"SAILORS' CHANTIES"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 152, 16 March 1918, Page 2

"SAILORS' CHANTIES"

Bir,—"Liber's" remarks in last Sat r unlay's issue with reference to "Sailors' Chanties" are interesting, but not quite correct. Sailors of the old clipper ship clays invariably pronounced tho word "shanty." Captain Whall, who mado a collection of shanties (words and music) when at sea in tho days when topsails were single sails, Gtatcs that he considers shanty the correct word, becauso all sailor men pronounced it so. and nover chanty. The "Hog-eye Man" shanty dates from about 1840 or 1850.; portions of it. aro unprintable, and like many other of a similar class was-only in vogue on tramp ships, and seldom heard on pa6scnger packets. "Hog Eyes" were barges used for carrying railway material on the coast of California before tho roads were made. The shanty starts: "Oh, go fetch me down my riding, cane, For I'm goin' to see my Darlin' Jane." And tho chorus comes:

"And a hog ; eyo Railroad nigger, with liis hog-c.ve! Row the boat, ashore, and a hog-c.ve 0! Sho wants the hog-eye. man." Ono nautical writer, in ono of his excellent books, speaks of it in these terms:— , "This is a great -shanty, nut also, alas! an unprintable one. However, it has a rare chorus, which we thundered out with the enthusiasm of a band of schoolboys. "We roared tho chorus to the winds. We .sent it whooping to the skies, and ringing over the sparkling sea. W : e hurled it in*< tho great hollow of the mainsail, and banged it at the break of the poop, till it echoed back at us. It brought the cook from his pots and pans, and the crippled carpenter from his bench. It set tho very deck dancing under our feet."— I am,' etc., JOHN S. SWAN.