Boston Harbor
The Song
This is a classic sea shanty that taps into a universal topic in worksongs - calling out a tyrannical boss or leader. That's what makes it a song for work and also of resistance to the power structure. Since musical labor straddles the work/play divide it can be seen as "just music" even though it directly challenges the captain's authority. This happens regularly in the text of worksongs, from sea shanties to weeding songs in the Texas prisons, to lumbering songs in the Maine woods.
Lyrics
From Boston Harbor we set sail
The wind was blowin' a devil of a gale
With the ring-tail set all about the mizzen peak
Dolphin striker plowin' up the deep
With a big bow wow, tow row row
Fal dee rall dee right all day.
Up steps the captain from down below
He looks aloft, boys, and he looks alow
He looks alow and he looks aloft
Pull them ropes, boys, fore and aft.
Back to his cabin he quickly crawls
And unto his steward he madly bawls
Saying bring me a glass that will make me cough
Better down here than it is up aloft
While we poor sailors are standing on the decks
The wind and rain is a rolling down our necks
Not a drop of grog will he us afford
Damns our eyes with every other word.
There's just one thing we sailors crave
For him to find a watery grave
We'll cast him down some deep dark hole
Sharks'll take his body
and the devil take his soul
Notes
First published in Captain W.B. Whall's Sea Songs and Shanties (1910), who noted it was "very popular between 1860 and 1870." The "big bow wow" chorus has a satisfying swing. Good for slow rowing, cranking the anchor up, or just singing together on deck. Technically a forebitter (a fo'c'sle song sung for entertainment rather than labor), though it works just as well with an oar in hand.
Also published in Joanna Colcord's Roll and Go: Songs of American Sailormen (1924) and the expanded Songs of American Sailormen (1938), with a music score. Frederick Pease Harlow references it in Chanteying Aboard American Ships (1962), drawing on his own experience at sea in the 1870s. Stan Hugill includes a version in his shanty collections. An earlier variant titled "From Sweet Dundee" was collected by George Gardiner in Hampshire in 1906. The "big bow wow" tune itself traces back to at least 1782, when it appeared in Aird's Selections of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs.
Notable recordings:
- The Watersons (1965) - New Voices, Topic Records. The landmark recording.
- Cliff Haslam & John Millar (1975) - Colonial and Revolutionary War Sea Songs and Shanties, Smithsonian Folkways. Different melody and chorus.
- Joe Hickerson with Jeff Warner, Gerrett Warner, and Tony Saletan (1973) - Songs & Sounds of the Sea, National Geographic Society
- Spiers & Boden (2001) - Through & Through
- The Revels with Louis Killen, David Coffin, Tony Barrand, and John Roberts (2002) - Homeward Bound, Revels Records
- Jon Boden (2011) - A Folk Song a Day project
- Jim Payne & Fergus O'Byrne (1995) - Wave Over Wave, as "Big Bow Wow"
- Danny Spooner (2009) - Bold Reilly Gone Away
Backstory
I learned this song from Aidan Murphy (age 6) at Newfound Lake in 2007 and I imagine he learned it from his dad, Keith Murphy. This version is very similar to that of the Watersons.
Try This
It can help to teach the chorus first. I split it in parts and have folks directly respond to my calls.
Me: With a big bow wow
Crew: With a Big Bow wow
Me: Tow row row
Crew: Tow row row
Me: Fal dee rall dee right all day
Crew: Fal dee rall dee right all day
Depending on how seasoned the crew is I'll do this several times, or then cobble it together into one big chorus:
With a big bow wow, tow row row
Fal dee rall dee right all day.
Which is the traditional way to do it.
Sometimes I keep it call and response the whole time for an especially green crew.
Sometimes I sing the verses call and response, too, if I think folks on the crew will want to learn the lyrics of the verse, if I need extra time for breathing (such as in a fast row) or if we have a particularly long project.