Blow the Man Down?

[Capt Sadie Dread]

'Cuse my ignorance mates, but could some enlighten'd sea dog explain the meaning of Blow the Man Down?

Capt Sadie

[Rosalinda]

[scratching me head o'er this 'un]

I really have no clue....

[Cap'n Coyote]

According to me magic box (a Google search, actually):

The Black Ballers were fast packet ships of the American Black Ball Line that sailed between New York and Liverpool in the second half of the nineteenth century. A sailor would arrive in America within four weeks of leaving England, and the return trip was usually less than three weeks. The faster the ship, the quicker a sailor would get paid, and the quicker he would be back to England, so naturally many sailors wanted to sail on the Black Ballers. Sea life in those days was ruled by the whip, and the captains of the Black Ballers had a reputation for being particularly brutal. When a sailor said that a man was blown down, it meant that he was knocked to the ground. Blow th' Man Down is a song about the unfair beating of sailors aboard these ships.

(An I jest know that Cap'n Weaver will have some damn limerick 'bout black balls and whips!)

[Capt Sadie Dread]

Thanks so much for the lowdown on Blow Down. But it still doesn't make much sense in the song version i am doing. Oh well, after all the grog we be consuming, no one will understand a word of song. Me hopes...

Sadie

[John Maddox Roberts]

First line "As I was walkin' down Paradise Street" : Paradise Street was the waterfront thoroughfare of Liverpool.

[dasNdanger]

Here's one set of lyrics...Keep in mind that this is a halyard shanty, and the phrases 'to-me, way-aye (or way-haye)' are calls given while hauling on the halyard.

As I was a-walking down Paradise Street, (as noted, a street in Liverpool, a busy port city)

To me way-aye, blow the man down!

A Liverpool bobby I chanced for to meet, (he met a policeman)

Give me some time to blow the man down!

Says he, "You're a Blackballer by the cut of your hair; (policeman mistakes him for a sailor from a Black Baller)

To me way-aye, blow the man down!

I know you're a Blackballer by the clothes that you wear.

Give me some time to blow the man down!

"You've sailed in a packet that flies the Black Ball, ('packet' is a ship that sails a regular route between given ports, like a mail, passenger or merchant ship)

You've robbed some poor Dutchman of boots, clothes and all." (BOOTS!!)

"O policeman, policeman, you do me great wrong;

I'm a `Flying Fish' sailor just home from Hongkong!" (according to some, a flying-fish sailor was "a John who preferred the lands of the East and the warmth of the Trade Winds to the cold and misery of the Western Ocean.")

They gave me six months in Liverpool town

For kicking a p'liceman and blowing him down. (sounds like he knock the copper down!)

~~~~~~~~

Hope that helps if anyone else is looking! There are three main versions of this shanty, this tends to be the most popular. Also, a little more info on 'blowing down' - Western Ocean Law was Rule with a Fist. "Blow" refers to knocking a man down with fist, belaying pin or capstan bar. Chief Mates in Western Ocean ships were known as "blowers," second mates as "strikers" and third mates as "greasers."

das