Reuben Ranzo

Lyrics

Chorus after each verse: "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo"

1. Hoorah for Reuben Ranzo / Hoorah for Reuben Ranzo

2. Now Reuben was no sailor / He was a New York tailor

3. He was a New York tailor / Shanghaied aboard a whaler

4. That Reuben was a beauty / But he did not know his duty

5. He'd done his hair with oil / But he could not furl that royal

6. The mate he was a dandy / Was far too fond of brandy

7. They set him holystoning / But they cared not for his moaning

8. They said he was a lover / And made him eat whale blubber

9. They took him to the gangway / And gave him lashes twenty

10. That poor old Reuben Ranzo / That poor old Reuben Ranzo

11. They gave him lashes twenty / That's twenty more than plenty

12. The captain gave him thirty / His daughter begged for mercy

13. She took him to her cabin / And tried to ease his aching

14. Now Reuben nearly fainted / When his back with oil was painted

15. She taught him navigation / And gave him an education

16. She made him the best sailor / Sailing upon that whaler

17. Hoorah for Reuben Ranzo / Hoorah for Reuben Ranzo

18. Now Reuben is a skipper / Aboard a Yankee clipper

19. And when he gets a sailor / Who's new aboard that whaler

20. He takes them to their station / And learns them navigation

21. He married the captain's daughter / And still sails on that water

22. Hoorah for Reuben Ranzo / Hoorah for Reuben Ranzo

23. Hoorah for Captain Ranzo / Hoorah for Captain Ranzo

A halyard shanty telling the story of Reuben Ranzo, a tailor who found himself aboard a whaling ship.

One of the best-known halyard shanties. Reuben Ranzo was said to be a tailor with no seafaring experience who somehow ended up aboard a ship. The story varies wildly between versions, but the chorus remains constant. Collected by numerous shanty scholars including Stan Hugill.

Reuben Ranzo was an interesting character; you'll hear of his exploits in the song. He was probably Portuguese (Ranzo being short for "Lorenzo") and worked his way up from being completely new to ships and sailing, to running the show.. and had some adventures along the way.

This is a very widely sung shanty. In fact it was sung on Swedish ships as well, and is in the book "Sang Under Segel." Mixing of nationalities and languages was quite common on tall ships as crewmembers regularly jumped on and off at new ports. It would not have been unusual to hear the song started in English and finished in Swedish.

In this recording I've recruited the great shanty singer Edith Gawler to sing lead. We wanted to show that it is normal and good for women to lead shanties these days, and also to choose a starting pitch that was convenient for people with higher musical ranges.

There is a great video from the Mystic Seaport museum which shows the song being used on the halyards, the lines which raise and lower the sails. Notice that they stop singing when the job is complete.

You can also find upbeat versions that capture some of the open singing and yelps that have long been associated with sea shanties. Some ships hired a person specifically to lead shanties, and they may have sung unaccompanied, or even played an instrument like a fiddle or accordion. It was said that a good shantyman was the equivalent of "four extra hands on the rope."

There are lots of versions of Reuben Ranzo out there.. check them out and see how it is interpreted by different people in different places.

Roud 3282

• Stan Hugill, Shanties from the Seven Seas (1961), pp. 240-244 [AbEd pp. 175-178]
• Stan Hugill, Songs of the Sea (1977), p. 126
• Cecil Sharp, English Folk-Chanteys (1914), XXXII, p. 37
• W.B. Whall, Sea Songs and Shanties (1910)
• Joanna C. Colcord, Songs of American Sailormen (1938), p. 70
• William Main Doerflinger, Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman (1951/1972), pp. 23-25
• Frederick Pease Harlow, Chanteying Aboard American Ships (1962), pp. 89-91
• Richard Runciman Terry, The Shanty Book, Part 1 (1921), #22
• Frank Shay, American Sea Songs and Chanteys (1948), pp. 50-53
• David W. Bone, Capstan Bars (1931), pp. 54-56
• Eloise Hubbard Linscott, Folk Songs of Old New England (1939), pp. 144-146
• A.L. Lloyd on Thar She Blows! / The Black Ball Line (Topic Records)
• Paul Clayton on Whaling and Sailing Songs From the Days of Moby Dick (Tradition, 1956)
• Louis Killen on 50 South to 50 South (South Street Seaport Museum, 1970)
• The Longest Johns (2025)
• The X-Seaman's Institute on Classic Maritime Music (Smithsonian Folkways, 2004)
• The Exmouth Shanty Men on Tall Ships and Tavern Tales (WildGoose, 2022)
• Noble B. Brown field recording (AFS, 1946)