Sea Shanties: Unmooring
This is an example of the purely professional song, dear to the old-time sailor, and full of seamanship. It was a favourite with the prime old shellback, and was all…
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“All Hands on Board, Our Boatswain Cries.” Images from book, by Veronica Whall.
This is an example of the purely professional song, dear to the old-time sailor, and full of seamanship. It was a favourite with the prime old shellback, and was all the more successful in that it had a good chorus about the girls.
Songs Harmonized by R. H. Whall.
Go loose your topsails next he cries,
Top gallant sails, and courses,
Your jibs and royals see all clear,
Haul home those sheets, my hearties.
With a light and pleasant gale
We will crowd aloft our sail.
And we'll think, etc.
Your anchor's now a-peek, he cries,
Vast heaving, lads, vast heaving,
Your cat and fish now overhaul,
The capstan nimbly leaving.
Then obey your boatswain's call,
Walk away with that cat-fall.
And we'll think, etc.
Farewell to friends, farewell to foes,
Farewell to dear relations,
We're bound across the ocean blue,
Bound for a foreign station.
While we cross the raging main,
The Union Jack we will maintain.
And we'll think, etc.
Whall, W. B. Ships, Sea Songs and Shanties. James Brown & Son, 1913.
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