Shanties

[aggienaut]

   So my official title here is both Education Coordinator (Ed Co) and Steward, two formerly separate positions which have been rolled into one (StewCo). As steward I am in charge of passengers: making sure manifests are in order, checking them in, and being a sort of master of ceremonies on sails.
   I'm not nearly as flamboyant about this as my predecessor / current equivalent on the Lady Washington, Aaron Walker, who is so enthusiastic about the part that he is often seen wearing period clothing while off duty. Not just any period clothing, but specifically a period midshipman's outfit so accurate he was once seen fretting that the buttons were indicative of the wrong decade.

   Notwithstanding that I'm not Aaron Walker, I have no problem at all with public speaking so most of this is just fine with me. One of the duties of the steward during sails is to lead the crew / passengers in singing a sea shanty. I... don't sing. I don't sing karaoke. I don't sing in the shower. I don't sing alone in the car. I've never had any inclination or aptitude to sing.
   But simply being uncomfortable with it doesn't terribly much bother me. I was absolutely terrified of doing so the first time I threw my hat in to run for student government senate in college. The first time I was asked to bring a tool up to a coworker working on notably aggravated bees up on a roof while I happened to be wearing no protective gear I was a bit uncomfortable with the idea but I didn't hesitate. The first time I went out on a yardarm it was in the dark amid rolling seas (on the Pilgrim) and I was certainly not comfortable with the idea, but the captain was hollering urgently for all hands aloft and there I was standing there wearing a harness what was I to do but go up?
   Actually what concerned me the most at the time was that I didn't know HOW to furl a sail so I wasn't sure I'd be able to do anything at all once up there.

   And that's the problem in this case, I don't know any sea shanties. In fact, I don't know the lyrics to any of my favourite songs. I don't think I know the lyrics to any entire song. That's just not how I process songs I guess.
   And to make matters worse I am absolutely terrible at memorizing anything. I can learn things but memorizing lines or other data just barely works at all for me.

   And so, the prospect of leading sea shanties is a bit daunting to me by the plain fact that I physically can't lead a song I don't know and I know no songs.


   I'd been hoping I'd be able to shleff off the shanty singing leading to other people that know them but the captain/first mate seem determined that I should do it. On the sail today the first mate gave me about twenty minutes to study the lyric book with Pony (who has been leading the shanty singing thus far), saying I would be leading a shanty after that.
   Needless to say I'm quite certain I could under no conditions learn a song in 20 minutes. I did my best to study sea shanties for twenty minutes, but the time was soon up. Fortunately, though, I had come up with a plan, of some kind at least.
   I reported to the waiting mate that knew no shanties and could lead no shanties, BUT I wouldn't go ashore until I could!

   And so, here we are, I've taken a vow not to set foot ashore until I can lead a shanty and I intend to take it seriously.


   I think I want to learn South Australia. (:


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Comments

[tamaraland.livejournal.com]

Not exactly shanties per se, but there's always:

The mermaid song-

When I was a lad in a fishing town
Me old man said to me:
"You can spend your life, your jolly life
Just sailing on the sea.
You can search the world for pretty girls
Til your eyes are weak and dim,
But don't go searching for a mermaid, son
If you don't know how to swim"

'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
Her face it was a work of art,
I loved that girl with all my heart
But I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail

I signed onto a sailing ship
My very first day at sea
I seen the Mermaid in the waves,
Reaching out to me
"Come live with me in the sea said she,
Down on the ocean floor
And I'll show you a million wonderous things
You've never seen before
So over I jumped and she pulled me down,
Down to her seaweed bed
On a pillow made of a tortoise-shell
She placed beneath my head
She fed me shrimp and caviar
Upon a silver dish
From her head to her waist it was just my taste
But the rest of her was a fish

'Cause ...

But then one day, she swam away
So I sang to the clams and the whales
"Oh, how I miss her seaweed hair
And the silver shine of her scales
But then her sister, she swam by
And set my heart awhirl
Cause her upper part was an ugly fish
But her bottom part was a girl
Yes her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
Her legs they are a work of art,
I loved that girl with all my heart
And I don't give a damn about the upper part
Cause that's how I get my tail.

and Excursion around the bay

Well it was on this monday morning
And the day be calm and fine
A harbour grace excursion
With the boys who had the time
And just before the sailor
Took the gangway from the pier
I saw some fellow haul me wife
Aboard as a volunteer

[Chorus:]

Oh me, oh my, I heard me old wife cry
Oh me, oh my, I think I'm gonna die!
Oh me, oh my, I heard me old wife say,
"I wish I'd never taken this excursion around the bay"

We had fourteen hundred souls aboard, oh what a splendid sight!
Left stong and regimental to make our spirits bright
And meself being in the double, when a funny things they'd say
They choke themselves from laughing when they'd see us in the bay,br>

[Chorus]

Me wife she got no better, she turned a sickly green
I fed her cake and candy, fat pork and kerosene
Castor Oil and sugar of candy, I rubbed pure oil on her face
And I said she'll be a dandy when we reaches Harbour Grace!

[Chorus]

My wife she got no better, my wife me darling dear
The screeches from her trollear could hear in Carbonear
I tried every place in Harbour Grace,
Tried every store and shop,
To get her something for a cure or take her to the hop

[Chorus]

She died below the brandy's as we were coming back
We buried her in the ocean, wrapped up in a Union Jack
So now I am a single man, in search of a pretty face
And the woman that says she'll have me, I'm off for Harbour Grace!

[Chorus]