Lyr Add: Saltpeter Shanty

Subject: Lyr Add: SALTPETER SHANTY^^
From: Barry Finn
Date: 08 Jul 98 - 09:05 PM

Saltpeter Shanty

For the Spanish main we are bound away
CH: Oh roll (or "Slav Ho")
For the Spanish main we are bound away
CH: Oh roll (or "Slav Ho")
We are sailing away at the break of day where the swift bonniter (sp? it's a fish) & dolphin do play
CH: Oh roll, rock her bars, heave'er hi-o rock'er roll. (or "Slav ho, slav viter, asay ya marita, slav ho" don't know what language or what it means)

To old Cally-o we are bound away
CH: Oh roll
To old Cally-o we are bound away
CH: Oh roll
We are bound away from Liverpool Bay
Oh them puntas of Chile will grab all our pay
CH: Oh roll, rock her bars, heave'er hi-o, rock'er roll

Old Pedro the crimp, boys we know him of old (2X)
He's priming his, vino and doping his beer
To the Chinchas he'll ship us if we don't steer clear

Them putas (vulgar term for women) o' chili they'er hard to beat (2X)
They'll greet us & love us & treat us to wine
But them bastards are robbing us most of the time

When the order comes round for to sail away home(2X)
From some old seaport on the west coast of hell
We'll sing adious & say fare thee well

The 1st verse I picked up off Ewan MacColl about 15 yrs ago as the shanty "Slav Ho", that's all he had. About 3 yrs back at a sing I caught David Perry doing it. From that I found the rest above version in Hugill's Shanties of the Seven Seas, except for the last verse, which came from the singing of Pint & Dale, who are the only ones I know that have it recorded. Also see J. Colcord (Slav Ho). This, says Stan, comes from the saltpeter & guano trades of the west coast of South America. Barry ^^

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Different version from Barry in this message (click)

Subject: RE: ADD LYR Saltpeter Shanty
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Jul 98 - 08:56 PM

That fish is bonito, Barry. Plural is bonitos. I always thought it was a kind of tuna, but my book says it's more like mackerel. Maybe somebody closer to water can enlighten us further. Great song - any chance you can get the tune to us?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: ADD LYR Saltpeter Shanty
From: Barry Finn
Date: 09 Jul 98 - 09:39 PM

Thanks Joe for the spelling, I always thought they were good size flying fish & good eating. I have it as a type of tunny (their word, not mine) fish in one book & like a mackrel in another, the yellow fin tuna would be mahi mahi, we could be talking in different tounges though. Sorry Joe, I can't do tunes or read, in Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas, there's music (don't know about Colcord "Slav Ho). Pint & Dale do it on their "Port Of Dreams" CD but they've jazzed/rocked the chorus up a bit (very interesting, tasteful & nice) though. Song's got a lot of punch in ti. Barry

Subject: RE: ADD LYR Saltpeter Shanty
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Jul 98 - 12:39 PM

I recall the old man in Hemingway's __Old Man And The Sea__ either wanting to use or using bonito as bait!

bait = sushi !!!

Art

Subject: RE: ADD LYR Saltpeter Shanty
From: Barbara
Date: 19 Jul 98 - 02:10 PM

"Slav ho, slav viter",
I'm not sure about, but
"asay ya marita,"
could be 'Asi ya amorita' or 'Asi y amorita'
Spanish. How do you say 'heave' or 'haul' in Spanish?
I'll go look it up, and post.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: ADD LYR Saltpeter Shanty
From: rich r
Date: 19 Jul 98 - 10:29 PM

Bonito as bait, how sad. The common bonito (Sarda sarda) is a beautiful fish of the open sea, especially in the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic. The beautiful blue irridescent colors of the back fade as it flops on the deck. They can get to about 3 feet long & 12 pounds. Joe you were actually right on both counts. They belong to the Family Scrombridae a group of fast spindle shaped fish that includes the bonitos, the mackerels and the tunas. In shape the bonito much resembles a small bluefin tuna. All of the Scrombridae are considered good eatin by humans. I would add that the dolphins mentioned in connection with the bonito are likely to be the fish dolphin (Family Coryphaenidae) and not the mammalian cetacaen variety that ;most people usually think of. The dolphin fish is even more beautiful than the bonito with an irridescent blue green head and back, gold sides with blue dots and a golden tale. It, too, haunts the gulf stream and is a fast swimmer and great leaper. It can get up to about 6 feet in length. It is also good eatin. Flying fish are a favorite food of both species. I see I've let out a long line here. I better scale back on this fish tail.

rich r

Subject: RE: ADD LYR Saltpeter Shanty
From: Bo
Date: 20 Jul 98 - 03:19 PM

I'm glad someone made reference to how beautiful the fish look while alive, free and leaping. You did a great job thanx Rich. I've seen tuna rise to the bait in Prince Edward Island and was stunned by how beautiful they are. You did a far better job than I would have Rich.

Bo.

Subject: Lyr Add: SALTPETER SHANTY / SALTPETRE SHANTY^^
From: radriano
Date: 20 Sep 00 - 05:40 PM

Hi Barry:

Since you originally started this thread in 1998 you may have already come across this version of the "Saltpetre Shanty." In case you haven't, this is from an album by The Boarding Party titled Fair Winds and a Following Sea, Folk-Legacy Records, FSI-109, recorded in 1987.

Saltpetre Shanty The Boarding Party - "Fair Winds and a Following Sea"

To old Callao we are bound away
(chorus) Oh, roll
To old Callao we are bound away
(chorus) Oh, roll
We're bound away from Liverpool Bay
Where the flash girls o' Chile will steal all our pay
(full chorus):
Oh, roll, rock your bars
Heave her high, oh, rock her, oh roll

Old Pedro the Crimp, boys, we know him of old
Old Pedro the Crimp, boys, we know him of old
He's primin' his vino and dopin' his beer
To the Chinchas he'll ship us if we don't steer clear

Them flash girls of Chile, they're hard to beat
Them flash girls of Chile, they're hard to beat
They'll greet us and love us and treat us to wine
But the bastards are robbin' us most of the time

So keep a sharp watch and a keen weather-eye
So keep a sharp watch and a keen weather-eye
On the girls from Coquimbo to old Coronel
With their red-hot senoras from the far side o' Hell


Here are the liner notes:

Saltpetre Shanty
Side 2, Band 4

"Spike Sennit was his name. He was an able-bodied seaman, much of whose experience had been amassed while serving in the guano-and-saltpetre trade along the west coast of South America. Many sailors had followed that route, carrying cargo that would become fertilizer and other products. Few shanties have been preserved in print that reflect the travails of that less-than-idyllic existence, however, primarily, says Stan Hugill, who got this one from Sennit himself, because not much was printable. We've bowdlerized Hugill's version one step further, in fact, using "flash girls" to replace a Spanish word that is considerably more coarse than English equivalents such as prostitute.

Then there was Mike O'Rourke, another of Hugill's shipmates, who had shipped in many "Yankee blood boats" -- hard-case sailing ships from which crews would desert and fresh ones be supplied by the medium of shanhailing. O'Rourke's contribution was another shanty from the same part of the world, "Them Gals of Chile," from two of whose verses we adapted lines to add another element to Sennit's grim song. It was verse #4 that came from O'Rourke, however. The reference to "Pedro the Crimp" (essentially a kidnapper) was part of Spike's original. Doping the beer in portside hangouts could lead to drugged sailors who would wake up hours later, only to find themselves at sea in a totally different vessel, having been bought like barrels of salt-horse from procurers like Pedro. Sometimes, in fact, they might end up not at sea at all, but working ashore in such unsavory locales as Las Chinchas, a group of tiny islands off the Peruvian coast.

The tune, like those of many shanties, could have come from almost any source that struck in the shantyman's mind long enough for him to feel like setting words to it. Joanna Colcord pointed out the remarkable similarity between this one (or her version, which is close) and a 16th century German folksong called "Drei Reiter am Thor" ("Three Riders at the Gate"). Nor it it all that far from some American songs such as "Cryderville Jail."

You can find both Sennit's and O'Rourke's songs, by the way, in Hugill's Shanties of the Seven Seas (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1961 and later editions), the undisputed champion of shanty collections, particularly if you want only one. More to the point, however, with a growing stack of recordings of the same finite repertoire, the book offers many lesser-known but equally exciting examples. Find a copy, take a deep breath, and start in on the ones you've never heard."


Finally, Stan Hugill mentions, in Shanties of the Seven Seas, that the refrains in "Slav Ho!" are imitative Spanish words so they would really have no meaning.

Regards,
Radriano
^^

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Available on Radriano's CD, Time Ashore Is Over.
-Joe Offer-