What does 'Roll and GO' mean?

Subject: RE: What does 'Roll and GO' mean?
From: GUEST,IanA
Date: 19 May 16 - 02:34 PM

A suggestion. Unsupported, but it makes sense to me. Ships often had to beach themselves in order to take on cargo (Wuz ye ever in Miramashee, where ye tie up to a tree?) The tide would go out, cargo was loaded and the tide came back in but the ship had settled, aided by the extra weight of cargo, into the mud and to free it they had to roll the vessel in order to break the seal. A rope is passed around an 'immovable object' on shore and the capstan on board, and the vessel is rolled. They are free to go. Roll and go.

Ian

Subject: RE: What does 'Roll and GO' mean?
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 19 May 16 - 03:52 PM

'Its six o'clock, in the hold below
Sundown sundown below,
time for us to roll and go'

This is a stevedores song and marks the end of the days work, the ship is not yet ready to sail as a later verse makes clear. This is in line with Hugill's explanation, but of course, a with all real language issues, there may have been more than one origin, and later singers were free to incorporate it if it fitted the rhythm.

Subject: RE: What does 'Roll and GO' mean?
From: GUEST,American Stevedore
Date: 10 Feb 22 - 09:29 AM

I say all great suggestions. Remember it'our duty to confound the uninitiated.