Lyr Add: Hastings Mill (C. Fox Smith)

Subject: Lyr Add: HASTINGS MILL (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Jul 05 - 08:45 PM

Here's another fine poem by Cicely Fox Smith which describes her evening walks along the Victoria, BC, waterfront where she used to talk with the old shipkeepers and other sailors during her 10-year stay there in the early 1900's. I've adapted it for singing below and if you'd like to check her original poem and some historical notes they follow. Here's a link to my website where you can access a MP3 file of how I sing it: Click here!; to line up the chords copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12:

HASTINGS MILL

(Original words by Cicely Fox Smith, 1919, in SAILOR TOWN, pp. 56-57
Adapted for singing by Charles Ipcar © 2005
Tune: traditional "Cherokee Shuffle")

C--------------------------------Am--C-----------------Am
As I went down by Hastings Mill, I lingered in my going,
----F------------------C---------Am---C---------------------------Am
To sniff the smell of piled-up planks and feel the salt breeze blowing,
------C------G------------C
And feel the salt breeze blowing;
----F----------------C-------------------------F-----------------C
To hear the cables fret and creak, and the rigging stir and sigh –
F---------------------C------------------------------------Am
"Shipmate, oh, my shipmate!" as in those days gone by,
----C-------G----------C
As in those days gone by.

As I went down by Hastings Mill, I saw a ship there lying,
All about her masts and yards the sunset clouds a-flying,
The sunset clouds a-flying;
And I mistook her for the ghost of one I used to know –
"Shipmate, oh, my shipmate!" so many years ago,
So many years ago.

As I went down by Hastings Mill, I heard a fella singing,
While chipping off the deep-sea rust, above the tide a-swinging,
Above the tide a-swinging;
And well I knew the queer old tune and well the song he sung –
"Shipmate, oh, my shipmate!" as when the world was young,
As when the world was young.

And past the rowdy Union Wharf, above the tide a-lapping,
To a randy dandy deep-sea tune my heart in time was tapping,
My heart in time was tapping;
To the far off sound all in the dusk of an anchor watch a-hauling –
"Shipmate, oh, my shipmate!" with evening shadows falling,
With evening shadows falling!

---------F----------------C------------------F------------------C
And the voice of one I knew so well, a-cross the harbour calling –
F---------------------C--------------------------------------Am
"Shipmate, oh, my shipmate!" with evening shadows falling,
----C--------G----------C
With evening shadows falling!


Notes:

The wood-hulled, steam-powered tug Haro was built in Vancouver for B.C. Mills (Hastings Mill) for its harbor service.

The Hastings Shingle & Manufacturing Company: After a bit of re-organization, the Woods-Spicer Company was bought out for $1,200 by the Hastings Shingle & Manufacturing Company in 1906. Hastings was owned by the McNair brothers.

In 1896 Julius M. Fromme had been appointed supervisor of Hastings' operations on the woods. The Hastings upper mill off Dempsey Road was built in 1904 and closed in 1910.

Thomas Allen interviewed the McNairs to buy the Hastings Mill and paid $2,000 in down payment to $20,000. He quickly turned his eyes to real estate so he sold his interests to his partner J.M. Fromme who formed the Lynn Valley Lumber Company.

Location: on the South Shore of Burrard Inlet, near Powell Street

Original poem by Cicely Fox Smith, 1919, in SAILOR TOWN, pp. 56-57
Also in Manuscripts Poetry: An Inventory of Alfred Myrick Pound (1869-1932) – His Papers In The Library of the University of British Columbia, Robert Gore, Special Collections Division, 1978, Vancouver, BC

HASTINGS MILL

As I went down by Hastings Mill I lingered in my going
To smell the smell of piled-up deals and feel the salt wind blowing,
To hear the cables fret and creak and the ropes stir and sigh
(Shipmate, my shipmate!) as in days gone by.

As I went down by Hastings Mill I saw a ship there lying,
About her tawny yards the little clouds of sunset flying;
And half I took her for the ghost of one I used to know
(Shipmate, my shipmate!) many years ago.

As I went down by Hastings Mill I saw while I stood dreaming
The flicker of her riding light along the ripples streaming,
The bollards where we made her fast and the berth where she did lie
(Shipmate, my shipmate!) in the days gone by.

As I went down by Hastings Mill I heard a fellow singing,
Chipping off the deep sea rust above the tide a-swinging,
And well I knew the queer old tune and well the song he sung
(Shipmate, my shipmate!) when the world was young.

And past the rowdy Union Wharf, and by the still tide sleeping,
To a randy dandy deep sea tune my heart in time was keeping,
To the thin far sound of a shadowy watch a-hauling,
And the voice of one I knew across the high tide calling
(Shipmate, my shipmate!) and the late dusk falling!

I've getting real fond of this song and plan to sing it out in Victoria when I visit there in August of this year.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hastings Mill (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Jul 05 - 08:09 PM

Here's the link back to the main C. Fox Smith thread: Click here!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble