Blow The Man Down – halyard shanties family

List of the Blow The Man Down – halyard shanties family

  1. Blow The Man Down (A)
  2. Blow The Man Down (B1 – first method)
  3. Blow The Man Down (B2 – second method)
  4. Blow The Man Down (C)
  5. Blow The Man Down (D)
  6. Blow The Man Down (E)
  7. Blow The Man Down (F)
  8. Blow The Man Down (IV – Doerflinger)
  9. Blow The Man Down (V – Doerflinger)
  10. Blow The Man Down – Terry Version

Interesting Facts about the Blow The Man Down – halyard shanties family

Here is one of the most favored shanty, sung by Stan Hugill, when asked by the Polish National Shantimen Marek Szurawski, he quite unambiguously replied that his most favorite shanties are the tops’l halyard shanty “Blow The Man Down”.

Stan Hugill, says, the halyard is a word invented by combining two words “Haul” and “Yard” and we have “Halyard”.

According to Stan Hugill, it was two hard pulls, and after every pull, the yard goes up a couple of inches. Three sails have been hoisted (those with raising up yards) to be raised in a single mast: Upper Topsail, Upper Topgallant, and Royal, in those sails, were hoisted to the singing of “Halyard Shanties”. It was one of the hardest work on the ship.

another yard

When Shantyman sings line keeping the line from the top usually with the second mate, he was singing the line of the verse, this was waiting time for a job when the chorus starts on, all crew down bellow, through the patent block (usually 3-4 sailors), did a crazy pull on the rope, and an end, another pull of the rope in end, this happens twice, and this is the base construction on halyard shanty.

Haul the halyard rope

Short story of the Blow The Man Down – halyard shanties family

The six major versions of “Blow The Man Down” are as follows:
(a) – The Flash Packet (from Ratcliffe Highway).
(b) – The Sailing of the Blackballer.
(c) – The Flying Fish Sailor or Policeman Version.
(d) – The Fishes.
(e) – The Milkmaid.
(f) – Bungyereye.

My private collection of books

Shantyman library –  you will see descriptions and recommendations of positions worth diving into, true sources of knowledge about sea shanties. To gain knowledge about sea shanties is the main ultimate purpose of this library, every book in this library is somehow related to sea shanties and before mast songs.

More involvement in Traditional Sea Shanties

You can find this record here or directly listen below. If you want to discuss the record or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here.