I consider “Hieland Laddie” to be one of the very important songs in the history of the development of chanties. This is because, first of all, it turns up among the earlier references to activities that seem to be nearly or fully developed as chanty performances. Second, it’s seemingly obvious Scottish origins complicate (in a healthy way, I suppose) the discussion of ethnic/national origins. Most of the major writers on chanties have acknowledged an African-American contribution to the genre, more or less significant. As can be gleaned from prior blog posts, my position is different in that I consider African-American practice to be the main root of chanties. Yet African-American does not mean “African”; it is, in the main, an English-speaking culture that also inherited and participated in creating products of English-language heritage. A song of Scottish origin, whether in “adapted” form or not, could have well been sung by African-Americans prior to it being turned into a chanty. Indeed, interestingly, the early historical references to this song always use a “highland” form, rather than the more distinctively Scots “hieland.” “Highland” has some affinity to “hi-lo,” which has been seen as a distinctive chorus feature of Afro-American songs, later to become a chanty cliché. And yet, this song’s presence will suggest to many (including me) the possibility of a Scottish/British formative influence which would seem to mar the strong image created by the rest of my evidence (i.e. the evidence that suggests African-American origins). “Hieland Laddie” also supports Stan Hugill’s theory, in Shanties from the Seven Seas, of the Gulf ports acting as a “shanty mart” where European and African-American sailors shared their (already conceived) chanties. I don’t disagree with Hugill that such an exchange may have taken place, but my belief is that it was in such contexts that the very genre of chantey was being created. Black workers may well have learned “Hieland Laddie” from Europeans only at this point, but it was the former who had already developed the paradigm for chanties and who gave it to the latter IMO. Still, I have to consider all the evidence, including how “Hieland Laddie” may affect this idea.
The chanty seems to have been common, but perhaps not as common as its popularity today would have us imagine. It comes in among the top 25 chanties (in frequency) to appear in my historical survey of the age of sail up to the 1920s, however it is not mentioned in many of the major collections. Here is historiographic info about the song in its life as a chanty.
Both in the timeline of events and the timeline of publications the song (as a chanty) first appears in Howland’s Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Incidents in the United States (1840). There is a description (from an officer’s journal) of an incident in September 1835 where a U.S. ship, Peacock, has been grounded near the Gulf of Mazeira off Arabia. The hands are dragging the ship into deeper water by means of both a capstan and manual hauling. When the work was going tough—perhaps in intermittent blasts of force—the men sang “Cheer’ly Man,” which is one of the few definite work-songs we know was already common by the 1830s. But as the work got easier, perhaps allowing for a continuous march-like pace…
…those at the capstan, sang to the tune of the 'Highland Laddie,'
'I wish I were in New York town,'
Bonny laddie, Highland laddie,' &c.
It’s notable that even though “Hieland Laddie” was a preexisting song, this one is clearly in a chanty form, for it has the “round the world” device in the verse pattern. Though I don’t want to speculate on it here, some idea of when and where the idea of the “were you ever in XYZ?” pattern originated might tell us something about where chanties were emerging, too. 1832’s The Quid, with its mention of rudimentary capstan songs used in a British East Indiaman, contained a chorus to a song that was later connected by Doerflinger to the song “Were you ever in Dumbarton?”—a song that was called “a windlass chorus” in Melville’s Omoo (related to the early 1840s). This all suggests a possible style of capstan song in Euro-American ships that had a Scottish flavor and the “round the world” device for spinning out choruses.
If this were the case, I must admit that it seems more likely that the same sort of Euro-American sailors brought this work song to the task of cotton-screwing, rather than it emerging as a chanty from that context. It is attested for the mid-late 1840s in the cotton-screwing context by two authors. Erskine (1896) was one of those Euro-American sailors who tried his hand at the work, in New Orleans, Sept. 1845. He remembered singing the song as follows:
“Were you ever in Boston town,
Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie?
Yes, I've been in Boston town,
Where the ships sail up and down,
My bonnie Highland laddie, ho!
“Were you ever in Mobile Bay,
Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie?
Yes, I've been in Mobile Bay,
Screwing cotton by the day,
My bonnie Highland laddie, ho!
“Were you ever in Miramichi,
Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie?
Yes, I've been in Miramichi,
Where you make fast to a tree,
My bonnie Highland laddie, ho!
“Were you ever in Quebec,
Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie?
Yes, I have been in Quebec,
Stowing timber on the deck,
My bonnie Highland laddie, ho!"
[Erskine, Charles. 1896. Twenty Years Before the Mast. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co.]
Around that time or within a few years after, Nordhoff also observed the song sung by cotton-stowers of Mobile Bay. In the way he described it, it sounds as if it was a new song, in other words he did not connect it to a Scottish original. Here are the lyrics he gave:
Were you ever in Quebec,
Chorus—Bonnie laddie, highland laddie,
Stowing timber on the deck,
Chorus—My bonnie highland laddie, oh.
Were you ever in Dundee,
Chorus—Bonnie laddie, highland laddie,
There some pretty ships you'll see,
Chorus—My bonnie highland laddie, oh.
Were you ever in Merrimashee.
Chorus—Bonnie laddie, highland laddie,
Where you make fast to a tree,
Chorus—My bonnie highland laddie, oh.
Were you ever in Mobile Bay,
Chorus—Bonnie laddie, highland laddie,
Screwing cotton by the day,
Chorus—My bonnie highland laddie, oh.
This is of course an example of what Nordhoff famously called chants or “capstan and cotton songs.”
When Gosse observed this type of work and its songs in 1838, he did not yet note the involvement of White workers. And “Hieland Laddie,” incidentally, was also not among the songs he noted. This silence may add to the idea that European sailors actually contributed the song in the 1840s after they joined the profession.
There is not a lot of detailed evidence following that sailors used the song onboard ship. So many of the references in my tally come from J.M. Carpenter’s informants, recorded in the 1920s, who may have learned the song within a range of any time between the late 1840s and the early 20th century. Edward Robinson and Mark Page, both or which began their sailing careers in the late 1840s and finished up in the late 1870s, knew the song.
The fiction writer and ex-seaman Elijah Kellogg of Portland (ME)/Boston mentioned the song in his 1869 The Ark of Elm Island. Although he remained active in shipping affairs, Kellogg’s sailing years were the 1830s. His writing in this and other stories puts emphasis on Afro-Americans/Caribbeans singing chanties. At some point in this story there is an exchange between American sailors where one sings the following verse:
Was ever you in Aberdeen,
Bonny laddie, Highland laddie,
To see the duke in his Highland green,
My bonny Highland laddie?
The song’s use in the 1870s is suggested by Robinson’s article (1917), wherein he gives lyrics (w/ score) as follows:
Where have you been all the day?
Bonny laddie! Highland laddie!
Where have you been all the day?
My bonny Highland laddie!
Oh! Oh! my heart is sair,
Bonny laddie, Highland laddie!
Oh! Oh! my heart is sair,
My bonny Highland laddie!
A Detroit newspaper, ca. late 1880s, decribed sailors hauling a shark to deck with a chanty, to the following song, in which the chorus of “highland laddie” seems to have been reduced to a nonsense form that may have transmuted with “hi-lo.”
Were you ever in Quebec,
Ho, la! ho, la!
Hoisting timber on the deck!
Ho, la! ho, la!
With a will now—Heave, oh!
[In: Barrere, Albert, and Charles G. Leland, ed. 1890. A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant. Vol. 2. The Ballantyne Press.]
For whatever reason, Davis and Tozer did not have the song in the first edition of their chanty collection, 1887. They added it in the 1890/1891 2nd/3rd edition. The later edition is notable for being obviously (in some spots) influenced by L.A. Smith’s The Music of the Waters, which had been published in the interim (1888). Smith, however, did not have “Highland Laddie.” What she did have, reproduced from earlier authors, was the so-called “Hilonday” chanty. Now, here is what Davis and Tozer had for lyrics:
There was a laddie came from Scotland,
Highland laddie, bonnie laddie.
Bonnie laddie from fair Scotland,
Highland laddie, ho!
[etc.]
It seems more like the “original” Scots song, rather than the chanty versions we’ve been seeing. Well, it just does not seem like a sailor’s version; IMO it sounds rather made up. So where did they get this from, “suddenly”? I’d speculate that, since they did not include it in their first edition, it was not a song in their personal experience of chanties. Nor was the song provided in any versions in print that they would have seen. However, they may have been inspired by seeing Smith’s mention of “Hilonday” (“Highland day and off she goes”), after which they presumed to include a version. Additionally, Davis and Tozer file it as a “setting sail” song, rather than a heaving/capstan song—suggesting a confusion of how it was used. Lastly, they melody they give seems a bit off. Hmmm...
The chanty in fact does not turn up much in publication after this. It may be notable that earlier versions quoted did not include a grand chorus. And now, along with that, we start to see the “hieland” pronunciation. Doerflinger (1951) had it from Capt. James P. Barker who would not have learned it until 1889 or later, I believe. He gave,
Ay, Ay, and away she goes,
Bonnie laddie, Hieland laddie,
Ay, ay, and away she goes,
Bonnie Hieland laddie!
'Way she goes, heels and toes,
This is the day we sail this way,
Eckstorm and Smyth gathered two versions for their study of Maine songs (1927). The first was taken down ca.1904 from the singing of Captain William Coombs of Islesboro and was considered a “fishermen’s chantey” for hoisting light sails.
Was you ever on the Isle o’ Holt,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan’ laddie?
Where John Thompson swallowed a colt,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan’ laddie?
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie laddie, Hielan’ laddie;
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie Hielan’ laddie.
I opened an orange and found a letter,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan’ laddie.
And the more I read it grew better and better,
Bonnie Hielan’ laddie.
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie laddie, Hielan’ laddie,
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie Hielan’ laddie.
The second came from Susie C. Young of Brewer, Main, 1926. It has the “traditional” chanty ring to it:
Was you ever to Quebec,
Halan’ Laddie, bonnie Laddie!
Where they hoist their timber all on deck,
With a Halan’ bonnie Laddie?
Heave-O! me heart and soul,
Halan’ Laddie, Bonnie Laddie,
Heave-O! me heart and soul,
To me Halan’, Bonnie Laddie.
Was you ever to the Isle of France,
Where the girls are taught to dance
[Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy and Mary Winslow Smyth. 1927. Minstrelsy of Maine: Folk-songs and Ballads of the Woods and the Coast. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin. ]
Colcord’s collection (1924) had this set of lyrics:
Was you ever in Quebec?
Bonny laddie, Highland laddie,
Loading timber on the deck,
My bonny Highland laddie.
High-ho, and away she goes,
Bonny laddie, Highland laddie,
High-ho, and away she goes,
My bonny Highland laddie.
Was you ever in Callao
Where the girls are never slow?
Was you ever in Baltimore
Dancing on the sanded floor?
Was you ever in Mobile Bay,
Screwing cotton by the day?
Was you on the Brummalow,
Where Yankee boys are all the go?
At last we come to Stan Hugill’s presentation, which begins “PART TWO” of his great collection. He says it was very popular as both a walkaway and capstan song. The walkaway bit is interesting, because so far only “Drunken Sailor” has really been attributed to this arguably obsolete technique. One presumes this was part of Hugill’s personal experience. He also says this was the case in “the old Dundee whalers”—facts about which he did have from an informant, but I suspect also he may be trying hard to make the “story” of this chanty most elegant. For his first version, (A), has a Scottish whaling theme. And while several of the verses correspond to Davis and Tozer’s version, Hugill simply claims he learned it all from “Bosun Chenoworth” who had served in such ships. I think something fishy/whaley is going on. Anyway, here is my rendition of this item.
About Version (B), Hugill says it was as used when “timber droghers” were stowing lumber in the northeast U.S./Canada. How he knows this, he does not say. We may assume it was personal experience, then again he may just be assuming himself based on the “regulation” verse about Quebec and the Miramichi one about lumbering. I had some help in my rendition, that went a little creative with the “round the world” theme—contained in this version, and making it, I think, more in-line with the common historical versions.
[At this point Hugill introduces “Donkey Riding,” which is the subject of a separate blog post.]
Then he mentions "The Powder Monkey"— a 19th century music hall song, "[Little] Powder Monkey Jim," which evidently gained some popularity among sailors. No evidence it was a chantey, however. Hugill merely mentioned it in passing, as he thought maybe it was based on the “Hieland Laddie” chantey. He gives the chorus, which I have rendered here:
Then comes “My Bonnie Highland Lassie-O,” which Hugill got from the Irish song-collector Seamus Ennis (1919-1982). Ennis collected it from a family in County Galway, Ireland—seemingly one of the few chanties collected in Ireland itself. It’s lyrical theme has affinities, I note, with the English traditional song “Billy Boy.”
Also related to “Billy Boy,” I think, is the last in the series, a "Timber drogher's shanty" that Hugill reproduced from Whall’s collection’s 4th edition (1920). Whall gave only this excerpt, which has an entirely different melody but the same “Quebec” couplet as “Hieland Laddie.”
Though the cotton-stowers’ story is much discussed, more, I think, should be said about the lumber-stowers.
On my balcony in Long Beach,
Where all the books are in my reach,
Your bonnie highland laddie,
Ranzo :{
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