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Sea shanties of the early 1700s?


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Hi,

For a writing project I'm working on (same one I was asking about the ships for), I'm trying to figure out what sea shanties would've been around by 1721. As far as I can tell, "All For Me Grog" and "Health To The Company" were written after 1721, and I'm wondering if there are any others out there I could use.

Thanks!

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"Captain kidds farewell to the seas" was written right after his death,the "maid of amsterdam" is absoululy ok, as well as some earlier versions of "blow the man down" unfortunatly, most shanties that we sing today are from the nineteenth century , though many of those are probably based on earlier songs....we just may not have the proof yet....im sure there are others..i just cant think of them all now......hope it helps some.....

Edited by Cross

-Israel Cross-

- Boatswain of the Archangel - .

Colonial Seaport Foundation

Crew of the Archangel

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Also, as I recall, "Henry Martin" is a very old song, and is based on an even older one that goes back to... I believe the Elizabethan period. Though I s'pose it's not technically a shanty, but a ballad.

Edited by Captain McCool

Captain Jack McCool, landlocked pirate extraordinaire, Captain of the dreaded prairie schooner Ill Repute, etc. etc.

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"That’s what a ship is, you know. It’s not just a keel, and a hull, and a deck, and sails. That’s what a ship needs. But what a ship is… what the Black Pearl really is… is freedom."

-Captain Jack Sparrow

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While neither of these songs were chanties per say they were both very popular amongst seamen of the late seventeenth century. One is "The Famous Fight at Malago" (1666) and the other is "Neptune's Raging Fury; or the Gallant Seaman's Sufferings" (1635) You can find documentation as well as tunes online. I want to say I found them on a Californian University's site. They had scans of Samuel Peyps' ballad collection and have almost all the items scanned online. If I can find the link I will post it. Now on second thought both of those tunes while ballads could be used as windlass or capstan chanties.

Yours & co.

CJ

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Hi,

For a writing project I'm working on (same one I was asking about the ships for), I'm trying to figure out what sea shanties would've been around by 1721. As far as I can tell, "All For Me Grog" and "Health To The Company" were written after 1721, and I'm wondering if there are any others out there I could use.

Thanks!

Down Among the Dead Men is attribute to John Dyer - 1700-1758. The tune is even earlier - to around 1700.

The Downfall of Piracy was written around 1719 about Blackbeard's last stand. It is rumored that Ben Franklin wrote it.

Mark

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Having found Samuel's broadsheets from the 1600 to 1700 period, I can see why these ditties are no longer popular. I must've looked through a hundred or so now.

http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/

-- Hurricane

-- Hurricane

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Having found Samuel's broadsheets from the 1600 to 1700 period, I can see why these ditties are no longer popular. I must've looked through a hundred or so now.

http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/

-- Hurricane

Thanks for posting the link. There are some interesting ones in there, though I haven't tried playing any of them yet. I liked "A Hot EngagementBetweenA French Privateer, and an English Fire-Ship" about a ship being pressed by a French privateer - from the point of view of the ship!

Black William

Here's a bloody rum to a life of sailing free - Black William

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Info on period tunes on the Contemplator.com website (by country)-

http://www.contemplator.com/bycount.html

One of my favorites, said to originate from the late 1600's or early 1700's-

Whiskey in the Jar

And of course, it's St. Patrick's Day.

Yours, &c.

Mike

Try these for starters- "A General History of the Pyrates" edited by Manuel Schonhorn, "Captured by Pirates" by John Richard Stephens, and "The Buccaneers of America" by Alexander Exquemelin.

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  • 9 months later...

My personal Favorite ballade is ''Captain Ward" There are several versions The origonal was written by Child and registered around 1680. Essentually it relates the story of a battle between a King's ship and a pirate named Captain Ward. In some versions he writes a letter to the King asking for pardon for him and his men, in others he plunders a ship and "Bids them tell the King'' but the king commisions a man'o'war to be built called the Rainbow or sometimes Royale Rainbow which hunts him down and after as running battle the Rainbow finds it cannont defeat Ward who says "go hom go home' cries captain ward 'And tell your king for me, if he reigns king all on the land than I am king of sea"

Here is a site with lyrics and info: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/ward.html

Let every man Know freedom, Kings be damned,

And let the Devil sort out the mess afterwards.

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According to www.contemplator.com, here are some of my favorite tunes and the approximate times they first appeared:

The Golden Vanity - 1685

Farewell and Adieu (All ye dear Spanish Ladies) - No approximate date for the song, but first mentioned in the log of The Nellie in 1796.

The Mermaid - Mid 1700's

Miss Bailey's Ghost - Credited by George Colman the elder (1732-1794) (Burl Ive's claims the song goes back to the 16th Century)

The Bay of Biscay-O! - Based on a tune circa 1660

And, because I'm a whore (but, aren't we all?) the last of these three are on my new CD, Henry Martin: Around the Bay...

here's a clip of The Bay of Biscay-O!

Edited by Henry Martin
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"Captain kidds farewell to the seas" was written right after his death,the "maid of amsterdam" is absoululy ok,

Maid of Amsterdam is often thought to date from about 1609 because, according to shanty authority W.B. Whall, it appeared in Thomas Heywood's play of that year, The Rape of Lucrece. Unfortunately, Whall was mistaken, and no such song appears in the play. Whether or not there's another source which dates it to before the GAoP, I don't know.

Captain Kidd appears in print, as you say, right after his death.

Foxe

"With this Fore-Staff he fansies he does Wonders, when, God knows, it amounts to no more but only to solve that simple Question, Where are we? Which every chi'd in London can tell you." - Ned Ward The Wooden World Dissected, 1707


ETFox.co.uk

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nnnnnoooooooooooo.........*cries in a huddled mass........thankfully, i have sense discovered a college resource for 17th century broadsides.........which i now use instead.....English Broadside Ballad Archive thanks for pointing that out master foxe, it shall be noted and not used.......i like this on better anyway! Villany Rewarded, or the Pirates Last Farewell

-Israel Cross-

- Boatswain of the Archangel - .

Colonial Seaport Foundation

Crew of the Archangel

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If it's any consolation, I too cried in a huddled mass when I went through the whole play looking for the original words only to find it wasn't there. ;)

Foxe

"With this Fore-Staff he fansies he does Wonders, when, God knows, it amounts to no more but only to solve that simple Question, Where are we? Which every chi'd in London can tell you." - Ned Ward The Wooden World Dissected, 1707


ETFox.co.uk

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Interesting to note that in Stan Hugill's "Shanties from the Seven Seas" he writes that sailors never would have sang shanties while on land - it was considered bad luck. Instead, they typically sang popular ballads, love songs and patriotic songs from their respective homelands. If you haven't seen it is is a very thorough book on the subject.

-- Hurricane

______________________________________________________________________

http://piratesofthecoast.com/images/pyracy-logo1.jpg

  • Captain of The Pyrates of the Coast
  • Author of "Memoirs of a Buccaneer: 30 Year Before the Mast" (Published in Fall 2011)
  • Scurrilous Rogue
  • Stirrer of Pots
  • Fomenter of Mutiny
  • Bon Vivant & Roustabout
  • Part-time Carnival Barker
  • Certified Ex-Wife Collector
  • Experienced Drinking Companion

"I was screwed. I readied my confession and the sobbing pleas not to tell my wife. But as I turned, no one was in the bed. The room was empty. The naked girl was gone, like magic."

"Memoirs of a Buccaneer: 30 Years Before the Mast" - Amazon.com

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nnnnnoooooooooooo.........*cries in a huddled mass........thankfully, i have sense discovered a college resource for 17th century broadsides.........which i now use instead.....English Broadside Ballad Archive thanks for pointing that out master foxe, it shall be noted and not used.......i like this on better anyway! Villany Rewarded, or the Pirates Last Farewell

I was hoping that the books i posted the links too might have the tunes to these ballads in them as they are usually sung to the music of other more popular songs. I must get round to looking.

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...and then I discovered the wine...

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That's my issue with a lot of these ballads - sung to the tune of " XYZXYZXYZ" and if'n ye know not the tune, it's just so much poetry. Luckily, the site you gave has some MP3's of folks singing the tune, making it ever so more useful. A good resource, says I.

Pirate music at it's best, from 1650 onwards

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The Brigands

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