Interesting Facts about the Aboard The Kangaroo
“Aboard The Kangaroo” – capstan shanty, very rare according Stan Hugill, title refering to the ship “Kangaroo”. It appeared in the “Port of Bristol Guide and Sailing List” (August 1949), and later in “Sea Breezers” (September 1949), both vesrsions being those of Mr. Stanley Slade, a Bristol seaman, then in his seventees, who stated that he had heard it sung as a boy in ships out of Bristol.
Stan Hugills friend Mr. Elwell of the Isle of Man also knew this shanty and he informed Stan Hugillthat it was often sung in Liverpool, in the “free’n’easies” of the last century, along with two other ditties: “The Cruise of the ‘Calabar'” and “Across the Western Ocean”.
I will reconstruct this song as a capstan shanty.
The source of this sea shanty
The music: “Shanties from the Seven Seas” by Stan Hugill (1st ed p 474).
The lyrics: “Shanties from the Seven Seas” by Stan Hugill (1st ed p 474).
The Record of the Aboard The Kangaroo
You also can find this record on my YouTube channel here or directly listen below. Additionally, if you want to share your opinion about the record or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or leave a comment at the bottom of this blog article.
The musical notation
The full lyrics
Aboard The Kangaroo
Once I wuz a waterman an’ lived at home at sea,
But now I am a mariner ploughing the angry Seas,
– I never thought she would be false,
– or ever prove untrue,
– As we sailed away from Bristol quay,
– On board of the “Kangaroo”
* 2 *
I thought I’d like seafarin’ life, so I bid my love adieu,
And sailed away as bosun’s mate, aboard of the “Kangaroo”
* 3 *
You would not say it was her wealth that stole me heart away,
She was starcher at a launderer’s for eighteen-pence a day.
* 4 *
My love she was no foolish girl, her age it was two-score,
My love she was no spinster, she’d been married twice before.
* 5 *
Paid off I sought her dwelling ‘way on Bristol Down,
Where an ancient dame upon a line was hangin’ out her grown.
* 6 *
‘Where is my love?’ ‘She’s married, sir, about six months ago,
To a smart young man who’s commander of a barge that trades in coal,’
* 7 *
Farewell to dreams of married life, to soapsuds and the blue,
Farewell to all the Bristol gals, they’re fickle-minded too.
* 8 *
I,ll seek some distant foreign clime, no longer will I stay,
An’ on some Chinese Hottentot I’ll throw this life away!