The Advent and Development of Chanties

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 03:21 AM

I have included here the chanties or chanty-relevant songs contained in Gordon's manuscript collections that were filed in the bawdy-songs "Inferno" collection. This was only because that collection was available to me on-line. Does anyone know if transcripts of the other manuscripts are publicly accessible on-line, or must one go to the Library of Congress?

Written down by R.M. Davids, Cross X Ranch, Woodmere Florida, c. 1924. Sent in to R.W. Gordon by J.C. Colcord 12/21/29.

[A-ROVING]
//
I'LL GO NO MORE A ROVING
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

Now mark well what I say.

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

And she was mistress of a trade.
I'll go no more a roving, for you fair maid,

I'll go no more a roving, for rovings been my ruin,

I'll go no more a roving, for you fair maid.

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

And she did have a maidenhead.
I laid this maid down on the bed,
 

And slote away her maidenhead.
I laid this maid over in such style

That in nine months she had a child.
//


Texts acquired by Robert Winslow Gordon while he lived in California, ca. 1920-23.

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN] Contributor unidentified.
//
BLOW THE MAN DOWN.---
Oh blow the man down, bullies blow him away

To my Way-Hay-ay Blow the man down

Oh blow the man down, bullies blow him away

Give me some time to blow the man down.

As I was a walking down Paradise Street

A pretty young damsel, I happened to meet.

I said where are you ging, my pretty maid

I'm going a-milking, kind sir she said.

Then I smiled at this damsel, so beautous to see

And said-pretty maiden will you milk me.

Oh no Sir she answered, oh no sir not I

If I was to milk you I'd milk you too dry.

I gave her 5 shillings, she took me in tow

And away to her stateroom we quickly did go.

As I stripped off my dunnage and jumped into bed

This fair maid she scared me till I was nearly dead.

Her catheads came off when she took off her dress

Also with her bonnet came off her bright tress.

Then she unscrewed her left leg-unhooked her right ear

By that time believe me, I was feelin' dam queer.

When she spat out her teeth, and gouged out her right eye,
I grabbed up my dunnage, and left her to die.

Take warnin' my hearties, when you go ashore

Steer clear of false riggins & moor to a whore.

A.M. Turner, 8/24/23.
[FIRE DOWN BELOW] "Pumping or Capstan chanty"
//
FIRE DOWN BELOW
Oh there's fire in the fo'c'sle, all hands on deck

Fire down below

There's fire in the fore-peak, comin' thru the deck

There's fire down below.

There's fire in the fore-top, fire in the main

We thought we had it drownded, there it comes again.

There's fire in the cabin, fire in the poop,

There's a fire in the galley, burnin' up the soup.

The old man he's a terror, allays cussin' at the crew,

If this old wagon burns, me boys, he'll only get his due.

The old woman she's a pissin', she's spoutin' like a whale

The ocean is a risin' way 'bove the t'gallant rail.

Pass along the buckets boys, and let the old girl spout

Double bank the pump my sons, we'll drownd the ----- out.
//

[HANDY MY BOYS] "To' gallan's'l halyards chanty."
//
HANDY, ME BOYS, BE HANDY.
As I was a strollin' one fine summer day

So handy, my boys, so handy,

A rosy cheeked damsel, I met on the way

By handy, me boys, be handy.

She passed out her hawser and took me in tow

I shortened all sail and away we did go.


She led me to her father's halls

To a beautiful garden inside the walls.

And there I embraced this pretty maid

And love me, Oh love me, kind sir, she said.


Then she led me to her snowhite bed

And I hugged her there till she was dead.
//

[BLOW YE WINDS] "Fragment—Capstan Chanty"
//
Three times they give you peasoup

Three tines they give you duff

On Saturdays they give you rice

To make you blow and puff .
So blow ye winds in the mornin'
Blow ye winds Aye Oh

We're outward boun' in the ship Renown

To the port of Callao.
//

[SACRAMENTO]?
//
RIKKI DIKKI DOO DA DAY
One night I slept with an English maid

Dooda dooda

A virgin pure as the snow--she said

Rikki dikki doo da day.

She swore that I was her very first love

And gave me her maidenhead by the Gods above.

I spent all my payday in buying her clothes

But all that she gave me was a dam dirty dose.

So every night when I go out to piss

I curse the whore who gave me this.

Now all you young sailors take my advice

Don't play with virgin women, for you'll have to pay the price.
//

J.N. West, Bayonne, New Jersey, 11/10/24.
[SALLY BROWN]
//
SALLY BROWN
Oh Sally Brown my love grows bigger

But for Heavens sake don't f-ck that nigger.
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A LONG TIME AGO
I wish to God that I'd never been born

To me way-hey-heyan.

To go rambling round and round Cape Horn,

A long time ago.

Around Cape Horn where the wild winds blow,

Around Cape Horn through sleet and snow.

It's a long, long time since I've had a glass rum

Oh, if I was the skipper I'd give the crew some.

Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a "short time".
[This and some more lines of like character were repeated twice.]
Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a good "f-ck",

Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a good "f-ck".


And it's a long, long time since I've had a sore cock.


And it's a long, long time since my last "chancre" went.


Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a "whole night".
//


[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] with (?)[GO TO SEA NO MORE]
//
"I cannot remember some lines that are missing and
anyway this whole thing seems garbled to me but that's
how I heard it from an old Irishman."

ROLL THE COTTON DOWN
Oh, when last I was in Frisco Town

Roll the cotton down,

I never ever will forget

Oh, roll the cotton down.

I was drinking steam beer all day long

Until I could drink no more, no more.

And I felt in my mind full inclined

That I would go to sea no more.

Oh, last night I slept with "Angelina"

An' she was afeared and wouldn't turn in.

But when I woke up next morning

All my clothes and money then had fled.

Oh, when I was walking down the street

All the whores and pimps were roaring.

See there goes poor Jack to sea once more

So I went down to a boarding house.

Which was kept by Mister "Shang Haj" Brown

Says he, I'll give you a chance and take your advance.

And send you to sea once more

So he shipped me on a whaler.

Who was bound for the cold antartic seas

An' I had no money to buy clothes.

And Lord almighty how I froze.
//


John R. Spears, Utica, New York, 3/20/25.
[RIO GRANDE]
//
"Then they began at the top and sang it over again
until the cable was up and down. They were supported—
at least once I remember--by the captain--a Norwegian.-
I remember that when I went to Greenland on the bark Argenta for a load of cryolite the sailors usually sang
Sunday School songs, learned at the bethels, instead of
chanteys, and those were sung at the windlass only.
They never sang when making sail. On smother bark in
the port (Ivighet [?]) the men sang 'Away Rio' over and
over again--no other song of any kind."

AWAY RIO
Oh where are you going to my pretty maid?

Away Rio!

Oh where are you going to my pretty maid?

And we're bound to Rio Grande.

"I'm going out milking, sor," she said.

May I go with you my pretty maid?

"Oh, yes, if you please, kind sir," she said.

Well then will you diddle me, my pretty maid?

"Oh, yes, if you please, kind sir," she said.
//


R.W. Yearley, Quincy, Illinois, 5/28/26
[SLAPANDER]
//
A young Dutch soldier came over the Rhine,

Schnapoo, schnapoo,

A young Dutch soldier came over the Rhine,

Schnapoo, schnapoo,

A young Dutch soldier came over the Rhine,

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -,
Schnapoo, schnapoo,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Schnapoo.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No, my daughter is too young,

Schnapoo, schnapoo,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

O no, mother, I'm not too young,

O no, mother, I'm not too young,

Oh no mother, I'm not too young,

It's often been tried by Richard and John,

//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 11:01 AM

Gibb, thanks for putting up the Carpenter and the Gordon materials, especially from Gordon's "Inferno" collection. At least we know that there were chanties being sung in San Francisco area in the 1920's! I don't suppose Gordon gives any indication about how far back these songs might go in that area. This is the kind of material that I had hoped to find 75 years earlier, but without success on the "San Francisco to Sydney" thread.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 11:30 AM

Gibb-

Do we know any more about "R.M. Davids, Cross X Ranch, Woodmere Florida, c. 1924"?

I suppose if the Colcord archives at the Penobscot Maritime Museum were in any kind of order, one could find some information there. But unfortunately they are in almost total disarray.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 03:57 PM

Hi guys,

I am just collating this material from online. It's starting to make a little more sense to me now that I have a better perspective on Gordon's bio. The retrospective album on Gordon's work is here:
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Gordon/AnnotationsandTexts.html

And a reproduction of the Inferno collection is here:

http://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1910s/1917-1933_gordon_inferno_collectio

I drew out only the texts I considered to be relevant to chanties development. There are of course other sailor-ly songs like Abrahm Brown, Madamoiselle from Armentierres, etc.

In addition to these, there are the texts from Gordon's 1927 NYT articles, that I put above.

There are Gordon's articles in _Adventure_ magazine.

There's the 1938 book, which I haven't seen, based on stuff Gordon Collected, _Folk-Songs of America_.

Lighter provided a list of shanties recorded by Gordon, posted upthread on Feb. 22. However, I am confused by the discrepancy between that number of items and the supposedly "over 300" sailor song items that the LP liner notes say he recorded.

If you guys have any other texts from the Gordon manuscript collections (there are supposedly hundreds?), picked up here or there, please consider posting them.

To answer your question, Charley, my guess is that Colcord collected some "unprintable" songs during her research. I seem to remember my friend Revell Carr saying these unprintable songs were gathered somewhere in manuscript form. I don't know if the one's she sent to Gordon, i.e. those in Inferno collection, correspond. The Inferno has 13 items, but I only considered 1 (A-Roving) to be useful here.
I know there has been discussion of this, but don't remember where. The question would be whether any of Colcord's informants would have sung indecent songs in her presence. If they didn't perhaps it is only these 13 items that she got, which had to be written down and "submitted" by someone else to alleviate the awkwardness. Just speculating.

I don't have Colcord's book with me. Is RM Davids mentioned as an informant?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 04:23 PM

R. M. Davids is acknowledged, among others, as an informant and a former seafarer who had "swallowed the anchor." Preface, p. 11, Songs of American Sailormen, Joanna C. Colcord, Bramhill House, NYC, © 1938.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 04:53 PM

Thanks, Charley.

That brings up the question of whether Colcord went to Florida, or if the information Davids gave was purely through written correspondence.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 08:20 PM

I realize that the posts I've been making recently may seem haphazard. This is partly because I am going through bits here and there where I've noted references to chanties, and just now trying to consider them.

But the other thing I am working on, slightly more coherent, is the recorded field sources. These included:

-The stuff from Library of Congress on the American Sea Songs and Shanties album (posted earlier)
-A couple more tracks from Capt. L. Robinson from those sessions
-Gordon collection stuff
-Carpenter collection stuff
-Lomax stuff

These are what's on my radar right now. I'd appreciate other sources.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 08:30 PM

1977        Jones, Bessie & The Georgia Sea Island Singers. _Georgia Sea Island Songs_. New World Records 80278.

From the Notes by Alan Lomax.

1960 Lomax made his first trip to the Sea Islands and recorded people led by singers surviving from Parrish's day.
//
Lydia (Mrs. Maxfield) Parrish, wife of the painter, had much to do with the authenticity of the songs in this collection…

She sponsored the formation of a society of the best singers and dancers, the Spiritual Singers of Georgia, whose members each received a button distinguishing him or her as a "Star Chorister" and signified that he or she was a folk singer and dancer in the old tradition. The regular meetings and performances of this group afforded an opportunity for the best singers on the island to continue their art and to keep alive a
remarkable body of songs and an even more remarkable musical style, very African in character. I first heard them when I visited St. Simons in l935, in the company of Zora Neale Hurston, the great black folklorist, who had worked with Mrs. Parrish. When I returned twenty-five years later with a stereo rig adequate to record this multipart music, I was greeted as an old friend. During that visit I recorded Group A (as designated in the notes that follow), led by surviving members of the original island singers, Joe Armstrong and Willis Proctor.
//

Later, the group "the Sea Islands Singers," was formed to tour the country and present the style, composed of Big John Davis, the community leader; Bessie Jones, song leader; Peter Davis, bass; Henry Morrison, Emma Ramsay, and Mable Hillary.

A few work songs are on the album, but I've only seen fit to excerpt two here. And the first, "Raggy Levy," is only to elucidate Parrish's text. Though classified it under the category of chantey, I am having a hard to envisioning it as the sort of song that could correspond with sailor worksongs. It has the "grunt" that, like in menhaden chanties, comes *after* a line of singing. The performers are the touring troupe: John Davis, leader; Peter Davis, Bessie Jones, Henry Morrison, and Willis Proctor.
//
Raggy Levy

In this black stevedore's song (part of the family that inspired so many better-known chanties) made for lifting or pulling heavy weights, the pulls come at the end of every pair of lines. The meaning is obscure. The song peers back into a long-dead time of rising soon (early) in the morning to sit by the fireplace and breakfast off sweet potatoes roasting in the ashes, and of fences built by hand of piled-up stones. Who Mr. Sippelin was or what ill fate overtook poor Raggy Levy to reduce him to a
jaybird's condition I could not determine. However, it's a great song for singing.

Leader: Oh, Raggy Levy,
Group: Oho! Raggy Levy,
L: Oh, Raggy Levy,
G: Poor boy, he's ragged as a jaybird.

L: In the mornin',
G: Oho! soon in the mornin',
L: In the mornin'
G: When I rise, I'm goin' ta sit by the fiah.

L: Mr. Sippelin,
G: Hi gonna build me a stone fence,
(Repeat)

L: Sweet potato,
G: Oho! Sweet potato,
L: Sweet potato,
G: Poor boy, got two in the fiah,

L: Mr. Sippelin,
G: Hi gonna build me a stone fence.

L: Sweet potato,
G: Oho! Sweet potato,
L: Oh, sweet potato,
G: Poor boy, got two in the fiah.

L: Old Mr. Sippelin,
G: Hi build another stone fence.

L: Raggy Levy,
G: Oho! Raggy Levy.
L: Raggy Levy,
G: Poor boy, just raggy as a jaybird.
//
When Lomax said that this kind of song inspired chanties, I think perhaps he is just vamping off the idea, so far as that formally the genres are a bot different. However, Lomax's choice of wording, "the pulls come at the end of every pair of lines," reminds me of Nordhoff's description of cotton screwing. Perhaps it was that the cotton screwers did not exert themselves at timed points within the text, but rather after the lines, with a grunt. If so, that would alow for songs to be sung slow, ametrically, and with rubato/melisma. Nordhoff didn't mention grunts ("hunh!"), but then again, neither does Lomax, here.

One can hear a sample of the track and the following one here:

http://www.allmusic.com/album/georgia-sea-island-songs-r88371

The other chantey is [MONEY DOWN]. This rendition, I believe, is a sort of reproduction of the version collected by Parrish. Recorded in 1960, with Joe Armstrong, leader; Jerome Davis, John Davis, Peter Davis, Bessie Jones, Henry Morris, Willis Proctor, and Ben Ramsay.
//
Pay Me
(arr. Lydia Parrish)

A stevedore song long ago preempted and made famous by the Weavers…

Chorus
Pay me, oh, pay me,
Pay me my money down.
Pay me or go to jail,
Pay me my money down.

Think I heard my captain say,
Pay me my money down,
Tomorrow is my sailin' day,
Pay me my money down.
(Chorus)

Wish I was Mrs. Alfred Jones's son,
Pay me my money down.
I'd stay in the house and drink good rum,
Pay me my money down.
(Chorus)
//

I am surprised they are also singing this with "hunh!" Parrish did not indicate that. And yet (unlike Raggy Levy), this does have a halyard chanty form and would not seem to call for the grunts.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: RTim
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 08:38 PM

This Thread should be printed as a book!!!!!!!

Tim

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Aug 11 - 04:43 PM

Carpenter's writing is of much interest for its role in the discussions both of how chanties developed and how *writing about* chanties developed. His belief was that African-American work songs were a major contributing element to the form of chanties, and that chanties did not exist in great numbers until after Dana's time. These are the sort of ideas that have been voiced on this thread (though all may not agree, it is my opinion at least), after studying the literary evidence available. What is significant is that Carpenter arrived at those ideas without so much of a literary survey (though he did read certain things, say Alden's 1882 article, though I'm not sure of the extent of what else). Rather, his material was the recordings he gathered and the statements of his informants. Living at the time he did, he was able to do real ethnography and oral history. The troupe of folklorists in Sharp's school did also do fieldwork, but their style differed in that they always accomopanied their discussions with a run-down of what prior authors on the subject had said. I think that all that secondary reading, though necessary in scholarship, colored their presentations in a way that Carpenter's, perhaps, was not.

Carpenter, Gordon, and to some extent, Lomax, all ended up with similar thrusts of emphasis and conclusions about chanty development. These, I think, were on a different "track" than those of the early British folklorists *and* the writers who followed in the vein of what one might call "secondary-source collating." It may be significant that all three men were American and all did extensive field recording in America.

1931        Carpenter, James M. "Lusty Chanteys from Long-dead Ships." New York Times (12 July 1931).

1st of 3-article series.

Notes that 3 of his informants were on the sea by 1850.

One went to sea in 1846. Sang:
[HUNDRED YEARS]
//
'Watchman, watchman, don't take me,
O-o-o, yes, O!
I've got a wife and a small family,
A hundred years ago.
//

More chanties…

[HOGEYE]
//
Oh, the hog-eye men are all the go
When they come down to San Francisco!
With a hog-eye!
Railroad niggah an a hog-eye!
Row the boat ashore in a hog-eye!
O-o-o! An She wanted was a hog-eye man!
//

On the advent of chanties – arising in era of packet and clipper ships. Maybe 10 of the known chanties were from an earlier time.
//
As a natural consequence of the greatly increased crews of the clippers and large packets, with their massive spars and enormous spread of sail. there arose the chanteys. Perhaps half a score are of earlier origin, but by far the greater number belong to this period. For out of the twelve "choruses" listed by Dana…only one has come down to us, "Cheerily Men." And of these "choruses" "Cheerily Men" was the only one known to the three veteran sailors I have mentioned, who were at sea in 1849, although two of them gave me twenty-seven chanteys that were current during the period, and had heard six others. One of these men, who was at sea from 1846 to 1877, sang seventeen that are among the best known of the chanteys, and had heard seven others. So It is safe to say that the
greater majority arose between 1836 and 1877, the period of the clipper
ships.
//

Sailors "discovered" Black work songs.
//
These working choruses, frequently taken from the Negro laborers of different countries, especially the Southern States, existed in large numbers, for the Negro required a song to lighten his work. I have found scores that have never been published. Most of them are of the simplest nature, being little more than a rhythmical, melodious drone of nonsense syllables. But created In the midst of toil and chanted over and over again for the brief respite that they gave trom its weary monotony, they bear a hidden charm that the sailor was quick to discover. In the more pensive ones he must have found something of the strange satisfaction and restfulness of the chant.
//

Mentions sugar screwing here. I don't recall (though I wasn't looking for it?) Carpenter OR Gordon talking about cotton-screwing. The narrative of chanties developing from cotton screwing was there in writing about chanties, and the fact (?) that these two researchers aren't quick to relay that narrative MAY suggest that they were relatively uninfluenced by the published narratives. By the same token, drawing the comparison to sugar screwing, may suggest that Carpenter independently arrived at a similar idea.
//
A good example is furnished by a "sugar-screwing" chorus picked up
from the Negroes of Havana. Four men, gathered about a large press,
swung the four handles of a horizontal plane, one leading the chant,
the others failing in on the refrain:

A-hum-bl-ee! A-hum-bl-o! (solo)
Ah-ha! And a-hum-bl-ey! (refrain)
A-hum-bl-ee! A-hum-bl-o!
Ah-ha! And a-hum-bl-ey!

But here more than in other songs the words are futile without the
tune.
//

A hammering song is compared.
//
Another, taken from Negro pile drivers of the Southern ports, illustrates a rhythm adapted to the alternate blows of two laborers as they struck the same pile with huge sledges:

You's nothin' but a humbug! (First Singer.)
So they say! So they say! (Second Singer.)
You's nothin' but a humbug!
That's all I know!

This was sometimes varied so that it went:

Catfish grow on a huckleberry vines!
So they say! So they say!
Catfish grow on a huckleberry vines!
That's all I know!
//

And an actually capstan chantey, which Carpenter implies may have been a Black work-song:
//
A slightly more potent type came to be used aboard ship as a capstan
chantey:

Oh, I went to church. 1 went to chapel!
Pull down below!
And on the road I found an apple!
Pull down below!
Oh, hee-dle-allie!
Pull down below! (Crew)
Oh, hee-dle-allie in the valley!
Pull down below!
//

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

[TOMMY'S GONE]
//
Oh, Tommy's gone, what shall I do!
Hilo! Hilo!
My Tommy's gone and I'll go, too,
My Tom's gone to Hilo!
//

A very interesting statement of opinion on the songs of Dana's voyage, and their contrast with later songs:
//
And with each racing voyage around the boisterous Horn, across
the world to Australia, or through the typhoon-infested China Seas,
larger, faster, and more beautiful ships were constantly appearing, creating for the seafarer a new world. It is little wonder that the insipid "Yo-heave-ho" ing and the characterless "choruses," "Heave Round Hearty," "Heave to the Girls," and "Hurrah. Hurrah, My Hearty Fellows," that had served the drab decades preceding should give place to the virile, exuberant, and colorful cbanteys, "Blow The Man Down," "Sally Brown," "The Rio Grande" and "Shanadore."
//

Making the point that chanty texts weren't much about "the sea" per se.
//
Approached, then, as records of absorbing interest, they are at first
a little baffling in that they deal with almost every topic besides the sea. For despite the fact that they were created upon the sea, sung
upon the sea and handed down from chanteyman to chanteyman
for decades upon the sea, the 340 versions that I have collected mention
the sea in the most casual way only eighteen times. The expressions
are: "Went to sea," "bound to sea," "across the sea," "out to sea," "ready for sea," "across the Western Ocean," and, in a banterIng
tone, "the briny sea."

Obviously the sailors felt no need for lengthy descriptions of the sea, since the wild rude rhythm of their melodies and the bald, disjointed
meter of their verse entailed and inevitably had the wash and roll of the sea as an accompaniment.

If not the sea, what, according to their records, was uppermost in
their minds? A cross-section from their favorite chanteys will best
answer:… [chanties already quoted elsewhere]…

Here then, in the first stanzas of their favorite chanteys, is a fair
answer: Ships, "blowing the man down," drinking, love adventures,
burlesque heroes and real heroes.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Aug 11 - 04:53 PM

Copied from Vaughan's post above, for a point of reference on the "3 informants" that Carpenter was saying, in his article, were on the sea by 49/50...well, 2 of them. Not sure who the third was (yet), or if I misread something.

* Edward Robinson - born 1834 - to sea 1846
* Mark Page - born 1835 - to sea 1849
* James Forman - born 1844 - to sea 1856.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 01:26 PM

The third and final article in JM Carpenter's NYT series.

1931        Carpenter, James M. "Chanteys that 'Blow the Man Down.'" New York Times (26 July 1931).

Case study of "Blow the Man Down" to show the fluid and adaptable nature of chanties. Excerpts follow.

//
"Blow the Man Down."…In its numerous versions - I have
collected thirty in the United States and the principal ports of England,
South Wales, Scotland and Irelan - it has woven into itself two fore-castle
songs, "Radcliffe Highway" and "Tiger Bay"; two ballads, "Blow the Winds Westerly" and "The Farmer's Curst Wife"; one broadside, "The Indian Lass"; a Scottish bothy song, "Erin Go Bra"; four chanteys, "Knock A Man
Down," "The Black Ball Chantey Song," "The Flying Fish Sailor" and "The Ship Neptune"; and love adventures in Radcliffe Highway, Paradise Street, Denison Street, Waterloo Road, Winchester Street, Tiger Bay, Lemon Street, Cleveland Square. Scarborough Town, the outskirts of Bristol and two or three without a local habitation or a name.
//

Review of print sources: Chambers's 1869, Alden 1882, Adams 1879. But then supplemented by field sources, finding the song attributed to mid 1850s.
//
I had thought until a short time ago that this unusual ehantey was
of recent origin. since it was not included in lists given by Chambers Journal (1869), "On Board the Rocket" (1879), and Harper's Magazine
(1882). But recently I found two saIlors, both more than 90
years old, who stated that they bad heard it In 1854 and 1855. At
all events, a stanza. learned by a sailing-ship master in 1870,

We'll blow a man down and we'll knock a man down,
Give us some time to knock a man down.

is of unusual significance in its bearing on the origin of the chantey.
For in its earliest printed form, In 1879, it appears as "Knock
a Man Down":
[quotes Adams]

With this compare the version of a sea captain from Salem, Mass.,
who first went to sea in 1868;

I wish I was in Mobile Bay,
Way, hey, blow the man down!
A screwing cotton by the day,
Give me some time to blow the man down!

"Knock a Man Down" is clearly the original form of the chantey.
The tune unmistakably is of Negro origin. probably trom the cotton
screwers of the Southern ports. Barring the chorus, the air is
closer to that of a Negro chantey that I found recently than to the
current tune of "Blow the Man Down," which first appeared with
tbe printed version of 1883 [i.e Luce's Naval Songs]. There
the piece listed as "Black Ball Chantey Song," shows signs of a
thorough over-hauling and re-working:

Come all you young fellows that follow the sea,
With a yeo, ho! blow the men down!
And pray pay attention, and listen to me;
Oh, give me some time to blow the men down! [from Luce 1883]
//

//
…An encounter with a policeman, evidently a parody on the Black
Ball version, deals with the same theme:

As I was a-walking down Radcliffe Highway,
To me, way, hey, blow the man down!
I met a policeman and to me he did say,
Oh, give me some time to blow the man down!

"I know you're a buck by the cap that you wear;
I can tell you're a buck by the red shirt that you wear.

"You've sailed on a packet that flies the Black Ball;
You've robbed some poor Dutchman of boots, clothes and all."

"Oh, no, Mr. P'liceman, you do me great wrong,
I'm a Flying Fish sailor, just come from Hongkong!"

They gave me three months in Gamboree Jail
For booting and kicking and blowing him down.

A version from ScotIand gives new detail. After the verse beginning,
"I'm a Flying Fish sailor," it continues:

"My name is Pat Campbell, I live in Argyle;
I've traveled this nation for many the long mile.

"Through England, through Ireland, through Scotland ava,
And the name I go under is 'Bold Erin Go Bra.'"

Thus is revealed the source of the chantey "Erin Go Bra," current in
Scotland as a bothy ballad, whose lively scene depicts the discomfiture
of the sailors' old enemy, the police. Two stanzas from a colorful
version that I found last Summer will illustrate the chanteyman's
method of treating his material:

Ae nicht in Auld Reekie [Edinburgh] as I walked doon the street,
A saucy policeman I chanced for tae meet;

He gloored in me faca an' I gied him some jaw;
Says, "When came ye over frae Erin Go Bra!"

The policeman goes on to say, "I ken ye're a Paddie by the cut o' yer
Hair," and he concludes that "since ye're a Paddie, ye sudna be here." But

A switch o' black thorn that I held in my fist.
I made it aroon his big body tae twist;

The blood frae his napper I quickly did draw,
I showed him a game played in Erin Go Bra.
//

//
A fanciful version of "The Fish of the Sea," sung by an American
chanteyman to the tune of "Blow, Boys, Blow," was popular once
both in England and the United States. It seems better adapted to
the movement ot "Blow the Man Down," as sung by a chanteyman
in the north of England:

Now pray pay attention and listen to me,
To me way, hey, blow the man down!
And I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea.
Oh, give me some time to blow the man down!

Up jumps the cod with his big chuckle head,
He jumps in the chains for to heave the iron lead.

Oh, up jumps the flounder, the bottom to swim.
You fat-headed monster, don't do that again.

Then up jumps the porpoise with his long snoot;
He waltzes round the deck, sing" Ready, aboot!"

The next fish that came was a hoary old shark.
I'll eat you all up, if you play any lark!"

A short time ago I found a very old sea song, "Haul Together, Boys," which seems to be the source of the version quoted above. It was given to me by a fishwife, 88 years old, who learned it as a child from the "Iron Horse," another very old fishwife, so called on account of her great strength and imperviousness. to cold. The tune is the most suggestive of the sea that ever I have heard. The ballad begins:

An' it's up starts the herrin', the king o' the sea,
Singin' "Farewell to thee, boys,
Oh, farewell to thee!'"

So it's haul together, boys!
Stor-r-my weather, boys!
Let the wind blo-o-ow!
Stor-r-rmy weather, boys!
We shall sail slo-ow!
//

//
The sailors found keen amusement in the old ballad "The Farmer's
Curst Wife," just as the ballad singers of Scotland enjoyed "The
Wee Cooper of Fife," a ballad with a kindred theme. "The Farmer's
Curst Wife" appears in varying forms in four versions of "Blow the
Man Down," two from America and two others, more regular, from
England. Richard' Warner's version, one of the English renderings,
runs:

Now listen to me, and a story I'll tell,
To me way, hey, blow the man down!
Oh, listen to me, and a story I'll tell,
Give me some time to blow the man down!

There was on old farmer, as I have heard tell;
He had on old wife and he didn't wish her well.

Now the Devil he came to him one day at the plough;
"I want your old woman, I've come for her now.

"And if you're not civil, I'll take you as well."
So off with the old woman, right straight down to Hell.

There were three little devils chained up to the wall;
She took off her clog and she walloped them all.

Now these three little devils for mercy did bawl,
"Chuck out the old hag, or she'll murder us all!"

The American versions are rather more vigorous and colorful, showing, in one instance, the sailor's leaning toward a racy sea yarn:

As I was a-walking one morning in Spring,
Way, hey, blow the man down!
I walked into a country inn,
Oh give me some time to blow the man down!

I set meself down, and I called for some gin,
And a commercial traveler next came in.

We talked of the weather and things of the day;
Says he, "My friend, a story I'll tell.

"lt's of an old tailor in London did dwell;
The Devil came to him one day out of Hell.

"Says he, 'My friend, I've come a long way
Especially you a visit to pay.'"

Thereupon the frightened tallor calls out, "Oh, please, Mr. Devil,
don't take me away," and Satan replies soothingly:

"It's not you nor your daughter nor your son that I crave;
It's your grumbling old wife, the drunken old Jade."

The story continues as in the former rendering, but with ingeniously
improvised incident and vigorous idiom. …

A Scottish version adds a quaint touch. After the devil had pronounced his ultimatum and delivered the unwanted woman to her husband, the narrative concludes:

She was seven year gaun an' seven year comin'
An' she cried for the sawens she left in the pot.
//

//
…But among the chanteys' motley array of renderings, perhaps the
drollest portray the cruises down Tiger Bay, Radcliffe Highway.
Paradise Street, and numerous other landlocked harbors well
known to sailors. The taste for the incongruous, even to the point
of the grotesque, which preferred to "blow" rather than "knock" a
man down, to regard the fishes of the sea as sailors and the latter as
hangmen Johnnies or a "mixture of an Indian, a Turk, and a chimpanzee,"
would be expected to find in a drab London alley "flash-looking"
packets.

An incident of a land cruise related of a chanteyman illustrates the nature ot the raw material that was finally etherealized into the body...or the epics. For ten years he had been a packet sailor under the rough-and-ready code of ethics which deprived the men at the forecastle "of the pleasure of stealing from each other." During an
amour ashore, therefore, he stole a gold watch belonging to his sweetheart's mistress. His thick, massive shoulders and powerful stature, even at 86, lent easy credence to the story told by one of his mates that the chanteyman, entrapped the following evening by several men who were awaiting his return, smashed off the cumbersome part of a chair against a wall and used the long slats to the complete discomfiture of his adversaries.

So with contagious enthusiasm and picturesque symbolism the
chantey singer tells his crew:

I'll put on my long boots, and I'll blow the man down,
Way, hey, blow the man down!
I'll put on my long boots and I'll blow him right down,
Oh, gimmie some time to blow the man down!

As I was a-cruising down Paradise Street,
A flash-looking packet I chanced for to meet.

I fired off my bow gun to make her heave to,
She backed her main topsail. The signal she knew.

I hailed her in English and asked her the news,
"Thia morning from Sally Port, bound for a cruise."

Then I hove out my tow-rope and took her in tow,
And yard-arm to yard-arm to the grog shop did go.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 01:31 PM

1932        Hutchison, Percy. "Walking the Capstan 'Round." The New York Times (20 March 1932).

Hutchison (born 1875) reviews David Bone's collection. In the course, he offers this anecdote.

//
The present writer recalls the time when he first heard a capstan chanty. He was in the roadstead of Bridgetown, Barbados, and a short distance
away lay an English brig that was getting up anchor, the crew aided by a gang from the shore that made a business of such assistance for vessels carrying few hands. Since the ship the writer was aboard, a four-masted barkentine, had a donkey-engine forward, the anchor was never handled by sailors walking the capstan 'round; and although he had for weeks listened to halyard and close-haul chanties, had himself swung on the ropes in unison with others, he was unfamiliar with the marching rhythms with which stolid men lightened their weary rounds of the fo'c's'l head. Hence a reader can imagine his pleasure when he caught the wistful strains of "Shenandoah" drifting across the water from the deck of the brig.
//

He wrote an article on chanties in 1906, so I'd guess this incident was before then.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 01:12 AM

1938        Carpenter, J.M. "Chanteys in the Age of Sail." _New York Times_ (30 October 1938). Pg. XX6.

Carpenter had around 3 more years of fieldwork under his belt when he wrote this later article. I wish, however, he'd have matched the names of his informants to the texts!

An "unfamiliar" song, and [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN]:
//
During half a dozen years of knocking about British ports, by rallying the excellent memories of old salts, I have made a record of several hundred versions of chanteys not in the familiar collections.
Take this:

O I joined a ship to make a trip
Away to the Suth-ron Seas.
Blow high! Blo-o-ow lo-o-ow!

Or this:
Away, we're bound to go
Across the Western Ocean!
//

[HIGHLAND]
//
…Scottish chanteymen took aboard ship their bagpipe tune, "Hieland Laddie." And the spirited air and rhythm, born to the march-step of kilted clansmen, echoed for years to the clump of circling teet and the clack of capstan pawl as sailors weighed anchor out of the ports of the world. A Scottish chanteyman from Sunderland gave me the following version:

Whae hae ye been all the day,
Bonnie Lassie, Hieland Laddie?
I've been courtin' Allie Gray,
My bonnie Hieland Laddie!

Whae, hey, and awa we go!
Bonnie Lassie, Hieland Laddie!
Hey, hey, fair Hieland ho!
My bonnie Hieland Lassie!

But in the scuffle of the Chanteyman's workaday world, most of the romance of the ballad was shorn away, as in the following stanza:

Were you ever in Quebeck,
Hieand Laddie, Bonnie Laddie?
A-stowing timbers on the deck,
My bonnie Hieland Laddie!

Whay, hey, and away she goes!
Hieland Laddie, Bonnie Laddie!
Whay, hey, and away she goes,
My bonnie Hieland Laddie!
//

Tune + rhythm more important than text.
//
…For the ballad singer, having a story to tell, aimed at sense, coherency--and usually attained it. But in the chanteys tunes and rhythm count for everything; the words for next to nothing. For the chanteyman was not concemed with sense, but with sound. Occasionally he created glorious nonsense.
//

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
//
One swinging chantey tune…came obviously from Negro stevedores (in New Orleans or Mobile), sweating, laughing, showing rows of gleaming teeth as they sang:

O have you been in New Orleans!
Roll the cotton down!
O-O-O, rolling cotton day by day
O roll the cotton down!

It's there I worked on the old levee,
Roll the cotton down!
A-screwing cotton by the day,
O roll the cotton down!

Indeed, it is not surprising to find a fairly large proportion of the chanteys coming from the American South. Chanteymen were naturally
quick to press into service aboard ship the Negro gang-work songs--with their droll fun, languorous cadences, and well-worn rhythm.
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
The Southern chantey that follows, sung to slow plaintive melody, suggests the shimmer of dancing heat waves and the sleepy drone of grasshoppers of a Summer day:

Away down South where I was born,
To me way, hey, hey-yah!
Among the fields of yellow corn,
A long time ago!

O they set me free from s1avery,
But they shipped me aboard and sent me to sea,

My first voyage was around Cape Horn,
Where the nights were short and the days were long.
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
Belonging to this group--at least in its slow pensive tune and dreamy atmosphere--is a.curious chantey, "Low-lands." The refrain "low-land," is common to a great many songs. One Scottish song begins.

"Low in the low-lands a wee, wee boy did wander"—

And In the ballad, "The Golden Vanity"…

…Usually in the chantey the refrain seems to have been employed purely for its music and for its atmospheric effect, as shown In the following stanza, quoted from Miss Colcord's collection:

I dreamed a dream the other night,
Low-lands, low-lands, away my John!
I dreamed a dream the other night,
My low-ands, away!

To carry torward the story, stanzas from Sir Richard Terry's collection read:

All in the night my true love came;
She came to me all in my sleep.

And her eyes were white my love.
And then I knew my love was dead.


…But my version, veering away, as usual, from the romance of the
story, moves toward the sailors' world of winds and sails and seas:

One night In Mobile the Yankees knew,
Low-lands, low-lands! Away my John!
The nor'west winds most bitter blew,
My dollar and and a half a day!

Our Captain was a grand old man,
His name it was Jack Tannerand-tan.

He called us aft and to us did say
'Now, my boys, we're bound to sea.'
//

Stock verses.
//
Whatever the chantey theme, the inarticulate burden in the back of
every sailor's mind ran:

Then up aloft this yard must go,
To where the wind in the sail will blow."

Or it ran:

To the sheave hole she must go,
Let the wind blow high or low!
//

[SACRAMENTO]
//
Blow, boys, blow
For Californie-O!
There's plenty of gold, so I've been told,
On the banks of the Sacramento!
//

[RIO GRANDE]
//
Where are you going to, my pretty maid,
Away-ay-ay, Rio!
I'm going amilking, kind sir, she said,
On the banks of the Rio Grande.
And away Rio! Away, Rio!
Sing fare you well, my bonnie young gal,
For we're bound for the Rio Grande!
//

[MR. STORMALONG]
//
…The chantey usually began:

Stormalong was a good old man,
Aye, aye, aye, Mr. Stormalong!
O Stormalong was a good old man,
Heave away, Old Storm!

But the version of a typical American deep-sea sailor runs:

O Storm today and storm no more,
Aye, aye, aye, Mr. Stormalong!
We storm today on sea and shore,
To me way-ay-ay, Mr. Stormalong!
Old Stormy's dead, what shall we do?
Old Stormy's dead, what shall we do?
We'll dig his grave with a silver spade, .
And lower him down with a golden chain.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 03:21 AM

1903        Stone, Herbert Lawrence. "The Reckoning: A Story of the Sea." Short Stories vol. 52 (Oct-Dec. 1903). Edited by Alfred Ludlow White. New York: The Current Literature Publishing Co. 190-

Though a fictional short story, the chanties mentioned would seem to be based in reality. The material looks original, at least.

The story concerns a ship bound out of Frisco.

[LEAVE HER JOHNNY] is set at the capstan.
//
This Tam-o'-Shanter was anchored in the stream not far from the Vigilant, and as Captain Bradshaw was put aboard his own ship again, he could see her sixteen men gathered on the top-gallant forecastle, their bodies bent over the capstan bars as the cable was hove in. And the refrain of the chanty that arose therefrom and drifted across the narrow stretch of water to the listeners on the Vigilant, ran:
          —"Leave her, Johnny, leave her. 

Oh, there's six feet o' water in her lower hold, 

So leave her, Johnny, leave her."
//

Later capstan songs are "Down the Bay of Mexico", which likely refers to this song,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OilQra0NlRg
and "Walk Her Round" and "West Australia" ([SOUTH AUSTRALIA], I suppose]. And at the halyards there is [JOHNNY BOWKER] (not a customary use?) and [TOMMY'S GONE].
//
Soon the click of the iron pawl dropping into place drifts aft, then the words of "Down the Bay of Mexico" rise in loud, crude tones, followed by "Walk Her Round" and "West Australia," to the rhythm of which the shuffling feet keep time. The iron cable comes slowly in, a link at a time, grating harshly on the hawsepipe, the mate now leaning out on the bumpkin to watch it, now admonishing the men to "walk her round briskly." Suddenly he straightens up, raises a hand to the men to cease heaving and shouts aft: "Up and down, sir!"

"Break her out, Mr. Dunning," answers the captain, and the bodies bend lower over the bars and muscles swell as the strain on the capstan increases. The songs have ceased and in their places are heard, here and there, the muttered words "Heave and raise the dead," "Dig your nails in, now," "Break her out." Slowly the anchor leaves its bed at the bottom of the bay and when it is at last clear and the strain on the cable is eased, the men break into a run and soon have it, dripping and muddy, hanging at the fore-foot…

…The wind being fair, the gaskets are soon off the topsails and the sails sheeted home. The upper topsails are mastheaded to the tunes of "Johnny Bowker" and "My Tom's Gone to Hilo," the ex-boarding master being driven from one halyard to another, where he "tailed out" with the crew as well as his aching arm would allow.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 10:54 PM

I've been trying to get my head around the Carpenter Collection, and to somehow fit that evidence into this huge survey of the chanty materials. Of course, without being on-site with the Carpenter materials, that can't be done completely. But this "phase" of the survey -- the broad strokes -- requires some short cuts! Anyway, I have been greatly assisted by prior posts by many on Mudcat and especially by Snuffy (who has done much work analyzing and organizing info related to the available recordings). Also helpful have been these articles:

1998        Jabbour, Alan and Julia C. Bishop. "The James Madison Carpenter Collection." Folk Music Journal 7(4): 399-401.

1998        Bishop, Julia C. "'Dr Carpenter from the Harvard College in America': An Introduction to James Madison Carpenter and his Collection." Folk Music Journal 7(4): 402-420.

1998        Walser, Robert Young. "'Here We Come Home in a Leaky Ship!': The Shanty Collection of James Madison Carpenter." Folk Music Journal 7(4): 471-495.

Of course, Bob Walser's is the most helpful, since he is working on the shanties in the archive. Yet, the article is quite old at this point. I'm assuming his work with the material has progressed very very much since then. Alas, with the online access in its current state, this is the best we bystanders have for now.

As many will know, and as reflected in the non-pukka, current online database, the Carpenter materials are often sketchy. It is often unclear who sang what. However, based on the info suggested in the database, I have collated the information of singers with songs. (I am concerned *only* with those songs marked as chanties -- inevitably that will lead to some error, but hopefully a minor one.) And, yes, the sketchy information will lead to some error about who sang what. This is a rough attempt based on available info. In light of the work needed for the total survey, I am not at this point trying to do an absolutely thorough study of the Carpenter materials!

Of the collection, Walser wrote in 1998,

the recordings of maritime material, made primarily in the British Isles, comprise about 750 items. Allowing for Carpenter's duplicating, this yields about 375 original recordings. Among these, at least 141 different songs were sung by a number of singers, 34 of whom are identified with a last name and either first name or initials. In addition, the manuscripts and typescripts include shanties gathered by Carpenter in the United States; these include only words, and come from both printed sources (for example, Alden's Harper's Magazine article) and his own collections made in Massachusetts and elsewhere.

As I mentioned, I am only concerned with the shanties. And, I am ignoring the secondary sources that Carpenter archived, as we've dealt with all those before. (One thing I have not done is compare Stanton King's shanty collection with the items he sang for Carpenter.) With this in mind, and taking into consideration that 1998 was at a much earlier stage of Walser's work with the archive, I'm not sure where he got "34" singers from. My own survey has turned up around 61 singers.

Also worth noting is that I think in the Folktrax release of Carpenter recordings, some of the songs are misattributed. However, I have taken them at face value, which means there may be some duplication of items, i.e. the same song being attributed to 2 different singers, due to the CD and archive having different attributions. In the greater scheme of things, at this stage, that error shouldn't really affect our getting an idea of the scope of the chanties represented in the collection, however.

Following will be a consolidated form of my notes mapping the repertoire represented in the Collection.

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

The dates indicate when the song was said to have been heard/learned or, in lieu of that, an estimate of when the singer(s) may have learned it (often based on the dates of their sailing careers). For many there was no informations, and I simply filed them under "1920s or earlier".

1846-1877

- [HOGEYE] and "Can't you give us a bucket of water, chaps/There's a fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and [PADDY DOYLE] and "Hilo, boys, hilo" [HILO BOYS] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and "Juley, Juley, she bode ah-ha-a-a Juley!" [LONDON JULIE] and [HIGHLAND] and [JAMBOREE] and [BONEY] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "In eighteen hundred and fifty one" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and "Hurrah, Santa Anna" [SANTIANA] and "Well done and clever, heigh ho/Cheerily men" [CHEERLY], Edward Robinson, incl. ship Halcyon? (1846), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "John Brown's body in the alley" [BULLY IN ALLEY], Edward Robinson, Sunderland/ cotton-screwing (Carpenter rec.)

1849-1879

- [HOGEYE] and [HANGING JOHNNY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Camp Town races nine mile long" [SACRAMENTO] and "In eighteen hundred and fifty-one" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN] and "I put my hand upon her toe" [VICTORIO] and "How can I row the boat ashore without a paddle or an oar" [BILLY BOY?] and "And a hoojun John, a hoojah/My Mary's on the island" [HOOKER JOHN] and [RIO GRANDE] and [DEAD HORSE] and "When first in London I arrived ('On a Visit Sunday')" and [HIGHLAND] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY], Capt. Mark Page, incl. ship Smark[?], Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1854

- "Old mammie Dido had a lovely daughter" [MUDDER DINAH?], David Anton, Tayport / (Carpenter rec.)

1856 >

- "Oh, oh, I'm Billy in the Alley" [BULLY IN ALLEY], James Forman, Leith, Scotland/ (Carpenter 1928)

1856-1900-

- "Very well done, Jim Crow" [VICTORIO] and "Johnny was a warrior" [BONEY] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [BOWLINE], James Forman, Leith, Scotland/ (Carpenter 1928)

1863-1903

- "Poor little Liza, don't say so" and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [LONG TIME AGO] and [NEW YORK GIRLS] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [SACRAMENTO] and [SALLY BROWN] and "Highlow, Heelo/Tom's gone to Heelo" [TOMMY'S GONE] and "Heave away, heave away/Cause we're bound for South Australia" [SOUTH AUSTRALIA] and "I'm going on board the Rosabella" [ROSABELLA] J.S. Scott, incl. Clan Graham (Glasgow, 1903), London/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1864-1911

- [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [SALLY BROWN] and [OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND] and [SANTIANA] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BOTTLE O] and [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] and [RUN LET THE BULGINE], James Wright, Leith/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "Way, hey, hey, hey, hey/Fire, Fire" [FIRE FIRE FIRE], James Wright, Leith/ West Indian Blacks loading sugar casks, pushing, with crowbars (Carpenter rec.)

1866-1914-

- [BOWLINE] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "We're homeward bound for New York town" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [LONG TIME AGO] and [MR. STORMALONG] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY], Harry Perry, incl. ship Daylight (1914), 'S.S. Leviathan'/ (Carpenter 1928)

1867-1885

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [BONEY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [HIGHLAND] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [PADDY DOYLE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [SALLY BROWN] and [SANTIANA] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Oh shirts I've got one and the collar it's wore done" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and [BOWLINE] and [RIO GRANDE] and [SACRAMENTO] and [A LONG TIME AGO] and [SHENANDOAH] and "Fire down below, walk over/Fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [A ROVING] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR], Jack Murray, incl. ship Zedring (Saint John, New Brunswick, c.1874/5), Luke Simcoe (c.1883), Star of Dundee (c.1885), Aberdeen / (Carpenter rec.)

1868 <

- "Whitee manee, he no savey! Kizee, Makazee, yah", Capt. Edward B. Trumbull, incl. barque Taria Topan (Zanzibar > Boston), Salem, Mass./ worksong of Zanzibar locals (Carpenter 1927)

- [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Away, haul away, haul away my Josie" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [BOWLINE] and "Old horse! Old horse! How came you here?" [SALT HORSE RHYME?] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [SACRAMENTO] and [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SANTIANA] and [SHENANDOAH] and [SALLY BROWN], Capt. Edward B. Trumbull, incl. barque Taria Topan (Zanzibar > Boston), Salem, Mass./ (Carpenter 1927)

1869-1879

- "Humble-lee and a humble-lo/A-ha, humble-lay", Robert Yeoman, Dundee/ Blacks in Havana screwing sugar (Carpenter rec.)

- [TOMMY'S GONE] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [REUBEN RANZO?] and [SALLY BROWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [BONEY] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [SANTIANA] and [HIGHLAND] and [JAMBOREE] and [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [DEAD HORSE], Robert Yeoman, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1869-1905

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [RIO GRANDE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY], George Houghton, ship Lancaster (1869), Cormarthan Castle (1905), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1870 <

- [ALL FOR ME GROG, *tallied earlier], George Methias, brigantine William & Annie (Madeira > Newfoundland) / (Carpenter rec.)

1871 <

- [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "As I was a walking down the street ('Down in the Meadows')" and "Tell me, Susan, tell me dear, what makes you look so gay?" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES], Roderick, Enderson, London/ (Carpenter 1928)

1872

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], James Henderson, whaler Active, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1872 <

- "A yankee ship comes down the river" [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Oh have you been in New Orleans?" [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and "Where ha ye been all the day" [HIGHLAND] and "Santy Anna sailed away" [SANTIANA] and "Ranzo, boys, a-Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO], David Atkinson, Glasgow/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [DEAD HORSE] and [LONG TIME AGO] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [HIGHLAND] and "Oh haul her on the bowline" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [PADDY DOYLE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [HANGING JOHNNY] and "O Juber mind the bee, and mind it while I sing" and [SANTIANA] and [ROLLING HOME], Andrew Salters, Greenock, Scotland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)


1872-1888

- [HIGHLAND] and "From New York to Frisco, California we went" [ROLL BULLIES ROLL], Capt. H.J. Hammond, Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1872-1913

- [A ROVING] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BONEY] and "Old man come riding by" [DEAD HORSE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "All for the grog, the jolly, jolly grog" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and "'We're the Boys to Drive Her Right'" and [BOWLINE] and [SANTIANA], James Henderson, whaler Active, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1873

- "Victoria, Victoria/Very well done Jim Crow" [VICTORIO], Andrew Salters, Greenock, Scotland/ heard in West Indies (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1874 <

- [NEW YORK GIRLS] and [JAMBOREE], Jack Murray, ship Zedring (Saint John, New Brunswick, c.1874/5), Aberdeen / (Carpenter rec.)

1875 <

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [JAMBOREE] and [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] and [BONEY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [SANTIANA], Jimmie Cronin, English ships, one American (1884), London/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1876 <

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Away down South where I was born" [LUCIANNA] [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [SHENANDOAH], James Garricy, Cardiff/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1877 <

- "Way sing Sunny Dore!/Bound down Trinidad to look for Sunny Dore" [DOWN TRINIDAD], Richard Warner, incl. Oxford, Cardiff/ screwing sugar in Barbados, screwing cotton in US (Carpenter 1928)

- [HANDY MY BOYS] and [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [LONG TIME AGO] and "Times are hard and wages low" [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN], Richard Warner, incl. Oxford, Cardiff/ (Carpenter 1928)

c.1878

- [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "To me way-ay hilo man" [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] and "For it's windy weather, stormy weather/When the wind blows, we'll haul together", William Fender, Swansea Cape Horners, South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

- "Haul in the bowline, keep the ship a rollin" [BOWLINE], unknown singer/ tug of war contest in Aberdeen (Carpenter rec.)

1878-1883

"Tally-i-o, tally-i-o/Sing tilly-i-o, you know: [TALLY], James Wright, ship ACCRINGTON, Liverpool > Calcutta, Leith/ Black cook sang this chanty (Carpenter rec.)

- "Ranzo, Ranzo Ray" [RANZO RAY], James Wright, tea clipper CLETA, Leith/ windlass (Carpenter rec.)

1878-1890

- [MR. STORMALONG] and [REUBEN RANZO], Edward Robinson Jr., Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1878-1900

- "Fire in the fore-top, fire in the main-top/Fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and "Here we come home in a leaky ship" and "My dollar and a half a day" [LOWLANDS AWAY] and [BONEY] and "Aye, aye, aye, Bendigo ('Down in those Valleys')" and [MR. STORMALONG] and [SHALLOW BROWN] and "Sometimes we are bound for Liverpool town and others bound to France" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and "The bulgine's come and we all must go-o" [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [SANTIANA] and [BOWLINE] and [PADDY DOYLE], William Fender, Ship Ingomar (1880, Valparaiso), South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1879 <

- "Oh I went down the river in an old steamboat ('In the Morning')" W. Thomas, Haford, South Wales/ in a Norwegian ship (Carpenter rec.)

1879-1894

- [HANDY MY BOYS] and [A ROVING] and [SHALLOW BROWN] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [SHENANDOAH] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Mind how you swing your tail" and [DEAD HORSE], John Middleton, Leith/ (Carpenter rec.)

1879-1908

- "I went to church, I went to chapel/Pull down below" [CHURCH CHAPEL] and "The priest from the parish with his gallant band" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Johnny come down to Hilo/Oh pull down below" and [JAMBOREE] and "Whilst walking out one morning, down by the Clarence Docks" [IRISH EMIGRANT] and "This old girl, she had no hat" [NEW YORK GIRLS] and "O Sally on the mainyard picking up the bunt" [HOGEYE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and "Raise her up from down below/Haul away Rosie. Rosie haul" and "Heave away, haul away/For we are bound for South Australia" [SOUTH AUSTRALIA] and [BONEY] and [RANZO RAY?] and [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] and [HIGHLAND] and "Oh, Johnny's gone, and I'll go too/John's gone to Hilo" [TOMMY'S GONE] and [HAUL AWAY JOE].
Rees Baldwyn, South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "You're nothin' but a humbug!", Rees Baldwyn, South Wales/ learned from Black pile drivers, Savannah/New Orleans, (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1880-1895

- "There was a jolly ploughboy, ploughing on the land" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "O I had a little boat, a jolly little boat" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [PADDY LAY BACK] and "Fire on the gundeck, fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW], Willie Rennie, South Shields/ (Carpenter rec.)

1880 <

- [HIGHLAND] and "Oh now my lads be of good cheer" [JAMBOREE] and "We'll scrape her down and scrub her around" [GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN] and [ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG] and "One night off Cape Horn, I remember it well" [ROLL BULLIES ROLL], John Boyd, Belfast, Ireland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], G. Douglas, Lanarkshire/ (Carpenter 1928)

- "I shipped on board the Rosabella" [ROSABELLA] and [HIGHLAND] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR], John McPherson, ship Aristides (1880), South Shields/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [ROLLING HOME], John McPherson, ship Aristides (1880), South Shields/ marked as both forebitter and shanty (Carpenter rec.)

1880s <

- [LONG TIME AGO] and [A ROVING] and BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Oh blow the man down, bullies, knock him right down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [BOWLINE] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "They call me Hangman Johnnie" [HANGING JOHNNY] and [DEAD HORSE] and "Only one more day of pumping" [ONE MORE DAY] and [PADDY DOYLE] and "Rio Grande is no place for me" [RIO GRANDE] and [SALLY BROWN] and [SANTIANA] and [SHENANDOAH] and [MR. STORMALONG?] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "'Haul Together'" [FISHES], Stanton King, Boston/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1882 <

- "Now me boys, you need not fear" [JAMBOREE] and "I saw an elephant chase a flea" and "Oh, John Surran was a little old man" and "Oh goin down the river ('Billibirumpidoodlupiday')" and [HOGEYE], Capt. John Conway, Wiclow, Ireland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1883 >

- "Oh in eighteen hundred and forty one" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and [HANDY MY BOYS] and "'I'm Just Gone Over the Mountain'" [LUCIANNA], William "Paddy" Gaul, London/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1883-1910

- [LONG TIME AGO] and "O there's fire in the fore-top" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and [PADDY LAY BACK] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "I hear, old man, you've been and bought a horse" [DEAD HORSE] and "Whose that gal with the blue dress on" [SACRAMENTO] and "As I was a walking one morning in May" [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW], Thomas Ginovan, Bristol, England/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1885

- "I wish I was in Mobile Bay" [LOWLANDS AWAY], William Fender, ship INGOMAR > Valparaiso, South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

c.1885

- "To my hilo, to my Ranzo way" [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING], Jack Murray, AURORA, Aberdeen / American capstan shanty (Carpenter rec.)

- "Go down below, you pretty girls, go down below", Jack Murray, whaler Star of Dundee (c.1885), Aberdeen / halyards (Carpenter rec.)

1885-1902

- [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "One morning I took a ramble down by the Bramleymoore Dock" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [SHALLOW BROWN] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [SACRAMENTO] and [PADDY DOYLE] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [BOWLINE] and [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] and [RIO GRANDE] and [SALLY BROWN] and [ALL FOR ME GROG], Alexander Henderson, American ships, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1886-1919

- [SHALLOW BROWN] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [REUBEN RANZO] Thomas Carfrae, Boyne of Findhom (1895), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1887

- "Down below, oh ho oh ho/ Hoist her up from down below" [RISE HER UP], J.S. Scott, GILROY, London/ halyards (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1888

- "Walk along you Saucy Anna" William Fender, South Wales/ stevedore's song in West Indies (Carpenter rec. 1929)

c.1888-1889

- "Blow high, blow low/Blow high, blow low", George Simpson, incl. ship Castleroy (1888), Dundee/ sheets (Carpenter rec.)

- [LONG TIME AGO], George Simpson, incl. ship Castleroy (1888), Dundee/ heard in South of US (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [MR. STORMALONG?] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [SALLY BROWN] and [ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and [SANTIANA] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [DEAD HORSE?] and [SHENANDOAH] and [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [A ROVING] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [ROLLING HOME], George Simpson, incl. ship Castleroy (1888), Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1889-1894

- "I'm bound right over the mountain" [LUCIANNA], J.S. Scott, London/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1892 <

- "Lay me down, itchy-go, Mrs McCay" [IRISH EMIGRANT] and [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] John Ferries, South Sheilds/ (Carpenter rec.)

1895

- [HIGHLAND] Thomas Carfrae, Boyne of Findhom (1895), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1920s >

- "A hundred years is a very long time" [HUNDRED YEARS] William Beggs, Belfast/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Oh row, oh row, we're bound to go/A-ha, London Julie" [LONDON JULIE] Captain Alexander Blue, Greenock, Scotland/ heard in West Indies (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Fire away Lily, come down below", Captain Alexander Blue, Greenock, Scotland/ attributed to Blacks screwing cotton (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "Have you been in Mobile Bay" [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO?] and [TEN STONE], Captain Alexander Blue, Greenock, Scotland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Heave away me boys it's John's a rookey ookey", Joseph Bound, Pill, England/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Hurrah! Hurrah! for Old Mother Dinah/Sing Sally-O! Whack, fol-deray!"
[MUDDER DINAH] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "I have an old shoe with never a back or tongue" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [HANGING JOHNNY] [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and [BLOW YE WINDS] and "Oh Johnny's gone; what shall I do?" [TOMMY'S GONE], Harry Bowling, Los Angeles/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [CHEERLY] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW], George Boyle, Glasgow / (Carpenter rec.)

- [PADDY LAY BACK] and [SALLY BROWN], Benjamin Bright, Fairport (1908), Mafalda (Norwegian) (1910), Belmont (1911), Brynhilda, (1922), Golden Gate CA/ (Carpenter rec.)

"Oh Captain row me ashore" and [HIGHLAND], Capt. W. Dalziel, Glasgow/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "Victorio, Victorio" [VICTORIO] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and [PADDY LAY BACK] and "Run with the bulgine" [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN] and [HIGHLAND] and "Oh [railroad?] had a steamboat on the old canal/But now she is the keeper of Louisiana [fal?]", James Dwyer, Glasgow/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "Where are you going to, my pretty maid" [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO], Walter, Eade, Edinburgh/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [SANTIANA], A.E. Foster, Sailors' Snug Harbor/ (Carpenter rec. 1927, 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Old horse! Old horse! How came you here?" [SALT HORSE RHYME?] and [SALLY BROWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "The next fish that came was a hoary old shark" [FISHES?], Francis L. Herrshoff, Marblehead, Mass/ (Carpenter 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], James Moncrieff, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [MR. STORMALONG?] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] Harry Johnson, London/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Once I had a good hat, an a good hat was he" [ALL FOR ME GROG], Tom Lucas, Cricklade, England/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [REUBEN RANZO], John Macaulay, Kelvinhaugh/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [HUNDRED YEARS], Albert Morris, Marblehead, Mass, / (Carpenter rec. 1927)

- [LONG TIME AGO] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], Capt. D.F. Mullins, New Bedford, Mass./ (Carpenter rec. 1927/28)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [LONG TIME AGO], Dennis O'Connors, Sailors' Snug Harbor/ (Carpenter 1927, 1928)

- [NEW YORK GIRLS] and "Sometimes we're bound for Liverpool" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [FIRE DOWN BELOW], William Prosser, London/ (Carpenter 1928)

- [PADDY LAY BACK], John Vass, Invergordon/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [DEAD HORSE], James Stevenson / (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [A ROVING] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [SACRAMENTO] and "Where are you going to my pretty maid?" [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW], Charlton L. Smith, Marblehead, Mass./ (Carpenter 1928)

- [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "We're outward bound for Melbourne town" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL], Harry Turner, Sandport St./ (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Oh our ship is in the harbor" [RANZO RAY?] and [LONG TIME AGO] and "Haul taut the bowline" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "As I was a strolling one morning in May" [RIO GRANDE] and [MR. STORMALONG?], Frank Waters, Sailors' Snug Harbor/ (Carpenter 1927/1928)

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

The Carpenter Collection contains some 98 different chanty-forms, by my tally. Here they are, followed by the numbers of time a variant of each occurs.

A ROVING (6)
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (2)
ALL FOR ME GROG (8)
Billibirumpidoodlupiday" ("Oh goin down the river…")
BLOW BOYS BLOW (17)
Blow high, blow low"
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (26)
BLOW YE WINDS
BONEY (8)
BOTTLE O
BOWLINE (9)
BULLY IN ALLEY (2) [remove one]
Captain row me ashore"
CHEERLY (3)
CHURCH CHAPEL
Dance Callidio"
DEAD HORSE (8) + DEAD HORSE?
Down in the Meadows" ("As I was a walking down the street")
Down in those Valleys" ("Aye, aye, aye, Bendigo")
DOWN TRINIDAD
DRUNKEN SAILOR (5)
Fire away Lily, come down below"
FIRE DOWN BELOW (5)
FIRE FIRE FIRE
FISHES + FISHES? (2)
GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN (2)
Go down below, you pretty girls, go down below"
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (5)
HANDY MY BOYS (3)
HANGING JOHNNY (5)
HAUL AWAY JOE (14)
Haul away Rosie. Rosie haul"
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (10)
Here we come home in a leaky ship"
HIGHLAND (13)
HILO BOYS
HOGEYE (4)
HOOKER JOHN (2) [remove one]
How can I row the boat ashore without a paddle or an oar"
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (6)
Humble-lee and a humble-lo"
HUNDRED YEARS (6)
I saw an elephant chase a flea"
In the Morning" ("I went down the river in an old steamboat")
IRISH EMIGRANT ("Lay me down") (2)
JAMBOREE (7)
John Surran was a little old man"
JOHNNY BOWKER (7)
JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO (2) + JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO?
John's a rookey ookey"
Juber mind the bee, and mind it while I sing"
Kizee, Makazee, yah"
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (6)
LONDON JULIE (2)
LONG TIME AGO (11)
LOWLANDS AWAY (2)
LUCIANNA (3) + LUCIANNA?
Mind how you swing your tail"
MR. STORMALONG (3) + MR. STORMALONG? (4)
MUDDER DINAH + MUDDER DINAH?
NEW YORK GIRLS (4)
Nothin' but a humbug"
On a Visit Sunday" ("When first in London I arrived…")
Once I had a good hat, an a good hat was he"
ONE MORE DAY (5)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND
PADDY DOYLE (6)
PADDY LAY BACK (5)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (4)
Poor little Liza, don't say so"
Pull down below" ("Johnny come down to Hilo…")
RANZO RAY + RANZO RAY? (2)
REUBEN RANZO (14) + REUBEN RANZO?
RIO GRANDE (10)
RISE HER UP ("Hoist her up from down below" )
ROLL BULLIES ROLL (2)
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (7)
ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG (2)
ROLLING HOME (3)
ROSABELLA (2)
RUN LET THE BULGINE (5)
SACRAMENTO (7)
SALLY BROWN (14)
SALLY RACKET? ("Old mamie Hackett")
SALT HORSE RHYME? (2)
SANTIANA (13)
SHALLOW BROWN (4)
SHENANDOAH (6)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (2)
TALLY
TEN STONE
TOMMY'S GONE (8)
VICTORIO (4)
Walk along you Saucy Anna"
We're the Boys to Drive Her Right"
Were you ever in Fairy [?]"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (17)
White Man Thinks that a Nigger Can't Steal"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 11:55 PM

Way back in his 1998 article, RY Walser gave a chart presenting the most common chanties in the Carpenter Collection. I can't tell if he meant that this tally came from only those chanties on audio recordings, or if it also included those for which there is text but no audio.

Walser's list (w/ my tags added, for comparison purposes):

//
Figure 1 lists the most numerous shanties, shown in order of frequency, of which recordings survive in Carpenter's collection.

Blow the Man Down [BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
Haul Away Joe [HAUL AWAY JOE]
Ranzo [REUBEN RANZO]
Whisky Johnny [WHISKEY JOHNNY]
Santy Anna [SANTIANA]
Blow Boys Blow [BLOW BOYS BLOW]
Bonnie Hielan Laddie [HIGHLAND]
Sally Brown [SALLY BROWN]
Poor Old Man [DEAD HORSE]
Shenandoah [SHENANDOAH]
Boney [BONEY]
Jamboree [JAMBOREE]
Leave Her Johnny [LEAVE HER JOHNNY]
Run Let the Bulgine Run [RUN LET THE BULGINE]
Tom's Gone to Hilo [TOMMY'S GONE]
Heave Away Me Johnnies [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES]
Paddy Doyle [PADDY DOYLE]
Haul for the Grog [ALL FOR ME GROG]
Rio Grande [RIO GRANDE]
Johnny Boker [JOHNNY BOWKER]
//

I've drafted my own list based on my work with the available info. It includes any shnty-form for which there were at least 6 instances. Ranked from most to least common. The number following the names, in parenthesis) tells how many instances there were. The number with "W" refers yo the ranking on Walser's list.

1. (W1) BLOW THE MAN DOWN (26)

2a. (W4) WHISKEY JOHNNY (17)
2b. (W6) BLOW BOYS BLOW (17)

3. (W3) REUBEN RANZO (14) + REUBEN RANZO?

4a. (W8) SALLY BROWN (14)
4b. (W2) HAUL AWAY JOE (14)

5. (W5) SANTIANA (13)

6. (W7) HIGHLAND (13)

7. LONG TIME AGO (11)

8a. (W19) RIO GRANDE (10)
8b. (W16) HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (10)

9a. (W9) DEAD HORSE (8) + DEAD HORSE?
9b. BOWLINE (9)

10a. (W15) TOMMY'S GONE (8)
10b. (W11) BONEY (8)
10c. (W18) ALL FOR ME GROG (8)

11a. SACRAMENTO (7)
11b. ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (7)
11c. MR. STORMALONG (3) + MR. STORMALONG? (4)
11d. (W20) JOHNNY BOWKER (7)
11e. (W12) JAMBOREE (7)

12a. (W10) SHENANDOAH (6)
12b. (W17) PADDY DOYLE (6)
12c. (W13) LEAVE HER JOHNNY (6)
12d. HUNDRED YEARS (6)
12e. HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (6)
12f. A ROVING (6)

(W14) RUN LET THE BULGINE


Like Walser, I found BLOW THE MAN DOWN the most. As earlier discussed, Carpenter wrote an article on variants of that chanty, and I wonder if maybe it was a personal mission of his to collect as many variations as possible. We don't know (?) his exact fieldwork methodology, and it may have been that he influenced what songs were sung, say, by requesting them or reminding informants about them.

Anyway, it's hard to compare my list and Walser's precisely, because his does not indicate ties in the ranking. Sure, it's only a rough guide. FWIW however, we may note that LONG TIME AGO, BOWLINE, SACRAMENTO, ROLL THE COTTON DOWN, and MR. STORMALONG (among the first 20 of my list) did not make his set. I'm not sure why. And his RUN LET THE BULGINE did not make my list.

The one surprise for me was the frequency of ALL FOR ME GROG, which up to this point has not appeared in this survey of chanty literature. Could this be another song that Carpenter perhaps requested from informants? Might he have filed it incorrectly as a shanty? Again, I am not sure.

One can also compare the repertoire to my list of shanties SO FAR most common up through the 1880s.

WHISKEY JOHNNY (20)

REUBEN RANZO (16), SANTIANA (16), SHENANDOAH (16)

BLOW THE MAN DOWN (15), CHEERLY (15)

BOWLINE (14)

BONEY (13), GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (13), HAUL AWAY JOE (13), HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (13), RIO GRANDE (13)

SALLY BROWN (12), STORMY (12)

MR. STORMALONG (11)


Blow the Man Down was certainly common, but Carpenter's set seems skewed. "Blow Boys Blow" also has a high ranking in Carpenter, and it's another that, judging from his writing, he took particular interest in. "Shenandoah" was lower in the rankings of Carpenter than one might expect, and I might speculate that it was a little more common with American singers rather than the British singers that Carpenter interviewed. "Cheerily Men" is poorly represented in Carpenter's, which we know to be because it was a song of an earlier era.

I supposed I'd have to compare only the chanteys of the core time of Carpenter's singers -- 1860s, 70s, 80s -- for a better representation of the similarities and differences.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Sep 11 - 12:52 AM

Here's a sketch of the "most common" chanties of the 60s-70s-80s, from my charts...with the rationale being that most of Carpenter's singers would have been learning shanties in that era.

WHISKEY JOHNNY (25)

SHENANDOAH (22), REUBEN RANZO (22)

BONEY (21), BLOW THE MAN DOWN (21)

HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (20)

RIO GRANDE (19), GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (19)

HAUL AWAY JOE (18)

SANTIANA (17)

JOHNNY BOWKER (15), BOWLINE (15), BLOW BOYS BLOW (15)

SALLY BROWN (14)

SACRAMENTO (12)

TOMMY'S GONE (10), MR. STORMALONG (10), BLACKBALL LINE (10)

DEAD HORSE (9)

PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (8), PADDY DOYLE (8)

As compared with this list, notably absent from the "top" shanties among Carpenter's singers are GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL and BLACKBALL LINE. As compared with this list, notably PRESENT in Carpenter's set are ALL FOR ME GROG, LONG TIME AGO, JAMBOREE, and HIGHLAND. The last *might* be explained by Carpenter's emphasis on Scottish locales (?). LONG TIME AGO is supposed to have been more popular in later days, i.e. 1890s, which is why it might not be in my list.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 06:23 AM

1918        Howard, Henry. "Manning the New Merchant Marine." _Pacific Marine Review_ 15 (August 1918).

By the Director of Recruiting, U.S. Shipping Board.

Section on "Training Merchant Crews" gives the daily schedule on training (steam) ships. 6-9pm included recreation, about which it says,

//
Recreation includes singing, for each ship is supplied with a piano. The musical program includes old-time chanties, in which the young men are instructed by a veteran deep-water chantie man.
//

I would guess that the "veteran" was Stanton King – though it seems like more than one "veteran" would need to have been recruited.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 07:01 AM

1918        Collins, James H. "Vikings of the Future." _St. Nicholas_ 45 (10) (August 1918).

Another mention of the merchant marine training program set up by Howard, and the role of chanteys.

//
… Only men of draft age—twenty-one to thirty —are taken, and the novices are taught the rudiments of their new calling in six weeks of intensive instruction aboard one of the training-ships.

There are four of these training-ships in commission now, three of them located at Boston and one at San Francisco, while others are to be stationed at Norfolk, New Orleans, and Seattle. They are big, comfortable, roomy ships. One is a former ocean greyhound which held some speed records in her day. Another, the Calvin Austin, a former coastwise passenger-ship, with her load of recruits in training was the first ship to reach Halifax after the disaster there.

The young man who takes this training is equipped with a uniform and receives thirty dollars a month while he is in training. The students are grouped in squads of ten, with an instructor for each squad. Eight hours a day are consumed in the study of the compass, knots and splices, the nomenclature of ships, both sail and steam, the handling of life-boats, and other important things…

Mr. Howard has put spirit into the training by reviving the old sailing-ship practice of chantey singing. The sea chantey is a slow, melodious song whose measures fall into the rhythm of a gang of sailors hauling on a rope. Mr. Stanton H. King, of Boston, an old deep-water sailor, is the chantey instructor; and now on our modern, standardized, steam vessels of wood or steel, or even concrete, are to be heard such ancient windjammer tunes as "Shenandoah," "Blow the Man Down," and "Bound for the Rio Grande."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 10:05 AM

On another thread long ago and far away, I mentioned my neighbor who, as a navy recruit, had trained on the Constellation in 1918.

He said the only time he'd heard any singing was when "drunk and on liberty." Possibly compulsory mass singing wouldn't have counted.

He couldn't remember any specific songs, but he was sure that nobody was caroling shanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 08:15 PM

Lighter --

Could the distinction there, in your neighbour's case, have been between Navy and Merchant Marine?

***

Here's an announcement that I would guess fairly well dates the time when Stanton King was first appointed Merchant Marine chanteyman. Interesting that his reputation (at the Sailors' Home) preceded him, and I wonder if we might consider him one of the people who proverbially "kept shanties alive" during what seems to have been a gap period in the U.S. I recall the interest in chanties in some American articles from the turn of the century, but most of the other interest in evidence in the first couple decades was coming from Britain.

1918         Unknown. "Official Chantey Singer." New York Times (27 Jan. 1918). Pg. 46.

//
A new war job under the sun has
been created. It is Official Chantey
Man for the American Merchant
Marine. Stanton H. King of Boston
has been appointed to revive singing
among merchant sailors who will
Join the country's new cargo ships
through the United States Shipping
Board Recruiting Service. Chanteys,
sea sharps say. insure team work when
a crew is pulllng on ropes, even aboard
a steamer, while the bullding of a large
number of American schooners means
increased demand for men who can "reef, hand, and steer" on sailing vessels,
where chantey singing used to
flourish.
    Mr. King is probably the best known
chantey singer in the, country. He is
now the head of the Sailors' Haven
Mission at Charlestown, Mass., widely
known for its religious work among
sailors. Chantey singing is a part of
the service, and many go there to hear
Mr. King lead his sailor friends in
"Bound for the Rio Grande" or "'Blow
the Man Down." The Official ,Chantey
Man is an old salt and learned chantey
singing in its home, on board deep-sea-golng vessels.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 08:34 PM

Here is more about the popularization of chanteys via the U.S. Merchant Marine of the time, foreshadowing the appearance of chanteys on record.

1918        Unknown. "Carrying the Sea Atmosphere Inland." _Shipping_ 5(7) (16 November 1918): 13-5.

//
Folks back home at Bangor, Maine, or Mesa, Arizona, who have boys in the Merchant Marine, may soon hear real sea songs, as they now look on scenes aboard ship, without leaving their own neighborhood —sailors' "chanteys" are being preserved on phonograph records for home use—life on square-riggers, cargo steamers and merchant marine training ships, has become material for the "Movies"—altogether an interesting phase of a "back to the sea" movement of national proportions.
…In this educational effort for it is such, purely, undertaken from various angles by various people, but under authority of the United States Shipping Board, official sponsor for the merchant marine --some novel effects are being worked out. For example, in due time it may be expected that sailors' songs and sailors' "chanteys"--as sung in forecastles and at tasks on deck when Jack the merchant mariner was a personage afloat and ashore, as he is getting to be again --will be reproduced in the records of the family phonograph.

"Chanteys" for the Music Machine.

Chantey singing is being revived in the merchant marine, at least on the training ships which are preparing Young America, at the rate of 4,000 lads a month, for service on our vast new commerce fleets, and under the new order of things it will be possible for Bangor, Maine, and Mesa, Arizona to hear in the same hour the actual notes and phrases of such famous chanteys as "Shenandoah," "Bound for the Rio Grande" and "Blow the Man Down," for the record may have them hard and fast before spring flowers bloom again. …
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 09:31 PM

Munsey's Magazine, Feb. 1918, p. 71:

"One of the most interesting innovations in the American army and navy camps is the teaching of mass singing to the soldiers and sailors. This is being done not merely as a pastime, but with the distinct object of making better fighting men as a result of such training."

The official repertoire appeared in a USGPO publication called "Songs of the Soldiers and Sailors." The closest it came to shanties were "Sailing, Sailing" and "A Life on the Ocean Wave."

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 11:41 PM

1839        "The Old Sailor." "A West India Sketch." _Chambers's Edinburgh Journal_ 367 (9 Feb, 1839).

The author is on the Mahaica river in British Guiana. He interrupts his narrative to remark on the rowing songs of the Black oarsmen. If indeed the author was an "Old Sailor," it is notable that he does not compares these to any sailor songs.

Although it seems completely original, it's remarkable how similar this description is to others of the time.

//
Suddenly, on a signal from their spokesman, the negroes struck up a song, to which they kept time with their oars. The leading songster sang a line solo, taking up any occurrence that crossed his mind at the moment, or that took place in our progress. Thus, when the looms of the oars were thrown aft to replunge the blade in the water, the leader sang his line, whatever it might be, and as they one and all took their stroke together, every voice united in a general chorus. The first subject was connected with our voyage. The leader commenced—
Wo da boy for pull da boat,
to which the rest instantly rejoined—
Sing cheerly row!

then the first line was repeated, and the response again followed; and it was extremely rare that a subject was alluded to more than once; indeed, as the scenery and circumstances were changing, he was seldom at a loss for a theme; and when it flagged, some sly hit at the manager, myself, or their fellow-negroes, supplied the deficiency. There was something extremely musical in the tone and manner of singing, that rendered it any thing but unpleasant; and as it acted upon the energies of the negroes, to incite them to greater exertion, we had no objection to it. Two or three other lines I remember were—

Sun him get abub da bush,
Sing cheerly row; 

Sun him get abub da bush,
Sing cheerly row.

Captain hab da grog-bottell,
        Sing cheerly row; 

Captain hab da grog-bottell, 

Sing cheerly row.

At one time the voice of the leader became low and solemn as he pronounced—

Poor Charley neber cum again.
Nigger boy cry oh! 

Poor Charley neber cum again, 

Nigger boy cry oh!

There was something exceedingly plaintive in the tone of the leader, as well as the response, and Mitchell informed me that they referred to the death of a favourite slave belonging to his plantation, who had been drowned at that very spot about twelve months previous. The motion of the oars was equally slow with the utterance of the singer, and several other allusions to the deceased were made in the same mournful strain, till all at once the leader shouted—

Alligator in da mud. 

Sing cheerly row;
Alligator in da mud. 

Sing cheerly row.
//

Later in the account, more verses are given, and the narrator refers to the rowing song as a "chaunt."
//
The boatmen could hear very little if any thing of our conversation; but seeing us earnestly engaged, they ceased their chaunt, for they guessed poor Charley's history was the theme: still they narrowly watched our looks, and spoke in an under tone to each other; and when my friend could no longer repress his feelings, the spokesman suddenly burst forth in a loud song that was really startling, on account of the previous stillness, though it e: the honest sentiments of the negroes' hearts—
Massa Mitchell bery good man.
Sing cheerly row; 

Massa Mitchell bery good man,
Sing cheerly row.
…
…I was going to inquire who Hammerton was, but the question was delayed by the peculiar mournful cadences of the negroes as they continued their chaunt. Their voices sank yet lower, as the leader, having looked towards a clump of plantain and papaw trees, uttered,
Old man tan upon da shore,
Sing saafly row; 
[I'm not sure of "saafly", but it's not "cheerly"]
Old man tan upon da shore. 

Sing saafly row.
"Hush, Sam—hush I" said Mitchell; "leave off your song: he is indeed there, bending over the grave of his child."
"Massa Hammerton like for hearee we peaka too much sorry," answered Sam, the leader of the chaunt.
//

And later, a guy ("Caesar") refers to the singing as "chant":
//
"Go, massa, go," continued the negro; "you no top longer; Golamity bless Massa Mitchell; go den quick, and no let em boys sing em chant hearee, spose you please."
//

This suggests that rowing songs (perhaps, specifically those in the style of New World Africans) were sometimes called "chaunt" or "chant", both by "outsiders" and "insiders". There seems to be a correspondence between the terms, as if perhaps "chaunt" was "proper English" and "chant" was dialect. However, I'm not sure what this says about pronunciation. My assumption is that "chaunt" would have been with "sh" sound, while "chant" (as a dialect term in that spelling) would have had "ch/tsh" sound.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 02:13 AM

A net-fishing reference to 1840s Jamaica.

1851        Gosse, Philip Henry and Richard Hill. A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.

July 1885, west coast of Jamaica. Fishermen are using seine nets. Their songs are...WILD!!

//
The sound of human voices in melody falls now upon the ear, the song of the negroes who have begun to haul in the seine. Rude their music is and artless their tune; yet, mellowed and softened by distance, now swelling in chorus, now feeble and faint, it has considerable sweetness, as the human voice always has under such circumstances. Yonder we see them, forming two lines in the water, ten or a dozen men in each row, hauling upon the two ropes; the outmost up to the neck in the sea, and the inmost on the beach; all naked, regardless of the burning sun that now pours down his beams upon their woolly heads and glossy backs. It is a slow operation ; and as they all throw their weight upon the line together, they sway backward and forward in time with the wild air whose notes they are singing.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 02:45 AM

1831[Oct. 1830]        Ormond, Cyprian. "The Star of St. Philippe." In _The Amethyst_, ed. by Nathan Covington Brooks. Baltimore: N.C. Brooks.

A story set in New Orleans. "Wild yet rich" rowing songs, called a "rude chaunt."

//
By this time we had arrived upon the levee. The City, with its white stuccoed houses, lay on the interior of the high embankment, and the shipping, with its dark hulls and its forests of spars and rigging, upon the outside in equally profound repose. It was as bright as the sunshine of noon. The sea breeze, whose steady current came freshly up the river, wafted the musquitoes from the shore, gave us a pure reanimating atmosphere to breathe and fanned the feverish brow of my companion, who opened his bosom to the cooling air. The stillness was now and then broken by the shrill, harsh creaking of the ungreased wheels of one of those water carts, that ply daily and nightly through the streets, piercing the tortured ears of the stranger, till his hardened auriculars become habituated to the sound. In the pauses of this melody came music, floating over the waters, of a finely contrasted description. It was the rude chaunt of some negroes returning down the river to their master's plantation, and beguiling the toil of their oars with a wild yet rich and well harmonized chorus.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 03:22 AM

1851[March]        Dixon ("A Rugbaen"). _Transatlantic Rambles; or, A Record of Twelve Months' Travels in the United States, Cuba, & the Brazils._ London: George Bell.

A visitor from England to Virginia. Makes a generic comparison of Black songs to deep-water chanty. Being ca.1850/51, "chanty" wasn't in common use, but rather than call the sailor song a "song", he calls it a "chaunt."

Pg54
//
I am told that negroes, although living in " Old Virginny," never did, and never would, sing such songs as Old Dan Tucker and Lucy Neale, which only originated in the brains of their sham Ethiopian personifiers. The songs they do sing are almost always of a religious turn, something between a nautical anchor-hauling chaunt and the "Old Hundredth."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 04:22 AM

1835        Hoffman, Charles Fenno. A Winter in the Far West. Vol. 2. London: Richard Bentley.

Contains a letter dated March 25th, 1834. The author is embarking upon a trip out of St. Louis on a steamboat.

//
The hoarse panting of the high-pressure engines, the rattling of the drays on the paved wharfs, and the discordant cries in every tongue mingling with the song of the negro boatmen, as their wild chaunt on coming into port would rise ever and anon above the general din, made a confusion of sights and sounds that was bewildering.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 06:29 AM

Fanny Elssler is back! This time she is in Havana, rather than New Orleans, and the stevedores are rolling cargoes rather than hoisting them. Their song is a "lively chaunt."

1843        Unknown. "Fanny Elssler at the Havanah." Fraser's Magazine 168(28) (December 1843).

Havana, Jan. 1841. A rough translation of Elssler's own accounts.

//
Before me lay the harbour, beautiful in shape, and its fine quays thickly lined with hundreds of vessels of all nations. …Great masses of idle people were standing contemplating our arrival, the vessels teeming with negroes, oddly attired, were at work rolling cargoes in and out, and accompanying their labour with a lively chaunt, both musical and strange.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 07:20 AM

Gibb, the OED gives no support for that pronunciation of "chaunt."

It lists it simply as an 18th and 19th century spelling variant of "chant," with the "ch" in "church" and the "au" as in "palm."

This suggests to me that if "shanty" had come directly from "cha(u)nt," it would almost certainly have had the "hard ch" from the very beginning. But if it had, I doubt anyone would have suggested French as an origin.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 05:33 PM

xxxx1850        Baird, Robert. _Impressions and Experiences of the West Indies and North America in 1849._ Vol. 1. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons.

Early 1849, Antigua.

//
Nothing to break the calm silence of the scene, save the occasional chaunt of a negro band, who were engaged, at some distance, putting up the sails of a windmill, and whose chorus, rude and imperfectly heard as it was, sounded pleasantly in the ear, as the indication of light hearts.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 05:50 PM

The "xxxx" in my last post doesn't mean anything (just a marker in my notes).
***

1835        Atkinson, Samuel Coate, ed. "Going to Bed without Your Dinner (from Leave From a Log: A West India Story)." Atkinson's Casket 1 (January 1835).

Published Philadelphia.
Commenting on a sight in "the West Indies" – Trinidad? Calls Black work songs "a kind of Creole chaunt."

//
1 now passed the estate belonging to Monsieur Honnemaison: the field-gang were cutting canes, and the muleteers loading their animals,—all were chaunting a short song. Negro songs are always short; it was what on French estates is called a "belle air," a kind of Creole chaunt, almost agreeable enough to merit its appellation.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 07:21 PM

1854        Hogg, James, ed. "A Letter from Mauritius." Hogg's Instructor. Vol. 3. (July-December 1854). Edingurgh: James Hogg.

Mauritius. Observer calls sailors chantying "chanting".
//
The little bay looks active and busy with shipping; loading and unloading goes on merrily to the chanting of the sailors, which sound is borne pleasantly across the water with every little breath of wind;
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 07:43 PM

1833        Unknown (Johnstone, ed.). "Sierra Leone and its Capitol, Freetown." _The Schoolmaster_ 34(2) (23 March 1833).

About the "Kroumen" and their singing when rowing. Recall that Alden (1882) made a comparison to, "the lawless, halfmournful, half-exulting songs of the Kroomen."
//
The habitations of the Krou people, Krou Town as it is called, are, in the direction of this spot adjoining Freetown, a complete Indian village; the houses formed, like all the huts in the colony, of clay, twigs, and thatch. These men are an emigrant and industrious race, natives of a part of the Grain Cost, in the neighbourhood of Cape Palmos, about thret hundred and fifty or four hundred miles south-east of this, who come here for a few years only—let themselves out for hire to ships or as servants on shore—make a little money—return home again, and are succeeded by some more of their fortune-pushing countrymen- They are, in fact, the Scotsmen of Africa. They are a remarkably strong, active, hardy and intelligent race of men. Their skin varies from a dark copper colour to black, tattooed about the face, chest and arms. They are distinguished by a tattooed arrow on each temple with its point to the eye; and almost all of them have the front teeth of the upper jaw filed to a point, or some portion of each tooth removed, according to the fancy of the wearer or those who begat him, which gives them a savage appearance. Their only article of dress is a piece of printed cotton cloth round the middle. None of them have their wives and families here; these are left at home under the guardianship of their own relations, and the protection of their chief, to whom, on returning home, they always carry a present of cloth, muskets, gunpowder, or some article of dress, as a sort of tribute and acknowledgment for his protection.
Every ship of war on arriving at Freetown, enters certain number of these Kroumen over and above her compliment, for the purpose of manning her boats when the may be sent on any service where there is likely to be much exposure to the sun or rain, and to the mephitic exhalation from the soil, such as weeding and watering so that our unassimilated seamen may be subjected as little as possible to the deleterious influence of the climate.
We received upwards of twenty of them on board, chiefly young men, all of them more muscular and athletic, though not generally taller, than our own people;…

In rowing, they have always a song of some sort or other at command, to which they keep time with the oar, someimes melodious, but usually harsh and untuneful, having generally for its subject something connected with the ship, or the officers, or the duty that is going on, each chanting a subject in turn, while the rest join in the chorus.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 08:02 PM

1871        King, Rev. F. "In the Bahamas." _Mission Life_ (1 June 1871). 309-13.

On Abaco.
//
"There are large sugar cultivations on the mainland," writes Mr. Philpot from Abaco, "and the fields of waving cane, with their delicate green leaves and golden tassels, look very pretty, especially when they relieve a dark background of sombre pine-wood. A windmill crushes the cane, and when wind fails, manual labour is called in—a number of negroes turning the windlass to the wild chaunts of their own country."
//

On Bimini. A "hilo" song while working cargo.
//
Shocking as it may seem to our notions, the main source of wealth and employment to the Bahama islander used in former times to consist in "wrecking." Wrecks then were more often designed than accidental, and the goods rescued from the ship were bought at a nominal sum, and sold afterwards by the wreckers at a considerable profit in Nassau. …

"When the ship is above water, the work is pleasant enough. Blocks and ropes are fixed, hatchways opened, and sturdy arms at work, while strong lungs shout the wrecking songs—

'High low, high low,
Johnny come blow the organ! 

Walk him up and walk him down, 

High low, high low!'

and the cotton-bales and sugar-boxes seem to fly into the boats. But when it is a sunken wreck, and the goods have to be dived for out of the hold, then comes the danger. The diver descends into the ship with a line tied round him, which he jerks when he wishes to ascend. Woe betide him if he gets entangled in the ship's hold and cannot come out! and this is not seldom the case."
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 08:26 PM

1903        Des Voeux, Sir G. William. _My Colonial Service in British Guiana, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Fiji, Australia, Newfoundland, and Hong Kong with Interludes._ Vol. 1. London: John Murray.

December 1863-ca. 1867, a magistrate in Demerara. The observer talks about rowing songs led by a Barbadian, including [JOHN BROWN'S BODY]. Pp24-25

//
As I was destined to spend a large proportion of the next four years in them, it may be as well to give here a short description of the boats used for travelling in Guiana by Europeans and the upper class of coloured people….
The rowers were usually negroes or "coloured men," who, when they got away from town and drink, showed marvellous endurance. I have known them of their own accord labour steadily at the oars for sixteen to eighteen hours, with scarcely any intermission, when they had any special desire to reach their destination quickly. At first when they began to tire I used to give them spirit, but I soon found by experience that this was worse than useless. It put some additional life into the stroke for a short time, but always caused a very quick collapse afterwards. At night the pace was increased when they sang in chorus. The songs, usually led by a Barbadian negro, were much of a kind described in Marryat's Peter Simple, remarkable neither for sense nor tune. Only one of these songs, as far as I remember, had in it anything approaching to melody. That was the Union battle-song of "John Brown," with the refrain of " Glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on." And even that, reiterated many times, became, to say the least, monotonous; especially during the night hours when sleep in view of the next day's work was desirable. But however wanting in other respects, this singing was always in good time and no doubt lightened the labour, as it seemed absolutely essential to good going; so that whenever there was necessity for expedition I never put an end to it.

[footnote]
The chorus of one of them, which I took down in writing and happen to have preserved, ran as follows:—

"He hi ha, bow wow wow, the days of the petticoats are coming, 

Never mind the weather, but get over double trouble; 

Then we're bound for the happy land of Canaan."

The verses, of which there are many, preceding this chorus were equally nonsensical. For instance :—

"Tom Sayers and Heenan, they made a night to brag, 

They swear'd they'd beat all creation; 

But the little Malitia Boy did tap him on the nose, 

And knocked him in the happy land of Canaan."

This was, o course, a reference to the celebrated prize fight which had recently taken place in England, "Malitia" being evidently intended for "Benicia," and the singers quite innocent of the fact that the "Benicia Boy" was Heenan himself.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 09:10 PM

1879        Featon, John. The Waikato War 1863-4. Capper Press.

ca.1863 New Zealand, during the Waikato War. Pg69. Deep-water shanties adapted for rowing, with SHENADOAH and an ambiguous other.
//
The majority of the men who volunteered for the Water Transport Corps, were, as may be imagined, those who had been used to a sea-faring life, and accustomed to boats and rowing. They were a rough-and-tumble lot, and many are the wild stories told of their escapades. The boats' crews (8 and 12 oars), used generally to sweep up against the stream to the chorus of a sailors shanty song, "I'm bound away," or "Ye rolling rivers," usurping the canoe chant of the natives.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 09:39 PM

The last author, 1879, used the phrase "shanty song" (without quotes). This author, same year, puts it in quotes as "shantee."

1879        MacMichael, Morton. _A Landlubbers Log of a Voyage Round the "Horn"._

From a journal kept. By a passenger in the ship PACTOLUS, (of New York) captained by Colcord (aged 30), from Philadelphia to San Francisco via Cape Horn. Left Philly in July 1879. The passage is from August 1879.
//
The men, who are now prevented from working about deck or aloft at their usual jobs, are only worked at tending the sails, and between orders stay under the lee of the forward house. They look very odd, being swelled to nearly twice their natural size by their thick clothes, over which they wear oil-skin coats and pants, and also rubber " sou'wester" hats. Those that have new suits of oil-skins look like mammoth canary birds, the color of the garments being a bright yellow. Through all their hardships, and this weather is really very hard on them, they seem as cheerful as possible, and sing their queer monotonous songs with a vim when pulling on the ropes, where all hands, or a whole watch is needed. At these times the carpenter is expected to lend a hand, and when on deck I too catch hold and help pull. The song or " shantee" as they call it, and which is sung when a whole watch or more are hauling, consists in the leader singing a line, then all hands the chorus, which is only one line long, and at the same time giving two long steady pulls; as the leader chants the next line the men rest, then another chorus and pull, and so on until the yard is hoisted or the sail sheeted home.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 10:02 PM

1853        Bright, Henry Arthur. Free Blacks and Slaves. Would Immediate Abolition Be a Blessing? London: Arthur Hall Virtue & Co.

Just something as a point of reference to the speculative idea that has popped up here and there that, if African-Americans were at the forefront of introducing the concept and/or the repertoire for the "modern" chanties, a subsequent shift in that development may have been due to the disappearance of Black labor in certain trades. Or, the development and spread of chanties may have been affected by the movement of non-Blacks replacing them, taking over the reins and perhaps acquiring the chanties.

A letter from an anti-abolitionist.

Quotes from a letter to the Maryland Colonization Journal from Mr. Latrobe of Baltimore, Oct. 1851.
//
Again, I would quote in support of my position a few facts from Mr. Latrobe's letter :—he is speaking of the effect of competition between the two races—"In Baltimore, ten years since, the shipping at Fell's Point was loaded by free coloured stevedores ; the labour at the coal-yards was free coloured labour. In the rural districts round Bal timore, the principal city of a slave state, free coloured labourers, ten years ago, got in the harvest, worked the mine banks, made the fences, and indeed supplied, to a great extent, all agricultural wants in this respect. Now all this is changed. The white man stands in the black man's shoes—or else is fast getting into them. In Cincinnati, the labour that used to be performed by free blacks in the great pork establishments, is now performed by white men. The firemen on the steam-boats on the western waters are now whites, where they used to be free coloured men ; and the negro's song, as he filled his furnaces, has ceased on the Ohio and Mississippi."
//

So, dating the death of the steamboat firemen's songs to the turn of the 1850s and saying that much of the free Black labor – at which time Whites would have worked relatively "side by side"—was in the 1840s. That's the decade in which I believe we see the burgeoning of chanties.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 12:50 AM

1893        Ralph, Julian. "The Old Way to Dixie." _Harper's New Monthly Magazine_ 86(512) (Jan. 1893).

Headed down the Mississippi on the old fashioned steamboat CITY OF PROVIDENCE. The refrains of roustabouts (who earn "a dollar a day") are noted. One has the famus floating lyric of "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" and "Hog-eye", i.e. "Who's been here since I been gone?"
Pg174
//
At one stop which we did make, Captain Carvell ordered a barge pushed out of the way—"so's we shan't make a bunglesome landing," he said. The nearest great landingstage, a long gang-plank hung by the middle from a sort of derrick,and capable of connecting the boat with a hill or a flat surface, was let down on the bank. The unavoidable flour-barrels came head foremost along a wooden slide this time.and a darky on the boat sang an incessant line, "Somebody told me so," as a warning to the men below that another and another barrel was coming. They are fond of chanting at their work, and they give vent to whatever comes into their heads, and then repeat it thousands of times, perhaps. It is not always a pretty sentence, but every such refrain serves to time their movements. "O Lord God! you know you done wrong," I have heard a negro say with each bag that was handed to him to lift upon a pile. "Been a slave all yo' days; you 'ain't got a penny saved," was another refrain: and still another, chanted incessantly, was: "Who's been here since I's been gone? Big buck nigger with a derby on." They are all "niggers" once you enter the Southern country. Every one calls them so, and they do not often vary the custom among themselves.
These roustabouts are nothing like as forward as the lowest of their race that we see in the North. …They earn a dollar a day, but have not learned to save it. …Though they chant at their work, I seldom saw them laugh or heard them sing a song, or knew one of them to dance during the voyage. The work is hard, and they are kept at it, urged constantly by the mates on shore and aboard, as the Southern folks say that negroes and mules always need to be. But the roustabouts' faults are excessively human, after all, and the consequence of a sturdy belief that they need sharper treatment than the rest of us leads to their being urged to do more work than a white man.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 01:40 AM

1889        J., F.H. "Negro Music of the United States." In _A Dictionary of Music and Musicians_, ed. by Sir George Grove. Vol. 4. London: Macmillan. 728-730.

Early edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Reflects the "common knowledge" about African-American musical style that probably would have informed C. Sharp and Arnold (w/ Bullen) in their comments from their collections.

Just one excerpt here on work-singing, by stevedores and firemen:

//
They [African-Americans] have songs for all occasions where they move in concert, such as loading or unloading ships, or working at the pumps of a fire engine. Their rhythmic sympathies are most strongly active on these occasions. Often one of a gang acts as a precentor, giving a line or two by himself, and the chorus coming in with the refrain. This leader, when his supply of lines gives out or his memory fails, resorts to improvisation.
//

No mention of any sailors' songs in this volume.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 02:59 AM

1903[Dec.]        Gilbert, Paul Thomas. The Great White Tribe in Filipinia. Cincinnati: Jennings and Pye.

Dec.1901, Oroquieta, Phillipines. A ship is wrecked off shore, and this incident happens with one of the rescued officers. He sings [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]

//
The mate, aroused by the example of the chief, rendered a "Tops'l halliard shanty," "Blow, Bullies, Blow." It was almost as though a character had stepped from Pinafore, when the athletic, gallant little mate, giving a hitch to his trousers, thus began: "Strike up a light there, Bullies; who's the last man sober?"

Song.

"O, a Yankee ship came down the river—
      Blow, Bullies, blow! 

Her sails were silk and her yards were silver—
      Blow, my Bully boys, blow!

Now, who do you think was the cap'n of 'er?
      Blow, Bullies, blow! 

Old Black Ben, the down-east bucko—
Blow, my Bully boys, blow!"

"'Ere is a shanty what the packeteers sings when, with 'full an' plenty,' we are 'omeward bound. It is a 'windlass shanty,' an' we sings it to the music of the winch. The order comes 'hup anchors,' and the A one packeteer starts hup:

"'We're hom'ard bound; we're bound away;
        Good-bye, fare y' well.
We're mone'ard bound; we leave to-day;
        Hooray, my boys! We're home'ard bound.
We're home'ard bound from Liverpool town;
        Hooray, my boys, hooray!
A bully ship and a bully crew;
        Good-bye, fare y' well.
A bucko mate an' a skipper too;
        Hooray, my boys, we're home'ard bound!'"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 05:56 PM

1894        Burn Murdoch, W.G. _From Edinburgh to the Antarctic._ London: Longmans, Green and Co.

During the Dundee Antarctic Expedition of 1892-93. Barque BALAENA.
Passenger/observer notes several instances of chanties. He spells the word two ways: "shantie" and "chantie". I believe the experiences were genuine, however he seems to utilize Davis/Tozer to "refresh" his memory of the chanties.

[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
//
Men and boys there were of every sailor type: old Arctic whalers, red cheeked and bearded; tanned South Spainers with shaven chins and faces lined with the rough and smooth; quiet men and boys from the East Coast fishing villages, and gentle men from the Shetlands. Fifty men from all the world; strangers an hour ago, brothers now—in the one spirit of whisky, devilment, and adventure.
What a picture they made as they swung together at the topsail halyards, their eyes gleaming, with open, thirsty mouths shouting the old shantie, 'Whis—ky John — nie. Oh—whisky makes the life of man. Whis—ky for—my Johnnie,' with the shantie man's solo, 'Oh, whisky made me pawn my clothes,' and all together again, with a double haul and a shout of 'Whis—ky—John—nie,' that makes the blood tingle even to remember it.
//

[MR. STORMALONG]
//
A Danish ship passed us to-day; she came up from leeward, passed under our stern, and faded out of sight in a veil of mist ahead of us and to windward. She was sailing quite two points closer than we could. She had a windmill working her pump, an arrangement much despised by our sailors—without reason, I think, as it saves an immense amount of work. We have to pump ship every four hours, and it takes about ten minutes each time. After heavy weather and the ship has been straining we have to pump her for about half an hour out of each watch. The pump stands at the foot of the mainmast inside the fife-rail, and has a handle on either side; some of the watch turn the hands and the rest stand in a line along the deck and haul on a rope attached to the pump handle each time it comes up. As we pump, the chantie (pronounced shanty) man trolls out some old sea song, and after each line all hands join in the refrain. Some of our men have a large stock of these songs. Most of them are sung to sad, minor tunes, with sometimes almost meaningless, but time-honoured words. The airs have much of the dignity of early Norse and Gaelic tunes, quite unlike any modern music ; when and where they originated I should like well to know. Here is one of them that the men sung frequently. It refers to some ideal skipper, beloved by his crew, who had died and gone to his rest a long time ago. [w/ score]

Oh, Stormie's gone, the good old man.
Aye, aye, aye, Mister Stormalong.
Oh, Stormie's gone, that good old man,
To be with you Stormalong.
We dug his grave with a golden spade, 

Aye, aye, aye, Mister Stormalong;
His shroud of finest silk was made, 

To be with you, Storm-along.
We lowered him with a silver chain, 

Aye, aye, aye, Mister Storm-along;
Our eyes were dim with more than rain, 

To be with you, Storm-along.
And now he lies in an earthen bed,
Aye, aye, aye, Mister Storm-along; 

Our hearts are sore, our eyes are red, 

To be with you, Storm-along.
Old Stormie heard the Angel call,
Aye, aye, aye, Mister Storm-along; 

So sing his dirge now one and all, 

To be with you, Storm-along.

Think of this very slowly chanted, in time to the clank of the pump, the waves surging over the decks, sky and sea grey, and the wind booming through the shrouds overhead, and you have as dreary a scene as can well be pictured.
//

The [DEAD HORSE] ceremony is described.
//
OCTOBER 6th.—Lat. 30.30 ; long. 20.4. Old Horse day.
The cat's wind has held fair, and the Balaena, with a white feather in her teeth, bowls merrily southward.
The Old Horse came out in great style. The sailors consider that they do their first month's work at sea for nothing, having received the month's pay in advance when they signed articles, and the old horse is made an emblem of this month, and is hanged. I fail to see the analogy between an old horse and an unpaid month's work, but I am told that it is quite evident. However, I relate the incident as I saw it. It may be a custom of the past in a few years, for the reason that men are now trying to have their wages paid weekly. They would like to have a portion of their first pay handed them in advance, and would like their wives to receive their half pay in weekly, instead of in monthly, instalments. There are several other regulations they wish to have formed as to their pay; for instance, that in case of shipwreck, they should receive pay up to date of reaching home, or at least till they make land, or a port. If we were to lose this ship in the Antarctic and lived in the boats or on the ice for a month or so, and then had the good fortune to be picked up by one of our companion vessels and brought home alive, the men would only be entitled to claim pay up to the moment the ship went down, and instead of returning with their pockets full of money, they would arrive in debt to their employers for the cost of their board on the vessel that took them home, whilst the owners by insurance might lose nothing, and might even profit by the wreck. This seems hardly a considerate arrangement in regard to the men; and if employers would still be employers, they ought to be very considerate in this respect, or the time will come for sailors to work for their united interest, and the consideration of the employers will be of no account.

For some days reports have come aft from the focsle that the horse was being constructed. When I heard an unfamiliar song being chanted this afternoon, I went forward and found the men hauling on two lines that led down to the focsle-hatch. At the end of the lines came the dummy horse, made of wood and canvas, bestrode by Braidy, arrayed in a scarlet flannel jacket and a black jockey's cap. The horse was supported on either side and at its latter end by some of the old hands. As the hatch is very steep, they had some difficulty in hauling up the horse and its rider properly and in time to the chant. At last they got him on deck and then began a slow march round the ship, going aft on the starboard side, round the poop, and forward again by the port side. The procession really made a splendid picture-subject, the colouring of the men's clothes in the sunlight was so varied and so harmonious; there was faded blue, and purple, and pale green, and a sky-blue Tam-o'-Shanter, and all the faces and arms were dyed nut-brown by the sun. In the middle of the group sat Braidy in his scarlet coat, with the brown unpainted wood of the bulwarks and the blue sea above forming a back-ground. Round the deck they went singing 'The Old Horse,' chanting the time-honoured song with all solemnity, making the old horse plunge at times, for they had to pull it along the deck in short jerks to keep time to the tune. In the lee channels the sea was frothing white, and I thought Braidy would come off, for the horse grew very restive there; but he held to its neck.

Under the foreyard the procession halted, and a running bowline was dropped over the horse's head, and Braidy got off, and to a second mournful chant it was hauled up to the yard's-arm. It was a curious, quaint, and pretty performance; the solemn seriousness of the whole affair and the suppressed childish fun were in extreme contrast. For a minute the horse hung swinging against the bright sky, then a man lay out along the yard and drew his knife across the line, and the 'Poor Old Horse' dropped with a splash into the blue waves and floated sadly astern: These are some of the words of the song, and the air as nearly as I can remember it.

THE OLD HORSE [w/ score]

They say my horse is dead and gone,
And they say so, and they hope so!
They say my horse is dead and gone;
Oh, poor old man!

For one long month I rode him hard, 

And they say so, and they hope so! 

For one long month I rode him hard; 

Oh, poor old man!

But if he's dead I 'll bury him low,

And they say so, and they hope so! 

But if he's dead I'll bury him low; 

Oh, poor old man! 


Then drop him to the depths of the sea, 

And they say so, and they hope so! 

Then drop him to the depths of the sea; 

Oh, poor old man!
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
Now a chantie is started as the crew haul on the main topsail halyards. Lately the chanties have been few, and half drowned by the racket of the storm and hail-showers; but this morning there is a ring of triumph in the hearty voices, and the white sails that have been imprisoned so long seem to signal to the gale as they unfurl that we have beaten it, and are ready to face it again.
It is a new chantie to me, this old song, which one of our harpooneers trolls out—sung in the ark, probably, when Noah hauled in the gangway. Marshall has an endless stock of these chanties, and brings out a new one when we get tired of the last.

Chantie man: Ran-zo was a tailor,
All together: Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Chantie man: Now he's called a sailor,
All together: Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
The skipper was a dandy, 

Ranzo, boys, Ranzo! 

And was too fond of Brandy, 

Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
They call him now a sailor! 

Ranzo, boys, Ranzo! 

The master of a whaler! 

Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!

There is a fine sudden ring in the chorus that goes well with the wind and squalls. 'Belay,' shouts the mate, and the crew repeat' belay,' and the chantie stops in the middle of a Ran-zo.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 06:52 PM

1895        Manchester Literary Club. _Papers of the Manchester Literary Club._ Vol. 21. Manchester: John Heywood.

4 Feb., 1895, at one of the weekly meetings of the Manchester Literary Club, J.B. Shaw presented a paper on chanties. It was accompanied by performances, with piano accompaniment.

Two sentences are verbatim copy of Alden's 1882 article, so that was used as a source on background. If they had piano accompaniment, there is a good chance they were using Davis & Tozer's Third Edition, published in the early 1890s, as it was the only source then with accompaniment. However, they might have made their own accompaniment.

This event is interesting because it marks perhaps the first (or first I've seen!) instances of chanties being performed by "laymen". Although we don't know if, perhaps, some or all of the performers were ex-seamen, it seems to me that most or all were simply interested amateurs. They speak of preserving the songs – the first rumblings of a revival? As I said, Davis/Tozer's volume, which doesn't seem to have gotten much notice until its third edition, looks to have been the only publication in the 19th century that was created to facilitate performance of chanties by laypersons.

The brief reads as follows.
//
Sailors' Chanties.
Mr. J. B. Shaw contributed the principal paper. It dealt with Sailors' Chanties and other Sea Songs, and was illustrated by the singing of a number of these "chanties" and songs by Messrs. Derby, Butterworth, Dinsmore, Edmeston, Mercer, and Wilcock, who were accompanied on the piano by Mr. W. Noel Johnson. The reader said that "Sailors' Chanties" belonged to a time now no more. The typical "Jack " of the pre-propeller age has utterly vanished, has passed into the dusty domain of the archaeologist, and his real habits and customs will soon be forgotten. We should therefore make an effort to preserve the memory of his songs before the last man who heard them and can give testimony in regard to them is gone. The "Chanty-man," the chorister of the old packet ship, has left no successors. In the place of rousing "pulling songs" we now hear the rattle of the steam-winch, and the steamwinch or pump give us the rattle of cog-wheels or the hiss of steam instead of the wild choruses of other days. Sailors' songs might be divided into two classes, pulling songs and windlass songs. The former were used merely to aid the men when pulling on a rope, to pull at the same precise instant. The latter were intended to beguile the men while getting up the anchor or working the pumps into temporary forgetfulness of their prosaic labour. These songs are worth studying from various points of view. Musically they are most valuable, as showing how much they are characteristic of their subject, vocationally as proving the amount of impetus or encouragement needed by the singer in his work, and poetically by making known the feelings which animate a sailor's breast with regard to his home, his wife, his captain, and all that concerns him.
In the conversation which followed the reading of the paper, Messrs. Milner, Kay, Crosland, Chrystal, and Newton took part.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 07:20 PM

1894        Walling, Lieutenant Burns T. "The Wreck of the Kearsarge." The Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute 21(4).

Feb 1894, the famed USS KEARSARGE is wrecked on Roncador Bank, off the east coast of Central America. At one point during the activities, singing of chanties is described.

The men sang "Shantee songs", [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [A-ROVING].
//
What preparations could be made for the approach of daylight were now pushed ahead. Three rafts were constructed from the light spars and lumber, their heads resting on the rail forward, all being ready to launch in case the other boats should fare no better than had the second cutter. As much extra provision and fresh water as possible was brought up, limited only in amount by a desire to keep the gangway clear for a rush forward in case she should break in two.

The galley fires were started and coffee was made and served out, reinforced by cigars and cigarrettes from the wine mess stores. The men kept at their work singing cheerily a number of 'Shantee songs, the most popular being "Heigho, knock a man down" and "No more I'll go a-rovin' with you, fair maid.''
//

It's interesting as another appearance of the "knock a man" variation.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 09:08 PM

1895        Stedman, Thomas L., ed. Twentieth Century Practice: An International Encyclopedia of Modern Medical Science. Vol. 3. New York: William Wood and Co.

Chanties inducing nausea!

Not much info here except to add to our sense of how familiar laypersons may have been with the genre in the 1890s, i.e. the phrase, in quotes, is "chanty song."

//
A distinguished surgeon in the United States Navy, formerly associated with me on duty, who, although he had passed half of his twenty-five years of service at sea, was always a great sufferer from seasickness, assured me that he could at any time excite in himself feelings of nausea, by recalling occasions and circumstances of former attacks. Charteris quotes Henry Ward Beecher as relating how "many years after his first voyage across the Atlantic, he heard some sailors in a Brooklyn dock singing the same old 'chanty song' that he had heard when ill at sea, and that the mere listening to it produced the creepy feeling of seasickness;"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 09:32 PM

1896        Hawley, G. "The Foundations of the Sea." The Pall Mall Magazine 14(57).

Nov. 1891, ship Manilla > Honolulu. Can't quite tell if this is supposed to be fiction (I presume) or possibly a true account. Uses the phrase "shanty song."

//
The rest of the crew staggered out, carrying those who were beyond walking. Fresh air and cold water galvanised them into something like life; but the rest of the voyage was a sad lot. The greyness had eaten into us, and the clank of the pump brakes, watch in, watch out, took the place of the cheery, shanty song. The ship leaked like a basket, the heat having started the pitch from the caulking in every seam, and we made Honolulu with three feet of water in the hold.
//