Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 10:17 AM

> "toad" in English

.... "Borrowed from French", quoth Wictionary. My hardcopy Collins's* agrees, and adds "(Caribbean)", which suggests a migration route for the word as a pejorative.

* That's not definitively helpful, as it's the first edition of the computer-sorted version, complete with the interesting errors (eg confusing Sardinia with Sardos as the origin of "sardonic").

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 05:05 AM

Maitland performed at the Third National Folk Festival in Dallas, 1936.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 04:41 AM

In the 1942 volume of _The American Neptune_ (vol. 2), there is an offering for the holiday season at the very end, presented by Joanna Colcord. She refers to the version of "The Oxford" given in the previous year's volume (1941) by Sturtevant (discussed above).

//
Its rollicking tune, which probably boasts a music-hall origin, has never appeared in print, so far as I know. There are many versions, but the consistent pattern is that of a sailor shipping away from London or Liverpool on what he supposed to be an ‘easy voyage,' and finding, alas, that the boarding-master had deceived him! The words on the following page are from various sources; the air as it was sung to me by Captain Richard Maitland of Sailors' Snug Harbor. His complete version of the song is on records preserved in the Archive of American Folk-song of the Library of Congress. [the recording made by Lomax in 1939?]
//

So, it looks like Colcord took Maitland's story line and improved the rhymes and prosody, also inserting lines 3 and 4 from another source. I don't remember ever hearing before that Maitland sang for Colcord! Did Maitland actually sing groups of 4 lines between each chorus? That's how Colcord has it notated, though its not how Maitland sung it for Doerflinger and Lomax.

PADDY, GET BACK [w/ score]

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London,
I went down to Shadwell Docks to get a ship.
‘Twas in the middle of the cold month of November,
And I thought ‘twas time to make another trip.

Paddy get back, take in the slack!
Heave around the capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl
‘Bout ship and stations and be handy!
Rise tacks and sheets and mains’l haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the Basin,
She was bound for New York, the boarding-master said.
If I ever lay hands upon that boarding-master,
I will be a month before he leaves his bed.

The pilot left the ship ‘way down the Channel,
And the captain said we was bound around Cape Horn.
He told us if we did not do our duty
He would make us wish we never had been born!

The mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
The Old Man hailed from Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them was rough-and-tumble fighters;
The treatment that we got, it was a shame.

We was called on deck one night to reef the topsails,
Belaying-pins was a-flying about the deck.
The mate he got ahold of me by the collar:
‘If you don’t sing a song, I’ll break your neck!’

Etc., etc.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 04:09 AM

Here's how Maitland sang the song for Alan Lomax in 1939.

When comparing it to the text for Doerflinger (above), it appears less improvised. I mean, each text by itself looks like Maitland is just roughly narrating, not making rhyme and not remembering "the lyrics," but the fact that he sang it more or less the same both times makes it seem as though he'd settled on a stable text during those years.

In the following, I omit the interjections explaining the song, that it was sung at the capstan, and the scolding of Lomax for asking where the "pulls" are.

PADDY, GET BACK

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London,
I went down the Shadwell docks to get a ship.

    Paddy, get back, take in the slack,
    Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
    ‘Bout ship and stations there be handy,
    Rise, tacks and sheets and mainsail, haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin,
Oh, they told me she was going to New York.

If I ever lay my hands on that shipping master,
Oh, I’ll murder him if it’s the last thing that I do.

When the pilot left the ship way down the channel,
Oh, the captain told us we were going around Cape Horn.

The mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
And the captain hailed from Bangor down in Maine.

The three of them were rough and tumble fighters,
When not fighting amongst themselves, they turned on us.

Oh, they called us out one night to reef the topsails,
Now with belaying pins a-flying around the deck.

Oh, and we came on deck and went to set the topsails,
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.

We had tinkers, we had tailors and firemen, also cooks,
And they couldn’t sing a shanty unless they had the book.

Oh, wasn’t that a bunch of hoodlums
For to take a ship around Cape Horn!

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 03:58 AM

I'm going to put up the Dick Maitland (1857-1942) versions.

Significantly for this discussion, in the endnotes of Doerflinger's book (I'm reading the 1990 revised edition), it says that Maitland stated "that he sang the shanty on board an American vessel in 1877 and also heard it sung about that time by Mobile Bay cotton-stowers."

Maitland first went to sea at age 12 (circa 1869), and is reported to have absorbed much about chantey singing in the first two years at sea.
Does anyone have good info on his later sea-going career? I ask to get a sense of the likelihood that he may have picked up some of his shanties later than the 1870s.

Here's the text of Maitland from _Songs of the Sailor and Lumbermen_. I think Doerflinger met Maitland for this in 1941?

PADDY, GET BACK [w/ score]

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London.
I went down the Shadwell Docks to get a ship.
Paddy get back, take in the slack!
Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
‘Bout ship and stations, there, be handy,
Rise tacks ‘n’ sheets, ‘n’ mains’l haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin.
Shipping master told me she was going to New York!

If I ever get my hands on that shipping master,
I will murder him if it’s the last thing that I do!

When the pilot left the ship, the captain told us
We were bound around Cape Horn to Callao!

And he said that she was hot and still a-heating,
And the best thing we could do was watch our step.

Now the mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
And the captain b’longed in Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them were rough-n’-tumble fighters.
When not fighting amongst themselves, they fought with us.

Oh, they called us out one night to reef the tops’ls.
There was belayin’ pins a-flyin’ around the deck.

We came on deck and went to set the tops’ls.
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.

Oh, the mate he grabbed ahold of me by the collar.
“If you don’t sing a song, I’ll break your blasted neck!”

I got up and gave them a verse of “Reuben Ranzo.”
Oh, the answer that I got would make you sick!

It was three long months before we got to Callao,
And the ship she was called a floating hell.

We filled up there at Callao with saltpetre,
And then back again around Cape Horn!

or

We filled up with saltpetre to the hatches
And then bound around Cape Horn to Liverpool.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 04:21 PM

I agree with your reasoning, Lighter.

Yet, some possible arguments against:

1. If the song originates in the stage/commercial sphere, I wouldn't rule out the first-person-singular voice.

2. Some of the "post-romantic" tone could be later accretion as the song developed through later periods. The chorus of "WE'RE bound for Valparaiso" could be an older bit, with new balladry spliced in as the solos.

3. I'm somewhat put off by the prospect that the 1868 writer would include a straight up ballad, no chorus, among the shanties. Even while "Paddy Get Back" is not the model chanty, and (by rough count) as many or more sources say it wasn't a work song, it does "work" as a capstan work song. I might be giving the writer too much credit, but I lean towards suspecting they would have distinguished such a song as "Rounding the Horn" rather than lumping it with the other repertoire.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 02:12 AM

Johnny Crapaud-s

Crapaud - French for "frog"

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 01:17 AM

The text from Bone, _Capstan Bars_ (1931), for reference. He classes it among "fo'cas'le ditties." As Robert mentioned above, Bone notes that it was "popular in 1900" and "I have not heard it since then."

THE LIVERPOOL SONG

‘Twas in th’ cold month of December,
When all my money I had spent,
I shipped in the Clipper ship ‘Defender,’
An’ away to the west-ard I went.

CHORUS
An’ it is ‘Get ye back.’ Ho!
‘Take in y’er slack.’ Ho!
Heave away th’ capstan. Heave a pawl.
Heave a pawl!
‘Bout ship: stations, boys, be handy.
Raise tacks, sheets, an’ mains’l haul!

I joined on a bitter winter’s morning.
A-frappin’ my arms to keep warm.
An’ th’ south cone a-hoisted for a warnin’
To stand by th’ makin’ of a storm.

It was then that I heard a voice a-callin’.
I listened and I heard it again.
‘Twas th’ mate at th’ fo’cas’le door a-bawlin’.
‘Oh, lay aft an’ answer t’ y’er name.’

An’ when I arrived upon th’ quarter-deck,
Great Heavens, what a sight was there to see:
There were remnants of nearly every nation.
An’ I tell you th’ sight did sicken me.

There was Dutchmen an’ Roosians an’ Spanish,
An’ Johnny Creepaws straight across from France,
An’ most didn’t know a word of English,
But answered to the name o’ ‘Month’s Advance.’

Now in my chest I had a bottle.
I saw my boarding master put it there.
So I slipped off th’ deck t’ wet my throttle,
To drown off my sorrow an’ my care.


NB: The melody of the first two lines of the chorus is significantly different than Hugill's familiar melody version.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: meself
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 11:15 AM

Thanks for the explanation re: "Johnny Creepaws". I like it when I know what I'm singing about (in a literary sense, at least, having had only a very brief stint at sea - a long time ago now, but not quite in the Age of Sail).

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: meself
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 01:33 AM

"Johnny Creepaws"?

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Oct 23 - 06:08 PM

John Sampson, "The Seven Seas Shanty Book" (1928). Sampson was a British chanteyman in the 1880s:

                  MAINSAIL HAUL

One morning in the month of cold December,
And most of my money being spent,
What day it was I scarcely can remember,
But down to the Shipping Office went.
Now that day there'd been a great demand for sailors,
For India, for China and for France,
And I shipped on board of the 'Oxford,'
And went upon the spree with my advance.

Chorus:
Stand back, take in the slack,
Bear away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl,
'Bout ship, stations boys, be handy.
Rise tacks, sheets and mainsa'l haul.

Now most of our sailors had been drinking,
And some had been heavy on the boose,
So I set upon my chest a-quietly thinking,
Whether to turn in and have a snooze,
When I heard a voice above me loudly calling.
I listened and I heard the voice again,
'Twas the chief mate at the fo'c'sle door a-bawling,
'All hands lay aft and answer to your name.

Chorus.

Now when I arrived upon the quarter-deck
Such a sight I'd never seen before,
There were scallywags from every tribe and nation,
It made my poor heart both sick and sore.
Then I wished that I was back at the 'Jolly Sailors,'
Along with Irish Kate a-drinking beer,
Oh Kitty, my poor heart is breaking,
I went for'ard for to shed a pitiful tear.

Chorus.

Now in my chest I knew I had a bottle.
For I saw the boarding master put it there,
So I thought that I would go and wet my throttle,
Just to drive away my sorrow and my care.
Then I fell down on my knees like thunder,
A-groping like a pig around a trough,
When to my astonishment and wonder,
It was a bottle of medicine for a cough.

Sampson observes, "This is a fairly modern sea song well known to all old sailing ship men, although the words will vary considerably....It is not of the music-hall type of sea song, but bears the marks of its nautical origin on every line."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Sep 23 - 10:38 AM

Gibb, unless an enlightening text of one or the other turns up before 1869, I'd say we can't know.

But there's no doubt that "Mains'l Haul" was well known at sea in the late 19th century, which was part of the OP's question.

(As was "Rounding the Horn." Heh-heh.)

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 10:46 AM

I'm persuading myself that the 1868 reference to "Valparaiso, Round the Horn" isn't to this song but to the one commonly called "Rounding the Horn" or "The Girls Around Cape Horn" - about the ship "California," the frigate "Amphitrite," the ship "Conway," etc. (Roud 4706).

The style and diction of "Paddy Lay Back" is just too post-romantic for me. There are no "poetic" cliches, no sentimentality, no "brave boys," etc.: circumstantial, plain-spoken, first-person realism only.

It's the fresh first-person realism, undiluted, that impresses me: the narrator is an individual, not a conventional figure or a "we." He insists that he did and saw these many, very specific things personally and makes no attempt to generalize, moralize, or aestheticize them. The style just doesn't strike me as typical of the 1860s or earlier.

Unless new evidence shows up, I'd date "Paddy" to ca1885 or later.

Tentatively.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 09:50 AM

Thanks for posting, Gibb.

Technically, "crapaud" means "toad" in English, but it was a common seafaring term for the French, often as "Johnny Crapaud."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 07:04 PM

Los Angeles Express (Jan. 26, 1919):

"I was in London in the cold month of December,
And all of my wages I had spent.
Oh how it went today I can't remember,
But I down unto a shipping office went.
In those days there was a great demand for sailors,
From London around Cape Horn and back to France,
So I shipped me aboard a bark called the Oxford,
Oh, here's to take a drink to my advance.

                      CHORUS.

Paddy go whack, take in the slack, and heave away the capstan,
   Heave a pull, heave a pull.
For we're bound, ship staysails, boys be handy,
   We're bound to Valparaiso round Cape Horn."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 05:52 PM

"The People and the Collectivist" (Sydney) (June 9, 1900):

"While the tug conveyed us down the river to where the vessel lay at anchor the chortling idiots who accompanied me kept me awake by singing:

    Get back,
    Take in your slack,
    Heave away the capstan,
    Heave apaul   [sic]
    Bout ship!
    [S]tations, boys, be handy,
    Lay home tacks,
    Sheets and mainsail haul."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Anglo
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 05:32 PM

Gibb mentioned, above, the version given by Benjamin Bright, from 1929 in the Carpenter collection. Could this be the same Ben Bright that Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger collected a few decades later? Unfortunately my library is currently in disarray, and I can't put my hand on Ewan's monograph.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Oct 23 - 06:08 PM

John Sampson, "The Seven Seas Shanty Book" (1928). Sampson was a British chanteyman in the 1880s:

                  MAINSAIL HAUL

One morning in the month of cold December,
And most of my money being spent,
What day it was I scarcely can remember,
But down to the Shipping Office went.
Now that day there'd been a great demand for sailors,
For India, for China and for France,
And I shipped on board of the 'Oxford,'
And went upon the spree with my advance.

Chorus:
Stand back, take in the slack,
Bear away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl,
'Bout ship, stations boys, be handy.
Rise tacks, sheets and mainsa'l haul.

Now most of our sailors had been drinking,
And some had been heavy on the boose,
So I set upon my chest a-quietly thinking,
Whether to turn in and have a snooze,
When I heard a voice above me loudly calling.
I listened and I heard the voice again,
'Twas the chief mate at the fo'c'sle door a-bawling,
'All hands lay aft and answer to your name.

Chorus.

Now when I arrived upon the quarter-deck
Such a sight I'd never seen before,
There were scallywags from every tribe and nation,
It made my poor heart both sick and sore.
Then I wished that I was back at the 'Jolly Sailors,'
Along with Irish Kate a-drinking beer,
Oh Kitty, my poor heart is breaking,
I went for'ard for to shed a pitiful tear.

Chorus.

Now in my chest I knew I had a bottle.
For I saw the boarding master put it there,
So I thought that I would go and wet my throttle,
Just to drive away my sorrow and my care.
Then I fell down on my knees like thunder,
A-groping like a pig around a trough,
When to my astonishment and wonder,
It was a bottle of medicine for a cough.

Sampson observes, "This is a fairly modern sea song well known to all old sailing ship men, although the words will vary considerably....It is not of the music-hall type of sea song, but bears the marks of its nautical origin on every line."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 05:05 AM

Maitland performed at the Third National Folk Festival in Dallas, 1936.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 04:41 AM

In the 1942 volume of _The American Neptune_ (vol. 2), there is an offering for the holiday season at the very end, presented by Joanna Colcord. She refers to the version of "The Oxford" given in the previous year's volume (1941) by Sturtevant (discussed above).

//
Its rollicking tune, which probably boasts a music-hall origin, has never appeared in print, so far as I know. There are many versions, but the consistent pattern is that of a sailor shipping away from London or Liverpool on what he supposed to be an ‘easy voyage,' and finding, alas, that the boarding-master had deceived him! The words on the following page are from various sources; the air as it was sung to me by Captain Richard Maitland of Sailors' Snug Harbor. His complete version of the song is on records preserved in the Archive of American Folk-song of the Library of Congress. [the recording made by Lomax in 1939?]
//

So, it looks like Colcord took Maitland's story line and improved the rhymes and prosody, also inserting lines 3 and 4 from another source. I don't remember ever hearing before that Maitland sang for Colcord! Did Maitland actually sing groups of 4 lines between each chorus? That's how Colcord has it notated, though its not how Maitland sung it for Doerflinger and Lomax.

PADDY, GET BACK [w/ score]

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London,
I went down to Shadwell Docks to get a ship.
‘Twas in the middle of the cold month of November,
And I thought ‘twas time to make another trip.

Paddy get back, take in the slack!
Heave around the capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl
‘Bout ship and stations and be handy!
Rise tacks and sheets and mains’l haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the Basin,
She was bound for New York, the boarding-master said.
If I ever lay hands upon that boarding-master,
I will be a month before he leaves his bed.

The pilot left the ship ‘way down the Channel,
And the captain said we was bound around Cape Horn.
He told us if we did not do our duty
He would make us wish we never had been born!

The mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
The Old Man hailed from Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them was rough-and-tumble fighters;
The treatment that we got, it was a shame.

We was called on deck one night to reef the topsails,
Belaying-pins was a-flying about the deck.
The mate he got ahold of me by the collar:
‘If you don’t sing a song, I’ll break your neck!’

Etc., etc.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 04:09 AM

Here's how Maitland sang the song for Alan Lomax in 1939.

When comparing it to the text for Doerflinger (above), it appears less improvised. I mean, each text by itself looks like Maitland is just roughly narrating, not making rhyme and not remembering "the lyrics," but the fact that he sang it more or less the same both times makes it seem as though he'd settled on a stable text during those years.

In the following, I omit the interjections explaining the song, that it was sung at the capstan, and the scolding of Lomax for asking where the "pulls" are.

PADDY, GET BACK

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London,
I went down the Shadwell docks to get a ship.

    Paddy, get back, take in the slack,
    Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
    ‘Bout ship and stations there be handy,
    Rise, tacks and sheets and mainsail, haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin,
Oh, they told me she was going to New York.

If I ever lay my hands on that shipping master,
Oh, I’ll murder him if it’s the last thing that I do.

When the pilot left the ship way down the channel,
Oh, the captain told us we were going around Cape Horn.

The mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
And the captain hailed from Bangor down in Maine.

The three of them were rough and tumble fighters,
When not fighting amongst themselves, they turned on us.

Oh, they called us out one night to reef the topsails,
Now with belaying pins a-flying around the deck.

Oh, and we came on deck and went to set the topsails,
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.

We had tinkers, we had tailors and firemen, also cooks,
And they couldn’t sing a shanty unless they had the book.

Oh, wasn’t that a bunch of hoodlums
For to take a ship around Cape Horn!

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 03:58 AM

I'm going to put up the Dick Maitland (1857-1942) versions.

Significantly for this discussion, in the endnotes of Doerflinger's book (I'm reading the 1990 revised edition), it says that Maitland stated "that he sang the shanty on board an American vessel in 1877 and also heard it sung about that time by Mobile Bay cotton-stowers."

Maitland first went to sea at age 12 (circa 1869), and is reported to have absorbed much about chantey singing in the first two years at sea.
Does anyone have good info on his later sea-going career? I ask to get a sense of the likelihood that he may have picked up some of his shanties later than the 1870s.

Here's the text of Maitland from _Songs of the Sailor and Lumbermen_. I think Doerflinger met Maitland for this in 1941?

PADDY, GET BACK [w/ score]

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London.
I went down the Shadwell Docks to get a ship.
Paddy get back, take in the slack!
Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
‘Bout ship and stations, there, be handy,
Rise tacks ‘n’ sheets, ‘n’ mains’l haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin.
Shipping master told me she was going to New York!

If I ever get my hands on that shipping master,
I will murder him if it’s the last thing that I do!

When the pilot left the ship, the captain told us
We were bound around Cape Horn to Callao!

And he said that she was hot and still a-heating,
And the best thing we could do was watch our step.

Now the mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
And the captain b’longed in Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them were rough-n’-tumble fighters.
When not fighting amongst themselves, they fought with us.

Oh, they called us out one night to reef the tops’ls.
There was belayin’ pins a-flyin’ around the deck.

We came on deck and went to set the tops’ls.
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.

Oh, the mate he grabbed ahold of me by the collar.
“If you don’t sing a song, I’ll break your blasted neck!”

I got up and gave them a verse of “Reuben Ranzo.”
Oh, the answer that I got would make you sick!

It was three long months before we got to Callao,
And the ship she was called a floating hell.

We filled up there at Callao with saltpetre,
And then back again around Cape Horn!

or

We filled up with saltpetre to the hatches
And then bound around Cape Horn to Liverpool.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Sep 23 - 10:38 AM

Gibb, unless an enlightening text of one or the other turns up before 1869, I'd say we can't know.

But there's no doubt that "Mains'l Haul" was well known at sea in the late 19th century, which was part of the OP's question.

(As was "Rounding the Horn." Heh-heh.)

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 04:21 PM

I agree with your reasoning, Lighter.

Yet, some possible arguments against:

1. If the song originates in the stage/commercial sphere, I wouldn't rule out the first-person-singular voice.

2. Some of the "post-romantic" tone could be later accretion as the song developed through later periods. The chorus of "WE'RE bound for Valparaiso" could be an older bit, with new balladry spliced in as the solos.

3. I'm somewhat put off by the prospect that the 1868 writer would include a straight up ballad, no chorus, among the shanties. Even while "Paddy Get Back" is not the model chanty, and (by rough count) as many or more sources say it wasn't a work song, it does "work" as a capstan work song. I might be giving the writer too much credit, but I lean towards suspecting they would have distinguished such a song as "Rounding the Horn" rather than lumping it with the other repertoire.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: meself
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 11:15 AM

Thanks for the explanation re: "Johnny Creepaws". I like it when I know what I'm singing about (in a literary sense, at least, having had only a very brief stint at sea - a long time ago now, but not quite in the Age of Sail).

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 10:46 AM

I'm persuading myself that the 1868 reference to "Valparaiso, Round the Horn" isn't to this song but to the one commonly called "Rounding the Horn" or "The Girls Around Cape Horn" - about the ship "California," the frigate "Amphitrite," the ship "Conway," etc. (Roud 4706).

The style and diction of "Paddy Lay Back" is just too post-romantic for me. There are no "poetic" cliches, no sentimentality, no "brave boys," etc.: circumstantial, plain-spoken, first-person realism only.

It's the fresh first-person realism, undiluted, that impresses me: the narrator is an individual, not a conventional figure or a "we." He insists that he did and saw these many, very specific things personally and makes no attempt to generalize, moralize, or aestheticize them. The style just doesn't strike me as typical of the 1860s or earlier.

Unless new evidence shows up, I'd date "Paddy" to ca1885 or later.

Tentatively.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 10:17 AM

> "toad" in English

.... "Borrowed from French", quoth Wictionary. My hardcopy Collins's* agrees, and adds "(Caribbean)", which suggests a migration route for the word as a pejorative.

* That's not definitively helpful, as it's the first edition of the computer-sorted version, complete with the interesting errors (eg confusing Sardinia with Sardos as the origin of "sardonic").

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 09:50 AM

Thanks for posting, Gibb.

Technically, "crapaud" means "toad" in English, but it was a common seafaring term for the French, often as "Johnny Crapaud."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 02:12 AM

Johnny Crapaud-s

Crapaud - French for "frog"

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: meself
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 01:33 AM

"Johnny Creepaws"?

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 01:17 AM

The text from Bone, _Capstan Bars_ (1931), for reference. He classes it among "fo'cas'le ditties." As Robert mentioned above, Bone notes that it was "popular in 1900" and "I have not heard it since then."

THE LIVERPOOL SONG

‘Twas in th’ cold month of December,
When all my money I had spent,
I shipped in the Clipper ship ‘Defender,’
An’ away to the west-ard I went.

CHORUS
An’ it is ‘Get ye back.’ Ho!
‘Take in y’er slack.’ Ho!
Heave away th’ capstan. Heave a pawl.
Heave a pawl!
‘Bout ship: stations, boys, be handy.
Raise tacks, sheets, an’ mains’l haul!

I joined on a bitter winter’s morning.
A-frappin’ my arms to keep warm.
An’ th’ south cone a-hoisted for a warnin’
To stand by th’ makin’ of a storm.

It was then that I heard a voice a-callin’.
I listened and I heard it again.
‘Twas th’ mate at th’ fo’cas’le door a-bawlin’.
‘Oh, lay aft an’ answer t’ y’er name.’

An’ when I arrived upon th’ quarter-deck,
Great Heavens, what a sight was there to see:
There were remnants of nearly every nation.
An’ I tell you th’ sight did sicken me.

There was Dutchmen an’ Roosians an’ Spanish,
An’ Johnny Creepaws straight across from France,
An’ most didn’t know a word of English,
But answered to the name o’ ‘Month’s Advance.’

Now in my chest I had a bottle.
I saw my boarding master put it there.
So I slipped off th’ deck t’ wet my throttle,
To drown off my sorrow an’ my care.


NB: The melody of the first two lines of the chorus is significantly different than Hugill's familiar melody version.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 07:04 PM

Los Angeles Express (Jan. 26, 1919):

"I was in London in the cold month of December,
And all of my wages I had spent.
Oh how it went today I can't remember,
But I down unto a shipping office went.
In those days there was a great demand for sailors,
From London around Cape Horn and back to France,
So I shipped me aboard a bark called the Oxford,
Oh, here's to take a drink to my advance.

                      CHORUS.

Paddy go whack, take in the slack, and heave away the capstan,
   Heave a pull, heave a pull.
For we're bound, ship staysails, boys be handy,
   We're bound to Valparaiso round Cape Horn."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 05:52 PM

"The People and the Collectivist" (Sydney) (June 9, 1900):

"While the tug conveyed us down the river to where the vessel lay at anchor the chortling idiots who accompanied me kept me awake by singing:

    Get back,
    Take in your slack,
    Heave away the capstan,
    Heave apaul   [sic]
    Bout ship!
    [S]tations, boys, be handy,
    Lay home tacks,
    Sheets and mainsail haul."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Anglo
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 05:32 PM

Gibb mentioned, above, the version given by Benjamin Bright, from 1929 in the Carpenter collection. Could this be the same Ben Bright that Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger collected a few decades later? Unfortunately my library is currently in disarray, and I can't put my hand on Ewan's monograph.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 06:19 PM

Lighter--
I don't know. I'm just along for the ride!

It turns out that for me, the usefulness of all these fragments and snippets is to get better ideas on how to search for documentation of this song (and discover other things in the process). I also appreciate the greater clarity on where the song fell in relation to work applications and/or being considered as a "chanty."

I forget now where I saw it (!), but one writer said (their interpretation) that the song was about a *Briton* joining a ship of mixed nationalities, and we've now seen that versions with "Paddy" do not necessarily predominate. That compels me to revise my earlier musing in this thread about possibly finding this song among a repertoire of Irish caricature ("Paddy") songs. Which is a good thing.

***

Here's another snippet:

_Yachting_ vol. 55 (1934), pg. 33:

//
Suddenly I paused and listened intently ; the words of a strange song reached my ears like an echo of a by-gone day:

"Arrah!—get back! Take in the slack!
Bear away the capstan, heave a pawl;
'Bout ship! Stations! Boys, be handy.
Raise tacks, sheets; and mains’l haul!”
//

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 01:51 PM

Ligher wrote: Gibb, is it true that Ginovan's and Hugill's are the only known full versions?

Not sure what you mean by a "full" version, but Doerflinger's (from Maitland) is quite long -- 13 stanzas plus a variant final stanza.

Colcord's is shorter -- 5 stanzas -- but I'd still call it a substantial version. I'm too lazy to check every version I have indexed, but there are clearly a number of substantial versions; they aren't all fragments.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 09:24 AM

Gibb, is it true that Ginovan's and Hugill's are the only known full versions?

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 02:51 AM

Albert Sonnichsen, _Deep Sea Vagabonds_ (New York, 1903)

Sonnichsen, a San Francisco native, goes to sea in 1896.

In his voyages, he refers to / quotes some items he labels as "old chanty": RIO GRANDE, BANKS OF SACRAMENTO, and ROLLING HOME.

He appears to distinguish "song" and "chanty," because he writes (p125) "There was much work to be done yet in making the ship fast both fore and aft, but gaily we did it, roaring out songs and chanties as we skipped about the windlass."

In April 1897, he is in a British ship headed up the English Channel. Here, he quotes PADDY LAY BACK and calls it a "song." The crew is suffering a bit having to tack so much and their arms freezing with icy water. Pg. 171:

//
We tried hard to take it philosophically, and even sang while we pulled and hauled at the braces the old song, the chorus to which is:

“Oh carry me back,
Heave in the slack,
Take her to the capstan,
Heave a pawl, heave a pawl.
Bout ship, station lads,
be handy
Up tacks, sheets and mainsail haul.”
//

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 12:26 AM

Snippets, from Sea Breezes magazine, 1954

//
[pg226] [March 1954, queries section, "Slop Chest"]
WORDS WANTED
I am trying to find the words of a sea chanty, the chorus of which goes:-
“When Paddy comes back, heave in the slack,
Heave around the capstan, heave a-pall, heave a-pall,
‘Bout ship, stations lads, be handy,
rise tacks sheets and mainsail haul.”
Can any reader help?
W. R. Auld

[pg263]
…the local talent among us. There were mouth organ and mandolin recitals. Somehow chanties were taboo. Partly because they were considered “shop” and usually when a crowd got singing “Amsterdam” no holds were barred…

[pg 306]
CHANTY COLLECTOR
I am a collector of sea chanties…

pg 314
NOT A WORKING CHANTY
I am glad to be able to answer the query of Mr. W. R. Auld…

…for the words of the song—it was not a working chanty—of which he gave the chorus. The first verse and chorus ran:

It was a cold and frosty morning in December
When my money was all spent.
Where it had gone I didn’t remember
As to the shipping office I went.
That day there was a great demand for sailors
For Melbourne and for ‘Frisco and for France
And I shipped aboard of the “Harold”
And went to town to cash my month’s advance

Chorus: She’s all aback, heave in the slack…
//

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 11:20 PM

Nice. Too bad "Oxford" is such a wild card in database searching, otherwise one might find "the ballad of the Oxford" or some such thing.

Indeed, "Oxford" breaks the ideal rhyme scheme, so to retain it, rather than to substitute something else to make rhyme, could suggest it is essential to include.

In which case the germ of the idea of the song might revolve less around the pathetic character of a "Paddy" and the unfortunate-yet-typical situations he gets in, in general, and more around the tale of a particular ship.

I wonder if Hugill's "[Limey barque the] Hotspur" isn't also a mishearing of "Oxford."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 07:43 AM

Four versions.

Thomas Ginovan, Bristol, for Carpenter ca1928:

                        MAINS'L HAUL

Once within the middle of December,
Hard up for booze and money spent;
Where it went to I do not remember,
So down to the shipping office went.
There was a great demand for sailors,
For New York, China, and Japan,
I shipped on board the Oxford,
And I went upon the spree with my advance.

          Oh, Paddy, Get Back,
          Take in the slack!
          Heave away the capstan, heave a pawl!
          Heave a pawl!
          Bout ship [sic] station, boys, be handy!
          Rise [sic] tacks sheets and mains'l haul.

Now next day I stowed my things aboard her,
My head piece was sore from too much booze.
So I sat upon me chest a quietly thinking,
To turn in my bunk and have a snooze.
But it seemed that I heard a voice a shouting,
I listened till I heard the voice again.
'Twas the chief mate upon the poop a shouting,
"All aft, boys, and answer to your name!"

Now when I arrived upon the quarterdeck,
Such a sight, boys, I never saw before.
There were men there who came from every nation,
Which made my poor heart feel sick and sore.
I wished meself back at the Jolly Sailors,
Drinking whiskey punch along with Irish Kate,
I thought what fools were we poor sailors,
We always find it out when it's too late.

In my chest I knew there was a bottle,
Because I saw the boarding master put it there;
So I thought it best to go and wet my throttle,
I [sic] see if I could drive away dull care.
So down on my knees as quick as thunder,
Groping like a pig all in a trough,
Oh shipmates you cannot guess my wonder,
When I found it was a bottle for my cough.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 12:03 AM

Some or other Mr. Vass (John? The first names appear to be rather confounded in the records) sang "Paddy" for J.M. Carpenter, 1931, I think.

Recording

Perhaps significantly, we now have at least three versions that mention "The Oxford." Just prior to the text Lighter quoted, the writer refers to the song as "The Oxford" (sung in leisure time).

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 09:10 PM

So when and where did the actual “Paddy lay back...” bit first make its appearance?

“Although really outward bound from Rio, as far as the crew is concerned the “Guarneri” is homeward bound for most of them hail from North Sea ports.

One may be sure that they put real sentiment into the ancient Chanty:

                "PADDY LAY BACK"

It was on a cold and wintry morning in December
That I walked along the streets of Dublin Town,
Where my money had all gone I couldn't remember
An' I hadn't got a friend in all the town
So I signed up on a brig called the “Oxford.”
Bound for Chile an' Peru,
They were a jolly bunch I well remember––
The skipper, mates, the cook an' all the crew.
                Chorus:
“Oh, Paddy, lay back,
Pull in your slack,
All hands round the capstan,
Heave up all!
'Tis a cold and wintry morning in December
An' we're bound for the West Coast––
Round the Horn.”

        The Chantyman's job is an important one and he is generally a big-chested, leather-lunged and weather-tanned descendent of the long dead tribe of King's Jesters for the Chantyman must be able to improvise at a moment's notice proper stanzas in accordance with passing events aboard the ship. He is of a humorous turn of mind, and by a witty stanza or two manages to keep the crew in a happy frame of mind even at the most discouraging moments.”
[D'Oliveira, L.V. LeCocq, White Wings, Brazilian American, vol.12, no.295, 20 June 1925]

Also:
On the Banks of the Sacramento
Blow the Man Down
Robin Ranso
Yarra River
Bound for Baltimore

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 08:33 PM

William B. Sturtevant, in "The American Neptune" (1941), referring to 1886:

1. 'Twas in London in the cold month of December,
    That I found that all my money it was spent.
    How I got there I just don't remember,
    But I down to the shipping office went.
    On that day there was a great demand for sailors,
    For India, China, Java, and for France,
    So I shipped before the mast on the Oxford,
    And we went away to booze all our advance.

                   Chorus.
      
    Then it's get back, give in the slack,
    Bear away your capstan, heave a paul. [sic]
    'Bout ship staysails boys be handy,
    Then it's raise tacks, sheets and mainsail haul.

2. We all came on board on a Sunday morning,
    And everyone was heavy on the booze.
    So I sat down on my chest aquietly [sic] thinking,
    Whether I'd turn in my bunk and have a snooze,
    When I heard a voice loudly calling,
    I listened and I heard that voice again.
    It was the chief mate at the forecastle door a-howling!
    Come lay aft boys and answer to your names.

                   Chorus: etc.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: meself
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 07:53 PM

Thank you, Gibb; I get the idea now!

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 07:46 PM

Gibb Sahib wrote:

Robert,

Maybe this source was the rationale for the c.1898-1900 date you mentioned earlier?

Carlton Dawe, _The Voyage of the "Pulo Way"_, 1899. Page 83.

I wish I knew. I would have had the date at second-hand, with Doerflinger being my best guess for the source because that's the book that caused me to put the song in the Ballad Index -- but there is no way to reconstruct after twenty-odd years; Doerflinger was among the very first books I indexed. (The "foundation documents" of the Ballad Index, so to speak, were Child, Laws, Randolph, Eddy, and Doerflinger, plus Lomax's Folk Songs of North America, because those were the high-quality collections I had at the time. Maybe one or two others that I don't recall off the top of my head. But those were the early books.)

The other side is, that's a quality citation, so I'm going to put it into the Ballad Index either way. :-) Thank you again.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 07:45 PM

An additional stab at the transcription!

Twas in the cold month of November,
When all my money I had spent.
It is quite usual for a sailor.
So back to the shipping office I went.

       Oh, Johnny, come back.
       Heave in the slack.
       Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a paw-aw-aw-awl!
       ‘Bout ship, staysails, [then?] be handy.
       Raise tacks, sheets, and mains’l haul!

Now in my bag I had a bottle,
The boarding master gave [it?] me.
Twas when to wet my bleedin’ throttle,
When was the skipper I did see.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 06:59 PM

Oops, sorry, Lighter, for the wrong date on Clifford recording! Thanks for correction.

Robert,

Maybe this source was the rationale for the c.1898-1900 date you mentioned earlier?

Carlton Dawe, _The Voyage of the "Pulo Way"_, 1899. Page 83.

https://books.google.com/books?id=BSpHAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 06:50 PM

meself,

A capstan has several small pawls at its base, around its circumference, to prevent it from revolving backwards. As the sailors heave (push) the capstan around in the forward direction, the pawls are continuously lifted out of their notches and then fall back into the next notch that comes around. The constant "ping ping" sound of iron against iron in this video is the sound of the pawls falling into the notches.

A brake windlass has one great pawl. It's the big rectangular piece of iron that is falling into the notches at the start of this video. .

"Heave a pawl" literally means to heave (push) the device so a pawl's-worth increment of rotation occurs. Of course, in practice you'll be rotating the device much more than one pawl's worth, so the phrase is more figurative in the songs and more just like "Heave!"(with the possible implication that the anchor's stuck, work has slowed to a crawl, and you've got to put an enormous effort just to gain an additional pawl's worth of progress).

"Heave AND pawl" is something different: An order, at the completion of the capstan maneuver, to push the capstan forward just enough to be sure all the pawls have fallen into their notches (and thus secured) rather than in halfway-up position. Otherwise, the capstan might lurch backwards if you suddenly ceased all pressure in the forward direction.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: meself
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 03:54 PM

pawl
noun
'p?l
: a pivoted tongue or sliding bolt on one part of a machine that is adapted to fall into notches or interdental spaces on another part so as to permit motion in only one direction

- Mirriam-Webster


Can anyone explain "heave a pawl" - in under a thousand words?