390 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"d S. IX. May 19. '60. 



She lay, so did it shock her, 



A log upon the main, 

 Till sav'd from Davy's locker 



We put to sea again." 



I would ask your nautical readers if there is 

 one of them competent to interpret the phrase 

 "right fore and aft we bore," or who can com- 

 prehend why the fact that a gale blew off the 

 shore (a most favourable event under the circum- 

 stances) should have "so sJiock\l" the good ship 

 Rover, that she lay " a log upon the main," and 

 still less the anomalous position of a vessel already 

 out at sea, and lying like a log upon the main 

 when saved from Davy's locker, putting to sea 

 again ! I do not believe that any sailor could be 

 induced to take such stuff into his mouth. Again, 

 what a hubbub and confusion of words signifying 

 nothing there is in the following stanza, intended 

 it seems to describe the ordinary course of a 

 sailor's duties : — 



" In his station amidships, or fore or aft, 



He can pull away, 



Cast off, belay, 



Aloft, alow, avast yo ho, 



And hand reef and steer, 



Know each halliard and gear, 



And of dut}' every rig. 



One can quite well picture to oneself a stage 

 sailor going through all this with suitable action, 

 to the admiration of an audience of Thames steam- 

 boat sailors at the Victoria Theatre : or the fol- 

 lowing : — 



" Bless'd with a smiling can of grog, 

 If duty call, stand, rise, or fall, 

 To fate's last verge he'll jog. 



(Fancy a sailor j<>ygi»g in his ship to the last verge of 

 fate! and for what?) 



The cadge to weigh, the sheets belay 

 (He does it with a wish) 

 To heave the lead, or to cathead 

 The pond'rous anchor fish." 



Talk of fishing the anchor to the cathead ! He 

 might as well have said that it was the practice of 

 jolly tars to go about with their heads where their 

 heels should be. I should be quite ready to follow 

 the suggestion of F airplay, and point out errors 

 of a like kind in nearly all these so-called sea 

 songs, if you could spare space and your readers 

 patience, but I will confine myself to the two 

 which he has made the subject of his last Query. 

 I admit that "Poor Jack" contains one good 

 stanza, the last, " D'ye mind me, a sailor should 

 be every inch, all as one as a piece of ship," &c. 

 &c. : that may have been quoted with enthusiasm 

 by old sailors, notwithstanding the glaring errors 

 of its first two stanzas. "Tom Bowling" stands 

 out as almost the solitary instance in which nei- 

 ther false metaphors nor nautical blunders are to 

 be detected. But the writer's heart was deeply 

 affected here, — the song was a dirge to the me- 

 mory of his dead brother, who was many years 

 master of a merchant vessel, whom he regarded 



deservedly with admiration and affection, and 

 from whom, no doubt, he imbibed his fondness 

 for sea subjects and his acquaintance with sea 

 terms. But it is plain that he was as little ac- 

 quainted with the character and ways of thinking 

 of sailors as he was with their terse and expressive 

 phraseology, which really no more resembles the 

 "shiver-my-timbers" style of the nautical drama 

 than Dibdin's songs resemble the rude but racy 

 ditties which are, or at least were, popular in the 

 galley and on the Point. If I had not already 

 intruded too much upon your space, I could 

 easily show from Dibdin's songs that the senti- 

 ments which he attributes to sailors are even less 

 true to nature than the language in which he 

 clothes them is to art. What, for instance, can 

 be more ludicrously maudlin than the description 

 of Ben Backstay sighing over the miniature of the 

 gentle Anna " that Ben had worn around his 

 neck ! " &c. &c. ? or more truly absurd than the 

 fate of Jack Rattlin, who at a moment's notice, 

 on hearing of the death of his sweetheart, — 



" Instant his pulse forgot to move, 

 With quivering lips and eyes uplifted, 

 He heav'd a sigh, — and died for love!" 



The reply of Tom Pipes to the young lady who 

 asked him whether he had ever been in love, ex- 

 presses pretty nearly the extent of Jack's ordi- 

 nary notions of the tender passion. I think it 

 may safely be asserted that a tar would sooner 

 think of appending a two-and-thirty pound shot 

 to his heels, and consigning himself at once to 

 Davy Jones, than hang from his neck the locket 

 of his lass ; and as for dying for love at the in- 

 stant, or in any given time, that is at least as un- 

 usual with seamen as with others. A greater 

 mistake was surely never made by any man than 

 by Dibdin when he said of his songs, — 



"They have been the solace of sailors in long voyages, 

 in storms and battles : they have been quoted in mutinies 

 to the restoration of order and discipline." 



The true merit of Dibdin consists, not in his 

 having provided recreation for sailors themselves, 

 for there can be no possible pleasure derived from 

 manifest error, but in so eulogising the tar and 

 his exploits as to induce landsmen, who form the 

 greater part of the nation, to appreciate the cha- 

 racter and services of seamen, to entertain a high 

 opinion of their gallantry, generosity, honesty, 

 and, though last not least, their recklessness of 

 character, all of which Dibdin has idealised in 

 his sea songs. For this service seamen undoubt- 

 edly owe him their best thanks, and to the per- 

 formance of this his nautical ignorance and false 

 metaphors have been no obstacle. His sea songs, 

 when sung on shore, are none the worse for mis- 

 takes which could not be detected by landsmen; 

 and though Jack may laugh at them privately, 

 and utterly refuse them admittance to his reper- 

 toire, he ought not to be the less obliged to- the 



