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Shanties and other songs of the sea
I've always had a thing for the ocean--don't know why. I even joined the US Navy just to live as a sailor which I did for 6 years. It's a rough life--being a sailor. I can only imagine what it must have been like in the 18th and 19th centuries. Do you know what it's like to be so seasick, you wish you'd just die and get it over with? So sick that you are hallucinating? So sick, your head feels like it's been overfilled with a mixture of broken glass and jagged, heavy rocks? So sick, you're ready to jump into the ocean just to get off that godawful pitching ship that rocks side to side for weeks at a time without a single goddamn let up--won't give you 5 seconds of a steady deck so you can orient yourself?
And when you're sick like that, you think anyone cares? You think you're going to go lay down in your rack and moan yourself to sleep? F-uck no! Get your ass up and get to work! I remember being so sick my first time out that I couldn't keep my head up while I was supposed to be watching a capstan breaker during tests. A master chief walked by an saw me--clearly sick and nearly delirious as I was--and chewed me a new as-shole. He didn't give a f-uck how sick I was, my job was to watch that f-ucking breaker and, by god, I was going to WATCH THAT F-UCKING BREAKER!!!!!!! The reason is that if you mollycoddle a guy whose sick, he thinks he should be sick. So you lay into him and force him to get over it and get to work. After getting my arse chewed, I forced myself to keep my head up thinking, "Come on, boy! Don't let this kick your ass! Other guys work with it, now get with it! Remember what the doc [head corpsman] said, it's all in your damn head!" If I found my head starting to sag, I forced it back up again. And eventually--eventually--I started to come around and my sickness began to subside. After four voyages, I rarely got sick and could even stand watches and work on equipment in very rough seas with the ship tossing about without feeling a thing. And when I found some new guy in a stupor with seasickness, I'd chew his ass and make him get to work. Eventually, he'd get the hang of it. Sailors call that "getting your sea legs." You learn how the ocean moves and you just sort move with it. Trouble is, you'd get land-sick once you were back onshore. With your body adjusted to ocean movement, it still continued to move with the ocean while you were onshore making it feel like you're walking on a trampoline. Landsickness wasn't that bad, though, not like seasickness. To be a sailor is to learn how to live with minimal sleep. You just don't get much chance to sleep. You're always working on equipment late into the night or someone's waking you at 0330 hours to get ready to assume the 0400-0800 watch (which you actually assume at 0345 hours) or an emergency goes down and you have to man your GQ station. Always something stealing your sleep. Once I got off the midwatch in the #1 engine room and hit my rack for about an hour--I was dead out when I was awoken. The vent fans in the #2 engine room weren't working and it was my job to figure out why. So I dragged myself out of my rack, got dressed, went down to the #2 engine room and the top watch showed me what was wrong with the vent fans. The only problem was, they functioned perfectly--nothing wrong with them. He said, "Jesus, man, I'm sorry! I swear it wasn't working a second ago! I swear it wasn't working." "That's alright," I said. "I was having a nightmare anyway." And went back to my rack. That's life as a sailor. Another time, we were a couple of days from docking in a foreign port--Europe somewhere--and the in-port light wasn't working. I went over and checked the fuses but they were good. The only other thing to do at this point was to check the bulb itself and see if it was burned out. Trouble was, the bulb was almost at the top of the mast and we were in pretty choppy seas. But, the light has to be functional as we approach port so someone had to go up the mast to change it. They tried to get this one guy to go but he went up about 10 feet and he froze--wouldn't climb any higher. "I'll go up," I said. Me and another guy went up--you have to have two guys at all times in case there's an accident aloft. As I'm changing the bulb out, I can see the ship waaaaayyyy down there--guys ondeck watching me looked like ants. I just tried not to look and concentrate on what I had to do. I didn't want to drop the bulb--that would suck. As the ship tossed in the waves, I could see the weatherdeck below swing to the right across my field of vision and then there was nothing but ocean. Then the ship would swing across my vision to the left and then nothing but ocean and this kept repeating. But I get the bulb changed and the in-port light illuminates and so we came back down. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...d21fe51c15.jpg These are Christmas lights on a guided missile destroyer. The electricians had to string these up and it wasn't optional, a ship in its homeport during Christmas had to have these lights up. Since I was an electrician, I can vouch for how bad it sucked to have to do this especially in that bitter cold wind coming in off the ocean. When we toured northern Europe on a goodwill tour, we had to put these up in every port, stay for 3 or 4 days, and then taken them down again and put back out to sea. If you think THAT doesn't suck, you've probably never done a real lick of work in your life. But there were good times too. I sailed with some good buds--and with complete as-sholes too--but you only hit the foreign towns with guys you liked. You'd either go to the bars and then the whorehouse or to the whorehouse first and then the bars. A lot of places had the whorehouse and bar in the same place which made it easier. Went all over Europe, all over South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and South Asia. The best port we ever docked in was in this fjord in Trondheim, Norway. Across the bay was this mountain with a white thread winding its way down that ended in a waterfall and at night we had the "nordlies" over us--the aurora borealis--which is breathtakingly beautiful. Pakistan was really strange. Old school Muslim nation with camels and long-eared cows everywhere. At dusk, you'd see bats pour out of buildings and fill the sky. But Kuwait and Bahrain were more modern. Kuwait was almost like America with its nightlife. Brazil, Venezuela and Columbia were a lot of fun. Got to tour the Reeperbahn in Hamburg which is completely wild. The Azores were the most beautiful spot I saw. Jamaica was...ummmm...crazy. Went through the Suez Canal and down the Red Sea which looks like it did 2000 years ago. Some good times. And life aboard ship? Crowded. There is minimal space for the crew. Any large spaces are strictly for equipment. A person gets only enough to be functional. John F. Kennedy put it best: http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...716fc01df5.jpg Now in the modern Navy, we don't sing worksongs or shanties. Shanties were meant for strenuous work that took teams of hands working in unison to complete such as turning the capstan or hauling yards. Today the capstan is turned electrically and, of course, we don't haul yards anymore. They were structured as call & response. "Shanty" is just a corruption or variant of "chantey" or something to chant. Haul, Boys, Haul - The Bilge Pumps - YouTube "Haul Boys Haul" is an old shanty. On the ships, they were sung without musical accompaniment. But as pub singalongs, church hymns and what not they were adapted for instruments and even as instrumentals: Adventureland - Haul Boys Haul - YouTube Most shanties still popular today come from England and and Ireland were adopted by the New England Yankees. One of the most popular was "Spanish Ladies" Melville mentions as being sung by the crew of the Pequod in "Moby Dick": sea shanties - spanish ladies - YouTube Some American shanties were made up by American blacks such as "Mail Day" which has the structure of a spiritual. Another is "Roll the Woodpile Down": The Dreadnoughts - Roll The Woodpile Down - YouTube It is often referred to as being Irish but I find that questionable. Lines as "way down in Florida" and "that brown girl o' mine's on the Georgia line" and a reference to getting with those "yaller girls" would indicate this is an American shanty of black American origin. Also when they sing, "That brown girl o' mine's on the Georgia line" they break into barbershop quartet harmonies (and every version I've ever heard does it) and the barbershop quartet came from American blacks. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...820bad081f.jpg The Wabash Minstrels of the flagship the USS Wabash taken in 1863. Certainly they would have sounded very interesting. |
Sailing is one of humanity’s oldest occupations, prostitution notwithstanding. In fact, I have learned from extensive firsthand observation and experience that the two occupations are very tightly bound to one another. Wherever there are ports and sailors, there are brothels and prostitutes to service them.
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...435e1b9d36.jpg From an 1811 broadside, the term "Jack" was a British term for a sailor who were generally referred to as "Jack Tar" or "Jolly Jack Tar." Coastal towns and seaports have a nautical culture since the sea is the front yard. This is equally true of the Michigan and Canadian towns bordering the Great Lakes (which are not lakes strictly speaking and which Melville terms “freshwater seas” which is far more apt). By nautical culture, I mean that oceanic and sailing themes are used on the businesses in the area even if they have nothing to do with either simply because neither is far from people’s minds in such areas. In fact, more goods and supplies are delivered to Michigan by freighter than by train or truck combined. When the lakes remained frozen well into spring a few years back, there was worry that Michigan would start suffering shortages of everything from food to toilet paper—the vast majority of which are delivered to our state via the Great Lakes rather than highways or rails which supplement the ports more than compete with them. All along the coast, one sees businesses using all kinds of nautical motifs—ship steering wheels, oars, anchors, sails, boats or ships. These are also found in great abundance in residences—decorative anchors in people’s yards, ships or whales as weather vanes, sailboat-shaped mailboxes with the flag shaped like a sail, doormats depicting a ship on the ocean, etc. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...8861005eee.jpg But in past centuries, the nautical themes weren’t simply for quaintness but were deeply rooted in the lives of the people that lived within the culture. Their language was peppered with nautical references, children’s songs were drawn from sailor shanties and worksongs, hymns sung in church were also formatted as shanties or specifically geared to nautical themes. Many of the colloquialisms used in English came from sailing: • “I don’t like the cut of his jib” refers to the jib sail on a ship. • “I was three sheets to the wind” refers to a sail, often called a sheet, not properly tied down and goes slack in the wind and three such sails makes the ship completely useless as it meanders about on the ocean like a drunk. • “The cat is out of the bag” refers to the cat-o’-nine-tails used to flog sailors and usually referred to simply as a “cat.” It was kept in a burlap sack while not in use. When a sailor got the wrong person angry, the cat was removed from the bag and sailor was flogged with it. So the phrase simply means some kind of line was crossed. • “No room to swing a cat” refers to the same flogging instrument and is otherwise self-explanatory. • “By and large” refers to sailing "large" when the wind is directly behind the ship which sailors refer to as a “bowline.” Sailing "by" was when the wind was not quite behind the ship but slightly offset. It is impossible to sail by and large simultaneously. • “The whole nine yards” refers to a yard on a mast which holds a sail. There were three yards on all three masts and so if one had a sail flying from each one together, one had the whole nine yards. • “Mind your Ps and Qs” referred to pints and quarts. If a sailor off the ship in a tavern started getting three sheets to the wind, one of the mates or the master-at-arms might tell him to watch his intake of alcohol by telling him to mind his Ps and Qs…before the cat gets out of the bag. • “Slush fund” refers to slush which was kept and eventually sold by the cook. In the modern American Navy, lending money with interest is still called “slushing” which is against regulations. • “I was taken aback” refers to wind conditions in which the sails are blown back against the masts halting all progress. • “Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey” refers to a device in which cannonballs were triangularly stacked on deck. It was called a monkey and was made of brass. If the weather got sufficiently cold, the monkey contracted enough to cause the topmost cannonballs to fall off the stack. Almost everybody believes this expression to have a vulgar meaning. There are all kinds of nautical terms peppering our everyday speech: making headway, getting pooped, pipe down, water-logged, locker, rig, between the devil and deep blue sea, the bitter end, overhaul, dismantle, forge ahead, windfall, field-day, at loggerheads, slow on the uptake, scuttlebutt, toe the line—all nautical terms. For these terms to have made their way into our speech long ago shows how important sailing was and still is. |
Thought this would be a thread where we could post our favorites songs of the sea, etc. But once again, i'm disappointed in a Larehip thread.
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Sally Brown ( Traditional Sea Shanty ) - YouTube I sometimes perform “Sally Brown” with guitar accompaniment at open mics but my version is a rather different from this. That’s the thing about shanties, they can vary quite a bit from performer-to-performer. Johnny Collins - Eliza Lee (Capstan Shanty) - YouTube “Eliza Lee” may have been a railroad shanty adapted by sailors. Lines as “Clear away the track and let the bulgine run” and references to “a-jolting car” would strongly indicate that this was sung by railroad workers. Some have suggested that railroads often passed through shipyards and it might be a shanty for sailors that loaded the supplies from the ship to the rail cars. Sure--could be. The Maid of Amsterdam (A-rovin') - sung by the Roaring Trowmen - YouTube “A-rovin’” otherwise known as “The Maid of Amsterdam” is a well known from the 19th century. I sing this one at open mics as well. It has many different verses and mine are thus: In Amsterdam I met a maid (Mark well what I do say) In Amsterdam I met a maid Who was always pinchin’ the sailors’ trade (I’ll go no more a-rovin’ with you, fair maid A-rovin’, a-rovin’ since rovin’ been my ru-I-n I’ll go more a-rovin’ with you, fair maid) I took that maid out for a walk I took that maid out for a walk I fed her run and did she talk I put me arm around her waist I put me arm around her waist She said, “Young man, you’re in great haste!” I put me hand upon her knee I put me hand upon her knee She said, “Young man, you’re rather free!” I put me hand upon her thigh I put me hand upon her thigh She said, “Young man, that’s rather high!” (This next verse is my own) I slipped me hand beneath her dress I slipped me hand beneath her dress It felt real nice, I must confess I gave that miss a little kiss I gave that miss a little kiss And back onboard my money I missed I borrowed a little from every version I’ve heard. I like these particular words because they were definitely written by a sailor. I had just such an experience in Orlando, Florida along the red light district called the “Orange Blossom Trail.” Me and a mate picked up a prostitute, went to this secluded area, took turns boffing her, paid her, dropped her off and went to eat and realized that somehow she had emptied both our wallets. I definitely had money left after I paid her but somehow she got the rest of it before we dropped her off—both of us. I have no idea how. Goddamn hooker magic. |
The word “Yankee” probably came from sailors. In England, sailors were called by generic terms as Jack or Johnny. Many shanties have Johnny in the title—“Whisky Johnny,” “Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her,” “Heave Away, My Johnny” and some believe that when the English descendants in the American colonies began to move into New Netherlands (New York) region, that the Dutch referred to the English as Janneke (Little John or Johnny) because they were most familiar with the English sailors back in Europe—the Johnnies. Eventually, Janneke (pronounced “Yah-ne-keh”) became pronounced by the English-speakers themselves as Yankee. This term was originally strictly applied to Americans of English descent as it was in Connecticut as well as to the Quakers of Nantucket who considered themselves both American and English. The New England whale fishery which was run by Quakers was even usually called the Yankee whale fishery (the Quakers, of course, started in England). The original dialect of the white Massachusetts settlers was also called the Yankee dialect, which is not spoken anymore.
Johnny Collins - Leave Her Johnny (sea chantey) - YouTube One thing that seems to be overlooked is that the punk sub-genre called Oi is partly descended from pub sing-alongs which are greatly influenced by shanties. I noticed the similarity when I was still in the Navy and listening almost exclusively to punk at that time. Years later, when I met some shanty singers I was surprised to hear some of them say that some shanties have a punk-like feel. Indeed they do and for good reason. I’m so used to hearing that from shanty-lovers that it no longer surprises me. [Shanty] Old Billy Riley - Johnny Collins - YouTube This one has always struck me as punkish. The Exploited - Sex and Violence - YouTube This one by the Exploited certainly sounds like it was derived by the pub sing-along. Rolling Down the Bay to Juliana - YouTube Give it a rock band set-up and it’s pretty much textbook perfect Oi. Booze & Glory - "London Skinhead Crew" - Official Video (HD) - YouTube Rolf Harris - "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" - YouTube This, by rights, should be considered proto-Oi. Just give it a standard Oi rock band set-up and it’s not far from being Oi. Yet it is also quite clearly a pub sing-along. London Pub Singalong - YouTube A London pub sing-along. Cockney Rejects - Oi Oi Oi ! - YouTube The word Oi was coined by Gary Bushell. It just basically means “Hey!” as a way of hailing someone. Note its close similarity to “Ahoy!” which is also a means of one ship hailing another. Yelling “Oi!” across the water at another ship would be too short to hear so it is simply stretched out into “Ahoy!” as the addition of the “A” and the “H” allows the person yelling to release the “oi” syllable with greater volume and power. A few years back I picked up an anthology called “Carry On Oi!” put out by Gary Bushell. Strangely, it was put out of the Ahoy label and the logo was the face of an old-fashioned ship captain. Coincidence or was Bushell giving us a subtle clue as to the true origins of Oi? |
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A 1926 lithograph called “In All Her Glory” by Gordon Grant that I bought in an antique store yesterday. Port Isaac fisherman sing Blood Red Roses - YouTube http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...5397111b18.jpg A 1926 lithograph called “Queen of the Sea” by Gerald M. Burn. I bought this and the lithograph above for a grand total of $10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voYnAuh7Yhs http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...f748ca812f.jpg The Flying Cloud, a beautiful clipper. Flying Cloud - YouTube The Doobie Bros. “Flying Cloud,” a beautiful piece by the band’s bassist, Tiran Porter. Goes well with the above painting. Mountain. Nantucket Sleighride - YouTube A Nantucket sleighride is when a whaleboat crew harpoons a whale and gets dragged for miles across the ocean until they are far from sight of the ship. Often, they never returned—no trace of them ever turning up. Felix Pappalardi wrote this and was a resident of Nantucket Island (where I stayed in 1996). He dedicated the song to Owen Coffin. Owen was a 15 yo lad who served aboard the whaleship Essex. It was rammed by an enraged sperm whale and sank in 1820 in the South Pacific. The crew was huddled together in the tiny whaleboats adrift for weeks with little food or water. At one point, the survivors starving, they drew straws. The loser would become lunch for the others. Owen drew the short straw. The CO, Captain Pollard (I once served under a Captain Pollard), was Owen’s uncle and offered to take the boy’s place but Owen said no. He drew the short straw fair and square and he was willing to die to save his mates. He was shot in the head, dismembered and eaten. A short time later, all were rescued and it appeared that Owen died needlessly although no one could have known that at the time. Back in Nantucket, a hearing was held and Captain Pollard was exonerated. Cannibalism was deemed legal in extreme instances. However, Pollard was never given command of another vessel. He was brother-in-law to Owen’s mother but she never spoke to nor even looked at Pollard for the rest of her life as though he were invisible. Clearly, she thought he should have been the one to die and treated him as though he had. Pollard became a lamp-keeper in the city of Nantucket. He still held this job when Melville met him and interviewed him as research for Moby Dick (which was based on the ordeal of the Essex). He found Pollard and amiable but sad man who seemed glad that someone even wanted to hear his side of the story. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...39e1ddcead.jpg http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...994e8ef818.jpg Whaleship. |
The Padstow May Song - YouTube This CD, "Blow ye Winds in the Morning," is excellent. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in sea songs and chanteys. The ancient "Padstow May Song" although observed superficially as a Christian festival has deep roots in Celtic paganism. Folklorists and researchers believe this festival—called ‘Obby ‘Oss is probably linked to Beltane. The festival is held in Padstow, Cornwall, England on May Eve (April 30 otherwise known as Walpurgisnacht). It involves two men dressed as “horses” or ‘osses (‘obby ‘oss = hobby horse). One ‘oss is called “Old” and the other is called “Blue Ribbon.” On May Eve, the people gather outside the Golden Lion Inn and sing the Night Song. During the night, people dress in greenery and a maypole is erected. By morning, men called “teasers” prod the two ‘osses through the streets. As the ‘osses cavort through the streets, they try to grab any young maidens they spy. A band is led through the streets by a man called the “Mayer” in a top hat and stick while people sing the Morning Song (or Day Song). At evening, the two ‘osses meet at the maypole and then are afterwards led to their respective stables. The crowd then sings the ‘obby ‘oss death song. The festival ends until the ‘Obby ‘Osses are resurrected next spring. For clearly, we can see this is a spring/fertility festival. What has this to do with sailing? Nothing except that the Morning or Day Song contains a couple of notable verses: The young men of Padstow they might if they would, For summer is acome unto day, They might have built a ship and gilded her with gold, In the merry morning of May. And: O! where is St. George, O!, where is he O, He is out in his long boat on the salt sea O. St. George, we remember, slew the dragon: http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...c817280aac.jpg But Melville stated in Moby Dick his belief that George was a harpooner and the dragon was a whale. I don’t know if Melville was aware of the Padstow May Song but it states that St. George is “out in his long boat on the salt sea…” This is the seal of the borough of Padstow: http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/23...7378436b1d.jpg http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...828b5e84bf.jpg The Padstow sea cadets. On their covers is the word “Petroc” which refers to St. Petroc, a Welsh missionary who founded the town around 500 CE as “Petroc-stow” or “Patrick-stowe” (Petroc’s place). |
Cape Cod Girls - YouTube “Cape Cod Girls” shanty. Cape Cod is an interesting place to visit. I would recommend doing so in the early autumn just after school starts. Otherwise it’s too crowded with vacationing families. When I went there, a lady I know told that she and her husband tried to drive all the way out to Provincetown but could not get there because there were so many cars and the road was jammed. When I went at the end of September, I practically had the road to myself. After reaching, Provincetown, I realized it was a lesbian stronghold. A buddy told me it was like an East Coast offset to San Francisco as a gay male capital on the West Coast. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...a2ef1b16e6.jpg The Seamen's Hymn - YouTube An example of the church hymns of coastal areas dependent on the sea for their livelihood. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...fe56153a11.jpg The dory men of Nantucket. We be Three Poor Mariners - YouTube “We Be Three Poor Mariners” was first gathered by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1609 in a work called Deuteromelia as a second collection of King Henry VIII’s Mirth or Freeman’s songs. It quickly became a virtual anthem of sailors complete with a statement that sailors are superior to mere soldiers. We be three poor mariners, newly come from the seas; We spend our lives in jeopardy, while others live at ease. Come let us dance the round, a round, a round Come let us dance the round, a round, a round And he that is a bully boy Come pledge me on this ground, a ground, a ground. We care not for these martial men, that do our states disdain; But we care for those merchant men, who do our states maintain. Come let us dance the round, a round, a round Come let us dance the round, a round, a round And he that is a bully boy Come pledge me on this ground, a ground, a ground. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...892b8fcb56.jpg Scrimshander made from a sperm whale’s tooth. Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers - YouTube Stan Rogers’ “Barrett’s Privateers.” Rogers was a Canadian folksinger from Halifax who not only sang a lot of sea songs but wrote a great many—this one being of his own compositions. It has become very famous among both the folkies and the shanty-singers (the latter being a subset of the former). It is not unusual to hear it sung in bars around the world. Rogers died in 1983 when an Air Canada DC-9 caught fire while he was still in the cabin. The cause of death is attributed to smoke inhalation. His brother, Garnett, who was part of Stan’s band and a very talented fellow, now carries on Stan’s legacy. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...e29f29d982.jpg New Bedford, MA in winter. |
Ah good show, I love sea shanties as they have that traditional British isles sound to them, which of course was also a staple in North America during the late 18th and 19th century.
I see you served your country as well. I have to respect that. I had friends who tried coaxing me into joining the Naval reserves years ago, but I couldn't stomach the idea of four hours sleep aboard a ship for weeks...that and sleeping with a cabin full of guys. Besides I was a fly boy when I was younger, switching to the Navy would be a downgrade :) |
Lord Larehip must spend a lot of time compiling a thread like this, and I found this section of it particularly interesting:-
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Randy Dandy-Oh is one of my favorites. I love Johnny Collins' version. I think he was the best of the shanty men. No one did them like him. Shame he's gone. Another of my favorite shanty men is A. L. Lloyd. Unlike a lot of shanty men, Lloyd actually was a sailor.
The Bonny Ship The Diamond - A L Lloyd - YouTube Lloyd with Ewan MacColl were great together: Ewan MacColl & A.L. Lloyd - Row Bullies Row (sea chantey) - YouTube This one mentions Liverpool which was and is a big sea-farin' port. Strangely, this one even sounds like the Beatles. You could actually imagine the Beatles doing this one in their Rubber Soul/Revolver period. Let us not forget that Freddie Lennon, John's dad, served aboard various ships. You figure sea songs and shanties had to be known by them just because they were in Liverpool. Also Lloyd's version of "The Greenland Whale Fishery" is only version I truly like but no one has loaded it. I think it was the truest way it was originally performed--it's the oldest preserved whalermen's song. Lloyd & MacColl also did the best version of "Whisky Johnny"--as a true shanty, the way it was meant to be heard. That's not loaded either. Here is their version of "The Handsome Cabin Boy": Ewan MacColl & A.L. Lloyd - The Handsome Cabin Boy (sea song) - YouTube It was based on a true story--about a girl who disguises herself as a lad and signs onto a whaleship. In the real story, she did so because her true love was serving on one and she was trying to find him. According to the first mate, she was an exceptional whaleman. When the whale was breaching the water sending huge waves that threatened to tip over the whaleboats, most greenhorns screamed, cried, some even tried to jump overboard. Others would refuse to go out again. Some deserted because whales scared them to death. But this girl showed no fear at all, seemed not the slightest bit perturbed at the whale's deadliest flurries. Everyone thought this young lad extraordinarily brave--until he was discovered to be a she. After that, she had to be removed from the ship at the nearest port. When she left the ship, she was decked out in a fine dress and bonnet, looking very feminine. Upon watching her disembark, the first mate remarked with his voice choking, "There goes the bravest greenhorn I ever served with." |
Another great shanty singer is Louis Killen. Here he does "Wild Goose Shanty" which is quite a favorite among the shanty singers:
Louis Killen - The Wild Goose (sea shanty) - YouTube Haul Away Joe - YouTube "Haul Away Joe" is an old favorite of shanty enthusiasts and this is a very nice version--sung as a true shanty. Great clip too. Stan Rogers - Rolling Down To Old Maui - YouTube "Rolling Down to Old Maui" is an old whaling song. This version done by Stan Rogers is the general version. A. L. Lloyd does it quite differently. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...06b340b76f.jpg American sailor of the 19th century. This uniform is called black (or blue) crackerjacks or just crackers for short. The thing hanging around his neck is a neckerchief which has to be rolled and then tied in a specific knot. The black turtleneck isn't worn anymore. The black beret is not worn anymore; the modern sailor wears a "white hat" or "dixie-cup". I like the beret better. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...697ef5f96b.jpg Whalemen dressed a bit differently. These guys were of the Greenland fishery. Note the dog. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...55dc9a5731.jpg The fouled anchor is an old maritime symbol. Fouled in this sense means tangled. A fouled anchor is useless as it cannot be lowered. A ship with a fouled anchor cannot dock or hold fast and so is in distress. It is worn as a collar device by the chief petty officer grades (E-7 thru E-9) and symbolizes his status as the go-to guy when the ship is in trouble. For example, a boiler may break down and be taken offline. It has to be restored to service as quickly as possible (boilers produce the steam that turns the ship’s main engines which turn the screws—the propellers—which makes the ship go) so the chief engineer will learn on the senior BTC (boiler tech chief) to oversee getting that boiler back up and running. IOW, it is his job to unfoul the anchor, as it were, and get the ship out of distress. The Marine Corps uses the fouled anchor in its emblem because whenever the country becomes entangled in a war, it is the marine’s job to disentangle it. The fouled anchor is also embossed on the buttons of the sailor’s peacoat (worn by E-6 and below): http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...137867422b.jpg The fouled anchor is also a religious symbol that may have all kinds of screwball meanings attached to it by various sects but its basic meaning is that the anchor (termed the “golden anchor”) is our spirit which is entangled in flesh and temptation. Our job is to disentangle our spirit and free it so that it may assume its rightful place in the universe. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/23...5a46656479.jpg My fouled anchor tat (no, it does not wash off). I troubleshoot for a living. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...91e57edf09.jpg "Whaler off the Vineyard--Outward Bound", 1859, by William Bradford; oil on fiberboard |
This thread is becoming more interesting with each post, Lord Larehip. I had no idea you were in the navy for six years, and really didn´t expect you to have a fouled anchor tattoo! I had you down as a dry and cynical academic! So that surprising revelation, all the seafaring lore and the wonderful old photos are fascinating. When I have more time, I´m going to go back and do justice to all the music clips you´ve posted. Thanks!
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In England, at any rate, we say "let the cat out of the bag" which also suggests a live animal doesn´t it? If it was a whip, "take" would be the natural choice of verb, I´d have thought. |
Enjoying this thread! Keep on keepin' on!
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It would be an absolute scandal if you "win" Most Inane Poster Larehip.
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Another thing that originated among sailors is the concept of alcohol (ethanol) proof. In the U.S., proof is twice the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV), e.g. 100 proof is 50% ABV, 190 proof is 95% ABV, etc. But this was not the original method of determining proof. During the 16th century, the British sailors considered rum to be currency. They would accept it as payment. However, they had to make sure it wasn’t watered down so they would pour out a small measure of gunpowder, pour some of the rum over it and attempt to ignite it. If the gunpowder burned, the rum was considered to “one hundred degrees proven” and was therefore acceptable. So 100 degrees proof meant that rum had to be nothing less than 57.15% ABV, any less and the gunpowder wouldn’t ignite.
As a ratio, 57.15 is 4/7 or 0.57143 so to know the ethanol content of a liquor by volume, multiply the percentage of ABV by 7/4, e.g. 57.15 x 7/4 = 100.0125 which rounds off to 100 proof (or, more properly, 100 degrees of proof). So 95% ABV is 95 x 7/4 = 166.25 or 166 degrees of proof. To calculate the percentage of ABV from the degrees of proof, simply multiply the latter by 4/7, e.g. 88 degrees of proof is 88 x 4/7 = 50.28% ABV. Liquor always accompanied every voyage but it was kept strictly under lock and key by the cap’n. Once or twice a day, he would break out some rum or whisky and dispense a small amount to each crewmember. They often drank “grog.” Although grog could mean anything from a weak beer to any number of liquors treated with sugar or nutmeg or cinnamon, etc., the traditional grog was rum with limejuice or lemon. The reason was the citric acid retarded any spoilage of the water but also prevented scurvy which was caused by an acute lack of vitamin C in the body. Rum and lime was introduced to the British Navy in 1740 by Vice Admiral Edward Vernon. His men took a bit of the concoction everyday and were noticeably healthier than sailors who did not. Afterwards, the British Navy put lime in their potable water and passed out limes to the crew and the British sailors consumed prodigious amounts of lime which is why Brits are called “limeys,” that too was due to sailors. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...136c9d8505.jpg Admiral Vernon was known as “Old Grogram” for the grogram coat he wore. Sometime in either 1749 or 1770, the beverage he introduced to the sailors was called grog in his honor. When it was grog time, the sailors assembled on deck with cans. Some old shanties and sea songs have references such raising “a can of grog.” The grog wasn’t canned but cans replaced cups on ships. Cups and plates had to be unbreakable onboard a ship because, in rough weather, everything would get tossed around fiercely. In Navy parlance, everything had to be “secured for sea” or “stowed away” but in really rough weather, it wouldn’t matter much—everything ends up everywhere and there’s quite a clean up once the ship enters smooth waters. So glasses and porcelain wouldn’t last in a voyage. They would be broken and useless after the first storm. So sailors used cans as drinking vessels. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Rba0gid3I And f-uck the Brits anyway because their sailors can drink onboard. American sailors cannot drink onboard or bring on alcohol. Hell, the British Navy supplies it to them!! Whenever crossed paths with a British Navy vessel, those bitch-asses would line up on the weatherdeck with their mugs of booze and toast us real loud. Not to be friendly but to rub it in because they know we can’t drink onboard. Dicks. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...70c95a695b.jpg When I served, there was a concerted effort to reduce the amount of drinking by sailors because so many got in trouble all the time. Sailors are as-sholes in case you didn’t know—drunken troublemaking as-sholes. Sailors are so bad in that towns that have bases are often rather anti-sailor—especially the cops. I put on a good drunk every now and again but I was generally known to be level-headed. Officers trusted me to keep guys out of trouble. Once, a few of us were in a bar and some sh-itheads who weren’t sailors started causing a ruckus. A waitress got grabbed and she was really pissed about it. These guys just kept getting louder and rowdier. They started cat-calling us because they knew we were sailors by our distinctive haircuts. Some of my guys wanted to beat the s-hit of them but I persuaded them to stay seated saying that the cops were coming. When the cops arrived, the bartender and waitress pointed towards the area where the as-sholes were sitting, which happened to be right next to my party. The cops come over and start arresting US!! Again, they knew we were sailors on sight and just assumed we were the ones (because sailors so often are). Other people started saying, “Not them, not them—those guys right there!!” Part of the problem is the Navy itself. At the base nightclubs, for example, they served 3-2 beer. Why, I can’t imagine. All that does it convince sailors to drink more of it. Well, let me tell you something about 3-2 beer—it can kick your ass just as surely as regular beer. You’d see squids puking everywhere. I had a pukefest myself once because I drank too much of that s-hit without realizing it wasn’t particularly weaker than regular beer until I found myself huddled over a sh-itter talking to Ralph. Every squid knew that serving 3-2 beer on base just increased the drunkenness but they never changed the policy all the time I was there (Great Lakes). Fifteen Men (Bottle of Rum) - Original Version - YouTube Then I went to Germany. Germans and alcohol!! Those f-ucking people! We docked in Kiel and went out on liberty and a bunch of us went to this tavern and they served Lowenbrau. Well, this was REAL GERMAN Lowenbrau—not that bottled dishwater they sell to us here in the States. This s-hit was like syrup!! Man, I choked down one stein full of that stuff—bitterest s-hit I ever tasted—and I was f-ucked up! Guys were drunk on one stein. A couple of nights later, I’m out with some buds and this German master chief invites us to his table—very nice guy—we start drinking Holstein which is brewed in town and then this guy orders us each a yard of beer. It’s called that because the damn mug is a yard high! And they want you to just down it! So we did and then he orders us peppermint schnapps! I never really had it before. In Germany, it’s not even pasteurized! It’s not fit for human consumption and I drank a s-hitload of it and then lost it all on my way back to the ship. Horrible hangover the next morning—hellish, torturous. That peppermint soaks into your gut and you taste it all day—this nauseous, pukey, peppermint taste and smell rising into your throat and sinuses from your gut. It was DISGUSTING!!! I actually prayed to god for the first and only time in my life. I said, “God, I’m desperate!! Stop the peppermint and I swear I’ll never drink that s-hit again!! If you have any mercy in you at all stop the f-ucking peppermint!!!” Well, either there is no god or the motherf-ucker has no mercy. And Germans walk around with beer everywhere they go! They shop holding beers! You can’t put a sailor in that kind of environment! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_RWtdm81WU In Cobh, Ireland, they served real Murphy’s Stout which I had never had before. It’s brewed somewhere close to there so it’s fresh. Man, was it good!!! Oh, I LOVED it!! I drank nothing but Murphy’s the whole time I was in Ireland. Ireland gave me a real taste for black ale. Now it’s usually all I drink. I can still drink lagers but I will take Murphy’s, Guinness, Beamish, Old Engine Oil or you name it over lager. London Porter too! And I got smashed once on this stuff called Boddington’s Pub Ale or some s-hit. It was so good I just kept drinking it even when I knew I had better stop. I liked it but it sure leaves an after-taste in the morning if you drink too much. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...6687cdfb55.jpg Then in Jamaica—Montego Bay—we’re in some club and these Jamaican girls were at the next table. Nice looking so we invite them over to sit with us. We talked for a while and then conversation turns to rum—which Jamaica is famous for. So this one girl says she’s been drinking rum since she was 4 and could drink us all under table. Hey, I didn’t doubt her. But this one guy—ol’ Powell—starts up with this “no chick drinks me under the table” s-hit. So we order a bottle of rum—don’t remember what kind—and the girl fills her glass to the rim and without hesitation just downs it. Just like that—gone. So Powell grabs a glass and fills it almost to the top—not quite as high as hers was—and he downs it. No sooner did he swallow it then his eyes roll back in his head, his head flops forward, his mouth opens and all this vomit comes gushing out. As if that wasn’t bad enough, another guy with us—JB we called him—looks at the vomit and then HE vomits too!! So we left that table—needless to say. We drag Powell outside and he turned into a vomit fountain—he’s just gushing away. It was brutal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MnF6tonFY4 The worst I ever saw though was at my flat. I had a flat off the ship and it was party central for the guys on my ship. There were always people stopping by. So a bunch of us are drinking and it’s getting really crazy. And this guy—ol’ Pruitt—got so plastered I was afraid he’d die of alcohol poisoning. He vomited all over himself for like 3 hours. So we had to strip his clothes off and carry him to the shower while he’s still puking. We just left him in there with the water on. Finally I go in there after a couple of hours and two guys scrubbed him down and were massaging him saying, “Come on, Pruitt, get it out, baby, get it out!” while he was STILL VOMITING!! I got his clothes washed and we dressed him a little and laid him on the floor in the living room. Now everybody’s gone—it’s 3 am—and it’s just me and Pruitt who is totally passed out. I’m just watching him because he’s dry-heaving while he’s passed out just continuously!!! I’m debating if I should call an ambulance but I finally decide not to. He seemed to be passed the worst of it so I went to bed. He was gone in the morning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KcHg5ZOIgU You’ll never recognize this drinking song. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...b328acceab.jpg |
An old Indian legend in New England stated that the god Moshup was trying to sleep one night but his moccasins were filled with sand and so he took them off and threw them into the middle of Cape Cod forming the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard with their beautiful, sandy beaches. Another legend says that Moshup knocked ashes from his pipe and formed the islands that way. Geologists believe they formed during the last Ice Age.
Nantucket itself was discovered first probably by the Wampanoag tribe although no one knows when. The Vikings may have sailed close enough to see it in the 11th century. By 1602, an English ship out of Falmouth called the Concord captained by Bartholomew Gosnold mentioned sighting the island but not land there. Gosnold landed on Martha’s Vineyard instead. Two years later, another Englishman named George Waymouth charted Nantucket’s position but did not land there. For the next four decades. Nantucket remained unexplored by whites. In 1641, Thomas Mayhew purchased Nantucket for ₤40 from two English noblemen who held conflicting deeds and decided to sell the land and split the money. Mayhew also got the Elizabeth Islands thrown into the deal. He wanted to distribute the land under a manorial system as in England. The many Indians should be brought about via conversion to Christianity. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...d7f36a8f1f.jpg Nantucket Island. I lived here through part of 1996. A lot of rich vacationers now go there “to summer.” There are some very beautiful, very expensive-looking houses there. Cold as the pit of Dante’s hell in the winter though. In 1659, a Yankee planter from Boston named Tristram Coffin bought Nantucket from Mayhew. Coffin and eight other buyers want to get out of Puritan-controlled Massachusetts and decided to live on the island. The nine buyers were Tristram Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swayne, Thomas Barnard, Peter Coffin, Stephen Greenleafe, John Swayne and William Pike. The cost was ₤30 and two beaver hats. Macy, a Baptist, fled the mainland in 1659 for harboring two Quakers from the Puritans who then hung them. Macy arrived on the island in an open boat along with his wife, five children, a 12-year-old boy named Isaac Coleman and a friend named Edward Starbuck. To get craftsmen, farmers, businessmen and the like to come to Nantucket, each of the owners were granted a share of their own and another to bring in an outsider who could help the island develop an economy. Each proprietor took his extra share and halved it and gave each half to a junior partner. In all, there were 27 original shareholders. One of the half-shares was given to a man amed Peter Folger who was originally from Norfolk, England and had worked for Thomas Mayhew as a surveyor. He had done missionary work for Mayhew working to convert and educate the Nantucket Indians and became fluent in their language making him further valuable as an interpreter. He was married to Mary Morrill who was a former-indentured servant and may also have been from England. He had once been jailed as a court clerk for siding with workers and farmers in disputes against wealthy landowners and he urged that whites treat Indians fairly and with dignity. The Folgers moved permanently to Nantucket in 1663 after Peter was granted his half-share and worked there as a surveyor, interpreter, clerk, miller and schoolteacher. He and Mary had a daughter named Abiah in 1667. Abiah married an English immigrant named Josiah Franklin, a Puritan, in 1689. Abiah took up Puritanism, which the mostly Baptist Nantucketers had come to the island to escape, and moved to Boston with her husband. Their eighth child was born on Milk Street in 1706 and was named Benjamin. Little needs to be said about Benjamin Franklin except that his Puritan upbringing filled him with a disdain for kings and bishops and colored much of his outlook on life as an English colonist. His father’s admiration for the Indians likewise influenced him to adopt the Iroquois Confederacy’s constitution as the model for the nation. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...6e6ce16ac2.jpg Although considered the foremost Founding Father in the struggle for American independence, one of Franklin’s son, William (illegitimate), was the last colonial governor of New Jersey and a staunch loyalist and was already imprisoned for his loyalist leanings when the Declaration of Independence was signed. The differences between both men were irreconcilable. Another of Peter Folger’s descendants was James Athearn Folger. He was born on the island in 1835 but left it at the age of 14 along with his brothers. They wanted to go to California and prospect for gold. They sailed on a ship to the Isthmus of Panama then rafted and hiked their way across the isthmus (there was no canal yet). Then they managed to catch another ship going to San Francisco and arrived there in 1850. He decided not to follow his brothers to the gold fields and stayed in the city. Ten years later, he founded the J. A. Folger Coffee Company known today simply as Folgers Coffee. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...b0ef3d6b93.jpg 1898 Folger’s ad. Folger’s is now part of Smucker’s. The island’s main product at this time were woolen goods which were in great demand due to the hellacious New England winters. Nantucket became known for its weaving and spinning. In 1699, however, the Wool Act went into effect which banned the sale of wool between the colonies and a new island industry was needed. Whaling was already being considered as Obed Macy makes clear when he wrote: “In the year 1690 some persons were on a high hill observing the whales spouting and sporting with each other, when one observed; there—pointing to the sea—is a green pasture where our children’s grand-children will go for bread.” Long Island had done some whaling starting the 1640s bagging the so-called right whale (or Greenland whale). These were generally beached whales that washed up on the shore and the Long Islanders took turns stripping off their flesh and bone and collecting their blubber and oil. Nantucketers did the same starting about 1672 when men would man high spars to look as far out to sea as possible for whale. If he spotted one, he alerted the men below who dispatched a boat to chase it down, harpoon it and drag it back to the beach. When the whales stopped swimming so close to the land, the Nantucketers built small sloops with a whaleboat that could be lowered into the water to chase down a whale. They might be out for week just to catch one whale. When they did, they flensed it in the water—peeling off the blubber in a long continuous piece like an orange rind—and collected the blubber in casks which were stowed below. They had enough room for one whale and would then sail home. The casks were unloaded and taken to a tryworks to be “tried out.” Trying out blubber involved slicing it very thin and then heating on the tryworks until it melted into oil. The oil was then poured into casks and stored. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...07b1451f9f.jpg A whale blubber trying station in Wood’s Hole, Massachusetts. The Nantucketers went after right whales until 1712 when Captain Christopher Hussey’s ship was blown off-course and he came upon a pod of sperm whales (or spermaceti or parmaceti). These whales were not known to Nantucketers before then but Hussey and his men bagged one and towed it back to the island. Upon stripping off the blubber, the Nantucketers discovered the sperm whale was loaded with fine oil—far better and more plentiful than that of the right whale. In the whale’s “forehead” area or case, was harvested an oil so fine it hardened on contact with air and had to be heated before it could be collected in casks. This case oil could lubricate the most delicate and intricate machinery and clockworks like nothing previously discovered. From that time on, Nantucketers would hunt only spermaceti. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...271b096c05.jpg Head and case of a sperm whale. Spermaceti in the Atlantic were rare as it was and then deserted it completely for the Pacific and the Nantucketers were forced to follow them by sailing around Cape Horn at the tip of South America. A long, hazardous journey. The ships now had to be floating processing stations, the option of hauling the whale shore no longer available. It had to be done at sea as quickly as possible. The ships were large and had to have a tryworks built into it. Harpooning still had to be done from smaller whaleboats deployed from the ship. When the harpoon struck, it was attached to a very long coil of rope in a metal tub that passed around a loggerhead—a cylinder post that was mounted in the keel so it would not snap off. As the whale ran with the harpoon iron in him, the rope paid out very quickly and needed to offer resistance to the whale to tire him out. So the rope passed around the loggerhead a couple of turns. Yet the whale ran so fast that a man had to stand over the loggerhead and dump water on it to keep the ropes from catching fire. The rope was going so fast that it was extremely dangerous to touch it. If it had a kink in it, it could tear off a man’s arm, leg or head—frequent occurrences—or a man would try to step over the rope and get yanked overboard in a split second and there would be nothing that could be done for him other than praying for a quick death. Usually only a greenhorn tried to step over the rope and to promptly get smacked and chewed out by someone more experienced. Only an experienced whaleman could coil the rope in the tub. It had to be done right or people could lose life or limb. Even with the line paying out at smoking speed, the whaleboat was pulled along at a good clip and this little jaunt was called a Nantucket sleighride. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...e84fb3c796.jpg Old salt coiling the rope in a tub. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...96cadb6906.jpg The rope was attached to the harpoon iron which had to be hurled into the whale’s blubber. Each harpooner was also a steersman having both an iron and an oar rudder. If the whale worked its way around the boat, the steersman in back now picked up his iron and became the harpooner while the harpooner up front now picked up his oar and became the steersman. That way the boat wasted no time having to get turned around. Often the boat capsized and men drowned but sometimes they’d get back in but would lose the whale. After the whale exhausted itself, it would float listlessly on the water but this was the most dangerous part of the venture. The boats had to paddle up carefully and the pikeneer would drive a long pike through the whale’s heart. Trying to drag a live whale back to the ship to be flensed was suicide. It had to be dead and this was the only way to ensure that it was. Then came the thrashing as the whale went into its death flurry. This animal that could be 70 tons or more of power and fury would thrash maniacally in the water making an enormous ruckus that often capsized boats. This was made even more dangerous because the whale’s blood and thrashings would attract sharks. One slap of the tail could fill a boat with water instantly or smash one to pieces killing all hands. Many whalemen lost their lives during the random death flurry of the whale which they said was even worse than its most deliberate assaults. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...3a003249d4.jpg Now the whale was towed back to the ship, lashed to the side and a man was lowered on a rope with a cutting tool and he began to cut the blubber from the corpse. The bloodletting was tremendous and sharks would come by the dozens to feast so they had to work fast. The slower they went, the more of the whale went to the sharks. If the man on the rope wasn’t careful, he’d loose a leg or a foot to a shark or be bitten in half. A winch with a hook pulled the blubber off in a continuous piece as the man on the rope sliced it free and it was lowered onto the deck where hands sectioned it into pieces and carried them to the tryworks—a big brick oven with huge pots that held the blubber. A fire was roaring in the brickwork and the blubber would melt and the oil collected. The entire deck would be covered in blood as would the hands. Melville described it as a scene from hell. This was also usually done at night because the smoke from the tryworks attracted pirates if done during the day. The oil was put in casks which were then stowed in the hold. Only when the hold was filled, which took 3 to 4 years, did the ship go back to homeport. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...7cd7b2040d.jpg Oil casks unloaded on the pier. The hazards were great and hours were long. One spent weeks and weeks just floating waiting for a whale to happen by. Many men went crazy from the monotony. Mutinies were not uncommon especially if the captain or mates were sadistic or enjoyed doling out harsh punishments for minor offenses. Desertion was a huge problem for the whale fleet. Once the crew caught sight of the beautiful tropical islands with the flowers and fruit and the gorgeous island women, they often jumped ship. This was so common that once a whaleman got homesick, he could enlist on the next whaler going his way with no questions asked and this wasn’t just for Nantucket but was international. Melville himself jumped ship, not once, but several times. He was kept by some natives on an island and had to escape. He signed up on an Australian whaler but the first mate was such a prick that he and several other men led a mutiny for which they were put off the ship. Melville joined the Navy in Honolulu in order to get back to New England. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...96ddd33ffc.jpg |
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Whales being flensed. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...b7b14b22ae.jpg The tryworks on a whaleship. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...d464f5ac71.jpg Whalemen in the crow's nest watch for whales spouting in the distance. Many blacks, Indians and "Kanakys" (Polynesians) sailed in the Yankee whale fleet. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...3f196c20c5.jpg The Baptist church of old Nantucket. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...5a3217d312.jpg Nantucket street. The platform on the roof at the right is called a "widow's walk." The captain's wife would stand up there when her husband's ship was due home hoping to spy them as early as possible. She wasn't a widow but lived as one. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...4386c4f68a.jpg The women of Nantucket ran the island's business with their men out to sea for 3-5 years at a stretch. They were shrewd and tough and made the island lots of money. Many of them fought loneliness with a type of di-ldo called a "he-at-home." http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...1a7973c8e4.jpg Nantucket today. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...da3336ac4a.jpg Panorama of old Nantucket. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...921153cee7.jpg Beautiful captain's house. Captains in the whaling fleet were actually called "ship masters." Many built beautiful houses for their lonely wives with their whale money. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...fc28cb6df7.jpg Captain Fred Parker was a retired ship master who lived as a nomad who wore his uniform in tatters and shoes with no socks. He had a little cabin with a sand floor! Yet, he was a friendly man who greeted newcomers to the island. |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiMJmmZHKyM http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...c525312de8.jpg From a 1902 print. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovCBKB8JR5U A Great Lakes shanty. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...5ed291bd1c.jpg Great Lakes crew c. 1900. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/23...6a5f8c244c.jpg Whale breaching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDjOAsxeokw Extremely popular shanty for the modern shanty singers. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...de9237ed97.jpg Sailors doing a capstan shanty. The capstan lowers and weighs the anchor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-UEJjyA43Q http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...1eefc7963b.jpg |
Now you've made me want to listen to this...
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Sailing also spurred the development of mathematics, astronomy and timekeeping. To sail anywhere on the globe and return in a predictable fashion requires celestial navigation. Celestial navigation is dependent on five instruments: a sextant, a chronometer, an almanac, a sight reduction table and a position chart. These were necessary in order to determine two things--latitude and longitude. Where these two lines intersect on the globe is where your ship is. That’s a lot harder than it might sound. To determine longitude, ships used a chronometer (actually three). These were extremely accurate clocks. Prior to 1761, European clocks were pendulum-driven. This was no use to sailors due to the rolling and pitching of ship. So, before 1761, sailors determined longitude quite accurately using lunar distances. The navigator measures the angle between the sun and moon or between the moon and certain stars (called navigational stars of which there are 57) along the ecliptic plane (the sun’s apparent path through the sky). The measurements must be precise. Having obtained the angle, the navigator consults an almanac that gives the angles of these various celestial bodies relative to the center of the earth and then correlates that to Greenwich time. Knowing what the time is in Greenwich, enables the navigator to know how far away from Greenwich the ship is which is plotted on a chart as the longitude. This method works quite well except there is one obvious and highly dangerous problem for a ship far out at sea: what if the weather is overcast for days at a time? To go four days without being able to plot a position is far too risky to chance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVQXhooBux4 So an accurate, non-pendulum-driven clock had to be developed so that the Greenwich time could be determined without being dependent on celestial measurements (or “sights” as they were called). John Harrison spent 31 years building such a clock and finally succeeded in 1761. It was essentially a highly accurate watch mounted on gimbals in a box to hold it steady. Most ships used three chronometers so that they could be checked against one another. If one chronometer started to drift, the other two would inform on it. These chronometers had to be wound at regular intervals and this duty was all-important and took precedent over any other duty. The captain and navigator (virtually always the first mate) usually had the keys to wind the chronometers. Failure to wind them was considered criminal placing the entire crew at jeopardy. The chronometers were mounted firmly to the ship itself so that they could not be tossed about by sea turbulence and they were highly resistant to angle, pressure and temperature changes. The navigator carried a very accurate pocket watch on his person that was calibrated to the chronometers and he would use this watch to mark the time when he went topside to take his sights. That way, the chronometers were never exposed to the elements outside the ship. Sailing gave us precision machinery tried and tested under the harshest of circumstances. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...d51061dbb7.jpg To measure latitude, the navigator used a sextant, so named because of it is 1/6th of a full circle, i.e. a 60-degree frame. The sextant has two mirrors on it. When the navigator looks the telescope viewer, he is looking through a mirrored but transparent surface called a horizon mirror. He looks that the horizon in the telescope and can see it through the horizon mirror. Then he uses the movable arm of the sextant to locate the sun or moon (or some designated planet or star). There is an index mirror mounted on the arm at the top of the sextant. When the desired celestial body is caught in the mirror, its reflection is bounced to the horizon mirror. The navigator can now see the body and the horizon simultaneously and lines them up inside the telescope so that the body appears just above the horizon in the horizon mirror. This accomplished, he reads the angle off the frame and notes the time. The advantage of two mirrors is that relative motion of the instrument is eliminated so that the view in the telescope is steady. The navigator obtains his angles and consults his almanac to find out the latitude or he can simply read Polaris from the horizon. However many degrees Polaris is above the horizon is also the latitude because it is situated almost directly over the North Celestial Pole. The problem, of course is that this method does not work below the equator since Polaris will not be visible. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...82ddb813a3.jpg Another way to use the sextant to determine latitude is to track a celestial body as it rises. If it tracks to the south as it rises then one is above the equator. If it tracks to the north then one is below the equator. If the body rises straight up then one is on the equator. The amount of this northerly or southerly tracking increases the farther one is away from the equator. So, again, consulting an almanac will then reveal the latitude. This information was plotted on a position chart to pinpoint the ship’s location. Using wind speed, wind direction and compass, one could predict the time of arrival at their destination and the sails were then set accordingly. This too was a specialized task. Sailing a ship far out at sea was no easy task. People had to know what they were doing or they had no chance to ever come home. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...250e12bb6f.jpg That’s one reason that punishments of sailors was so harsh. The hands had to do exactly as they were told or everyone onboard was put at risk. This was a true of officers as the regular men. Anyone who failed to perform his duties in a timely fashion was punished in a timely fashion. Punishments ranged from flogging to yard-arming to gagging to keelhauling. The last was the worst because the victim rarely if ever survived it. The victim was tied around the hands and feet and dragged across the bottom of the ship against the barnacles across the keel to the other side and back again from fore to aft. This was reserved generally for captured pirates. Gagging was done to sailors who talked back. Not too severe but definitely painful and had the effect of tightening up wagging tongues. Yard-arming was hanging a sailor from the yard-arm either by the wrists or with the rope tied around the waist to swing in the breeze for a good four hours while the rope cut into the flesh. Flogging was done by the master-at-arms and a special station was reserved where it took place. All hands not on watch were required to attend in order to send a message. Depending on the captain and other officers, punishments could be rare and only for significant offenses or could be frequent and applied with very little provocation. Most ships were somewhere in the middle. Punishments were most frequent and most severe in the Navy. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...551e979737.jpg Many sailors were young men from the streets. They were tough and often brutal themselves. Many, especially in England, were pressed into service and were not exactly willing participants in the shipboard life and adventures and so needed a bit of motivating. Punishments as extra duty or fining was simply not going to have much effect on the men’s behavior. The punishments had to be harsh so that they would be remembered. Unfortunately, these punishments were frequently doled out to men who had done little to deserve it. A boy to me was bound an apprentice Because his parents they were poor So I took him from St. James’s workhouse All for to sail on the Greenland shore One day this poor boy he did annoy me Nothing to him then did I say But I rushed him to my frozen yard-arm And I kept him there ‘til the very next day When his eyes and his teeth did hangs towards me With his hands and his feet bowed down like ice And with a bloody iron bar I killed him Because I would not hear his cries. But sometimes there could even be worse things than punishment. Melville recalled one first mate on a ship he served on who had the hardest, meanest, coldest, most piercing eyes he had ever seen. Whenever he looked at you, your blood ran cold. If he came upon you standing around not doing anything, instead of threatening you with punishment, he would just fix those eyes on you which was so intolerable that you would immediately grab any tool near you—mop, marlinspike, hammer, harpoon, rope, paintbrush—didn’t matter—and just start doing something with it—anything—“anything to get those damned eyes off you.” In another case, an 18th century British Navy captain known for his meanness came upon deck and saw men up in the rigging repairing sails, painting and what not. He yelled for all of them to come down this instant—last one down gets 50 lashes. None of the hands doubted him and they began clambering down as fast as they could go. Two men lost their grip, fell to the deck and died on impact. The captain chuckled and said with a sadistic grin, “Throw the lubbers overboard!” and then simply walked away. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOj3kJKy-_U |
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Very few American rock fans and probably comparatively few Brits know that Procol Harum's "A Salty Dog" album cover is a parody of a British tobacco company ad. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...b8da44b696.jpg |
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The only sea shanty that matters
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Loved that intro, would've been cool if they kept that mood throughout. I think Beefheart's incesty poem is better still.
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^ A nice bit of lateral thinking, Frownland, and a track with some fabulous lyrics. From my copy of the Mike Barnes Beefheart biography:-
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Youtube is a wonderful thing. I heard this many years ago on the radio and can't believe I found again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSfQoC_6Fpk http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...945ac75b5c.jpg http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...fe226e8d2a.jpg http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...9ccde20c91.jpg http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...586d4a157b.jpg Whale oil company, New Bedford, MA |
Another important part of the maritime life is the foghorn. The purpose of the foghorn is simply to warn vessels at sea during times of heavy fog not to approach too closely or risk running upon the rocks which would tear the bottom out of the vessel and sink it.
The foghorn was invented by a Scottish-born Canadian named Robert Foulis of New Brunswick around 1853. The device was steam-powered. The first foghorn was installed on Partridge Island in 1859. It was built by T. T. Vernon and called the Vernon-Smith foghorn. He used the blueprints of Foulis who hauled Vernon into court. Foulis proved that Vernon had used his blueprints without permission. The court sided with Foulis and declared him the inventor of the foghorn but Foulis never obtained a patent for his invention and so never made a penny in profit. Captain James Newton also claimed to be the inventor of the foghorn but his claim is easily refuted. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...c837be5855.jpg The Partridge Island steam-powered foghorn from an 1865 watercolor sketch by J. C. Myles. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...7a6a75ff8e.jpg The Kobba Klintar foghorn in 1942. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...d34aa1cc68.jpg The Nash Point foghorns are extremely loud. Foghorns make use of low frequency because they have much longer wavelengths than high frequencies and so travel much farther and hence warn vessels at sea far earlier. This twin-horn design is called a diaphone foghorn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ze6-Bza_w The sound of a diaphone foghorn. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...2b18b29564.jpg Alki Point lighthouse, 1914. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...287be2fefe.jpg The Daboll Trumpet was a foghorn invented by Caledon Leeds Daboll. Daboll Trumpets were used exclusively in the United States from the 19th century until the 1920s. Rather than steam-power, the Daboll Trumpet ran on a single horsepower coal-fired engine. The type shown here was used on the Great Lakes. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...6537f3f456.jpg Daboll Trumpet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUL4xAcy7uo The sound of a Daboll Trumpet. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...367b0309cf.jpg Lizard Point diaphones in Cornwall, England. This is a true siren-type which forces air thru a revolving cylinder or disc with holes in it. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...5901724022.jpg Not a photo but an Andrew Wyeth painting. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...960f2d2163.jpg Point Au Pere foghorn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn0dat-8CNM Very cool portable Japanese foghorn made by the Tokyo Siren Company. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...faac63c584.jpg Diaphones on Lake Superior at Split Rock, Minnesota. |
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The Golden Gate Bridge has its own foghorn network. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...0a4195a709.jpg Here’s why. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...23440073c9.jpg The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. --Carl Sandburg Concerning Sandburg's 1919 poem "Fog", it expresses a great deal in only 21 words. Clearly, he was influenced by haiku when he wrote it. The fog may be a metaphor for confusion or despair or isolation which can come upon us cat-like at any moment and hover over us a while like a cat surveying its territory. But sooner or later, it leaves. Some foghorn samples, some rather eerie: http://www.sanpedro.com/sounds/foghorn.wav http://www.sanpedro.com/sounds/foghorn6.wav http://www.sanpedro.com/sounds/foghorn7.wav http://www.sanpedro.com/sounds/foghorn8.wav http://www.sounddogs.com/previews/58...NDDOGS__fo.mp3 http://www.sounddogs.com/sound-effec...NDDOGS__fo.mp3 http://www.sounddogs.com/sound-effec...NDDOGS__fo.mp3 http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...7c04b6201f.jpg The goal light flashes as the puck enters the net. The loud, blasting tone that accompanies the light is a foghorn. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...8673245588.jpg Foghorns are vanishing now as electronic technology makes tricky navigation effortless. There simply isn't a need to spend the money on something that no longer serves its purpose. But the hole its absence leaves in the psyche is never filled. |
Now, boy, I say, I say, boy, that is a very interesting post.
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In 1841, five Japanese fishermen had run afoul a storm and ended up stranded on a barren island. To survive, they caught fish, foraged for turtle eggs and drank rainwater. They lived this way for a couple of months when a New Bedford whaleship happened upon them. The ship was called the John Howland and the captain was William Whitfield. Since Yankee whaleships needed as many hands as it could bring aboard, the ship picked up the stranded men and put them to work helping them bag whales.
One of the fishermen was a 14-year-old boy named Nakahama Manjiro from the fishing village now a city called Tosashimazu. He was very intrigued by the seafaring life these New England sailors lived. He was fascinated by how they knew where they were going and how to get back from where they started. While the other fishermen went about their work waiting for the moment they could disembark, young Manjiro struggled to learn English and impressed Captain Whitfield with his progress. Whitfield made Manjiro his cabin boy and taught him the basics of navigation which Manjiro picked up quickly. By the end of the whaling season, the ship put into Honolulu and the fishermen could now disembark. Manjiro, however, had no wish to leave the ship. He was fond of Captain Whitfield and enjoyed the seafaring life. He begged Whitfield to keep him on and train him as a navigator. Whitfield was fond of Manjiro but was reluctant to keep him on. He was just a young boy and surely his family would be worried about him. Manjiro explained that Japan had an isolationist policy so strict that any contact with foreigners was forbidden and punishable by death. Neither he nor his compatriots could ever go home again. When Whitfield learned this, he felt terribly sorry for this cruel fate and agreed to grant the boy his wish. Whitfield was as yet unmarried and Manjiro was like a son to him. When the ship went back out for more whales, Whitfield instructed his navigator to teach Manjiro everything he knew about navigation, which was considerable for a New Bedford sailor. Manjiro absorbed the lessons and impressed the crew with his abilities and willingness to learn. With the ship’s hold filled to capacity, the John Howland set sail back to New England and arrived in New Bedford in 1843. When Manjiro stepped off the ship, he officially became the first Japanese to set foot in America. One would think that the first Japanese would have stepped ashore on the West Coast but not in this case. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...140acc8a69.jpg Manjiro later in life. One can only wonder what Manjiro’s impression of this new land was like. Certainly the New Englanders were very curious about him. They had, of course, never seen a real Japanese before much less spoken with one. He impressed people with his intelligence and his good Japanese manners. He took the first name of John in honor of his ship and used Manjiro as a surname but when some people had trouble pronouncing it, he would tell them to call him John Mung. Whitfield knew he had only a short time to find a wife before he would be obliged to put to sea again. He put Manjiro up with friends and had him enrolled in school to learn English and navigation. Manjiro’s teachers taught him American and English history and taught him to read and write English. He was taught navigation from Bowditch’s texts. He was an eager student. He was also taught shipwrighting. When Whitfield got married and bought a house, he sent for Manjiro who came to live with them. Mrs. Whitfield, like her husband, regarded Manjiro like a son. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...175f6e685a.jpg Captain William Whitfield. When they attended social functions, they would take Manjiro with them and he would regal people with stories of his native Japan. Eventually, he and Whitfield again put to sea and Manjiro worked as a navigator’s assistant but on subsequent voyages became a third mate then a second and finally a first as well as becoming a very capable chief navigator. One voyage in which Manjiro served as chief navigator and first mate actually circumnavigated the globe. All agreed that he would make a great captain. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...9e05cdd92c.jpg House where Manjiro lived in New Bedford. But by the late ‘40s, Manjiro was homesick and longed again to see his mother. In 1849, he bid the Whitfields and all his New Bedford friends goodbye. He planned to prospect for gold in San Francisco, he said. He sailed to Nantucket and from there he enlisted on a ship bound for San Francisco. Manjiro’s ship sailed all the way around Cape Horn to the West Coast. I have no information on whether Manjiro navigated this ship but he almost certainly would have been consulted—he was well known to the New England sailors. Once in San Francisco, Manjiro tried his hand at prospecting for a few months but he was only waiting for a ship that could get him to Hawaii. He eventually ended up back in Honolulu. I have no information on whether he saw any of his fellow fishermen who apparently never returned to Japan but lived out their lives in Hawaii. Eventually Manjiro signed aboard a whaler bound for the Pacific. He had a plan: he knew he was risking death, but he was going to return to Japan even at the cost of his life. To bolster his position, though, he had his navigation books, maps and instruments. He would take these with him and impress upon the Japanese authorities that he knew how to use these, how to read English, knew Western history, knew their customs and their lands, knew how to build their ships and could teach others. He figured that they would simply find him too valuable to execute. http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...fc352aa7eb.jpg Japanese whaling. As per the agreement with his ship, when they neared the Japanese islands, they dropped him off on a small island close to Japan. Manjiro made his way from there to his homeland. Sure enough, he was arrested and interrogated. He showed the authorities his books, maps and instruments and told them about the schooling the New Englanders had given him. As he predicted, the authorities were not about to execute him. The Japanese were very curious and perplexed by the Western ships sailing practically through their backyards, especially the steamers, which Manjiro had experience with. He told them what he knew. He also told them the Japanese could never withstand an invasion or assault from these Western peoples with their vast armies, navies and armaments. They were not all bad people, he said. After all, they rescued him, took him under their wing and gave him all their knowledge. But not all the Western people were like the Quaker whaler folk with their notions of goodwill and equality. Some would definitely like to take over Japan, something many in the Japanese government were fearful of. But what the West wanted mostly was to have Japan act as Pacific coaling station for their steamers. If Japan agreed to this, Westerners would be happy with that arrangement. The Japanese government began preparing for an eventual confrontation with the West and put Manjiro in charge of training people. They knew the isolationism could not be maintained and many of the big players had no intention of maintaining it and had long been planning to find a way to get rid of it. Manjiro gave them the perfect impetus—either they open up willingly and they will be forced open. When Commodore Perry’s black ships arrived in Japan in 1853, the Japanese did not resist knowing such a course was doomed to fail. They welcomed Perry ashore and the official greeting the Commodore received as he stepped onto Japanese soil was delivered to him in perfect English by none other than Nakahama Manjiro. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...89e8b9d42c.jpg Perry’s black ships arrive in Japan, 1853. Manjiro went on to teach at a Japanese university. He taught English, navigation and shipwrighting. In the 1890s, a group of Japanese sailors set sail to America and arrived in California. The navigator was Manjiro. Eventually, Manjiro got in touch with the Whitfields. By this time, both men were married and had children. Manjiro and his family journeyed to Fairhaven with gifts including a samurai sword which they presented to the Whitfield family. These artifacts are now housed in the Millicent Library in Fairhaven. They remained on display throughout World War II when anti-Japanese sentiment ran high. The sword was eventually stolen but a Japanese professor from Seton Hall donated a replacement. Tosashimazu and Fairhaven signed a sister city pact in the 1980s and every few years the descendants of William Whitfield and John Manjiro get together—sometimes in Fairhaven and sometimes in Tosashimazu. When I visited the Millicent Library in 1996 (where I first learned the story), there were signs on the walls written in Japanese originally intended for when Manjiro’s delegation visits but are now kept up all year. http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...6b344b49d4.jpg The Millicent Library built by Henry Huttleston Rogers and named after his daughter. Rogers hailed from the area but also put it out of business by successfully drilling for petroleum which is good because he largely saved the sperm whale from extinction. Sea Songs from the Far East Soran Bushi - Japanese Folk Dance - YouTube “Soran Bushi” the Fisherman’s dance is called a Japanese shanty although I have only encountered in instrumental form. It’s very popular in Japan as an aerobic dance exercise with teched-up versions with emphasis on the drumbeats. This is a more traditional approach. Song of the Imperial Japanese Navy—“Our Souls Go Away to the Sea”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piuA75YtlMc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11rfVnnqQAw Chinese fishermen’s song at dusk. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POBWvs7M4y8 A Korean sea song. |
Thank you SO much Lord Larehip :) I would literally love taking a class on this material with you our awesome professor presumably :D So fascinating and it's clear you put a lot of work into this. I love Japanese culture and ate this right up. Songs are so awesome, too.
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