Lyr ADD: The Tryphena's Extra Hand (Fox-Smith)

Subject: Lyr Req: Tryphena
From: GUEST,shantyjohn
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 02:06 PM

Words by C Fox-Smith to 'The Tryphena's Extra
Hand' anyone?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 09:29 PM

Shantyjohn-

"The Tryphena's Extra Hand" is in FULL SAIL, pp. 41-45. It's a long poem of nine verses. I'll type it up if you really want it but if someone else has done so already that would be alright by me. I don't need the glory.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand
From: John P
Date: 30 Jun 04 - 12:40 AM

William Pint and Felicia Dale recorded it on their "Round the Corner" album. They have all the songs to their albums on their web site . Tryphena is here.

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jun 04 - 09:02 AM

Shantyjohn-

The Pint and Dale posted lyrics that John P. linked to above are a fair rendering of the original poem, with a minimum of folk processing to make the poem easier to sing. The main exception would be the 2nd verse where I've capitalized the original wording:

There?ll be one more at the halyards
There?ll be one MORE on the yard
Fistin? down THEM thundering choruses
When they?re frosted good and hard
One more tallyin? on the forebrace
When the WAIST?S neck deep in foam
One more hand to sweat the tops?l?s up
AND sheet t?ga?ns?l?s home.

You can be "neck deep" in foam but I get a peculiar image of someone "waist neck deep" in foam.

Danny McLeod, who deserves the most credit for reviving interest in C. Fox Smith's sea poems and arranging them to music, is always careful to keep as much of the original poem as possible. I am less strict in my adaptations. You need to make your own decisions but I would urge you to begin with the originals.

Good luck,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand
From: Anglo
Date: 30 Jun 04 - 10:39 AM

FWIW I suggest that "waist" might refer to the waist of the ship rather than the waist of a sailor.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jun 04 - 11:03 PM

I should have clarified "waist" as well, John. It's clearly the part of open ship's deck between the fo'c'le and the poop deck. It would be lubberly to sing it as someone's waist, a mistake that C. Fox Smith would never make.

Charley Noble, mowing hay while the sun shines rather then tending threads

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Jul 04 - 05:21 PM

refresh

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TRYPHINA'S EXTRA HAND
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Jul 04 - 10:04 PM

Copied from http://members.aol.com/Pintndale/rtclyrics.htm#thetryphinasextrahand

THE TRYPHINA'S EXTRA HAND
C. Fox Smith

In the clipper ship Tryphina
Swingin' nor'ard from the line
With the trade wind blowin' steady
And her flyin' kites ashine
Five and sixty days from Angier
With her freight of Foochow teas
There a sailor man lay dyin'
And the words he spoke were these:

Many a year I've knowed this packet
And I've got to like her well
And I've not much hope of heaven
And I've not much use for hell
But if so be as they'll let me
By the great hookblock I swear
When the old Tryphina wants me
Dead as livin' I'll be there

There'll be one more at the haliards
There'll be one on the yard
Fistin' down from thundering choruses
When they're frosted good and hard
One more tallyin' on the forebrace
When they're waist neck deep in foam
One more hand to sweat the tops'l's up
Ond sheet t'ga'ns'l's home

So just off the Western islands
When he smell't the land he died
And they laid a back the main y'rd
And they dropped him overside
Then they squared away for England
Pulley haulin' with a will
But for all they thought they'd left him
He sailed aboard her still

And the chaps as was his shipmates
Went the way as all chaps go
and the folks as was her owners
Sold the old ship long ago
But whoever owned or sold her
And whoever went or came
The Tryphina's extra hand
He sailed aboard her just the same

And he never signed no articles
He never drawed no pay
He never scoffed no vittles
But by night as well as day
Though you'd never know his comin'
Nor you'd never see him go
He'd be always somewheres handy
When it's comin' on a blow

And he'd stand by wheel and lookout
And you'd kind of feel him near
Kind of see him and not see him
Kind of hear him and not hear
And the funny thing about it
Was you somehow couldn't swear
Though you knew it sure as shootin'
When the extra hand was there

And in port when all the chaps had gone
Ashore to take their ease
And left the ship as lonely
And as quiet as you please
Not a blessed soul aboard her
But the galley cat and you
Then you'd hear a sort of somethin'
More than once I've heard it too

Like a feller up aloft there
Putterin around amongst the gear
Seizing there another rat line
Putting on a mousing here
And rum-tumming old tunes over
Such as shell backs used to know
In the good old China tea trade
Many, many's the year ago

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 05:35 PM

Thanks, Jim, for posting the Pint and Dale version above. I guess it's the 3rd verse, not the 2nd verse, that they "confused" with their new wording. If it ain't broke, don't folk-process.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand
From: GUEST,William Pint
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 02:32 PM

Hi there,
Thanks for the corrections. A couple of those were due to my spectacular typing skills, and the others from a poor quality cassette of the version we first heard from Bob Zentz. He had a cheery melody for the song and we tried to 'spook' it up a bit for Halloween.
Danny Macleod checked out the original text and found thundering 'courses' rather than 'choruses' in his version. I've changed our lyrics page.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand (C. Fox Smith)
From: GUEST,Davis
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 12:09 PM

The waist is the middle of the ship......

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand (C. Fox Smith)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 08:51 PM

I doubt that Pint and Dale made the mistakes in the website text copied by Jim Dixon when thay sang the song (I was once a teach for a spell and I delighted in proofing and knocking off points. So forgive me the following).
Verse 1, line 3- should be Anger.
Verse 2. Hookblock* is hyphenated.
Verse 3. It is 'the waist's neck deep in foam,' as pointed out by Charley Noble.
Verse 3. Line 1. Halyards, not haliards. Line 2. ...one more on the yard. 3. Fisting down them thundering courses. 4. And sheet to'gal'n's'ls home (apostrophes scrambled).
Verse 5. smelt, not smell't.
Verse 6. Articles should be caps. Line 4. 'and it coming on to blow.'

Some other minor differences from Fox Smith's poem.

* those forward are breast-hooks, those aft are crutches, those under the ends of the deck are deck-hooks. The "great hook-block" is an expression- the Gatherer, or what holds everything together.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 04:49 PM

Derek and Julia Batters (Trim Rig And A Doxy) at the Baltic Fleet, Liverpool, UK.
(http://www.liverpoolseashanty.co.uk 1st Saturday monthly)
2016
https://youtu.be/b6H2SCLX9uM 

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Tryphena's Extra Hand (Fox-Smith)
From: Chris Maltby
Date: 12 May 23 - 10:46 PM

A late correction:
Vers 1, line 3 - the waypoint is "Anjer" (or "Anyer") on the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra. It was the last land before heading across the Indian Ocean.