Around the Horn and Home Again for That Is the Sailors Way

from "Hunger in the Air," by Phil Garland, 1987

1. I've traded with the Yankees, Brazilians and Chinese, ¹
   I've courted Maori beauties beneath the kauri trees. ²
   I've travelled along with a laugh and a song
   in the land where they call you mate, ³
   Around the Horn ⁴ and home again, for that is the sailor's fate.

       Across the Line ⁵ , the Gulf Stream ⁶ , I've been in Table Bay ⁷
   Around the Horn and home again, for that is the sailor's way.

   
   
2. I've run aground in many a sound, without a pilot aboard,
   Longboat lowered by lantern light, pushed off and gently oared.
   Row-lock ⁸ creaking, a thumping swell and a wind that'd make you ache,
   Who would sail the seven seas and share a sailor's fate?

   

3. We've sailed away to Northward, we've hauled away to East,
   We've trimmed our sail in the teeth of a gale and stood in the calmest seas.
   We've set our course by a Southern Star, by Stewart ⁹ through the Strait, ¹⁰
   Westward round by Milford Sound, ¹¹ for that is the sailor's fate.

1. Brazilians and Chinese. His ship had probably docked in the harbours of the
Rio Grande and Shanghai.2. B eneath the kauri trees . The huge old kauris grow in Northland and Coromandel
in New Zealand. The sailor was probably whaling out of 1830s Kororareka in
Northland.3. Where they call you mate. Australia. Sealers were working out of Sydney harbour.
But see 13 below.4. Around the Horn. Cape Horn is at the bottom of South America. Before the Panama
Canal was built, this was the sea route from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.
Very cold and stormy.5. Across the Line. The Equator, a line on the map. Hot and often windless.
Sailing ships could be becalmed for days on end.6. The Gulf Stream. A strong nor-easterly current flowing out of the Gulf of Mexico
and up the eastern cost of the USA.7. Table Bay. A natural harbour overlooked by Cape Town near the Cape of Good Hope
at the bottom of Arfica. Before the Suez Canal was built, this was the sea route
from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, with a run downwind to New Zealand.

8. Row-lock. It gives leverage to your oar. Pronounce it as "rollick."9. Stewart. Stewart Island is below New Zealand's two other bigger islands.
Wild, wet, windy, cold. 10. The Strait is Foveaux Strait between Stewart Island and the South Island of NZ.
A rough and dangerous stretch of water. Sealers were working in this area
in the early 1800s.

11. Milford Sound. Sheltered harbour for sealers, 200 nautical miles nor'west of
Foveaux Strait.

1851 - Australian gold

In 1851, alluvial gold was discovered at Ballerat, 115 km north-west of Melbourne. Tens of thousands flocked to the diggings. Two tons of gold was banked every week.

In order to carry these miners, and supplies for them, more efficiently, and to get the gold back to England faster, clippers, bigger, narrower sailing ships with more sails, were brought into service, sailing the great circle route that used the westerly gales far south of the Indian Ocean to reach Melbourne harbour, and the same westerlies south of the Pacific Ocean to return to England about 6 months after they left, having gone around the world and home again.

1861 - The Otago gold rush

British steam ships had been making ocean voyages since the 1830s. But they needed 40 tons of coal a day, and could not carry enough to reach Australia or New Zealand.

Early sailing ships carring passengers to New Zealand took 100-130 days to sail from England to New Zealand. Conditions on them were cramped and unhygenic and many passengers died, especially children.

But clipper ships in the 1860s did the trip to New Zealand in 80-100 days. And the ships were big, healthy and comfortable. The 1860s was the heyday of the clipper ships on the round-the world-and-home-again route.

1.  1866 - Allingham's poem

William Allingham (b. 1824, d. 1889) was born and raised in the port of Ballyshannon, in Galway Bay, Ireland, and as a young customs officer, he boarded sailing ships that had just returned from year-long round-the-world voyages.

He first published this poem in the Tyrone Constitution, an Irish newspaper, in 1866, when he was 22 years old.

                HOMEWARD BOUND

Head the ship for England, shake out every sail
Blithe leap the billows, merry sings the gale
Captain, work the reck'ning, how many knots a day?
Round the world and home again, that's the sailor's way!

We've traded with the Yankees, Brazilians, and Chinese
We've laugh'd with dusky beauties, in shade of tall palm trees
Across the Line and Gulf-stream, round by Table Bay
Everywhere and home again, that's the sailor's way!

Nightly stands the North Star, higher on our bow;
Straight we run for England, our thoughts are in it now.
Jolly time with friends on shore, when we've drawn our pay
All about and home again, that's the sailor's way!

Tom will to his parents, Jack will to his dear
Joe to wife and children, Bob to pipes and beer
Dicky to the dancing-room, to hear the fiddles play
Round the world and home again, That's the sailor's way!

2. The Sailor's Way

Allingham's poem was soon developed into entertainment for sailors. This is a music hall tune, so it probably started as an on-shore song before being taken to sea. The written version is from the collection Stan Hugill. He was the shantyman on the Garthpool, the last British commercial sailing ship, wrecked in 1929 off the Cape Verde Islands. His printed lyrics have be bowdlerised to "We've courted gay Peruvian girls" but cruder language would have been used aboard ship.

We've courted gay Peruvian girls and French girls and Chinese
Spanish girls and Dutch girls and dainty Japanese
To far Australia and Honolulu where the Hawaiian maidens play
A different girl in every port for that's the sailor's way

O shining is the north star as it hangs off our starboard bow
We're homeward bound for Liverpool town and our hearts are in it now
for we've crossed the line and the gulf stream, been round by Table Bay
Around the Horn and home again, for that's the sailor's way

And it's goodbye to Deirdre, we're off to sea once more
Sailor Jack always comes back to the gals he do adore
He'll cross the line and the gulf stream, go round by Table Bay
Around the Horn and home again for that's the sailor's way

In calm or storm or rain or shine the shellback doesn't mind
On the ocean swell he works like hell for the gal he's left behind
He beats it north, he runs far south, he doesn't get much pay
He's always on a losing game, for that's the sailor's way

We'll get paid off in Liverpool and go out on a spree
We'll eat and drink and have some fun and forget the bloody sea
And Jack will go with his sweet Marie and Pat with his 'Cushla play
But I'll get drunk and turn in me bunk for that's the sailor's way

And it's goodbye to Maggie, we're off to sea once more
Sailor Jack always comes back to the gals he do adore
He'll cross the line and the gulf stream, go round by Table Bay
Around the Horn and home again for that's the sailor's way

1870s - Steam and the Suez Canal

By 1870, steam ships could travel faster for longer distances, thanks to hgher boiler pressures, compound steam engines and stronger, lighter hull designs. They needed only 20 tonnes of coal to travel 450 km in one day.

And the Suez canal had opened for steamships, cutting 7000 km off the trip around the bottom of Africa. The steam ships returned to England the same Suez route. The days of the Roaring Forties and Cape Horn were coming to an end.

3. Yellow Girls

There is a version from Nova Scotia, collected by William Doerflinger in 1930, set to the tune of the epic slave ship chanty The Flying Cloud. It is in his 1951 songbook, Shantymen and Shantyboys.

I've sailed among the Yankees, the Spaniards and Chinese.
I've lain down with the yellow girls beneath the tall palm trees.
I've crossed the Line and Gulf Stream, and around by Table Bay,
And around Cape Horn and home again. Oh, that's the sailor's way!

Oh, Bobby'll go to his darling, and Johnny'll go to his dear,
And Mike will go to his wife and fam'ly, and Andrew for pipes and beer;
But I'll go to the dance hall to hear the music play,
For around Cape Horn and home again, oh, that is the sailor's way!

4.  1900s - Nostagia

Topsail men moved to the bigger, slower, steel-hulled windjammer cargo vessels, and then to smaller coastal schooners.

Waterfront journalist James Cowan collected this song telling of romantic voyages long ago. He published it in his The Bush Poet article in 'The Canterbury Times', 24 September 1913.

Yankees have become Maoris, and yellow girls under tropical palm trees have become part-European girls in New Zealand's Northland.

"I've traded with the Maoris, Brazilians and Chinese,
I've courted half-caste beauties beneath the kauri trees; ¹²
I've travelled along with a laugh and a song
In the land where they grow "mate", ¹³
Around the Horn and home again,
For that is the sailor's way .

Chorus
I've crossed the Line, the Gulf Stream, I've been in Table Bay;
Around the Horn and Home again, For that is the sailor's way!"

12. Half-caste beauties beneath the kauri trees. From 1789 on, sailing ships visited the Kaipara Harbour for cargos of kauri timber to use for ships masts and spars. The half-caste beauties were the daughters of Maori women and earlier European sailors.

13. Mate is yerba mat�. Apparently it is correctly pronounced as "mo-TA," but was probably sung as "mar-tay" in this version, to rhyme with "sailor's way." Yerba mat� is a tea made from the leaf of Ilex paraguariensis, the Paraguayian holly, and is widely drunk throughout South America for its pick-me-up caffeine properties. Paraguay is of course land-locked, but yerba mat� is also grown in Brazil and Argentina. So the sailor had spent time ashore when his ship docked in Buenos Aires

In his same 1913 Canterbury Times article, Cowan also mentioned a version of this song heard on coastal vessels in the Auckland region. It had these variant lines.

Eastward round by Dusky Sound, and Pegasus - through the Strait,
Port Cooper, Ocean, Tom Kain's Bay, for that is the coaster's fate.

Sam Sampson writes:

"Dusky Sound is a rather remote part of the SW corner of the South Island of NZ.

"Port Pegasus is at the south end of Stewart Island, and Foveaux Strait at the north end of the island. If the weather was OK, the sailing ships took the shorter route through the Strait - if shitty they went south into rougher water - but at least there was searoom out there."

Port Cooper (Lyttlton Harbour, near Christchurch), Tom Kain's Bay (O'Kains Bay near Akaroa) and Ocean Bay (near Blenheim) are on the east coast.

5.  C olquhoun version

In the 1950s Neil Colquhoun recorded this song, using Cowan's words published in 1913, and a tune by Wellington folkie Jim Delahunty. It was published in "Songs of a Young Country" in 1965, and you can see and hear a few differences from today's rendering of it.

6.  Chants De Marins: Sea Shanties from Dublin to Auckland

Rudy Sunde and his Auckland maritime mates recorded this version, on a CD released in France.

I've traded with the Maoris, Brazilians, and Chinese.
I've courted dark-eyed beauties beneath the kauri trees.
I've traveled along with a laugh and song
in a land where they call you mate,
Around the Horn and home again, for that is the sailor's fate.

CHORUS: I've crossed the Line and Gulf Stream,
been round to Table Bay
Around the Horn and home again,
for that is the sailor's way.

I've run aground in many a sound without a pilot aboard.
Longboat lowered by candlelight, pushed off and gently oared.
Rollicks creaking, a thumping swell, a wind that would make you ache.
Who would sail the seven seas and share in a sailor's fate? CHORUS

I've sailed out to the northward. I've sailed out to the east.
I've stripped the sail in many a gale, and stood in the calmest seas.
Eastward bound by Dusky Sound, and Pegasus through the straits.
Port Cooper, Ocean, Tom Kain Bay, for that is the coaster's fate. CHORUS

7.   Bellowhead's half-remembered 2006 version

Their tune was borrowed from Clube Da Esquina No. 2 by Milton Nascimento, and their words were half-remembered by Jon Boden from a shanty album he had listened to a decade previously.

I've sailed the whole world over, across the seven seas,
I courted my sweetheart underneath the Kauri trees.
I traveled with the north wind, up to the Bering Strait,
Around the horn and home again; for that is the sailor's fate.

Chorus (after each verse):

Across the line, the Gulf Stream,
Working your life away,
Around the horn and home again
For that is the sailor's way

Across the barren wasteland of the frozen Arctic sea,
Through Polynesian breezes and southern storms sailed we.
The wind all in the rigging sings a lonely lullaby;
A sailor I have always been, a sailor I will die.

We sailed up to the northward, we sailed up to the east,
We reefed our sail in the strongest gale and stood in the calmest sea.
Ocean bound by Dusky Sound and Pegasus through the Strait,
Port Cooper, Ocean, Tom Kane Bay; for that is the sailor's fate.

ABC notation

X: 1
T:Across the Line
M:4/4
L:1/4
Q:100
K:G
"C"C|C>CCC| GG2G|"F"A3/ B/ A E|"C"G3G|"F"A3/A/AE| "C"GE2E|
"G7"D3/E/DA,|"C"C3 C|"C"C/C/ CC C/C/|GG/G/G G/G/|"F"AB/B/AE|
"C"G3G|"F"A3/A/"Am"AE|"C"GE"Am"D2z/C/|"G7"D/DE/CA,|"C"C3"CHORUS"C|c3/B/"Am"(A2|A)G(EG)|
"C"G3G|"F"ABAE|"C"G3 C|"F"c3/B/"Am"(A2|A)E"C"GE|"Am"D3C|"G7"D/DE/DA,|"C"C3|| .

Song List - Home

Published on the web September 25, 2001, updated August 2006, revised 2015.

williamsmaysinger.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.folksong.org.nz/acrosstheline/index.html

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