BBC update on the Clipper City of Adelaide and the Battle of the Ballads
February 23, 2010
BC apparently has posted an interesting videocast on the composite clipper City of Adelaide. I write apparently because it is available only in Britain and being on the other side of the pond I can only take the word of my British friends. The BBC does have an interesting blog post nevertheless. Thanks to [...]
Read MoreThe Leaving of Liverpool
September 29, 2009
“The Leaving of Liverpool” is a wonderful sea song, capturing both the promise of a new voyage and the sadness of leaving loved ones behind. It was “collected” by William Main Doerflinger in 1951 from Dick Maitland, an old sailor at New York’s Snug Harbor, who while bosun on the General Knox around 1885, had learned it one night [...]
Read MoreFiddler’s Green
December 6, 2008
Stan Rogers, the late Canadian folk sing/songwriter, sang a song about an ill fated privateering voyage during the American revolution called “Barrett’s Privateer’s“. He was often asked where he learned the song. Most assumed that it was a traditional folk song. Many of the references and details are accurate and appropriate to the period. Nevertheless, [...]
Read MoreThe Holy Ground – Songs, Sailors, and Women of Easy Virtue
October 20, 2008
I am every fond of the Irish sea song “Holy Ground”. The song is about a sailor bound for sea, leaving his lady love and hoping to return. “And still I live in hope to see the Holy Ground once more..” It is also known as the “Cobh shanty”, and indeed the “Holy Ground” is a [...]
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