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Forms to be F411ed out for Each Interview
FORMA
Circumstances of Interview
Kum New York
NAME OF WORKER ii111101 Wood
ADDRESS 7012 67th Place, Glendale,L.I.
DATE December 5,1938
SUBJECT "Sea Chanties and a Heavy Stern"
eame
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
1. Date and time cvf' interview
11/17, 11 a.m.; 11/22, 11 a.m.
11/25, 11 a.m.; 11/29, 11 a.m.
2. Place of interview
The Sailor' Snug Harbor, Staten Island, N.Y.
3. Name and address of informant
Henry Perry,
Sailors' Snug Harbor, S.I.,N.Y.
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
Captain Howard A. Flynn, Governor of Snug Harbor
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Note: A thousand -word description of Sailors' Snug Harbor
accompanied my recent story: "Starbuck-Perry, Hard
Boiled Mate."
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
FORP.
Persona4 RiftorIf or Informant
suaE New York
NAME OF WORKER William Wood
ADDRESS 7012 67th Place,Glendale,L.I.
DATE December 5,1938
SUBJECT "Sea Chanties and a Heavy Stern"
.1. Ancestry
Colonial
2. Place and date of birth Brookkyll.N.Y. 1853
3. Family
No living relatives
FOLKLORE
NE' YORK
4. Places lived in, with dates
Various seaport towns in the U.S.A. and in
foreign countries
5. Education, with dates
Elementary
6. Occupations and accomplishments, with dates
Mariner
7. Special skills and interests
Seamanship
S. Community and religious activities
None
9. Description of informant Note: A five -hundred word description of this
informant accompanied my recent story, "Starbuck Perry, Hard-
boiled Mate."
10. Other Points gained in interview
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
NOE OF WORKER William Wood
ADDRESS 7012 67th Place,Glendale,L.I.
DATE December 5,1938
SUBJECT *Sea Chanties and a Heavy Stern"
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
*And how do you know she's a Yankee clipper?
Blow, boys, blow.
By the Stars and Stripes that float upon her
Blow, my bully boys, blow.*
Old Chantey.
Chantey -singing used to be an important part of the life of seamen on
British and American sailing Ships, fifty and sixty years ago and longer.
More so on the Britiihers than on the American vessels; and there were
reasons. Our ships always seemed to be in a03igger burry, for one thing;
and some skippers and mates tholight chantey -singing was a waste of time,
and only caused delay when you were hoisting up a topsail yard or rousing
in the anchor. This was the case especially with some of the ships that
were changing crews all the time. Many of them had the name of being
"work -houses •0
Page 2 Form C
Lime juice ships, as the Britishers were called, were noted for "hunger
and ease." The man were fed much more poorly and worked not half as hard;
they sang chanteys to their hearts' content. Another reason was that it
often happened that an American ship sailed from port with a crew of men
who had very few sailors among them. There were no better seamen afloat
than American sailormen; but when there was a shortage of these,the crimps
and boarding-house runners used to make it up by dumping a lot of saloon
loafer, and bar flies aboard; fellows who couldn't put two ends of a rope
together. What did thei know about singing chanteys? When a ship got out at
sea it took the mates all their time to chase those fellows around and make
them help the honest -to -god seamen work the vessel.
English rules and regulations were more strict. Officers and men were
better protected. You couldn't ship as an A.B. on a British ship unless you
had a good discharge; that is, of course, in a British port. If the crew of
a Britisher deserted in an American port, or in any other foreign harbor,she
had to replace them withihatever kind of men she could get farm hands,
tramps,tailors,wharf-rats or anything else. With a crew of that kind there
wasn't much chantey -singing.
Negro seamen from the Southern states were great for chanties. They had
fine voices and liked to sing; they were good sailors,too. Many of the most
beautiful of these melodies originated in the South, and so did the words:
such as "Roll the Cotton Down," and the "Plains of Mexico," and "Shenandoah,"
and many others. I used to know them all. But on the other hand there were so
many variations of the words that you would never hear them sung exactly
alike by any two different singers.
FOrm C page 3
Some fellows had good memories and could sing chanties and forecastle songs
for hours at a time without running out of material. There were others who
could make up many of their own words as they went along.
There were capstan chanties like "Rolling Home," "Bound for Rio Grande,"
and "No more we'll go a -roving." Then there were chanties they used to sing
at the old-style windlasses, and at the pumps when pumping the water out of
the bilges* like "Up and Down in New York Town." There were chanties for
running up a topsail yard, and chanties when making and furling sail: "Ranzo,"
"Blow,Boys,Blow," and others. They seemed to lighten the laborsespecially
when you were hauling on a rope; at the same time, they helped you to pull
all together at the same moment.
Sailors often made up a lot of profane words to fit into the old tunes,
by way of variety. Sometimes they sang words to "kid" the mate or the skipper
or the cook, in a sarcastic manner, criticizing the food or the hard work el
the harsh treatment, or all such things. One of these chanties was "Leave Her,
johnnie,Leave Her." This one was sungsusually, when a vessel was making port
at the end of a voyage. If it was suhg while the ship was out on the huh
seas, the captain knew very well it was meant for him, or that it was to call
his attention to some grievance. No skipper felt very flattered to hear his
men singing this chantey, but he couldn't very well say anything's° he had
to grin and bear it or make believe he didn't hear. If he was a sore -head,
and the ship was far enough away from port,he could get back at his men by
giving them more work or poorer grub.
One of the greatest ships I was ever in, for chanties, was the American
ship, Solitaire; Captain Ed.Sewell.
Form C
00.11
Page 4
I spent three years in her; first as boatswain, then as second mate, and later
as mate. Captain Sewell loved to bear chanteys, and I used to love to sing them.
Sometimes we carried a few passengers, and than he always used to warn us to
be careful of the words we sang. Some of them were not printable.
In the fall of 1888, while I was still boatswain of her,we made a passage
from Liverpool to New York, carrying a general cargo and a few passengers who
were quartered in state rooms in the after house, situated right close to the
mizzen rigging. There was a.doctor, his wife and her two sisters. They wanted
to see what it was like to make an ocean trip in a sailing vessel, and for the
first few days they seemed to be very well pleased with the experience. Then we
ran into some bad weather: strong head winds and heavy seas; the passengers
disappeared from sight and kept inside their rooms.
We were about a hundred miles to westward of the Irish coast when the
wind freshened up into a gale. We got shortened down under lower topsails and
lower staysails, and a double reefed foresail; and not being able to make any
headway, beating against the wind, we hove to and rode it out. We shipped quite
a lot of water and had to wear our sea boots, oilskins and sou'-westers for
several days. After awhile the wind eased off and shifted around to the north'
ard, and the mate gave orders to set the upper topsails and shake the reefs out
of the foresail.
Before we'd left Liverpool we'd ship, almost an entire nee crew of men,
mostly English and Scandinavians, and they were all pretty good sailors and
knew their work. By the time we got the mizzen upper topsail loosed and stated
pulling on the halyards we had all forgotten about the passengers we had aboard.
One of the Liverpool lads started up the chantey, "Blow the Man Down," and/the
words be sang to it were not exactly the kind that a lady teacher would want to
sing in a church choir.
Form C Page 5
I don't remember, after all these years, how far he got with it, but I know
it wasn't very far two or three verses, maybe when the mate came running
aft.
ItHey,theret" he roared, "what in Hell's the matter with you fellows?
Don't you know we've got women passengers aboard of this ship? I don't give a
goddam what you sing in the forecastle, or any other place up foriard; but keep
a good watch on your mouth when you're working back aft herein
Right behind the chanteyman there was a tough young Cockney from the
Limebouse district of London. He was a good seaman and knew his work, and he
was as hard as they make tem. But the mate hadn't much use for him and he
didn't care much for the mate. He says, liWot the tell kind of bleeding
langwidge does' le call that, to use back aft where the lydies can tear final
Then, a minute later he says, "If le thinks this ship is a bloody Sunday
School,why don't the old sod provide us with tymnbooks?"
For the rest of that passage we were very careful what chanteys we sang
when working abaft the foremast.
Talking of Western Ocean voyages, there was one passage I made from
Liverpool to New York that I shall never forget. It was while I was in the
American ship A.J. Fuller. I was boatswain of her at the time, and she was
commanded by Captain Colcord. The Fuller was a very fine ship, and her skipper
a great seaman and naviagator. If I recall, the vessel was built-in Bath,Maine,
somewhere around 1880 or 1881.
When a man gets to te eighty-five his memory goes back on him sometimes.
I can't think,for the moment,how long a time I stayed on that ship; and I cant*
remember the year of the rescue which I'm going to tell you about, but it was
sometime in the eighties, I'm pretty sure.
Form C Page 6
I'll never forget that passage as long as I live,nor*the fat lady that we had
to hoist aboard in a sling. She was one of the biggest women I've ever seen,
and she was a good looker, too; about thirty or thirty-five years old. I never
saw her after she went ashorfin New York, and I don't suppose she's alive now,
but I'll bet she remembered me for many a long day. She was very grateful for
What I was able to do for her at the time.
The A.J. Fuller had made a smart passage across the Atlantic, and we were
within about a day's sail of New York; a nice moderate breeze off the starboard
quarter, and everythimgeet,up to the top -gallant sails. About the middle of
the afternoon watch we sighted a steamer's smoke, dead ahead of us; :List a
black smudge on the horizon. The rule of the road at sea gives a sailing vessel
the right of way, so we kept on our course. We soon noticed that the smoke was
getting blacker and more dense. Captain Coleord had been watching from the
quarterdeck, and be took his glass and climbed up into the fore rigging. Very
soon he came down and sang out to the second mate: "That ship's afirel Call the
watch below, and have all hands get some boats ready to put over the side 1"
While the second mate went to rouse out the port watchothe skipper hurried
back aft to call the mate,and a few minutes later we were casting off the boat
lashings and getting ready for launching. By this time we could see the outline
of the steamer with the naked eye. She was ablaze, all right, and still dead
ahead of us. OutskIpper changed his course about half a point to the northlard,
so that he would be able to come up with the steamer as close to windward as
good judgement would allow him to do.
Form C Page 7
As the distance between us got shorter:we could see that she had launched
some of her own boats; they were bobbing up and down in the water. We made fast
some of our smaller sails, and clewed up the fore and mizzen courses just as
we passed the steamer; a blazing volcano, a few hundred yards to leeward of us.
Then,Captain Colcord brought the Fuller up into the wind, and we backed our
main yard and stood by, while the boats with the passengers and crew of the
doomed vessel rowed towards us. There were about five boatloadspif I remember
right, and there were quite a number of women among the occupants.
While we waited we got up a lot of spare canvas from the sail looker and
passed it down into the ttween decks to make accommodations for the shipwrecked
people. The weather was quite cold, and we could see that the lifeboats were
shipping a lot of sprat. Our cook was busy in the galley making preparations to
feed our unexpected guests, and the steward and one o.1‘ he ordinary seamen
were getting extra provisions out of the store room. When the first boat pulled
alongside and we made her painters fast we could see the passengers and crew
were wet to the skin and shivering with cold. Some of the sailors had brought
oilskins with them, and had taken them off to give to the women. Everyone
looked half frozen. We had put a pilot ladder over the sidesand, while some or
the people climbed up on board, others were being hoisted up with a block menAtz
fall, to save time. I went down into the boat to help make 'em fast.
Before we got the first boat unloaded,the other ones were pulling in, and
each one made fast alongside the previous one; so that the people had to step
out of one boat into another by degrees. There was a tall man in the last boat
with a long oilskin coat on him, and tubber boots and sou'wester. He WAS holding
mat on to something bulging out under his coat.
Form C Page 8
There were two or throe woM044near him -.including the fat lady I told you
about and the few clothes they wore were soaking wet and sticking to the
skin. I wanted to help the stout woman first and get her aboard the shipsout
of the way; but she was too timid to move and said she would wait till the
others went ahead. I bumped into the tall man accidentally, and be says;
"Look out there, my man, for my chronometer; it cost a lot of money!"
"The Hell with your goddam chronometer!" says I, "'You can buy another
one for a songoon South Street. Look at these wOmenowet to the skin and
freezing to death; and you in an oilskin coat worrying over your blanky
chronometer." It was the steamboat's skipper. I didn't know it at the time;
but I didn't give a damns -anyway, when he was acting in such an unseamanlike
manner. Well, he didn't like my remarks, and he hollered up to Captain Colcord,
who was standing-7eethe rain,"Captain," he says, "this fellow bere,in the blue
shirt, is an animal." Captain Colcord didn't answer a wordsbut I guess he
thought plenty.
Only the fat lady and the skipper and two of the shipwrecked sailors were
left in the outermost boat,and I and the other men helped the woman to step
out of it into the next onesand so on till we got to the boat alongside the
ship. Do you think she would put her foot on the pilot ladder? Not on your
life! They passed me down a,sling, and I made it fast to her. I took off my
shirt and made a parceling around the rope, so that it wouldn't chafe her skin
when they pulled a strain on the tackle fall; and when all was ready my lady
was hoisted aboard like a sack of potatoes. Five minutes laterothe boats were
cut adrift, every living soul safe aboard the A.H. Faller and beading towards
New York.
Form C Page 10
I had to strip her naked as the day she was born. I dried her goodsto get
the blood in circulation. Boy! I holystoned her from stem to stern, and
rubbed her down from truck to kelson. I attempted to put one of my own
shirts on her,but I might as well have saved the time; so I wrapped one of
my blankets around her and went to the galley for more coffee and a plate
of some salt beef hash the cook had made. How she piled into it! I figured
that she was out of danger now, and I ate some supper with her. Then I
rolled her into my bunk and covered her up with all the extra clothes I had
to spare, and wished her good -night. I took her wet clothing out on deck
with me and hung it up in the rigging, where it soon dried in the breeze.
Next morning I returned it to her and took her some breakfast. She said she
was feeling fine, and none the worse for her experience in the open boats.
When we dropped anchor in the New York Harbor,the passengers and crew
of the steamer were taken ashore in a tug boat. They had tears of gifttitude
in their eyes, and they said no finer skipper than Captain Colcord ever
trod a quarterdeck. Just as my big lady was leaving she says to me:wBoatswain,
I shall never forget your kindness. Only for the first aid you gave me I might
have caught bronchitis or pneumonia, or maybe consumption."
Well,Sir, I shall never forget that woman. I've never seen but one other
suchAstern in all my *ravels; and that mne was on a barge in the Thames River.
FOR1: ii
Extra Comment
STATE New York
NAME OF WORM( William Wood
=MESS 7012 67th Place, Glendale,L.I.
DATE December 5,1938
SUBJECT "Sea Chanties and a Heavy Stern"
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
Henry Perry, the "ancient mariner" from whom I received the
details of this narrative, is a colorful and very interesting old
gentleman, rich in life experiences in general, and in the lore of
the sea particularly. Great care has to be taken not to exhaust
because of his great_age. There are tines when his memory appears to
be excellent and when he seems to take delight in rehearsing stories
of his wild and adventurous career; when he can recallpapparently
without effort,names of persons,places and ships, to say nothing of
dates. There are other times when his physical infirmities weigh so
heavily upon him that it is the part of kindness and discretion to
refrain from attempping to induce him to enter into conversation.
He never complains. He is always friendly, and always eager to oblige
with a tale; so much so that an undiscerning interviewer easily might
impose an unintentional burden on a man *hose physical eourpge and
mental fortitude, alikepevoke the highest admiration.