sentimental ballad, in which the maid disguised herself as a sailor
in order to accompany her lover when he was pressed to sea. There are
several seventeenth and eighteenth century ballads about disguised
women who served as sailors, and there are some genuine instances. One
of them, Hannah Snell, became celebrated, and about 1750 attracted
crowds to hear her sing a song describing her adventures (p. 200).
In the street ballads of the early nineteenth century the theme is a
perpetual favourite. Other ballads of the same period celebrated the
courage or dexterity with which the maiden contrived to obtain her
lover’s release. The most celebrated example of this class of ballad
is _Billy Taylor_, which is a parody on an earlier romantic ballad
entitled sometimes _William Taylor_, sometimes _The Female Lieutenant_
(pp. 326-27). Another example is _Cawsand Bay_ (p. 328), which is a
late imitation of an older ballad called either _The Valiant Maid_ or
_The Undaunted Lieutenant_.
Impressment ceased about 1835, though not formally abolished, and its
cessation seems to have been somehow connected in the popular mind with
King William IV. His sympathy with sailors was the theme of several
street songs. _The King and the Sailor_ celebrates his affability;
_Duke William’s Frolic_ narrates how he had learned to sympathise
with the sufferings of sailors by being himself impressed. Both are
reprinted in John Ashton’s _Modern Street Ballads_, pp. 228, 232.
During the great war, the patriotic sea-song and songs about sailors,
such as those written by the Dibdins and their imitators, had attained
enormous popularity on shore, and some at sea too. Charles Dibdin’s
first naval song, _Blow high, blow low_, was produced about 1776, and
he continued to produce till about 1810. It was said by a biographer
that ‘he brought more men into the navy in war time than all the
press-gangs could,’ and he boasted in his autobiography, ‘My songs
have been the solace of sailors in long voyages, in storm, in battle;
and they have been quoted in mutinies to the restoration of order and
discipline (_Autobiography_, i. 8). Except in a very few cases, such as
_Tom Bowling_, this popularity was not lasting. ‘It is doubtful,’ says
Sir C. Bridge, ‘if they were even very popular in the forecastle. At
places of entertainment on shore, some of them may have been heard with
pleasure by seamen, but the great majority of them were either never
favourites afloat, or at any rate had but a short-lived popularity.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, when the old fore-bitter had
still a vigorous existence, C. Dibdin’s songs were very rarely sung on
board ship’ (Introduction to Stone’s _Sea Songs and Ballads_, p. xiii).
Novelists and playwrights imitated Dibdin. Captain Marryat, who
brought together a few genuine old songs in _Poor Jack_, inserted some
nautical songs of his own composition in _Snarleyow_, the best of which
is reprinted in this collection (p. 322). Others, apparently never
published, which include defences of flogging and impressment, are to
be found in his Life by his daughter. Captain Chamier, who published
between 1830 and 1849 a number of novels in imitation of Marryat,
included in them many nautical songs of his own of little merit.
Captain Glascock also in his novels and sketches of naval life printed
various lyrics. One seems to be the expression of a genuine feeling,
viz. _The Lieutenant’s Lament_:
‘As sure as a gun
We shall all be undone
If longer continues the peace.’
(_Naval Sketch Book_, 1834, 2nd series, i. 267.)
Of nautical plays an enormous number were produced during the first
half of the nineteenth century. This species of drama reached its
greatest vogue about 1830. The most successful example of it was
Douglas Jerrold’s _Black-eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs_, played at
the Surrey Theatre in 1829. Another successful play was Fitzball’s
_Pilot_, an adaptation of Cooper’s novel of the same name, in which
the hero was transformed from an American into an English sailor. The
success of both was due to the acting of T. P. Cooke, who had himself
served some six years in the navy and was declared by Christopher
North to be ‘the best sailor that ever trod the stage.’ ‘Mr. Cooke,’
says Fitzball in his preface to _The Pilot_, ‘added a new feature to
the sailor’s character. It was that of thoughtfulness and mystery--of
deep-toned passion and romance.’
The popularity and the prevalence of conventional representations of
sailors and artificial naval lyrics seem to have put an end to the
production of genuine sea songs. In the vast mass of street songs
issued by various printers between 1815 and 1870 there are many about
sailors at sea and on shore, but they are mostly amatory or romantic.
The most interesting are stories about shipwrecks or crudely realistic
ditties about sprees on shore which illustrate the history of the
merchant service rather than the navy. Such titles as _The Liverpool
Landlady_, _The Sailor’s Frolic or Life in the East_, and _Rolling
Down Wapping_ are a sufficient indication of their contents. Amongst
this miscellaneous mass there are a few ballads relating to incidents
in naval history occurring between 1815 and the Crimean war. They are
poor things, lacking in the spirit and the vigorous realism which often
redeem the doggerel verses of the previous century.
For that reason it will suffice to quote a few of those which survive,
and to print half a dozen of the best as specimens.
The bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth on August 27, 1816, was the
first important naval event after the peace of 1815. It is narrated in
a ballad printed by James Catnach, in which a sailor who had served on
board the Superb undertook to tell ‘how we fought like any lions bold
to set the Christians free.’ Three verses may be quoted:
‘On the twenty-seventh of August, just by the break of day,
We espied the city of Algiers to windward of us lay;
“All hands, all hands to quarters,” it was the general cry,
“Come load your guns with round and grape before we draw too nigh.”
‘The first was the _Queen Charlotte_ so nobly led the van,
She was followed by the _Superb_, Captain Atkins gave command,
The next was the _Leander_ with all her warlike crew,
She was followed by the _Impregnable_, Rear-Admiral of the Blue.’
Then comes a catalogue of the rest of the fleet, in which the six Dutch
frigates taking part in the action are not forgotten. ‘Take pattern by
those English lads, they show you gallant play,’ said the Dutch admiral
to his crews.
‘Now there’s one thing more that I relate, which is to be admired,
At five o’clock that afternoon we set their ships on fire,
Our rocket ships and bomb ships so well their parts did play
The Algerines from their batteries were forced to run away.’
The last verse concluded with healths to Lord Exmouth and to Captain
Atkins (or properly Captain Charles Ekins) of the Superb.
The battle of Navarino, fought on October 20, 1827, inspired several
ballads. _The Battle of Navarino_, which will be found at length in
John Ashton’s _Modern Street Ballads_, 1888, p. 225, begins thus:
‘You’ve heard of the Turks and the Greeks,
For all Europe’s been told their bad habits,
How they cut down each other like leeks,
And the Turks slaughter children like rabbits:
But John Bull could bear it no more,
Said he, you death-dealers, I’ll stop you,
And if you don’t both soon give o’er
I swear by St George that I’ll whop you.’
It concludes with a cheer ‘for the staunch gallant crew, That manned
the brave ship the Genoa’--a 76-gun ship whose captain, Walter
Bathurst, was killed in the battle--on board of which the author
perhaps served.
A second, entitled _The Glorious Victory of Navarino_, gives more
details:
‘On the 20th of October the glorious fight began,
Bold Ibrahim vainly boasted he’d slaughter every man;
But Codrington resolved was the _Asia_ should display
A bright example to the rest, and he would lead the way.
‘The _Genoa_ and the _Albion_ he placed by his side
And near to him De Rigny, commander of the _Armide_,
The _Glasgow_ and the _Cambrian_, the _Dartmouth_ and the _Rose_
Were placed in fine order alongside of their foes.’
A fragment of a third ballad, said to consist of seventeen verses in
all, is quoted by Mr. Kipling in _The Black Sheep_:
‘Our vanship was the _Asia_,
The _Albion_ and the _Genoa_,
And next came on the lovely _Rose_,
The _Philomel_ her fireship closed,
And the little _Brisk_ was sore exposed
That day at Navarino.’
The intervention of England in the Syrian war in 1840, which fills so
large a place in James Hannay’s naval novel, _Singleton Fontenoy_,
produced a ballad on _The Capture of St. Jean d’Acre_ which will be
found on p. 333. It attributes all the credit of the success to Charles
Napier, and makes no mention at all of Sir Robert Stopford. It seems
to have been written or at least inspired by someone serving on board
the Wasp, from the particularity with which it relates the movements of
that ship.
The popularity of Napier comes out very plainly in the whole group of
street songs and ballads relating to the Crimean war.
‘We’re off to the Baltic with Charley Napeer
To singe the whiskers of the great Russian bear’
ran the chorus of a song which a friend of mine heard some sailors
singing in the streets in 1854. _Give it to him, Charley_, is the title
of another; _I am Baltic Charley and no Mistake_, is that of a third.
In this last, the author, through the form of a dialogue, expresses the
sympathy of the British public with the admiral in his quarrel with Sir
James Graham:
‘“I have sailed too many miles at sea
For any land-lubber to frighten me,
I fought in Nelson’s victory
Like a Briton,” said Baltic Charley.
Said Jemmy to me “What have you done?
Why did not you into danger run?”
“I wopped the Russians at Bomarsund
And a victory gained,” said Charley.
‘“Now, Jemmy, you shall see by-and-by
I will make you open your weather eye
And like a pig for quarters cry
For insulting Baltic Charley.
Boatswain’s mate, come quickly jump,
Seize old Jemmy up to the pump,
And give him a dozen over the rump
To the tune of Baltic Charley.”’
Another series of this Russian group consists of sentimental verses.
_Bold Napier_, for instance, begins:
‘Old England calls her sons to arms the Russian bear to meet,
Our brave old admiral commands and guides the British fleet,
The battle calls me from thy arms, let not my Susan fear
In the cause of liberty we go to sail with bold Napier.’
Similar in type is _Jack and Susan and Long Life to Sir Charles
Napier_. Bolder is _The Baltic Lovers_, which relates how a merchant’s
daughter of Southampton city:
‘Did fall in love with a brisk young sailor
Who had engaged with Sir Charles Napier,’
and announced her intention of following him to sea in disguise:
‘He said “Mary, my charming fairy,
Are you deranged or what can you mean?--
On board the _Wellington_ you know I’ve entered
To fight the Russians and serve the Queen.”’
In spite of this discouragement and of the active opposition of her
father she entered on board the Wellington, and passed for a long time
as a man.
‘One lovely morning the fleet had warning
To fight the Russians at seven bells,
And her true lover did her discover
And met his Mary at the Dardanelles.’
Shedding ‘large briny tears’ she was brought on the quarter-deck before
Sir Charles Napier, who was much moved by the spectacle.
‘Old Charley said, “You are an angel,
You are an angel I plainly see,
You love your Queen, you love a sailor,
And soon made happy you shall be.”’
And thereupon he discharged Mary and the brisk young sailor and sent
both back to England singing ‘God save the Queen and Sir Charles
Napier.’
In addition to this there are of course many songs of a purely
patriotic nature of which the naval glories of England are in part the
theme. The most familiar of them is _The Red, White, and Blue_. ‘It
had a considerable vogue during the Russian war,’ writes Sir J. K.
Laughton. ‘I often heard it sung up the Baltic: but of course it is a
music-hall song. It was always understood that the ‘red, white, and
blue’ meant the three admirals’ flags. Since then it has been taken to
mean that these are the national colours--a mistake which has led to a
thousand absurdities.’
Out of all the popular songs illustrating the naval side of the
Russian war only one deserves reprinting in this volume. That is a
song called _The Russians won’t come out_, which reflects the general
disappointment of the navy at the absence of any opportunities for
fighting at sea (p. 336).
In order to illustrate the work of the navy during the period which
intervened between the close of the French war and the beginning of
the Russian war four other ballads have been inserted. One, entitled
_General Campbell_, describes the part taken by the navy in the capture
of Rangoon in 1824. A second, _The Borneo Heroes_, narrates an incident
in the suppression of piracy in the Eastern seas, viz. the fight at
Malluda Bay on August 19, 1845. The third, entitled _The Slave Chase_,
illustrates the suppression of the slave trade. From the style it
is clearly an imitation of one of Macaulay’s _Lays_; however, it is
a spirited thing, and was a great favourite with the late Captain
Montagu Burrows, who served for some time in African waters. It was
also a popular favourite, and was very often reprinted by Fortey, Such,
and the later publishers of street ballads. Arctic exploration is
illustrated by a fourth, which celebrates the return of Ross in 1833
and the welcome he received at home (pp. 330-334). Another incident,
in the search for the North-West Passage, namely the voyage of Sir
John Franklin, and the long continued efforts to discover his fate
also attracted the attention of the writers of street ballads; but
neither _Lady Franklin’s Lament_ nor the _Lament on the Fate of Sir
John Franklin and his crew_ deserve reprinting. The last was written
in 1860; ten years later the old street ballads practically became
extinct. Once they had been the instrument used to convey information
about public events to the people, but that function had now passed
to the cheap newspapers. Popular opinion had found other modes of
expression, and as songs they had been superseded by the more taking
melodies of the music-halls.
Sir Cyprian Bridge speaks of the ‘general taking over of the songs of
the music-hall of late by sailors.’ The process began long ago. Captain
Glascock in 1834 noted the supersession of the old naval songs by
ditties fashionable at the moment on shore.
‘For the whole three years as I sarv’d in that there _March-o’-Mind
man-o’-war_ I was tellin’ ye about I never hears so much as a
sailor’s song--a song as ye could call a reg’lar built seaman’s
stave.’
‘No, Ned, you doesn’t now often hear the staves as we used to sing
in the war--you never now hears _Will ye go to Cawsin Bay, Billy Bo,
Billy Bo!_--nor the _Saucy Arethusa_--nor the _Bold Brittany_--_Black
colours under her mizen did fly_--_From Ushant to Scilly is
thirty-five leagues_, an’ many more of the sim’lar sort.’
‘No, no, Sam--you’re right enough--your _March-o’-Mind_ men must now
come your simmy-dimmy quiv’ring quivers--tip ye soft sentimental
touches--sigh away like ladies in love, an’ never sing nothin’ but
your silly sicknin’ stuff, as often used to frighten the geese an’
make ’em cackle in the coop, for all the world like the comin’ of a
heavy hurricane. Moreover, your _March-o’-Mind_ men never will sing
a single stave as admits of the main thing--for what’s a song as
won’t allow all hands to jine in reg’lar coal-box? (chorus). No, no,
your _March-o’-Mind_ men haven’t, you may depend on it, the mind
of men--they think far more like people as rigs it in petticoats,
nor they as tog in trowsers. Now what looks more young-ladyish nor
to see a fellor with a fist like a shoulder of mutton, flinging his
flipper about an’ suitin’ his antics to his song, as he snivels out
“Strike--strike the light guitar!”... Then, again, we’d another
chap--a chap, too, as big and bulky as a bullock--easin’ it off
an’ mincin’ it out like a lank boarding’-school miss--“I’d be a
butterfly, born in a bower”’ (_Naval Sketch-book_, 2nd series, i.
236).
Dana noticed the same phenomenon amongst merchant sailors about 1834.
‘I shall never forget,’ he writes, ‘hearing an old salt who had broken
his voice by hard drinking on shore, and bellowing from the mast-head
in a hundred north-westers, singing with all manner of ungovernable
trills and quavers, in the high notes breaking into rough falsetto, and
in the low ones growling along like the dying-away of the boatswain’s
“All hands ahoy!” down the hatchway, “Oh no, we never mention
him!”[_sic_]:
‘Perhaps, like me, he struggles with
Each feeling of regret:
But if he’s loved as I have loved,
He never can forget.’
The last line he roared out at the top of his voice, breaking each word
into half a dozen syllables, This was very popular, and Jack was called
on every night to give them his sentimental song’ (_Two Years before
the Mast_, chap. xxix.).
In conclusion it is only necessary to give some short account of the
sources from which the present collection has been compiled.
The best account of the collections of old ballads which exist in
various public libraries is given by Chappell in the introduction
to volume i. of the _Roxburghe Ballads_, published by the Ballad
Society. The British Museum contains the collections known as the
Roxburghe and Bagford Ballads, besides others of minor importance. The
four volumes of the Roxburghe collection contain 1,466 ballads, the
Bagford collection and the smaller ones referred to about 1,500 more.
Since 1871, when Mr. Chappell made this estimate, others have been
added. The Bodleian Library contains the collections formed by Wood,
Ashmole, Rawlinson, and Douce, numbering 1,500 or 1,600. At Cambridge
there is the Pepys collection, which consists of 1,800 ballads, and
is of special value for naval history, because Pepys, by virtue of
his office, was peculiarly interested in that subject. The Society is
under great obligations to the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College,
Cambridge, for permitting the publication of ten of the Pepysian
ballads in this volume, and for allowing the editor the opportunity of
thoroughly searching the collection for the purpose. The library of the
University of Cambridge possesses a large collection of ballads printed
during the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth,
which has proved extremely useful as supplementing and continuing the
older collections. It was formed by Sir Frederick Madden, and has been
hitherto neglected by nearly all students of ballads, but deserves to
be searched carefully by anyone interested in the later history of the
English ballad.
The University of Glasgow possesses a collection of 408 black-letter
ballads presented to it by Mr. Euing. The Euing collection consists
mainly of ballads printed during the reign of Charles II., and has
supplied several on the Dutch wars and other incidents of the period.
Of collections in private hands, that of the Earl of Crawford has
proved particularly useful. The Society is indebted to him for three
ballads reprinted in this volume, and the editor has found the
catalogue of Lord Crawford’s ballads invaluable throughout his work
(_Bibliotheca Lindesiana: Catalogue of a Collection of English Ballads
of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries_. Privately printed, 1890).
As to printed collections of ballads, the editions of the _Roxburghe_
and _Bagford Ballads_, published by the Ballad Society, have been
freely drawn upon. The labours of Mr. Chappell and Mr. Ebsworth have
alone made it possible to select and put together ballads relating to
any particular side of English history, and their researches into the
questions of the origin and text of the ballads have furnished all
students of any special kind of ballads with a solid basis for further
investigations. To Mr. Ebsworth the editor is further indebted for
personal assistance and encouragement.
Two other collections have also been of special service--_The English
and Scottish Popular Ballads_, edited by Professor F. J. Child, 5
vols., Boston, 1895, and _Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript_, edited by
Professor J. W. Hales and Dr. F. J. Furnivall, 3 vols., London, 1868.
There are also several special collections of Naval Ballads, to which
references are frequently made in this introduction and in the notes.
Of these the most important are:
(1) _Early Naval Ballads of England_, collected and edited by J. O.
Halliwell for the Percy Society in 1851.
(2) _Sea Songs and Ballads by Dibdin and others._ London, Bell and
Daldy, 1863. This contains an appendix consisting of ballads written
before Dibdin’s day.
(3) _Real Sailor Songs_, collected and edited by John Ashton, 1891,
which is valuable from the number of modern street ballads it contains.
(4) _Sea Songs and Ballads_, selected by Christopher Stone, with an
introduction by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, Oxford, 1906.
(5) _A Sailor’s Garland_, selected and edited by John Masefield, London
1906.
One word as to the text of the ballads and songs contained in this
volume. It was at first intended to preserve the exact spelling of
the originals. In the older pieces it was possible to do this because
there was usually an authoritative text accessible, which it was easy
to follow throughout. But the later ballads, issued on broadsheets and
slips, and frequently reprinted again by country printers, swarmed with
misprints due to mere carelessness which it would have been unnecessary
and undesirable to reproduce. Moreover, it was often needful to compare
several versions in order to obtain a tolerable text. For these reasons
a certain number of obvious errors of the press have been corrected.
Some variants, with comments on the text of the ballads, and an
indication of the source from which the text is derived, will be found
in the notes at the end of the volume. It should be noted that in order
to save space two lines have often been printed as one.
CONTENTS
PAGE
The Battle of Sluys 1
Les Espagnols Sur Mer 3
The Pilgrims Sea Voyage 4
Sir Andrew Barton 6
John Dory 16
The Mariner’s Song 17
A Joyful New Ballad, declaring the Happie Obtaining of
the Great Galleazzo 18
An Excellent Song on the Winning of Cales by the English 21
The Sailor’s Onely Delight 23
The Seaman’s Song of Captain Ward 25
The Song of Dansekar the Dutchman 27
The Famous Sea-Fight between Captain Ward and the Rainbow 30
The Lamentable Cries of at least 1,500 Christians (now
Prisoners in Argiers under the Turkes) 31
The Honour of Bristol 34
Neptune to England 36
On His Majesties Fleet 36
Upon the Great Ship 37
Saylors for my Money 40
The Jovial Marriner; or, the Sea-man’s Renown 42
Neptune’s Raging Fury; or, the Gallant Seaman’s Sufferings 45
The Famous Fight at Malago 47
An Elegie on the Death of the Right Honourable Robert
Blake, Esq. 48
The Valiant Seaman’s Congratulation to his Sacred Majesty
King Charles II. 53
England’s Valour, and Holland’s Terrour 54
Song Written at Sea (‘To all you Ladies now at Land’) 56
The Royal Victory 58
The English Seaman’s Resolution; or, the Loyall Subjects
Undaunted Valour 61
England’s Tryumph, and Hollands Downfall; or, the Second
Royal Victory 63
Englands Royall Conquest 66
Holland Turn’d to Tinder; or, England’s Third Great Royal
Victory 69
A New Ballad of a Famous German Prince and a Renowned
English Duke 72
The Second Part of the Late and Terrible Fight on
St. James’s Day, 1666 76
The Dutch Damnified; or, the Butter-Boxes Bob’d 79
A Song on the Duke’s Late Glorious Success over the Dutch 82
News from the Coast of Spain 83
Captain Mansfield’s Fight with the Turkes at Sea 86
The Algiers Slave’s Releasement; or, the Unchangeable
Boat-swain 88
The Benjamin’s Lamentation for their Sad Loss at Sea by
Storms and Tempests 89
The Treachery of the Spaniards of Porto Rico to the
Dartmouth Frigot and her Company 92
The Golden Voyage; or, the Prosperous Arrival of the James
and Mary 95
The Boatswain’s Call; or, the Couragious Marriner’s
Invitation 97
The Undaunted Seaman 99
The Sea-Man’s Adieu to his Dear 101
The Maidens’ Frolick; or, a Brief Relation how Six Lusty
Lasses has Prest full Fourteen Taylors 104
The Couragious Commander; or, a Brief Relation of that
Most Noble Adventure of Sir Cloudesly Shovell, in the
Bay of Dublin 106