The ‘Fame’ of Salem celebrates the privateer of the war of 1812, a replica of which is now sailing out of Salem harbor. We borrowed the tune of The Bold Richard and added a chorus. Larry found You Gentlemen of Boston in the Revolutionary War journal of Timothy Connor, an American prisoner held in Portsmouth, England. Larry took the tune from The Gallant Seaman’s Sufferings, an older version of the song. The broadside ballad Jack Robinson is found in John Ashton’s “Real Sailor Songs.” It comes to us from the singing of Tim Laycock, who remarks that it was in the repertoire of Sam Cowell, an early music hall star. From roughly the same period we get The Steam Packet, a broadside from the press of Harkness of Preston (1840) set to music by Chris Pollington of the English band Strawhead. The ‘Jamestown’ Homeward Bound comes from Joanna Colcord’s book “Songs of American Sailormen,” and refers to the sloop of war built in 1844 which three years later was sent to Ireland with supplies to help relieve the famine.

Several of the songs come from the whaling industry. From the English singer and folklorist A. L. Lloyd (who also worked for a season on a whaling ship in the 1930s) come The ‘Balaena’ and Wings of a Goney. The text of the latter comes from Gale Huntington’s collection of songs from whaling journals, “Songs the Whalemen Sang.” He also prints this version of Rolling Down to Old Maui with the tune he adapted from Frederick Pease Harlow’s “Chanteying Aboard American Ships.” We learned it from the English group Jolly Jack. The French chantey Pique la Baleine, like many of the English songs, is found in several quite different versions. If my recollection is correct I first heard this version from William Pint and Felicia Dale. It is printed (and recorded) in Marc Robine’s “Anthologie de la Chanson Française,” where we also found the rowing song Hourra les Filles, a cheer for the ladies of the port.

The other French song presented here (also found in the “Anthologie”) is Marcherot, a shanty published as long ago as 1888 by Laura Alexandrine Smith in her “Music of the Waters”; she describes it as a chantey particular to the port of Dunkirk. Versions of Serafina and Old Billy Riley-O are found in the chantey singer’s “Bible,” Stan Hugill’s “Shanties from the Seven Seas.” I note here that there are several alternate spellings of the word for a sailor’s work-song; I choose “chantey” as being unique to this purpose. A verse and chorus of Hullabaloo Belay is also given in Hugill, who recounts that the remaining verses were written for popular consumption (indeed, I learned it from Burl Ives). It’s a fine song nonetheless, and I wanted to include it hear to point out its similarity to Marcherot. Checking my references for these notes, I see Stan Hugill made the connection long before I did.

I suspect that the Noah’s Ark Chantey is also more recent. We learned it from the singing of Swan Arcade (yet another English group). Charlie Ipcar of Portland ME is responsible for the musical setting of Hamish MacLaren’s Yangtse River Shanty. I learned it from our good friend Barry Finn (with much patience on his part). Three Jolly Fishermen I heard sung by Ian Robb and the late David Parry. It is a Yorkshire fishermen’s song, and is published in Roy Palmer’s “Oxford Book of Sea Songs.” Finally, I found Nantucket Point in Harlow many years ago, set to the first half of “The Black Joke.” I knew the rest of the tune, and we round out the set with the well-known jig Off She Goes.

Further notes and references may be found on the Golden Hind web page at www.goldenhindmusic.com, along with complete lyrics.