New Botanical Shanty

Subject: Lyr Add: BOTANY BAY
From:
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 11:36 AM

BOTANY BAY

Come all you young mariners lately at ease
Did you hear the great news from the Southerly seas?
The landmass of legend was recently found
And for that great terrain we are presently bound

(Chorus)
Sail away, sail away
Show your hands for the passage to Botany Bay
So let's unfurl the topmast and anchors aweigh
For the Kingdom of Sweden and Carl von Linne

Around the Canaries, Brazil and Cape Horn
Entertaining yourselves on the tropical shores
The o'er the Pacific, with fair skies above
To be greeted with flowers on the Islands of Love

(Chorus)

From there to the Southland is but a few days
Neither monsters nor mermaids inhabit those straits
Such fancies encourage the bravehearted few
That a paradise beckons the boldest of crews

(Chorus)

So quit these grim taverns and pox-ridden whores
Leave your debts and your wives and perpetual wars
Replenish your purses and sharpen your eyes
For where Terra Australis Incognita lies

(Chorus)

Now if your young lass should implore you to stay
Do not harbour regrets for her pitiful ways
Such sweet-scented flowers whom we leave behind
Cannot ever compare to the ones we will find

(Last chorus)
Sail away, sail away
All aboard for the passage to Botany Bay
So let's unfurl the topmast and anchors aweigh
For the glory of nature and Carl von Linne

(In memory of the gallant crew of botanists on board The Endeavour under Captain Cook who landed at Botany Bay on 29th April, 1770)

© Chris Hoban 1998

---------------

Can anyone suggest a better title, so as not to confuse it with its considerably more famous namesake?!

Cheers

Chris

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: Amos
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 11:43 AM

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful..well done!

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: MMario
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 12:11 PM

What about "Von Linne"?

tune?? (I'm greedy)

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: Amos
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 03:30 PM

Terra Australis

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From:
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 06:36 PM

Tune - sure! How can I paste the melody onto this site?

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 09:29 PM

How about "The Endeavour's Passage to Botany Bay" or just "Passage to Botany Bay". Margo

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 09:40 PM

G'day Chris,

How about Baie de Verdhu (or its correct Portugese form) - virually the same name - to commemorate the Portugese map that Lt. Cook was almost certainly following. (He remarks in his journal that the Bay was not as big as he expected).

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 02:42 AM

How about "Botanist's Bay"
I hadn't realised why the place is called 'Botany Bay' -- very interesting!

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From:
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 04:18 AM

Great suggestions, Margo & Bob - quite by chance I speak Portuguese! The modern equivalent would be "Bahia De Verde", but in those days they could have spelt it in a number of ways. That's very interesting, and I'll look into it more. Have you heard that they've found Portuguese coins in up the Queensland coast dating from the 1540s, and that there are a couple of indigenous tribes there that use some portuguese words and grammatical structures in their vocabulary - something that not only indicates a landing, but some kind of settlement?

"The Endeavour's Passage To Botany Bay" & "The Passage To Botany Bay" are very good suggestions and tie in with the chorus. I'll chew it over!

Cheers

Chris

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: raredance
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 08:50 PM

Linnean Around the Islands

Botany Gray

rich r

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 12:56 AM

G'day Chris,

The story on the Portugese map seems to be that a very old map in an antiquated projection, can be reinterpreted into modern projection and starts to look like much more like the East Coast of Australia. It would date from ~ the 16th century and was a secret British Admiralty document, possibly captured from a Portugese man o' war.

Back when the Pope split up the world and awarded all new discoveries to either Spain or Portugal, the dividing line in the Pacific region included a fair part of what we now know as the East Coast of Australia ... in the Spanish section. The Portugese did some serious politicking and trading to have the division moved ... so that Australia (officially unknown) now fell in their section.

Nothing came of this, presumably because of the rapid decline of Portugal as an exploring maritime nation, but they presumably knew the coast was there and had done some mapping and exploring. There are reports of Portugese and Spanish coins (and even possible wrecked ships) all round Australia but it is hard to judge from minor finds since both nations' currencies had been international standards in the way that the greenback remains today.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 02 Mar 00 - 08:40 PM

Bahia de Verde? Isn't that where the Packers are? So you could call it Pickers and Packers -- oof! where is Art Thieme when we need him? Wonderful song, Chris.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 03 Mar 00 - 03:21 AM

... and von Linné is non other than Linnaeus, the Swedish father of taxonomy.

Subject: RE: New Botanical Shanty
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Mar 00 - 07:06 AM

That's right, Steve - I wrote the song as part of a show about Carl von Linne, aka Linnaeus - an amazing man. He was the first scientist to suggest that plants had sex, he invented dendochronology (how to count the age of trees by its rings - though Native American and other tribal societies had been aware of this for years) and the thermometer (though Celsius has ultimately claimed credit for this), and dedicated his whole life to completing the Great Chain Of Being (the post-biblical belief that earthly creation was finite and hierarchical).

Unfortunately, the plant-collecting by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander from Australasia, which was supposed to complete the chain of a fixed number of species of animal, vegetable and mineral, ended up being so extensive that they came back with far too many specimens. It was this, combined with Linne's own creation of a reproductive hybrid (i.e. a new species) that "broke" the Chain and opened the doors to Darwin and evolution 80 years later.

Phew! Who'd be a scientist - glad I'm just a musician!

I wrote another song for the show called "The Great Chain Of Being", which I'll also post up on the site when I can get a moment.

Cheers everyone

Chris