The Washington times., 1901-09-01


lection of naval songs a splendid ballad,
THE Yankee Man-of-War,' which COM
memorates stirring incident of the Ran
gers cruise. The ballad was taken down
from the recitation of a sailor, and it most
certainly is the work of a seaman-no
mere landlubber could have composed a
song so genuinely nautical. Very proba-
bly, it was written by one of the crew of
the daring little ship-and who of that
gallant company is as likely to be the
author as Midshipman Charley Hill?
'Tfs of gallant Yankee ship
That few the Stripes and Stars,
And the whistling wind from the west-nor' west
Blew through the pitcl-pine spars
With her starboard tacks aboard, my boys,
She hung upon the gale;
On autumn night we raised the light
On the head of old kinsale.
II was clear and cloudless night,
The wind blew steady and strong
As gayly over the sparkling deep
Our good ship bowled along,
With the ioaming seas beneath her bow
The fiery waves she spread,
And bending low her bosom OF snow
She buried her lee cathead.
After more equally spirited description.
the ballad tells of the appearance of a
British man-of-war with "consorts four,
and concludes:
"out, boomzl Out boomsn" our skipper cried
out, boomsi and give her sheet.''
And the swiftest keel that ever was launched
Shot ahead of the British feet.
And amid a laundering shower OF shot,
With stuBsails hosting away,
Down the North Channel Paul Jones did steer,
Just at the break of day.
The panic occasioned by Paul Jones'
later descent upon the Scottish coast,
and the chagrin that followed the capture
of the Scraps by the Bon Homme Rich
ard, are clearly reflected in British bal
lads of the period. The Caledonian pen
simply sputtered vituperation at the ''pi-
rate and traitor A wretched bit of
doggerel of 1779, entitled "A New Song of
Paul Jones, the Cumberland Militia and
Scarborough Volunteers, to the tune of
the Abbot of Canterbury" begins In this
promising manner:
Come each loyal Briton of courage so bold,
As annals show, you would ne'er be con-
trolled
1t vexes my patience, IN sure. night and day,
To think how that traitor, Paul Jones' got away.
This ballad goes on to tell with ludi-
crcus gravity how, on the advent of the
dreaded pirate the brave militia and vol
unteers drew their swords-and put them
up again. 1t also recounts how this wick
ed Paul Jones was once servant of Lord
Selkirk. and how he committed murder
and was condemned to death, and how
he broke jail "and Joined with the French
for>to pull down our laws"
WhNe this song minimizes the exploit
of Commodore Jones by explaining that
the Se1ap,s and the Countess of Scarbor-
ough succumbed to odds of Six to two an
American ballad of the time goes toward
the other extreme by adding merchant
feet TO the commodore's captures:
Now, nv brave boys, we have taken prize,
A large a. with 20 likewise
With 25 merchantmen laden with store,
So we'll alter course to the American
shore.
Possibly the twenty-five merchant
men, is intended to summarize all the
prizes taken by the squadron during the
cruise; if so, it is probably well within
the truth.
Another Song of Paul Jones'" to the
tune of "Ye Jacobites by Names" was
published by "Hackston, schoolmaster
of Borgue, Galloway, Candidste-lau-
reate''-whatever that last may be. 1t
was evidently inspired by the mournful
piratical ballad that begins:
Ny name was Captain Kidd, as l sailed, as
sailed.
After catching the swing of the opening
lines the reader can readily supply the
necessary repetitions in the subsequent
stanzas of Schoolmaster Hackston's In
terrogative masterpiece:
He went TO Lord selkirk's hall, did he not9 did
he mott
He went TO Lord Selkirk's hall robb'd d plate and
jewels and all,
Which did his conscience gall. did it not?
He is a murderer, is he not? is he not?
He is murderer. for he kilrd his Carpenter;
He kilTd his Carpenter, did he not?
The charge of robbery contained in the
stanza is based upon a much-discussed
episode of the Rangers cruise. A party
of sailors, landing on st. Marys Isle
carried off a few pieces of plate from the
castle of the Earl of Selkirk. This prop
erty Captain Jones redeemed at his own
cost, and. at the earliest opportunity. re-
turned it to the earl, who fully acknowl-
edged the scrupulous conduct of the
American commander. The more serious
accusation embalmed in the last stanza
is an echo of an incident that befeli when
Captain Paul-as he was then calIed-was
master of a merchant vessel. While on
trip to the West Indies he was compelled
to knock down a mutinous mulatto with
the ship at Tobago, the man died, al
though not until after he had taken pas
sage on another ship. Paul Jones was
fully exonerated by the authorities at To-
bago. but. through the malice of secret
enemies. was prosecuted for murder on
his return to Whitehaven. He was again
acquitted, first on the ground that it was
doubtful whether the mans death was
due to the blow, and secondly that the
captains action was fully justified by the
circumstances. Nevertheless, the matter
has been constantly raised against him
in every variety of distortion.
We Americans are too prone to think of
England as united again against the cause
of the Colonies in the Revolutionary War,
forgetting the sturdy championship of
such leaders as Lord Chatham, Charles
Fox. Edmund Burke. Lord Shelburne.
Lord Camden, and the Duke of Richmond,
to say nothing of the opponents of the
Kings reckless policy among the rank
and file of the nation. In the following