Cheerily Memories of Halbert Dickson. Aust Jnl Feb 8/1886

Halyard: Whiskey Johnee

As sung on board the Dunsyre ( a 3 masted full rigged vessel of 2149 tons and 22 crew.
Source Frank Clune who was a clipper sailor and quoted in land Of My Birth.
Whiskey made a fool of me
Whiskey John- ee

Whiskey made me go to sea
Whiskey for my John- ee

The Homeward Bound was an irregular magazine produced by passengers on board the full-rigged ship 'Sobraon' on a voyage from Australia to the Uk in 1882. Vol 1 no 2 February, 1882, had the words to the following shanty sung by the crew.

Whiskey Johnny Vol 1 no 2 February, 1882

Caroline Chisholm Empire Newspaper Sydney 1862

Our Captain

Composed by T Perry a sailor on the Resolution (Capt Cook's third voyage)
We were all hearty seamen, no colds did we fear
And we have from all sickness entirely kept clear
Thanks be to our Captain, he has proven good
Amongst all islands to give us fresh food.

Cheer boys cheer

As sung abroad the 'Delta' on voyage to Australia 1852 as recalled by James Robertson
Source: Records of the Castlemaine pioneers.
To the West, To the West
The land of the free.

Also

On the fields of Ballarat
You're scarce allowed to wear a hat
Cheer boys cheer
For this new and happy land

Riverboat Ditty Quoted in 'River Boat Days of the Murray' Peter Phillips. Supposedly sung by crewmen.

The Hot Potato Club

Formed by regular travellers on the Sydney to manly steamer.
Ref: Capt Henderson 1971

The Chusan Polka

The Aust Journal 1868
A polka created to celebrate the first mail steamer to visit Australia in 1868.

Haul On The Bowline

From Royal Historical Jrn 1909 and sung by whaler men out of Mosman's Bay.

Haul on the bowline
The fore and maintop bowlin'
Haul the bowline, haul
Haul the bowline, the bully bully bowline
Haul the bowline, the bowlin' haul.

 

Blow the Man Down From 1914 book on the Aust Steamship Line by RM McDonald who was aboard the Cardinia

Mr R Hassall of Balgowlah also had a song:

This Bit Of The World Belongs To Us

How's this for a piece of white supremacy and flag waving! Composed by the one and only Joe Slater, this song was printed in the Imperial Songster of 1908.

Australia's Welcome To Uncle Sam: To Honour the American Fleet IMPERIAL SONGSTER 1908 (Tune: Boys of the USA)

Mr Roy Liston, Tascott, NSW, recalled the following lines to this popular song:

Boys of the USA, how glad we are to meet you,
Boys of the USA, and proud we are to greet you.
With the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes and Southern Cross unfurled,
We will show the foe, we can hold our own in this wide, wide world.


Going from references in other publications it appears there was a popular series of glass slides on Manly and the following song. It must have been a popular song as I have had several elderly Sydneysiders sing parts of the chorus.

Take Me Down The Harbour Gray & Bennett. Tivoli Pub. Imperial Songster No 83 1909

All Aboard for Manly Beach

To Manly (and other places) (Parody " The Bowery.'')

The Imperial Songster No 14 points to Ms Florrie Forde St Clair as the singer of this next song. Florrie Forde was born in Victoria and became the most famous music hall chorus singer in the world. She dropped the 'St Clair' after moving to London. Florrie had a great, large, fruity voice and I can well imagine her belting this song out. Those interested in Australian stars of the international music hall should refer to the section of this site 'Recordings ñ Yesterdays Australia' where I produced two wonderful CDs of these artists including tracks by Florrie Forde. Incidentally, her best known songs were 'Tipperary' and 'Goodbye-ee', both synonymous with WW1

Manly Was The Place (or, Monday Was the Day) IMPERIAL SONGSTER No 14