The Collection

    ACROSS THE SEVEN SEAS – The Australian Maritime Collection

Australian maritime songs cover the waterfront – including remnants of age-old ballads and lyrical folk songs from our shared Anglo Celtic heritage, new songs composed by Australian settlers, songs and shanties which found their way to Australia fleetingly as sung by sailors, then there are the songs associated with ship disasters, specific songs written to commemorate grand ships like Marco Polo, songs written about brave maritime heroes, bridges, inland rivers, ferries and even surf boats. The following ballad, The Golden Vanity, is a very old song that appears in several folk traditions from Canada and America through to Ireland and Australia – with many ports of call in between. It has all the drama of the classic songs – a threatened military clash (this one between Britain and Turkey), imminent disaster where the captain fears his ship will be sunk, a hero (the little cabin boy), a love interest when the captain offers the hand of his daughter for marriage to the hero who will save the ship, a turncoat villain as the captain reniegues on his offer and tries to drown the cabin boy, a rescue (the cabin boy rescued by his shipmates, a death (sadly, the boy dies) and finally, a curse put on the evil captain. And that’s all in one song!

The sea can be a mysterious place and it is little wonder early sailors were superstitious. They were particularly afraid of disturbing the deep and summonsing up bad weather. Tales of ‘Davy Jones’ Locker’, a place somewhere in the deep where sailors went after they died, were common. This next ballad, also a very old story with many variants, is typical of maritime ghost stories. A sailor dreams his departed love appears at his bedside and as he approaches he discovers ‘sea weed in her hair’ – a sign she is a ghostly visitor from the Lowlands.

Being an island continent has always shaped Australia’s history. Our early indigenous people came down by sea from the north and lived here for thousands of years before that extraordinarily skilled navigator, Captain James Cook, mapped the coastlines – and hoisted up the Red, White and Blue for the British Empire. Ever since Cook’s declaration the sea has been a vital part of our nation and identity, and all the more strange considering that for all of the nineteenth century the majority of Australians lived away from the coast, in the bush.
As a social historian and a singer of old songs I have been collecting the remnants of our maritime folklore for over forty years. This has involved some major detective work in manuscript collections, ship’s newspapers and, from 1972, tape recording oral histories. I was fortunate to start my oral history collection (housed in the National Library) at a time when there were people alive who were born in the nineteenth century. ABC Music, long time partners in my work to preserve musical Australian history, has recently issued a 10-CD series ‘ Australia: Its Folk Songs

& Bush Verse’ where I perform many of the songs from my collecting work. Whilst our maritime story features heavily across the series there are two albums of particular interest to readers of this magazine: ‘Rare Convict Ballads & Broadsides’ and ‘Across The Seven Seas: The Australian Maritime Collection’, as they offer many songs and shanties never before recorded.
These are songs illustrating the historical signposts of our maritime history. Some are traditional songs common to most English-speaking cultures, some came here as printed broadsides or ‘penny dreadfuls’, and some belong to what eventually became known as ‘popular song’, although the latter includes minstrel, music hall and anonymous songs appearing in widely distributed late nineteenth century songsters.
These songs, which, for convenience, I usually call folk songs, can be extremely useful in tracking the Australian story. Unlike most fact and figure historical accounts these songs and ballads give us a unique insight into the emotional history connected to the story songs. Many are sung in the first person and are intended to draw the listener into an extremely personal account. The convict transportation ballads are a good example of this as many start with the familiar ‘Come listen for a moment lads and hear me tell my tale…”
The Australian maritime story starts with the arrival of the eleven ships of the First Fleet, transporting hapless souls to serve time in the reluctant penal settlement of Botany Bay. Convict ships eventually transported some 185,000 men and women to our shores.
In the centuries before the arrival of newspapers, radio and 24 hour news channels, the general public received their news primarily from ‘street literature’. The most popular were the broadside ballads, which were single sheets, printed one side, and sold by ‘broadside sellers’ who often sang their verses as a means of advertising. These song sheets were the tabloids of their day, and quite often just as sensational as they announced executions, terrible murders, shipwrecks, love trysts and stories of tormented souls transported to far off lands.

The majority of songs from the transportation era are understandably plaintive and tell of the dreaded separation from family and lovers; fear of being sent so far away from their homeland; deprivation and mistreatment by their carers and the system and, finally, heartfelt warnings to others ‘lest they too be transported’. Whilst conditions in England’s goals were horrific the thought of hard months spent on the ocean voyage to Australia was often feared more. Many died on the passage, some of fever, some of malnutrition and others of sheer terror. There was also the real fear of shipwreck and several convict ships, including those carrying women and children, found themselves in a watery grave.

There were many crimes punishable by transportation to Botany Bay and, later, the other penal settlements of Norfolk Island, Van Diemen’s Land and Moreton Bay, including poaching, murder, forgery, theft and political agitation. One song in the collection, simply titled ‘Australia, Australia’, is a shortened version of a longer ballad ‘Virginny’ created during the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence 1775–1783) when Britain used Virginia as the main destination for the transportation of their convict class, is unusual in as much as it concerns highway robbery and, as an added emotional trigger, a crime motivated by love. There are extremely few transportation songs about highwaymen because most of the offenders were executed.

Another song, ‘Botany Bay Scoundrels’, presents a litany of scoundrels, whores, crooks and pimps, and why they were shipped out to Botany Bay. Every lowlife gets a serve in this somewhat ribald song that dates back to a printed broadside (circa 1790) where it was simply called, ‘Botany Bay, A New Song’. This rare find comes to us from the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, and was originally located by that extraordinary hunter of documents and books, David Scott Mitchell, for whom the Australian library is named. Unlike many broadsides of the time this song, with its obvious sarcasm ‘to make a new people in Botany Bay’, would probably have been favoured by the snobbish upper classes until they discovered the barbed final verse reminding them of Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s comment that Australia was settled by people sentenced here, and those that should have been!

Ships also brought optimistic free settlers and later, even more optimistic gold seekers, then came the waves of immigrants as the giant sail and steam ships landed their human cargo of ‘new chums’ and sailed off with our famed wool, beef, timber and wheat.
In 1973 I recorded a song without a name. Its singer, Mr Gilmer of Maryborough, Queensland, had learnt the song in 1923 when he worked as a shearer in the Riverina. The song, now known as ‘The Limejuice Tub’, refers to the ships bringing in new chum workers. The reference to limejuice also appears in a song known as ‘According to the Act’. This song takes a sarcastic swing at the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894, which included in its list, references to a regular issue of limejuice for all sailors. The use of limejuice and vinegar as a preventative against scurvy was well known to British sailors for many years prior to the Act, and dates back to when Captain Cook, sailing in the Pacific, ordered his crew to eat oranges and limes for that purpose. It should be noted that the Act covered many aspects of shipboard life that definitely needed attention, especially on the well-worn sailing vessels that were finding it extremely difficult to compete with steam ships. The song was recorded from Captain Watson, a member of the Shiplovers’ Society of Victoria, in 1960, when he was aged eighty-eight.

Other songs and shanties came to us from whalers and seal hunters who worked our coasts and fishing fleets trawling the sea’s then rich harvest. Sailors are the world’s great travelers and it is for this reason their tradition is full of story songs that have also traveled. Australia grew up in the golden age of sailing ships when sleek, powerful clipper ships ploughed the oceans on the Britain to Australia run. Some of the world’s most famous ships like the Cutty Sark and Marco Polo serviced the Australian ports and brought songs with them.

Ben Bright, born in Llanllechid, North Wales, in 1896, was 76 when his unique repertoire was recorded. He would have been one of the last sailors to bridge the old days of sail and the new.  He was an active ‘wobbly’ joining the International Workers of the World in America in 1916 and continuing his ‘direct action’ in Australia in the 1930s. He spent most of his life at sea and eventually returned to Australia in 1972 to retire and claim a pension. His repertoire included shanties, bush songs and some unusual maritime songs like ‘The Handy Barque The Campanero’ which is essentially a rant against a particularly despised sea captain.

THE HANDY BARQUE THE CAMPANERO Well, the skipper said to the mate, you’ve got ringworms in your date, You’ve got dead-eyes in your ears, oh, I can find-oh, You’re a dirty old son of a bitch, you’ve given everybody the itch, You’re not fit to be the mate of the Campanero. Then the mate in a rankin’, threw the skipper onto the plankton, Saying: it’s not me you’re going to fear-o, If I’m not a dirty old bitch, you’re more like a lousy old swan, Than the captain of the barque, the Campanero. Now, the mate he went a-shore, and we never saw him no more The skipper sent ashore his bag-shillero; What with the mate, the skipper, the pump, I was nearly off me chump, Aboard o’ the handy barque, the Campanero. SOURCE: collected from Ben Bright. A version appears in in Stan Hugill’s Shanties of the Seven Seas as a pumping song.

The song appears in Stan Hugill’s Shanties of the Seven Seas as a pumping song however Bright’s version is a forebitter. ‘The Academy of Mister Paddy West’, another of Ben’s songs, concerns a mythical figure in maritime folklore known for operating a dodgy ‘school’ for would-be sailors. Legend has it that Paddy West’s crimping methods involved putting completely inexperienced seamen through a half-hour crash-course. This song doesn’t seem to have been collected from any other singer and it is also interesting because of its reference to steam. Some of the song also appears to have been borrowed from a sea song called ‘Away, Susannah’. Ben Bright introduced the song by saying, “There was a fair amount of singing went on in the sailing ships. Once you got settled down in a ship you got to know each other pretty good. Fellas’d tell stories of their experiences about shanghai-ing or boarding house masters like Tommy Moore, y’know. Or maybe somebody would have an accordion or a mouth organ and you’d hear songs in every language under the sun, and in broken English. I remember a fella called Peterson, a Swede, used to sing this song about Paddy West’s Academy’.

The nineteenth century sailor was often portrayed in a romanticized fashion – a ‘roving blade’ with a ‘girl in every port’- but, in reality, it was a difficult life. Conditions on board ship were uncomfortably cramped, food was often scarce or inedible, hours were long and, if the captain and mate were ‘hard men’, it could be unbearable. There was also an ever-present danger of drowning, and many early sailors met a watery grave.

Countless songs relate tales of the sexual misadventures of sailors whilst in port.
The ribald tale known as ‘Bung Your Eye’ comes from Back Country or the Cheerful Adventures of a bush parson in the eighties. J W Eisdell. 1936. The song is known in several versions including ‘The Basket of Oysters’. Whilst it’s usual for sailors to return to a port and find they had fathered a child during his last visit, this song seeks to remedy the situation by passing the child back to the bewildered sailor

BUNG YOUR EYE As Jack went a roving down a fair Sydney street A girl with a basket he chanced for to meet A girl with a basket he chanced for to spy With good Holland’s gin, if you wished for to buy Says Jack, “To be serious, what have you got there?” “Good Holland’s gin, I vow and declare Good Holland’s gin if you wish for to buy And the name that they call it is ‘Young bung your eye.” Now Jack he bought the basket and right away went To look in the basket it was his intent, But in two or three minutes a young child did cry Then up in his arms he took young Bung Your Eye. Now he took the child home without any delay To get the child christened by a parson straight away Said the parson, “I’ll christen the baby bye and bye, What name will you call it?” Says Jack, “Bung your eye.” “Bung your eye,” says the parson, “This is a droll name.” “Damn it all,” says the sailor, “A rum way it came, Instead of bad liquor my sea stock to buy, They have made me the dad of young Bung Your Eye.” Now all you young sailors who roam Sydney’s streets, If a girl with a basket you chance for to meets, The course that I give you is steer ‘full and by’ Or they’ll make you the dad of a young ‘Bung Your Eye.’ SOURCE: From Back Country or the Cheerful Adventures of a bush parson in the eighties. J W Eisdell. 1936. The song is known in several versions including ‘The Basket of Oysters’.

Shanties, maritime work songs, are an obvious link with the past and many were used on the Australian run. In 2007 I discovered a rare collection of such shanties, taken down, including the musical notation, from a whaler and sealer on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, in 1923. You can see this collection, including the words,  at

There are also songs about maritime disasters, especially shipwrecks. The collection offeres for the first time three ballads that tell of such tragedy, two of them taken down from first-hand accounts from survivors.

The Melancholy Loss of the Amphitrite’ is a good example of the maritime distater ballad. The convict ship Amphitrite sailed from Woolich Pier for NSW in August 1834, with 108 female convicts, 12 children, and a crew of 16. The ship, only three quarters of a mile from the English shore, was caught in a gale off the coast of France and ran aground. The French attempted to help her and offered to take the convicts and crew ashore – but the Captain and Surgeon, fearing they had no right to liberate convicts, refused all offers of help. The ship was torn to pieces with only two members of the crew as survivors.  It is indeed a sad tale and one can almost hear the agony in the desperate verses. The broadside was published by W & T Fordyce, Printers, Dean Street, Newcastle, and was not dated however one imagines it went into print soon after the tragedy in 1833.

The Sydney Gazette reported this first-hand account:
“About 7 pm the flood tide began. The crew, seeing there was no hope, clung to the rigging. The poor 108 women and 12 children remained on deck, uttering the most piteous cries. Owen, one of the three men saved, thinks the women remained on deck in this state about an hour and a half. “

“It makes the blood run cold to read of such horrors. If ever there was a multiplied murder it was in the case of those hapless beings, whose lives might have been saved, but for the obduracy of their temporary gaolers who sent these people to destruction – on the cold-blooded plea that they had no orders to save them.  The name of the Amphitrite and her immolated human cargo must ever raise a blush on the cheek of true-hearted Englishmen.”

Another song, closer to home, was ‘The Wreck of the Dunbar.’ Adapted from first hand accounts and the published narrative verse of Mr Samuel Bennett, Sydney, 1857.The merchant ship ‘Dunbar’ was shipwrecked around midnight August 20th, 1857, almost under the lighthouse, at South Head, Port Jackson – now known as Watson’s Bay. The Dunbar weighed in at 1980 tons had 121 people on board, 59 crew and 62 passengers, mostly long-term residents and ‘respected old Colonists who were on the way back from a visit to the father-land’. The Captain was also well known in the Colony and much esteemed. There was only one survivor of this terrible shipwreck.

A little-known song concerns ‘The Royal Charter’. On the 25th October 1859 The Royal Charter, a combined steam and sailing ship from Melbourne bound for Liverpool, was lost off Moelfre, on the island of Anglesey, Wales. She was built at the River Dee Dockyards and launched in 1857. The Royal Charter was a new type of ship, a 2719-ton steel-hulled steam clipper, built in the same way as a clipper ship but with auxiliary steam engines, which could be used in the absence of wind. The ship was used on the route from Liverpool to Australia, mainly as a passenger ship although there was room for some cargo. There was room for up to 600 passengers, with luxury accommodation in the first class. She was considered a very fast ship, able to make the passage to Australia in less than 60 days.

Almost at the end of its long voyage from Melbourne to England the Royal Charter was carrying four hundred and fifty-two passengers and crew, and gold from the Australian goldfield valued at £320,000. It sailed into the worst storm that had occurred in the Irish Sea during the nineteenth century. Seeking a safe harbour to wait out the terrible storm the ship’s anchor chain broke under the strain and drove the Royal Charter stern first onto the rocks off Moelfre. The ship struck the rocks fifty-yards from the shore and broke into two sections. Every person on board was thrown into the sea except for thirty-two whom perished as they were hurled against the rocks. Many of the passengers were men returning from the Australian goldfields and some had attempted to leave the ship and swim to shore with their pockets filled with gold nuggets. The ship became known as the Golden Wreck because of this legacy.
British collector E.J.Moeran collected the ballad about the wreck from Mr James Strong at Winterton, England, in July 1915. It was published in his Songs Sung in Norfolk, 1923, and, as far as I can ascertain, this was the only time the song had been collected in the oral tradition and, even more surprising, the only time it had been published. My recorded version is certainly the only time its Australian connection has been identified.

One of the most interesting songs in the maritime collection is ‘The Female Rambling Sailor’. The pioneer collectors Norm O’Connor and Bob Michell recorded this very fine ballad from Catherine Peatey, Melbourne, 1959. Mrs Peatey had spent her early life in the Warrnambool and Leongatha districts in southern Victoria. Most of her songs she learnt from her father, writing down the songs in a manuscript book, which she kept for that purpose.  The incident of a young girl going to sea disguised as a sailor, sometimes to seek her true love or simply for adventure was not uncommon in traditional ballads. Although the lass in this particular song is noted as ‘Rebecca Young’, the most famous of these sailor girls was named Jane Thornton, who, reputedly, after serving in the Royal Navy, secured a Naval Pension, courtesy of the endorsement of Queen Victoria. I learnt the song in the late 1960s from the recording of Mrs Peatey in the National Library of Australia.

Lest you think all the songs come from our international seafaring let me assure you that there are also some songs from our inland rivers. ‘The Old Macquarie’ features one of our most famous inland rivers. The Macquarie River is one of the main inland rivers in New South Wales and is a tributary of the Darling River. It headwaters rise in the central highlands of New South Wales near the town of Oberon. The river travels generally northwest past the towns of Bathurst, Wellington, Dubbo and Warren to the Macquarie Marshes and the Barwon River. In 1974 I recorded a 92 year old woman, Susan Colley, singing a charming version of the American spiritual, River of Jordan. The song, a children’s song, has various bush animals boarding Noah’s Ark. There’s also the tall tale of ‘The Wonderful Crocodile’ found off La Perouse – which is essentially an Australian story of Jonah and the Whale.

Sydney Harbour also gets a gong in ‘Take Me Down The Harbour’. Boating and ferry trips to Sydney’s ‘pleasure beaches’ provided material for numerous songs however this one also introduced that new fashionable invention: the telephone. I sourced this charming ditty from the Imperial Songster No. 83, published by The Tivoli, in Sydney, 1909. It is attributed to Gray & Bennett. I hope the tune is close to the original. The places mentioned in the song are all inner-city harbour and surf beaches and Clifton Gardens was the earliest ‘pleasure picnic grounds’ accessible by ferry. It was a wild place and, for a time, closed because of rowdy behaviour by ‘larrikins’.

Take Me Up The Harbour – sung by Warren Fahey recorded 2009

TAKE ME DOWN THE HARBOUR   Now Gertie’s a girl, a sweet little pearl, She works down in the city; And she has a beau, his name is Joe, So handsome and so witty. On each Saturday, when he gets his pay, A message soon he’s reading: “I feel quite alone, ring me up on the phone, You’re just the one I’m needing.” Chorus Take me down the harbour On a Sunday afternoon – To Manly Beach or Watson’s Bay, Or round to Coogee for the day; Call around to Clifton, Or Mosman, it will do, Dear old harbour, Sydney Town, They can’t beat you. Way over the tide, how softly they glide, Out on the harbour ferry, Whilst music so sweet makes life feel complete, Their hearts are light and merry, Then homeward once more, they part on the shore, And Joe says to his girlie, “If you feel alone, ring me up on the phone, And call me quick and early.” SOURCE: Imperial Songster No. 83, published by The Tivoli, in Sydney, 1909. It is attributed to Gray & Bennett.

As a folklore collector I am always interested to hear from readers who recall songs about our maritime history. We place high regard on material collection but, sadly, have neglected areas like folklore and oral history. Even half-remembered lines can help solve the jigsaw puzzle of song hunting.

SUPERSTITIONS AND HISTORY

It was a common custom for the chief mate to finish each day’s log with the words:
so ends this day fore and aft

Capt Sir John Williams quoted in ‘So ends this day”

In 1976 I went on the hunt for any songs remembered from the visit of the Great White Fleet to Sydney Harbour. It was a grand show of force and set off a major celebration. Capt Lovell of the Sydney maritime Museum assisted me in my search and yielded the following.

G.

THE VISIT OF THE GREAT WHITE FLEET TO SYDNEY HARBOUR IN 1908 Ms Winifred Throsby-Bridges wrote from the Avalon Hospital saying “In 1908 I was a young nurse in training at the Coast Hospital, now Prince Henry. I was stationed in wards 5 and 4 when the American Fleet passed, fairly close in, all the male patients in both wards were moved out on the long verandah to watch it pass. On return to the ward I found a small boy (patient), aged about eleven or twelve, in tears because he was not taken out. The child was fatally ill with typhoid fever and could not be carried. I immediately sent for some men to bring a convalescent chair and they wheeled him out. He was in tears with joy and I am now 94 years old and will never forget his face as he watched that spectacle. Mrs Edith Ayers of the Hopetoun Village Home, Castle Hill, offered. “ I clearly remember its arrival. The schools were given a holiday and I joined my sister and her husband on the harbour. We left early in a sulky with a high-stepping horse. We passed steam trams crowded with people hanging out, on the roofs – every type of conveyance was utilized and all going to vantage spots at South Head. They came and the first we saw was the eight masts and it was then I realised that our earth was round. Slowly the warships emerged from the early morning mist in perfect formation. It was a magnificent sight as the Great White Fleet moved gracefully up the harbour reminding us of the white swans of England. On return to school I on the prize for the best essay on the arrival of the American Fleet to Sydney harbour. The prize, presented to me by Bishop Stone-Wigg, was half a crown.” Walter Thompson of Wagga Convalescent Home, Wagga Wagga, wrote “ When the United States Fleet arrived in Sydney I was living with my mother and two brothers in Broughton Street, Paddington. I was a clerk in a Sydney office and, as usual, I took a tram to Oxford Street, Paddington, and when I alighted I saw a Yankee Sergeant of the Marine Corps. I approached him and asked what he was doing there because I knew there was nothing of interest in the area. I said it was near tea-time and since there were no cafes around I suggested he might come home with me and see what an Aussie home looked like. I introduced him to mother and when she asked him what he’d like for tea he replied, “Steak!” I went to the butcher’s shop at Five Ways and bought a steak. After dinner I showed him my uniform. I was a corporal in the Volunteer Scottish Rifles. A female friend of the family arrived after tea. She was one of my mother’s cousins and her father was a dairy-farmer on the upper Myall River and she was a shop assistant in a Sydney shop. She was a big and beautiful girl. During the evening Sergeant Johnson invited me to visit his ship on the following Sunday. I readily accepted and asked whether I could bring two mates. So, on the date, Colour Sergeant Neil Harvey and Sergeant Maurice Benson joined me at the Man of War steps, between the new Opera House and the Botanical Gardens. He met us there and we went in a launch to the battleship ‘Rhode Island’ where we had lunch. Afterwards Sergeant Johnson told me that if he had a further week in Sydney he would have proposed to the girl that he’d met at my home. She was definitely a beauty! The White Fleet travelled on to Japan and he sent me a card from there which read ‘Celebrating the visit of United States navy’. SOURCE: Sydney Maritime Museum

RIVER FOLK From Adventures in the Aust Bush by JB Mummery 1873 1862 March – June When the gold rush fever struck Sydney one band of hopeful Sydney natives were seen heading out West and on hitting their first river bend they were seen to take off their clothes and walk along the river hopeful of feeling the nuggets in the river bed.

MARITIME FIGURE HEADS “Garden Island has preserved four figure heads. One is of Queen Victoria, complete with crown, sceptre, ribbons and chain of the garter, the collar of St Michael and St George and a thistle. It was taken ashore by Captain William Cargill in the 1890s on the sale of his ship the ‘Windsor castle’ and subsequently left to rot in his garden at neutral bay where it was chained to a tree. The figurehead of Lord Nelson came from the original ‘Lord Nelson’ vessel and is floodlit each night at Rushcutters Bay naval depot. The third figurehead is from the surveying vessel ‘Sea Lark’ (previously called ‘The wanderer’ and before that ‘The Consuela’). The final figurehead is that of HMAS Penguin – a survey sloop and depot ship well known to Sydney siders. It was christened the ‘Tilly Devine’ by a local sailing wag and has been known as that ever since.” SOURCE: From The Home Magazine 1933 article by D G McDougall ‘Treasures of Garden Island’

TUB RACES Every year in the 60s and 70s of the 19th c they held tub race day at Woolloomooloo bay. Using half-sawn hogshead tubs the fishermen would sit on a low stool and paddle around Pinchgut and back to the Woolloomooloo bay.

A POEM ON THE WRECK OF THE DUNBAR Songster size. 1/- James Waugh , Sydney. 1857 DSM/A821/T First line: Fierce blows the gale, and high the waves are tossed. The merchant ship ‘Dunbar’ was shipwrecked around midnight August 20th, 1857, almost under the lighthouse, at South Head, Port Jackson – now known as Watson’s Bay. The Dunbar was 1980 tons with 121 people on board, 59 crew and 62 passengers, mostly long-term residents and ‘respected old Colonists who were on the way back from a visit to the father-land. The Captain was also well known in the Colony and much esteemed’. There was only one survivor of this terrible shipwreck.

MARITIME SAYINGS Rainbow in the morning Sailors take warning Rainbow at night Sailors delight If the wind before the rain You soon make sail again If the rain before the wind Topsail’s lower and halyard bend. Sound travels far and wide A strong day well betide. Evenings red and mornings grey Are certain signs of a fair day Heavy dews in hot weather Foretell fair weather SOURCE: Aussie mag.

ACCOUNT OF A VOYAGE TO SYDNEY BY ENSIGN ALEXANDER HUEY

CY1388
On the HMS DROMEDARY accommodation by the Hindustan
Departed Yarmouth to Port Jackson may 1809 arriving April 1810

ACCOUNT OF VOYAGE TO SYDNEY BY ENSIGN ALEXANDER HUEY After lying two or three days at anchor at the entrance (to port Jackson), the wind came fair. We weighed anchor on Sunday and sailed up the harbour in Sydney Cove at 3.00 o’clock. A number of people were assembled on the shore and the wharf. It was quite calm. The water was as smooth as a millpond. We dropped anchor about five fathom of water about twelve yards from the shore. The band played some of our favourite tunes. A party of natives, about sixteen in number, assembled around a fire on the shore and danced. At 11 o’clock at night we could se the natives around the fire and hear them distinctly singing songs and beating time on a shield. This day, Sunday 31stDecember, the Governor (Macquarie) boarded. The 73rd Regiment was drawn up in a marching order on board the ships. When his Excellency came out of his cabin to get into the Dromedary, the Regiment presented arms; the colours dropped and the jolly tars gave three cheers. When the boats shoved off, the ships fired a salute of fifteen guns each. The 102nd Regiment formed a street to receive His Excellency when he went ashore. This day the natives assembled from the Hawkesbury and many miles round and fought a regular battle in honour of the new Governor. I saw three of the natives who had come from a distant part of the country just before the battle began, and spoke to them. They said they were going to fight when the sun was two hours down. Afterwards the 73rd Regiment wheeled into line and marched off to Grose Farm Camp, about three miles from Sydney. When they arrived at 2.00 o’clock, found all the tents pitched. Nothing to eat this day but potatoes. Our breakfast in general consisted of potatoes and water. However, we got on by degree and in the course of a week we could procure bread and coffee or tea. Bread was very dear at one shilling for a tuppenny loaf. Killed a centipede in the mess tent. Two large snakes were killed in the camp. SOURCE: CY1388 On the HMS DROMEDARY accommodation by the Hindustan Departed Yarmouth to Port Jackson may 1809 arriving April 1810

MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN HENDERSON IN MANLY DAILY
January, 1971. Manly Daily
Capt Henderson quotes from the Evening News 16/6/1905:
“We left Manly in glorious sunlight but when nearing Bradley’s Head the fog came down like a curtain. Opposite the harbour trust lighthouse we saw a man there with a stick and at regular intervals he would have a go at the bell. It was extremely funny and the passengers cheered each bang.” The following came out of that incident.

TWINKLE AND BELL Twinkle, twinkle little bell Welcome note our fears to quell Sounding mid the fog so dense Like an echo out of whence. When the fog lies thick and low Where the engines move dead slow Boats start up like phantoms grim And check collisions on the brim Men in safety go afloat Certain of your warning note Trusting when the fog is thivck To the arm that weilds the stick Outcome of a system quaint Well intentional tho so faint Trusts and confidence impel Twinkle, twinkle little bell. SOURCE: Memoirs of Captain Henderson Manly Daily January 1971 Capt Henderson quotes from the Evening News 16/6/1905

BUTCHER BOATS Captain Henderson in Manly Daily April 1971 BUTCHER BOATS ‘Butcher boats’ date back to 1858 when shipping providores supplied ships with produce when alongside the wharves. Later the ships were met and boarded in midstream as they travelled up the harbour. With the intense competition for orders, worth anything from one to five hundred pounds, some ‘butcher boats’ would travel as far as the Botany Bay heads or even Wollongong to secure the first order. The boast were constructed of cedar by leading Sydney boat builders and sometimes thirty feet in length with a three foot six inch beam and all highly varnished. The were light enough to be lifted by two men and were graceful and fast. To enable speed the first planks were carvel built with the planks flush while the other boats were clinker built or overlapping. Many of NSW’s leading scullers were employed to man the ‘butcher boats’. SOURCE: Memoirs of Captain Henderson Manly Daily April 1971

THE BRIDGEWATER JERRY

Name given to the mist that surrounds the Bridgewater, Tasmania. Quoted Highway in Van Dieman’s Land Stancombe 1968

BOILING A BILLY ON BOARD A SHEOAKER

The Aust Jnl 1872 from ‘My First Whaling Cruise’ by Tasman.
Who was on board a sheoaker (barge used in Tasmania for timber cutting).

“Seizing an old nail can with a lot of holes in the lower half of it he placed a wisp of lighted oakum in it and on this 2 – 3 handfuls of wood chips and the bark of a sheoak tree; on this he placed a tin billy of water and on its boiling threw in a handful of mixed tea and sugar which he took from a canvas bag hanging below the forecastle.”

Songs & Ditties

Being an island continent has always shaped Australia’s history. Our indigenous people came down by sea from the north and lived here for thousands of years before that extraordinarily skilled navigator, Captain James Cook mapped the coastlines – and hoisted up the Union Jack for the British Empire. Ever since, the sea has been a vital part of our nation and identity and this is all the more strange considering that for all of the nineteenth century the majority of Australians lived away from the coast, in the bush.

Our colonial story starts with the arrival of the eleven ships of the First Fleet, transporting hapless souls to serve time in the reluctant penal settlement of Botany Bay. Convict ships eventually transported some 185,000 men and women to our shores. Ships also brought optimistic free settlers and later, even more optimistic gold seekers, then came the waves of immigrants as the giant sail and steam ships sailed off with our famed wool, beef, timber and wheat and returned with even more new settlers. Whalers, and seal hunters worked our coast, and fishing fleets trawled the sea’s rich harvest. Our once mighty rivers continued our maritime story as mighty riverboats sailed up as far inland as Bourke and then, loaded with giant bales of wool, back down to the coastal dockyards. In the twentieth century our harbours echoed to the sound of ships loading black coal and other minerals. Ships also transported our soldiers to and from wars in New Zealand, South Africa, Europe, the Pacific and Asia. Australia is intrinsically tied to the sea.

Sailors are the world’s great travelers and it is for this reason their tradition is full of story songs that have also traveled. Australia grew up in the golden age of sailing ships when sleek, powerful clipper ships ploughed the oceans on the Britain to Australia run. Some of the world’s most famous ships like the Cutty Sark and Marco Polo serviced the Australian ports.

The sailor was often portrayed in a romanticised fashion – a ‘roving blade’ with a ‘girl in every port’- but, in reality, it was a difficult life. Conditions on board ship were uncomfortably cramped, food was often scarce or inedible, hours were long and, if the captain and mate were ‘hard men’, it could be unbearable. There was also an ever-present danger of drowning, and many early sailors met a watery grave.

There are various types of sailor songs or songs associated with the sea. Shanties, maritime work songs are the best known and many were used on the Australian run. In 2007 I discovered a rare collection of such shanties, taken down, including the musical notation, from a whaler and sealer on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, in 1923. You can see this collection at http://warrenfahey.com/ccarey.htm 

The older sea songs fascinate me, especially those with intricate stories that fairly smack of the salty yarns favoured by sailors. Tall stories are represented in yarns like ‘The Wonderful Crocodile’, shipboard life is shown through ‘According to the Act’ and legendary characters in the two songs about Paddy West and his ‘Academy’.

This unusual sea song comes from the mariner, Ben Bright. Bright had lived in Australia on and off and eventually retired here in 1973. The song appears in Stan Hugill’s Shanties of the Seven Seas as a pumping song, however, Bright’s version is a forebitter. The song tells of an obviously rotten voyage aboard a badly commanded ship and adds a resolve to avoid such ships in the future. The seventh and eighth verses were not from Bright but from verses I have been singing so long I haven’t the foggiest where they originated. Such is the life of a song.

Ben Bright sings ‘The Handy Barque The Campanero’.

This song doesn’t seem to have been collected from any other singer and it is also interesting because of its reference to steam. I didn’t think the song was complete so I wrote verse four and the last verse to round out the story. Some of the song also appears to have been borrowed from a sea song called ‘Away, Susannah’. Ben Bright introduced the song by saying, “There was a fair amount of singing went on in the sailing ships. Once you got settled down in a ship you got to know each other pretty good. Fellas’d tell stories of their experiences about shanghai-ing or boarding house masters like Tommy Moore, y’know. Or maybe somebody would have an accordion or a mouth organ and you’d hear songs in every language under the sun, and in broken English. I remember a fella called Peterson, a Swede, used to sing a song about Paddy West’s Academy’.

Warren Fahey sings ‘The Handy Barque The Campanero’

The pioneer collectors Norm O’Connor and Bob Michell recorded this very fine ballad from Catherine Peatey, Melbourne, 1959. Mrs Peatey had spent her early life in the Warrnambool and Leongatha districts in southern Victoria. Most of her songs she learnt from her father, writing down the songs in a manuscript book, which she kept for that purpose.  The incident of a young girl going to sea disguised as a sailor, sometimes to seek her true love or simply for adventure was not uncommon in traditional ballads. Although the lass in this particular song is noted as ‘Rebecca Young’, the most famous of these sailor girls was named Jane Thornton, who, reputedly, after serving in the Royal Navy, secured a Naval Pension, courtesy of the endorsement of Queen Victoria.

Catherine Peatey/O’Connor. National Library ORAL TRC2539/6; ORAL TRC2539/16

Mrs Catherine Peatey sings ‘The Female Rambling Sailor’

Warren Fahey (vocals and concertina) sings ‘The Female Rambling Sailor’ with Marcus Holden (cittern, viola) and Garry Steel (piano, bass)

Here is another different song of the ‘rambling sailor’ – the absence of women onboard ships filled the sailors with bravado when ashore. Many the mistake was made.

Sally Sloane sings ‘The Rambling Sailor. Recorded by John Meredith. NLA.

The next song commences by stating that a ‘sailor’s life is a lonely life’ which, one suspects, is a cover for their remorse at deceiving so many young girls. In this song the young girl is clearly devastated by her abandonment and goes forth to find her sailor lover. When she is told he has drowned (possibly sailors protecting each other) she runs her own boat into the rocks and perishes ‘for love’. This favourite song has an obscure connection with another popular piece sometimes called ‘Died For Love’ (from which the song ‘There Is A Tavern In The Town’ descended).

Warren Fahey sings ‘A Sailor’s Life’.

Warren Fahey (vocals and concertina) sings ‘Paddy West’

Paddy West.

Another more widely known song about Paddy West, the infamous proprietor of the ‘instant training course’ for would-be sailors, and, like its predecessor, sung in the first person. This one goes through a complex series of comic manoeuvres until he is ‘qualified’. Stan Hugill, in Shanties and Sailor’s Songs (Herbert Jenkins 1969), points to Paddy West being a real person. ‘He lived, so old-timers say, in Dennison Street, or Great Howard Street, Liverpool, although one old seaman seems to think he had his boarding house on Old London Road.’ Old traditions tend to stick and for well over one-hundred years untrained or useless sailors were often referred to as ‘Paddy Westers’

Bung Your Eye.

Countless songs relate tales of the sexual misadventures of sailors whilst in port.

Thisribald tale comes from Back Country or the Cheerful Adventures of a bush parson in the eighties. J W Eisdell. 1936, and I have localised it add Sydney’s salty flavour. The song is known in several versions including ‘The Basket of Oysters’. Whilst it’s usual for sailors to return to a port and find they had fathered a child during his last visit, this song seeks to remedy the situation by passing the child back to the bewildered sailor.

Warren Fahey (vocals and concertina) sings ‘Bungle Rye’

SONGS AND DITTIES

Sydney is a city built on a harbour, possibly the world’s most beautiful harbour. Visitors are usually amazed that they can sail right into the city’s heart and stare up at the great ‘coat hanger’ of a harbour bridge, across to the Sydney Opera House with its evocative sails and then back to the CBD with its towering buildings and hubbub.

The close proximity of city life and harbour life come together at the Circular Quay where ferries dart in and out taking passengers up and down the harbour’s tributaries. The harbour, with its many ports and islands, has inspired poets, songwriters and storytellers and continues to contribute to our folklore.

Bondi

The citizens of Sydney were fascinated by Bondi as a salt water bathing destination. While ocean pool swimming, with neck to knee bathing attire, was the norm there were alsosome hardy souls who braved the waves and after the establishment of the Life Savingservice the idea of sea swimming became incredibly popular. This song is typical of the popular songs written around the turn of the 19th century.

NARRABEEN

This song was published in the Manly Daily, a large daily newspaper that served the north shore of Sydney. It must be remembered that this newspaper was prior to the establishment of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the north shore residents relied on local news availability. 

MAROUBRA

A song toasting the eastern southern beach of the same name. The songwriter appears to have transposed Maroubra to Hawaii complete with with swaying hula girls

THE LAD ON THE MAN-O’-WAR

Imperial Songster 85
approx 1905

words and music by Alan M. Rattray and L. L. Howarde
a popular pantomime number

EMIGRATION BOUND

ARGUS ship’s newsletter

1862 March – June
Barque ‘Colonial Empire’ sailing London to Sydney
tune: Old Virginny

EMIGRATION BOUND I’ve lived, I’m very much afraid, An indifferent sort of life, A raking and a roistering, In a constant broil and strife, Nut now I’m growing poor and old. And the duns are after me, I’ll emigrate to the new countree And live in the land of the free, So carry me out in a ship so fine So carry me over the sea I’ll never return to the land of my birth Until my land sends for me.

ON SLEEP

ARGUS ship’s newsletter

1862 March – June
Barque ‘Colonial Empire’ sailing London to Sydney

Nature requires five
Custom gives seven

Laziness takes nine
And wickedness eleven

OUR DIRTY SECOND FLOOR

Tune: Nelly Gray
Note: this song, a parody, appears to be relative of Maggie May

OUR DIRTY SECOND FLOOR There’s a low back public at the corner of the Strand Where I’ve boozed many happy hours away A-drinking and a-shouting ‘To the land! To the land!’ Where is hanging out my darling Nelly Gray Oh, my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away And you’ll never pick no pockets any more. I’m sitting in the gin shop, and I’m lusting all the day, For you’re gone from our dirty second floor. When the boys had lit the shops up, And the lamps were shining too, There I took my nimble Nelly Gray And we strolled through Covent Garden Where fine carriages stop up And some go without their purses to the play. One night I went to see her, “but she’s gone”, the neighbours say, “Some peelers came and bound her with a chain, They’ve took her to the lock-up for to wear her life away, For ripping of hokum night and day”. My head is full of liquor, and my nerves they is unstrung And they say, as how, I can’t have tick no more My eyes are getting smoky, and I cannot see the way There’s a peeler, as I think, I’ve seen before But my eyes must look about me, or they’ll get their governor moving, Hark! There’s someone knocking at the door It’s then ‘ere Angels calling ‘is inveigled Nelly Gray As I mentioned, just a little while before Oh my darling Nelly Gray, I’m in the hattie now, I say, I never know’d my spirits any lower They’re coming, coming, coming, for to take your Jem away Farewell to our dirty second floor.

THE MAID ONBOARD

M3274 NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM

A series of handwritten ship’s journals 1850s

THE MAID ONBOARD I sing of a lovely maiden fair She was fair as ever was maid, On her head was glossy golden hair All gathered up in a braid. She sailed from far Australia’s shore For old England’s foggy clime, The maid had been on the sea before But not for a very long time. In stormy waters, when the ship did pass It was sad to see her ill. The medical man was quite at a loss For she baffled his utmost skill The stormy sea at length was quiet And steadily went that ship With help of sleep and a liberal diet On the poop she could gaily trip How gay and happy was this far maid As she smiled on all around Skipping about in her tartan plaid With a bright elastic bonnet On front of the poop she often stood And along the deck she gazed In such a pensive reflective mood The passengers were amazed They wondered what could she have seen To cause her such deep reflection Some said ’twas a man of noble mien Of bright and placid complexion And that as it may, it is most truly That the maid began to droop In silence she gazed at the ocean blue Whenever she came on the poop Her laugh which once merrily rang So musical in the saloon Was never heard, she would rarely sing When she did ’twas a plaintive tone Her face became all pale and wan And at last she got so weak That the doctor, being a kindly man, Determined the cause to seek. One day she sat in a pensive mood And the tears were in her eyes Untouched beside her lay her food She was muttering frequent sighs The medical man was taking a walk And he stopped in front of miss And then he began a little talk With “Will you tell me the cause of this?” She looked up in his kindly face And she said “I am no dodger Do you think it would be out of place If I were to woo Sir Roger?” “Oh no, my dear” the doctor said “that won’t cause a deal of tattle but do you know, the man you wish to wed is but a dealer in cattle?” Oh dear! Oh dear! What a fool am I Oh, how wild my thoughts have been then To think that I should pine and cry For that burly butcher man. Moral Now all you maids who go to sea Take warning by this maid Have always one of your own degree And you need not be afraid.

THE FISHERMAN’S DAUGHTER
M2834 –
NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM
1879 sea trip diaries
Note: song roughly hand-written nostalgic song typical of the era

THE FISHERMAN’S DAUGHTER Why are you wandering alone by the shore Where the wind blows cold and the wild breakers roar? Oh, I am wandering alone by the sea To watch my father is returning to me. For the gale it blows hard in the darkness of night And I’ve watched here since the dawning of light Looking with tears over the dark rolling sea To watch of my father’s returning to me. To watch of my father’s returning to me. Last night when my father past forth on the deep To our cottage returning I lay down to sleep But while the sweet calm of sleep come to me He voice of the tempest is waking the sea One thought in a dream ’twas my father that spoke But oh, the voice of the tempest I woke

OUTWARD BOUND

SEA BREEZE MAGAZINE
March 1959 – Journal of the Shiplovers’ Assoc.
This song comes from the memoirs of Walter Warren (born 1858)
and he learnt it during a voyage from London to New Zealand in 1874

TUNE: Homeward Bound

OUTWARD BOUND We are outward bound to Nelson Town. Goodbye fair ye well, goodbye fair ye well, We are outward bound to Nelson Town, Hurrah my boys, we are outward bound. We are homeward bound to London town, Goodbye fair ye well, goodbye fair ye well, We are homeward bound for London Town, Hurrah e boys we’re homeward bound.

THE STOKERS

Sea Breeze 1959 August quotes this ditty from the steam ship era.

The Captain on the bridge above thinks he owns the show

‘Taint he, ’tis the stokers that make the ship to go,
‘Tis the grimy, greasy stokers lugging at the skids.
And only getting shillings while the captain he gets quids.

HAUL THE BOWLINE

Sea Breeze 1958

Part of a ditty sung on exiting Sydney 1882

HAUL THE BOWLINE Haul on the bowline – the bonny ship’s a rolling Haul on the bowline – the bowline haul! Haul on the bowline – Kitty is my darling So early in the morning Before the day was dawning We’ll either break or bend her We’re men enough to mend her We’ll hang for finer weather We’ll haul away together We’ll tear the chafing leather Sydney’s a very fine town

BLOW THE MAN Oh blow the man down, bullies, and kick him around, To my way-eh! Blow the man down, Oh blow the man down, bullies, and kick him around, Give me some time to blow the man down. Oh, give me some time to blow the man down. Oh blow him a loft, bullies, from down below Let go your gear and haul home your sheets Slack away your lee-brace and hoist her away It will be over the truck if you don’t shout ‘belay!’ Lay aft for your grog, the chief mate he cries

WHALER’S LIFE

Anon 1866 contributed to the Australian Journal by J D of Mount Alexander, Victoria.

WHALER’S LIFE Oh where us the life half so jovial and free As ours – the gay rovers on the southern sea Our barque is our castle, our Captain’s a King Whose world renowned praises for ever we’ll sing. We chase the sperm whale over the tropical sea Oh who leads a life half so glorious as we/ What though in his fury the Chachelot should slave Our boat into places we’ll float on the wave Keep clear of the line with our oar neath our breast Like a child on the arm of its mother we’ll rest With lance in our hand ‘gainst the shark we’ll prevail Nor fear the huge bulk of the ponderous whale And then when our toil for the season is over How blythly we steer for Owhyhee’s shore And the nymph we have plighted our troth to shall come And welcome us back to her palm begirt home Where lulled by the sound of the surge we shall sleep Secure from the perils and toils of the deep.

SHANTY FROM CAPT JOHN WILLIAMS (BORN 1896) WHO HAD IT FROM HIS FATHER. Anchors’ Weighed The tears fall gently from his eye When last we parted on the shore And from her lips came many a sigh To think that I should see her no more

CHEERILY Cheerily sing, boys, cheerily sing boys As round goes the capstan We’ll cheerily sing Tis the land without slain The land of the free Australia, Australia the gold land for me Cheerily sing boys cheerily sing As round goes the capstan we’ll cheerily sing As round goes the capstan, we’ll cheerily sing ’tis the land without slain, the land of the free Australia , Australia, the gold land for me Cheerily sing boys, cheerily sing As round goes the capstan, we’ll cheerily sing SOURCE: Memories of Halbert Dickson. Aust Jnl Feb 8/1886

WHISKEY JOHNNY I have whiskey in the bottle, and cannot get it out, Whiskey Johnny! Whiskey! And cannot get it out Whiskey Johnny! Whiskey! I will roll the bottle about, etc And I will get the whiskey out Whiskey is the ruin of man, Whiskey killed my poor old man, I love whiskey, and so does Dan, Whiskey killed my brother dan, Whiskey killed my sister Anne, Whiskey gave me a broken nose, Whiskey made me pawn my clothes, Now you see I am out at toes, Pull, my boys, and up she goes, Pull, my boys, see how she goes1 You bully me, I bully you, What a bully ship and bully crew! A bully mate and captain too, We are the boys could pull her through, Shake her up from down below, To the mast-head this yard must go, Oh! Whiskey has played the devil with me, It was whiskey drove me to the sea, Oh! Whiskey has led me far astray, It has led me o’er the seas and out o’ the way SOURCE: The Homeward Bound Vol 1 no 2 February, 1882

CAROLINE CHISHOLM Sailing ships ride on the blue harbour tide As the folk step down to Sydney town Hope lost in fear now that new life is near Twill all be fine says Caroline. Gather your children and join our band The heavy beasts sway in the old bullock dray Deep silent lands await the toiler’s hand To plough and shear and wool away Leave seagulls cries, as the morning mists rise Just at break of day we’ll make our way Rest in the shade while the strong tea is made Then by the ford and ridge to Landsdowne Bridge Camp there the night, scented bark firelight Food and cheering song and talk that’s long Of ways that a man might begin in this land Or how to make a Johnny cake On winds the track by the Razor Back The mountainside and the blue divide With visions so grand of a wide sunlit land I’ll go beside and be your guide Blue skies aglow and wooden wheels slow The bullock dray heads Goulbourn way Hard roads and slow and how can we go Your hand in mine – says Caroline. Your hand in mine – says Caroline SOURCE: Empire Newspaper Sydney 1862

OUR CAPTAIN Composed by T Perry a sailor on the Resolution (Capt Cook’s third voyage) We were all hearty seamen, no colds did we fear And we have from all sickness entirely kept clear Thanks be to our Captain, he has proven good Amongst all islands to give us fresh food.

CHEER BOYS CHEER As sung abroad the ‘Delta’ on voyage to Australia 1852 as recalled by James Robertson Source: Records of the Castlemaine pioneers. To the West, To the West The land of the free. Also On the fields of Ballarat You’re scarce allowed to wear a hat Cheer boys cheer For this new and happy land

RIVERBOAT DITTY You stick to your boats boys And I’ll stick to my drum You set out to sea boys And I’ll sail round and round You stick to your boats boys Out on the angry sea And I’ll go rapping the cook’s back door On the Murrumbidgee. SOURCE: Quoted in ‘River Boat Days of the Murray’ Peter Phillips. Supposedly sung by crewmen.

THE HOT POTATO CLUB Formed by regular travellers on the Sydney to manly steamer. Ref: Capt Henderson 1971

THE CHUSAN POLKA The Aust Journal 1868 A polka created to celebrate the first mail steamer to visit Australia in 1868.

HAUL ON THE BOWLINE From Royal Historical Jrn 1909 and sung by whaler men out of Mosman’s Bay. Haul on the bowline The fore and maintop bowlin’ Haul the bowline, haul Haul the bowline, the bully bully bowline Haul the bowline, the bowlin’ haul.

BLOW THE MAN DOWN As I was a walking down Paradise Street Timmy way hey blow the man down A handsome young flash packet I happened to see Oh give us some time to blow the man down I put my hand upon her knew Timmy way hey blow the man down She said young man you’re rather free Oh give me some time to blow the man down SOURCE: From 1914 book on the Aust Steamship Line by RM McDonald who was aboard the Cardinia

THIS BIT OF THE WORLD BELONGS TO US Jonathan hath visited the lonely kangaroo Lonely by the old Pacific Sea As their ships went by, we heard the warning cry – “Keep the broad Pacific white and free.” Refrain And we’ll have the boys to do it in Australia, Australia! Australia! The same old blood , the same old speech, The same old songs are good enough for each. We’ll all stand together, boys, If the foe makes a flutter or a fuss, And we’re hanging out the sign From Leeuwin to the Line, ‘This bit of the world belongs to us!’ SOURCE: Mr R Hassall of Balgowlah

AUSTRALIA’S WELCOME TO UNCLE SAM:TO HONOUR THE AMERICAN FLEET There’s a grand and noble Fleet That we’re called upon to greet And welcome to Australia’s sunny shore. From the mighty USA They are sailing on their way, A hearty cheer awaits them I am sure. When they reach our sunny land We’ll extend a friendly hand And we’ll treat them all as brothers staunch and true, For when all is said and done As a race we all are one All descended from the old red, white and blue. CHORUS Boys of the USA. It’s proud we are to meet you. Boys of the USA, Right glad we are to meet you. With the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes And Southern Cross unfurled, We’ll show the foe we can hold our own With the wide, wide world. There’s a vision I can see In the years there are to be, A foreign foe has challenged us to fight. Thinking that we stood alone With no soldiers but our own And thinking that they’ve got us fast and tight. But old Uncle Sam so true Sends across his boys in blue, To our aid they quickly come with flags unfurled, And our foes they flee with fright For they learn that when we fight It’s the Anglo-Saxon race against the world. SOURCE: IMPERIAL SONGSTER 1908 (Tune: Boys of the USA) AUSTRALIA’S WELCOME TO UNCLE SAM: To Honour the American Fleet Mr Roy Liston, Tascott, NSW, recalled the following lines to this popular song: Boys of the USA, how glad we are to meet you, Boys of the USA, and proud we are to greet you. With the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes and Southern Cross unfurled, We will show the foe, we can hold our own in this wide, wide world. Going from references in other publications it appears there was a popular series of glass slides on Manly and the following song. It must have been a popular song as I have had several elderly Sydneysiders sing parts of the chorus.

TAKE ME DOWN THE HARBOUR Now Gertie’s a girl, a sweet little girl, She works down in the city, And she has a beau, his name is Joe, So handsome and so witty. On each Saturday, when he gets his pay, A message soon he’s reading, “I feel quite alone, ring me up on the phone – You’re just the one I’m needing. Chorus Take me up the harbour, on a Sunday afternoon, To Manly Beach or Watson’s Bay, Or round to Coogee for the day, Call around to Clifton, or Mosman it will do, Dear old harbour, Sydney harbour, They can’t beat you. Way over the tide, how they softly glide, Out on the harbour ferry, Whilst the music so sweet, makes life feel complete, Their hearts are light and merry. Then homeward once more, they part on the shore, And Joe says to his girlie “If you’re feeling alone, ring me up on the phone And call me quickly and early. Chorus Take me up the harbour, on a Sunday afternoon, To Manly Beach or Watson’s Bay, Or round to Coogee for the day, Call around to Clifton, or Mosman it will do, Dear old harbour, Sydney harbour, They can’t beat you. SOURCE: Gray & Bennett. Tivoli Pub. Imperial Songster No 83 1909

ALL ABOARD FOR MANLY BEACH

The Imperial Songster No 14 points to Ms Florrie Forde St Clair as the singer of this next song. Florrie Forde was born in Victoria and became the most famous music hall chorus singer in the world. She dropped the ‘St Clair’ after moving to London. Florrie had a great, large, fruity voice and I can well imagine her belting this song out. Those interested in Australian stars of the international music hall should refer to the section of this site ‘Recordings – Yesterdays Australia’ where I produced two wonderful CDs of these artists including tracks by Florrie Forde. Incidentally, her best known songs were ‘Tipperary’ and ‘Goodbye-ee’, both synonymous with WW1 TO MANLY (AND OTHER PLACES) I went down to Manly one day, Feeling happy and feeling gay: A dip in the briny I thought wag nice— I have paid for it—once or twice. Had a cheap bath, but I didn’t go far, Round by some rocks my clothes went ta-ta, I had to go home wrapped up in the Star, So I’ll never go there any more. Chorus. To Manly! To Manly! . The next time I bath I will pay my fare, At Manly! At Manly! So I’ll never go there any more. Georgie Reid now fhinks that he Has fixed federation right, you see; But over in Melbourne they bluffed him quite, When Turner fixed up the Parliament right. The federal Parliament there will sit, In spite of Georgie Porgie’s wit; And Sydney, I think, will be waiting a bit, For ’twill never come back any more. Chorus. In Melbourne ! In Melbourne ! They got a leg in when they bluffed Georgie, In Melbourne! In Melbourne ! And never come back any more. Our beautiful Governor went on tour, Altho” it was such a beastly bore, To see the wire-fencers cheer, And split their faces from ear to ear- He said it’s too hard, it’s the pace that kills— Opening tea fights and singing bills ; Then some one said, ‘ What price Beecham’s Pills ?’ ‘Well, he’ll never go there any more. Chorus. A-touring ! A-touring! The common people they are so rude, When touring! A-touring! So he’ll never go there any more. I went for a trip round Sydney town, And there, it’s a fact, I was done brown ; A fellow invited me in to drink, I said, of course, well! what do you think? He said, ” If I put £10 to his He’d soon make 500, I said,” good biz ” ; I gave him the tenner, the worst of it is- He never came back any more. Chorus. In Sydney ! In Sydney ! The police took my name, that’s all I got, In Sydney! In Sydney! He’ll never come back any more PARODY: ” The Bowery

MANLY WAS THE PLACE; OR, MONDAY WAS THE DAY A married pair named Wilkinson, once lived in Mona Vale, The husband in the city worked, but, thereby hangs a tale; At night he worked, oh, very late, but still it’s strange to say – Each night he sought the ballet, while his missus sought the play. He used to sup with Mabel, and a Captain with his wife, Until one day a note came round to him, which caused the strife’ “Dear Charlie” wrote his Mabel fair, “to Manly by the sea, I’m going, so just dodge the wife, and toddle down with me.” Manly was the place, Monday was the day, Charlie went to Manly with a fairy; But while he was away, a captain bold and gay, Toddled down to Manly with his Mary. Then Charlie wrote off to his wife, “pray pack my trunk in haste, I’m off up north on business, and I have no time to waste;” His wife packed up his trunk with glee, and to the Captain bold, She wrote a note, which I must say, was very far from cold. “Dear Bertie – Charlie’s going off up north on business, pet, Will you come down to Manly, with your Mary don’t forget The Captain answered, “Darling, yes, Poor Charlie is a joy, And soon the second pair of doves to Manly flew away. Next morn the artful Charlie, with his fairy took a walk, And ran against a pair who were engaged in loving talk; “My wife! And with some scoundrel, “ said poor Charlie in dismay, “My husband! With a ballet girl, a nice thing I must say; I thought you were up north, you wretch,” said Mary turning pale, “And you, I thought,” said Charlie, “were at home in Mona Vale .” They quarrelled and kicked up a row, till the people said, oh fudge, And soon no doubt you’ll hear them speak these words to some old judge. Manly was the place, Monday was the day, Charlie went to Manly with a fairy; But while he was away, a captain bold and gay, Toddled down to Manly with his Mary. SOURCE: Imperial Songster no. 14

‘ORROR UPON ‘ORRORS ‘EAD SYDNEY PUNCH JULY 17. 1869 (TUNE: THE CORK LEG’ first line: A story I’ll tell without any fear In this next song, a familiar sailor story, yet unusual to find in Australia, our ‘Jack’ is led astray. The P.C. refers to the Police Court.

JACK ASHORE From a ship in Port Jackson at anchor that lay A jolly Jack Tar t’other day strolled away, With rhino in pocket and heart beating light, He was bent on a cruise with a view to get tight, Singing Hey down, derry down. He wandered about till at length he got queer, By quaffing bad rum and colonial beer; Then a “peeler ” appeared and with baton display, To a mansion of durance he marched Jack away, Singing Hey down, derry down. To the Water P. C. on the following morn, To tell Jack’s diversions the “bobby “was sworn; He was drank and disorderly, go forth, and so All was clearly intended for Jack’s overthrow, Singing Hey down, derry down. Said their worships, said they in a grave, knowing tone, ” ‘Rum and stringy’ you drank till too far you were gone, But now you’re a chance to relate if you choose, How you managed to take such a cargo of booze,” Singing Hey down, derry down. Said Jack, “Why to tell you the truth I’ll not funk, On shore I came purpose to get jolly well drunk; Drunk’ Aye, and by Jingo! I was just about, And now if you’ll let me for ‘all hands’ I’ll’ shout.’ “ Singing Hey down, derry down. Said their worships, ” While here it’s a thing we cant do, But why we would ask does your nose look so blue ? Maybe you’ll relate in your tale of disgrace, How that ‘ornament’ got so enlarged on your face.” Singing Hey down, derry down. ” “Why, your ‘Worships,” said Jack, ‘a cove guv me a crack, Which knocked me five yards in a gutter slap back, And that’s how the fighting came an I suppose, For it’s right you must know to defend your own nose.” Singing Hey down, derry down. Said their Worships, “this time we shall let you off light, Though brawls we dislike and a fellow that’s ‘tight’; So away, and take care that you’re brought here no more, For the next time we’ll show Jack’s in ‘durance’ on shore.” Singing Hey down, derry down. Joseph Bradley sailed to Australia on the ‘Lynx’, an active whaling ship. It is mentioned that the crew sang this song on the voyage.

THE NEGLECTED TAR There seems to be many sentimental songs about saving ones mate – some came from the goldrushes like ‘Mines Of Australia’ and this one is set in a shipwreck. I sing the British seaman’s praise, A theme renown’d in story; It well deserves more polish’d lays; 0 ’tis your boast and glory. When mad-brain’d war spreads death around, By them you are protected; But when in peace the nation’s found, These bulwarks are neglected. Chorus: Then Oh’ protect the hardy tar, Be mindful of her merit, And when again your plung’d in war, He’ll shew his daring spirit. When thickest darkness covers all, Far on the trackless ocean, When light’nings dart, when thunders roll, And all is wild commotion; When o’er the bark the white-top’d waves, With boist’rous sweep are rolling, Yet coolly still, the whole he braves, Untam’d amidst the howling. Then oh! Protect etc When deep immers’d in sulphurous smoke. He feels a glowing pleasure; He loads his gun – he cracks his joke, Tho’ fore and aft the blood-stained deck Should lifeless trunks appear; Or should the vessel float a wreck, The sailor knows no fear. Then oh! Protect etc When long becalm’d on the southern brine, Where scorching beams assail him; When all his canvas hangs supine, And food and water fail him. Then of the dreams of Britain’s shore, Where plenty still is reigning’ They call the watch – his raptures o’er, He sighs – but scorns complaining. Then Oh! Protect etc SOURCE: ADVENTURES OF A NATIVE OF AUSTRALIA Joseph Bradley C 1860 Mitchell.

SHIPMATES Not a sail, not a boat on the rough sea line, Not even a spar in sight, When, huzza! ’tis a plank right away to the left, And we swam with all our might. And the wind blew loud and the icy moon Looked down on the ghastly scene,, Two drowning men in the wide, wide sea, And only a plank between. We were shipmates, etc. I looked in his eyes, he looked in mine, And I knew my thoughts he read, ” D’yer think I’d save my life,” he gasped, “By letting you drown instead.” And he hoisted me up on that little plank, I was weak as a child might be, And he clasped my hand for a long good-bye And then fell back in the sea. They picked me up half dead next day But Jem, dear lad, I knew, Jem had gone to the Blessed Port That’s made for the brave and true. We were shipmates, loving shipmates, We were shipmates, I and he, And I know there are few in the world would do All that he died for me. We swam, how we swam I we clutched the plant And then all at once we knew That one alone on that plank might float, But it could not carry two; And a terrible thought came o’er me, ” He’s a stronger man than I, Will he save his life at the cost of mine ? Will he beat me off to die ?” We were shipmates, loving shipmates, We were shipmates, I and he, And if only I could bring him back I’d die as he died for me. SOURCE: Australian Melodist No 20 Mitchell library 784.8/A

SHIP’S DEPARTURE Composed on Capt Phillips departure with the first fleet and published in the Whitehall Evening Post They go off to an island to take special charge Much warmer than Britain and ten times as large No custom-house duties, no freight to pay And tax free they’ll live when at Botany Bay

SEA SHANTIES SUNG OF THE SS NORTHUMBERLAND

During a voyage to Melbourne 1882

From ‘Back Country’ or the Cheerful Adventures of a bush parson in the eighties’
J W Eisdell. 1936

DEAD HORSE I came to a river but I couldn’t get across Chorus: And we say so & we hope so Solo – so I gave ten bob for an old blind horse Chorus: Oh poor man Solo – Old horse, old horse ,what brought you here? Chorus: And we say so & we hope so Solo – You’ve carted stones for many a year Chorus: 0h poor old man Solo – And now I’ve brought you for an old hack etc. And you shall bear me on your back. So over the river we both did go etc Says the old man I feared it made me so etc And now you’ve fell down and broke your back etc And now you are of no more use etc You’ll be salted down for the sailors use etc Salted down in great big chunks et c In a cask behind the pumps etc The sailors they you despise etc They turn you over and damn your eyes etc Now gents if you think my songs not true etc Just look in the cask and you’ll find his shoe etc SOURCE: Sung of the SS Northumberland During a voyage to Melbourne 1882 From ‘Back Country’ or the Cheerful Adventures of a bush parson in the eighties’ J W Eisdell. 1936

OLD DAD 0 my old Daddy, he went for a swim etc Be hung his clothes on a hickory limb Now there were some boys who thought it great fun etc So they stole his clothes and away they did run etc Now my old Mammy went fishing for chad etc And the first thing she caught was my old dad etc SOURCE: Sung of the SS Northumberland During a voyage to Melbourne 1882 From ‘Back Country’ or the Cheerful Adventures of a bush parson in the eighties’ J W Eisdell. 1936

The following song is a version of ‘Queer Bungle Rye’ and a familiar story for sailors ashore.

BUNG YOUR EYE As Jack went a roving down a fair London street A girl with a basket he chanced for to meet etc A girl with a basket he chanced for to spy With good Holland’s gin, if you wished for to buy Says Jack, to be serious, “what have you got there?” “Good Holland’s gin, I vow and declare Good Holland’s gin if you wish for to buy And the name that they call it is ‘Young bung your eye.” Now Jack he bought the basket and right away went And to open the basket a young baby did cry. Now to get the child christened to a parson he went Said the parson, “I’ll christen the baby bye and bye, What name will you call it?” Says jack, “Bung your eye.” “Bung your eye,” says the parson, “This is a droll name.” “Damn it all,” says the sailor, “A rum way it came, Instead of bad liquor my sea stock to buy, They have made me the dad of young Bung Your Eye.” Now all you young sailors who roam London Street, If a girl with a basket you chance for to meet, The course that I give you is steer ‘full and by’ Or they’ll make you the dad of a young ‘Bung Your Eye.’

Two shanty fragments as sung on the sailing ships bringing gold seekers to Sydney in the 1850s. Found in Adventures on the Australian Gold Fields – W Craig. 1903 PUMPING SHANTY Oh fare you well, my own Mary Anne Fare you well for awhile. ANCHOR HAULING SHANTY When first we went a-waggoning Drive on my lads, heigh ho.

WHEN JONES’ ALE WAS NEW ‘I’he first to come in was the Captain’s wife and she was dressed in white And in the corner of her bag she carried the anchor light chorus She carried the anchor light my boys and pinnacle lamps as well When Jones ale was new, my boys, and you can go to hell The next to come in was the chief mate’s wife and she was dressed in blue And her capacity was the anchor flue the anchor stock as well The next to come in was the second mate’s wife, and she was dressed in red Her capacity being the deep-sea lead, the deep sea line as well The next to come in was the engineer’s wife and she was dressed in yellow Looked after the ships propeller ,the steering gear as well The next to come in was the carpenter’s wife and she was dressed in black And she had as her share “the cable slack, the locker as well And the cooks in green helped her husband in the galley For she stowed the soup tureen, my boys, the pots and pans, as well When Jones ale was new my boys, and you can go to hell SOURCE:Hope Yarns, Marlin Spikes & Tar W E Dexter 1938 TUNE: When Jones’ Ale Was New

SHANGHAI BROWN A shanty indicated as sung on the Australian/London route. Morn Of Youth Robert S Close 1949 (Tune: Shallow Brown) Shanghai Brown has gone aloft On the royal mainyard you’ll find him In a split tailed coat buttoned up to his throat And his spit kid hanging behind him. Broadside pasted in front of ship’s log book. The barque ‘Duchess of Northumberland (1850-1888) under Captain George Mitchell. The broadside was printed by Walker of Durham, UK.

This is a classic sea song. This version is not in either the Hugh Anderson or Ron Edwards collections And is different from the Peter Kennedy UK version. THE SAILOR’S FAREWELL Farewell Mary I must leave The anchors weighed l must aboard Do not let my absence grieve thee Of sorrow do not breathe a word. What though the foaming ocean severs Me from thee, yet my heart Loves you Mary & will ever Though stern duty bids us part Farewell Mary dearest Mary Do not grieve I shall return Crowned with laurels, pray do not smother That sad sigh. Oh do not mourn You unman me with your kindness Oh chase those tears off my brow Now around thy lips sweet smiles are creeping Bless thee Mary farewell now Farewell Mary do not weep so Though I leave thee for a little while I love thee still when on the deep now Cheer my heart with thy sweet smile Soothe my parents with thy kindness And I’ll bless thee when far away Oh forgive youthful blindness For I can no longer stay Dearest parents farewell kindly Rest content whilst I’m away Mark that gun; tis to remind me On shore I can no longer stay The anchors weighed, the sails are spreading The boat is waiting in the bay Farewell now all kind relations Pray for me when far away SOURCE:Broadside pasted in front of ship’s log book. The barque ‘Duchess of Northumberland (1850-1888) under Captain George Mitchell. The broadside was printed by Walker of Durham, UK.

LOVELY NANCY Adieu my lovely Nancy Ten thousand time a adieu I am going to cross the ocean To seek for something new Come change your ring with me, my dear Come change your ring with me As that will be a token When I am on the sea When I am on the sea my love You know not where I am But letters I will write to you From every foreign land With secrets of the mind my dear And the best of my good will And let my body be where it will My heart is with you still See how the storm is rising See how it’s coming on While we poor Jack Tars Are fighting for the crown Our captain commands us And him we must obey Expecting every moment For to be cast away Young gentlemen & strangers That lay snoring fast asleep While we poor jolly sailors Are ploughing on the deep Our officers they command us And them we must obey Expecting every moment For to be cast away Now the storm is over And we are safe on shore We will drink to our wives and sweethearts And the girls we do adore We’ll call tor liquors merrily And spend our money free And when our money it is all gone We’ll boldly go to sea SOURCE: Broadside circa 1850-1888 Printed Walker of Durham, England. Coupled with The Sailor’s Farewell.

EXCURSIONS & ADVENTURES IN NSW Capt Henderson 78th Highlanders London Vole 1 & 2 1854 DSM/981/37B Vols. 1 & 2 Being a Guide to Emigrants. On the ship Fortune from Scotland to Sydney. Note that this is an extract from a large book and interested readers should refer to the ‘Emigration’ section where additional Capt Henderson material can be found including his version of The Immigrant’s Lament’ This being Saturday night we had a merry party in the cuddy to drink the usual toast of ‘sweethearts and wives’. As it was the first convivial meeting of the kind, it was kept up with spirit, and many a good song was sung, not forgetting the appropriate one ending with the lines – Now we sail with the gale, From the Bay of Biscay-O There being eight or ten bachelors among us, besides tow or three very merry Benedict’s, the party did not break up till a late hour, after coming to the resolution of repeating the performance hebdomadally. The following song, a joint composition arising out of the proceedings of this evening, and sung at the succeeding Saturday night’s merry-making, may not be unacceptable, as showing that there may be some fun on board ship to while away the time during so long a voyage –

SHIPBOARD LAIRD Ye gentry of England, who live at your ease, Ah! Little ye think of the larks of the seas! Come listen to me while a yarn I indite, All about the good ‘Fortune’, one Saturday night. Derry down, down, down, derry down. On that night of all nights, at eight bells says the log, The skipper commanded to serve out the grog; Ye may tipple at home, sirs, but certain I am, Ye ne’er tasted stuff like our skipper’s cheedam. Our chairman elect was a deuce Glasgow body, As constant as steel to a stiff glass of toddy; Nae cannier chief ever came sae far south – Yet ye’d ne’er think that ‘butter wad melt in his mouth’ And when he had seated himself in the chair, He ordered ‘hats off!’ with a dignified air; Then he lugged out his watch, swore he’d ne’er budge till ten, And struck up the lilt of the ‘laird o’ Cockpen’ At his elbow (but under the rose be it spoke) Sat a sinner escaped from the conjugal yoke; But he roared out his chorus like one of the free, And ’twas late e’er we sent him to poor Mrs. b On his left sat a lawyer, whose tongue ran the quicker, The more it was fee’d with a glass of good liquor; But with due legal caution he joined in the fun, And slunk off to bed when the liquor was done. The next was a martial young son of the kilt. Like his own native pibroch, he struck up a lilt; In each pocket (his breeches except) was a dirk, If ye’d ne’er drink his toast you must die like a stirk. Let Hamilton tell – the most gallant of men – The horrors he met in the Highland man’s den; But the strength of his stomach insured him his life, For he drank a whole flask at the point of a knife. Then, stout Squire of Devon, we all saw thy trouble, When the lights in the cuddy grew dancing and double; As the statues of heroes fall down from their niches, You fell – and were bundled to bed in your breeches. Of all the good fellows ’twere tedious to tell, What songs, speeches, toasts, and what headaches befell; But, next morning (In know it, who says it), I wot, There was little ‘content to be found in the cot’. Now God Save the Queen, and the skipper so brave, And a jolly good voyage to us over the wave; And if Saturday night should chance ever again, We’ll have ‘chickens’ enow for the ‘Laird o’ Cockpen’ SOURCE:Excursions & Adventures in NSW Capt Henderson 78th Highlanders London Vol 1 & 2, 1854

The Captain was a pleasant little man enough, and wore a fiery red tartan cloak in rough weather. He could sing too: but he was a man of one song, and that song was, ‘The Hapless Cabin Boy’ performed regularly every Saturday night in a sentimental manner to a right melancholy air; and for this reason, he generally obtained the sobriquet of the ‘Hapless Cabin Boy.’

The Wonderful Crocodile.

When I left school in the early 1960s I discovered The Bush Music Club and a whole world of Australian material. Prior to this, as an inquisitive high school lad, I used to go to  folk clubs like the Greenwich Village and Folk Attic (both in Sydney) but it soon became obvious that I would have to search harder if I wanted to find songs about Australia. The Bush Music Club filled that bill and whenever I sing this rollicking song I can picture the Fellowship of Australian Writers Hall where the Club met in an almost clandestine atmosphere, as we sang from bound copies of their Singabout Songster. This song, sometimes known as the ‘Royal Crocodile’, has also been collected in Britain. The last verse about seeing the giant creature’s tail near the Nile River refers, I assume, to the triangular pyramids. ‘The Crocodile’ appeared on broadside sheets. In the original broadside held by the National Library Dublin (coupled with ‘My Gentle Colleen Bawn’), Peru is the place of shipwreck rather, than in the Australian collected version, situating it at La Perouse. It also appeared in the Australian Melodist Songster (circa 1880) including La Perouse.

A version: Sid Heather/Meredith. National Library ORAL TRC4/8B

Warren Fahey: Vocals. Dave de Hugard: Accordion. Chris Kempster: Guitar. Bob McInnes: Fiddle.

THE WONDERFUL CROCODILE Now list, ye landsmen, all to me, To tell you the truth I am bound, What happened to me by going to sea, And of the wonders there that I found. Shipwreck’d I once was off Perouse, And cast upon the shore ; So I resolved to take a cruise, And the country to explore. Fol de rol, etc. But far I had not scudded out, When, close alongside the ocean, I saw something move, which at first I thought Was all the earth in motion; But steering close up along side, I found ’twas a Crocodile— And from his nose to the tip of his tail He measured five hundred mile. Fol de rol, etc. This Crocodile, I could plainly see, Was not of the common, race; For I was obliged to climb a jolly high tree Before I could see his face; And when he lifted up his jaw (Though perhaps you’ll think it’s a lie) It reached above the clouds for miles three score, And his nose nearly touched the sky. Fol de rol, etc. Whilst up aloft in this tree so high, It blew a gale from the south; I lost my hold and away did fly Bang into the Crocodile’s mouth. He quickly closed his jaws on me, And thought to grab a victim, But I popped down his throat, d’ye see, And that’s the way I tricked him. Fol de rol, etc. I travelled on for a mile or two, Till I got into his maw, Where I found of rum kegs not a few, And a thousand bullocks in store. Of life I banished all my cares, For in grub I wasn’t stinted— In the Crocodile I lived ten years, Very well contented. Fol de rol, etc. The Crocodile was getting old; One day, alas! he died; But he was three years a getting cold, He was so long and wide. Big skin was ten miles thick, I’m sure, Or somewhere there about! For I was full six months, or more, In cutting my way out. Fol de rol, etc. But now once more I’ve got on earth, I’m resolved no more to roam, In a ship that pass’d I got a berth, And now I’m safe at home. Lest my story you should doubt, Should you ever travel near the Nile, Just where he fell, you’ll find the tail, Of this wonderful Crocodile. fol de rol, etc SOURCE:Australian Melodist Songster

ALL AT SEA – MARITIME FOLKLORE

The Marco Polo

The Marco Polo was 185-feet from stem-to-stern and weighed in at 1625-tons and was revolutionary in her glamour and size. It was advertised as ‘Home at Sea’ and featured a ‘ladies cabin’ and was ornately decorated including plush velvet, stained glass panels and fine dining rooms. She also had a hospital, including two doctors, and was ventilated. There were even large lead-lined tubs on deck for clothes washing!

The Marco Polo set out to Australia on the 4th July 1852.

One of the superstitions of the sea is that every man had a ‘lucky day’ and Captain ‘Bully’ Forbes, the master of the Marco Polo, believed his to be Sunday. In a previous voyage he had left Liverpool on a Sunday, sighted the Cape on a Sunday, crossed the equatorial line on a Sunday, recrossed the line on a Sunday and arrived back in Liverpool on a Sunday – so it was only natural that on the Marco Polo’s maiden voyage to Australia he should delay the start date from the Thursday 21st until Sunday 4th July.

‘Bully’ Forbes was notorious – and is said to have drawn his pistols on his crew in severe weather so they would not abandon their royal halliards post.

The Dead Horse Ceremony

One of the ceremonies on the Marco Polo was the Flogging of the Dead Horse. This was a tradition common to most ships and was accompanied by a designated song and ritual. It included a short haul shanty devised entirely for the ceremony and sometimes called ‘The Dead Horse’ or ‘Poor Old Man’.

Here’s what Clive Carey had to say:

‘Merchant seamen were given an ‘advance note’ (usually one month sometimes up to three months) – to enable them to purchase sea boots, oilskins and other sailing necessities. Often these ‘notes’ were given to boarding-house masters and squandered on prostitutes and alcohol – so, back on board, the sailor often referred to his first month as ‘working for a dead horse’

This is probably where the Australian expression flogging a dead horse originated.

The Dead Horse Ceremony was performed at eight bells, in the second dogwatch, on the last day of the first month at sea, when the hands would muster on deck to enact the Paying-off of the Dead Horse.

Earlier the sail-maker would have fashioned a crude effigy of a horse (probably stuffed with old rope and some holystones (the soft sandstone used for scrubbing the decks) and this ‘horse’ would be dragged across the deck where the ‘Old Man’ (Captain) would traditionally give each man a tot of rum. Then the ‘horse’ would be attached to a gantline (being a rove through a block on the main yardarm), up aloft, the youngest member of the crew would be sitting athwart the yard with a knife in his hand. On the word of command, the men would grab the gantline, running through a dead-block on the deck, and the shanty man would commence:

Oh, I say ol’ man yer horse is dead

And the sailors would respond with
An’ we say so, and we hope so!

Pulling aloft the ‘horse’ on the words ‘say’ and ‘hope’

When the ‘horse’ reached the yardarm the rope was cut and the ‘horse’ would drop to Davey Jones.

The Marco Polo’s voyage to Australia was celebrated by a new tradition (which had been started in 1850) of a banquet and ball on the poop deck, under a canvas awning. Jon the first voyage James Baines gave an encouraging speech, as did the head of Cunard Line, Mr. Munn, and then Captain ‘Bully’ Forbes spoke.

This was the largest ship ever to sail to Australia and carried 930 emigrants, nearly all young and active ‘Britishers’ (not surprisingly the voyage was chartered by the Government Emigration Commission).

Married couples were berthed midship, single women aft, and single men forward. There were 80 officers and 80 seamen.

It should be noted that there were only two adult deaths (from natural causes) and only a few children (from measles). Ships of the time, often half the size of the Marco Polo, regularly saw between 50 – 100 deaths.

The Marco Polo arrived in Port Phillip Heads on the 18th September 1852 – a record of 68 days – having beaten the new steamer Australia – by a week!

On arrival Captain ‘Bully’ Forbes found forty to fifty ships laying idle in Port Phillip Harbour – all waiting desperately for crew. Forbes immediately clapped all his crew into prison for ‘insubordination’ (and thus avoiding any of them skipping off to the goldfields) and sailed off on 11th Oct 1852 for Liverpool.

The Marco Polo had three runs at the rounding of the precarious Cape Horn and finally arrived in Liverpool on the 26th December 1852 – 76 days out of Melbourne. The entire round journey had taken 5 months and 21 days – a world record. A huge crowd and a massive cloth banner proclaiming Marco Polo as ‘The Fastest Ship in the World’ met the ship. She carried some 100,000-pounds in gold dust and an 840-ounce nugget from the Victorian Colonial Government, a present for the Queen. Passengers, caught up in the excitement, threw small nuggets into the frenzied crowds.