 Cavalcade of America presented by Dupont In bringing you the sweeping ever-changing panorama of the cavalcade of America We have presented tales of heroism and daring in many walks of life and many periods of American history This evening we knew a story of songs of the sea and of the men who sang them in the golden age of sale Palatial liners and fast cargo ships have replaced the Yankee Clippers But even today men who go down to the sea in modern ships treasure the traditions of the old sailing days and so it is too in science The traditions of many years of careful painstaking research and study lie behind the work of the modern research chemist It is these traditions which have inspired the Dupont pledge better things for better living through chemistry Wooden ships the era of the world-famed Yankee Clippers Out of American port they sailed across the seven seas Around the horn to China Australia India Thence homeward round the Cape of Good Hope The lusty shanty songs of Clippership days told of high adventure and stirred the imagination and ambition of many an American boy Young John Lawson bred to the heritage of the sea was one of these One of thousands who left home and friends for the stern hard life at sea One spring day in the 1850s Young Lawson and his widowed mother drive along New York's cobblestone waterfront where the stately masks of the far-famed Clipperships Tower above the host house Look mother. There's a sea witch. Oh, isn't she a beauty? She's loading for the tip around the horn and up to San Francisco. Let's stop and listen a minute mother. Hold on driver That's Ruben Rand's other thing they call it a halyard shanty Ruben Rand's This is real mother. They think they can out sail Captain Kreece's flying clouds gone driver Sure, you want to make this trip with Captain Kreece. You'll be gone so long Oh, we'll be back in no time mother only two years two years Oh John those were the very words your father used when he left on his last voyage round the horn I'm sorry mother You don't want me to go out I'll stay I'll not make the trip. No John You're 17 now You must start living your own life You must choose your own career And if your heart set on following in your father's footsteps Then you must go I can think of no better beginning for you John than to be sailing as an apprentice on the flying clouds Captain Kreece is one of your father's oldest friends He's stern, but he's just he's the finest captain in the world. Oh, I'm lucky to get on his ship There she is mother the flying cloud. Yes. Just think in a few hours I'll be way up there on a royal yard arm setting sail We'll be on our way to all those strange and wonderful places father used to tell about There's Captain Kreece John look on the board mother just for a minute very well here in mind a step Here they're already battening down the hatches, but we'll be underway on the flood side See they got met it off to the sea which I the sea which think she'll leave us doing in her juice Small chance of that sir. I'd be hard is shake the dust of all the York of your feet and get it off Have an extra nugget for every man if we hold on a for the week Let the towboat stand by and we'll give him a line Well, welcome to the flying cloud, Mrs. Lawson. Thank you Captain Kreece. Good day Captain Kreece Well, here I am and ready for duty sir. Mother's given a consent. Good lad Yeah, you've grown to quite a figure of a man since the saw your last Yeah, if you have half the soul to your father, you'll make a fine semen boy I hope I will sir and we'll know that for sure for this flight is done. That I'll be easier in my mind knowing that he's with you Captain Kreece. Well, you'll have to make his way with the crew. I play no favorites on my ship But I'll give a weather eye out for him. Thank you. Don't worry. Mother. I'll be back before you know it I was lucky and steady winds will drop anchor here again in four or two years of past Which is getting on the way sir shall we lead her down the bay? Sure how fast a good ship can pull all down a four night for her Well, you're best going now mother. Goodbye John. Goodbye Captain Kreece Oh, God bless you both and bless the flying cloud that she may bring you safely back. Goodbye, man. God rest you Help your mother and show her Lawson and report to the boat. Hi, sir. Come on mother I don't want to miss going the loft as we set sail. Bless you John Do your work well now that you've chosen I'll be watching you from the shore and I'll be proud Mother Goodbye I'll be back Gladly Lawson. You're a seaman now. Hi, sir. Goodbye, mother The old shanty hall of Olam the queen of the Yankee Clippers sales soon leaving the sea which far astern Young John Lawson like many another adventurous American boy with the call of the sea in his blood Settle down to his duties as seaman of a full rigged ship Up in the whole rigged ship up in the whole rigged ship Up in the whole rigged ship up in the whole rigged ship up in the whole rigged ship Up in the squall whipped yard landlubber John Lawson passed the test of a seaman of clipper ship days But he was not accepted by his mates as a full-fledged sailor until he had crossed the line As the flying cloud neared the equator Lawson is called upon to undergo the traditional ceremony of King Neptune's court Which changes a young landlubber into an old salt? Where's old King nap? It's not over the bow putting on them rope whiskers Here he comes. Throw me down if old Nate the carpenter don't look like he's come up out of the seashore You're in the presence of King Neptune Go your cab I'll fork you into David Jones water Where's the landlubber the flying clouds polluted with this boy Watson John Lawson bring out Lawson Boston Hi, come on Lawson. It's forward to the throne of Neptune, but which way sir? I can't see with it flying fall if no need to see down on your hands and knees Cough anchor where you are lover I let the candidate be washed of all the dirt of the land He's dared bring him to my domain Are you ready barber? I have to let scrub rice and deck soap is ready wash him down Now let him be caught in the tank and he'll be fit company for true son to the sea Grab him in the tank with him. Hey lads Before my throne, I may bestow upon him the rights and honors of the sea Take off the blindfold He's now one of you and now hear me Neptune We Neptune monarch of the sea all oceans and navigable waters Have this day held court aboard the flying cloud and do now admit into our realm John Lawson and Finding him upon examination to be a worthy and suitable candidate We have therefore duly initiated him with all the ancient rites and ceremonies Into the grand order of the sons of Neptune and hereby bestow upon him the rights and privileges of Passion freely and without let or hindrance through our dominions and pottings from the northern to the southern hemisphere Prove you're a true son of Neptune. Let's see what you've learned in the folk show in the way of singing I Commend you to lead off in blow the man down I and blow him high Sing you a song a good song of the sea Oh for his name to be some time You a song a good song of the sea That you'll join in the chorus with me Give me some fire to blow the man across the line Southward to the roaring forties down to the bottom of the world where the storm lashed horn ever challenged men and ships With the dreaded Cape Horn behind them and the vast Pacific for them the crews of the clipper ship spent long tropical days in the routine duties of the ship Through storm and colony worked their way northward towards San Francisco where they would turn westward to China aboard the swift flying cloud John Lawson now a seaman with months of service before the mass goes a lot of the best of them Takes his turn at the wheel and stands the dark hours of the dog watch when on hot traffic nights the crew gathered on the four-day Swapping salty tales talking of strange fantastic lambs and of home Singing the songs that help to pass the crawling hours and days and months Past and Kelly song and the lungs to see it through Give us a tool while you stand the dog watch Yeah, it's quick given imitation of a man if I wasn't standing watch. I'd give you a more convincing imitation But I'll pin you to the deck anytime you need listen to speaking up It's a good thing you stand and watch your head mop the deck with you I'll stand watch for Larson Our off-duty Larson, and I'll be busy for a spell taken a second the quarter day. Thank you captain All right, Buckley, stand up. I'm ready to give you that imitation Squeeze the breath out of you if you don't stop posting and do stop Easy and now you're going on your pins and shake hands with a real man, but I was down Then I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'll take back what I said lad Will you shake on it? I will If you'll take up that wheezy old music box of yours and lead us in a shanty Done lad, done, call the tune. No shawms sailors can both fight and say Here is the stormy wind to blow And the land lovers lie down below below below And the land lovers lie down below One fried in her hand with a cold and a glass in her hand For the raging seas do roar In the perilous hundred-day voyages of the Clipperships from New York to San Francisco Many a boy was turned into a man, but San Francisco was only the first port of call on voyages girdling the globe Out of the Golden Gate, westward toward Asia, the Clipperships sailed to take on their precious cargoes of seas Shanghai was the crossroads of the East and a dangerous city for an adventurous young sailor to explore alone An able-bodied seamen brought a high price when Shanghai There were merchants who dealt in sailors as well as T. and J. Into one of these shops in John Lawson Wander's, the night the flying cloud was to sail for home Welcome to poor shop of the cool Thanks, but what's the idea of having your man close the door to the street? The sun has gone. The time has come to trade no more But I will carry. But first you will honor my shop by taking tea with me It is the costum Well, thanks just the same, but I'm in a hurry I want a piece of jade to take home to my mother. My ship sails on the next side No, America sailor The ship you sail on does not leave till the sun comes The gift to honorable mother must wait Hey, look here, you old devil, what are you up to? Either you tell me a piece of jade here or now or I'll go somewhere else No, America sailor does not leave shop of the fool Until he has tasted of the tea of the fool Or that so Well, I'd like to see you stop me Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on Oh, so that's it I've heard about your kind Now I know your real business, Shanghai and sailors, not selling jades What men will buy the rice mac and cells? Well, I'm one piece of merchandise you won't sell Listen, leave and take for action All right, me fool, it's your move You open that door, do my friends have to break it down and break your friends? Me fool knows well when the wheels are fortune, turn against him Hold on, hold on The door is open Come on in, lads America and sailor come to buy jade, look Here, very fine jade for Annabelle Mudder Oh, no, thank you, Lee fool We'll buy our jade somewhere else Come on, let's get back to the ship What's up, Lawson? Captain sent me a short look for you Thought you might have been Shanghai I thought so too until I heard you're shanty Well, I'll be blowed Come on, lads, let's go back and teach our old heathen a lesson Forget it, I've got a better idea Let's finish that shanty and save my life We'll step Goodbye, fairie, well, goodbye, fairie, well The friends we are leaving, we leave with regret For all my boys, we're homeward bound We're homeward bound, those joyful sounds Goodbye, fairie, well, goodbye, fairie, well Come rally the capstan and run quick around For all my boys, we're homeward bound We're homeward bound, you heard them say Goodbye, fairie, well, goodbye, fairie, well Go down the capstan and run quick Homeward bound That was a cry that gladdened the heart of the seamen Though a year or even two years might pass Before their ships dropped anchor in the home port again The very fact that they were going homeward was enough Homeward bound with the flying cloud went young John Lawson Past Singapore, across the Indian Ocean Around the tip of Africa and up the South Atlantic Until at last two years after the boys had sailed A stalwart young man comes back to old New York town And as a fussy towboat warps the flying cloud to appear John Lawson sees his mother on the shore Hi, sir You leave the wheel, boys is over And unless my eyes have gone back on me I think you'll find your mother waiting at the foot of the gang, please Thank you, sir Yes, sir I can see her on the work You permission to leave the ship, Lawson? You've done well And if you remind her to go out again There'll be a better post waiting on board the flying cloud Thank you, sir I'll be with you when you put the sea again On the ocean waves The home of the rolling geese With a scapid walkin' train And the winds they're reveling steam Like an eagle cage That flies on the summer-changing shore Oh, give me the flashing prime The sprain and tent for straw A life on the ocean waves The home of the rolling geese With a scapid walkin' train And the winds they're reveling steam A life on the ocean waves The home of the rolling geese With a scapid walkin' train And the winds they're reveling steam In honor of the American seamen And American ships that carry on The proud heritage of the Clipper days Don Voorhees and his cavalcade orchestra Play the stirring modern song of the sea Anchor wave All in the Clipper ships are but a glorious memory Steel and steam have taken the foot Of merchant men of wood and sail But American youth still goes down To the sea and ships Praters flying the stars and stripes Still plow the seven seas And swift American liners Ply the shipping lanes around the world Brave leaders in the cavalcade of America Some people, the term chemistry Conjures up mental pictures of vats Full of fuming liquids and laboratories Filled with weird apparatus Where pale-faced scientists pull new products Out of a test tube like rabbits out of a hat The chemical industry does produce Great quantities of so-called heavy chemicals These are used by more than a hundred Important industries But it also produces a variety of finished Articles, products that you use every day Paint, toilet articles, radiator antifreezes Automobile waxes and polishes Cleaning fluid and scores of others And working hand-in-hand The factory and the research laboratory Combined to reduce the cost of chemical products So that more people may enjoy them Let's take an example of how the chemical industry Aided by research serves you and your family Everyone is familiar with the transparent cellulose film Which Dupont manufactures and sells Under the trademark cellophane The modern housewife knows How this sparkling material protects The packaged foods her family uses every day She also prefers sheets and undergarments And similar personal things she buys in the stores Wrapped in cellophane For it protects such articles so well They do not need to be washed before using When Dupont first introduced cellophane Cellulose film in 1924 Its cost limited its use to only a few products Such as perfumes and fancy candy But as the use of cellophane spread Throughout many industries Dupont steadily reduced prices In fact prices have been lowered 18 times In 12 years The American public has benefited materially From these savings Because each year more and more manufacturers Have been able to send their products Into our homes fresh and clean In cellophane Today the wide use of cellophane Throughout the country is a tribute To this price reduction record Which is outstanding in American business This is but one example Which shows how the chemical industry Coupled with scientific research Reduces cost and improves quality Thus providing as Dupont expresses it Better things for better living Through chemistry Elizabeth Blackwell Pioneer woman physician The biggest struggle for the recognition Of woman's place in the medical profession Will be the subject of our broadcast When next week at the same time Dupont again presents The Cavalcade of America This is the Columbia Broadcasting System