When time to put up or change the sails on the big ships, the sailors swarmed up rope ladders hung for the purpose and shimmied out the yardarms, untying the ropes holding the sails in place, letting them unfurl. Then they quickly came back down to deck; some of them, by the same rope ladders they went up. But if you were a real salt, you slid down one of the “backstays”, the heavily tarred ropes that held the masts in place.<\/p>\n
I have used a different chorus and slightly different words than the one given by Stan Hugill. This is closer to the version I hear at chantey sings here in Seattle, when nobody’s actually hauling up any braces.<\/p>\n
CHORUS<\/strong>: Around Cape Horn we did go, CHORUS<\/p>\n Around Cape Horn we did go, CHORUS<\/p>\n Shake her, shake her as she rolls, CHORUS<\/p>\n Now it’s time for our smoko, CHORUS<\/p>\n When I get me feet ashore, CHORUS<\/p>\n From the sea I will steer clear, When time to put up or change the sails on the big ships, the sailors swarmed up rope ladders hung for the purpose and shimmied out the yardarms, untying the ropes holding the sails in place, letting them unfurl. Then they quickly came back down to deck; some of them, by the same rope ladders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanteys","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":712,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions\/712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHey, haul away! Johnny come down the backstay!
\nHey, haul away! John Dameray!<\/p>\n
\nJohnny come down the backstay!<\/em>
\nThrough wind and rain and icy snow.
\nJohn Dameray!<\/em><\/p>\n
\nJohnny come down the backstay!
\nHoist her up from down below.
\nJohn Dameray!<\/p>\n
\nJohnny come down the backstay!
\nFor Johhny is a bully old soul.
\nJohn Dameray!<\/p>\n
\nJohnny come down the backstay!
\nThe old man he’s gone loco.
\nJohn Dameray!<\/p>\n
\nJohnny come down the backstay!
\nOff to sea I’ll go no more.
\nJohn Dameray!<\/p>\n
\nJohnny come down the backstay!
\nAnd I’ll stick to drinking beer.
\nJohn Dameray!<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"