Lyr/Chords Add: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
From: Artful Codger
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 03:56 PM

Sounds like the makings of a song challenge: write the most nautically inaccurate sea song...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 02:51 PM

More critical invective, from an unsigned article "Naval Sketch-Book" in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 19 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1826), page 354: [boldface added]

...Why, you write at the best like a Horse-marine. In that beautiful song of yours, "A wet sheet and a flowing sea,"—you absolutely know no more than a tailor the meaning of the word "sheet." You think it a sail, and so do all land-lubber bards; but it is no such thing, as you may learn from the skipper of any dirt-gabbert; and,—nay, Allan, how could you, with your eyes open, maintain, that when a ship sails from an English port, "and the billow follows free," that she can "leave England on the lee?" The thing is impossible. To have done that, in any sense, your ship should have been on a wind. Besides, to "leave England on the lee," would be no easy job in any wind that ever blew; for, while part of England was to leeward, part, we presume, would be to windward; and, finally, "on the lee" is not a nautical expression at all; nor, if it were changed into one, would it speak what you intend to say,—that the shore seemed to drop astern. Now, Allan Cunninghame [sic], if you cannot write three lines of verse about a boat, without perpetrating all manner of blunders, what is to become of you when America shows "the little bit of striped bunting," and the meteor-flag of England braves the battle and the breeze?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Jun 10 - 12:26 PM

Herman Melville quoted from A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA in his last novel The Confidence-Man, His Masquerade (1857), putting this speech into the mouth of one of his characters:

"Gammon! You don't mean what you say. Else you are like a landsman at sea: don't know the ropes, the very things everlastingly pulled before your eyes. Serpent-like, they glide about, travelling blocks too subtle for you. In short, the entire ship is a riddle. Why, you green ones wouldn't know if she were unseaworthy; but still, with thumbs stuck back into your arm-holes, pace the rotten planks, singing, like a fool, words put into your green mouth by the cunning owner, the man who, heavily insuring it, sends his ship to be wrecked—

'A wet sheet and a flowing sea!'—

and, sir, now that it occurs to me, your talk, the whole of it, is but a wet sheet and a flowing sea, and an idle wind that follows fast, offering a striking contrast to my own discourse."

Subject: Lyr Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA (Cunningham
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Jun 10 - 11:46 AM

All the hyphens in the above text might make the text difficult to find with a search. Searching for "gallant mast" won't find "gal-lant mast." Therefore I think it's worth posting again, without the hyphens. Besides, a few words are different in the following text, which is from The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern, Volume 3 edited by Allan Cunningham (London: John Taylor, 1825), page 208. The poem had previously been published in several magazines and anthologies, with the words as shown above.


A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA.
Allan Cunningham.

A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
A wind that follows fast
And fills the white and rustling sail,
And bends the gallant mast!
And bends the gallant mast, my boys,
While, like the eagle free,
Away the good ship flies, and leaves
Old England on the lee.

O for a soft and gentle wind!
I heard a fair one cry;
But give to me the swelling breeze,
And white waves heaving high:
The white waves heaving high, my lads,
The good ship tight and free;
The world of waters is our home,
And merry men are we.

There's tempest in yon horned moon,
And lightning in yon cloud;
And hark the music, mariners!
The wind is wakening loud.
The wind is wakening loud, my boys,
The lightning flashes free—
The hollow oak our palace is,
Our heritage the sea.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 01:01 PM

No. You should "deep six" that thought.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
From: SINSULL
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 12:51 PM

I thought it was a crude rugby song.

Crude - BP - does that count as a pun?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 09 Jun 10 - 01:50 PM

Well folks, let's not go overboard with the puns.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
From: kendall
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 08:53 PM

AHA, now I can fathom it.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
From: Artful Codger
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 07:31 PM

Getting her "three sheets to the wind" and then "full a-back" is how you got her "short-sheeted" to begin with. Mystery solved.

As for "sheet anchoring", that happens when your sheet gets caught on someone's nautical gaffe. Then, on Mudcat at least, the sheet hits the fan.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 01:44 PM

Sorry, AC!

I also wondered about the "sheet anchor" and how a "sheet," wet or dry, could be contrived to anchor a ship. And what happened to a ship if its sheets were "short-sheeted"? Is that when she went "full a-back" or "three sheets to the wind"?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: Artful Codger
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 12:43 PM

Ahem, I don't think Cunningham was attempting to detail ideal sailing conditions, but rather comparing a life on the sea to life ashore, which for most folk meant travelling no farther than a few villages away. From this standpoint, a wet sheet and a flowing sea make perfect sense as symbols of sailing life--you immediately know the setting in vivid, rousing language. Here, the wet sheet in two short words suggests hauling the lines amid storms or spray--suggesting that sailing life ain't pleasure cruising--while the flowing sea implies both travel and the great might of the ocean. You might as well complain about "bounding mains"--they're not jackrabbits.

It's well-established that the song's a romanticized, fake sea song written by a landlubber. But if you want to earn erudition brownie points, stop quibbling about nautical points taken out of context and instead tell us about the tune.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: IanC
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 10:07 AM

Well, Allan Cunningham was certainly no sailor.

:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 10:05 AM

Why would anyone wish for a wet sheet? Wet ropes are trickier to handle and make your hands sting. The whole thing is a bit off, Kendall is right. Prolly writ by a romantic landlubber, or an absinthe-head.





A

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: kendall
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 09:43 AM

A following sea is the easiest for the crew.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: kendall
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 09:42 AM

I didn't say dead aft, and it IS FOLLOWING sea. The sea is not a river, it does not flow.

Subject: RE: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
From: Artful Codger
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 07:02 AM

Does anyone know where the most common tune for this song does come from?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 01:53 PM

Kendall, I am surprised at you! You've sailed enough to know that the best sailing is with the wind on the quarter, not dead aft. There is a reference in one of the Horatio Hornblower novels to this song--He considered the author a lubber who didn't know a manrope from a halliard.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: IanC
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 06:09 AM

Published in his "The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern" (4 vol., 1825). Allan Cunningham was the arch-forger of Scottish songs and most of the "ancient" ones in this book were written by him as well as some that he acknowledged. He was quite a good lyrical poet, and this is one of his best. It did not originally have a tune.

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: fogie
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 05:50 AM

Manys the time I've woken to find wet sheets, and wind following fast. I blame Stella -bless her.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: masato sakurai
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 05:14 AM

The Great Song Thesaurus (Oxford UP, 1984) says:

Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea, A 1825 w. Allan Cunningham m. based on "Le Petit Tambour"

What is "Le Petit Tambour"? It can't be "The Little Drummer Boy."

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: masato sakurai
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 12:13 AM

(1) This is the link to the sheet music.

Title: A Wet Sheet & A Flowing Sea. A Nautical Song.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Written by Allan cunningham. Adapted & Arranged by Thomas Walton.
Thomas Walton Publication: Philadelphia: John F. Nunns, 70 So. Third Street, 1837.
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: A wet sheet and a flowing sea, and a wind that follows fast
First Line of Chorus: Give me a wet sheet a flowing sea and a wind that follows fast
Performer: Sung with distinguished applause by Mr. Walton.
Engraver, Lithographer, Artist: E. Gillingham
Subject: Sailors
Subject: Bodies of water
Subject: Happiness
Subject: Storms
Call No.: Box: 122 Item: 107

(2) Two other sheets with a different melody at Levy are:

Title: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea. [only one page is given]
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Written by Allan Cunningham.
Publication: Philadelphia: G.E. Blake, 13 South Fifth Street, n.d..

Title: A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea. [cover title A Health to the Outward Bound].
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: [Words by] Written by Allan Cunningham. The Music Composed by M.S.
M. S. Publication: Baltimore: G. Willig, Jr., n.d..

(3) Two song sheets (without music) are at America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets (American Memory, Library of Congress):

A wet sheet and a flowing sea! H. De Marsan, Publisher, 60 Chatham Street, N. Y. [n. d.]

A wet sheet and a flowing sea. Thos. G. Doyle, Bookseller, &c., No. 297 Gay St. near Ashland Square, Balt. [n. d.]

(4) MIDI & lyrics are also at Lesley Nelson's site (CLICK HERE).

(5) The poem is contained in Francis T. Palgrave, ed., The Golden Treasury (1875).

(6) There's a score with more simplified arrangement HERE (from Public Domain Music site).

(7) This song is sung in Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857) by Thomas Hughes (Part 1 - Chapter 6 - After The Match):

The sixth-form boys had not yet appeared; so, to fill up the gap, an interesting and time-honoured ceremony was gone through. Each new boy was placed on the table in turn, and made to sing a solo, under the penalty of drinking a large mug of salt and water if he resisted or broke down. However, the new boys all sing like nightingales to-night, and the salt water is not in requisition - Tom, as his part, performing the old west-country song of "The Leather Bottel" with considerable applause. And at the half-hour down come the sixth and fifth form boys, and take their places at the tables, which are filled up by the next biggest boys, the rest, for whom there is no room at the table, standing round outside.

The glasses and mugs are filled, and then the fugleman strikes up the old sea-song,

"A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
And a wind that follows fast," etc.,

which is the invariable first song in the School-house; and all the seventy voices join in, not mindful of harmony, but bent on noise, which they attain decidedly, but the general effect isn't bad. And then follow "The British Grenadiers," "Billy Taylor," "The Siege of Seringapatam," "Three Jolly Postboys," and other vociferous songs in rapid succession, including "The Chesapeake and Shannon," a song lately introduced in honour of old Brooke; and when they come to the words,

"Brave Broke he waved his sword, crying, Now, my lads, aboard, And we'll stop their playing Yankee-doodle-dandy oh!"

you expect the roof to come down. The sixth and fifth know that "brave Broke" of the Shannon was no sort of relation to our old Brooke. The fourth form are uncertain in their belief, but for the most part hold that old Brooke was a midshipman then on board his uncle's ship. And the lower school never doubt for a moment that it was our old Brooke who led the boarders, in what capacity they care not a straw. During the pauses the bottled- beer corks fly rapidly, and the talk is fast and merry, and the big boys - at least all of them who have a fellow-feeling for dry throats - hand their mugs over their shoulders to be emptied by the small ones who stand round behind.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: kendall
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 07:19 PM

The square rigger sails best with the wind on the stern.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: Gareth
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 06:34 PM

Be interesting to find out exactly what ship sails best in those conditions !!

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: MMario
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 05:06 PM

not according to both the sheet music and the poem I found out on the web. all have "flowing"

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: kendall
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 05:02 PM

This must have been written by a land lubber! I wonder if he confused the sheet with the sail as many do? And, shouldn't that be a FOLLOWING sea?

Subject: A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
From: MMario
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 02:28 PM

X:1
T:A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea
C:Allan Cunningham arr. Thomas Walton - 1837
N:Levy 122 item 107
I:abc2nwc
M:2/4
L:1/16
K:A
z4(c2 B2)|A2 E2 C2 E2|A2 A2 A2 (G A)|B2 B2 B2 B2|B2 z4E2|
c3 c c2 c2|c2 (d c) B2 (c B)|A2 (B A) G2 (F G)|A4z2(A G)|
F3 F G2 A2|B3 A G2 (A G)|F3 F G2 A2|B6(A G)|F2 F2 G2 A2|
B2 (c B) A2 (B A)|G2 (A G) F2 (G F)|E6
"^Chorus:"c B|A4E E C2 E2|A2 A2 A2 G A|B2 B2 B2 B2|
B6E2|c3 c c2 c2|c2 (d c) B2 (c B)|A3 G c2 B2|A6z2


A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
(Allan Cunningham arr. Thomas Walton - 1837)
Levy box 122 item 107

A wet sheet and a flow-ing sea,
And_A wind that fol-lows fast
And fills the white and rus-tling sail
And bends the gal-lant mast;
And bends the gal-lant mast, my boys,
While like the ea-gle free
A-way the good ship flies, and leaves
Old En-gland on the lee.

Chorus:oh give me a wet sheet, a flow-ing sea,
and a wind that fol-lows fast
And fills the white and rus-tling sail
And bends the gal-lant mast;

"O for a soft and gen-tle wind!"
I heard a fair one cry:
But give to me the sno-ring breeze
And white waves heav-ing high;
And white waves heav-ing high, my lads,
The good ship tight and free
The world of wa-ters is our home,
And mer-ry men are we.

chorus:

There's tem-pest in yon horn-èd moon,
And light-ning in yon cloud:
But hark the mu-sic, mar-i-ners!
The wind is pi-ping loud;
The wind is pi-ping loud, my boys,
The light-ning flash-es free
While the hol-low oak our palace is,
Our he-rit-age the sea.

Chorus: