The Advent and Development of Chanties

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Azizi
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 11:17 AM

I'm popping in to thank Gibb and other posters on this thread for the interesting and insightful comments on the subject of sea shanties. I knew very little about sea shanties prior to reading this thread and other Mudcat threads. And I recognize that I have a lot more to learn from those threads and otherwise.

I'm also posting to let you know that-largely as a result of this thread-I have added a page on shanties to my Cocojams website http://www.cocojams.com/content/sea-shanties-chanteys-neglected-area-black-history "Sea Shanties (Chanteys)- A Neglected Area Of Black History". The examples & comments on that page are mostly reposts of selected comments from Mudcat threads on sea shanties. All reposts are credited to their writers and hyperlinked to their source threads/websites.

It's my hope that my page will help raise awareness about this musical genre among specific populations.

Again thank you, and keep on keepin on!

Azizi Powell

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Azizi
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 11:21 AM

Sorry. Here's that hyperlink:

http://www.cocojams.com/content/sea-shanties-chanteys-neglected-area-black-history

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 12:19 PM

That 10:48 GUEST was me.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 01:17 PM

Lighter-

Thanks for clarifying. It's nice to know who the players are.

Azizi-

And nice to have you posting to this thread as well.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 06:22 PM

Friends!—

Thanks sincerely for your support and taking the time to read and engage my paper. Happily, I agree with all the suggestions you've made. In general, it is only for want of time/space that I was not able to address everything (the version I actually read had even more cut from it at the last minute).

Since people may read this thread in the future who are not familiar with my positions beyond this paper and recent posts, I would like to clarify some things. One is that I am not suggesting that the chanty genre needs to be somehow "reinstated" as a "Black" genre. Moreover, I don't aim to minimize the contributions, real experiences, and very valid feelings (from certain perspectives) of ownership of the genre by English people, Anglo-Americans, or any others. While it is impossible to be 100% objective, what I am interested in is seeing the reality of chanty history. The paper is not to say that any one person or group of people has sought to deny or obscure the African-American contribution to chanties. I am saying that 1) I believe the African-American contributions to be foundational and essential; they are more than "contributions" – they are that which gave birth to the form; 2) Observers during the time chanties were still in active use recognized the genre as owing, to one degree or another, to African-American culture; 3) Commenters after the genre had "died" and who did not have access to either historical materials or first-hand viewing of chanties at the height of their use, were subject to all the biases of their position and limited to what they could see of chanties at that time; 4) This process continued, whereby each generation of writers, performers, and audiences has had its perspective limited, in many ways, by that which came before them and what chanties currently "look like" to them.

On the last point, for example, 20th century writers investigating chanties –certainly without our current ease of access to resources – would have sought out sources that seemed, from their perspective, most likely to yield information. So they would read mainly sea-going accounts, for example, and not, say, go combing through writing on so-called "slave songs." Similarly, 20th century performers had practically no models of Blacks chanteying to observe. Chanteying had become, so far as the label can be applied, a "White" genre. It is fairly unreasonable to expect people in that era to see it as much else. For that reason, though at various points – mainly in the last couple decades and with performers like the Menhaden Chanteymen – the idea of Blacks chanteying was introduced to the picture, these (I think) have been incorporated into the "White genre" frame. Because, again, let's face it, nearly 100% of chantey singers that are active can be construed as "White" in some way. The repertoire of the Menhaden chantymen, adopted by White singers, became (I argue) *marked off* as "Black chanties." Is this "progress" in reorienting the historical perspective on chanties? In my opinion, not really. That they have to be marked with the qualifier, "Black," only reinforces the idea that White is the default, and that these Black songs are to be given a marginal position – despite how truly beloved they are by performers. Sea-music scholar Revell Carr expressed the idea once (I am paraphrasing) that (White) American chanty performers in particular were open to the potential of these "African-American chanties" to articulate the AMERICAN aspect of chanties (i.e. as opposed to British), with which I agree. The existence of "African-American chanties" does something to help Americans in general stake a claim in chanty "ownership" and performance. So, there are certainly several processes of identification going on; the ethnic and the national get mixed, depending on how one hopes to envision the genre. The Irish ethnic identification, mentioned by Lighter, is another one (which I have observed but could not fit in the paper!). One more dimension that I absolutely had no time to address, but which is related to the idea of "Black chanties" is multiculturalism. It's my feeling that in the last few decades, the very British (or perhaps Irish) cultural associations with chanties – and those associations can only really be generalized with respect to the "lay" public; performers (and Mudcat-types) really don't tend to be hung up that way -- …the British cultural association, and to some degree the general "White" cultural associations were challenged by multiculturalism. Performers (especially Americans, I think) have been very open to the idea that "Chanties are the product of multiple sources/influences." To their credit, I'd say that most performers would like to accept any and all possible cultural contributions. In some contexts, the vibe is such that people really want to express these "many cultural contributions."

Here is where I think that approach goes wrong, and where chantey performers and presenters become trapped by their own good intentions. The multicultural idea tends to remove ownership from any one group (e.g. in effort to remove it from the English). Alternatively, it appears to give all people equal cultural ownership. In this way, African-American "contributions" are in danger of being valued just as much as hypothetical Hawai'ian or Italian contributions. The power of Black culture to occupy the historical position as the "default" – by which "Black chanties" becomes a redundant or awkward concept – is taken away. Blacks become one among many who have bore an influence whereas, in my opinion, historical perspective must recognize Black culture as the *core*. For example: In the same way I think the "blood red" roses/red-coats is a slight of hand that turns our gaze away from African-Americans and towards 18th century Englishmen, I would go so far to claim that "John Kanaka"'s narrative bring our gaze to Hawaii or "Brindisi di Mari" brings us to Sicilian fishermen. If the early twentieth century was marked by one particular frame-of-reference (perhaps, the quest for British heritage through her sea-going traditions), the late 20th century was marked by an equally skewing frame-of-reference: multiculturalism.

Most tragic and most "trapping" of all the processes of re/presentation has been the delicate issue of the need for White performers to present "Black" material in a way that is 1) "True to themselves" and 2) Non-offensive. As Lighter points out (and I hope I was clear about in the paper), "White" performers have no reasonable choice other than to perform as themselves (or do they?) – well, what I mean to say is that they cannot be faulted for being "themselves." Who else would they be? White men were the majority of chanty singers in the 20th century, and there was no plot to erase African-American associations through their performances. This is why I say that it was more of a process of representations and presentations "corroborating" one another, through very subtle acts – choices—in what to present. Ideas are fine, but when we come to the practical task of presentation we all must ultimately make some kind of choice. In my paper for example, I was indeed uncomfortable with the fact that I don't know if Hugill got his "Blood Red" version from Lloyd. As a scholar, I try to be responsible, through my language, for example, in a footnote to the paper (or question marks in the powerpoint presentation that went with it). Yet ultimately that small detail is something that, due to all the constraints, needed to be subsumed by my larger argument. (I am appreciative that Lighter allowed me the leeway in favor of seeing my larger argument.) Presentations/performances of chanties must also often gloss over details in favor of their larger "argument." And so, perceptions gradually change based on the sum total of all these little choices that each individual is forced to make.

As to part "2" of the "trap" of presentation, specifically in relation to White singers presenting 19th century "Black" (authentic or minstrel) type songs: Some of the more conscious choices have relate to the selective changing of language of the chanties to avoid offense. I have mentioned this before, but I think it is really significant. Because even with, for example, chanties being grouped with English folksong, etc etc, if more of the historical language had been retained by revivalists it would have been impossible to hide the connections with 19th century "Black" culture and American popular culture. If chanties were still a living tradition (some may say they are – depending on how you define that), their lyrics would have naturally changed with the times (i.e. since texts were not fixed and they were often improvised). But the Revival approach has largely been to select or re-write old texts, not to reflect contemporary life. And in this selection/rewriting, racially-marking language is almost always avoided/removed. If, for example, Lloyd had taken on Nathanial Silsbee's VERSES to "Blood Red Roses," even the addition (?) of the phrase "blood red" could not make us envision an old English song. It is near impossible (nor is it desirable!) for White singers to use currently-offensive racial language in their performances unless MAYBE their performance is really clearly framed as a historical recreation or something. I have done so in a few of my YouTube recordings, which takes courage, but also helped along by the hope that people understand the purpose of it. I would not do it "live." I know some people may think I'm a crank for harping on this, but I really do think that in not using this language –language used by African-Americans and in minstrel songs and, in their time, without derisive intent— performers have unwittingly contributed to erasing the Black cultural connotations of the repertoire.

The only change I see that could happen, along the lines of re-centering African-Americans in the historical vision of chantying, is if one or more Black REVIVAL performers comes around. In our current political climate, one needs to have a Black voice saying these things – a chanty equivalent to the Carolina Chocolate Drops. On the other hand, one doesn't NEED anything. Speaking personally, as a scholar, I am not responsible for engendering some movement to change the chanty singing scene and how it is perceived. I should only report the history, as well as the current state. And the current state is such that there is no justifiable reason to force a change in the demographics or perceptions of chanty singers. My goal can only be to broaden people's frame of reference. What they do with the information is their choice, and only adds to the constant dilemma (never to be solved!) of performers in how to present themselves and their material.

The reaction to my paper included several people saying that, indeed, they thought chanties to be "British," and that they had no idea about the history I presented. At least two used the word "appropriation" in asking about the ideas in the paper. I never used the word "appropriation," as indeed I don't think the English or "Whites" appropriated chanties. As best as I can reason from the evidence (and as I say in the paper), I think White sailors were "enculturated" into the practice of using chanties; they were adopted, but not appropriated. There was sharing going on, for an extended period. Certain English writers, for example, could be said to have appropriated chanties as a SYMBOL. But I don't think "appropriation" best fits the process by which chanties, through performance and earnest scholarship, began to become enshrined as a part of British/Irish/White ethnicity. Appropriation just sounds too active, sudden, and deliberate to me.

This is quite a ramble; I'll try to express these things more coherently/formally at some point, but for now…hurrah for the Mudcat "café"!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 08:08 PM

Gibb, you have my thanks, at least, for avoiding fashionable and tendentious terminology such as "appropriated." (I'm sure you can think other examples.)

"Appropriation" implies theft. In no way did white sailors steal black shanties (if "steal" is to retain any of its meaning), because black cotton-stowers and shantymen went right on singing them, often on the same ships. Except in extraordinary cases under modern totalitarian regimes, artistic and literary genres cannot be "stolen" or "appropriated." With enough force it's easier to suppress (like the inevitably temporary 18th C. English suppression of the highland pipes) than it is to "appropriate."

Unless the original creators and practitioners abandon their own creative styles, all an "outgroup" can do to a genre is to adopt, adapt, elaborate, and circulate it beyond its original points of reference.

Consider the history of jazz and the blues.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 08:43 PM

Gibb, it's interesting to me that you mention the Carolina Chocolate Drops in your discussion above. It just so happens that I forwarded your paper this morning to one of them for their consideration. J.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 08:39 PM

In 1922-23, Robert W. Gordon recorded a number of shanties and forebitters from retired sailors in the San Francisco Bay area. His understanding was that all the singers had formed their repertoires before 1880. That makes the list of titles all the more interesting: they must be fairly representative the American shanty and sea song repertoire in the last quarter of the 19th Century. Most of the canonical favorites are here (though two collected versions of the rarely reported "London Julie" come as a surprise).

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress transferred the wax cylinders to tape in the 1970s.

I've indicated the number of variant texts when there are more than one.

SHANTIES

Banks of the Sacramento (2)
The Black Ball Line
Blow, Boys, Blow
Blow the Man Down (3)
Boney (2)
Do My Johnny Boker
Drunken Sailor
Fire Down Below
Hanging Johnny (2)
Haul Away the Bowline (2)
Haul Away, Joe (3)
Haul the Woodpile Down
Homeward Bound ("Goodbye, Fare You Well") (2)
Jamboree
Leave Her, Johnny (3)
London Julie (2)
A Long Time Ago (3)
The Maid of Amsterdam (4)
Old Horse
Paddy Doyle
Paddy Get Back
Poor Paddy Works on the Railway
Randy, Me Boys ("Handy, Me Boys")
Reuben Ranzo (2)
Rio Grande (3)
Rolling Home
Roll the Cotton Down (2)
Roll the Old Chariot Along
Sally Brown (4)
Santy Anna (2)
Shallow Brown
Shenandoah
South Australia
Stormy
We're All Bound to Go ("Heave Away, My Johnnies") (3)
Whisky, Johnny (2)


FOREBITTERS

According to the Act
The Banks of Newfoundland
The Cumberland's Crew
The Dark-Eyed Sailor
The Dreadnought
The Dying Shellback ("The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime")
A Fast-Going Clipper ("Cruising Round Yarmouth")
The Flash Frigate
Go to Sea Once More
The Lowlands Low
The Sailor's Alphabet
Ten Thousand Miles Away
The Whale ("Greenland Whale Fishery")

Like Carpenter's and Colcord's, few of Gordon's shanties consist of more than three stanzas. Most of the verses are either familiar or pedestrian. None, I'd say, sound "literary."

My sincere thanks to Judith Gray of the American Folklife Center, who kindly supplied the complete list of titles.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 12:08 AM

This is excellent. Not only are the appearances of London Julie fascinating, but I am also intrigued by the enigma of "South Australia."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 03:26 AM

1917        Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chantey Man." _The Bellman_ 23(574) (14 July 1917): 38-44.

Several of Robinson's chanties reoccur in Colcord's collection, so they are especially familiar nowadays.

Robinson said he heard the chanties "over 60 years ago," = mid-1850s. (Though I have seen the date floating around that he went to sea circa 1859-60?) However, he makes a disclaimer:

//
As may well be imagined, I cannot exactly recall all the original verses. They varied much according to the taste of the chanty-man and his powers of improvisation. In a crude way, however, I have endeavored to carry the spirit and sense of the originals into the words which I have written down.
//

And,

//
Without the music, which is really the chief attraction of the chanty, the words would be valueless. Therefore, in accordance with The Bellman's suggestion, I have sung the tunes over to a competent musician, Madame Girardot, who has arranged them…
//

In these later years "doggerel" continues to be used to describe chanty solos. Early, perhaps, "extempore" (or "nothingness"!) was the emphasis.

//
The solos are mere disjointed doggerel, merely something to which to hang the chorus.
//

Robinson also notes:

//
In point of fact, many of the original words were quite unprintable, and never intended for delicate ears. For instance, in "Bangidero," "Galloping Randy Dandy" and "Slav Ho," the words of some verses were really shocking, and the choruses quite unfit to be written, yet they were three good chanties, too.
//

I wonder if there is a time period where chanty lyrics started to become "dirty" as a matter of course. Early commenters did not make such remarks. There are of course several possible reason why they may not have noted (or even heard) such lyrics, but I am going to suggest the possibility that the character changed at some point. I seem to remember Stan Hugill saying (I don't know his source for the info) that the South American nitrate trade circa 1880s-90s was associated with crews that loved to sing spicy songs. Now, this is just my cultural imagination (maybe prejudiced) running away from me, but I picture these 1880s Liverpool men as being wont to tap into certain "dirty" lyrical themes that would not have been as common to the output of the older, African-American workers that gave us "Stormy." Then again, Robinson is supposed to be referencing the 50s….but then again, no: he mainly emphasizes his later experiences in Chile here.

It is probably really Robinson from whom Hugill got his idea of the dirty song-singing nitrate traders, because he goes on to say,

//
I never heard these except upon the coasts of Chile. Bolivia and Peru. The west coast of South America was an excellent training school for the chanty-man. The anchorages were very deep, and when a ship was ready to sail for home, parts of the crews of the other vessels in port would assist in weighing her anchor. This meant that several chanty-men would be present, and there would be an interchange of chanties.
//

It is unclear to me what body or repertoire he is calling British here, though he follows it with A-ROVING:
//
Most of those I submit were called "lime-juice" chanties by the American sailors; that is, they were originally sung on British ships, where a daily allowance of lime juice was served to the crew as an anti-scorbutic. On American ships of this period the food was much better, a great quantity of preserved vegetables was served to the men, and lime juice was unnecessary.
//

Information on the trajectory of chanty use here – far more nuanced than the (by then) clichés about "Steam has killed chanties," "these are our lost art," etc.
//
The advent of steamships and the use of steam power almost eliminated the chanty-man, but not quite, although his fate was sealed and certain. Even when steam-driven ships became almost universal, he still survived on the large North Atlantic liners, because, as the old packet ships were put out of commission, the crews, or "packet rats," swarmed on board the liners.

These were originally heavily rigged. The Cunard boats were bark-rigged; the National Steamship Line vessels were very heavily bark-rigged; the Inman liners were full-rigged, as also those of the Collins Line. The White Star ships were full-rigged, with another mast added, while the Union Line vessels were brig-rigged.

At that time it was an unwritten law that steam power was not to be used in making or taking in sail, and as the wind on the North Atlantic is of a varying nature, it was necessary to set and furl the sails frequently during every twenty-four hours. Chanties were therefore sung, and the chanty-man continued to exist, for a time, but his end was near. Early in the nineties the heavy yards were being abolished, as the speed of the ships increased, and in a few years the square-rigged merchant ship was a thing of the past. When the yards came down, the crews were reduced. Thus the song of the chanty-man was ended….

The sailor's chanty belongs just as much to the period of the square-rigged ship as all the other time-honoured traditions of the sea which steam has put to flight. …The gradual replacement of the square-riggers by schooner-rigged ships, the sails of which are far easier to handle, has likewise contributed to the disappearance of the chanty.
//
His last point there argues that it was not just mechanical devices/engines that made them obsolete.

//
Maid of Amsterdam [w/score]

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
Mark well what I do say.
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
And she was mistress of her trade.
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
A-roving, a-roving,
Since roving's been my ruin.
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
//

NEW YORK GIRLS – the "honey"/"money" style (cf. Alden):
//
Oh My Santi [w/ score]

My name is Larry Doolan, a native of the soil.
If you want a day's diversion, I can drive you out in style.
Then away you Santi! My dear Honey!
Oh! you Santi! I love you for your money.
//

RANZO RAY:
//
Ranso Ray. [w/ score]

We've pass'd the cliffs of Dover,
In the good old ship the Rover.
Ranso, Ranso, Ray!
We've anchored in the downs,
For we're bound for London Town.
With my Hilo! My Ranso Ray!
//

DERBY RAM, he says, was
//
…an old English chanty which was not often sung, was a windlass song.

Derby Ram. [w/ score]

As I was going to Derby, 'twas on a market day—
I met the finest ram, sirs, that ever was fed upon hay!
That's a lie! That's a lie! That's a lie, a lie, a lie!

…I can recall a few of the many verses beside that which accompanies the notes. Thus:

"This ram and I got drunk, sir
        As drunk as drunk could be,
And when we sobered up, sir,
        We were far away out on the sea.

"This wonderful old ram. sir,
Was as playful as a kid, 

He swallow'd the captain's spyglass
Along with the bo'sun's fid.

One morning on the poop, sir, 

Before eight bells were rung,
He grabbed the captain's sextant 

And took a shot at the sun.

One night 'twas wet and rough, sir, 

And the wind was blowing keen,
He borrowed my suit of oilskins 

And he took my trick at the wheel.

The butcher who killed this ram, sir, 

Was up to his knees in blood,
And the boy who told the tale, sir, 

Was carried away with the flood.

"The crew of the Vencedora
Are handsome, strong, and brave.
The smartest lot of sailors
That ever sailed over the wave."

I made many voyages before the mast in the Vencedora, always around Cape Horn to the coast of Chile.
//

HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING
//
Huckleberry Picking [w/ score]

Oh the boys and the girls went a huckleberry picking,
To my way, aye, aye, Hey, yah.
Oh! the boys and the girls went a huckleberry picking;
To my Hilo, my Ranso Ray.
//

More about the nature of chanty lyrics, and these versions:

//
It should be remembered that the words of many, perhaps most, of the chanties varied according to the tastes of the individual chanty-man. Some of the most popular chanties acquired an almost endless number of verses. The choruses would stay relatively unchanged, because the men who sang them were, as a rule, by no means gifted with inventive genius. The verses, on the other hand, could be strung out just as long as the chantyman could remember or invent them. No one was very particular about rhyme or meter, and there was seldom any great continuity to the songs themselves.
In the "Derby Ram," for example, an ingenious chanty-man could make up endless adventures in which the ram played the leading part. The tune and the chorus would be found pretty much the same wherever they were sung, but every ship would be likely to have a number of verses which were peculiarly its own.

This makes any attempt to record the chanties very difficult. Two persons familiar with any given song arc likely to find that the verses for it that they know are very different. The chanty-men did not learn their songs from books, but passed them along from mouth to mouth, with such changes or additions as happened to occur to them. The verses I give are simplv such as I remember —with many, from motives of propriety, omitted.
//

DANCE THE BOATMAN:
//
Dance the Boatman Dance. [w/ score]

The boatman he can dance and sing,
and he's the one knows ev'rything.
Dance the boatman dance. Dance the boatman dance.
We'll dance all night, till the broad daylight,
and go home with the girls in the morning.
Hurrah! the boatman Ho!
Spends his money when he comes on shore!
//

MR. STORMALONG (flip-flopped version):
//
Old Stormy! [w/ score]

Old Stormy was a fine old man.
Hi, Hi, Hi, Mister Stormy along!
Old Stormy was a fine old man.
To my way—o storm along.

Old Stormy he is dead and gone,
And for his loss, we'll always mourn.

He slipped his cable off Cape Horn,
Our sails were split, and the mainmast gone.

We buried him in the raging main,
And none shall see his like again.

Oh, if I was old Stormy's son,
I'd give the sailors lots of rum.
//

HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES
//
We're All Bound Away. [w/ score]

As I walked out one morning 'twas by the canning dock.
Heave away my Johnny, heave away
I met a noble Irish girl, conversing with Tap Scott,
And away my Johnny boys, we're all bound away!
//

JOHNNY BOWKER. Note its various applications:
//
For a good bowsing-up chanty, either for the bunt of a topsail, bowsing down the main tack, or sweating up the topsail halyards, I think nothing could beat "Do, my Johnny Boker." There is but one pull in it…

Johnny Boker. [w/score]

Do, my Johnny Boker, roll me in the clover;
Do, my Johnny Boker do!
Do, my Johnny Boker, rock and roll us over;
Do, my Johnny Boker do!

Years ago my Sally was fresh as any daisy,
But now she's growing old, she's growing fat and lazy.

Last time that I met her she wasn't very civil,
So I stuck a plaster on her back and sent her to the devil.

Sheepskin, pitch and beeswax makes a bully plaster;
The more she tried to pull it off, it only stuck the faster.
//

Robinson attributed the additional lyrics above to "Boker," but seems as if he may have confused it with Haul Away Joe.

LOWLANDS AWAY:
//
Lowlands. [w/ score]

Last night I dreamt of my true love.
Lowlands, Lowlands, away my John.
She begged me ne'er again to rove.
my Lowlands away.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 09:16 AM

Gibb, what makes Gordon's "South Australia" enigmatic?

Also, Robinson's article appeared in such an obscure periodical that I wouldn't assume that Hugill had read it. Hugill says he got his own versions of the notorious "Gals o' Chile" and "Saltpeter Shanty" ("Bangidero") from a singer who told him independently that they were generally sung in the nitrate trade.

It's easy to believe that carrying "nitrates" would be conducive to bawdy shantying. Why? Normally there'd be no passengers on nitrate ships: they were cargo vessels, and in this case the cargo stank. Hauling tons of guano around the Horn might also lead to an outspoken attitude among sailors.

What's a "Hash gal" anyway?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 02:48 PM

Gibb, what makes Gordon's "South Australia" enigmatic?

Ha! Well, nothing! I am speaking subjectively about "South Australia", its origins, and the "meaning" of parts of its text. For example, the "Ruling King" phrase, whether it originally had much to do with South Australia, how the tune should "really" go (before being mangled by one or more sloppy writers), the heave/haul thing, etc. Its not necessarily any more mysterious than any other song, but I (again, subjectively) reserve a special place for it, so it interests me to hear it more than, say, Rio Grande (despite that having an equal number of unknown aspects).

Hugill cites Robinson several times, and a few of his versions seem like they may have owed a lot (lyrically) to Robinson, e.g. Dance The Boatman and Derby Ram. On the other hand, he cites Robinson in his bibliography with an error in spelling, so I guess it's possible that he got the info secondhand through Colcord (I have not done a 3-way comparison).

BTW (for John M.), I remember our discussion of some of Robinson's writing in the Sydney-Frisco thread, after Lighter had got a hard copy.

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=126347#2864166

Evidently, a couple weeks after that post, the Bellman was digitized! Hurroh för de Internet!

Songs of the Chanty-Man

I'm going to go through my usual, somewhat tedious and somewhat overkill exegesis-cum-data entry of the whole of it, gradually. Geo had been making some MIDIs from it, and I figured it would be a good time to jump to this one while the iron is hot.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 05:53 PM

Just to say it because someone might want to believe it: though "ruling king" makes better sense than "rolling," the original was conceivably "Heave way a-rollickin'."

That's "conceivably," which means only that there's a more than infinitesimal chance. How much more, I won't speculate. My feeling is that it's a long shot indeed. I'd think if it happened, it would have been altered to "ruling/rolling king" rather quickly.

If I can think of any other mondegreeny possibilities, I'll let you know.

IIRC, Colcord offers all of Robinson's "Derby Ram" stanzas. If Robinson cooked them up, he was at least as good at bowdlerizing as Hugill! I don't know of any other "DR" texts that compare in the slightest (except, of course, in general grotesquerie).

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 06:20 PM

Gibb, thanks for the "Chanty-Man" link to the "Bellman" and Robinson's collection. It certainly pays to keep checking Google Books! J.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 11:52 PM

1917        Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chanty-Man: II." _The Bellman_ 23(575) (21 July 1917): 66-72.

In this section Robinson states that he was a "half-century at sea." He retired circa 1909. The following additional details by Lighter have been lifted from elsewhere on the 'Cat:

Robinson, an Englishman, went to sea in 1859 at the age of 14. He was over 80 when his five-part article appeared in "The Bellman." Robinson writes that he learned a number of shanties on his first voyage, aboard the brigantine "Emily" to Catania in Sicily. His prime source was an old seaman named Will Halpin, "who had sailed the seas for sixty years, to all parts of the known globe." Halpin had sailed "on the Australian sailing ships during the gold rush, and again during the California rush....[H]e never missed an opportunity to sing his chanties."

Unfortunately Robinson doesn't say precisely which shanties he learned from Halpin.

In this section, Robinson takes a universalist approach in his speculations about chanty origins. He says that Henry V build ships in 1414 and there may have been chanties. He randomly notes The Soveriegn of the Seas, built in 1637, and wonders whether one of Shakespeare's song was sung aboard her. He is planting an idea that was not there in the comments of much earlier writers.

On tunes:
//
In some cases I recall two or more entirely different airs which were used for the same song, and I have given some of these variant versions of the music. More often, the music remained pretty much unchanged—so far as the particular chanty-man was able to sing it,—while the words underwent all sorts of variations.
//

SACRAMENTO:
//
Sacramento [w/ score]

A bully ship and a bully crew,
With a Hooda, and a Dooda!
A bully mate, and a captain, too,
With a Hooda Dooda Day!
Then Blow, my lads, Heigh Ho!
For California Ho!
There's plenty of gold, as I've been told,
On the banks of Sacramento.
//

SHENANDOAH:
//
Shenandoah! [w/score]

Shenandoah! I long to hear you—
Hurrah! you rolling river.
Oh, Shenandoah! I long to hear you—
And hurrah! we're bound away!
On the wide Missouri!

Shenandoah is an American chanty. Additional verses are:
"I love the murmuring of your waters,
I love the beauty of your daughters.

"Seven long years since I lost Dinah;
I've searched seven years. I cannot find her.

"'Twas down in Shenandoah's sweet valley 

Where first I met and courted Sally.

"To Shenandoah I am returning.

My heart for thee is ever burning.

"When wide Missouri's call is over, 

I will go back and stay forever."
//

BLACKBALL LINE. Funny that halliards are not mentioned for its use:
//
I served my time in the Blackball line.
To my way…Hurrah yah!
In the Blackball line I served my time;
Hurrah! for the Blackball line.

The "Blackball Line" was a great favorite among the sailors and very well known. It was used on the windlass or capstan. Here are some additional verses:
"I've crossed the line full many a time, 

And have seen the line both rise and shine.

"You will surely find a rich gold mine, 

Just take a trip in the Blackball Line.

"The ships are fast, they make good time. 

With clean long runs and entrance fine.

"I've sailed the seas full many a mile
In wintry cold and sultry clime.

"A few more pulls, and that will do.
A few more pulls to pull her through."
//

CHEERLY:
//
One of the earliest chanties in my memory is "Catting the Anchor,"…A few verses of this old and popular melody were sufficient to bring the anchor to the cathead….

Catting the Anchor. [w/ score]

Pull one and all.
Hoy, Hoy, Cheery men!
On this cat fall!
Hoy! Hoy! Cheery men!
Answer the call!
Hoy, Hoy! Cheery men!
[still chorus:] Hoy, Haulee, Hoy! Hoy! Cheery men!

Verses besides the one given with the music are:

"To the cathead
We'll raise the dead,
As we have said.

"Now once again,
With might and main
Pay out more chain.

"Ring stopper bring,
Pass through the ring,
Still haul and sing.

"'Vast there, avast!
Make the fall fast,
Make it well fast."
//
I recall the last verse from learning Hugill's "Cheer'ly," and remembering how it was hard to fit in meter. I guess he tacked it on to the end.

This is perhaps different from other versions in that the "hoy hoy" begins the chorus. Other notations indicate that the chorus starts on "cheerly."

The meter of the "Cheer'ly" verses reminds us how distinct it was from presumably later songs/chanties. It really was in its own class.

SALLY BROWN. "First Setting":
//
Sally Brown. [w/score]

Sally Brown's a bright-eyed beauty.
Way… roll and go.
Oh Sally is sweet and pretty.
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown.
//

"Second Setting." This corresponds to what RC Adams had mentioned as a stevedore chanty and what Hugill also collected, WALKALONG SALLY. The tune is memorable for its resemblance to "Shenandoah."
//
Sally Brown's a bright Mulatto,
Way, yah!
Oh Sally Brown's a bright Mulatto--
Oh walk along, you Sally Brown.
//

REUBEN RANZO:
//
It was a very good hoisting song. The words were repeated by the chanty-man in order to spin out the song long enough for its purpose:…

Reuben Ranso. [w/ score]

Oh! poor Reuben Ranso,
        Ranso, boys, Ranso!
Oh, poor Reuben Ranso;
        Ranso, boys, Ranso!
…
"Oh, poor Reuben Ranso,
Ranso was no sailor.
He shipped on board a whaler,
He could not do his duty.
They took him to the gangway,
And gave him five and forty.
//


DEAD HORSE:
//
…a good hoisting chanty; after the four verses were sung, the chanty-man would improvise until the work was finished:…

Poor Old Man. [w/ score]

As I was walking down the street,
And they say so and they hope so,
A poor old man I chanced to meet,
Oh poor old man.
…
"The old man heaved a mighty sigh
When I told him that his horse would die.

"If he dies it will be my loss,
But if he lives, he is still my hoss.

"If he dies, I shall have his skin,
But if he lives, I can ride him again."
//

RIO GRANDE
//
The anchor is up and we're sailing away,
Way you Rio
And the wind it is fair to sail out of the bay.
for we're bound for the Rio Grande!
        And away you Rio! Oh! you Rio!
        Then fare you well, my bonny young girl,
        for we're bound for the Rio Grande!
//

BOTTLE O
//
Sailors Like the Bottle o'! [w/ score]

When you get to Baltimore,
Give my love to Suzanna, my dear.
[solo still] So early in the morning.
Sailors like the bottle o'.
[cho.] Bottle o'! Bottle o'!
Bottle of very good Brandy o.
So early in the morning.
Sailors like the bottle o'!
//

//
Haul away, Joe! [w/ score]

Once I had a yellow girl,
She grew fat and lazy.
Way, Haul away.
Haul away Joe!
//

//
"Hanging Johnny." [w/score]

They call me Hanging Johnny
Oh! way aye
They say I hang for money
Oh! Hang, Boys hang!
//

//
Highland Laddie. [w/ score]

Where have you been all the day?
Bonny laddie! Highland laddie!
Where have you been all the day?
My bonny Highland laddie!
Oh! Oh! my heart is sair,
Bonny laddie, Highland laddie!
Oh! Oh! my heart is sair,
My bonny Highland laddie!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 05:32 AM

1917        Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chanty-Man: III." _The Bellman_ 23(576) (28 July 1917): 96-102.

//
Paddy On the Railway. [w/ score]

In eighteen hundred and fifty-one,
A cordaroy breeches Paddy put on.
A cordaroy breeches Paddy put on.
[cho.] To work upon the railway, the railway.
I'm weary of the railway.
Oh! poor Paddy works on the railway.
//

SHALLOW BROWN
//
"Shallo Brown" is a hoisting song. I remember hearing it sung by the black crew of an American full-rigged ship, the Garnet, of New York, at Macabei, a guano island in the South Pacific. It sounded very musical coming across the still waters, while, to its accompaniment, the captain's gig was pulled up to its place. …

Shallo Brown! [w/ score]

Shallo! I'm gwine to leave you
oh Shallo! Shallo Brown!
I'm gwine away to leave you!
Shallo, Shallow Brown!

Here are some additional verses:

"I'm leaving you in sorrow, 

We're going away tomorrow,

"Thro' wind and weather snarling, 

I'll think of thee, my darling.

"I'll love you without measure, 

You are my only treasure.

"When I return to greet thee, 

Oh, you'll come down and meet me.

"My heart is full of pain, love, 

I'll come to thee again, love."
//

ONE MORE DAY, corresponding to what Hugill learned as "Rock 'n' Row Me Over":
//
Oh, row me 'cross the river,
I heard a maiden say.
Oh, row me to my lover,
One more day!
Only one more day, my Johnny, One more day.
Oh, rock and row me over
One more day!

Additional verses to "One More Day" are these:

"I'm almost broken hearted,
He can no longer stay,

Once more we shall be parted,
One more day.

"I've seen the sea birds flying, 

Ashore from o'er the bay,
I felt they all were crying 

One more day.

"For sea birds get the warning,
Which one and all obey, 

The tempest loud is storming,—
One more day.

"Oh, do not fear, my beauty,
The call I must obey, 

But love gives place to duty,—
One more day.

"Oh, heave and sight the anchor, 

We sail out from the bay.
Oh, heave and sight the anchor— 

One more day.

"O'er many seas I'll roam, love,
Ere I return to stay, 

To stay with thee at home, love,—
One more day."
//

JOHN CHEROKEE 's first mention. I'm not clear why he has singled out this particular song as an example of a popular melody.
//
"John Cherokee" is a negro chanty. I heard it during the Civil War at Nassau, while the crew was loading cotton on the ship Hilja, and the words here given are essentially the same. The song is of particular interest, as it indicates the relation of the sailors' chanty to other kinds of popular melody. Probably it started without any nautical quality, and was adapted for such use by reason of its vigor and swing:…

John Cherokee was an Indian man,
Alabama. John Cherokee!
He runs away every time he can.
Alabama, John Cherokee!
Way aye ya!
Alabama John Cherokee!
Way aye ya!
Alabama John Cherokee!
…
"They put him aboard a Yankee ship, 

Again he gave the boss the slip.

"They catch him again, and chain him tight,

And starve him many days and nights.

"He have nothing to drink, and nothing to eat, 

So he just gone dead at the boss's feet.

"So they bury him by the old gate post, 

And the day he died, you can see his ghost."
//

GALS OF CHILE. This one is in 3/4, while Hugill fit it in 2/2.
//
Bangidero. [w/ score]

To Chili's coast, we are bound away,
    To my Hero Bangidero.
To Chili's coast we are bound away,
    To drink and dance fandango
To Chili's coast we are bound away,
Where the Spanish girls are so bright and gay!
    To my Hero Bangidero!
Singing Hey for a gay Hash girl!
Other verses than those accompanying the music of "Bangidero" are these, an expurgated version of the original:

"The girls of Chile are hard to beat,
From top to toe, they are trim and neat,
From their black mantillas to their natty feet.

"My Julia's beauty is rich and rare,
And with the smartest she can compare,
With her well-set figure, and her jet-black hair.

"The old señoras, as may be seen,
Are frigate-molded, from truck to keel,
With their quarter galleries, and breadth of beam.

"And when the time comes to say farewell,
From old Coquimbo to Coronel,
We'll send our addios, and we'll wish 'em well."

… "Bangidero" shows in almost every line its South American origin.
//
Hmm. "Berreadero" is "whorehouse" in Mexican Spanish (!). "Bang 'er here, oh, bang 'er there, oh"? (I'm kidding.) The game is on for de-expurgating this! Gay Hash girls, indeed. Would Robinson have avoided "Dago" (as Hugill uses)?

RANDY DANDY
//
Galloping Randy Dandy o! [w/ score]

Now we're warping her into the docks,
Way aye roll and go!
Where the pretty young girls come down in flocks.
My galloping Randy Dandy o!
[solo] Heave and pull and heave away,
[cho] Way aye roll and go!
[solo] The anchor's aboard, and the cables are stowed,
My galloping Randy Dandy o!
//

TOMMY'S GONE
//
My Tom's Gone to Hilo! [w/ score]

My Tom he's gone, what shall I do?
Hilo Hilo
My Tom he's gone, and I'll go, too;
My Tom's gone to Hilo!

…
"She wept because her Tom had gone,
But soon she'll find another one.

"Poor Tom's half pay will go like chaff
She'd like to get the other half.

"She'll drink and booze away his pay,
And hunger for the next pay day.

"When Tom gets back, he'll find her gone,
With all his 'longshore togs in pawn.

"But Tom will get another flame,
And she will serve him just the same."
//

//
Blow the Man Down. [w/ score]

Blow the man down, blow the man down.
Way blow the man down.
Shake her up and away we'll go,
Give me some time to blow the man down!
//

WHISKEY JOHNNY:
//
Whisky for My Johnny. [w/ score]

Oh! whiskey is the life of man!
Whisky! Johnny!
I'll drink of whisky when I can.
Oh whisky for my Johnny!
//

BOWLINE
//
Haul the bowline, the ship she is a rolling.
Haul the bowline, the bowline Haul!
//

CAN'T YOU HILO. Here's a new one.
//
Young Girls, Can't You Hilo? [w / score]

Young girls, young girls, young girls, Ho!
Young girls, can't you Hilo?
Young girls, young girls, young girls, Ho!
Young girls, can't you Hilo?
//

SANTIANA
//

He lost it once, but gained it twice,
Upon the plains of Mexico!
Santa Anna gained the day,
Hurrah, Santa Anna!
//
How does he manage to get the form mixed up here?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Feb 11 - 11:50 PM

1917        Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chanty-Man: IV." The Bellman 23(577) (4 Aug. 1917): 123-128.

An interesting anecdote of trained female singers partaking in singing chanties in the 1870s.
//
Somewhere in the seventies, I think it was, Miss Lydia Thompson and her "Company of British Blondes" crossed the Atlantic to play "The Black Crook" at Niblo's, New York, in the ship Denmark, of the National Steamship Company.
When sail was set, with a good rousing chanty coming from the throats of the men, it gave the company a most delightful surprise. Its members cottoned to the idea from the first, and, without invitation, a number of them tailed onto the fore- and main-topsail halyards. They soon caught the tune of the chanties, and understood the moment when it was time to pull.

Never was "Blow the Man Down," "Whisky for My Johnny" or "Boney Was a Warrior" sung half so well. The sweet soprano and contralto voices of the girls, trained as they were in singing, blended well with the sailors' rough but not unmusical tones, and the effect was most pleasing and greatly enjoyed by all the passengers.
The heavy square sails were often taken in and furled, loosened and set again; therefore there was ample opportunity for exercise of the muscles and the voice, seldom neglected by Miss Thompson's gay party. They had great fun and much laughter over it, and no one enjoyed the unique performance more than the old shellbacks, the chanty-man and his chorus.

Some of the more venturesome of the girls wanted to go aloft and help throw up the heavy bunt of the foresail, to the tune of "Paddy Doyle" or "Johnny Boker," but the chief officer, a very pleasant and good-tempered man, restrained them, saying: "Not aloft, yet, ladies, until your wings are grown." I think he used to have the topsails lowered a foot or two in order to give the girls a chance to sing a short bowsing-up chanty.
//

Below is positive testimony that chantying was well established in Britisg vessels by the late 1860s or 70s – not that we didn't necessarily know that, but I do seem to recall a dearth of references to chantying in British ships in the 60s:
//
The print of the True Briton shown herewith shows a typical English full-rigged ship of forty or fifty years ago. On such vessels as these the chanty was an established institution.
//

The very strangely bowdlerized SLAV HO:
//
To the Spanish Main – Slav Ho! [w/ score]

To the Spanish Main we are bound away--
Slave Ho!
To the Spanish Main we are bound away,
Slave Ho!
We're sailing away in the early day,
Where the swift bonitos and dolphins play.
Slav Ho! Slavita, vralmentigo sleega.
Slav Ho!
//

LEAVE HER JOHNNY, lacking any grand chorus:
//
"'Tis Time for Us to Leave Her" is a chanty that tells its own story. Often have I heard it as a Quebec drogher rolled into the roadstead, almost waterlogged.

'Tis Time for Us to Leave Her! [w/ score]

Two pound ten is a sailor's pay,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
To pump at night, and work all day,
'Tis time for us to leave her!
…
"Two pounds ten is a sailor's pay, 

To pump at night and work all day.
"The Bosun shouts, the pumps stand by, 

But we can never suck her dry."
//

PADDY DOYLE:
//
Paddy Doyle. [w/ score]

To my way… Hey yah,
We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!
//
Also note that earlier he ascribed Johnny Boker to bunting, too.

BONEY, with a notably distinct first musical phrase:
//
A favorite chanty in all British ships…

Boney was a Warrior. [w/ score]

Boney was a warrior
Way aye yah.
A brave and fearless warrior,
Jean Francois
…
"He went to fight the Russian,
The Portuguese and Prussians.

"Moscow was a-blazing,
And Boney was a-raging."
//

GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL
//
We're Homeward Bound. [w/ score]

Oh Homeward Bound is a joyful cry,
Goodby, fare you well, Goodby fare you well.
We wish you all well, in this hearty goodby.
Hurrah my boys, we're Homeward Bound.
//

OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND, in a an abbreviated form:
//
We're Homeward Bound. [w/ score]

The madam in her best silk gown,
Says "Get up Jack, let John sit down."
[cho.] For he is homeward bound
Hurrah we're homeward bound!
//

HOGEYE:
//
The Ox-eyed Man. [w/ score]

The ox-eyed man is the man for me,
For he is blind and he cannot see,
With his ox-eye,
[cho.] I knew an old nigger with an ox-eye!
Row the boat ashore, with the ox-eye,
All she wants is the ox-eyed man!
…
"The girl on the shore, whose name is Sall,
Is waiting there, for the ox-eyed man.

"Sall is in the garden, picking peas,
Here long brown ringlets hang to her knees.

"Sall is on the beach, a-sifting sand,
And is thinking much of the ox-eyed man.

"Go home, Sall, he will come no more,
For he got drowned, as he rowed ashore."
//

SPANISH LADIES – No, not a chanty:
//
"Farewell and Adieu" is a forecastle song, and it was there that I picked it up….

Farewell and Adieu. [w/ score]

Farewell and adieu, to all you Spanish ladies,
Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain,
For we're received orders to sail for old England,
But we hope in a short time to see you again.
We're Ramp and we'll rove, like true British seamen.
We'll romp and we'll rove upon the salt seas.
Until we arrive in the channel of old England,
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-five leagues.

The following verses are additional to those given with the notes:
"We hove our ship to, in a gale from the Sou'west,
We hove our ship to, to get sounding clear,
We had forty-five fathoms, on a white sandy bottom,
Oh square in your main yard, up channel we steer.

"The first land we made was called the Deadman; 

Start Point, off Plymouth, brought Selsey and the Wight; 

We sailed past Beachy, past Fairley and Dungeness,

And then we arrived off the South Foreland Lights.

"The signal was given for our good ship to anchor, 

All in the Downs to anchor the fleet.
Stand by your ring-stoppers, slack away your shank painters,
Man your clue garnets, let fly tacks and sheets.

"Let every man here fill up a full bumper, 

Let every man here drink up a full bowl. 

We'll drink and be jolly and drown melancholy, 

And here's a good health to each true-hearted soul."
//

Robinson mentions Meloney's 1915 article in _Everybody's Magazine_ which has not been discussed yet here. I seem to remember a lot of it looked derivative of Masefield. In any case, this is what he says:

//
Some years ago an interesting article on this subject by Mr. William Brown Meloney appeared in an American magazine. Although I do not quite agree with all Mr. Meloney's versions of the chanties he mentioned, it is probably due to the fact that we heard them at different times and under different conditions.
//

He goes on to quote large chunk of Meloney's article.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 09:24 AM

>How does he manage to get the form mixed up here?

Two or three other writers agree that this "inverted" form was genuine.

Though musically it does seem unlikely.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Feb 11 - 12:29 PM

Gibb-

I'm also intrigued with the image of Miss Lydia Thompson and her "Company of British Blondes" hauling on the halyard while singing shanties with the crew. What a splendid folk opera that would make! And what I wouldn't give to see them up on the main foreyard bunting away! It's enough to make me want to "pay Paddy Doyle for his boots."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 05:44 AM

1915        Meloney, William Brown. "The Chanty-Man Sings." _Everybody's Magazine_ 33(2) (August 1915): 207-217.

Meloney was a SF born journalist who seems to have gone to sea circa 1890. He is given this great pedigree at the start of the article, however, I wonder how well he really knew chanties. Much of this is derivative or contrived, I feel. Not sure what to make of it.

Intro note:
//
Mr. Meloney began hearing and singing chanties at twelve, when he ran away to sea. He has heard and sung them on all the Five Oceans. And he has gathered them all. Here are the best.
//

A snatch from BLOW BOYS BLOW
//
Oh, blow, ye winds, I long to hear you,
        Blow, bullies, blow!
Oh, blow to-day and blow to-morrow,
        Blow, my bully boys, blow!

Oh, blow to-day and blow to-morrow,
        Blow, bullies, blow!
Oh, blow away all care and sorrow,
        Blow, my bully boys, blow!

Thus I hear the Chanty Man sing to winds in days full of the mystery of tall, white-pinioned ships and the call of faraway waters. [ETC *nostalgia* ETC ] …when the Chanty Man and his chanty are passing.
//

More romanticizing…
//
A chanty is—no, was—a merchant seaman's work song, and the Chanty Man was its leader—the acknowledged foresinger, forehand of the working crew. Black and blue from the thuggery of "Shanghai" Brown's boarding-house—
…and a chanty was then—and still is, on the few square-rigged wanderers left on the seas —as good as ten men on a rope's end, capstan-bar, or windlass-brake.
//

Claiming there was a "one true" navy chanty, but not giving the title:
//
The chanty was peculiarly an institution of the merchant marine. In the navies the crews of the ships in the days of sail were —as they are to-day—so large that a work song was seldom necessary, and therefore seldom heard. I know of only one true navy chanty or chorus.
//

He treats "chanty" as if it were every English-language maritime worksong ever sung, so, being that they are in English language, "of course" they must be British! I will need to track down the first writer to start the "Complaynt" narrative.
//
In the beginning, of course, the chanty was wholly British. In the fifteenth century Englishmen were heaving in an anchor with this:
Vayra veyra, vayra veyra,
Gentil gallantis veynde:
I see hym, veynde, I see hym.
Pourbossa, Pourbossa.
Hail all and ane, hail all and ane;
Hail hym up til us, hail hym up til us.
(Haul one and all, haul him [the anchor] up to us.)*
*From a work entitled "The Complaynt of Scotland." 1450.
//

The following shows the influence of Masefield's seemingly harmless conjectures.
//
With the birth of the nineteenth century and the quickening of the United States as a national seafarer, the chanty came into our ships. We molded it to our needs, our idioms; nationalized it. But through all the years its construction remained unchanged.
The old airs, too, survived. Somewhere on the salt seas to-day one of the last chanty men is lifting his voice in "Whisky! Johnny!" or "The Maid of Amsterdam," ignorant that the sailors of Queen Bess's reign sang the same words and same tunes. "Whisky! Johnny!" may be found among songs of the sixteenth century in the Percy Reliques. It was probably a street ballad. "The Maid of Amsterdam" is a solo from Thomas Heywood's "The Rape of Lucrece," which went on the boards about 1630.
One can imagine the horny-fingered pigtails of those times catching at a verse in the theatre or at a fair or drinking-place to take it down to the sea, perhaps with its own tune or with one heard as children at grandmothers' knees. Through the centuries, unwritten, like Homer's lines, these words and tunes were tongued along by succeeding generations of seamen.

It must not be understood that the British and American merchantmen were the only singers on the seas. They were the only chanty singers. I have heard the French sailor, the Italian, the Norwegian, the German, sing at work, but they sang songs, not chanties.
//

The melody to this RIO GRANDE is unusual, and seems off.
//
The Rio Grande [w/ score]
The ship she's a-sailing out over the bar.
Away Rio! Away Rio!
The ship she's a –sailing out over the bar.
We are bound to the Rio Grande!
//

Claiming here that pump chanties were practically extinct during his time, and much of the rest of this passage, echoes/paraphrases Masefield.
//
Strictly speaking, there were four kinds of chanties: capstan, windlass, or anchor, to get under way, sung to a march time that varied with the difficulty of the task; halyards, to hoist topsail and topgallantyards—the time fitted to a rhythmic hauling motion; sheet, tack, or bowline, to set or adjust sail to the most advantage—the time lively, quick, jerky; and those used at the pumps. This last kind was practically extinct in my time at sea. The old-style brake-pumps had been succeeded by the rotary patents, and the turning motion somehow would not lend itself to a tune. I never heard but one pumps chanty.
//

//
…in weighing anchor the character of the task permitted a longer chorus; as thus, in "Outward Bound"—a favorite in the days when sailing packets were the Western Ocean shuttles between the New and Old Worlds.

We're outward bound from New York Town;
Heave, bullies, heave and pawl!
Oh, bring that cable up and down.
Hurrah, we're outward bound!
Hurrah, we're outward bound!

To the Battery Park we'll bid adieu,
Heave, bullies, heave and pawl!
To Suke and Moll and Sally, too,
Hurrah, we're outward bound!
Hurrah, we're outward bound!
//
It seems like he made that up (?) from the written verses, as in CHAMBERS'S, but the form doesn't make sense.

He quotes A-ROVING in the form that Masefield probably made up.

A capstan shanty, "The Fishes". The verse/chorus structure also seems rather odd here.
//
Oh, a ship she was rigged and ready for sea,
Windy weather! Stormy weather!
And all of her sailors were fishes to be,
Blow, ye winds, westerly, gentle sou'westerly,
Blow, ye winds, westerly—steady she goes!

Oh, first came the herring, the king o' the sea,
He jumped on the poop: "I'll be capt'n!" cried he,

Oh, next came a flatfish, they call him a skate,
"If you be the capt'n, why sure I'm the mate."
//

Anchor-weighing "The Banks of the Sacramento":
//
Round Cape Horn in the month o' May,
To me hoodah! To me hoodah!

Round Cape Horn in the month o' May, 

To me hoodah, hoodah, hay! 
   
So blow, boys, blow, 
   
For Cali-forn-ee-O! 
      
There's plenty of gold, 
      
So I've been told, 
   
On the banks of the Sacramento!

I'll bet my money on a bob-tailed nag,
To me hoodah! To me hoodah! 

I'll bet my money on a bob-tailed nag,
To me hoodah, hoodah, hay! . . .
//

GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL is, I'm not sure why, being connected specifically with the tea trade.
//
"Homeward Bound" is another capstan favorite, which may be identified with the great clipper tea-trade days. These were the days when romance sailed with commerce and men dared to call their ships "Wild Pigeon," "Flving Fish," "Flying Cloud," "Flying Dragon," Flvaway," "Fleet-wing," "Trade Wind." "Gale," "Hurricane," "Typhoon," "Whirlwind," "Tornado," "Simoon," "Sirocco," "Monsoon," "Lightning," "Herald o' the Morning," "Wind o' the Dawn," "Undaunted," "Intrepid," "Dreadnought," or else after fair women; days, too, when a premium of one pound was paid on every ton of the tea season's first cargo landed in London; ay, days when it was cheaper for England's poor to drink gin, for the tax on tea was six shillings the pound!

We're homeward bound across yon sea,
Good-by, fare ye well! 

We're homeward bound with Chi-nee tea,
Oh, good-by, fare ye well!
Hurrah, my boys, sing fare ye well!
//

ROLL THE COTTON DOWN:
//
The cotton trade between the Gulf Ports and the looms of Lancashire expressed itself best in "Mobile Bay." It was bully at topsail halyards. Hark!

Oh, have you ever been in Mobile Bay?
Roll the cotton down! 

A-rolling cotton for a dollar a day?
Oh, roll the cotton down!
Oh, a pleasant place is Mobile Bay,
Roll the cotton down; 

Where a white man gets a nigger's pay,
Oh, roll the cotton down!
And a nigger gets a white man's pay, 

Roll the cotton down, etc.
//
Seems inspired by Masefield.

SEBASTOPOL is obviously from Masefield:
//
Britain's merchantmen celebrated the Crimean War at their capstans with this one, called "Sebastopol":

The Crimee War is over now,
Sebastopol is taken! 

The Crimee War is over now,
Sebastopol is taken!
So sing, cheer, boys, cheer,
Sebastopol is taken!
And sing, cheer, boys, cheer,
Old England gained the day!
//

BONEY:
//
They set Waterloo to this halyards chanty known as "Boney":

'Twas on the Plains o' Waterloo,
To me way, hay, hay-ho! 

He met the boy who put him through,
Jawn France-o!

The Iron Duke o' Wellington,
To me way, hay, hay-hoi 

That day almighty deeds were done.
Jawn France-o!
//

A repetition of the solo lines will be observed in many of the verses. This custom was to enable the Chanty Man to cast the rhyming line of the succeeding verse. He improvised as he sang, except in the classics such as "The Maid of Amsterdam" and "Lowlands."
Often his poetic feet stumbled and his rhymes flattened out like flounders' tails, but he sang bravely and not without purpose. As a long passage wore on he would become a very personal interpreter of the crew's opinions of ship, owners, master, mates, cook, and grub—the lyrical barrister of the forecastle's real or imaginary wrongs. Thus a crew worked off its "grinds" on those who ruled from abaft the mast.
This is a topgallant halyard "grind":

And who d'ye think's the skipper o' her?
Blow, boys, blow! 

Why, Holy Joe, the nigger lover,
Blow, my bully boys, blow!
Now, who d'ye think's the chief mate o' her?
Blow, boys, blow!

A big mu-latter, come from Antigua!
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

It is not to be wondered that things like this were productive of ructions and of "belaying-pin soup"—that is, a beating—on forecastle bills of fare.
//

Says he learned BLOW BOYS BLOW from a Norwegian, "Long Ned."
//
The cleverest and most irrepressible improviser I ever knew was the fellow who first charmed my ears with "The Maid of Amsterdam." He was a Norwegian who had sailed away his native accent in American and British ships. We called him "Long Ned." As he first presented himself to my sight he had just come from such
a manhandling as twenty years ago made "Shanghai" Brown's boarding-house and San Francisco's waterfront notorious throughout the world.
As we went through the Golden Gate in the haze of an October afternoon he took the forehand on the foretopsail halyards and, to the air of "Blow, Boys, Blow," paid his compliments to "Shanghai" in this wise:

Oh, Shanghai Brown he loves us sailors.
Blow, boys, blow! 

Oh, yes, he does like hell and blazes,
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

That verse is sufficient to indicate the rest, although as Long Ned went on his meter and rhyming improved. The hoisting of each topsail and topgallantsail marked a canto.
Good as was Long Ned at improvisations, he also knew the chanty classics. One murky morning off the pitch of the Horn he sang "Lowlands," an ancient chanty, as a weather-beaten, storm-racked handful of frozen men hoisted a main uppertopsail. The scene haunts me. The sea was a gray, snarling, snapping monster. Half a gale was howling through the ice-whiskered rigging. The sky was a bleak slab of slate— low and billowing like a circus-tent top. Every now and then under our lee, less than two miles away, "Cape Stiff" reared itself like a huge black gravestone. We were fighting to escape. And thus Long Ned was singing in a wonderful, rich baritone:

I dreamt I saw my own true love, 

Lowlands, Lowlands, hurrah, my John;
I dreamt I saw my own true love, 

My Lowlands a-ray!
"I am drown-ed in the Lowland Seas," he said, 

Lowlands, Lowlands, hurrah, my John;
"I am drown-ed in the Lowland Seas," he said,
My Lowlands a-ray!

…[ETC…]
//
Wha?? Was Long Ned A.K.A. "John Masefield"? Meloney continues with Masefield's "Hanging Johnny", however he retells the anecdote of Masefield hearing it as if "Long Ned" were in the story.


What kind of crapola is this?:
//
Sally Brown [w/ score]

Oh, Sally Brown of New York City
Aye, aye, roll and go!
Of pretty Sal this is a ditty.
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown.
//

1/2 of WHISKEY JOHNNY:
//
Whisky! Johnny! [w/ score]

Oh whisky is the life of man,
Oh whisky for Johnny.
//

LONG TIME AGO
//
I wish to God I'd never been born,
To me way, hay, hay-yah!
To go rambling round and round Cape Horn,
A long lime ago.

Around Cape Horn where wild winds blow,
To me way, hay, hay-yahl
Around Cape Horn through sleet and snow,
A long time agol
//

BLOW THE MAN DOWN
//
Never was the deep-water sailor more interesting than when, with his heart full of wrongs done him ashore by the boardinghouse masters, crimps, runners, and shoddy dealers, he cast his chanties in a narrative mood. Woe unfits most folk for work or, at least, makes it all the harder. But the Chanty Man made a lay of his personal disasters and with it lightened his labor. Hear him in this version of "Blow the Man Down":

As I was a-walking down Ratcliffe Highway,
Away-hay—blow the man down;
A neat little craft I met under way,
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
She was round in the counter and bluff in the bow,
Away-hay—blow the man down;
So I took in all sail and cried, "Way enough now!"
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!

The inevitable result of that remarkable meeting was that "Jack" was shanghaied. The "neat little craft" had sold him out to a crimp for the ruling port price in "blood money." And when "Jack" came to his senses again he was on deep water, "undergoing cruel hard treatment of every degree" in "a ship that for Sydney was bound," and enjoining all listeners:

Now I'll give you a warning afore we belay,
Away-hay—blow the man down;
Don't never take heed of what pretty girls say,
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
//

SALLY BROWN is for halyards here:
//
But the sirens of the port astern would be hardly a week in the past when the Chanty Man would be singing topsails to the masthead with "Sally Brown":

Oh, Sally Brown of New York City,
Aye, aye, roll and go; 

Of pretty Sal this is a ditty,
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown!
Oh, Sally Brown is very pretty,
Aye, aye, roll and go; 

Prettiest gal in all the city,
I'll spend my money on Sally Brown!
//

More "Blow the Man Down":
//
The setting of most of the "Blow the Man Down" chanties, both American and British, was Liverpool. Lancashire's big port was the eastern terminus of the Western Ocean packet liners of the thirties, forties, and fifties—the heyday of sailing-ships as passenger carriers. "Blow the Man Down" was sung in these craft more often than anything else. The men who manned them were not called sailors, but packetrats. The ships were "tough" ones; the trade hard and driving.
Aye, first it's a fist and then it's a fall. . . . 

When you are a sailor aboard a Black Ball.
So ran one chanty most truthfully of that trade.
The Black Ball reference was to a particular and famous line of packet ships. The meaning of the word "blow," as employed at that time, was to strike; to knock.
But to come to a Chanty Man of Black Ball vintage who went a-walking—something always happened to deep-water sailors who went a-walking:

As I was a-walking down Paradise Street;
Way, hay—blow the man down:
A saucy young policeman I happened to meet.
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
Says he, "You're a Black Ball by the cut o' 
your hair," 

Way, hay—blow the man down; 

"You're a packet-ship rat by all's foul and all's fair,"
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
"Oh, policeman, policeman, you do me much wrong,"
Way, hay—blow the man down;
"I'm a Flying-Fish sailor just home from Hongkong,"
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
"No; you've sailed in a packet that flies the 
Black Ball," 

Way, hay—blow the man down; 

"You've robbed some poor Dutchman of boots, 
clo's and all," 

Oh, give us some time to blow the man down!
Oh, they gave me three months in Walton's black jail,
Way, hay—blow the man down; 

For blowing and kicking that Bobby to kale,
Oh, give us some time to blow tlte man down!

That Chanty Man's description of himself as "a Flying-Fish sailor just home from Hongkong" was an assumption of class. The Flying Fish was a famous, flash tea-clipper. She was a ship to boast—a deep-water aristocrat. A "Dutchman" was the appraisal, in all American and British merchantmen of that time and later, of a slow-witted person, a fool, a bungler at his work. It was used regardless of nationality.
//

Whiskey Johnny:
//
Of all the halyards chanties I should say that "Whisky! Johnny!" was the prime favorite of sailor-men. Strangely, it carried a sort of moral, and the kind of men who used to "go deep water" liked to moralize—at sea. I have seen it put life in a gang of bullies who, a moment previously, had been in a state of semicoma as the result of a farewell 'longshore bout with John Barleycorn; put them on their toes and drive a good ship winging seaward. This version is the purest:

Oh, whisky is the life of man,
Whisky! Johnny!

It always was since time began,
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!
Oh, whisky makes me wear old clo's,
Whisky! Johnny!

'Twas whisky gave me a broken nose,
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!
I think I heard our Old Man say,
Whisky! Johnny! 

"I'll treat my men in a decent way,"
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!
"I'll treat my men in a decent way,"
Whisky! Johnny! 

"I'll grog them all three times a day,"
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!
"A glass o' grog for every man,"
Whisky! Johnny!

"And a bottle full for the Chanty Man,"
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!
//

BOWLINE gets mixed up with HAUL AWAY JOE here.
//
This used to be a spirited version of a chanty of fifteenth or sixteenth century origin—"Haul Away the Bowline":

Haul on the bowline, the main and foretop bowline,
Away, haul away, haul away, Joe!
Haul on the bowline, the packet-ship's a-rollin',
Away, haul away, haul away, Joe!
Haul all together, we're sure to make her render,
Away, haul away, haul away, Joe!
Haul, my bully boys, we'll either break or bend her,
Away, haul away, haul away, Joe!

The bowline, pronounced "bo'lin'," was a line which square-rigged vessels used, when on the wind, to draw the weather leeches or edges of their courses, topsails, and topgallantsails forward or toward the bow.
//

PADDY DOYLE:
//
"Paddy Doyle's Boots" was sung, or rather cried, in furling the heavy, boardlike fore and main courses and lower topsails:

We'll drink 

Aye,
Brandy and gin, 

Aye,
And pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!

The effect produced by twelve or fifteen men crying that through the wrack of a storm, as they lay hooked along a great tossing yard, struggling for their lives to master and smother a bellowing, gale-thrashed sail, was weird indeed.
//

Meloney paraphrases DRUNKEN SAILOR as in Masefield, and says it belongs to the navy man-o'-war. It was used for hoisting boats or heaving heavy weights aboard. He then says that in the merchant service it was called a "main brace 'walk-away'".

Lastly, he quotes GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL for the capstan. The formatting is like Masefield, but words are different.
//
We're homeward bound, oh, joyful sound!
Good-by, fare ye well,
Good-by, fare ye well!
Come, rally the capstan and run quick around,
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound!

Our anchor we'll weigh and our sails we will set,
The friends we are leaving, we'll leave with regret,

Oh, heave with a will and heave long and strong,
Oh, sing a good chorus for 'tis a good song,

We're homeward bound, you've heard them say,
Then hook on the catfall and run her away,

We're homeward bound, may the winds blow fair,
Wafting us true to the friends waiting there,
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 07:26 AM

Gibb-

Meloney paraphrases DRUNKEN SAILOR as in Masefield, and says it belongs to the navy man-o'-war. It was used for hoisting boats or heaving heavy weights aboard. He then says that in the merchant service it was called a "main brace 'walk-away'".

Perhaps this walk-away shanty for shifting tacks and braces is what Meloney meant for a shanty used by the Navy.

Or maybe he meant "Bell-Bottomed Trousers."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 08:25 AM

I think Charlie's right about "Drunken Sailor." Meloney picked up later on his earlier cryptic remark.

What to make of those questionable forms is anybody's guess. J. E. Patterson, writing around the same time, has more of them.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 02:31 AM

1916[May]        Associated Harvard Clubs. _Book of Songs._ Chicago: Lakeside Press.

Collected Songbook for the university. Contains an adaptation of CAPE COD GIRLS.

There seems to be an imitation of military band percussion, as if this had been used as a marching song perhaps.

//
AUSTRALIA

BR-R-ROOM, poom, poom, poom, POOM, poom, poom, poomp, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yum, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_.
Australia is a very find [sic] place,
Heave away! Heave away!
To come from there is no disgrace,
Heave away! Heave away! Heave away! My bonny, bonny boys,
Heave away! Heave away! Heave away! My bonny, bonny boys,
We're off for Australia.

BR-R-ROOM, poom, poom, poom, POOM, poom, poom, poomp, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yum, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_.

Australian girls are very fine girls,
Keep away! Keep away!
With codfish bones they comb their curls,
Keep away! Keep away! Keep away! My bonny, bonny boys,
Keep away! Keep away! Keep away! My bonny, bonny boys,
We're off for Australia.

BR-R-ROOM, poom, poom, poom, POOM, poom, poom, poomp, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yi-di, yum, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_, poomp, _poomp_.

Australian booze is very fine booze,
Keep away! Keep away!
'Twill make you as tight as a new pair of shoes,
Keep away! Keep away! Keep away! My bonny, bonny boys,
Keep away! Keep away! Keep away! My bonny, bonny boys,
We're off for Australia.

BR-R-ROOM, poom, poom, poom, POOM, poom, poom, poomp, yi-di, di-di, yi-di, yi-di, yum, POOMP.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 02:35 AM

Source for the above

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 03:03 AM

1898[1894]        Brewer, Ebenezer, Cobham. _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable._ New edition, revised. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus.

Yet another slang dictionary entry, this time with a quote from RIO GRANDE.

//
Shanty Songs. Songs sung by sailors at work, to ensure united action. They are in sets, each of which has a different cadence adapted to the work in hand. Thus, in sheeting topsails, weighing anchor, etc., one of the most popular of the shanty songs runs thus :—

"I'm bound away, this very day.
I'm bound for the Rio Grande.
Ho, you, Rio!
Then fare you well, my bonny blue bell,
I'm bound for the Rio Grande."
(French, chanter, to sing; a sing-song.)
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 01:55 AM

1906[Jan.] Masefield, John. "Sea-Songs." Temple Bar (Jan. 1906): 56-80.

This is Masefield's "other" writing about chanties. It was published earlier in the year, before SAILOR'S GARLAND. He uses notations from Davis and Tozer to illustrate – from the 2nd edition of that collection (the 3rd edition, I believe, would come out later in this same year).

Intro, in which he creates interest for chanties, and says he will mainly deal with British ones.
//
The sea-songs in general use in merchant ships are of two kinds. There is the working-song, or chanty, which is sung as an aid to labour during the performance of certain tasks. And there is the sea-ballad, or sailor's folk-song, which, at sea, is sung in the second dog-watch; and, in port, at night, after supper. Both kinds have their uses and their beauties, but the chanties are perhaps the more interesting. They spring directly from the lives of the sailors. They are the spontaneous outcome of certain wants and certain difficulties. Ashore, where those wants do not exist, there is nothing quite like them. At sea, where those wants are ever present, they are always to be found. They may be heard in ships of every nationality, but it is thought that they are most common in American, and rarest in French ships. The most beautiful chanty I have ever heard was sung by a Norwegian crew. I have heard two Greek chanties of great beauty, and I am told that the Russians have at least one as beautiful as any of our own. In this article I must confine myself to those commonly sung aboard the merchant ships of these islands.
//

Follwing is of course similar to his taxonomy elsewhere, but for some reason he adds the salt junk rhyme or "grace" to the mix.
//
The word chanty is pronounced like shanty. It is applied to all those songs and choruses to which, in times of stress, or on gay occasions, the sailor works and hauls. There are several kinds of chanty, each peculiarly fitted to some variety of sea-labour. There is the anchor or capstan chanty, sung when the hands are heaving round the capstan, weighing anchor, or warping, or hoisting heavy yards. There is the halliard-chanty, sung when the topsail or topgallant yards are being hoisted by pully-hauly or strength of arm. There is the sheet, tack, and bowline chanty, sung when sheets are being hauled aft, or tacks boarded, or bowlines tautened. There is the pumping chanty, now, fortunately, little heard, since iron ships do not leak. There is the runaway chorus, sung on those rare occasions when the crew can race along the deck with the rope at which they are hauling. And, lastly, there is the Fo'c's'le Grace, or Pier Head Thanksgiving, which is sung over the junk at dinner.
//

I made a comment on the thread about "captain's daughter" how Masefield said "Drunken Sailor" was sung in chorus throughout. Here, he is supposing it was also once sung in a solo-chorus format. And a bit about who becomes the chantyman.
//
Of these five varieties, the three most commonly heard, the anchor, halliard, and sheet varieties, consist of a solo part sung by a leading seaman, and a chorus sung by the rest of the watch. The fifth, or runaway variety, is sung by all hands; though at one time, no doubt, it, too, was similarly divided. The last kind is sung or said by the high priest of the forecastle, some elderly seaman disgusted with the ship's food. The others join in at the end with the concluding Amen. In singing at the pumps the words used are generally those of a halliard chanty, arranged, like all such, for a solo part and a chorus.
The anchor, or capstan chanty, is the most beautiful kind of chanty we have. It generally begins with a single line, sung by the soloist, or chanty man, and followed by a short chorus. The men heaving round at the bars begin to sing their chorus before the soloist has ended his line. Before the chorus is at an end, the soloist begins to repeat his line; for every line of the solo is sung at least twice, so that the improvisatore may have time to compose his ditty. When the repetition of the solo is almost over, the chorus breaks in again, with a rather longer and more moving music, at the end of which the soloist goes on with his song. There is therefore a line of solo, followed by a short chorus, and a repetition of the solo, followed by a longer chorus. The soloist is invariably a man of some authority among the crew. The mate of the watch, if he be musical, and have a good voice, will sometimes strike up the chanty; but more frequently the chanty man is one of the leading seamen, a strong man, a power in the fo'c's'le. If a young or weak sailor presumes to pipe up with a song the others will often refuse to sing, until an authoritative voice puts the youth to silence.
//

On capsan chanties, first noting how their use over deep water was natural relatively rare, but how capstan might be used for stubborn halliards.
//
Sailors seldom work at a capstan unless they are entering or leaving port, or doing some job of more than usual difficulty. At sea, after foul weather, when the sun is bright, and the clouds are flying past, and the green seas are glittering as they topple, the sailors sometimes find the topsail yards too heavy for them. The sails are loose aloft, and thrash and slat, with a great clack of flogging gear, and the green seas rise and race, as the watch tallies on to the halliards. The decks are still wet and slimy, and the spray, like white fire, is still flying over the rail. The turns are cast off, and the hands begin to sway upon the rope, " Oh, bunt him, boys," cries the mate or boatswain, " Oho, Jew," " Oh, rise him high " Yet the yard will not budge; there may be ice in the blocks, or the men may be overworn. The halliards are taken to the deck capstan, and the bars are shipped. A boy seizes the halliard-end, and prepares to haul in on the slack. " Heave now," cries the mate. " Heave now; heave and pawl." The men heave with a will. The little iron pawls, or patent catches, which keep the capstan from revolving in the wrong direction, begin to click and clatter, as they pass over their sprockets. The rope creaks and grunts as the strain comes upon it, and the yard very slowly begins to move up the mast. " Start a song there, one of you," says the mate, " you're heaving still, like a lot of soldiers." Then someone, as he heaves, pipes up a capstan chanty, and the rest join in. The work goes the merrier for it; the yard travels to the mast-head in a few minutes; and the watch are sorry when the bars are unshipped. There are many capstan chanties, many of them very beautiful. The words are generally nonsense, or worse. One can take no pleasure in any of them for their literary merit. But the music is often of great beauty.
//

SEBASTOPOL:
//
One of the best, and most popular, capstan chanties is that known as " Sebastopol." The words are, if anything, rather better than most. The tune is excellent and stirring. It moves to quicker time than most capstan chanties.

The Crimee war is over now.
Sebastopol is taken.

The Crimee war is over now.
Sebastopol is taken.
So sing, Cheer, boys, cheer, 

Sebastopol is taken:
And sing, Cheer, boys, cheer, 

Old England gained the day.

The Rooshans they was put to fly.
Sebastopol is taken. 

The Rooshans they was put to fly.
Sebastopol is taken.
So sing, Cheer, boys, cheer, etc.
//

A-ROVING:
//
Another beautiful capstan chanty is "The Maid of Amsterdam." The words of the solo are scarcely fitted for quotation, but those who wish to know what they are like may consult Thomas Heywood's play of "Valentinian," where a song almost identical, is given at length. The tune of this chanty is singularly fine, but I am told that it is almost certainly more modern than the words sung to it.

[Score appears here – strange because it is just the piano part, no melody!]
[Text is like Masefield's other published version.]
//

Homeward bound chanties and RIO GRANDE:
//
No chanties are sung with such a gusto as those with which the crew get their anchors on leaving port for home. When all the hatches are on, and covered with tarpaulin; when the sails are all bent, and the house-flag slats at the truck, and the ensign, a stream of scarlet, flies astern; it is then that the sailors burst out a-singing in their best style. In many foreign ports, it is the custom to cheer the homeward bound ship as she gets her anchor. Each ship in port sends a man, or two men, to help in the work of heaving in, and making sail. As the anchor comes home, each ship cheers her, in turn, as a sort of sea-farewell, and wishing of God-speed. The ship so cheered replies to each greeting with a single cheer. It is fine, on such an occasion, to be at the capstan, on the forecastle-head, making one of a chorus. The noise of the cheering comes over the water very pleasantly. The sight of so many ships' companies, standing on the fife rails, waving their hats as they shout, is stirring and salutary. If, at such a time, one is aloft, loosing the casting sails, one notices a strange thing. All the bass voices seem to get together upon a single capstan bar, and all the other voices group together in the same way; and the effect, as the men heave round, is very curious. I remember a barque sailing for home from one of the Western ports. I was aboard her, doing some work, I forget exactly what, just below the fore-rigging, and the effect of these differing voices, now drawing near and ringing out, then passing by, and changing, and fading, was one of strange beauty. It was beautiful as much for its stately rhythm as for its music. It was like watching some beautiful dance in which the dancers sang as they moved slowly. The song they were singing was the old, haunting pathetic chanty of the Rio Grande. As it was sung that sunny morning, under the hills, to the sound of the surf and the cheering sailors, its poor ballad took to itself the nobility of great poetry. One remembered it, as a supremely lovely thing, in which one was fortunate to have taken a part.

[w/ piano score]

Where are you going, my pretty maid ?
O, away to Rio. 

Where are you going, my pretty maid ? 

O, we're bound to the Rio Grande. 
   
O, away to Rio, 
   
O, away to Rio;
O, fare you well, my bonny young girl, 
   
For we're bound to the Rio Grande. 


Have you a sweetheart, my pretty maid ?
O, away to Rio.
//

Halliard chanties. LONG TIME AGO, w/ more verses than in his other piece.
//
The halliard chanties, like those for the capstan, have all a repeated solo part, followed by choruses. In the capstan chanties the second chorus is generally longer than the first. In the halliard chanties each chorus is of the same length. They are more frequently heard than the other varieties of chanty, for the work to which they are suited has often to be done. It has been said that " a song is ten men on the rope." It is strange that a song should have so much effect; but no one, who has been at sea, can deny that it puts a spirit into the men, and helps them to do work otherwise beyond them. Day after day, in the Cape Horn cold, with the decks awash, and the seas heaving up into a dingy sky, the worn-out men gather at the halliards, to make sail after a storm. The icy ropes are stretched along; the canvas slats up aloft, and the monotonous crying out begins, with the yard jolting, and the sheets clacking on the masts. The men fall back heavily, but the yard seems jammed, and the parrel rises no further. Then some old man, in glistening oilskins, with a quid in his cheek, cries out his tuneless nonsense:

" A long, long time, and a long time ago."

Perhaps at his first crying out no one will join in, and the old man will begin again. Then with a shout the hands take up the chorus. New life comes to them. Each man puts new strength into his haul. The great yellow yard goes jolting up to the masthead, with the sail flying over it. It is as though a spirit of song had verily entered into every sailor.

[no score]

A long, long time, and a long time ago.
To me way hay O-hi-o.

A long, long time, and a long time ago.
A long time ago.
A smart Yankee packet lay out in the bay.
To me way hay O-hi-o. 

A smart Yankee packet lay out in the bay.
A long time ago. 

A-waiting for a fair wind to get under way.
To me way hay O-hi-o. 

A-waiting for a fair wind to get under way.
A long time ago. 

With all her poor sailors all sick and all sore.
To me way hay O-hi-o.

With all her poor sailors all sick and all sore.
        A long time ago.

For they'd drunk all their whisky, and 
could get no more. Etc., etc.

Some ten years ago that was the most popular of all the chanties, but the fashion changes, and it may have given place to another.
//
The above must be where Hugill gets his claim that "Long Time Ago" was the most popular halyard chanty of the 1890s. This "ohio" chorus seems pretty unique. Hugill gives such a version that he took from _The Shell Book of Shanties_. It has a tune (unlike Masefield's). I am wondering idley (until future reading) if the Shell Book may have cooked up the tune.

A slightly longer statement on how certain chanties went in and out of fashion. WHISKEY JOHNNY had evidently become stale by the 90s. Masefield claims that a Danish sailor made up COME ROLL ME OVER. There is only the one verse here, so it seems he made some more up in "Sailor's Garland." Now, if this Dane made it up, how did Hugill learn it from Harding the Barbarian? Something's fishy.
//
In a sailor's repertory there are many chanties, which are seldom heard. The men grow tired of the old words and the old music, and do not work so lustily to them. The well-known " Whisky, Johnny," has become a burden, from its frequent repetition. As the old songs die out, new songs are made, or, it may be, yet older songs regain their popularity. I knew a Danish sailor who passed his spare moments in inventing chanties. He had one half-finished specimen of which he was very proud. It may have been perfected since I knew him, and perhaps it is now well known "from Callao to Rio, by the west." It was not a literary chanty, nor was the tune very remarkable. It ran as follows:

Oho, why don't you blow?
A, ha, come roll him over.
Oho, why don't you blow?
A, ha, come roll him over.
//

//
"Whisky, Johnny," one of the best known of all chanties, is worthy of a place in this article. I first heard it in the Bristol Channel, off Bull Point, with the Shutter Light glimmering in the distance. I was reeling about in the waist, deathly sea-sick, carrying an order to the mate. They were setting the fore upper topsail, and one very drunk sailor was singing the solo.

[w/ score]

O, whisky is the life of man !
Whisky! Johnny! 

O, whisky is the life of man !
Whisky for my Johnny. 

I drink it out of an old tin can.
Whisky! Johnny!

I drink it out of an old tin can. 

Whisky for my Johnny.
The song goes on to celebrate the virtues of whisky, and to describe its effects on the singer's relatives. It then tells a story about a man, a fisherman, three live lobsters and a lady, but the story is hardly worth repetition, and there are other reasons why it should not be printed.
//

BLOW BOYS BLOW
//
Another excellent halliard chanty,very popular among sailors, is "Blow, Bullies, Blow." A good chantyman, in singing this song, will often contrive to satirise the officers of the ship, in language as direct as it is forcible. If the old man, or one of the mates, be unpopular, the lampoon will be shouted with gusto, so that it may reach aft, amid the jeers of the singers.

There's a Black Ball barque a-coming down the river.
Blow, bullies, blow.
There's a Black Ball barque a-coming down the river. 

Blow, my bully boys, blow.

And who d'ye think is captain of her ? 
                  
Why little …the….. [censored]

I have heard a discontented ship's crew singing this chanty to the scandal of all who lived aft. The chantyman picked out the weak points, physical and moral, of the old man and his mates. His touch was light and certain.
//

HANGING JOHNNY
//
All of the halliard chanties quoted above are sung to quick time, so that the work may be done quickly. There is, however, one melancholy song, never sung save on grave occasions, which goes to a slow movement. I heard it once off the Horn, one dismal morning, when the sodden watch were hoisting the main topsail. It had been blowing hard for a week, but the wind had at last died down, and we were making sail. A heavy sea was running. It was so cold that the water which came aboard was slushy with ice. The day was a typical Cape Horn day, grim and lowering. It was under these conditions that I first heard the song. I have always thought that it expressed perfectly, in its melancholy, wavering music, the grey sea, with its mournful birds, and the wind in the rigging, and the disconsolate seamen on the rope.

HANGING JOHNNIE. [w/ score]

They call me Hanging Johnny.
Away-i-oh.

They call me Hanging Johnny.
So hang, boys, hang.

First I hung my mother.
Away-i-oh. 

First I hung my mother.
So hang, boys, hang.
//

BOWLINE and HAUL AWAY JOE
//
The sheet, tack, and bowline chanty is perhaps heard less frequently than the two varieties already mentioned. It is generally a leisurely song, slow in coming to the point, and of no great beauty. The best known song of this kind is very old. It was heard aboard a Dover trader during the reign of Henry VIII. It may be several centuries older.

[w/ score]

Haul on the bowline, early in the morning,
Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul.
Haul on the bowline, the kettle is a-boiling.
Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul.
Haul on the bowline, the fore and main-top bowline.
Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul.

Another excellent song of this kind is the following, which goes to a tune as little tuneful, and perhaps as ancient.

Louis was the King of France afore the Revolu-ti-on,
Away, haul away, boys, haul away together.
But Louis got his head cut off which spoiled his consti-tu-tion.
Away, haul away, boys, haul away, O.
//

DRUNKEN SAILOR. Adds the note here that there was seldom time for more than a couple verses.
//
The runaway chorus is not often heard, for sailing ships are so weakly manned that it is unusual for any job to be done easily aboard them. It is sung sometimes when tacking ship in fair weather. The men gathered at the main and crossjack braces sing it, as the yards are swung, at the orders "Crossjack yard," and "Main topsail haul." The yards fly about, and come home on the lee shrouds with a crash. The men race away with the braces singing:

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
Early in the morning.
Way, hay, there she rises,
Way, hay, there she rises,
O, boy, there she rises,
Early in the morning. 

Chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober, 

Chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober, 

Chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober, 

Early in the morning.
Way, hay, there she rises,
Way, hay, there she rises,
Way, hay, there she rises,
Early in the morning.

There are other verses, but the work is so quickly finished that there is seldom time for them.
//

I'm not sure why he calls this hand-over-hand a "runaway chorus." HANDY MY BOYS has an usual second chorus line here.
//
There is another variety of runaway chorus, sung by all hands when hauling in hand over hand, as when getting a hawser aboard. It is not quite so stirring a song as " What shall we do?" but it is lively and merry.

A handy ship and a handy crew,
Handy, my boys, so handy; 

A handy skipper and second mate too,
O handy, my boys, away, O.

The rest, if more be wanted, can be made up by the singer, for the least literary person can generally produce a catalogue of nouns to label handy. The second and fourth lines remain the same throughout.
//

Again on the obsolescence of pump shanties. I appreciate his honesty here in admitting that LEAVE HER JOHNNY was sourced from outside his working experience.
//
I have never heard a pumping chanty, though I have passed in all from a week to ten days of my life, from 170 to 240 hours, in pumping water out of a leaky wooden ship. I am told that the usual pumping chanty is the halliard chanty of "Leave her, Johnny, leave her," one of the most excellent of all chanties:

I thought I heard the skipper say,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her. 

You may go ashore and touch your pay.
   It's time for us to leave her. 

We'll go ashore and touch our chink,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her. 

Before we go we'll have a drink.
It's time for us to leave her.
//

Here's the sailor's grace / salt horse rhyme.
//
The Pier Head Grace is not often heard in these days, perhaps because our sailing ships are generally manned by Scandinavians. It may be heard aboard American ships, but rarely, for American seamen are better fed than the English, and have therefore less cause for growling at the food. I have heard an old English sailor repeat the following version, as he bowed over the mess-kid containing the salt beef.

First Sailor(in a dismal tone—solo). Old horse! Old horse! what brought 
you here ?
Groaning Chorus. Oho! Oho! Oho!
Solo. 
To make poor sailors curse and swear.
Cho. Oho! Oho! Oho!
I was a Government contractor's hack.
Oho! Oho! Oho! 

From Botany Bay to Hackmatack,
Oho! Oho! Oho!
//

Interesting. So his version is an actuall call-and-response song.


Finishes up with non-chanties.
//
The songs sung in the sing-songs, or sailors' concerts, have lost much of their distinction. The old sea-songs, proper to the sea, have given place, to a great extent, to the peculiar lyrical mechanics of the music-hall. The old songs may still be heard, but they are dying out, for the sailor has lost much of his individuality. The English sailor is generally to be found in steamships, making short passages. He is no longer cut off from his fellow-men for many months at a time. His arts have become more and more the arts of the landsman. There is now but little difference between his mental temper, and that of an average landsman of simple habits.

Music is the one enjoyment of the sailor at sea. In the second dog-watch, in sunny latitudes, after supper, when the work about decks has ceased, the sailing-ship's forecastle hands hold a concert, or sing-song. Sometimes they gather together on the forecastle-head, but more generally they sit about just forward of the forerigging, on the fore-hatch, to "sing their longing songs of home." Their repertoires are limited, but they never tire of the songs they have. They prefer a song with a chorus, so that all can take a part in it. If the song have no chorus, they generally repeat the solo part. When they begin to sing, in the hush of the evening, the reefers in the half-deck also start their sing-song, and the supernumeraries, in " the round-house," make what melody they can; and perhaps the mate comes from his little stuffy cabin, and sits on the booby hatch, and strums his banjo to the stars. I have sailed in a ship in which the mate was musical, and a good singer. He used to play the concertina every evening while he sang patriotic songs in a high sweet tenor voice. One of his songs had a chorus:

Under the good old flag, 
   
Under the good old flag, 

While fighting for England, he met his death 
   
Under the good old flag.

The sailors used to leave their own concerts, to creep as far aft as they dared, to the spare spars in the waist, where they could listen to him. The boatswain and his allies came from the round-house, and the reefers left the halfdeck, where they were mixing hash, till the whole ship's company was listening to the singer. It was something like Orpheus and the beasts.

Of the songs I have heard in these sea singsongs very few were beautiful. The old naval ballad of " Spanish Ladies" was sometimes sung, and this old song was certainly the best of all I heard. There are several versions of the ballad. Those known to me follow more or less closely the version quoted by Captain Marryat in his novel of Poor Jack.
....

Some of the songs I have quoted seem foolish now that they are written down. They are not the sort of songs to print. They are songs to be sung under certain conditions, and where those conditions do not exist they appear out of place. At sea, when they are sung in the quiet dogwatch, or over the rope, they are the most beautiful of all songs. It is difficult to write them down without emotion; for they are a part of life. One cannot detach them from life. One cannot write a word of them without thinking of days that are over, of comrades who have long been coral, and old beautiful ships, once so stately, which are now old iron.
//

His desk-sources: LA Smith, Davis/Tozer (2nd ed.), Bradford/Fagge.
//
Those who wish to study chanties will find Miss Laura Smith's anthology, "Music of the Waters," of service to them. Other collections of value are Dr. Ferris Tozer's excellent "Forty Sailors' Songs or Chanties" (Boosey & Co., 2s. 6d., pp. 78, with music and prefatory note), and the smaller book, " Old Sea Chanties," by John Bradford and Arthur Fagge (Metzler & Co., Ld., Is., pp. 17).

The authors of the latter publication have, I believe, produced with great success a short dramatic sketch, in which some half-dozen famous chanties are sung upon the stage. There are other articles on the subject to be found in the back numbers of The Boy's Own Paper, The Cadet, and The Manchester Guardian.

I wish to thank Dr. Ferris Tozer, and Messrs. Boosey & Co., for permission to quote the musical accompaniments of some famous chanties from the "Forty Sailors' Songs " mentioned above.
//
Masefield does not seem to have been capable of music notation, since he only gives music where it was provided by Davis/Tozer. By why give only the piano accompaniments??

Now, what was this dramatic sketch of a half-dozen chanties? Were these the chanties recorded by the Minster Singers of London circa 1905 (as discussed in the thread on early commercial chanty recordings)? Namely,:

"Blow, My Bully Boys", "Sally Brown", "Whisky Johnny," "Shenandoah", "Rio Grande" and "Blow the Man Down."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 04:51 AM

1903        Webb, Alfred. "Sailors' Chanties." _The Irish Monthly_ (January 1903): 37-42.

Irishman Webb heard/sang chanties in 1853 when he was about 19 yrs old, when he went to Australia for his health (and tried his hand at gold digging). Here he recalls three unique versions of chanties.
//
Fifty years ago I made two long voyages in old wooden sailing ships of the period, of seven hundred and one thousand tons respectively, innocent of double topsails, wire rigging, or modern appliances. Upon the first I took somewhat to sailor work. Upon the second I served with the starboard watch, working on deck and aloft, and in bad weather having to live in the wet clothes and do with the broken rest incident to sailoring. My experiences then will never be forgotten as long as life lasts. …
The cadences of the "chanties" which were then a necessary accompaniment and incentive to the heavier work of a ship, leading men to heave together as they could not do without them, often come back to me. They are now seldom heard, at least by ordinary passengers. The rattle of the steam-winch, of the "falls," and capstan, are different accompaniments to thoughts of departure, passage, and arrival, to the old tunes. And in the general working of a steamer "Yo, ho!" or "Hay ho!" in the pulling on some of the minor tackle is the most that is likely to be heard.
//

"Nothingness" is back:
//
The words were nothing. They were generally invented for the voyage or on the minute. There could be no completeness. Each verse had to stand for itself, for at any moment, and the sooner the more welcome, an abrupt termination would be put to the performance by the boatswain's shrill whistle, "Belay." My notation is of the roughest (would have been rougher but for some kind assistance), yet I hope sufficiently accurate to enable my readers to judge what the originals may have been. All were sung in solo and chorus—the most proficient chantyman of the watch or crew taking the one, and the rest of the voices at the work the other; the pull on the rope being made at recurring intervals, and a momentary pause taken afterwards.
//

CHEERLY as a halyard chanty:
//
The first I shall give is "Cheerily, men!" generally used when hoisting the topsail yards after reefing.
[w/ score, in 4/4]

Cheerily men!
Oh upreef'd topsail hi ho!
Cheerily men!
High in the sky, hi ho!
Cheerily men!
Oh! rouse him up, her, hi ho!
Cheerily, men!
Oh! he hi ho,
Cheerily, men!

I remember a second verse. How nonsense and often worse stick in the memory while the better is forgotten:—

    Cheerily men! 

Who stole my jacket, hi ho!
    Cheerily men! 

Sold the pawn ticket, hi ho!
    Cheerily men! 

Oh, that was shameful, hi ho!
    Cheerily men! 

Oh ! he hi ho,
Cheerily men!
//

After so many sightings of "Mister Stormalong," the STORMY version is back.
//
The next is one of the best known of these chanties, "Storm along."

[w/ score]

I wish I was old Stormy's son.
Storm along, my hearties.
Gathering nuggets all the day,
Storm along, my hearties,
Away, away, away, away.
O'er the roaring seas, my hearties.
Storm along, my hearty boys.
Storm along, my hearties.

No second verses need be given. It will be seen how admirably these chanties are fitted for improvisation. All the performer here has to do, indefinitely to prolong the song, is to think of places where he and his fellows would like to be, and what they would there like to be doing. They can wish to be " in Liverpool town," "drinking whiskey all the day," or "in Erin's Isle," "with my true love all the day," and so on.
//

BOWLINE
//
The third and last of my own recollection I shall give is "Haul the bowline." Different words could be alternated in the second and third bars. It has not been explained why the "bowline" in this and other sea songs is so honoured. It is a rope of secondary importance in the rigging of a vessel, and hauling upon it generally implied the blowing of a contrary wind.

[w/ score]
Haul the bowline, Katey is my darling,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!
//

//
When originally noting down these tunes, I was unaware there was any literature of the subject; but when about to prepare them for the readers of this magazine I thought it best to make inquiries and learned that an article had appeared in Harper's Magazine for July, 1882, and that Boosey & Co., of London had published in a volume Fifty Sailors' Songs and Chanties. The latter, with words and pianoforte accompaniment, is all that could be desired. The notation of the three chanties I have given corresponds in neither of above with mine; but doubtless the renderings were as widely different as the nationalities and experiences of the performers. Fifty Sailors' Songs and Chanties is, to any who have experienced sailor's life, a valuable publication. Although most chanties, under the circumstances as heard sung, gave the impression of depth of feeling and far-awayness I have endeavoured to describe, they are by no means all as original as the three I have noted, and many others in Messrs. Boosey's collection. Some are but variants of well-known tunes. "Highland Laddie" differs little from its Scotch namesake. "Paddy Doyle's Boots" is, if I mistake not, a German folk-tune. "The Girl with the Blue Dress" and "Hoodah Day" are " The Camptown Races." "The Wide Missouri" and "Hanging Johnnie" are, perhaps, a hymn tune—so lovely when sung as an anchor tune that I venture, by the permission of Boosey & Co., to intrude it here.
//
Hmm, so Davis/Tozer's 3rd edition (50 songs) was out by this time?
This is the first I remember seeing Paddy Doyle called a German folk tune.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 02:36 PM

1894        Unknown. "English Harvest Songs." _New York Times_ (2 Sept. 1894): 22.

Not much, just a note to add to the pile of voices talking of chanties as if they had died out.

As the sailors' chanties were used to lighten the labor of hauling and heaving before the days of the steam winch and the patent capstan, so were the harvesters' songs required to help the reapers…

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 02:48 AM

1908        "The Harbor of the Sun." _Los Angeles Times_ (6 Dec. 1908): II4.

Article raving about San Pedro becoming a major shipping port.

//
When that near time comes, then will San Pedro—our Harbor of the Sun—lure to her shimmering waters the ships of every clime. To the eyes of the keeper of the light on Point Firmin's wind-swept bluffs will the flag of every nation become of daily familiarity. There, night and day, will be heard the chanties of deep-sea sailors as they slip the great ships' anchors in the Port o' Heart's Desire.
//

It's funny that it speaks of chanties "night and day" whereas the previous decade's writings had been taking the tone of "chanties are dead." Therefore, I don't know whether to call this evidence to the contrary or if it just reflects the ca.1905-1906 boost of popularity/awareness of the *idea* of chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 04:43 AM

1906        Lubbock, Basil. _Jack Derringer: A Tale of Deep Water_. London: John Murray.

Fiction set aboard a Yankee hell-ship of clipper days. Recall that Lubbock had been at sea in 1899, so this would only reflect that experience and his readings.

RIO GRANDE mentioned in this passage. This was in Lubbock's experience.
//
"Deadbeats and hoboes, every doggoned one
of them," growled the mate; "not a chanty in
'em, neither."

All hands were now tramping steadily round
the capstan.

"Heave an' bust her!" sang out the big bosun.
"Heave an' she comes!"

Presently a slim young Englishman with curly
hair struck up the well-known chanty, "Away,
Rio." …


Jack Derringer, who was a great exponent of
chanties, followed the lead of the curly-headed
one, and in a clean, strong baritone broke out
with:

"As I was walking out one day
Down by the Albert Docks."

There were evidently more sailormen aboard
than either the bosun or Black Davis had calcu-
lated on, for the chorus came with a roar :

"Heave a-way, my Johnnies, heave a-way!"

"I saw the charming maids so gay,
A-coming down in flocks,"

continued Jack.
Then again came the deep-sea roar of

"Heave away, my bully boys,
We're all bound to go! "
//
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES comes from Davis/Tozer.


MOBILE BAY in the following passage comes from Davis/Tozer.
//
The cockney went aft to relieve the wheel,
a somewhat comical figure in some Piccadilly
masher's discarded town coat, with velvet collar
and cuffs, whilst the rest of the watch were
turned out to man the pumps.

They started briskly to work at a cry of
"Shake her up, boys, from the bosun. …

Jack, of course, was not the man to let the
opportunity go by without a chanty, and started
on with :

"Were you never down in Mobile bay?"

The whole watch thundered in the chorus with
the exception of the gambler, who kept all his
breath for his mutinous talk in the foc's'le.

As they swung the bars, deep came the note:

"John, come tell us as we haul away."
(JACK) "A-screwing cotton all the day."
(Chorus) "John, come tell us as we haul away.

Aye, aye, haul, aye!
John, come tell us as we haul away."

Then Jack went on:

"What did I see in Mobile Bay?"
(Chorus) "John, come tell us as we haul away."

(JACK) " Were the girls all fair and free and gay?"
(Chorus) "John, come tell us as we haul away.

Aye, aye, haul, aye !
John, come tell us as we haul away."

(JACK) "Oh! This I saw in Mobile Bay/
(Chorus) " So he tells us as we haul away."
(JACK) "A pretty girl a-making hay."
(Chorus) "So he tells us as we haul away.

Aye, aye, haul, aye !
So he tells us as we haul away."
//


A-ROVING here comes from Davis/Tozer.
//
"Give us another!" was the general cry as the
last verse finished, and away went Jack again
with " A-roving" :

(JACK) "In Amsterdam there lives a maid
Mark you well what I say
In Amsterdam there lives a maid,
And she is mistress of her trade.
I'll go no more a-roving from you, fair maid!"
(Chorut) " A-roving, a-roving, since roving's been my ruin,
I'll go no more a-roving from you, fair maid!"
//

ONE MORE DAY from Davis/Tozer:
//

This also ran its course, then Curly struck up
"One more day for Johnnie":

(CURLY) "Only one more day for Johnnie."
(Chorus) "One more day!

(CURLY) " Oh! rock and roll me over ! "

(Chorus) " One more"

Then the bosun most rudely interrupted the
music.
//

BLOW THE MAN DOWN is also from Davis/Tozer.
//
And he hummed the
famous chanty:

"Blow the man down, Johnny, blow the man down!
To my aye, aye, blow the man down!
If he be white man or black man or brown,
Give me some time to blow the man down."
//

I don't know the source of this BLOW YE WINDS:
//
Taking the upper-topsail halliards to a small
capstan aft, they tramped round strongly to the
weird sailor song, in the wild chorus of which
even Tari joined :

"And it's blow, ye winds, heigh-ho!
Blow, ye winds, heigh-ho!
Blow away the mist and snow!
And it's blow, ye winds, heigh-ho!"
//

LEAVE HER JOHNNY
//
Jim hummed the famous chanty:

"Leave her, Johnny, leave her,
It's time for us to leave her."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 09:00 AM

Our library has the Williams article.

More later.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 05:50 AM

1906        Hutchison, Percy Adams. "Sailors' Chanties." _The Journal of American Folklore_ 19(72) (Jan.-March 1906): 16-28

This is perhaps the first article on chanties by and oriented towards academic Folklore. The disciplinary approach is evident from the beginning, where the author takes in interest in chanties as part of a larger interest in the nature of "communal composition."
//
Whether or not the communal theory should be called upon to account for everything in primitive poetry is a far-reaching question, and one which does not fall within the scope of this paper. All that this paper will attempt to do will be to follow through certain actual instances of communal composition which happened to come under the observation of the author…
//

As I argued in my paper (posted above), folklorists at this time approached chanties as ballad collectors/analysts. Here Hutchinson notes how he is bringing in chanties to illustrate ballad-related ideas.
//
Some years ago it was the fortune of the author to spend part of
his time cruising on merchant sailing-ships, when he became attracted
by the chanties -- those songs sailors are accustomed to sing when
hauling at the sails, walking the capstan round, working the windlass,
or toiling at the pumps. A few of these chanties he collected; but
the collection was soon forgotten, and came no more to his mind
until a short time ago, when he happened to be concerned with bal-
lad problems. Then it was that the chantie-singing to which he had
so often listened appeared in a new light, for it became at once appar-
ent that here was a contemporary, dramatic, and complete exempli-
fication of the communal process.
//

He quotes GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL to demonstrate the "authetic" air of a chanty, contrasted with Kipling's verse. However the version he quotes is that of Davis/Tozer, which is itself rather contrived. Then he says,
//
Clearly, this chantie grew. The reader realizes that it is only by
chance the words are what they are, and where they are; as one
reads, there is entirely lacking any feeling of inevitablenes!; as to
words or lines. That each line has been improvised to suit the
exigencies of the moment is evident; the only necessitation one feels
is in regard to the rhyme-word of the second solo-line. Conscious
structure there is none, or almost none. Line could interchange
with line, stanza with stanza, the whole could be longer or shorter,
and the chantie would be no worse, and no better, structurally, than
it is now. The whole is haphazard, inconsequential, and, excepting
the refrain, absolutely spontaneous.
//
Well, his statements make sense, but too bad about the example.

Continuing with his dicussion of communal composition, he quotes DEAD HORSE.
//
As a further illustration of improvisation and refrain this masthead-
ing chantie is typical: -

As I was going to Rig-a-ma-row,
(CHORUS.) I say so, and I hope so,
I saw an old man go riding by,
(CHORUS.) Poor - old - man.

Said I, old man your horse will die,
I say so, etc.
Said I, old man your horse will die,
Poor old man.

And if he dies I 'll tan his skin, etc.
And from his hide I 'll make my shoes, etc.

The extent to which the anatomy of the horse might be utilized in
such a ballad as this is obviously infinite, and would in
any instance be determined solely by the length of time
required to masthead the sail. Let us assume that to be some smaller piece of top-canvas, and pass to the conclusion of the chantie, which is
apt to go something like this :-

(SOLO.) I thought I heard the first-mate say
He'd give us grog three times to-day.
(ALL.) Belay!
//

He goes on to present WHISKEY JOHNNY, SO HANDY MY BOYS, LEAVE HER JOHNNY, and BONEY. All are obviously from Davis/Tozer, however in some he changes the wording slightly. Not sure what the ethics of that are.

Quotes a bit of the DREADNOUGHT:
//
She's a high-sounding Packet,
A Packet of fame,
She comes from New York,
And the Dreadnought 's her name.
//

Then, BLACKBALL LINE as in Davis/Tozer.

Hutchison goes on to compare the chanties to the ballad the "Hangman's
Tree," which he quotes. After words he comments:
//
It is the tendency of the popular ballad, by reason of its constant
repetition by a folk who are permanent, to become fairly well knit
structurally; the chantie, because the group of men among whom
it originates maintains its homogeneity but a short time, is under no
such law. Hence, in the latter, we are unlikely to pass beyond the
inconsequential stage. Even the most primitive ballad we can bring
forward has, by reason of generations of repetition, become a better
piece of work, structurally, than we can expect any chantie to be.
For this very reason, however, the chantie is especially valuable for
the hypothesis. In the chantie, the solo-lines are so simple, involve
so much repetition, are so conventional (from the point of view of
ship-life, that is to say) and the "motif" in every case so obvious,
that we should suspect communal composition, even if we could not
be sure of it.
//

Something about his sources:
//
Another characteristic common both to the popular ballad and to
the chantie is that there is no text, there are texts. As from time
to time collections of popular ballads are made, so are collections of
chanties made. In preparing this article such a collection has been
used whenever the texts the author had collected were not suited to
the purpose. But in any such compilation the versions given are no
more authentic than would be texts from any other compilation : the
versions given are simply those which happened to be familiar to the
sailor or sailors whom the collector happened to consult, - other
sailors would have furnished him with very different versions.
//
OK, this might make sense, but where does it lead?

Hutchison goes on to compare a few chanty texts, the first two of which he lets on are from the same author, but does not state who that is. Again I find this of dubious ethics. The presumption is that since these are "communal," there is no one agent that gets the credit and/or it is somehow pointless to keep track of variations. (Reminds me of a lot of "folksingers" who invoke "the folk process" and then go on doing opaque covers of "versions" they found.) I don't know where these songs came from. The first is a variation of what Hugill called "Bound to California" and which he got out of C. Fox Smith's 1927 book. The latter collected only the chorus, as here. Something funny seems to be going on. The second song starts like "Sacramento," but then ends like the first song.
//
Take this stanza from a chantie which originated in the earlier
days of the California trade:

Good-bye, my love, good-bye,
I cannot tell you why,
I 'm off to Californy
To dig the yellow gold.

On the very same ship from which this was collected, another
sailor gave this version:-

Blow, boys, blow,
For Californy, O!
We're bound for Sacramento
To dig the yellow gold.
//

He goes on to connect these to BLOW BOYS BLOW and BLOW THE MAN DOWN as found in Davis/Tozer. He is saying that all 4 of these songs are related, but why? Because they say "blow"? How is that significant to say they are related?
//
But this, in turn, is clearly related to the following chantie:

Yankee ship came down the river,
Blow, boys, blow!
Her masts did bend, her sides did shiver,
Blow, my jolly boys, blow!
The sails were old, her timbers rotten,
Blow, etc.
His charts the skipper had forgotten,
Blow, my jolly boys, blow!
Who do you think was skipper of her?
Blow, etc.
"Old Preaching Sam," the noted scoffer,
Blow, etc.
She sailed away for London city,
Blow, etc.
Never got there, what a pity!
Blow, etc.

And if this is not a version of the following, it is, at least, related to
it:-

I 'll sing you a song, a good song of the sea,
To my ay, ay, blow the man down;
I trust that you'll join in the chorus with me,
Give me some time to blow the man down.

If so many variations of one theme have come down to us, how
many more, simply for lack of a recorder, must have perished ? The
man who has succeeded in becoming principal "chantie-man" on
one ship, is, on his next voyage, beaten out by some rival; neverthe-
less, he will often be able to assert himself, -to use the current
slang phrase, which expresses the situation exactly, he will succeed
occasionally in "butting in." The result would be, if we should
report any chantie sung on this latter voyage, that we should have,
not the version either would have given had he been the sole "fore-
singer" of the ship, but we should have a version which would be a
patchwork of those two. But, further, this patchwork would be,
not merely a combination of their two versions, but of many, for,
just as these two have been rival chantie producers on this particular
voyage, each will have had his rival on previous voyages. Hence,
so much of chantie material as each brings with him to this ship
-brings in his memory, of course, not on paper -will be no more
his own than the version which we might take down on this voyage
would be the sole product of either of our two men. And this would
hold true, back and back, as far as one cared to carry it.
//

Talking about the rhythm of a job suggesting chanty form, he eventually quotes SHENANDOAH from Davis/Tozer. He also gives the following, derivative of the song "Old Joe":

//
And this, from a Negro chantie:-

Ol' Joe, bully ol' Joe,
Hi pretty yaller gal!
Kicking up behind, Ol' Joe;
Ol' Joe's got some very fine clo's,
Whar he get 'em nobody knows, -
Hi pretty yaller gal
Kicking up behind, Ol' Joe.
//


MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA
//
In short, any song not too complex to march by can be used for a capstan chantie, and the conditions imposed upon the windlass chantie are not more rigid…A favorite capstan chantie is "Marching through Georgia."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 08:38 PM

Massachusetts-born James H. Williams (1864-1927) was an African-American merchant seaman and labor leader. He went to sea in 1875 or '76 and spent at least a dozen years before the mast. As an officer of the Atlatic Coast Seamen's Union he was instrumental in the preparation of the White Act of 1898 which, in Williams's words, "revised the entire maritime code of the United States."

Williams published at least 37 articles about his seafaring career and the condition of American seamen. Most of these appeared in The Independent, a leading progressive periodical of the early 20th century. He also wrote an autobiography, edited by Warren F. Kuehl as Blow the Man Down! (N.Y.: Dutton, 1959).

Williams also assembled a manuscript collection of shanties. Many of these appeared in his article, "The Sailor's 'Chanties'" (Independent, July 8, 1909, p. 76 ff.). Kuehl quotes a few of Williams's shanties, as did Doerflinger.

The 1909 article includes the words only of the following shanties:

A Long Time Ago
Haul Away the Bowline
Boney was a Warrior
What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?
Fire Down Below!
Homeward Bound ("Good-bye, Fare You Well")
Reuben Rauzo [sic]
Whisky (Johnny)
Salt Horse Chanty ("Old Horse, Old Horse")
Blow the Man Down
A Yankee Ship Came Down the River ("Blow, Boys, Blow")

Williams mentions but does not give texts of "'Santa Ana and 'The Plains of Mexico'" (implying two different songs, but perhaps this is either an error a recognition of two tune patterns and differing verses), "South Australia," "Sally Brown," "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her," "Rio Grande," "Roll the Cotton Down," "Mobile Bay," "Tommy's Gone and I'll Go Too," and both "California Gold" and "Banks of Sacramento," which seem to be another pair of duplicates.

Williams also gives texts of the following forebitters:

The "Cumberland's" Crew
The Cruise of the "Dreadnaught"
Paul Jones ("The Stately Southerner")
A Whaling Song ("The Coast of Peru")

Of shanties in general he makes the following especially interesting points:

"The following are some typical chanties and sea songs taken at random from the repertoire of that almost extinct functionary, the chanty man....It is a peculiar fact that chanties were never sung in any but British and American ships....

"Another thing is that, while many of these songs have stood the test of a century, or perhaps two, and have passed from lip to lip thousands of times over the airs to which they are sung, they have never changed.

"Still another somewhat remarkable fact is that thruout the whole list of known chanties there does not occur a single offensive word, and whenever and indecent language has been injected into one of our favorite chanties, it is at once expurgated by common consent.

"In presenting the following brief record of chanties I hav adhered as strictly as possible to the original text, and in this I have reason to believe that I am as near right as nay man can be.

"I can claim no authorship for these ancient sea songs.

"I only arranged them as we sang them, so they may be read, and I hope they will be appreciated.

"The glory of the sea has departed and chanties are sung no more."

Williams appends an original 67-line poem about shantying, written in the distinctive meter of Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha." In it he tells that he learned "these wond'rous sea-songs" from his shipmates Garry Owen and "Splitnose" Sweeney. If this is literally true, and Williams believed (erroneously) that the shanties never changed, it would seem to imply that he acquired most of his own repertoire on his first voyage in the mid '70s, and that his texts are essentially as he first heard them.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 09:00 PM

Of course that last guest was me.

Worth mentioning too is that Williams's texts are fuller than many. In other words, instead of the two- or three- stanza shanties we often see, his usually to five or six or more. (Only the standard two in "Drunken Sailor," however!)

As to how closely the 1909 texts resemble what Williams learned from Owen and Sweeney: despite what I said earlier, it could be that Williams added occasional stanzas that he'd learned later in the innocent belief that all dated back to a single integral text.

But the repertoire itself, and many of the stanzas, would still be tethered to the 1870s.

A minor point, perhaps, is that the African-American Williams sang the same shanties as the European Americans.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 05:10 AM

Wow, quite a substantial article that Williams! Thanks for posting that, Lighter. If you've still got the text around and you have a chance, it would be especially interesting to know what lyrics he gave for 'South Australia." And what exactly is "California Gold"?

***

Here's a revisit to an earlier mentioned set -- earlier the references were second-hand from a website. Here they are in their original context.

1903        Craig, William. _My Adventures on the Australian Gold Fields._ London: Cassel & Company.

Craig arrives on a vessel (presumably from England) in 1851 in Port Phillip Heads, Hobson's Bay (Melbourne), and finds most of the population has deserted their posts and gone off gold digging. Crew also begins to desert his ship, and while one set is escaping with a boat, we read this:

//
Then with three hearty cheers they took to their oars, and went up the bay, all joining in a song that had become familiar to us when pumping during the voyage—

Oh, fare you well, my own Mary Ann, 
      
Fare you well for awhile.
//

Then,
//
The morning following the desertion of the crew, to the great delight of all on board, a landsman's breeze sprang up. The pilot took charge of the ship, the captain the wheel, and a number of passengers who had learned the '' ropes '' on the voyage out assisted in making sail. Willing hands manned the windlass, the anchor was weighed, and to Dick Robb's song of

When first we went a-waggonin' 
   
A-waggonin' did go, 
   
Drive on my lads, hi ho!

And accompanied by two other ships, we were soon slipping up to our port.
//

I am sorry but it is not obvious to me what action they are doing to the song. Are they using the brake windlass to warp in, or hauling?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 05:24 AM

1906[1905]        Lincoln, Joseph C. _Partners of the Tide._ New York: A.L. Burt Company.

A work of fiction set off Cape Cod among the world of fishing schooners and coal barges. For entertainment purposes, some are singing a song "that every fisherman knows." It has a "storm along" chorus, however it doesn't seem to conform to any of the versions of the chanty. It may be contrived.

//
Peleg Myrick was bearing his concertina to safe quarters in the shanty, and they insisted that he should play it. Peleg protested that it was too wet for music on board that tug, but they threatened to heave the "push-and-pull-pianner" overboard if he didn't play.
"Play somethin' we can sing," ordered Bill Taylor.
Peleg struck up a doleful dirge of the sea. It was loaded to the gunwale with wrecks and disasters.
"Belay that!" cried Barney Small. "We don't want no Come-all-ye's. That's the tune that soured the milk. Give us a hoe-down."
The musician considered. Then he burst into the air that every fisherman knows:

"The grub is in the galley and the rum is in the jug—
Storm along, John! John, storm along!
The skipper's from Hyannis and he gives us bully mug—
Storm along, storm along, John!"

"Chorus!" howled Barney, waving his cap. They joined in with a whoop:

"Storm along, John! John, storm along!
   Ain't I glad my day's work's done! 

Storm along, John! John, storm along!
Ain't I glad my day's work's done!"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 07:50 AM

Gibb-

Interesting verses but I agree they were probably contrived by the author.

Whoop, whoop, indeed!
Charley Noble

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

My guess is that "California Gold" is just another set of verses to "The Banks of the Sacramento."

The article only mentions the title of "South Australia." Unfortunately it doesn't give the lyrics.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 02:57 PM

Charlie--

Any idea about the "we were soon slipping up to our port"? I'm unclear whether that was always usually done with a windlass (or capstan) or if it was also done by hand (hauling). The passage mentions windlass for getting up the anchor, but I don't think it necessarily implies it for what follows.

Lighter--

Oops, sorry, you said that in your original post! Another late-night goof on my part.
When I see only titles mentioned, though, I begin to suspect they may have been noted from recent published works.

"Mobile Bay," IMO is a stand-out title, and though Williams may have sung it, it may also reflect the recent mention (1909) in Whidden's (Boston-published) book. It would of course be more fascinating if somehow both men being from Mass. there was some correlation between that and knowing "Mobile Bay." [Davis and Tozer may have been the only other text to mention "Mobile Bay" at this point.]

The "California Gold" and "Banks of Sacramento" may be duplicates -- I suppose now you are saying it's like listing both "Santa Anna" and "Plains of Mexico." When I first read your post I thought you were referring to the 1906 Hutchison article I posted, in which he has these two different choruses, one after another:

Good-bye, my love, good-bye,
I cannot tell you why,
I 'm off to Californy
To dig the yellow gold.

and

Blow, boys, blow,
For Californy, O!
We're bound for Sacramento
To dig the yellow gold.

The second doesn't quite fit "Sacramento," but otherwise it suggests it. I imagine the first one could be titled "California Gold." Therefore, I wondered whether this grouping of the two, title-only, by Williams, might have reflected some reading he did. He need not necessarily have read Hutchison; the latter seemed to have drawn most of his chanty examples from print, so there might be another source.

Then again, it may just me being way too skeptical, again.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 03:11 PM

Gibb, it's possible to be too skeptical as well as too trusting. Unfortunately, it's also possible not to be sure when or whether it's happening.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 08:00 PM

Gibb-

"we were soon slipping up to our port"

There's reference to a tug, I believe, which implies that they were using a capstan shanty for hauling up the anchor. Then a hawser would be passed from the tug to the ship (or the other way around) and they would have been towed up to the docks. Some docks might have capstans installed to warp the ships in for their final mooring, but the crew aboard ship wouldn't be singing shanties for the dockyard gang who was doing that work.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 09:36 PM

Thanks, Charlie!

So it's quite possible that the "The Jolly Waggoner" ballad verse quoted was not being used as a shanty. The individual mentioned singing it is earlier noted in the text as being the ship's "comedian" (or something like that) who was always seeing old English songs. Maybe he was just singing it for fun at this point.

I'm noting this because the earlier source we had from this, an Australian maritime website, was quoting it with the indication that it was used to heave anchor.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 06:00 AM

re: The James H. Williams article, it seems pretty significant, and I finally tracked it down for myself. I'll just add a couple notes to Lighter's exposition.

BLOW THE MAN DOWN is very similar to the one in Luce's NAVAL SONGS, 1883/1902. The editor does mention that work at the start of the article, saying that Williams' lyrics differ a lot. And they do. But not on this one song.

RIO GRANDE contains the perhaps interesting phrase, "bonny brown maid."

BOWLINE is mixed with "Haul Away Joe" in its chorus.

The FIRE DOWN BELOW here is the one Hugill calls version "B" -- that is, with a "weigh heigh ho" as opposed to "fetch a bucket of water." So far in this thread the only other *specific* appearance of that has been in Hatfield's Pensacola > Nice account. However, I have been using the FIRE DOWN BELOW tag when that title is mentioned alone, and it's possible the two chanties are getting confounded.

Meloney, who wrote in 1915 and took many of his lyrics from Masefield or Davis/Tozer, took his LONG TIME AGO, BOWLINE, GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL, WHISKEY JOHNNY, BONEY, and DRUNKEN SAILOR from Williams. This means that little if any of Meloney's article is original.

Williams' lyrics, however, do appear to be quite unique.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 11:07 AM

Thanks, Gibb, for saving me the trouble of comparison.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Mar 11 - 07:03 AM

1908        Broadwood, Lucy E., Percy Grainger, Cecil J. Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frank Kidson, J.A. Fuller-Maitland, and A.G. Gilchrist. "[Songs Collected by Percy Grainger]." _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_ 3(12) (May 1908): 170-242.

Some chanties come towards the end of the article.

MR. STORMALONG has the flip-flop of choruses here. Several melodic phrases variants, and details of ornamentation, are noted in the accompanying score.
//
STORM ALONG. Wind'us (Windlass) Chanty
Collected and noted by H.E. Piggott and Percy Grainger
Sung by Mr. John Perring, of Dartmouth, at Dartmouth, Jan. 18th and 25th, 1908.

Old Stormy's dead and [/aden] in his grave.
A, a, a, Mister Stormalong.
Stormy's dead and in his grave.
With me a-yo [/To me way hey we'll] stormalong.
//

About the demand for good chantymen, it says:
//
Mr. Perring has been a deep-sea sailor to most shores of the world, in the capacity of chantyman; often merely singing for the others while they did the actual work. He tells tales of sea-captains vying with each other in their efforts to secure for their own ships any renowned chantyman, sure that his enlivening presence would stir their crews to unwonted briskness…
//

On regulation verses, improvisation, and non-narrative character of lyrics:
//
Mr. Perring explained that, as the length of a chanty depends upon the duration of the shipboard work to which it is sung, only a few of its verses are fixed and wide-spread, the remainder being made up on the spur of the moment. Thus the words are often devoid of any real plot or story, each verse frequently painting a separate picture of its own, or lightly recalling some striking situation of the sailing days. He says he has always been in the habit of extemporizing the bulk of his verses. Therefore it is not surprising that two performances by him of the same chanty differ widely as to text, and considerably as to musical variants.

Thus, on January 18th, I908, he sang the words of "Storm Along" as follows:

(1) As above.
(2) Old Stormy here and Stormy there.
Stormy here and Stormy there.
(3) Our captain said: "We shall sail to-day."
Our captain said: " We sail to-day."
(4) To India that's far away.
What we don't see ev'ry day.
(5) And a place we don't see every day.
A place, etc.
(6) Old Stormy said, in the Biscay Bay. (twice).

while on January 25th, I908, they ran:

(1a) Oh, Stormy's dead and in his grave.
Stormy's dead, etc.
(2a) We'll dig his grave with a golden spade. (twice)
(3a) And lower him down with a silver thread. (twice)
(4a) Oh, storm to-day and storm no more.
Storm to-day, etc.
(5a) Until we reach our native shore. (twice)
(6a) I wish I was old Stormy's son. (twice)
(7a) I'd build a ship five thousand ton. (twice)
(8a) I'd build a ship to go round Cape Horn. (twice)
//

Gilchrist adds the note,
//
"Storm Along," "Tom's gone to Hilo," and "Lowlands" are all chanties which strike me as negro in character, if not in origin. A. G. G.
//
She does not say why it strikes her so.

Another MR. STORMALONG
//
STORMY. (PumpingChanty.)
Noted by Percy Grainger, July 24th, 1906.
Collected and sung by Mr. Charles Rosher.

1. Old Stormy he is dead and gone.
Hi, hi, hi, as we storm along.
Sormy he is gone below.
To my way O [/ho] storm along.

2. We'll dig his grave with a golden spade,
We'll lower him down with a silver chain.

Mr. Rosher has collected a rich-store of fine sea-chanties, learning to sing them in real sailor fashion when at sea.
//

//
LOWLANDS.
(or: DOLLAR AND A HALF A DAY.)
(WINDLASS CHANTY.)
Noted by Percy Grainger, July 24th, 1906.
COLLECTED AND SUNG BY MR. CHARLES ROSHER.

[w/ score]

A dollar and a half is a poor man's pay.
Lowlands, lowlands away, my John.
A dollar and a half it won't clear my way.
My dollar and a half a day.
//

It goes on to give another example of LOWLANDS AWAY that is evidently taken from the _Yachting Monthly_ of Oct. 1906. Not having seen it myself, I am aware that article was wriiten by Whall, but evidently it was unsigned. They give his version with the notes "American chanty" and "A windlass chanty, 1862." The notation differs slightly from what appeared in Whall's later book, speaking to the difficulty of notating the rhythm of Lowlands.

Another version. Its melody is unfamiliar.
//
DOLLAR AND A 'ALF A DAY.
(CAPSTAN CHANTY.)
Collected and noted by H. E. Piggott and Percy Grainger.
SUNG BY MR. JOHN PERRING, AT DARTMOUTH, JANUARY 18TH, 1908.

[w/ score]

1. Five dollars a day is a white man's pay.
Way…
Five dollars a day is a white man's pay.
My dollar and a 'alf a day.

2. But a dollar and a half is a nigger's pay. (twice)

3. The nigger works noth night and day. (twice)

(4) But the white man, he works but a day. (twice)

Mr. Perring said this is a "tipical" Negro chanty, sung by black sailors in the
East Indian trade, in complaint at their being harder worked and lower-waged than
white seamen.
//

Gilchrist notes a stevedore's song she evidentily heard from a friend, without music notation, "Tapiocum":
//
Another negro chanty, "Tapiocum," (learnt on shipboard by a friend from the
singing of an old coloured seaman), is of a more cheerful cast. It describes the
happy darkies hauling in the cargo "on de lebby " (levy = river embankment or
wharf), with a gay chorus of

"Working on de cotton-boat, ten bob a day, oh,
Pompey, can yo prick upon de banjo"? etc.
A. G. G.
//

Two versions of SANTIANA
//
SANTA ANNA.
(WINDLASS CHANTY).
Noted by Percy Grainger, JuIy 24th, 1906.
COLLECTED AND SUNG BY MR. CHARLES ROSHER.

[w/ score]

Santa Anna's dead and gone.
Away, Sante Anne.
O Sante Anne is gone below.
All on the plains of Mexico.

SANTA ANNA.
SECOND VERSION.
Collected and noted by Hon. Everard Feilding, London, June 19th, 1908.
SUNG BY MR. ROYSTON CLIFFORD.
[w/ score]
Far away there's a land they say.
Heave away, Sante Anna.
Sante Anna won the day.
On the banks and plains of Mexico.

Mr. Clifford sometimes reverses the order of succession of the first and second
half of the tune. He remembers no other verse but the following, which he says
is the last verse:

Thought I heard the chief mate say:
        By the banks, etc.
One more pull and then belay.
        Heave away, etc.
//
So, the reversal was evidently somewhat common.

Kidson makes the following VERY INTERESTING note about the age and geographic origins of chanties:
//
When the history of the Sailor's Chanties comes to be written a great many difficult problems will have to be faced. For instance, it will have to be asked how it comes about that so many are, obviously, of American origin. Also, how it is that so many seem to centre round Mexico, or have place-names belonging to that quarter of the American Continent. Also, why we do not find any English, or other European coast or port included in the random rhymes which are strung together in chanties. Miss Gilchrist's note [a melody comparison to High Barbaree] is of considerable interest, but I doubt very much the "Coast of Barbaree's " connection with the American chanties. It seems exceedingly strange that among, the great number of chanties lately noted there are none that we can confidently assign to a period as early as the 18th century.
//
Why was it so strange? Why was it so difficult? It would only seem so if it was assumed chanties were English/European and prior to the 19th century. But who says that was to be assumed? Who started that assumption on track, such that Kidson would be faced with the "difficulty" of placing chanties in the Gulf/Mexico rather than just saying, "Hey guys, there are lots of songs focused here so, if anything, let's assume they started there"?

TOMMY'S GONE. Note the unusual pumping and capstan ascriptions.
//
TOM'S GONE TO ILO.
(PUMPING CHANTY.)
Noted by Percy Grainger, April 3rd, 1907.
COLLECTED AND SUNG BY MR. CHARLES ROSHER.

[w/ score]

1. Tom has gone, and I'll go too.
Away, haul e Ilo.
O Tom has gone and I'll go too.
Tom's gone to Ilo.

(2) Tom he was my dearest friend. (twice)
(3) Tom has gone to Dixie's land. (twice)

Mr. Rosher says that the verses from "Storm Along," "We'll dig his grave, etc.," and "We'll lower him down, etc.," often got worked into this chanty.
…
TOM'S GONE TO ILO.
(CAPSTAN CHANTY.)
SECOND VERSION.
Collected and noted by H. E. Piggott and Percy Grainger.
SUNG BY MR. JOHN PERRING, AT DARTMOUTH, JANUARY 18TH, 1908.

[w/ score]

(1) Tom is gane (gone) and I'll go too. (twice)
(2) Tom is gane, what shall I do? (twice)
(3) He's gane away across the sea. (twice)
(4) When he comes back he'll marry me. (twice)
(5) And he'll no longer go to sea,
    But stay at home along with me.

This is one of the most interesting and characteristic variants I have seen, and strikes me as distinctly negro in flavour. The avoidance of the leading-note is worth noting. Gapped scales-with one or sometimes two notes missing-are noticeable amongst other negro melodies, such as the plantation-hymns of the Jubilee singers. This fact has led to the assumption that such negro tunes are of Scottish extraction. -A. G. G.
//
OK, so Gilchrist has expanded on the sort of reason for her earlier comments.

SHALLOW BROWN
//
SHALLOW BROWN.
(HAULING CHANTY.)
Collected & noted by H. E. Piggott & Percy Grainger.
SUNG BY MR. JOHN PERRING, AT DARTMOUTH, JAN. 18TH AND 25TH, 1908.

[w/ score]

1. Shallow Brown, you're going to leave me.
Shallow, Shallow Brown.
Shallow Brown, you're going to leave me.
Shallow, Shallow Brown.

(2) Shallow Brown, don't ne'er deceive me. (twice)
(3) You're going away across the ocean. (twice)
(4) But you'll ever be my heart's devotion. (twice)
(5) For your return my heart is burning. (twice)
(6) When you return, we'll then get married. (twice)
(7) I'll not regret I ever tarried. (twice) etc.

This is supposed to be sung to Shallow Brown, as his ship is weighing anchor, by a woman standing on the quay, Mr. Perring said.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Mar 11 - 04:00 AM

1906        Gilchrist, Annie G., Frank Kidson, Lucy E. Broadwood, Cecil J. Sharp, and J.A. Fuller-Maitland. "Sailors' Songs, Collected by Annie G. Gilchrist." _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_ 2(9): 236-249.

Gilchrist got the songs from a Mr. W. Bolton, a 66 yr old retired sailor of 35 yrs (merchant and navy), last voyage in 1887. His navy career ended in 1857, so I presume his merchant service was 57-87. In addition to the "forecastle songs" and chanties presented, Gilchrist notes that he also sang "Boney was a Frenchman," "The Banks of Sacramento,"
and" Paddy on the Railway," to tunes that compared well to the ones in Davis/Tozer. Gilchrist recorded Bolton in Southport in 1905-1906.

Forecastle songs are:
Admiral Benbow
Gilderoy
The Wreck of the "Gilderoy"
The Greenland Whale Fishery
The Golden Vanity
I'll Go No More A-roving
The Wreck of the "Industry"

Chanties:
Shangadore
Across the Western Ocean
The Hawk's Eye Man

One of the forecastle songs looks like "A-Roving." However, despite obvious similarities, it is really a different song.
//
I'LL GO NO MORE A-ROVING.

Oh, if my child should chance to die,
Mark well what I do say,
Oh if my child should chance to die,
The bells should ring so sweet-e-ly,
And I'll go no more a-roving
For roving's been my ruin
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.

…
The tune is a version of "The Maid of Amsterdam" (see " A·roving," in Toz.er's
Sailors' Songs for the more usual form)-a well-known chanty derived from a ballad
which Mr. John Masefield traces back to the time of Elizabeth… But only the refrain of Mr. Bolton's song has any connection with the words of this other chanty. -A. G. G.

The burden in this is the same as in the well-known sailors' song above-mentioned,
one version of which is printed in The Scottish Students' Song·Book, and begins "At
Number Three, Old England Square." -F. K.
//

SHENANDOAH is the first chanty. Bolton must have known an indecent version.
//
SHANGADORE. Pumping Chanty.

O, Shangadore, I love your daughter,
Aray, ye rolling river!
I love my grog much more than water,
Ah-ha-ha! I'm bound away,
'Cross the wide Missouri.

Mr. Bolton refused to give me the rest of the words! "Shangadore" is a corruption of "Shenandoah "-the American river of that name. …this well known American chanty, …The tune appears to be of negro
origin; it is at least of negro character…. The tune is a difficult one to bar correctly, from the evident tendency of the chorus (as I understand in chanties generally) to overlap the solo….
//

And Ralph Vaughan-Williams adds,
//
I have noted a close variant of this chanty under the name" Shenandoah" from Mr. Danger, at King's Lynn.
//

//
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN. Hauling Chanty.

Solo: Xxxxx
Cho. Xxxxx
Solo: A dollar a day is a nigger's pay,
Cho. Across the western ocean.
//
Bolton could not remember the words at the beginning.

HOGEYE
//
THE HAWK'S-EYE MAN. Capstan Chanty.

Oh, the 'awk's-eye man is the man for me,
And when he comes ashore he has a jolly spree,
And the 'awk's-eye—
Roll the boat ashore, And the 'awk's-eye—
Roll the boat ashore, And the 'awk's-eye, Ho!
She wants the 'awk's-eye man.

Scraps of other verses were recollected as follows:

Sally in the garden sifting sand,
And Jenny in the house with the hawk's-eye man.

With his hawk's-eye ...
And when he comes ashore
He rattles at my door,
Oh, Johnnie is my hawk's-eye man.

This curious tune has, I think, like "Shangadore," a decided negro flavour.
//

Finally, Gilchrist and Kidson respond to Whall's idea (in his Yachting Monthly article) that "chanty" derives from lumberjacks.
//
It may be noted that the writer derives the name "shanty" from Canadian lumber-or shanty-men "who were ever great singers," but were, and still are, called "shanty-men" because they lived in shanties. -A. G. G.

I think the foregoing derivation of the puzzling words" chanty" or "shanty" is very probably correct. I cannot agree with its supposed French origin, and certainly "Chantyies," so far as the term goes, have come to us from "across the Western Ocean," though a French-Canadian source might point to the word used in a French sense. -F. K.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 02:28 AM

1914        Unknown. "The Recollections of a West Indiaman, Being the Reminiscences of a Steamship Officer of His Apprenticeship in a Windjammer." The Master, Mate and Pilot 7(2) (July 1914): 38-40, 60.

A publication of The American Association of Masters, Mates, and Pilots.

Author was an apprentice in a West Indiaman, from October 1864. Served in a barque out of Liverpool, to the Leeward and Windward Islands (Barbados, Antigua) and the Guianas. He was a sailor for 46 years.

Could this be Bullen writing? 1864/1865 would not necessarily contradict his earliest voyage to the West Indies, as I understand it.

Re: his second voyage to Barbados, discharging cargo, and subsequent voyages, he notes the role and quality of Black chantymen. He remarks on what were presumably "hitches" in their singing. SHENANDOAH, LOWLANDS AWAY, and something called "Ladies, fare-ye-well" are the chanties cited.

//
The cargo had be discharged by hand—that is, by a crab winch. Eight men manned the winch and it was hard work in the hot sun and very slow. It took fifteen to twenty minutes to heave a weight out of the hold into the lighters alongside. Of course the negroes gave a hand and the men would start a chantey, and when there were seven or eight ships in the bay with crews engaged in similar occupations we heard some verv fine singing. The negroes were the finest chanteymen. Their choruses were exquisite to listen to….

Owing to the trouble that our captain had had at various times with drunkenness amongst English crews he decided in the future to ship only negroes in the forecastle, and for the remaining years of my apprenticeship I sailed with colored crews. Many of them hailed from Baltimore and the cotton ports of the southern United States. They were fine sailors, these men, quiet, strong and respectful: but my pleasantest memory in regard to them was their chanteying. They sang the choruses in weird falsetto notes and with the fascinating pronunciation of the Southern darkey. They sang a chantey for every little job and the way they thundered out such plaintive melodies as "Shenandoah, I Love your Daughter" or "My Lowlands Away" made them a treat to listen to. I once heard a well-known prima donna in Liverpool say that our singing was the finest harmony she had ever heard, and I have seen crowds of people on the dock head there listening to our colored "jacks"' warping out to "Ladies, fare-ye-well" (an outward-bound song), and, as sailors say, "their tears were running down into the dock."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 02:50 AM

1919        Paine, Ralph D. _The Old Merchant Marine: A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors._ New Haven: Yale University Press.

Brief quotations of "Blow the Man Down," "Shenandoah," "Blow Boys Blow", and (elsewhere in the text) "The Dreadnaught," all called "chantey".

Pg 152:
//
Most of the famous chanteys were born in the packet service and shouted as working choruses by the tars of this Western Ocean before the chanteyman perched upon a capstan and led the refrain in the clipper trade. You will find their origin unmistakable in such lines as these:

As I was a-walking down Rotherhite Street,
        'Way, ho, blow the man down; 

A pretty young creature I chanced for to meet,
      Give me some time to blow the man down.

Soon we'll be in London City,
        Blow, boys, blow, 

And see the gals all dressed so pretty,
       Blow, my bully boys, blow.

Haunting melodies, folk-song as truly as that of the plantation negro, they vanished from the sea with a breed of men who, for all their faults, possessed the valor of the Viking and the fortitude of the Spartan. Outcasts ashore — which meant to them only the dance halls of Cherry Street and the grog-shops of Ratcliffe Road — they had virtues that were as great as their failings. Across the intervening years, with a pathos indefinable, come the lovely strains of

Shenandoah, I'll ne'er forget you, 

    Away, ye rolling river, 
   
Till the day I die I'll love you ever,
    Ah, ha, we're bound away.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: open mike
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 02:51 AM

i will have a radio show focussing on chanties on April 9. Look for more info and links.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: open mike
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 02:54 AM

every time i see this thread title i have been
tempted to post this in reply...i am now
giving in to the temptation..

The Advent and Development of Panties

so,there.

bloomers, bvd's, boxers, bikinis, jockeys, etc.