Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-26
MELODIES OF THE FoReoAsrLe


The chantey Is another Of the passing
conditions OF the picturesque and ro-
mantle side of the sea life. The snort
ing Of the donkey engine and the
ehamping Of the steam capstan have
almost entirely taken its place.
It is the music Of the sailing ship;
the measures to which the windass Is
hove around, sheets and halliards
bowsed taut, the pump wheels kept
clanking and by which a hundred and
one toilsome Jobs are lightened
Curiously enough, although the Brit
lsh shellback has made these songs pc
culiarly his own, most of them are
American I'm their origin. Their titles
and choruses hear evidence of this.
In the 40s, when the famous Balti-
more clippers were seriously menacing
our own commercial supremacy of the
sea, the Stars and Stripes waved over
as splendid race of sailors as the
world has ever been.
Those were the days of skyscrapers
and moonrakers, when the dog fun
neled paddle packet was still viewed
with derislon and the mariner whose
every finger was a fishhook and every
hair rope yarn" had not yet dreamed
that steam would presently render his
tattooed muscles impotent.
So the chantey was devised in order
that pulling and hauling might be done
In unison and with that gusto which
Is bred of a rousing chorus.
Very plaintive are many of these
tunes. whose echoes have been flung
back from every league along the
trackless highways of the seven seas
To hear n chantey in it's full effec-
tiveness you must needs be sufficient
ly distant not to catch the iarrlng fall
ssakt 49, IL, aIr In.
evitably breaks, nor to hear his inn
promptu anathemas upon the skipper
and the mates.
As the work Of seamanship varies
from the rapid Swinging down" Of jib
sheets or royal haliards to the leisure
ly surging of the windlass handspikes
In picking up an anchor. so is there a
range of melodies to suit the cadence
of every job.
There is picturesque appropriate
ness about many of these chanteys.
Thus when a ship is weighing to start
upon her voyage her crew will heave
in the ponderous cable to the slow. all
most pathetic refrain of "Good-by, fare
ye we'll"
Many a moist eye and many a lump
in the throat has been raised to this
sailor chant of farewell to "a fair lit
tie maiden" who is told that "the wind
does blow so the ship must 60"
On the other hand when vessel is
heaving-up to start for home the
favorite chantey is "Hurrah, my lads,
we're homeward boundr" The chorus
encourages the bully boys" to fresh
exertions by the assurance that when
we come to the West Indee docks, oh!
won't the gels be there in 1ocks?" For
Jack never forgets that the nymphs
have hold of the tow rope.
The ballard chanteys offer the
largest variety. Probably the most
familiar of these is "Blow the Man
Down." which is a swinging, hand over
fist air. Haul the Bowline" is another
melody which I have heard hummed
ashore. With these two exceptions I
have never heard a chantey save on
shipboard.
1t is in the Enthusiastically Yankee
chanteys that we find the prettiest
music. The long. lingering refrain of
Shenandoah, I Love Your Daughter"
has a wild, yearning beauty about 1t
which is reminiscent of Irish melody. at
it's best.
"Way Down Rio," "Blow, Boys.
Blow" "Roll the Cotton Down."
whisky. Johnnie" across the Plains
of Mexico" and "Ranzo" are indigen-
Gus to the American fo'c'sle, although
for three generations past they have
been very familiar in our town.
There is an indescribable haunting
charm about the very simplicity of all
these Yankee chanteys. Doubtless the
romantic quality of their associations
counts for much.
Among the purely English chanteys
we may count storm Along, Boys.
stormy" "Boney Was a Warrior"
"Cheerily, Men" and DANDY Ship and
Dandy Crew"
These working sea. songs may still be
heard, but with growing rareness. Yet
so long as the sailing ship and the
British shellback continue to exist they
will NOT utterly die II london EXPRESS,