"Jolly Boy", most likely is another term for a junior sailor. Jolly Jack or Jolly Tar are more frequently used terms, and easier to find.
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In the context of this song, the Jolly Boys were the young sailors who dove for sponges. They would tie ropes around themselves and dive overboard, usually weighted with a large stone to more rapidly reach the bottom, and harvest sponges.
Gina gives a detailed explanation of the song during our Skokie show. The clip is also in YouTube. I'll try to get it in here.
jkrivitz 3 years ago
What do they think a "jolly boy" is?
hultonclint 3 years ago
Shoot. I can't get the link in here. Probably a spam filter to prevent links.
Basically, search for "bounding main gina" and it's the first one that comes up.
jkrivitz 3 years ago
Oh OK, thank you.
As for links, Youtube doesnt allow full URLs in the comments, so what people often do is just past the part of the URL that begins with "watch?v="
hultonclint 3 years ago
i think a jolly boy is another name for a cabin boy
mapto21 3 years ago
"Jolly Boy", most likely is another term for a junior sailor. Jolly Jack or Jolly Tar are more frequently used terms, and easier to find.
.
In the context of this song, the Jolly Boys were the young sailors who dove for sponges. They would tie ropes around themselves and dive overboard, usually weighted with a large stone to more rapidly reach the bottom, and harvest sponges.
RetiredUSNChief 2 years ago 2