's a slim chance that Allingham, a prolific writer, adapted his poem from an older song. After all, an eighteenth-century version of the Jacobite song "Charlie is My Darling" includes the verse,

                It's up yon heathery mountain,
                And doon yon scroggy glen,
                We daurna gang a-milkin'
                For Charlie and his men!

      But expanding a folk verse about Prince Charlie into a poem about the menacing "little men" is not quite a theft. So, at least for now, William Allingham (1824-1889) deserves all credit for writing the original lyrics of the folksong, "The Sailor's Way."

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 17 May 99 - 12:33 AM

Susan: I heard about the sing in Alexandria from Brian (Wotcha). The Flowers of Bermuda is a pretty song. I didn't make it to that one, though, I try to get to the Maryland every month.

Barry: You probably have on tape the ame version that I know. The melody is very haunting. It certainly isn't a jumpy tune in 6/8 time aka Hugill. I don't read music so I have to transcribe it into my MUSICTIME program in order to hear it, or learn it from another person, when I am trying to learn a tune.

Jim

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: Barry Finn
Date: 16 May 99 - 11:05 PM

I have this somewhere on tape from a fella I recorded at Mystic maybe 15 or so years ago. It has the chorus as you have it not as in Hugill & the tune is not even close to any "Off To Sea Once More" that I've ever heard, it's almost a slow parlor room style tune. Barry

Subject: RE: Lyrics to Sailor's Way Shanty
From: Susan A-R
Date: 16 May 99 - 08:42 PM

Misfire, didn't mean to send anything. However, were you the person at the Alexandrea sing last month who did Flowers of Bermuda? If so, I'd be curious about the tune as well, as we seem to have similar tastes in terms of melody lines and harmonies.

Susan (Vermont person)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SAILOR'S WAY
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 15 May 99 - 01:15 AM

I have fallen in love with THE SAILOR'S WAY, a shanty sung on a tape I have called "Chants De Marins: Sea Shanties from Dublin to Auckland". The words are shown below. Hugill and Doerflinger both have versions of this song, but with completely different tunes than the tune used on the recording I have. (Frankly, neither of their tunes seems to fit the song as well but it may just be what I am used to.)

Does anyone know of any other sources for this shanty either in print or online? Both Hugill and Doerflinger state that the singers they learned it from stated that were additional verses.

Thanks
Jim in Silver Spring

THE SAILOR'S WAY
Traditional
(As sung on "Chants De Marins: Sea Shanties from Dublin to Auckland)"

I've traded with the Mauis, Brazilians, and Chinese.
I've courted dark-eyed beauties beneath the kauri trees.
I've traveled along with a laugh and song in a land where they call you mate,
Around the Horn and home again, for that is the sailor's fate.

CHORUS: I've crossed the Line and Gulf Stream, been round to Table Bay
Around the Horn and home again, for that is the sailor's way.

I've run aground in many a sound without a pilot aboard.
Longboat lowered by candlelight, pushed off and gently oared.
Rollicks creaking, a thumping swell, a wind that would make you ache.
Who would sail the seven seas and share in a sailor's fate? CHORUS

I've sailed out to the northward. I've sailed out to the east.
I've stripped the sail in many a gale, and stood in the calmest seas.
Eastward bound by dusky sand, and Pegasus through the straits.
Port Cooper, ocean, Tom Kain Bay, for that is the coaster's fate. CHORUS

Additional versus from Hugill (who provides a different tune in 6/8 time):

In calm or storm in rain or shine, the shellback doesn't mind.
When on the ocean swell, he'll work like hell, for the gal he's left behind.
He beats it north. He runs far south. He doesn't get much pay.
He's always on the losin' game for that is the sailor's way.

Oh, shinin' is the North Star, as it hangs on our starboard bow.
We're homeward bound for Liverpool town, and our hearts are in it now.
We've crossed the Line and the Gulf Stream, been round by Table Bay.
We've rounded Cape Horn. We're home again, and that's the sailor's way!

We'll get paid off in Liverpool, and blow our money free.
We'll eat an' drink an' have our fun, and forget the ruddy sea.
Oh, Johnny'll go to his sweet Marie, an' Pat with his 'cushla play,
But I'll get drunk an' turn in me bunk, for that is the sailor's way!

Doerflinger provides two more verses, also with a different tune:

I've sailed among the Yankees, the Spaniards and Chinees.
I've lain down with the yellow girls beneath the tall palm trees.
I've crossed the Line and Gulf Stream, and around by Table Bay,
And around Cape Horn and home again. Oh, that's the sailor's way!

Oh, Bobby'll go to his darling, and Johnny'll go to his dear,
And Mike will go to his wife and fam'ly, and Andrew for pipes and beer;
But I'll go to the dance hall to hear the music play,
For around Cape Horn and home again, oh, that is the sailor's way!