Music Of The Waters - online book

Sailors' Chanties, Songs Of The Sea, Boatmen's, Fishermen's,
Rowing Songs, & Water Legends with lyrics & sheet music

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INTRODUCTION.                           xxv
beams of the ship, there was nothing like ' Time for us to go,'' Round the Corner,' or ' Hurrah ! hurrah ! my hearty Bullies.' ' Cheerily, Men,' when we came to masthead the topsail-yard with all hands at the halyards, might have been heard miles away."
Speaking again of the advantages of -music at sea, the same author says : " We pulled the long distances to and from the shore with our loaded boats without a word spoken, and with discontented looks, while they not only lightened the labour of rowing, but actually made it pleasant and cheerful by their music ; so true is it that—
' For the tired slave, song lifts the languid oar,
And bids it aptly fall with chime That beautifies the fairest shore, And mitigates the harshest crime.'"
He is alluding to the Americans in San Pedro.
Besides the working songs, there are others for the fore­castle and dog-watches; for a sailor, in his moments of leisure, will as soon listen to a ballad as a yarn, and an audience round the galley fire, or at the fo'c'sle-head, re­quires what the hearers of our old ballads demanded, plenty of stirring incident and strong true feeling simply expressed. Our blue-jackets ought to be familiar with the tales of our grand old admirals and their victories, and should have songs in use amongst them as a stimulus to energy and courage that will make Blake, Vernon, and Anson more than mere names to them; those who man our ironclads should be full of that old spirit which de­feated the Armada and won Trafalgar. There is no doubt that the inimitable sea-songs of Dibdin have done much to keep up the esprit de corps of our British sailors ; they are,