The Republican journal., 1909-04-29
SONGS OF THE SEA.
Book of Sailor Songs Recently Brought 70
Light.

Light.
A delicious, little, old, grimy book in
Boston collector: 1t is dated at Nov W.
York, 1877, ''printed by John HardcastiIe~
Its winsome title page - D1 abont
inches by 1-2-reads, in varying tvna 40
.'The cabin-boy and fore-castle sa;lpr ;.
delight. Being Tim Maggie the Yankees
Own Native Notions, Compiled bv an
American Tar. A collection of choice
songs, recommended by amateurs Of the
highest commentator, for the use Of ali
care-killing Singers" A rude woodcut
Of first rate 11O-gun ship-drawn on a
truck by six hors es-forms a frontis-
piece. The truck is shown, but not the
horses; the thing; was apparently the
model of ship, built by the American
society of shipwrights in New York, and
shown by the society in procession at the
celebration of the. 10th and 41st ami
versary of American Independence.
The songs are OF the period of slush-
lamps and harness-casks, of pannikin
and grog-ration. They seem hardly what
would be likely to cheer people up; at
least, unless they were of a different
breed in the olden days. If 1.-THE Faith
less Ships Carpenter, !" sung to the tune
of Giles Scroggin's Ghost contained
uplift it merely goes to show that the
fore-castles of the period were all and
more than the writer's have described of
misery. Here's stanza:i a
When received my whole ships pay
Twas sixty score gulneas or more,
put them all into my hat
And they covered the borders Ger.
Twas under my arm rugged them along
And cleared my way through the thick and
the throng,
And 1 called on my la!hdlady for liquor, ding
And it's my money, sai. ors money,
Flies like the dust of g summers day.
And the rest of the song is more frank
than printable. Next comes that defect
able and cheerful ditty, the bay of Bis
cay o. famous history, with its refrain:
There she lay
Till next day
In the bay Of Biscay-O!
"Sam Splice en- was a tar who had
hard luck all the way through, but was a
philosopher about it in hexameters;
Sailors Advice" is a sermon in verse,
and ''Sailor's Money" is moral tale.
The first stanza is fair sample; the rest
merely spend the rest of the money.
A shipwright once npon time,
Yankee doodle doc, Yankee doodle doo
Fell in love with Miss Peppershne
Yankee doodle doc, Yankee doodle doo
He swore upon his sacred life
He'd come back and make her his wife
Or cut his neck with great big knife,
Yankee doodle doc, Yankee doodle doc
In the end, the landlady got all the
money. There are ballads of length,
that go on with conversation between,
wounded sailors and their adoring cap
tains, who assure them that their names
are writ in glory there are scandalous
songs about bandy>legg'd captains, and
sandy-haired widows who send them off,
lined with good brandy-for the sake of
the rhyme-there are mildly patriotic
songs, and the book concludes with
Henry and Jane" most sentimentally.
With laurels crowned, we joyful tell
The day most happy shone;
The sacred vow by each known well
Made Jane and Henry one.
Of course it did, good souls, and the
naive art of the thing is that the book
comes to a happy eniing, though the tars
probably went on other voyages, and, fol-
lowing good old tradition, got their wives
IN every port.