Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest revision: March 27, 2022
One of these quotes includes a list of West Indian songs in Stan Hugill's 1961 book Shanties from the Seven Seas.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Hugill and Harding for their folkloric legacies. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on African Americans and West Indians chanties (shanties). Click the tags given below for previous posts and subsequent posts on this subject.
INFORMATION ABOUT STAN HUGILL AND ABOUT "HARDING THE BARBARIAN"
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Hugill
"Stanley James Hugill (/'hju:ɡɪl/) (19 November 1906 – 13 May 1992)[1] was a British folk music performer, artist and sea music historian, known as the "Last Working Shantyman" and described as the "20th century guardian of the tradition".[1]
Biography
He was born in Hoylake, Cheshire, England,[2] to Henry James
Hugill and Florence Mary Hugill (née Southwood). His sailing career started in
1922, and he retired to dry land in 1945.[2] He notably served as the shantyman
on the Garthpool,[1] the last British commercial sailing ship (a
"Limejuice Cape Horner"), on her last voyage which ended when she was
wrecked on 11 November 1929 off the Cape Verde Islands.[1]
[…]
In the 1950s he also taught sailing skills (and sang sea
shanties) on the sail-training ship Pamir but was not on its ill-fated last
voyage.[1]
[…]
When laid up with a broken leg in the 1950s, he began to
write down the shanties that he had learned at sea, eventually authoring
several books and releasing several LPs of performances later in coordination
with a Merseyside folk group called Stormalong John.[1] Although
"shanty" is also spelled "chantey", Hugill used the former
exclusively in his books.
[…]
-snip-
This is the earliest publishing date for this book.
****
Excerpt #2
| Subject: RE: Where am I to go From Barry Finn Date: 23 Jul 98 - 02:46 PM Enter into the search box, Where Am I To Go Me Johnnies*, & you'll find it there along with midi music. Hugill doesn't say much about this halyard shanty except that he got it from a fellow shantyman, Harding the Barbarian from Barbadoes, a Black sailor who had shipped on Yankee, Brittish, Bluenose & West Indian vessels, a fine shantyman & a 1st rate sailor. He also says he never seen it in print. Barry -snip- |
****
Excerpt #3
From http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/Hugi170.html
"Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas got this ["Roll Boys Roll” shanty] from his friend "Harding the Barbarian," a black sailor and shantyman from Barbados. Harding said it originated in the West Indies and was popular in ships which carried chequerboard crews. – SL"
-snip-
"Chequerboard crews" refers to sailing crews that were composed of Black sailors and White sailors.
****
Excerpt #4
From https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=389056178386468&story_fbid=661317391160344
Szanty Szoguna - Shoguns' Sea Shanties
September 23, 2020
Way Stormalong, John
This shanty same as "Stormalong, Lads, Stormy",
came from the same shantyman
"Harding, the Barbadian Barbarian" from Barbados. About
Harding, the Stan Hugill calls him master of the 'hitch" - the singing
wild yelps at certain points in hauling song. In both foregoing shanties and in
the one which follows - which Stan Hugill also obtained from him - he would
give vent to many wild 'hitches', absolutely impossible for a white man to
copy. It was originally used at the pumps.
"Shanties from the Seven Seas" by Stan Hugill (1st
ed: p 77).
Way Stormalong, John
Oh, Stormy's gone that good ol' man,
- 'Way, Stormalong
John!
Oh, Stormy's gone that good ol' man,
- 'Way-ay, Mister
Stormalong John.
*2*
A good ol' skipper to his crew,
An able seamen bold an' true,
*3*
We dug his grave with a silver spade,
His shroud o' finest silk wuz made.
*4*
Old Stormy heard the Angel call,
So sing his dirge now one an' all.
*5*
He slipped his cable of Cape Horn,
Close by the place where he wuz born.
*6*
I wisht I wuz Ol Stormy's son,
I'd build a ship o' a thousant ton
*7*
I'd sail this wide world round an' round,
With plenty o' money I'd be found..
*8*
We'd sail this ol' world round an' round,
An' get hot rum oh, I'll be bound.
*9*
I'd load her up with Jamaicy rum,
An' all me shellbacks they'd have some.
*10*
We'd git our drinks, lads, every man,
With a bleedin' big bottle for the shantyman.
*11*
I'd load 'er up with grup an' gin,
An' stay in the port that we wuz in.
*12*
I'd feed ye well, an' raise yer pay,
An' stand ye drinks three times a day.
*13*
An' whin we git to Liverpool Town,
We'll dance them judies round an' round.
*14*
Oh, Stormalong an' around we'll go,
Oh, Stormalong through ice an' snow.
*15*
When Stormy died he made a will,
To give us sailors gin to swill.
https://youtu.be/vPuXyXnDv1E
****
Excerpt #5
From http://www.tynefolk.uk/folk-articles-shanties-black-origins Sea Chanties...Black Origins
A look into the origins of these wonderful songs is long overdue.
by Jim Mageean [no publishing date given but copyright 2021]
..."Our greatest shanty collector Stan Hugill ascribed about
120 of the shanties from his 'bible' 'Shanties from the Seven Seas' (1961) to
Black American and Caribbean origins. These were mostly collected from his West
Indian informants Harding the Barbadian, Tobago Smith and 'Harry Lauder' from
the Island of St. Lucia. He even tried to imitate the yelps and 'hitches' these
black shantymen put into their singing of the shanties. Many of these had never
appeared in a shanty collection before including 'ESSEQUIBO RIVER',
ROLL,BOYS.ROLL' and 'WHERE AM I TO GO'. He also collected the great favourite
South Sea Island shanty 'JOHN KANAKA' which he claimed was 'one of a body of
Poynesian shanties'. Stan also made frequent reference to his experience of
'checkerboard crews' (one watch black and one author
Frank Thomas Bullen who along with his friend W.F.Arnold wrote 'Songs of Sea
Labour' in 1914watch white) where
shanty-swapping must have occurred.
[...]
Sadly, apart from Hugill and Bullen, no other major
British collector seems to acknowledge the black origins of some of the
shanties they collected. Most seemed keen to promote them as part of an English
folklore heritage. Consequently the revivals in shanty singing and folk singing
that occurred in the 1920's and 1960's assumed this to be the case. With the
new worldwide revival in interest in shanties that has begun it is important
that we portray them as 'world music' with a multi-ethnic background with
particular emphasis on the black origins of many of them."
-snip-
"Negro" spelled with a lower case "n" was the norm in the 19th century and early 20th century, but even then some people, especially Black people, considered the lack of a capitol letter for "Negro" to be offensive.
-snip-
"Bullen" is "Frank
Thomas Bullen who along with his friend W.F.Arnold wrote 'Songs of Sea Labour'
in 1914"...
****
Excerpt #6
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=46147
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Huckleberry Hunting (Pumping Chantey)
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 02:01 PM
… "I did once read through Hugill with an eye to which
shanties were from Harding, but I didn't keep a strict list. My goal at the
time was to sketch a rough picture of the percentages of what chanteys came
from where. Needless to say, that is impossible to say with any accuracy since
as many people would disagree on the origins (or dismiss the effort as rather
pointless). The number of course will also vary widely depending on what you
count variations. For whatever it's worth though, here are some of my stats:
Total number of shanties, not including textual variants or little "sing outs," is about 181. Usually I counted each different tune as a different chantey. "Blow the Man Down" was counted as a single chantey, despite there being "Flying Fish" version, "Blackballer" version, etc.
Of these, 78 were of "Black" origin. Out of those 78, I filed 47 as Black American and 31 as Caribbean. Keep in mind that this also includes minstrel song types, which are difficult to distinguish from authentic African-American songs of the period. Also, the Caribbean number may seem low because many of the chantey, even if learned from Harding, seemed to originate in the Southern U.S., as minstrel songs, etc.
8 were "American," exclusive of "Black" or "Irish."
"All Others," an undifferentiated category, numbered 80.
I did not note which were "English" specifically, though that number was comparatively few. Moreover, many of these are forebitters that Hugill admitted into the collection on the criterium that he'd hear one person say they had been used as a capstan song. A contrary statement one could make is that they are all really "English," since it was Stan, an Englishman, who sang them!
Take those numbers with several teaspoons of salt.
Gibb"
****
Subject: RE: 'Rare' Caribbean shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 11:26 PM
There are 55 in total, at my count -- I may have missed some. So, a good third of the shanties in Hugill's text came from theses guys
From HARDING 'THE BARBARIAN' OF BARBADOS - 36 shanties:
Stormalong, John
'Way Stormalong John
Stormalong, Lads, Stormy
Sally Brown
Randy Dandy O!
High O, Come Roll Me Over
Where Am I to Go, M'Johnnies
Roll, Boys, Roll
The Codfish Shanty
Ranzo Ray (C)
Hilo, Come Down Below
Hello Somebody
Shallow Brown (B)
Can't Ye Hilo?
The Gal with the Blue Dress
Johnny Come Down the Backstay
Rise Me Up from Down Below
John Kanaka
Hooker John
Haul 'er Away (A)
Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo
Gimme De Banjo
Haul Away, Boys, Haul Away
Walkalong, My Rosie
Coal Black Rose
Bunch o' Roses
'Way Me Susiana
Do Let Me Lone, Susan
Doodle Let Me Go
Sing Sally O (Mudder Dinah) (A)
Sing Sally O (B)
Round the Corner, Sally
Essequibo River
Alabama (John Cherokee)
Dan Dan
Hilonday
From "OLD SMITH" OF TOBAGO:
Lowlands Low
Walkalong You Sally Brown
Hilo Boys Hilo
Good Morning Ladies All (A)
Sing a Song, Blow Along (Dixie Land)
Tiddy High O
From HARRY LAUDER of ST. LUCIA:
Heave Away Boys, Heave Away (B)
Sister Susan (Shinbone Al)
Eki Dumah
Bulley In the Alley
From TRINIDAD, anonymous:
Roller Bowler
Miss Lucy Long
Miss Lucy Loo
From ST. LUCIA, anonymous:
Heave Away Boys, Heave Away (A)
WEST INDIES in general, anonymous:
Roll the Woodpile Down
Tommy's on the Tops'l yard
Haul 'er Away (B)
Good Morning Ladies All (B)
Won't Ye Go My Way?
If Hugill was writing his book in today's era of scholarship, Harding might be listed as a co-author!"
****
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