 Well, welcome everybody online and welcome everybody in the room to this which is going to be the penultimate King's maritime history seminar and I'll explain about that at the end remind me if I forget, but tonight's order of business is first of all to welcome you here. So you're at King's College London, of course, you are, but you're also being hosted by the Lawton Naval Unit here in the Department of War Studies. And as it happens, it's Michael Howard Center for the History of War, but it is in the hands of British Commission for Maritime History, King's Maritime History Seminar that you're at and put that on with pleasure with the support of the Society of National Research and Lois Register. So we are well backed, and you are all very welcome. And it's my pleasure to introduce tonight's speaker, I guess he's a speaker, you're not just. Tonight's orator Roy Benton, who is, of course, familiar face, trustee of British Commission for Maritime History, and also a very respected maritime historian, but with a difference because Roy dances and Roy sings and Roy is going to bring at least some of these talents, I think to tonight's lecture, which is on, well, it's on Sea Shanties and I'll leave it to him to explain what it's about. And I'll hand over to you, Roy, thanks. House logs. Yes, I think that if you sit there, I'll do my magic behind the scenes. Now, it's either it doesn't work in the mouse down here, and you can do it that way. Do you see the barrels down here? I'm hoping, shall we just test? That's okay. Right, right. Yankee blood boats. Book of mates. Hungry bitches. Little Sally racket. I'm a hard iron man. Welcome to the not always politically correct world of sea shanties. And probably goes back. As if, yes. Sea shanties, a quick definition, work songs, which maximise the efficiency of muscle power on sailing vessels. These shanties aren't not all sailor songs are shanties. Shanties are basically work songs. And traditionally, people start presentations about shanties by explaining that they are not experts. Now that's not surprising. Frankly, the experts died out at least 100 years ago. They were the shanty man guys who were employed on board ship. Seaman themselves, but we're given a relatively easy time by the leading shanties. So, I think that's one of the implications for this talk. Don't extend to ever having a sail on a square rig ship. And in terms of musical abilities, I think they were rightly summed up by a lady at one of our music sessions, which was your abilities as a musician extend to rhythm and enthusiasm. I'm a degree of enthusiasm for the shanty, which arose when I was in the sort of folk club scene in the 1960s. I've asked a couple of friends come along tonight to help out with the same. And basically, I just hope we can share some of our enthusiasm for shanties with you all audience participation, you might ask. But it's just allowed it's expected. You don't sing these things quietly will will try and respect the rest of the university as well. If they come down and knock on the door will do it a bit more quietly. This talk has got to the potentials to being about maritime history. In fact, it's more about maritime folklore than maritime history. My subtitle was a sea shanty and its economic, social and cultural context. And what I'm going to talk about basically is why they happened why they were they came into being, how they contributed to the life on board the ship, something about the history. And a bit about the survival of shanties, long after they were redundant as work songs. In terms of our time history, I can probably do no better than quote Roy Palmer, who was a folklorist and sent here himself shanties reflect only preoccupations of sailors from sex, the sentiment and from escapism to vitriolic complaints. They provide some of the best portraits that are of life on the sale. And then I headlined my talk, sex and drink and rock and roll, which is probably why half the people here came. It's illustrated mainly by photographs from the wonderful book that Eric Newby produced he sailed on the finish bar, Mochilu in the 1930s, and frankly didn't enjoy it that much so it's quite a good antidote to all the stories about the glorious days of the sale. He probably stays in the book called earning the ropes is really rather good. Let's talk first about the economic bit of sea shanties. Well, once they get rich and famous, or certainly get rich ship owners are often good philanthropists. Think of people like William Burrell, giving his art collection to Glasgow. I'm going to talk to the owner, Reardon Smith, who helped found the National Museum of Wales, and more recently, the descendants of Alfred Halstead, who settled the outward bound school in the Second World War. They were less generous to the people who worked with them and provided their fortune. They wanted to get the maximum amount of work for them in one pair. The interest to know this tradition is still alive, certainly in Piano Ferris. They also realized that men worked harder with the help of music, but so many ones said a good shanty is worth 10 men on the road. And it's got to be said much, much cheaper. The captains were therefore encouraged to employ a seaman as a shanty singer. Let's meet a real shanty singer, really, but a famous one, John Short and watch it, who was Cecil Sharpe's main source of information about shanties. Interestingly, two different people collected shanties from John Short. John Short and the guy called Terry, and they both, they've got different versions of the same shanty form, which suggests that the words, the lyrics of the shanty weren't fixed. They were flexible. John Short had the honor of an obituary in the times when he died in 1933. And also that they erected a statue to him on the sea floor. Watch it. There he is with another old folky who came to pay homage to him and to apologize for the way some of his shanties in the past. Shanty man brought various skills to the job, besides the ability to sing loudly in all weathers. There really two versions. Two actions you needed to shanties were always hauling, which is actually pulling on ropes, braces, sheets, whatever they were called, which needed short verses with choruses to coordinate the poem. For instance, a shanty man might sing, but only was a warrior and a crew go way, hey, yeah, a warrior, a terrier, John France, what, so they were coordinating the actual actions on the road. The other form of action needed shanties was heaving. That's a general term, including walking around capstones, acting windlaces, pumps. It needed a slower tempo and a more longer drawn out chorus to accompany the work. Often it was shanties with narratives involved, we use that. You said something in the light out in the house lights. Thank you. Another skill was improvisation. Certainly with the heaving shanties, pumping, for instance, could go on for hours, same as with the capstone winches. The song had to be stretched out to cover the entire job, so there was a degree of improvisation there. So for our first song, I'm going to ask Neil to sing a song which where improvisation was called for. Very old shanty people roll the chariot along, but simply whatever the shanty man sang, the crew, which is going to be you will repeat it. I'm going to sing the chorus. Neil. Take it away. I've got the words on the screen, so I'll move on. Oh, a drop of Nelson's blood wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a drop of Nelson's blood wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a drop of Nelson's blood wouldn't do us any harm and will all hang on behind. And will roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, and will all hang on behind. Oh, a plate of Irish stew wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a plate of Irish stew wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a plate of Irish stew wouldn't do us any harm and will all hang on behind. So we'll roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, and will all hang on behind. Oh, a nice fat coat wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a nice fat coat wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a nice fat coat wouldn't do us any harm and will all hang on behind. So we'll roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, and will all hang on behind. Oh, a roll in the clover wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a roll in the clover wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a roll in the clover wouldn't do us any harm and will all hang on behind. So we'll roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, and will all hang on behind. Oh, a pint on the bar wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a pint on the bar wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a pint on the bar wouldn't do us any harm and will all hang on behind. So we'll roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, and will all hang on behind. Oh, a nice watch below wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a nice watch below wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a nice watch below wouldn't do us any harm and will all hang on behind. So we'll roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, and will all hang on behind. Oh, a droplet nonsense bird wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a droplet nonsense bird wouldn't do us any harm. Oh, a droplet nonsense bird wouldn't do us any harm and will all hang on behind. So we'll roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, will roll the old chariot along, and will all hang on behind. Thank you. And especially the words weren't just, it weren't just about economics, they also had social aspects on board. Shanti made much more of the song to suit the sailors. Start of a voyage, the crew probably would not know well or not that, and they come from various backgrounds, various levels of ability various nationalities and various languages. So, certainly for newcomers, a shanty man, the singing helped them to feel like sailors. There were bits of sailors' lore in there, lots of that sales attitudes to work and to women. And the idea was to get a degree of camaraderie, basically, to net a disparate group of blokes into a working crew. In older pounds, shanties were very much an exercise in nostalgia, talking about shared experiences had or shared experiences they would like to have had. My three themes for shanties are going to add sexism to those as well because frankly, some of the songs were not entirely politically correct. They offered promises to the guy, promises of female company when they get to their destinations, and also warnings about the dangers of female company, dangers to their wealth, and I won't go into this much else but also dangers to their health. I asked Nick to choose a shanty to sing, and he chose this one, all in a way. Little Sally Rackett, all in a way. She wore my best jacket, all in a way. And she lost the ticket, all in a way. With a holy eye, all in a way. Little Kitty Carson, all in a way. Had it with the parson, all in a way. Now she's got a parson, all in a way. And a holy eye, all in a way. Little Betty Baker, all in a way. Run off with a freaker, all in a way. Guess a mongoon shaker, all in a way. With a holy eye, all in a way. Little Lucy Skinner, all in a way. And she's a beginner, all in a way. But she prefers it to her dinner, all in a way. So boys and women, all in a way. Little Dolly Duncan, all in a way. Watches in the bucket, all in a way. She's a homogeneo monkey, all in a way. With a holy eye, all in a way. Little Nancy Dawson, all in a way. The red flannel draws on, all in a way. Says the poor old Wilson, all in a way. And the holy eye, all in a way. All in a top now, all in a way. All in a deadlock now, all in a way. And we'll stretch all up now, all in a way. That would be a knock now, all in a way. We haven't finished with the ladies yet, there's one more song about ladies. I'll make the point that another skill of the shanty man was actually fitting the songs to the voyage. Outward bound, he'd be singing about New York girls, about the joys of old boys, about ports like Valparaiso, Callio, and the fun they were going to get round the hall. Outward bound, they'd be singing about Liverpool Jews, Liverpool pubs, girls on Ratcliffe Highway in London. This meal's going to do now one more day, which is somewhat more tender, sentimental song. It's got really lovely tune, so one more day, Neil. How's the time to leave her, Johnny? One more day. Did you swear you'd not deceive her, Johnny? One more day. Only one more day, Johnny. One more day. One more rock and roll me over, Johnny. One more day. For we're homeward bound tomorrow, Johnny. One more day. Would you leave her without sorrow, Johnny? One more day. Only one more day, Johnny. One more day. One more rock and roll me over, Johnny. One more day. And should she ever doubt you, Johnny? One more day. She would break her heart without you, Johnny. One more day. Only one more day, Johnny. One more day. Oh, come rock and roll me over, Johnny. One more day. Only one more day together, Johnny. One more day. No more gales, no heavy weather, Johnny. One more day. Only one more day, Johnny. One more day. Oh, come rock and roll me over, Johnny. One more day. Come on, lover, Johnny. One more day. And let the starlight be our cover, Johnny. One more day. Only one more day, Johnny. One more day. Oh, come rock and roll me over, Johnny. One more day. Don't you hear the old man growling, Johnny? One more day. Don't you hear the old man growling, Johnny? One more day. Only one more day, Johnny. One more day. Come on, rock and roll me over, Johnny. One more day. Hello, Neil. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thanks. We're home with that tomorrow. That was very much a home and bound chanting. Next, drink. These were drunken sailors off the mochilu in the 1930s. A shore, of course. With. Many sailors have been drinking before they came on board. They might still have the old bottle with them, but drink for the crew was very much prohibited during the voyage, for reasons of discipline, it was hard enough to get the people to work anyway without letting them, letting them drink. To the officers, of course, they would probably have plenty of drink, but not the crew. Lying from, as versed from Liverpool, Judith, a smart Yankee packet, lies out in the bay, awaiting a fair wind for to get on the way. With all of a sail, it's so second, so sore. They've drunk all their whiskey and can't get no more. A lament about the lack of drink on board. Two aspects, again, that one is the delight of drink. And there's a wonderfully raucous song here. This is going to lead whiskey. Oh, Johnny. Oh, man. Always since the war began. Whiskey. Oh, Johnny. Rise up from down below. Whiskey. Whiskey. Whiskey. Oh, it's up a lot. Rise up from down below. Whiskey is a life of man. Whiskey from an old tin can. Whiskey. Oh, Johnny. Oh, rise up from down below. Whiskey. Whiskey. Whiskey. Oh, it's up a lot. This yard must go. Rise up from down below. Whiskey, baby, public boat. Whiskey, baby, a broken note. Whiskey. Oh, Johnny. Rise up from down below. Whiskey. Whiskey. Whiskey. Oh, it's up a lot. This yard must go. Rise up from down below. I thought I had the old man saying, I'd make me through in a decent way. Whiskey. Oh, Johnny. Oh, rise up from down below. Whiskey. Whiskey. Whiskey. Oh, it's up a lot. This yard must go. Rise up from down below. I'd make me through in a decent way. If I'll whiskey twice a day. Whiskey. Oh, Johnny. Oh, rise up from down below. Whiskey. Whiskey. Whiskey. Oh, it's up a lot. This yard must go. Rise up from down below. I'd glass the whiskey all around. A bottle full of a shanty man. Whiskey. Oh, Johnny. Oh, rise up from down below. Whiskey. Whiskey. Whiskey. Oh, it's up a lot. This yard must go. Rise up from down below. Thank you very much, Peter. There is, of course, the other aspect of drink, what it does to a sail at the shore. I think the guys would call this guy's situation bully in the alley. And would you believe there's a shanty? No. I think it's a bit of a shanty. I think you did. It talks about me as well. I love. Yeah. Hey, bully in the alley. Yeah. But I strive to. Oh, so. Oh, I'm fully in the alley way. Bully in the alley, Bully down the chimpo now For seven long years I caught it sally Wait, hey, Bully in the alley Of course it was Dilly and Dally Bully down the chimpo now So help me ball, I'm Bully in the alley Wait, hey, Bully in the alley Help me ball, I'm Bully in the alley Bully down the chimpo now So I let myself and I went to sailing Wait, hey, Bully in the alley Signed on a big ship, I went to wailing Bully down the chimpo now So help me ball, I'm Bully in the alley Wait, hey, Bully in the alley Help me ball, I'm Bully in the alley Bully down the chimpo now If ever I get back I'll marry little Sally Wait, hey, Bully in the alley Have six kids and live in chimpo now Bully down the chimpo now So help me ball, I'm Bully in the alley Wait, hey, Bully in the alley Help me ball, I'm Bully in the alley Bully down the chimpo now I thought I heard the old man saying Wait, hey, Bully in the alley One more call and we'll be laying Bully down the chimpo now So help me ball, I'm Bully in the alley Wait, hey, Bully in the alley Help me ball, I'm Bully in the alley Bully down the chimpo now Should Bully in the alley, thank you now The sale of the sessions, which I've described as rock and roll earlier on, we have rock and roll, the overboard point what rock and roll originally meant, I don't think I want to go into no various series about it from quite rude but on most voyages there was plenty of time plenty of chance to be rock and roll overboard So this theme was really about the realities of shipboard life, the dangers, the weather, hard labor in all sorts of weather, harsh discipline and poor food So again, there's two aspects to this and the song we've added one is a warning to other sales, especially younger sales about some of the dangers they might face This I'm pretty sure didn't start life as a shanty, it was a recreational song but I think it got converted into a shanty by having this chorus with scraper and will scrub up with holiestone and sand, that's of course referring to the way of cleaning the decks of a wooden sailing ship using a stone a bit like a pumice stone and sand another job for the sailors Peter, would you do a nuisance and let maybe leave out the one, two, three, four, four thirds, it's okay now it's up and off, I'll cue you at one You're the bully boys of Liverpool, I'll have you to beware Do you sail a water package ship, don't ever reach home from the boat, what have a big bucket of head all ready to be on hand, for I've got some cold or westerz on the banks of youth and land, we'll scrape her and we'll scrub up with holiestone and sand and we'll think of them cold or westerz on the banks of youth and land when walls jacked it from pallet and hitched it Murphy, have some more, I tell you how they suffered like hell on the way to Baltimore for they pulled the pier into a pole and sailed as laid it's path and that boat is some cold or westerz on the banks of youth and land we'll scrape her and we'll scrub up with holiestone and sand and we'll think of them cold or westerz on the banks of youth and land the way used to look a fox or dick and lallery before come wrap her in the holy voice prepared for America's war to wash the blood off of the balance face of him to feed the band for that boat is some cold or westerz on the banks of youth and land we'll scrape her and we'll scrub up with holiestone and sand and we'll think of them cold or westerz on the banks of youth and land and how we're off the hook people of the lands all white and snow soon we'll see the patriarchal and spend the night alone around them docks come down in fluff and freak out those that did more with me than the days that sleep of the banks of youth and land we'll scrape her and we'll scrub up with holiestone and sand and we'll think of them cold or westerz on the banks of youth and land the other aspect of shipboard life was i think i've gone too far growling shanty gave an opportunity to see them to let off steam it was generally not so much allowed but they got away with singing rudely about the ship about the about the officers during a shanty so they were tempted to growl about food poor equipment on the ship low pay incompetent officers often came in for a lot of stick they didn't mind ones who were disciplinary but could do the job but they were very rude about ones who couldn't and again back to discipline a bosom two free with the cat the classic growling song is lever johnny lever traditionally this was only at the song at the very end of the voyage into your home port just when he did the final pumping out of the ship or the using the capstone to walk the ship into dock by then it was most of the guys have received their pay the night before it was too late for the officers to do anything about it so they could be as rude as they liked to anyone this this one has got innumerable verses i asked mick to suggest a couple that i didn't want or two more so nick leave her johnny lever i don't know and it's time for us to leave her leave her johnny lever oh leave her johnny lever oh the voyage is done and the winds don't blow and it's time for us to leave her oh i thought i heard the old man say leave her johnny lever tomorrow you will get your pay and it's time for us to leave her leave her johnny lever oh leave her johnny lever oh the voyage is done and the winds don't blow and it's time for us to leave her oh a dollar a day is a cash choice pay leave her johnny lever oh you're pumping all night and you're working all day and it's time for us to leave her leave her johnny lever oh leave her johnny lever oh the voyage is done and the winds don't blow and it's time for us to leave her all the wind was foul all work no play leave her johnny lever to do the winnable doll from the criss-cull bait and it's time for us to leave her leave her johnny lever oh leave her johnny lever all the voyage is done and the winds don't blow and it's time for us to leave her she was poverty stricken and perish leave her johnny lever and the blooming crew is fever strict and it's time for us to leave her leave her johnny lever oh leave her johnny lever all the voyage is done and the winds don't blow and it's time for us to leave her well i pray that we will never well i pray that we never will we'll see leave her johnny lever a hungry bitter like starchy and it's time for us to leave her leave her johnny lever oh leave her johnny lever all the voyage is done and the winds don't blow and it's time for us to leave her we've got out all the dirty parts you've got one e no a good shanty man can improvise his way through no extra verses can't read and sing in the same style well okay i'll get next time i'll get something to do both a bit of history again um i'll call it the timeline of the shanty the next question is to when shanties arose there are various bits in odd tracks talking about work songs on board ship in the 15th century but for next three centuries there's very little and people say there's no evidence well absence of evidence doesn't mean evidence of absence and i'm sure there was singing on ships most of the shanties we know today probably arose in the early 19th century one of the not very good bits of evidence for this is how they referenced contemporary events or events in living memory for instance there's quite a lot of shanties talking about the polio or bony and there's also two interesting shanties obviously written after the um mexican-american war of 1846 but one of which talks about how general tale again today in the next one how his opponent satiana gained the day at the bottle at baton mont hill ray so there are events in the 19th century in there what probably economically what happened is in the period of peace after the polionic wars trade began expanding in thanks partly to the industrial revolution if trade grew more ships were needed faster ships and more complex ships so again i was an incentive among ship owners to work their crews harder and bring in shanties most of the shanties we know are from this period oh really probably this is thought to have arisen in the usa um the time after the 1812 war Britain and America which i probably would characterize as a score draw nobody really won um they we were beaten in the old battle but american invasion of Canada was repelled which is useful to know when you're talking to any americans in all their wars the american merchant marine was probably unrivaled at the beginning of that century certainly the british merchant navy was a bit more vulnerable frankly partly because it was protecting navigation laws which weren't repealed till halfway the century really meant that trade between british and british empire ports was confined to british ships so there wasn't that much competition the the yanks however um were fighting for business and built often really very fast ships of package ships crossing the atlantic which would be carrying immigrants there was obviously competition to make good passages there and east to west before the railroads were built and well before the panamaic and elders built the best way of getting to the east and sea board to west and sea board was go by ship okay you had to go all the way around k4 but it was probably better than buying a horse and wagon and joining a wagon train and going across there um so there was a tendency to timetable sailing which really isn't something you could easily do with a sailing ship and you don't know what the weather was and there was a premium but on speed and efficiency so for instance you could predict that a ship would sail from new york on a saturday and probably what six weeks two months later the people would be in san francisco meant really the ships were what sailors call hard wrong so they were worked very hard and the crew were very worked very hard british seamen did not like these and they tend to criticize them yanky bloodboats for the harsh discipline one boy so one suspects that the british seamen were looked on as a bit a bit soft compared with the with the locals um and that period really was sort of the zenith of u.s ship building they were building very fast very fine lined wooden ships this is one of the most famous builders donald macai of boston and that's the last ship he's built glory of the seas she was worried that she was very fast indeed and she these ships weren't really to pass in seed until the t-clip was kept along and some of the records they made for day sailing if they are correct are quite remarkable so the americans really were ahead of the game there people reckon that the age of the shanty was what about 1830 to 1860 1870 quite honestly I query that because steam didn't really start to offer major competition for sailing ships until about 1870 and you'd imagine that the answer competition from steam would stimulate the ship owners to work their ships and their crews harder so they did need shanties still um 1870s that the shanty didn't climb was it really the sailing ship's got larger and more complex you probably needed more crew and worked them harder this thing's an exception it's he's I think the only five-mastage ship ship boring ship ever built uh the german pusan and if you look on lord her there's a lot of ropes to pull okay they've got um a kind of called uh Jarvis winches to help with some of the very but there's still plenty of work to sails to do so I don't think the shanty was redundant until considerably later there's an anecdote about a ship in Liverpool the cambrian monarch iron ship in the mercy in the 1890s and somebody went on board was very pleased to hear the sailors chaining a roving as they walked around the castle interesting factoid about uh Liverpool ships many of which were owned in north wales and the owners came from the northwest tip of north north wales Anglesey can oven and of course they recruited local people from the local villages and they were reckoned to be very good singers because of course they were used to singing in chapel on Sundays and one suspect every sunday there probably was a church service unborn well ships they're also well shanties I don't know anybody but apparently there are looking now at mother vex question which is the musical origin of shanties what is suspected to have happened is the initial ones were songs that the sailors and brought with them from home they were probably mainly from british isles or were british settlers in usa and canada but they were strongly influenced by music and things they heard in the gulf thoughts of new in the gulf of mexico what hugel described as a shanty mar where sailors got together shanty man especially and swapped songs and also picked them up from the people for sure now i'm not entirely sure how am i politically correct to talk about black music i'm going to do it anyway um there was much contact with black stevedores who were be loading the ships with cotton now before emancipation they would be be slaves but they all would be carrying on working after emancipation there were west indian sailors on british ships after slavery was abolished in the british empire and this is a fact that i almost wish i didn't know actually um much of the work on plantations was needed to be done in the summer there was less work to do in the winter so the slave owners the good capitalists what did they do they hired their slaves out to work on ships i think this was probably confined to us coastal ships because otherwise if they went to ports where there was no slavery the guys would probably have a good chance to hop it so there were plenty of contact between guys on the on the ships and guys for sure after emancipation you know people had a choice, exclaimed carry on working on the plantations if they could drift north industry there i'll go on board ship and a lot of them did and british and american ships had black and white crews um of course racism being what it was they weren't mixed so there would be a black watch and a white watch and they really wouldn't mean they'd both be working alternately there they were known as sort of checkerboard crews another influence to riverboat to some the sea shanties comes from song song on riverboats for instance you can tell by the by the titles the shanty roll the woodpile down probably originated on the Mississippi the woodpiles being the piles of timber that were waiting for the early steamboats to to use shawnee town it comes from the Ohio but hog-eyed man is believed to be a type of vessel barge found in rivers in Tennessee they were borrowed and adapted by shanty singers a site digression question we're often asked did the royal navy sing shanties most authors say no never some will allow that drunken sailor was possibly allowed well you think of crews on naval ships were probably adequate to do most of the jobs that was required and the other point is that growling would not be tolerated growling complaining about the ship or the cruise or the the office especially would almost be tantamount to mutiny so it just didn't happen however there's one song that has naval origins that was apparently sometimes used as a shanty and it's probably one you may remember i remember singing this along the old radio at well i was in primary school the influence of sassel short was still around and we got to sing folk songs like this it's a very old song it's at least pretty middle of the 18th century so Peter would you like to give us spanish ladies my trove really saiths we'll rant and we'll roar all on the south sea until we strike soundings in the channel from mushing to silly is 35 days wave our ship to with the wind to the south wave our ship to just like sun in south was born in my father's the white sandy one and straight off the channel the holy note it's there we'll rant and we'll roar like true British saiths we'll rant and we'll roar all on the south sea until we strike soundings in the channel from mushing to silly is 35 days well the first man we made is Walter Gottman let's wave head off the west start portland and white be survived reaching by fair light and children and therefore away from the south woman light we'll rant and we'll roar like true British saiths we'll rant and we'll roar all on the south sea until we strike soundings in the channel from mushing to silly is 35 days the signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor all in the downs at night for to lie they stand by your stoppers let go your champagne haul up your blue garnet then tax and street why we'll rant and we'll roar like true British saiths we'll rant and we'll roar all on the south sea until we strike soundings in the channel from mushing to silly is 35 days now let it be man bought down it's full bottom let it be man drink off his full glass oh we will be jolly and run very calmly and quick to the health of his true heart it lasts we'll rant and we'll roar like true British saiths we'll rant and we'll roar all on the south sea until we strike soundings in the channel from mushing to silly is 35 days thank you very much is anybody else remember singing up primary school yeah just love old must aspect really um cultural side shanty singing today obviously there was a major revival of interest in official music in the 50s and 60s where i first got interested um but i can tell you that shanty singing is alive and well surviving there's a vehicle for participative singing this this it's even survived the sort of decay or not decay the the closing down of various folk clubs with various shanty festivals around the country but are usually very well attended like this one at Harwich now like a lot of folk events folk music and folk dance events these are very much grassroots events they happen because of some hard work by a few individuals who in some cases take quite serious financial risk by putting it on the participants are mostly amateurs who might get a few travel expenses a recombination and maybe a few beers a lot of people sing just because they like doing it and they probably like beer as well but as you'll see from this not all just shanty singers are not only bearded old men um you've heard of the fisherman's friends well despite having some best-selling records and having a good old british field road movie made about them basically they're just a bunch of guys fishermen and other people from the town who meet every week on the seafront called isa the sing basically and collect the shanty they're just doing it for the sheer love of it not quite the same league as fisherman's friends but shanties can be heard in south London and there are a group of us several people who are here tonight who meet regularly in the poor born someone's back garden to sing shanties and do occasional performance so we're not there yet um this may be controversial but it seems to me the attraction of shanties they are to me not just as they're good songs to sing but they're almost pure folk music no one knows who made them up they're handed down orally from one singer to another they weren't until end of last century actually written down you know the process has been handed down they're often changed they're modified they might be improved sometimes they're actually sanitised but it's a it's a living folk process and often they were set to music and was borrowed from entirely different traditions so i think basically the shanty is an art form re-cherished very quick notes about sources like knowledge man stan hugel um his shanty in a sense he's probably about the most useful book available on shanties he's mostly basically a compiler and a and a commentator he claims to have done been above square root himself as a singer um the garthor was probably the last british square root ship sailing commercially um i'm going to say it's a bit like an antiquarian book really he's collecting things and deeply met on his voyages he often gives multiple versions to be honest it wasn't sort of isn't very sort of rigorous academic to be honest but he did a good job in compiling it a little more rigorous with special sharp with his english folk shanties and of course i'll back to our friend john short i was a book published about him a few years ago um which really will tell you more than you probably want to know about john shane flyer tom brown again he wrote that you've also you've got all his shanties in the back of the book but the guy who did it i think was speaking as a maritime historian being obsessive myself he actually tried to trace every voyage john short and dawn this is a monumental task um mostly once i include it in the thing but acknowledgements people i need to acknowledge most of the people who came along to sing tonight neil thank you for all of you who actually joined in tonight thanks very much indeed well very good for our time indeed well actually then sure stop for a share then now then um let's just have a look here what do you need staff for this question all right all right you'd like the fielders he's here he's in the ether oh he's in there he's in here he's sorry i know these shanties related mostly to north atlantic well we're leaving for botany might be commercial are there references to eastern suites almost certainly yes um there are lots of shanties that talk about yellow girls um i think the the thing is that course of trade to australia lasted longer in sailing ships than it did across the atlantic and i think there was probably more competition on the atlantic for passages um i'm sure there was for australia as well to be honest i can't think of any specific ones about australia could anybody south australia south australia thank you yes so yes wrong any other comments are there any not out of the taxis because uh in fridgen yes so that and they are norway holland holland um i think most countries in the island most nations are out sea feathers in sail some shanties right but they hurry up shanty first we should come along you will probably hear groups from around europe coming there but there's also a very rude shanty in a fake german axis my father was like dutchman between yah yah yah and it goes on yes yeah right thank you that's brilliant um do you have any do you have a firm diary methods to people making sable atlantic crossing as passengers when you're hearing the saying that sing it which is very alien the interesting thing was they reckon when they were on passenger ships the shanty thing was actually moderated their language not to upset the passengers but there's certainly plenty of references and allergic to the sailors the same thing not always wrote down what they did sing but they certainly were were were mentioned about the methods and diaries sir this is a really shanty but we're about 15 feet long and we just put the the two of them what is the word basically the indian stevedores they're both like that and they used to have a sense of their feelings and they'd shift these in a tiny bit in a huge way i mean the whole history of the works is driving spikes on the road to the u.s um and walking walking songs in the hand of these here's the people handling the slot um it probably it's probably really means that they had to be the set of singing especially um so that's interesting yeah part of the part of the works on to this note but a lot of north american works on the survival of some war that's the point of many changes to be done to more important music yeah um do you know of any of the sea shanties rather than works on the maritime issue that long we've seen about people may want to know the same challenges um we did um what's your my name is spinus spinus yeah spinus question i can't think of any other shanties so do you have any ideas why one set of work songs i just have to expect it to ever choose a song you know then so an observation from the jimmy press and the banks of London some shanties mostly from John McGee and the other time it's very good proof now we're joining from home Jim McGee published a short article last year on the black origins of sea shanties that'd be interesting i'm very interested in that yes thank you who was it virginian question virginia okay thank you virginia wasn't not okay yeah occupations how does that intersect a folk tradition that must come to know at some point then that works um very watery way it was an option but for sales so there was much crossover between that i suspect but the way they got separated when it became very much comes to me i suspect them were the songs developed greenland whale fisheries and there's some good new zealots on this yeah the mother man i wasn't going to mention the mother man but you know um if you go down to Picton from Wellington just inside the heads of Picton sorry the old lady's face was just around the start so yeah it's probably it's still there i think you have to distinguish between songs really worse something by sales and more than one written that's like there's some great songs that have not sold which is about a well-tapped tribute to mementar wonderful song and the where great um so big journals it's all basically about ship the diamond my imagination is we have some competition outside somebody's singing and they're just trying to trying to do us oh yeah okay i think it's pretty clear that they didn't they didn't don't do us i think uh Roy up in himself uh uh as they did uh and and the singer uh very much appreciated uh the whole package was appreciated so i think we should express that in a different way okay