The Advent and Development of Chanties

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Lighter
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 12:19 PM

That 10:48 GUEST was me.

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: 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
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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 - 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 - 02:06 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 - 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 - 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 - 01:02 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: 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: 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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: 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.)