The Advent and Development of Chanties

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 08:09 PM

A "Malayan" shanty? With the untraditional-sounding "Love is kind to the least of men"?

I doubt it.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 06:18 PM

An interesting artifact of one of the ideas of chanty development here. In 1914, Bullen had come out with his collection in which he states, "...the majority of the Chanties are Negroid in origin." This issue of _The Crisis_ (NAACP Journal started by W.E.B. Dubois) took note, in October 1914:

According to Frank T. Bullen in London Tit Bits, the majority of chanties, sea-songs sung by sailors, come from the Negroes of the southern states, the crude songs being sung to lighten hours of labor.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 05:11 PM

Hi Charlie!

I had poked into this when you posted it, but only now just getting time to sort out my notes and reply.

Your question about what Burke means by "Malayan chanty" is certainly the crux of it! If it was a chanty sung by Malays, why the English text? I haven't found an answer, however, I *think* he means to imply that it was indeed a song sung by gents of Malay ethnicity.

Burke mentions the chanty (twice) in his earlier book, _Nights in Town: a London Autobiography_ from 1915. Although this book (as opposed to Limehouse Nights) was of a more journalistic, non-fiction style, my understanding is that the idea Burke grew up in sailortown is something of a myth. However, I think he had been observing these haunts recently as an adult, so is writing from his actual observations. And I don't see any reason to doubt that he actually heard a chanty (or some song that he classed as a chanty) that said "Love is kind to the least of men". In fact, it seems to have really made an impression on him if he is to quote it twice in Nights in Town and twice in Limehouse Nights.

Nights in Town gives what seems to be the context in which he actually heard it, though it still doesn't answer our main questions about whether it was truly "Malay" and (my question) what sort of chanty it might have been (related to a steamship?). Here is the passage, from pg 207 of the American edition:

Sheer above the walls of East India Dock rose the deck of the Cawdor Castle, as splendidly correct as a cathedral. The leaping lines of her seemed lost in the high skies, and she stood out sharply, almost ecstatically. Against such superb forces of man, the forces of Nature seemed dwarfed. It was a lyric in steel and iron. Men hurried from the landing-stage, up the plank, vanishing into the sly glooms of the huge port-holes. Chains rang and rattled. Lascars of every kind flashed here and there: Arabs, Chinkies, Japs, Malays, East Indians. Talk in every lingo was on the air. Some hurried from the dock, making for a lodging-house or for The Asiatics' Home. Some hurried into the dock, with that impassive swiftness which gives no impression of haste, but rather carries a touch of extreme languor. An old cargo tramp lay in a far berth, and one caught the sound of rushing blocks, and a monotonous voice wailing the Malayan chanty: "Love is kind to the least of men, EEEE-ah, EEEE-ah!" Boats were loading up. Others were unloading. Over all was the glare of arclights, and the flutter of honeyed tongues.

Interesting that this earlier version was "EEEE-ah" rather than "Eee-awa". The "awa" seems like it might have inspired the "haul away" adaptation.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 11:12 AM

Gibb-

I'm curious if any one here has or can find more clues to the origin of the rowing shanty "Haul Awa." It's unclear if the reference by Thomas Burke to the song being "an old Malayan chanty" means that it was originally a traditional Malayan rowing song or sung by sailors who frequented that part of the world. The author of LIMEHOUSE NIGHTS, Thomas Burke, was not himself a deep-water sailor but a writer who grew up in London's sailortown. The fragment Burke transcribed is as follows:

Love is kind to the least of men . . .
Eee-awa! Eee-awa!

Here's the song as it's now sung with some notes:

HAUL AWA'

(Traditional after singing of Lucy Simpson and Robin Roberts (now Robin Howard)
Recorded by the Boarding Party on 'TIS OUR SAILING TIME, © 2000 Folk Legacy Records, Inc.)

Love is kind to the least of men,
Haul awa', haul awa',
Though he be but a drunken tar
Haul awa', awa'.

Once I had a star-eyed maid…
I was content with her to lay…

In the comfort of her bed…
Let me lay until I'm dead…

Take my body to the shore…
Star-eyed maid, I'll sail no more…

Here's my blessing (story) – let it be…
May you love as she loved me…*

Love is kind to the least of men…
Though he be but a drunken tar…*

* New verses added by Lucy Simpson

Notes edited from CD:

Robin learned the song from a Massachusetts woman, a Mrs. Walsh, who had gotten it in turn from "a retired clipper ship sailor." Robin recorded the chorus as "Ee awa."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 03:07 AM

Here's my attempt to derive the contents of Davis & Tozer's 2nd edition (unseen), from circa 1890. The first edition (which I believe was not widely read) had 24 chanties. The second version added 16 "of a more modern character." The third added 10 more -- most or all adapted from LA Smith. By comparing texts and thinking which may have come from Smith, I was able to remove the Smith songs and derive this 2nd edition. Well, one of the songs I was unsure about.

1. Sally Brown
2. Away for Rio
3. We're All Bound to Go
4. The Wide Missouri
5. Leave Her, Johnnie
6. Can't You Dance a Polka?
7. The Black Ball Line
8. Hoodah Day
9. Homeward Bound
10. Hame, Dearie, Hame

I stand on deck, my dearie, and in my fancy see,
The faces of the loved ones that smile across the sea; 

Yes, the faces of the loved ones, but 'midst them all so clear, 

I see the one I love the best--your bonnie face, my dear."
And its hame, dearie, hame! oh, it's hame I want to be,
My topsails are hoisted, and I must out to sea;
For the oak, and the ash, and the bonnie birchen tree,
They're all a-growin' green in the North-a-countree."

11. As Off to the South'ard We Go

The wind is free and we're bound for sea,
Heave away, cheerily, ho, oh!

ETC


12. On the Plains of Mexico

Oh, Santa Anna won the day,
Away Santa Anna.
Santa Anna won the day
On the plains of Mexico

Oh, Santa Anna fought for fame,

ETC

13. Haul the Bowlin'
14. Whiskey for My Johnnie
15. Reuben Ranzo
16. Blow, Boys, Blow
17. Blow the Man Down
18. Tom's Gone to *'Ilo
19. What to Do with a Drunken Sailor

What shall I do with a drunken sailor,
What shall I do with a drunken sailor,
What shall I do with a drunken sailor,
Early in the morning
[Cho.] Aye, aye, up she rises,
Oh, aye, up she rises,
Aye, aye, up she rises,
Early in the morning.

ETC.

20. Boney Was a Warrior

Boney was a warrior,
Oh aye, oh,
Boney was a warrior,
John Franzo.

Boney marched to Moscow,

Moscow all a-blazing,

Boney had to turn again,

Boney went to Waterloo

Boney met a warrior,

Boney had to run away,

Boney was a warrior,

Boney was a prisoner,
Boney was a prisoner,

Boney broke his heart and died,
Boney broke his heart and died,

MIDI: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/bwarrior.html

21. Highland Laddie

There was a laddie came from Scotland,
Highland laddie, bonnie laddie.
Bonnie laddie from fair Scotland,
Highland laddie, ho!

22. Hanging Johnnie
23. The Sailor's Loves

The maiden, oh, the maiden, oh,
The sailor loves the maiden, oh!
So early in the morning,
The sailor loves the maiden, oh!
[cho.] A maid that is young, a maid that is fair,
A maid that is kind and pleasant, oh
So early in the morning, the sailor loves the maiden, oh!

ETC

24. So Handy, My Boys

Oh, up aloft the yard must go,
So handy, my boys, so handy.
Oh, up aloft from down below,
So handy, my boys, so handy.

ETC

25. Haul Away, Jo
26. I'm Bound Away to Leave You
27. Johnny Bowker

Oh do, my Johnnie Bowker,
Come rock and roll me over,
Do, my Johnnie Bowker, Do.

28. A Hundred Years Ago
Smith?
A hundred years is a very long time,
Ho, yes, ho!
A hundred years is a very long time,
A hundred years ago.

29. Paddy Doyle's Boots

30. One More Day for Johnnie

Only one more day for Johnnie,
One more day.
Oh! rock and roll me over,
Only one more day.

ETC.

31. A-Roving
32. Storm Along
33. The Saucy Sailor Boy

He was a saucy sailor boy
Who'd come from afar,
To ask a maid to be the bride
Of a poor Jack tar.

The maiden, a poor fisher girl,
Stood close by his side;
With scornful look she answered thus;
I'll not be your bride.

You're mad to think I'd marry you
Too ragged you are;
Begone, you saucy sailor boy,
Begone you Jack tar.

I've money in my pocket, love,
And bright gold in store;
These clothes of mine are all in rags,
But coin can buy more.

Though black my hands my gold is clean
So I'll sail afar,
A fairer maid than you, I ween,
Will wed this Jack tar.

Stay! Stay! you saucy sailor boy,
Do not sail afar;
I love you and will marry you,
You silly Jack tar.

'Twas but to tease I answered so,
I thought you could guess
That when a maiden answers no
She always means yes.

Begone you pretty fisher girl,
Too artful are you;
So spake the saucy sailor boy,
Gone was her Jack tar.

MIDI: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/saucy.html

34. Mobile Bay
35. Fire Down Below

Fire in the galley, fire in the house,
Fire in the beef kid, scorching the scouse.
Fire, fire, fire down below,
Fetch a bucket of water,
Fire down below.

Fire in the cabin, fire in the hold,
Fire in the strong room melting the gold.

Fire round the capstan, fire on the mast,
Fire on the main deck, burning it fast.

Fire in the lifeboat, fire in the gig,
Fire in the pig-stye roasting the pig.

Fire in the store room spoiling the food,
Fire on the orlop burning the wood.

Fire on the waters, fire high above,
Fire in our hearts for the friends that we love.

MIDI: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/fire.html

36. The Girl with the Blue Dress

A girl asleep with a blue dress on,
Shake her, Johnnie, shake her.
An unsafe couch she's resting on,
Shake her, and so wake her.

ETC.

37. The Ox-Eyed Man

The ox-eyed man is the man for me,
He came a sailing from o'er the sea
Heigh ho for the ox-eyed man.

Oh, May in the garden a shelling her peas,
And bird singing gaily among the trees.

Oh, May looked up and she saw her fate
In the ox-eyed man passing by the gate

The ox-eyed man gave a fond look of love,
And charmed May's heart which was pure as a dove,

Oh, May in the parlour a-sitting on his knee,
And kissing the sailor who'd come o'er the sea

Oh, May in the garden a-shelling her peas,
Now weeps for the sailor who sail'd o'er the sea.
Heigh ho for the ox-eyed man.

MIDI: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/oxeyed.html

38. Eight Bells
39. Salt Horse
40. The Dead Horse

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 02:36 PM

There's a typ-o in my lyrics transcription: "massa".

John M --

Nor have I been able to find anything on the song after poking around a little. And the usual translation to "minstrel language" phrases "I lub de blue mountains ob Tennessee" did nothing. Ha!


Lighter--

Thanks for booking a fare on my Doubting Harlow Train! :)

The lyrics really do sound "off." Actually, to put it in an unhelpful and subjective way: to me they just sound bad! You may be on to something in suspecting a later dating.

After this reading of Harlow, I got the feeling that perhaps most of his "negro" (not minstrel) shanties are labeled as such based on his profound experience and observations in Barbados on that one trip. Certainly all the songs labeled as "'Badian hand over hand" throughout the book are likely from that incident.

"Harlow's unreliable reconstruction" sounds like a good possibility. He wanted to give the song as he'd heard it in Barbados, but could not remember the exact wording. He used evocative lynchpins like "massa" and "pickaninny," but his efforts came out in his own, later language.

By his statement, "These words are of negro origin and different from those used by our crew", I'd guess that he presumed the song to be of Black origins due to its popularity with the Bajans. His own crew, I'd guess, picked up the song afterwards, but used different lyrics. Here, Harlow is attempting to recall what he believed were the original words.

FWIW the melody also sounds awkward to me in the way it fits the words. Certain melodic and rhythmic emphases don't seem as "natural" as they could be. Perhaps they are just unfamiliar, and from my current perspective I perceive them as less natural.

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

There's something about this song that doesn't ring true for me. The sentimental attachment to the "Blue Mountains of Tennessee" sounds very post-minstrel, very 1890s or even later. The rest seems more believable - though the abundant internal rhymes of the last stanza seem awfully self-conscious.

Is this Harlow's unreliable reconstruction, in the 1920s or later, of something he only dimly remembered? It would seem so. What's this business about "These words are of negro origin and different from those used by our crew"? If they weren't used by the crew, where'd he get them? What does "negro origin" mean here, exactly?

I don't want to think about it.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 10:57 AM

Gibb, thanks for posting those lyrics. I don't know why I didn't think to actually look in Harlow! The "obvious"....! And thanks for checking out the Western Folklore article. Those snippets can drive you crazy. I would be interested to see if anyone turns up any other reference to this song. I couldn't find it in the minstrel collections, but it was a quick look.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 03:41 AM

John,
The Western Folklore article is just Abrahams' brief review of Harlow's posthumous collection. Not much to it. He doesn't say anything more about the song than you already noted -- he just quotes it and cites it alongside of Golden Vanitee to demonstrate the variety/range of songs in the collection.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 03:31 AM

Here are the full lyrics for Harlow's "I Love the Blue Mountains."

I LOVE THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
Halliards

Oh, I love the Blue Mountains
    The Blue Mountains of Tennessee.
That's the place for you and me,
    I'm bound for Tennessee.

In eighteen hundred and sixty-three,
That's where my mass set me free.

My wife is there with her pickaninny,
And soon I'll have him upon my knee.

The ship sails free for you and me,
When I get there I'll quit the sea.


The minstrel song medium does seem like the most likely way for this song about the Appalachians to have reach Barbados.

The style of the song reminds me of both "Poor Lucy Anna" / "Oh, Louisiana" (also in Abrahams) and "Good Morning Ladies All (Hugill's version 'A')". I guess I wouldn't be surprised if they were all (originally at least) minstrel songs create about the same time.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 27 Mar 11 - 08:17 AM

Well, apparently "I Love the Blue Mountains of Tennessee" was a minstrel song and was used as a chanty. Here is a snippet from a journal article in WESTERN FOLKLORE, Vol. 22:

http://books.google.com/books?id=p4wLAAAAIAAJ&q=%22The+Blue+Mountains+of+Tennessee%22&dq=%22The+Blue+Mountains+of+Tennessee%22&h

Roger Abrahams quotes the passage from Harlow in DEEP THE WATER, SHALLOW THE SHORE, (p. 9), but doesn't say anything about "I Love the Blue Mountains". Maybe somebody can look up the article in WESTERN FOLKLORE.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 27 Mar 11 - 08:01 AM

Hey, Gibb, this jumped out at me on your list:

"It was a standoff between Hanging Johnny and I Love the Blue Mountains of Tennessee as to which they liked best."

I've never heard of "I Love the Blue Mountains of Tennessee"! Is this the "long-lost" possible connection of some Appalachian Mountain music with sea chanties? I'd be interested to know if anybody comes up with anything on this. And how did this get to Barbados!

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Mar 11 - 03:53 AM

Here's a sort of run-down of what's in (or what jumped out at me from in) Harlow's posthumously collected work. It does not do it justice, but it is all I can muster right now. Basically it is a list of the contents (song titles) with some identifying information of what the chanties were used for, who sang them or where Harlow learned them from, and some miscellaneous observations. Better to read to book, but perhaps this will serve some function in this thread for comparison and search purposes. At this point, I have been anxious at least to have some sort of break down of Harlow's chanties in order to fit them into the scheme of "trajectory of chantying development," so...

1962        Harlow, Frederick Pease. _Chanteying Aboard American Ships._ Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishing Co.

Footnotes indicate that Harlow had read: Dana, Smith, Masefield, Whall, Lubbock (Around the Horn), Luce, Clark (The Clipper Ship Era), Terry, Colcord, Buryeson, and Williams. Does anyone knowabout the Capt. Botterill and Capt Nye that he talks about? Some of the chanties came from them.

Harlow was son of a Methodist minister in Newport RI. December 1875 shipped out of Boston, to Austrtalia and Java, on the medium clipper Akbar of Peabody's Australian Line.

1928, The Marine Research Society published Harlow's account _The Making of a Sailor or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger._

A section of the book appeared in installments in 1948 in the periodical _The American Neptune._

Harlow says: Chanties were so common in the 70s, that they were sung on all square riggers, even in brigs and topsail schooners.
Good chanteyman was often paid more.
Often dirty lyrics.
Some people "would string out a chantey by repeating every line, using words with no meaning and sometimes without regard to rhythme or metre. But if he were original, he would make up verses as he sang, bringing in incidents of voyage in such a vivid way that the crew redoubled their efforts…"

Classification of 4 different kinds of chanties:

CAPSTAN – capstan or windlass
LONG DRAG – topsail halyards
SHORT DRAG – sheets/tacks/bowline
HAND OVER HAND – hoisting light sails, 2-3 men on halyards. Includes Drunken Sailor in this.

Early chanties were more in minor keys. Mentions Antebellum cotton screwing of Negroes and give example:

WE'RE ALL SURROUNDED

Whites imitated "heavy" harmonious chorus of Blacks.

Chanties reached zenith in 1870s. Then declined under steam in 1880s.

Lots about sing-outs, w/ specific phrases.

Section: "Chanteying On the Akbar"

-HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (WE'RE ALL BOUND TO GO)
Jerry at the windlass. "Heave away my Johnnies, heave away/heave away, my Johnny boys, We're all bound to go"
-HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES II
"As sung by Fred. H. Burgeson, San Francisco"
-CLEAR THE TRACK, LET THE BULGINE RUN. Jerry at windlass sang at
pumps; Later, Brooks sings it at pumps.
"Ah-he, ah-ho, are you most done? So, clear the track, let the bulgine run"
-WHISKEY. Handsome Charlie begins with sing-out at topsail halliard.
Then Jerry came and sang this:"Oh, whiskey, Johnny!/Oh, whiskey for my Johnny!"
-THE DRUNKEN SAILOR (UP SHE RISES)
Jerry at main topgallant, hand over hand
- JOHN FRANCOIS (BONEY WAS A WARRIOR), fore topgallant.
-PADDY DOYLE AND HIS BOOTS, Jerry bunting.
-SOUTH AUSTRALIA, Dave at windlass.
-GOLDEN VANITEE (slower), windlass
-CAN'T YOU DANCE THE POLKA (faster), windlass
-SANTY, Brooks at windlass. "And hurrah! You Santy, my dear
honey/Hurrah! You Santy, I love you for your money.
-SANTA ANA (ON THE PLAINS OF MEXICO).
"Hurrah! Santa Ana!/On the plains of Mexico."
-ONE MORE DAY, An "ancient chantey"
Minor chanties sung in hot weather!
-HEAVE AWAY CHEERILY, Brooks, pumps.
-HANGING JOHNNY, Brooks at main topsail. "words were of Negro
extraction." Also fore topsail.
Footnote says Harlow heard this in June 1878 during a voyage to Barbados in the barque Conquest of Boston.
"The negro stevedores at the fall where the cargo was hoisted by hand, sang this chantey day after day, suing words for all relations, including hanging the baby as well as the bull pup, the pigs and the goats. The harmony of their voices outshone any college quartet ever heard. It was a standoff between Hanging Johnny and I Love the Blue Mountains of Tennessee as to which they liked best.
It was in the month of June and those negroes worked in the hot sun, singing away as they worked, until the leading chanteyman was out of breath, only to be relieved by another nearly his equal. Such singing I never expect to hear again under similar circumstances…
The leading chanteyman…The whites of his eyes shone brightly as he pulled at the fall and the whipcords in his neck stood out like a pair of swifters showing the strain he was under as he sang hour after hour. He improvised words as only a negro poet could, at times so comical as to cause his companions to laugh heartily when forced to use too many words in the metre to make up the rhyme…"
-A-ROVING (THE MAID OF AMSTERDAM), Pumps.
-A-ROVING II – "Words by Burgeson"
-THE SAILOR'S ALPHABET pumps, (not the version actually heard)
-THE HOG-EYE MAN, pumps
-CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, pumps
-ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN, Main topsail halliards:
-A LONG TIME AGO – "Capt. J. L. Botterill", Fore upper topsail:.
-A LONG TIME AGO II
-A LONG TIME AGO III, "Another set of words by the colored writer,
Williams:" It's like in his 1908 article.
-WHISKEY II, Topgallant halliards, walk away. "Capt. J.L. Botterill"
-WHISKEY III, reproduced from elsewhere – Crayfish theme
-BLOW BOYS BLOW, for light sails
-POOR OLD MAN, Fore upper topsail halyards.
-THE DEAD HORSE (with indication that it goes to same tune as previous).
Tells of the ceremony, quoting a writer (who is unclear to me), and seems to imply that he never saw this ceremony first hand.
-A FAL-DE-LAL-DAY, a "whistling chantey" performed by Brooks at the
pumps (also windlass).
-RIDING ON A DONKEY, Brooks at halliards. But the version given is
credited to Capt. J.L. Botterill.
-TOMMY'S GONE TO HILO. Main topgallant.
-SHORT DRAG, ("Corn broom…") Taking in slack of topsail sheet
-HAUL AWAY JOE, sung by second mate, Mr. Sanborn, while rousing home
the main sheet. Also for fore sheet.
-STORM ALONG JOHN at mizzen topsail halliards. It's MR. STORMALONG
in "flipped" form.
-STORM ALONG JOHN II. Halyards, hand over hand. It's STORMY ALONG
JOHN.
-STORM ALONG JOHN III. Halyards. Another version of MR.
STORMALONG, not flipped.
-STORMY, hand over hand, halyards. Also MR. STORMALONG, not flipped.
"Storm Along John was very popular on all merchantmen, but the 'Badian negroes took great delight in singing the words in many variations and when once started would sing one after another, changing the air to suit their mood."
-STORMY II, halyards, hand over hand. "Way-oh, Stormalong John."
-OLD STORMY hand over hand. Another STORMY ALONG JOHN.
-POOR OLD JOE, halyards, hand over hand. This is like Poor Old
Man/DEAD HORSE.
-SUN DOWN BELOW halyards. "Words by Masefield"
"Sun Down Below, Mobile Bay, Way Sing Sally and Hilo, My Ranzo Way, are purely West Indian negro chanteys sung while hoisting cargo from the hold of ships and seldom if ever sung by sailors at the halliards."
-MOBILE BAY, hand over hand, "Were you ebba in Mobile Bay?"
-WAY SING SALLY, hand over hand. "'Badian coon chantey"
-HILO, MY RANZO WAY, hand over hand
"Ranzo is purely a Southern negro term used in the cotton ships at Mobile and New Orleans, and also sung by the 'Badian negros at the fall."
-REUBEN RANZO, by Brooks at topsails, also used as hand over hand.
-BLOW THE MAN DOWN, topgallant halyards.
-BLOW THE MAN DOWN II (more lyrics)
"This chantey was usually sung by white sailors, ending the chorus on the key note. But the negroes in Barbados sang it, employing their harmonious functions by ending the chorus strong on the fourth above, which was very effective and pleasing to the ear."
-HAUL THE BOWLINE, Brooks at fore sheet
-JOHNNY BOKER, rousing home the tack
-SLAPANDER-GOSHEKA, tacks and sheets. "What would my mother say to
me, if I should come home with Big Billy?"
-LEAVE HER JOHNNY, LEAVE HER, pumps
-CRUISE OF THE DREADNAUGHT, capstan
-THE BLACK BALL LINE, capstan
-THE BLACK BALL LINE II. This is a version from Williams in a magazine
around 1920
-JOHNNY GET YOUR OATCAKE DONE (JAMBOREE), Capstan. These words
were given him by Captain Nye. "When I was a boy I used to sing it using the words, "Johnny get your hoe-cake done."
-EARLY IN THE MORNING – a set of words supposedly used to the tune of
Jamboree
-BANKS OF SACRAMENTO, Archie at the capstan.
-RIO GRANDE, capstan.
-SHENANDOAH, capstan, Archie
-FROM SURABAYA TO PASOEROEAN, capstan "Javanese Chantey"
-AH-HOO-E-LA-E, Rolling Sugar "Javanese Chantey"
-TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY, capstan
-HOMEWARD BOUND (GOOD-BYE FARE YOU WELL), capstan, Archie
-SALLY BROWN (ROLL AND GO). Capstan
-FIRE DOWN BELOW, pumps with and "ohio", different parst of the ship
-FIRE DOWN BELOW II. This is from Williams (Get a bucket of water.)
-SHALLOW BROWN, "sung at the fall by the 'Badian negroes."
-LOWLANDS capstan
-BLOW YE WINDS IN THE MORNING Capstan.
-THE MERMAN – This comes from Luce
-ROLLING HOME, Capstan, Archie
-ROLLING HOME II – from Whall
-OUTWARD BOUND Capstan
-OH, POOR PADDY WORKS ON THE RAILWAY, Capstan
-SO HANDY, MY BOYS, SO HANDY, topsail halyards
-I LOVE THE BLUE MOUNTAINS topgallant "These words are of negro
origin and different from those used by our crew."
-ROLL THE COTTON DOWN, halyards
-SONG OF THE FISHES, halyards
-THE MERMAID, capstan, Archie
-A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, hand over hand, Williams

Section: "Chanties and Sea Songs"

-BOSTON, capstan, from Whall.
-THE BOS'UNS'S STORY, "walk away". Sung to Harlow by Captain J.L.
Botterill, who said it was sung on barque Samantha. Could only 1935. That version came from Capt. A.G. Cole of Isle of Wight. Harlow puts these lyrics with Botterill's tune. ""'Tis a hundred years," said the bo'sun bold, "since I was a boy at sea."
-NANCY LEE, capstan, attributed to Stephan Adams
-HIGH BARBAREE, capstan, from Luce?
-ALONG THE LOWLANDS, capstan
-BARNACLE BILL THE SAILOR, pumps
-THE PRIEST AND THE NUNS, pumps
-DO ME AMA, pumps, from Whall
-ADIEU TO MAIMUNA, capstan, sung in the early fifties American ships
-LET GO THE REEFY TACKLE – strictly speaking, not a chantey
-JAPANESE SHORT DRAG , heard when Japanese sailors were heaving
sacks of potatoes: "yoya sano sa!"
-THE PIRATE OF THE ISLE "Sung by Wm. R.B. Dawson, an old-time
chanteyman."
-MARRIED TO A MERMAID, capstan "English"
-THE YANKEE MAN-OF-WAR (Stately Southerner)
-THE YANKEE MAN OF WAR II, sung to Harlow by Wm. RB Dawson
-THE SHIP LORD WOLSELEY, tune of Yankee Man-of-War, composed by
Dawson
-THE CONSTITUTION AND THE GUERRIERE
-SHANNON AND CHESAPEAKE, from Whall
-YANKEE TARS, from Luce
-NANTUCKET P'INT, from the New York Sun
-THE NANTUCKET SKIPPER, by J.T. Fields
-THE FATE OF THE NANCY BELL, by W.S. Gilbery
-THE BARBER SONG, from Vineyard Gazette
-THE LIVERPOOL GIRLS, capstan, from Bone
-JOHN, JOHN CROW, hand over hand, "Barbadian negro chantey,
unloading cargo." "Every Sunday mornin' John, Hohn Crow. When I go a-courtin', John, John Crow."
-GWINE TO GIT A HOME BIME BY, 'Badian hand over hand
-LINDY LOWE, 'Badian hand over hand
-THE DARKY SUNDAY SCHOOL, 'Badian hand over hand
-DIXIE'S ISLE, from Buryeson
-ABOARD THE HENRY CLAY, O Susannah-like melody

Section: "Whaing Songs"

-IT'S ADVERTISED IN BOSTON, windlass, "Cheer up my lively lads"
-'TWAS A LOVE OF ADVENTURE
-A HOME ON THE MOUNTAIN WAVE, as his brother Wiley sang it
-OLD NANTUCKET WHALING SONG
-EDGARTOWN WHALING SONG, same tune as above
-THE COAST OF PERU
-THE WHALE, from Whall
-THE GREENLAND WHALE, capstan, sung by Black sailor Richard Duncan.
-THE HORN OF THE HIRAM Q, by L.E. Richards
-ROLLING DOWN TO OLD MAUI
-BAFFIN'S BAY, as sung by Fred Stone, to tune of Yankee Man-of-War
-THE WHALEMEN'S WIVES, by Capt. R.W. Nye of the barque Guy C. Goss,
given to Harlow

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Mar 11 - 08:31 PM

1908        Williams, James H. "Joseph O'Brien, Irishman." _The Independent_ 64(3090) (20 Feb. 1908): 395.

Nothing new or exciting here. Just a logging of this writing by James H. Williams that came the year before his 1909 article devoted to chanties. He his relaying (perhaps embellished) and story from his experience (i.e. circa mid-1870s-1880s), in the context of which he takes the liberty to quote his version of HAUL AWAY JOE.

At the time of writing, Williams had "returned" to New York and was working as editor of a magazine for the Sailor's Union. Does anyone know what magazine that would be exactly?

Another question: F.P. Harlow quotes a few of Williams' chanties, which he vaguely attributes to an article published around 1920. I don't find any more specific info. I browsed The Independent for that year, but have not yet found anything. I am thinking it might be the Sailor's Union magazine that it was in (?).

//
We had belayed our braces and were hauling away on the fore-sheet to the strains of that good old fore-sheet chanty:

"Haul away the bowlin',
The packet ship's a-rolling';
Away haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

Haul away together,
We'll either break or bend her;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

Oh, haul away, my bully boys,
We're sure to make her render;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

Oh, once I had an Irish girl,
And she was fat and lazy;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!

And now I've got a Yankee girl,
She almost sets me crazy;
Away, haul away,
Haul away, Joe!"
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 19 Mar 11 - 03:04 AM

I just wanted to get these texts into this thread, for search/comparison purposes. The thread dealing with this article is, of course, here.

1909 Buryeson, Fred H. ['El Tuerto']. "Sea Shanties." _Coast Seamen's Journal_ 22(40) (23 June).

//
WINDLASS SHANTIES.

SHENANDOAH

Shenandoah, I love your waters;
And away, you rolling river
I love your clear and rushing waters
Ah, ah, ah, we're bound away, across the wide Missouri.

The ship sails free, a gale is blowing;
Her braces taut and sheet a-flowing.

Shenandoah, I love to hear you;
Shenandoah, I long to see you.

Black-eyed Sue is sure a beauty;
To sing her praise it is our duty.

Shenandoah, I'll ne'er forget you,
But think of you and love you ever.

Give me a good old Yankee clipper,
A bully crew and swearing skipper.

Shenandoah, my heart is longing
To see again your rolling waters.

Good shipmates always pull together,
No matter what the wind or weather.

Shenandoah, I'd love to see you,
And hear again your tumbling waters.

Shenandoah, my thoughts will ever
Be where you are, sweet rolling river.
//

Buryeson's note after the lyrics suggests the possible relationship between, or crossing with, ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN.
//
Note. -- This shanty is said to have originated with negro roustabouts on the Mississippi River boats, many of whom were from the Shenandoah
Valley. The saltwater interpolations in the text were no doubt inserted later by some white shantyman for the purpose of appropriateness. Indeed, many shantymen shipmates of mine, to give this shanty a still more pronounced saltwater tang, used the substitute "Western Ocean" for
"wide Missouri" in the second chorus.
//

//
SALLY BROWN

Sally Brown was a nice young lady,
'Way, heigh, roll and go.
Just as bright and pretty as they make 'em.
I spent my money on Sally Brown.

Sally wasn't either tall or slender,
But her eyes were both blue and tender.

Sally's father kept a little tavern
Just at the head of India basin.

Seven long years, I courted Sally,
But Sally didn't want no coasting sailor.

And so I shipped on a China packet
Just for to be a flyin' fish sailor.

Seven more years I did sail the seas, boys,
When, one day, I received a letter

Telling that Sally had married a tinker
With nary a shilling--and seven small children.

So it's me for the life of a sailor
And I'll spend no more money on Sally.
//

//
RIO GRANDE.

In Rio Grande I'll take my stand,
'Way, you Rio.
For Rio Grande's the place for me.
We are bound for the Rio Grande.
Oh, Rio, Rio; 'Way, you Rio.
Sing fare you well, my bonny young girl,
We are bound for the Rio Grande.

One day I espied a damsel fair
With cherry-red lips and nut-brown hair.

"Where are you going my pretty, fair maid."
"I'm going a-milking, kind sir," she said.

"May I go with you my pretty, fair maid?"
"Oh, no, sir; that never would do," she said.

"Why may I not come, my pretty, fair maid?"
"My father would be angry, sir," she said.

"We are bound for the Rio Grande," I said;
"And, please, won't you come along, fair maid?"

"Oh, no, sir, that never can be," she said,
"For roving is not for a poor young maid."

And away she walked, this pretty, fair maid.
"I must go a-milking, kind sir," she said.

So in Rio Grande I'll take my stand,
For Rio Grande's the place for me.
//

//
DIXIE'S ISLE.

Oh then Susie, lovely Susie, I can no longer stay,
For the bugle sounds the warning that calls me far away.
It ca11s me down to New Orleans, the enemy for to rile;
And to fight the Southern soldiers, 'way down upon Dixie's Isle.

The owners they gave orders no women they were to come.
The captain, likewise, ordered that none of them were to come;
For their waists they are too slender, and their figures are not the style
For to go fight the Southern soldiers, 'way down upon Dixie's Isle.

Oh, my curse attend those cruel wars when first they began;
They robbed New York and Boston of many a noble young man.
They robbed us of our wives, our sweethearts and brothers while
We went fighting the Southern soldiers, 'way down upon Dixie's Isle.

Note.-- The last line of each verse constitutes the chorus.
//

//
BLOW FOR CALIFORNIA.

We're bound for California I heard the old man say;
To me hoodah, to me hoodah.
We're bound for California this very good day.
To me hoodah, hoodah day.
Blow, boys, blow for California;
there is plenty of gold, so I've been told,
on the banks of the Sacramento.

As I was a-walking one day up and down
I spied a gay damsel she seemed outward bound.

I fired my bow-chaser, the signal she knew;
She backed her main topsail, for me she hove to.

I hailed her in English, she answered me thus:
My name is Sally Gubbins, and I'm bound on a cruise.

Then I gave her my hawser and took her in tow,
And into an alehouse together we did go;


And drank ale and brandy till near break of day,
When I went a-rolling down home Tigerbay.

She had rifled my lockers while I filled my hold,
And aboard of my packet I had for to scull.

With a hookpot and pannikin I got under weigh
Seven bells in the morning, the very next day.

And when I have finished a-singing my song
I hope you'll excuse me if I have sung wrong.

She was a fine frigate you must understand,
But one of those cruisers who sail on dry land;

A reg'lar old fire-ship, rigged out in disguise,
To burn jolly sailors like me, damn her eyes.

We're bound for California this very good day;
We're bound for California I hear them all say.

Note.-The "hoodah day," etc., I have spelt according to the way those words sounded to me when the chorus was sung, but I have no idea of their meaning or source, if, indeed, they ever had any meaning.
//

//
SANTA ANA.

Santa Ana has gained the day.
Hooray, Santa Ana.
From Vera Cruz to Manzanas Bay.
All along the plains of Mexico.

He marched his soldiers all o'er the land;
At Orizaba he took his stand.

He drove the gringoes into the sea,
And hung their leader to a gallows tree.

I wish I were in old Mobile Bay,
A-screwing cotton this blessed day.

Though Santa Ana has gained the day
A dollar a day is a nigger's pay.

But seven dollars is a white man's pay
For screwing cotton ten hours a day.

Then heave her up, boys, and let her go;
For now we're heading for Mexico.

I heard the skipper say yesterday
We're going to Matamoros Bay.

So heave a pawl, boys, the wind is fair,
Likewise the donnas who live down there.

For Santa Ana has gained the day
From Vera Cruz to Manzanas Bay.
//

//
MISTER "STORMALONG."

"Storma!ong" was a good old man,
Aye, aye, aye, Mister "Stormalong."
For he served his sailors grog by the can.
To me 'way, "Stormalong."

He gave us plenty of spud-hash, too,
And every Sunday we had black-ball stew;

With soup and boulli and lots of duff,
Of soft-tack, also, we got enough.

"Stormy" never put us on our whack;
No pound and pint "according to the Act."

Then shake her up and away we'll go;
We're bound to sail, blow high or low.

I wish I was with "Stormalong"
A-drinking of his rum so strong.

For "Stormalong" was a good old rip,
As good as ever sailed a ship.
//

//
MAID OF AMSTERDAM.

In Amsterdam there lived a fair maid.
Mark well what I do say;
In Amsterdam there lived a fair maid,
And this fair maid my trust betrayed.
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.

I asked this fair maid to take a walk,
That we might have some private talk.

Then I took this fair maid's lily-white hand,
In mine as we walked along the strand.

Then I put my arm around her waist,
And from her lips snatched a kiss in haste.

Then a great, big Dutchman rammed my bow,
And said, "Young man, dis bin mein vrow."

Then take a warning, boys, from me,
With other men's wives don't make too free.

For if you do you will surely rue,
Your act, and find my words come true.
//

//
HOMEWARD BOUND.

We are homeward bound, come, let us all sing.
Good-by, fare you well; good-by, fare you well.
We are homeward bound, strike up with a ring.
Hurrah, my boys, we are homeward bound.

Then I thought I heard our old man say
That our store of grog gave out yesterday.

So heave her up, we are bound to go
Around Cape Horn through frost and snow.

Hurrah, my boys, we are homeward bound;
We are homeward bound to Liverpool town.

And when we get there we'll have money to spend,
With lots of good cheer, boys, and lashings of rum.

The landlord will greet us with a bow and a smile,
A-saying, "Get up Jack and let John sit down."

But when your money it is all gone
Then in comes the landlord with a frown.

A-saying, "Young man, it is time you were gone,
1 have a ship for you bound out to Hongkong."

So shake her up, bullies; let us be gone,
And sing the good news, we are homeward bound.
//

//
HEAVE AWAY, LADS.

Then heave away, my bully boys; the wind is blowing fair.
Heave away, my bullies; heave away, lads.
Our ship will soon be rolling home to merry England's shores.
Heave away, my bully boys; we are all bound to go.

Then hreak her out and square away; we are all bound to go.
Our course lies through those latitudes where stormy winds do blow.

When I was young and in my prime I sailed in the Black Ball line.
They were the finest ships e'er seen upon the ocean brine.

One morning Bridget Donahue came down the dock to see
Old Tapscot 'bout a steerage berth, and presently said she:

"Good morning, Mr. Tapscot, sir." "Good morning, ma'am," says he.
"And have you got a packet ship to carry me over the sea?"

"Oh, yes. I've got a packet ship to carry you over the sea,"
"And, please yet Mr. Tapscot, sir, what may the fare then be?"

"It 'may be' fifty pounds," says he, "and it 'may be' sixty, too;
But eight pound ten we'll call enongh, my pretty dear, for you."

"And here's the money, sir," says she. "Step right onboard," says he;
"The tide is up, the wind is fair, and soon we'll tow to sea."

"At last," says Bridget, "I am off to the far away
Where Barney went two years ago, the land of Americay."

So shake her up, my bully boys, this day we're bound to go;
The anchor is a-weigh, and now for home we'll sing heigh-ho.
//

//
THE DREADNOUGHT.

I sing of a packet, and a packet of fame;
She's commanded by Samuels, the Dreadnought's her name.
She sails to the west'ard where the stormy winds blow;
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the west'ard we'll go.

It's now we are lying in the River Mersey,
Waiting for the Constitution to tow us to sea.
We'll tow 'round the black rock where the Mersey does flow;
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the west'ard we'll go.

It's now we are sailing on the ocean so wide,
Where the deep and blue waters dash by her black side;
With our sails set so neatly, and the red cross will show;
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the west'ard we'll go.

It's now we are sailing 'cross the Banks of Newfoundland,
Where the lead shows sixty fathoms and bottom of sand;
With icebergs all around and northwesters do blow,
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the west'ard we'll go.

It's now we are sailing by the Long Island shore,
Where the pilot he does board us as he [sic] often done before.
And it's "back your main topsail, your fore tack let it go";
She's a Liverpool packet, brave boys, let her go.

And now to conclude and to finish my song,
I hope you'll excuse me if I have sung wrong.
For the song was composed while the watch was below;
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the west'ard we'll go.
//

//
TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY.

I sing of a brave and a gallant ship, a brisk and a lively breeze
A bully crew, and a captain, too, to carry me over the seas.
To carry me over" the seas, my boys, to my truelove so gay.
She has taken a trip in a government ship, ten thousand miles away.
Then blow you winds, heigh-ho, for it's roving I will go.
I'll stay no more on England's shore, so let your music play.
I'm off by the morning train to cross the raging main,
For I'm on the move to my own truelove, ten thousand miles away.

My truelove she is beautiful, and my truelove she is young,
Her eyes as bright as the stars at night, and silvery sounds her tongue.
And silvery sounds her tongue, my boys, but while I sing this lay
She is doing it grand in a distant land, ten thousand miles away.

It was a dark and a dismal morn when last she left the strand.
She bid good-by with a tear-dimmed eye, and waved her lily-white hand.
And waved her lily-white hand, my boys, as the big ship left the bay.
"Adieu," said she, "and remember me ten thousand miles away."

Then I wish I were a boatswain bold, or even a bombardier,
I'd hire a boat and hurry afloat, and straight to my truelove steer.
And straight to my truelove steer, my boys, where the dancing dolphins play,
And the whales and sharks are having their larks ten thousand miles away.

May the sun shine through a London fog; may the Thames run bright and clear;
May the ocean brine be turned to wine; may I forget my beer.
May I forget my beer, my boys, and the landlord his quarter-day,
If ever I part with my sweetheart, although so far away.

Note.--The last two shanties, as well as "Dixie's Isle," were sung more especially when pumping ship, and would therefore, perhaps, be more properly classed as pump shanties.
//

//
TOPSAIL HALYARDS SHANTIES.

TOM IS GONE TO ILO.

Tom is gone and I'll go to.
Away, Ilo.
Tom is gone and so may you.
Tom is gone to Ilo.

For times are hard and wages low;
It's time for you and me to go.

When I was young I served my time
On board the coasting brig "Sublime."

I had but sailed a voyage or two
When I fell in love with a sweet young maid.

Straight to my captain I did go
And told him of my sad grief and woe.

"I love one girl as I love my life,
And what wouldn't I give if she were my wife."

"Go along, go along, you foolish boy,
To love this girl you'll never enjoy.

"Your love's got sweethearts, it may be,
And she'll be married before you are free."

"Never mind, never mind, but I'll go and try;
Perhaps my love will fancy none but I.

"Perhaps her favor I may enjoy
Although I am but a 'prentice boy."

And when me and my shipmates went on the spree
I asked my love would she drink with me.

And she drank with me and was nowise shy.
Although I was but a 'prentice boy.

Note.--At this juncture the shantyman having, perhaps, run out on the shanty proper, and noting that the leaches of the topsail were yet slack,
would proceed somewhat as follows:

Then up aloft that yard must go,
And down on deck we'll coil this fall.

We're bound to go through frost and snow;
We're bound to go, blow high or low.

For growl we may but go we must;
It's on to Liverpool or bust.

Then I thought I heard our chiefmate say,
I thought I heard him say "Belay!"

This was a delicate hint to the mate that, in the opinion of the singer, the sail had been stretched sufficiently; and his "Belay!" was usually so well timed that the mate would then and there roar out, "Belay! Haul taut the lee brace."

The foregoing, and a number of others of a similar tenor, were the "stock verses" to which I referred in my introductory remarks. As many
of the shanties were composed in the same measure, these verses could be tucked in snug among the verses proper whenever "padding" might become necessary.
//

//
'RANZO, BOYS, 'RANZO.

'Way down in Anjou county.
'Ranzo, boys, 'Ranzo.
There lived one Reuben 'Ranzo.
'Ranzo boys, 'Ranzo

Oh 'Ranzo took a notion
That he'd cross the Western Ocean.

So he shipped onboard of a whaler
Along with Captain Taylor.

But 'Ranzo was no sailor,
And neither was he a whaler.

So they put him in the galley,
But he spoiled our morning coffee.

Then they took him to the gangway
And lashed him to a grating.

And gave him five and forty
Of stripes across his backside.

The captain was a good man;
He took him in his cabin

And gave him wine and brandy,
And taught him navigation.

Now 'Ranzo is a captain,
And navigates a whaler.

But he hasn't yet forgotten
When they lashed him to that grating.

So he treats his sailors kindly,
And gives them grog a-plenty.

Note.-'Ranzo is said to be a contraction of Lorenzo, formerly a common name among the whalemen of New Bedford. Mass., a majority of whom were either Portuguese or of Portuguese extraction.
//

//
WHISKEY, JOHNNY.

Oh, whiskey is the life of man,
Whiskey, Johnny.
For who can do what whiskey can?
Whiskey for me, Johnny.

Hard is our life and short our day,
So I'll drink whiskey while I may.

For whiskey is the friend of man,
So drink it down, boys, all you can.

It's whiskey hot and whiskey cold;
That's how we spend our hard-earned gold.

Oh, whiskey killed my father dead,
And whiskey broke my mother's heart.

It drove my sister on the street,
And sent my brother to the jail.

And whiskey made me leave my home
In foreign countries for to roam.

For whiskey is what brought me here;
It surely is the devil's cheer.

So drink it down, boys, good and strong,
And let us have another song.

Oh, whiskey is the life of man,
For who can do what whiskey can?
//

//
BLOW, BOYS, BLOW.

And it's blow, my boys, for I love to hear you.
Blow, boys, blow.
I love to hear you roll it, bullies.
Blow, my bully boys, blow.

Then blow, my boys, for finer weather
And for a fair wind. and blow together.

A Yankee ship came down the river
And proudly flew her Irish pennants.

And who d'ye think was the captain of her?
Why, "Bucko" Brown, that damned old driver.

And what d'ye think they had for breakfast?
A chunk of salthorse and deviled lobcouse.

And what d'ye think they had for dinner?
A monkey's lights and a bullock's liver.

And who d'ye think was "the chief mate of her?
'Twas "Lily" White, the big Georgia nigger.

And as we passed her by to leeward
Our skipper hailed that nigger chief mate:

"And how's things 'way down in Georgia?"
"Why, red hot, sah, an' still a-heating."

Then blow to-day and blow to-morrow
And blow away all care and sorrow. '

No matter what the wind or weather,
We are the boys can blow together.
//

//
BLOW THE MEN DOWN.

Oh, blow the men down, bullies, blow the men down.
To me 'way, heigh, blow the men down.
An~ blow the men down from Liverpool town.
Give me sometime to blow the men down.

Oh, blow the men down on board of this craft
For blow the men down is the word from aft.

As I was a-walking down South Castle street
A cheeky policeman I chanced for to meet.

He opened his gob, and he gave me some jaw,
And I laid him out stiff with me Erin go bragh.

I up with my helm and ran for Lime street,
And there an old skirt-rigged craft I did meet.

"Oh, Jack," says she, "will you stand a treat?"
"Oh yes, my dear, when next we meet."

She up with her fist and she knocked me down.
"I'll show you," says she, "how to blow the men down."

So blow the men down, bullies, blow the men down,
For that is the style of Liverpool town.
//

//
JOHN FRANCOIS.

Oh, Bonny was a warrior,
To me 'way, heigh-ho.
But we licked him at Trafalgar.
John Francois.

He tried to conquer all Europe,
But he couldn't, conquer old England.

Oh, Donny went to Russia,
To Austria, Spain and Prussia.

And Bonny went to Moscow,
But Moscow was a-burning.

There he lost a bunch of roses,
A bonny bunch of roses.

Twas a token of disaster;
Bold Wellington was his master.

At Waterloo we caught him
And sent him to Saint Helena.

Oh, Bonny was a warrior,
But he couldn't conquer old England.

For he lost his bunch of roses,
His bonny bunch of roses.
//

//
FORESHEET SHANTIES.

JOHNNY BOWKER.

Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, come, rock and roll me over;
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, do.

Come, rock and roll me over from Calais town to Dover.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, the ship she is a-rolling.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, the old man is a-growling.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, the wind it is a-howling.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, I'd like to marry your daughter,
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, and take her across the water.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, come, give us finer weather.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, come, let us pull together.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, the gale is still a-blowing.
Come, do. my Johnny Bowker, this sheet is still a-flowing.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, our arms are sore and aching.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, our hearts are nigh to breaking.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, the sheet is now a-straining.
Come, do, my Johnny Bowker, and nothing are we gaining.
(Belay!)
//

//
HAUL ON THE BOWLINE.

Haul on the bowline, the bonny, bonny bowline.
Haul on the bowline, the bowline, haul.

Haul on the bowline, for something is a-holding.
Haul on the bowline, we'll either bend or break her.
Haul on the bowline, and if she won't we'll make her.
Haul on the bowline, we are the boys so handy.
Haul on the bowline, but that one was a dandy.
Haul on the bowline, and fiddlest ring her braces.
Haul on the bowline, we'll give her merry blazes.
Haul on the bowline, the mate says, "Haul 'em tauter."
Haul on the bowline, and send her 'cross the water.
Haul on the bowline, she's making heavy weather.
Haul on the bowline, and buckle off together.
Haul on the bowline, and drive the ship along, boys.
Haul on the bowline, let's drive her good and strong, boys.
Haul on the bowline, a gale of wind is coming.
Haul on the bowline, and then she'll go a-humming.
Haul on the bowline, we'lI either bend or break her.
Haul on the bowline, and may the devil take her.
(Belay!)
//

Interesting here the "bunch of posies" lyric.
//
HAUL AWAY, JOE.

Away, haul away, boys, and haul away, my rosies.
Away, haul away, and haul away, Joe.

Away, haul away, boys, and haul, my bunch of posies.
Oh, once I loved an Irish girl, she damned near drove me crazy.
And then I loved a Deutscher girl, she was so fat and lazy.
And then I loved a Spanish girl, she was so proud and haughty.
And then I loved a French girl, oh my, but she was naughty.
And then I loved a Yankee girl, she was so tall and slender.
And then I loved an English girl, her eyes were blue and tender.
And then I loved a Scotch lass, she was so fair and bonny.
But she wouldn't look at me for either love or money.
Then away, hau1 away, boys, I'm through with all love-making;
And away, haul away, boys the game is too heart-breaking. '
(Belay!)

Note.--If more verses happened to be needed they were usually borrowed from Johnny Bowker or Haul on the Bowline.
//

Also mentions timber stowing songs "Miss Rosa Lee" "Somebody Told Me So" "Yankee John, Storm Along."
//
In addition to our sea shanties proper we also had timber shanties, sung when loading heavy timbers into a ship's hold. As, however they originated with, and were mostly sung by 'longshore timber stowers, I have not deemed it advisable to include them in the present collection.
The most popular of the timber shanties were Miss Rosa Lee, Somebody Told Me So, and Yankee John, Storm Along. They are still sung by the negro timber stowers in the seaports of the South.

Then, too, we used to sing a shanty -- if shanty it can be called -- when rolling the bunt of a heavy sail up on the yard. After all the slack of the sail had been gathered into the bunt, and we had gotten a firm hold of the "skin," the shantyman would sing:

"'Way, heigh, heigh-ho."

To which all hands chorused:

"And we'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots."

This would be repeated at every toss until the bunt had finally been rolled up on the yard. Paddy Doyle, by the way, was a Liverpool shoemaker, known to a11 the "packet-rats" sailing out of that port for the excellency of his sea-boots, and beloved for his readiness to trust any of the boys for the price of a pair when they were outward bound across "the big pond."
//


His comment on the relative value of the solo lyrics is very quotable:
//
…with us sailors the tune and the chorus counted, in point of importance, as nine-tenths or the shanty, the remaining tenth being just a convenient peg on which to hang the other nine. To be sure, the more ornamental and handsome the peg, the better we
liked it. But on a pinch any old song would do, rhyme or no rhyme, relevancy or no relevancy, provided, of course, it would fit the tune. …
//

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

Bullen was well-known for "The Cruise if the Cachalot" (1898). I haven't compared the two, but it would be unlikely for a 1914 publication not to give him a byline - unless the passage was simply plagiarized. That too seems unlikely.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 04:16 AM

Here's a few more quotes from Dana, _Two Years_, that didn't make it into this thread. They don't add much except,

--reinforce ubiquity of CHEERLY (used for catting anchor and halyards);
--"yo-ho-ing" as Dana's way of referring to singing-out;
--another mention of "Time for us to go";
--Dana was using "yo heave ho" at the windlass, rather than songs/chanties.

pg321
//
We pulled off with a will, saying to ourselves (I can speak for myself at least)—" Good-by, Santa Barbara! —This is the last pull here !—No more duckings in your breakers, and slipping from your cursed south-easters!" The news was soon known aboard, and put life into everything when we were.getting under weigh. Each one was taking his last look at the mission, the town, the breakers on the beach, and swearing that no money would make him ship to see them again; and when all hands tallied on to the cat-fall, the chorus of " Time for us to go!" was raised for the first time, and joined in, with full swing, by everybody.
//

pg349
//
For a few minutes, all was uproar and apparent confusion: men flying about like monkeys in the rigging; ropes and blocks flying; orders given and answered, and the confused noises of men singing out at the ropes. The top-sails came to the mast-heads with "Cheerily, men!" and, in a few minutes, every sail was set; for the wind was light. The head sails were backed, the windlass came round ' slip—slap' to the cry of the sailors ;—" Hove short, sir," said the mate;—" Up With him !"—"Aye, aye, sir."—A few hearty and long heaves, and. the anchor showed its head. "Hook cat!"—The fall was stretched along the decks;—all hands laid hold;—" Hurrah, for the last time," said the mate; and the anchor came to the cat-head to the tune of " Time for us to go," with a loud chorus.
//

pg396
//
Our spirits returned with having something to do; and when the tackle was manned to bowse the anchor home, notwithstanding the desolation of the scene, we struck up "Cheerily ho!" in full chorus.
//

pg413
//
When we came to mast-head the top-sail yards, with all hands at the halyards, we struck up "Cheerily, men," with a chorus which might have been heard half way to Staten Land.
//

Homeward bound in the Alert (pg. 428):
//
The very yo-ho-ing of the sailors at the ropes sounded sociably upon the ear.
//

On returning to moor in Boston, the following occurred (pg 458):
//
All hands manned the windlass, and the longdrawn "Yo, heave, ho!" which we had last heard dying away among the desolate hills of San Diego, soon brought the anchor to the bows…
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Mar 11 - 04:08 AM

Don't forget about g-strings...and 'Commando.'

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

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

The Advent and Development of Panties

so,there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shenandoah, I'll ne'er forget you, 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

//
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN. Hauling Chanty.

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

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

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

Scraps of other verses were recollected as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some chanties come towards the end of the article.

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

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

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

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

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

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

while on January 25th, I908, they ran:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[w/ score]

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

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

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

[w/ score]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[w/ score]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[w/ score]

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

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

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

[w/ score]

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

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

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

[w/ score]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks, Charlie!

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

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

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

Gibb-

"we were soon slipping up to our port"

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

Charley Noble

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

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

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

Charlie--

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

Lighter--

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

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

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

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

and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gibb-

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

Whoop, whoop, indeed!
Charley Noble

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Of course that last guest was me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Williams also gives texts of the following forebitters:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then, BLACKBALL LINE as in Davis/Tozer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

//
And this, from a Negro chantie:-

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


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

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

Our library has the Williams article.

More later.

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

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

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

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

All hands were now tramping steadily round
the capstan.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

"Were you never down in Mobile bay?"

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

As they swung the bars, deep came the note:

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

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

Then Jack went on:

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

ONE MORE DAY from Davis/Tozer:
//

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

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

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

(Chorus) " One more"

Then the bosun most rudely interrupted the
music.
//

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

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

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

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

LEAVE HER JOHNNY
//
Jim hummed the famous chanty:

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

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

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

Article raving about San Pedro becoming a major shipping port.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Cheerily men! 

Who stole my jacket, hi ho!
    Cheerily men! 

Sold the pawn ticket, hi ho!
    Cheerily men! 

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

Oh ! he hi ho,
Cheerily men!
//

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

[w/ score]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Crimee war is over now.
Sebastopol is taken.

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

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

Old England gained the day.

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

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

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

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

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

[w/ piano score]

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

Where are you going, my pretty maid ? 

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


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

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

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

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

[no score]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[w/ score]

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

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

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

I drink it out of an old tin can. 

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

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

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

Blow, my bully boys, blow.

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

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

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

HANGING JOHNNIE. [w/ score]

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

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

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

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

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

[w/ score]

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

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

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

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

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

Chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober, 

Chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober, 

Chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober, 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source for the above

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

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

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

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

//
AUSTRALIA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gibb-

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

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

Or maybe he meant "Bell-Bottomed Trousers."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Round Cape Horn in the month o' May, 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Crimee War is over now,
Sebastopol is taken! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I dreamt I saw my own true love, 

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Way, hay—blow the man down; 

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

Way, hay—blow the man down; 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We'll drink 

Aye,
Brandy and gin, 

Aye,
And pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gibb-

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

Cheerily,
Charley Noble