COLLECTED FROM GEORGE PATTISON

BLOW THE MAN DOWN

George Pattison
Cape de Couedie Lighthouse
Kangaroo island
South Australia
4 Dec 1924 (and 1941)
Clive Carey SS405

Carey: Sung at the first (month?) end of the first advance in wages. Boarding house pimps or ‘masters’ – or sailor’s pimps, would cash his advance note and give a few bob for it.

O poor old man your horse is dead,
And yer say so, and yer hope so,
O poor old man your horse is dead
O poor old man

Against the tune Carey has written “for short pulls. No improvisations”.

A shanty devised entirely for ceremonial purposes and sometimes called The Dead Horse or Poor Old Man.

Merchant seamen were given an ‘advance note’ (usually one month sometimes up to three months) ostensibly to enable them to purchase sea boots, oilskins and other sailing necessities. Often these ‘notes’ were given to boarding-house masters and squandered on prostitutes and alcohol – so, back on board, the sailor often referred to his first month as ‘working for a dead horse’. This is where the Australian expression ‘flogging a dead horse’ probably originated.

The Dead Horse Ceremony was performed at eight bells, in the second dogwatch, on the last day of the first month at sea, when the hands would muster on deck to enact the Paying-off of the Dead Horse.

Earlier the sail-maker would have fashioned a crude effigy of a horse (probably stuffed with old rope and some holystones (the soft sandstone used for scrubbing the decks) and this ‘horse’ would be dragged across the deck where the ‘Old Man’ (Captain) would traditionally give each man a tot of rum. Then the ‘horse’ would be attached to a gantline (being a rove through a block on the main yardarm), up aloft, the youngest member of the crew would be sitting athwart the yard with a knife in his hand. On the word of command, the men would grab the gantline, running through a dead-block on the deck, and the shanty man would commence:

Oh, I say ol’ man yer horse is dead

And the sailors would respond with
An’ we say so, and we hope so!

Pulling aloft the ‘horse’ on the words ‘say’ and ‘hope’

When the ‘horse’ reached the yardarm the rope was cut and the ‘horse’ would drop to Davey Jones.

It is a fascinating reminder of the ceremonies and superstitions held in the old days of sail. I have noted other descriptions of this ceremony (and the crossing of the equator where the ‘King of the Sea’ comes on deck) taken from old England to Australia ship’s newspapers and personal diaries.