In this recording, our second CD (2006), we continue our exploration of Anglo and Black traditions of shanties (or chanteys), the work songs of sailors, stevedores, and fishermen. We have also included some of our favorite non-working songs of seafaring life. There are a number of sea song collections and field recordings waiting to be mined by today’s singers. There is a quiet revolution happening in the world of sea music, as more and more collections are being made available to the public, and as more source recordings are being released onto compact discs.
Front cover photo: Crew of Rathdown, San Francisco, 1892, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
℗©2006 Peter Kasin and Richard Adrianowicz
All songs arranged by Richard Adrianowicz & Peter Kasin.
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Derek Bianchi at Muscletone Studios, Berkeley, California.
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN - Track 1
Lead: Richard
Versions of this shanty appear in many collections. According to the late Stan Hugill, Roll the Cotton Down was a very popular halyard shanty. At tops'l halyards it was a hardy perennial, although it suited t'gallant halyards even more so, being of a fairly lively march time. The version we sing, having a grand chorus, was used at the capstan. Hugill gives a capstan version that he obtained from Al Macmillan, Master Mariner and, according to King, during the First World War, the refrain was often sung – 'Roll the Kaiser down!'
Hugill, in his Shanties from the Seven Seas, gives six different versions of this shanty: (a) an African-American version, (b) a cotton-stowers' version, (c) a deep-sea version, (d) a Blackball version, (e) a Paddy and the Railway version, and (f) a Long Time Ago version. The hoosier version probably stemmed from the African-American one. The white cotton-stowers used it for screwing the huge bales of cotton into place in the dark holds of the cotton droghers, heaving at the levers of the screws on the same words of the refrains as sailors would at the halyards. Once the cotton season was over these men would ship 'foreign', taking these 'cotton chants' with them for use at halyard and capstan, hence a new infusion of shanty blood – African-American blood – entering into the field, which perhaps up till then had been dominated mainly by Irish-shaped work songs.
Roll the Cotton Down (as a halyard shanty) was one of the most popular German shanties. Hugill says " … I've heard and taken part in the singing of this hauling song many times aboard a German barque, and we used both the 'Oh, come, a beer for me' and 'Oh, roll the cotton down' refrains indiscriminately."
DE RUNER VON HAMBORG or ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (in the Hamburg sailors' dialect)
De see geiht hoch, de Wind de blast,
Oh, Kohm un beer for mi!
Janmaat, de fleit, is nie verbaast,
Oh, Kohm un beer for mi!
Reise aus Quartier un all' an Deck,
De Ool de fiert de Marssails weg
Un wenn wi nu na Hamborg kaamt
Denn süüt mann all' de Sneiders staan
Elias röppt, dor bust du ja Ik see
di nich tom eersten Mal
Du bruukst gewiss een' neen
Hoot Ik heff weck von de neeste Mood
Un ok gewiss een Taschendook Un'n neen
Slips, den bruukst du ok
Un ook een beeten Seep un Tweern
Un denn one pound to'n Amuseern
Wi is dat een lütjen Kööm
Un een Zigarr, dat smeckt doch schöön
Afmustert ward, dat is mol klor Wie gaat von Bord un schreet Hurroh
Another German version of Roll the Cotton Down can be found in Knurrhaln, Seemannslieder und Shanties, Musikverlag Hans Sikorski, Hamborg.
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN
No den Süden to, dor foort een Shipp
Oh, roll the cotton down
Verprovianteert mit schlauem Kniff
Oh, roll the cotton down
Wat harr dat Schipp för'n proviant
Dre Arften, dre Bonen, tein Fotenvull Sand
Doch ut de Slappkist dor kunnst all'ns hemm
De Ool dat wör een business-man
Un morgens Klock söss kööm de Ool and Deck
Un spee denn eerst mol öber dat Heck
Oh, Stüürmann, wat sünd de Lüüd för ne Blass
Laat se eerst mal hentrümmen de Raas
De Stüürmann de gung in vuller
Wut Nat dat Logis un halt de Lüüd herut
'Turn to' wi wült hentrümmen de Raas
Doch Janmootg denkt, du kannst uns mol
Un sund wi in Hamborg man eerst vermoort
Gaat wi von Bord ungeevt 'three boos.'
WE’RE ALL SURROUNDED - Track 2
Lead: Peter
A cargo-loading chantey with roots as a minstrel song and spiritual.
A fragment of this cotton screwing chantey is found in Frederick P. Harlow, Chanteying Aboard American Ships. The history of this song and its variants are a bit of a mystery. A written version is traced to composers Charley Howard and Walter Bray, and Simmons and Slocums Minstrels, 1870. Whether a version of it was first heard sung by stevedores and later went to the minstrel stage, or whether it went from the stage to ships, we are not sure. We invite anyone who has further information on this to contact us.
THE WARD LINE - Track 3
Lead: Richard
Another cargo-loading shanty from the Great Lakes of America. I first heard this sung by the East Coast shanty group The Boarding Party. It was one of the songs collected by Ivan H. Walton and appears in the recently published book Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors. Lyrics used are taken out of dialect shown in the book to avoid some highly offensive language.
Notes from the book about this song:
There is mystery in this song – or at least in its recovery – and the mystery reveals the strange lives and turns these songs took. Throughout the Upper Great Lakes, sailors know the Ward Line and the work chantey of the black men who trucked the iron ore and copper pigs that filled the boats' holds. Captain Eber Brock Ward became Michigan's richest man with his ventures in steelmaking, glass making, real estate, and banking. Ward's wealth was rooted in shipping, the family business started by his uncle Sam at Marine City, Michigan, in 1820. Although E.B. Ward dropped dead on the streets of Detroit in 1875, his shipping business survived, as did this song about one of the most prominent Ward Line vessels, the Sam Ward. Nicknamed the "Old Black Sam" for its distinctive paint job, the side-wheeler steamed between Michigan's Lake Superior copper country and the ports of Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo. Captain Harvey Kendall of Marysville, Michigan, claimed to have served as mate for several seasons on the "Old Black Sam." The mystery is that the vessel was lost in 1861, making it unlikely that Kendall had ever served on it. And why should verses mention vessels that were not around while the Sam Ward sailed? The explanation might be that the song outlived its namesake, and grew with additions and embellishments.
Kendall said that the steamer would stop at Detroit on its upbound trip and ship a team of twenty or more black men to load the copper pigs waiting at the Keweenaw Peninsula on Lake Superior. The men would stay on until after they had unloaded the pigs at their destination, received their substandard wages (about fifty cents per day), and been put off at Detroit. The deckhands unloaded the "Old Black Sam" with hand trucks or wheelbarrows. Pushing their heavy loads in an endless loop between vessel and warehouse, the men worked continuously with only brief time-outs. It took two or three laborious days to load a cargo of copper this way. During the long, tedious work and for similar chores, the men sang. They preferred chanteys for their steady rhythm, improvisation, and group choruses. When the work slowed, an officer would try to pick up the pace by tapping out a quicker rhythm on the ship's bell. If there was a musician in the group, he might be called up to play a lively tune on the upper deck, above the gangway where the copper-wheeling circle looped into and out of the boat. On at least one occasion, the officers served the men a tub of "suds" – liquor that had been watered down and doped up with hot peppers. "Then," said Kendall, "you ought to see the copper come aboard."
Kendall said that the song had no particular beginning, order, or end, that choruses generally didn't make much sense, but that the tune invariably had a good, marked, and relatively slow rhythm. "The Ward Line" stuck with Kendall long after other songs had passed out of his memory. "I probably remember it because of the choruses," he said. "Even they knew they weren't goin' anywhere on the wages they received and the kind of life they lead." Hence the chorus:
Who's on de way, boys, who's on de way? Tell me, whar yo' goin'!
Most of the verses come from Captain Harvel Kendall and his son, Earl, and other Ward Line officers. They included John E. Hayes of the propeller Wm. H. Stevens, Grafton McDonald of Marine City, and C.D.Second, interviewed on September15, 1933, at Cleveland. This song was retold in dialect, much as the scow songs later in this book are told in French or Scandinavian. This song is included at length, despite some offensive lyrics, as testimony to an African American presence on the Lakes and as a reminder of the working conditions.
Kendall recalls that soloists who came up with original couplets were great crowd pleasers and that humor was highly prized. One Sunday morning as chanteying filled the air above the Houghton waterfront, Kendal recalled, a delegation from a waterfront church approached the vessel to ask that the men be quieted so that services could continue. As the delegation approached, a new couplet rang out:
Der come mister parson in his long black coat,
Who's on de way, boys, who's on de way?
He'll go t'Heav'n, a'ridin' on a goat!
Tell me whar yo' goin'!
The couplet drew a hearty laugh, but Kendall quieted the men, who pushed their trucks in silence for a few minutes as the delegation made its request and then headed back to church. Then the men raised their voices to the heavens in a traditional hymn that stirred his heart.
Kendall recalled a late-season trip that gave birth to another couplet. One night, ice closed in on a loaded vessel downbound through Mud Lake, now Munuscong Lake, in the St. Marys River. At first light, Kendall took the deck crew over the side to cut the ice and free the boat. The temperature was exhilarating in the extreme, but the work was tedious and the men soon struck up "The Ward Line." Kendall remembered these line from that frozen autumn morning:
I'se a'goin' back whar de shugga' can grow,
Who's on de way, boys, who's on de way?
I'se a'goin' far away from dis ice an' snow.
Tell me, whar yo' goin'!
Frank Mahaffey of Port Colborne, Ontario, recalled teams of black men with wheelbarrows who used to "coal up" steamboats and tugs at Amherstburg, Ontario, and other ports and who sang the same chantey. One day, a worker with a squeaky wheelbarrow had asked Mahaffey for some grease. "I told him where the grease was," Mahaffey said, "but he didn't want to be bothered, and so continued without using any. Shortly afterward at a break in the song when, of course, he was near enough so I would have to hear him, he sang":
Dis one-wheeled buggy is cryin' cus she's ol'
Who's on de way, boys, who's on de way?
By 'n' by she's flop, spill all de coal.
Tell me, whar yo' goin'!
Another old sailor, Frank Murphy, recalled seeing a crew of black men pushing wheelbarrows loaded with wood at a fueling dock at Amherstburg, where the Detroit River enters Lake Erie. He recalled little except the oft-repeated line:
Beech an' maple, beech an' maple
Shove dat co'd wood long's you's able
NEVER WEATHERBEATEN SAIL - Track 4
Lead vocal & guitar: Richard
Fiddle: Peter
Learned from the singing of John Connolly, this old mariner's hymn appeared in Thomas Campion's First Book of Ayres in 1613. John recorded the song on his album Ranter's Wharf. In the liner notes to that recording John says "The first verse was full of wonderful maritime imagery but, alas, it had all disappeared from the more seriously religious second verse, so I took the liberty of putting it back …"
THE OLD TAR RIVER - Track 5
Lead: Peter
A Georgia Sea Islands hauling chantey used for loading heavy timber into ships. Versions have been recorded by sea islanders John Davis and group, collected by Alan Lomax in 1960, and by the current lineup of The Georgia Sea Island Singers, who we heard at the Sea Music Festival in San Francisco in 2003. Alan Lomax's recording is available on CD on the Rounder Records Southern Journey series, titled Earliest Times: Georgia Sea Islands Songs for Everyday Living, www.rounder.com. The Georgia Sea Island Singers latest CD, which another version is found on, is titled Seh Deh De Cumin, and is available directly from the group at www.gacoast.com/navigator/quimbys.html.
HOMEWARD BOUND - Track 6
Lead: Richard
Another gem culled from Stan Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas. Hugill felt that this capstan song, in all probability, stemmed from the old forebitter, a process often repeated in the days of sail. This one doesn't appear in any other collection that I have found.
RUN, LET THE BULGINE RUN - Track 7
Lead: Peter
A halyard shanty found in Stan Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas, a different song than the popularly known capstan shanty "Clear The Track, Let The Bulgine Run." "Bulgine" was a 19th century African American slang term for a railroad engine.
Ó RÓ MO BHÁIDÍN - Track 8
Lead: Richard
Learned from our good friend Shay Black, who sings this rowing song in Irish. We kept the Irish chorus and refrains but we opted to sing the verses in English, translated for us by Shay.
THE BARK GAY HEAD - Track 9
Lead: Peter
Guitar & harmony vocal: Richard
A forebitter from mid 19th century New England whaling. "Root, hog or die" is an old slang term meaning search for what you need to survive, or perish. Very true for whalemen whose pay depended on a successful voyage.
SHENANDOAH - Track 10
Lead: Richard
A cargo-loading shanty that was not in common use aboard ship. It was not uncommon for a shantyman to hear a song he liked and then sing that melody to a different set of words so I felt entirely justified in marrying a melody to Shenandoah found in F.T. Bullen's Songs of Sea Labour to the verses from a version found in Stan Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas (page 176 of the hard cover edition). Bullen states that he "heard it sung by Negroes heaving at the winches when working cargo in Georgetown, Demerara."
The verses used reflect the love of Shenandoah as a geographical location. Of this version Captain F. Shaw, in his Splendor of the Seas, writes "… the Shenandoah River flowed through the slave states below the Mason and Dixon Line and whoever sang it first was obviously pining for the delights of that considerable stream …" Another point about this shanty is the fact that no two shantymen ever sang the same pronunciation of the word "Shenandoah". Shenandoar, Shannadore, Shanidah and Shangadore were all used. Bullen gives the word as "Shenandoh" and that is the pronunciation we use in our recording. English shantyman John Short has stated that, in most American ships they would sing Shannadore. John Short’s nickname was Yankee Jack - because he sailed in many American ships.
The more famous version of Shenandoah, the one about an Indian chief, was one of the most popular of all capstan and windlass shanties. Collector William M. Doerflinger says that the chief's name was Skenandoah and he was of the Oneida tribe, and he also writes that the song was an old cavalry one known as The Wild Mizzourye. Captain W.B. Whall, another collector, says it used to figure in old school collections and believes it to have belonged originally to the American or Canadian voyageurs. Others think it came from the 'mountain men' or traders of the early West. Hugill also thinks that it may have been nothing more than a river-song – one of the songs used by boatmen of the great American rivers (like the Ohio). There is a very popular Ohio boatman-song – Dance the Boatman, Dance – that became a deep-water shanty, and The Hog-eye Man is another one originating with river men. Alan Lomax gives a "cavalry version" that he calls The Wild Mizzourye:
For seven long years I courted Nancy.
Hi, oh, the rolling river
She would not have me for a lover.
Ho, ho, I'm bound away for the wild Mizzourye!
And so she took my fifteen dollars.
And then she went to Kansas City.
And there she had a little sh-sh baby.
She must have had another lover.
He must have been a –th Cavalry Soldier.
I'm drinking rum and chawin' tobacco.
I learnt this song from Tommy Tompkins.
MARY, COME JOIN OUR RELIGION - Track 11
Lead: Peter
Learned from the version collected and recorded by Alan Lomax in 1935 from the source singer David Pryor, with group. Lomax was just 20 when he made this journey to the Bahamas to collect songs. In 1938, a mysterious blight wiped out the sponges and ended sponge fishing. The testament to the singing of these fishermen, through these field recordings, is one of great beauty and of unusual, complex harmonies. Anyone interested in sea, Bahamian, and world music would do well to have this CD in their collection, from Rounder's "Deep River Of Song" series, "Bahamas 1935: Chanteys and Anthems From Andros and Cat Island," www.rounder.com.
JUST AS THE TIDE WAS A-FLOWING - Track 12
Vocal & guitar: Richard
I've known about this song for a long time. This version is from the singing of David Jones. Like a lot of traditional songs the lyrics are less sentimental. It's been called the tale of a pleasure-seeking sailor taking advantage of a trusting young lady. After the seduction she offers him money for future sexual favors and he takes it but he makes no promises to her in the song. The money, he feels, will help him keep his comrades in good cheer. This song can be found in Marrowbones, a collection of English folk songs. Most Morris dancers know the melody as the tune The Blue Eyed Stranger.
GONNA GET HOME BY ‘N’ BY - Track 13
Lead: Richard
Verses five and six of this shanty come from F.P. Harlow's Chanteying Aboard American Ships. Harlow gives the work song as a "'Badian Hand over Hand" and calls it "Gwine To Git A Home Bime By" without any further explanation.
The rest of the verses come from Stan Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas. Hugill gives this shanty as a hauling song and calls it Sister Susan with an alternative title of Shinbone Al. It's another typical West Indian or Southern States' work song taken to sea and turned into a shanty. Shinbone Alley, says Hugill, is a location often mentioned in African-American songs. His source was the black shantyman Harry Lauder of St. Lucia, B.W.I., who gave it as a hauling song. Bullen, another collector, also heard it in the West Indies, and the circumstances in which he learned it are to be found in his book The Log of a Sea Wolf, but he gives it as a windlass or capstan shanty.
CALLER HERRING - Track 14
Lead: Richard
Learned from Australian singer Danny Spooner who we met when we performed at the Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festival in 2005. Danny learned the song from a friend of his mother, a Mrs. McColl. This is a traditional version of a song written by Lady Nairne (Carolina Oliphant, 1766-1845) in the first half of the 19th century and the words reflect her great regard for the Scottish fisher-folk. "Caller herrin" or fresh herring was the cry of the fisher women as they paraded the day's catch for sale. Prior to her death in 1845 she had published her works under the pseudonym of "Bogan of Bogan." The air was composed by Neil Gow, the Scottish fiddler.
I found two other versions of this song via the Internet:
Caller Herrin' Version 1, from the site "Traditional Scottish Songs"
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'?
They're bonnie fish and halesome farin';
Wha'll buy my caller herrin',
New drawn frae the Forth?
When ye were sleepin' on your pillows,
Dream'd ye aught o' our puir fellows,
Darkling as they fac'd the billows,
A' to fill the woven willows
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'?
They're no brought here without brave darin';
Buy my caller herrin',
Hau'l through wind and rain
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'?
Oh, ye may ca' them vulgar farin'
Wives and mithers, maist despairin'
Ca' them lives o' men
When the creel o' herrin' passes,
Ladies clad in silks and laces,
Gather in their braw pelisses,
Cast their heads and screw their faces
Caller herrin's no got lightlie
Ye can trip the spring fu' tightlie
Spite o' tauntin', flauntin', flingin'
Gow had set you a' a-singing
Neebour wives, now tent my tellin';
When the bonnie fish ye're sellin',
At ae word be in yere dealin' –
Truth will stand when a' thin's failin'
Caller Herrin' Version 2, from the site "Glasgow Guide" Carolina Oliphant, (Lady Nairne), 1766-1845
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? They're bonnie fish and halesome farin'; Wha'll buy my caller herrin', New drawn frae the Forth.
When ye were sleepin' on your pillows, Dream'd ye aught o' our puir fellows, Darkling as they faced the billows, A' to fill the woven willows.
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? New drawn frae the Forth.
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? They're no' brought here without brave darin', Buy my caller herrin', Haul'd through wind and rain
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? New drawn frae the Forth.
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? Oh, ye may ca' them vulgar farin', Wives and mithers maist despairin', Ca' them lives o' men
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? New drawn frae the Forth.
When the creel o' herrin' passes, Ladies, clad in silks and laces, Gather in their braw pelisses, Cast their heads and screw their faces
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? New drawn frae the Forth.
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? They're bonnie fish and halesome farin'; Wha'll buy my caller herrin', New drawn frae the Forth.
Glossary of Scottish words:
braw pelisses = beautiful mantles
caller = freshly caught
creel = basket
frae = from
Gow = Niel Gow, the fiddle player
halesome farin' = wholesome food
mithers = mothers
puir fellows = poor fellows
tent = heed trip the spring
fu' tightlie = dance the jig very neatly
THE CAPSTAN BAR - Track 15
Lead: Peter
A capstan chantey, learned from the singing of the English nautical group Salt Of The Earth (Danny and Joyce McLeod and Ingrid and Barrie Temple).
UNMOORING - Track 16
Lead: Richard
As far as I know this song only appears in Sea Songs and Shanties, collected by W.B. Whall, Master Mariner. About the song Whall says, "This is an example of the purely professional song, dear to the old-time sailor, and full of seamanship. It was a favourite with the prime old shellback, and was all the more successful in that it had a good chorus about the girls."
SWELL MY NET FULL - Track 17
Lead vocal & fiddle: Peter
Guitar & harmony vocal: Richard
Roy Palmer collected this fishing song from the English bargeman Bob Roberts. In his updated collection Boxing the Compass formerly titled The Oxford Book of Sea Songs, Palmer cites it as one that "may have been used to accompany rowing or net hauling, as well as for the pleasure of singing."
FIRE DOWN BELOW - Track 18
Lead: Richard
A capstan shanty collected by Professor James M. Carpenter in the 1920s from Welsh seaman William Fender of Barry Docks who served at sea from 1878 to 1900. First recorded by Bob Walser on the album When Our Ship Comes Home.
In the original version collected by Carpenter the last solo line read "To see the pretty girls do the hula-hula dances." I changed "hula-hula dances" to "hoochy-choochee dances" after East Coast shanty singer Charlie Ipcar pointed us to a section of Herbert Asbury's book The Barbary Coast(Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1988). Asbury notes that there was a music hall called the Midway Plaisance located just outside the infamous Barbary Coast district on Market Street between 3rd and 4th streets in San Francisco between the late 1890s and early 1900s.
"The first melodeon or music hall in San Francisco to make a special feature of hoochy-coochee dancers, or, as the theatrical weekly Variety calls them, 'torso-tossers and hip-wavers.' Some of the most noted cooch artists of the day appeared at the Midway Plaisance, among them the Girl in Blue and the original Little Egypt, who first danced in San Francisco in 1897, a few years after her triumphs in the Streets of Cairo Show at the first Chicago World's Fair. The admission charge at the Midway Plaisance was ten cents, slightly lower than at the Bella Union (its older rival), and it was tougher in every way; its shows were bawdier, and virtue among its female entertainers was considered very detrimental to the best interests of the establishment. Like practically all of the other melodeons, it had a mezzanine floor cut up into booths, before which hung heavy curtains. A visitor who engaged a booth for the evening was entertained between acts by the female performers and his conduct was not questioned so long as he continued to buy liquor." (pp. 131-132)
IN A HANDY FOUR-MASTER - Track 19
Lead: Richard
Taken from Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors by Ivan H.Walton with Joe Grimm. The Great Lakes saw a wide variety of vessel types, both wind-driven and mechanical. Marine architecture became increasingly specialized to perform specific tasks and meet local conditions. While four-masters were far less common on the Great Lakes than sailing vessels with two or three masts, they were not unheard of, and there were a very few with five. This work song was collected from Captain Henry Ericksen, Milwaukee, 1932. No melody was given for this song in the book so Richard wrote one for it
PARIS HERE I COME - Track 20
Lead: Peter
A French capstan chantey Peter first heard sung by Mike Kennedy at the Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festival. Mike graciously supplied Peter with the lyrics. Richard adds his inimitable vocal styling in the last verse.
NOTHING BUT A HUMBUG - Track 21
Lead: Richard
I fell in love with this song after hearing it sung by Geoff Kaufman at one of the late night singing sessions at Mystic Seaport in 2005. Geoff hadn't recorded the song but he told me Bob Walser recorded it on his album When Our Ship Comes Home – an album I had just purchased while at the festival.
The song comes from the James M. Carpenter collection. James Madison Carpenter (1888-1984) was a Harvard-trained scholar who undertook folksong, and later folk play, collecting in Britain from 1928-1935. His extensive and important collection, now held at the Library of Congress, was never published and Carpenter remained a relatively unknown figure in Anglo-American folksong scholarship.
Bob Walser wrote the article Here We Come Home In A Leaky Ship!: The Shanty Collection of James Madison Carpenter that appears in the Folk Music Journal, 1988, Volume 7, Number 4, a Special Issue on the James Madison Carpenter Collection. Nothin' But A Humbug was collected from Welsh singer Rees Baldwyn. Carpenter notes that "Mr. Baldwyn learned this from the Negro singers in Savannah and New Orleans. The words 'Dandy Jim from North Carolina' are echoes from a minstrel song of about 65 or 70 years ago. It is sung with much emphasis and force."
Walser says, in his article, "according to Carpenter, two 'Negro pile drivers of the southern ports' used this song to coordinate their rhythm as they alternately struck the same pile with two sledges. The simple words, as well as the straightforward alternation of the two parts, suggested the song could have been used at sea for halyard work. The application was tested by attempting to use the song at halyards aboard the full-rigged ship Joseph Conrad at Mystic Seaport where sail-setting demonstrations are performed daily during the summer months. In that context it was found that the short verses ending with rests left a relatively long moment without metrical information before the chorus, making it difficult for the chorus to enter together. How, then, did Rees Baldwin maintain this song in his repertoire? Did he simply remember it after hearing the pile drivers sing it, perhaps only one time, or did he use it at sea for some task other than halyards? As Hugill wrote, 'in talking about shanties and shantying one cannot be too dogmatic'. Perhaps Baldwyn found his own particular use for this song and thus preserved it in memory until Carpenter, in his turn, could preserve it in sound and manuscript."