Lyr ADD: whaling song (My Donal, by Owen Hand)

Subject: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: erinmaidin
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 04:57 AM

Looking for entire lyrics of a song that starts with "Oh, my johnny, he works upon the sea...where the waves blow wild and free..he splices the ropes and he sets the sails..while northward they go in search of the whales". Close as I can get..song is about the use of whales in the making of perfumes again..partial lyric "all you ladies who smell of wild rose...think ye of the perfume to where the man goes"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: erinmaidin
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 06:13 AM

correction....the name is "donal"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Little Robyn
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 07:20 AM

I think Ray Fisher used to sing it.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: kendall
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 07:33 AM

Pedant alert...there are only two ropes in a ship, the bell rope and the tiller rope. All others are sheets, halyards, hawsers and assorted lines. You can always tell a sea song that was written by a lubber.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: erinmaidin
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 07:46 AM

argggh....the song was written from the aspect of the woman who stayed home waiting for him to return...I guess that would constitute a "lubber"...er...pardon this but "God, lub her"

Subject: Lyr Add: MY DONAL (Owen Hand)
From: Amos
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 09:02 AM

It's "MY DONAL" by Owen Hand, found here.

Oh my Donal he works on the sea
With the waves blowing wild and free
He splices the rope and sets the sail
Now he is awa' to the home of the whale.

Oh he ne'r thinks of me far behind
O' the torments that rage in my mind
He's mine for only half part o' the year
Then I'm left all alone with nought but a tear.

Oh guid ladies who smell the wild rose
Think ye for your perfume to where a man goes
Think you o' the wives and bairnies so young
'Cause their man ne'r returned from hunting the Sperm.

Oh my Donal he works on the sea
With the waves blowing wild and free
He splices the rope and sets the sail
Now he is awa' to the home of the whale.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Amos
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 09:03 AM

If a mudelf could terminate the hyperlink just after the word "here" I'd be grateful.

Damn fat fingers.

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: GUEST,satchel
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 11:49 AM

Another pedant alert: Hey kendall, what about bolt-ropes on a square sail, man-ropes on the gangway, and foot-ropes under the yards? Their are lots of ropes on a sailing vessel. One shouldn't be so quick to buy into maritime innuendo!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: erinmaidin
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 12:20 PM

Dear Amos!
God bless your fat fingers....thank you very much.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Shimbo Darktree
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 12:24 PM

Satchel ... maritime innuendo ...oh, it is so tempting ... but no, I will NOT succumb! (Anyone got a barrel?)

Shimbo

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Amos
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 12:27 PM

I really wanted to marry Tiemin Uendio, but her parents said she was too old.

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 01:00 PM

I will succumb. You can tell Kendall is a trendy modern Admiral of the chanty. In the 1850s, ropes were ropes. Tying, splicing and knotting rope was a common task for sailors on watch.

It would be anachronistic for a Donal of the whaling days to splice 'lines;' equivalent to seamen locating their position with a GPS.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 10:59 PM

Even aside from the aforementioned specific ropes, any cordage aboard that's coiled up in a lazarette somewhere and doesn't have an assigned function, is still "rope".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Naemanson
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 11:39 PM

Pedant alert!! As for the comment about the use of whales in making perfume, I think the intent of that verse is to point out the Gawdawful stench of a whaling ship.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 12:11 AM

NAr, ambergris was and still is used in perfumery.

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 12:36 AM

Raw cordage is always rope. But lines is lines.

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: GUEST,Ballyholme
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 11:18 AM

Kendall, I'm not so sure that the (late) Owen Hand was entirely a land lubber. I believe that he had, indeed, worked on whaling ships at one point. Perhaps someone with a better knowledge of Owen's background could clarify that point. Incidentally, he was also a handy boxer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: kendall
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 11:36 AM

I spent much of my adult life at sea. I stand by what I said.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Anglo
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 02:22 PM

That's why they invented the word "curmudgeon," Kendall.
:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 03:31 PM

I'd rather go to sea with Kendall being a curmudgeon than a dozen nice-pants rope-twisters any day!

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Naemanson
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 06:10 PM

My own personal belief is that in the later days of sail nobody carried on the distinction between rope and lines. In my mind's eye I can see some tired sailor yelling to someone else for them to "Gimmee that rope there, the main stays'l halyard, damnit!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: MartinRyan
Date: 12 Apr 04 - 07:53 AM

Donald? ... sjeeing as we're knit-picking...

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 04:16 AM

Owen Hand sailed on whaling and merchant ships as we can learn from his short biography (link in Amos' post. So I think he knows what he writes about.
In German we have a distinction between Leine = line and Tau = rope, depending on thickness and way of production. You may hang your wash on a (Siegfried)line, but for hanging a rope should be used - it is stronger.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song (My Donal)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 08:36 AM

Been reading through "Man-of-War," about a sailor's life aboard the USS Columbus in 1845-1848 (its voyage around the world). Mostly ropes talked about. Nordhoff discusses the make-up of a sail, and a special kind of rope, made of minutely stranded yarn (for strength), called 'bolt-rope.' "The perfect soundness and stability of the rope being of great importance to the sail." They lost a nearly new foresail because the 'foot rope' proved defective. "The rope and clews" were all that remained of the sail portion exposed to the fury of the gale.
He speaks of the immense yard ropes, reminding me of Wilfried's 'Tau.'

Dana's Dictionary of 1851 defines rigging as the "general term for all the ropes of a vessel." 'Running rigging' is defined as "the ropes that reeve through blocks." "The standing part of a rope is that part which is fast..."

'Clewline' was used at the time: "the rope that hauls up the clew of a square sail." A clew-garnet is defined as "the rope which hauls up the clew of a foresail or mainsail in a square-rigged vessel."
At other times 'rope' is used with regard to the clews; The current 'mandatory' use of the term 'lines' may have started with this.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song (My Donal)
From: erinmaidin
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 09:27 AM

I'm wondering if perhaps I should start doing a song about rigging instead of poor Donal??

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: whaling song (My Donal)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 01:07 PM

Donal who?

When does digression turn into transgression? Sorry!