COLLECTED FROM GEORGE PATTISON

RUEBEN RANZO

Hauling
George Pattison
Cape de Couedie Lighthouse
Kangaroo island
South Australia
4 Dec 1924 (and 1941)
Clive Carey SS403

Ranzo was the son of a New York tailor,
Ranzo, boys, ranzo!
Ranzo was the son of a New York tailor,
Ranzo, boys, ranzo.

He shipped on board of a whaler
Ranzo &c
He shipped &c
Ranzo, &c

Oh, Ranzo he was no sailor

Now the captain he was a very good man

And he taught Ranzo navigation

Ranzo married the captain’s daughter

And now he is Captain Ranzo

The story is slightly different from Hugill’s version but Rueben does marry the Captain’s daughter in both versions. Hugill has him:
Ranzo is now the skipper,
Of a Yankee whaler
Where Pattison has ‘and now he is Captain Ranzo’

There are several opinions as to who was the original Ranzo – a Polish Jew, a Cape Verde Islander, even a Danish hero. Hugill puts forward the thought he was a Sicilian fisherman as there is an identical tune for a Sicilian tuna fisherman’s song and, further, suggests Ranzo to be an abbreviation of Lorenzo.

David Bone in Capstan Bars (Harcourt, Brace & Co. NY1932) has a verse

Now ‘e’s Captain of a Black-ball li-i-ner
An’ nothin’ could be fi-i-ner.

The Blackball Line sailed regularly on the Australian run. (see notes on song of the same name)