1. BILLY BOY

This is undoubtedly a coast song ‘made into a shanty.’ I heard it in Northumberland, both on shore and in ships, when I was a boy. The theme of a ‘Boy Billy’ seems common to folk-songs in different parts of the country. The tunes are different, and the words vary, but the topic is always the same: ‘Billy’ is asked where he has been all the day; he replies that he has been courting; he is then questioned as to the qualifications of his inamorata as a housewife. Dr. Vaughan-Williams’s ‘My Boy Billie’ is in print and well known, as is also Mr. Cecil Sharp’s ‘My Boy Willie’ [’English Folk-Songs,’ vol. i]. I have also collected different versions in Warwickshire and Somerset. There are many more verses, but they are not printable, nor do they readily lend themselves to camouflage. The tune has not appeared in print until now.

2. BOUND FOR THE RIO GRANDE

The variants of this noble tune are legion. But this version, which a sailor uncle taught me, has been selected, as I think it the most beautiful of all. I used to notice, even as a boy, how it seemed to inspire the shantyman to sentimental flights of Heimweh that at times came perilously near poetry. The words of the well-known song, ‘Where are you going to, my pretty maid?’ were frequently sung to this shanty, and several sailors have told me that they had also used the words of the song known as ‘The Fishes.’ Capt. Whall gives ’The Fishes’ on pages 96 and 97 of his book, and says that the words were, in his time, sometimes used to the tune of ‘Blow the man down.’

3. GOOD-BYE, FARE YE WELL

This is one of the best beloved of shanties. So strongly did its sentiment appeal to sailors that one never heard the shantyman extemporize a coarse verse to it.

4. JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO

This is clearly of negro origin. I learnt several variants of it, but for its present form I am indebted to Capt. W.J. Dowdy.

5. CLEAR THE TRACK, LET THE BULLGINE RUN

The tune was a favourite in Yankee Packets. It does not appear in Whall. ‘Bullgine’ was American negro slang for ‘engine.’ I picked up this version in boyhood from Blyth seamen.

6. LOWLANDS

For another version see Whall, who says it is of American origin and comes from the cotton ports of the old Southern States. It was well known to every sailor down to the time of the China Clippers. My version is that of Capt. John Runciman, who belonged to that period. I have seldom found it known to sailors who took to the sea after the early seventies. The tune was sung in very free time and with great solemnity. It is almost impossible to reproduce in print the elusive subtlety of this haunting melody. In North-country ships the shantyman used to make much of the theme of a dead lover appearing in the night. There were seldom any rhymes, and the air was indescribably touching when humoured by a good hand. A ‘hoosier,’ by the way, is a cotton stevedore. An interesting point about this shanty is that, whether by accident or design, it exhibits a rhythmic device commonly practised by mediaeval composers, known as proportio sesquialtera. Expressed in modern notation it would mean the interpolation of bars of three-four time in the course of a composition which was in six-eight time. The number of quavers would, of course, be the same in each bar; but the rhythm would be different. The barring here adopted does not show this.

7. SALLY BROWN

For another version of this universally known shanty see Whall, page 64. Although its musical form is that of a halliard shanty, it was always used for the capstan. I never heard it used for any other purpose than heaving the anchor. The large-sized notes given in the last bar are those which most sailors sing to me nowadays; the small ones are those which I most frequently heard when a boy.

8. SANTY ANNA

This fine shanty was a great favourite, and in defiance of all history the sailor presents ‘Santy Anna’ in the light of an invariable victor. The truth is that Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (1795-1876) was the last President of Mexico before the annexation by America of California, Texas, and New Mexico. He defeated the Spaniards at Zampico, and held Vera Cruz against the French, but was badly beaten at Molina del Rey by the United States Army under General Taylor (1847). He was recalled to the Presidency in 1853, but overthrown in 1855. He attempted to overturn the Republic in 1867; was captured and sentenced to death, but was pardoned on condition that he left the country. He retired to the United States until 1872, when a general amnesty allowed his return to Mexico. Like other Mexican Presidents, he lived a stormy life, but unlike most of them he died a natural death.

9. SHENANDOAH

This is one of the most famous of all shanties. I never met a sailor to whom it was unknown, nor have I ever found any two who sang it exactly alike. This version (sung to me by Capt. Robertson) is almost, but not quite, identical with the one I learnt as a boy. Shenandoah (English seamen usually pronounced it ‘Shannandore’) was a celebrated Indian chief after whom an American town is named. A branch of the Potomac river bears the same name. The tune was always sung with great feeling and in very free rhythm.

10. STORMALONG JOHN

This is one of the many shanties with ‘Stormy’ as their hero. Whatever other verses were extemporized, those relating to digging his grave with a silver spade, and lowering him down with a golden chain, were rarely omitted. Other favourite verses were:

(a) I wish I was old Stormy’s son.
(b) I’d build a ship a thousand ton.

Who ‘Stormy’ was is undiscoverable, but more than a dozen shanties mourn him.

11. THE HOG’S-EYE MAN

Of the numberless versions of this shanty I have chosen that of Capt. Robertson as being the most representative. Of the infinite number of verses to this fine tune hardly one is printable. There has been much speculation as to the origin of the title. As a boy my curiosity was piqued by reticence, evasion, or declarations of ignorance, whenever I asked the meaning of the term. It was only in later life that I learnt it from Mr. Morley Roberts. His explanation made it clear why every sailor called it either ‘hog-eye’ or ‘hog’s-eye,’ and why only landsmen editors ever get the word wrong. One collector labels the shanty ‘The hog-eyed man,’ and another goes still further wide of the mark by calling it ‘The ox-eyed man.’ The remarks on this shanty in the Preface will show the absurdity of both titles. That is all the explanation I am at liberty to give in print.

12. THE WILD GOOSE SHANTY

This I learnt from Capt. John Runciman. Allusions to ’The Wild Goose Nation’ occur in many shanties, but I never obtained any clue to the meaning (if any) of the term. The verse about ‘huckleberry hunting’ was rarely omitted, but I never heard that particular theme further developed.

13. WE’RE ALL BOUND TO GO

I used to hear this tune constantly on the Tyne. It is one of the few shanties which preserved a definite narrative, but each port seems to have offered variants on the names of the ships that were ’bound for Amerikee.’ ‘Mr. Tapscott’ was the head of a famous line of emigrant ships. The last word in verse 5 was always pronounced male. This has led to many shantymen treating it not as meal, but as the mail which the ship carried. As the shanty is full of Irish allusions, the probabilities are that the word was meal, to which the sailor gave what he considered to be the Irish pronunciation. Whenever I heard the shanty it was given with an attempt at Irish pronunciation throughout. Capt. Whall gives additional colour to the supposition that this was a general practice, for his version of verse 6 runs:

’Bad luck unto them say-boys,
Bad luck to them I say;
They broke into me say-chest
And they stole me clothes away.’

14. WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE DRUNKEN SAILOR?

This fine tune in the first Mode was always a great favourite. Although mostly used for windlass or capstan, Sir Walter Runciman tells me that he frequently sang to it for ‘hand-over-hand’ hauling. Whall gives it on page 107 under the title ‘Early in the morning.’ It is one of the few shanties that were sung in quick time.

15. BLOW, MY BULLY BOYS

This shanty has been included in every collection that I know of.

Spotless decks, and ‘masts and yards that shone like silver,’ were the distinguishing marks of a Yankee Packet, and this immaculate condition was the result of a terrible discipline, in which the belaying pin was a gruesome factor.

16. BLOW THE MAN DOWN

This is the shanty which is perhaps the best known among landsmen. ‘Winchester Street’ is in South Shields, and in the old days was the aristocratic quarter where only persons of high distinction such as shipowners, and ‘Southspainer’ skippers lived.

17. CHEER’LY, MEN

This is a very well-known shanty, and the variants of it are endless. This particular version was sung to me by Capt. R.W. Robertson. It differs but slightly from the version which I originally learnt from Sir Walter Runciman. Very few of the words were printable, and old sailors who read my version will no doubt chuckle over the somewhat pointless continuation of the verses concerning Kitty Carson and Polly Riddle. They will, of course, see the point of my having supplied a Chopinesque accompaniment to such a shanty.

18. GOOD MORNING, LADIES ALL

The title belongs to other shanties as well; but, so far as I know, this tune has never been printed until now. I learnt it from Northumbrian sailors when a very small boy, and have never heard of its use in any other than Blyth and Tyne ships. It may be a Northumbrian air, but from such knowledge as I have gleaned of Northumbrian folk-tunes, I incline to the conjecture that it may have been picked up in more southern latitudes by some Northumbrian seaman.

19. HANGING JOHNNY

This cheery riot of gore is wedded to the most plaintive of tunes, and is immortalized by Masefield in his ‘Sailor’s Garland.’ Nowadays one occasionally meets unhumorous longshore sailormen who endeavour to temper its fury to the shorn landsman by palming off a final verse, which gives one to understand that the previous stanzas have been only ‘Johnny’s’ little fun, and which makes him bleat:

’They said I hanged for money,
But I never hanged nobody.’

I also possess a shanty collection where the words have so clearly shocked the editor that he has composed an entirely fresh set. These exhibit ‘Johnny’ as a spotless moralist, who would never really hang his parents, but would only operate (in a Pickwickian sense of course) on naughty and unworthy people:

’I’d hang a noted liar,
I’d hang a bloated friar.

’I’d hang a brutal mother,
I’d hang her and no other.

’I’d hang to make things jolly,
I’d hang all wrong and folly.’

Imagine a shantyman (farceur as he ever was) making for edification in that style!

20. HILO SOMEBODY

This is another of the shanties I learnt as a boy from Blyth sailors, and which has never been printed before. I fancy that ‘blackbird’ and ‘crew’ must be a perversion of ‘blackbird and crow,’ as the latter figure of speech occurs in other shanties.

21. OH, RUN, LET THE BULLGINE RUN

The reference to the ‘Bullgine’ seems to suggest Transatlantic origin. There were endless verses, but no attempt at narrative beyond a recital of the names of places from which and to which they were ‘running.’ This version was sung to me by Mr. F.B. Mayoss, a seaman who sailed in the old China Clippers.

22. REUBEN RANZO

Alden gives this version, and I fancy it may have once been fairly general, as several of my relatives used to sing it.

Who Ranzo was must ever remain a mystery. Capt. Whall suggests that the word might be a corruption of Lorenzo, since Yankee Whalers took many Portuguese men from the Azores, where Lorenzo would have been a common enough name. He adds that in his time the shanty was always sung to the regulation words, and that ’when the story was finished there was no attempt at improvization; the text was, I suppose, considered sacred.’ He further says that he never heard any variation from the words which he gives.

I think he is right about the absence of improvization on extraneous topics, but I used to hear a good deal of improvization on the subject of Ranzo himself. I knew at least three endings of the story: (1) where the captain took him into the cabin, ‘larned him navigation,’ and eventually married him to his daughter; (2) where Ranzo’s hatred of ablutions caused the indignant crew to throw him overboard; (3) where the story ended with the lashes received, not for his dirty habits, but for a theft:

’We gave him lashes thirty
For stealin’ the captain’s turkey.’

I have also heard many extemporaneous verses relating his adventures among the denizens of the deep after he was thrown overboard.

23. THE DEAD HORSE

This shanty was used both for hauling and for pumping ship. It seems to have had its origin in a rite which took place after the crew had ‘worked off the dead horse.’ The circumstances were these: Before any voyage, the crew received a month’s pay in advance, which, needless to say, was spent ashore before the vessel sailed. Jack’s first month on sea was therefore spent in clearing off his advance, which he called working off the dead horse. The end of that payless period was celebrated with a solemn ceremony: a mass of straw, or whatever other combustibles were to hand, was made up into a big bundle, which sometimes did, and more often did not, resemble a horse. This was dragged round the deck by all hands, the shanty being sung meanwhile. The perambulation completed, the dead horse was lighted and hauled up, usually to the main-yardarm, and when the flames had got a good hold, the rope was cut and the blazing mass fell into the sea, amid shouts of jubilation.

24. TOM’S GONE TO HILO

This beautiful tune was very popular. I have chosen the version sung to me by Mr. George Vickers, although in the first chorus it differs somewhat from the version I learnt as a boy.

It will be seen how closely the above resembles the version given by Whall. (It will be noted that he entitled it ’John’s gone to Hilo.’) I give Mr. Vickers’s verses about ‘The Victory’ and ‘Trafalgar,’ as I had never heard them sung by any other seaman. I have omitted the endless couplets containing the names of places to which Tommy is supposed to have travelled. As Capt. Whall says: ’A good shantyman would take Johnny all round the world to ports with three syllables, Montreal, Rio Grande Newfoundland, or any such as might occur to him.’

25. WHISKY JOHNNY

This Bacchanalian chant was a prime favourite. Every sailor knew it, and every collection includes some version of it.

26. BONEY WAS A WARRIOR

I never met a seaman who has not hoisted topsails to this shanty. Why Jack should have made a hero of Boney (he frequently pronounced it ‘Bonny’) is a mystery, except perhaps that, as a sailor, he realized the true desolation of imprisonment on a sea-girt island, and his sympathies went out to the lonely exile accordingly. Or it may have been the natural liking of the Briton for any enemy who proved himself a ‘bonny fechter.’

27. JOHNNY BOKER

This popular shanty was sometimes used for bunting-up a sail, but more usually for ‘sweating-up.’ Although I have allowed the last note its full musical value, it was not prolonged in this manner aboard ship. As it coincided with the pull, it usually sounded more like a staccato grunt.

28. HAUL AWAY, JOE

The major version of this shanty (which appears in Part II) was more general in the last days of the sailing ship; but this minor version (certainly the most beautiful of them) is the one which I used to hear on the Tyne. The oldest of my sailor relatives never sang any other. This inclines me to the belief that it is the earlier version. The verses extemporized to this shanty were endless, but those concerning the Nigger Girl and King Louis never seem to have been omitted.

29. WE’LL HAUL THE BOWLIN’

This was the most popular shanty for ‘sweating-up.’ There are many variants of it. The present version I learnt from Capt. John Runciman. In this shanty no attempt was ever made to sing the last word. It was always shouted.

30. PADDY DOYLE’S BOOTS

This shanty differs from all others, as (a) it was sung tutti throughout; (b) it had only one verse, which was sung over and over again; and (c) it was used for one operation and one operation only, viz. bunting up the foresail or mainsail in furling. In this operation the canvas of the sail was folded intensively until it formed a smooth conical bundle. This was called a bunt, and a strong collective effort (at the word ‘boots’) was required to get it on to the yard.

Although the same verse was sung over and over again, very occasionally a different text would be substituted, which was treated in the same manner. Capt. Whall gives two alternatives, which were sometimes used:

‘We’ll all drink brandy and gin,’

and

‘We’ll all shave under the chin.’

Mr. Morley Roberts also told me that a variant in his ship was

‘We’ll all throw dirt at the cook.’