Lyr Add: Last Whistle / Sailor's Epitaph

Subject: Lyr Add: LAST WHISTLE / SAILOR'S EPITAPH (Bodleian
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 11:18 PM

Lyr. Add: Last Whistle, or the Sailor's Epitaph

Whether sailor or not, for a moment avast,
Poor Jack's mizen top-sail is laid to the mast,
He'll never turn out, or will more heave the lead,
He's now all aback, nor will sails shoot ahead,
Yet though worms knaw his timbers, his vessel a wreck,
When he hears the last whistle, he'll jump upon deck,

Secure in his cabin, he's moored in the grave,
Nor hears any more the loud roar of the wave,
Pressed by death, he is sent to the tender below
Where lubbers and seamen must every one go.
Yet tho' worms knaw his timbers, his vessel a wreck,
When he hears the last whistle he'll jump upon deck.

With his frame a mere hulk, and his reckoning aboard,
At last he dropped down to mortality's road
With eternity's ocean before him in view,
He cheerfully piped out my messmates adieu,
For though worms knaw my timber, my vessel a wreck,
When I hear the last whistle, I'll jump upon deck.

Bodleian Collection, Firth c13(105), E. Hodges (late Pitts), printer, Seven Dials (London). Circa 1846-1854. Bodley Search

Charles Dibdin wrote poems of this type, but no author is listed with this sheet. Does anyone have further information?

In the poem, a sailor's bones are called timbers. The first known occurrence of the term "shiver my timbers" is in a novel by Marryat, "Jacob Faithful," 1835. Also used by Robert Louis Stevenson in "Treasure Island." See thread 20925: Shiver my timbers
'Shiver my timbers' may have been invented by Marryat, but there is no proof that it was not in prior use by sailors.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LAST WHISTLE (Sailor's Epitaph)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 11:33 PM

Two earlier sheets are in the Bodleian Collection:

Harding B25 (1086) J. Pitts, London; also marked Mantz, Finsbury. Circa 1802-1819
Ballads Catalogue, 2806c.17(222) W. Armstrong, Liverpool. Circa 1820-1824.
Also other sheets.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LAST WHISTLE (Sailor's Epitaph)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 12:15 AM

The song appears in volume II of the Universal Songster (1827-32), p 294, with the writer's name given as T[homas] Dibdin.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LAST WHISTLE (Sailor's Epitaph)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 12:21 AM

Ah, it was Dibdin, even if I got his first name wrong. Thanks, Malcolm.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LAST WHISTLE (Sailor's Epitaph)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 12:31 AM

You didn't mistake the name; Charles was the main (enormously prolific) songwriter in the family, but his sons Thomas and Charles also wrote a fair bit in the same vein. It can get quite confusing working out who did what, and contemporary sources often mixed them up as well.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LAST WHISTLE (Sailor's Epitaph)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 03:56 PM

Just ordered a book of C. Dibdin's poetry, ed, T. Dibdin, Admiralty ed., low price because ex-lib. Should be interesting. Don't seem to be any 20th c. printings.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LAST WHISTLE (Sailor's Epitaph)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Oct 05 - 11:25 AM

Refresh!