It will be seen how closely the above resembles the version given by Whall on page 74. (It will be noted that he entitled it 'John's gone to Hilo.') I give Mr. Vickers's verses about 'The Victory' and 'Trafalgar,' as I had never heard them sung by any other seaman. I have omitted the endless couplets containing the names of places to which Tommy is supposed to have travelled. As Capt. Whall says: 'A good shantyman would take Johnny all round the world to ports with three syllables, Montreal, Rio Grande Newfoundland, or any such as might occur to him.'
[25. WHISKY JOHNNY]
This Bacchanalian chant was a prime favourite. Every sailor knew it, and every collection includes some version of it.
[26. BONEY WAS A WARRIOR]
I never met a seaman who has not hoisted topsails to this shanty. Why Jack should have made a hero of Boney (he frequently pronounced it 'Bonny') is a mystery, except perhaps that, as a sailor, he realized the true desolation of imprisonment on a sea-girt island, and his sympathies went out to the lonely exile accordingly. Or it may have been the natural liking of the Briton for any enemy who proved himself a 'bonny fechter.'
[27. JOHNNY BOKER]
This popular shanty was sometimes used for bunting-up a sail, but more usually for 'sweating-up.' Although I have allowed the last note its full musical value, it was not prolonged in this manner aboard ship. As it coincided with the pull, it usually sounded more like a staccato grunt.
[28. HAUL AWAY, JOE]
The major version of this shanty (which appears in Part II) was more general in the last days of the sailing ship; but this minor version (certainly the most beautiful of them) is the one which I used to hear on the Tyne. The oldest of my sailor relatives never sang any other. This inclines me to the belief that it is the earlier version. The verses extemporized to this shanty were endless, but those concerning the Nigger Girl and King Louis never seem to have been omitted. As in [No. 27], I have allowed the last note its full musical value, but aboard ship it was sung in the same manner as No. 27.