The halyard word in Halyard Shanty comes from a yard…
Stan Hugill in the BBC series about the seventies of the twentieth century explains to a great extent how the Halyard Shanty works. But the first important thing we need to know is, what yard it is? The yard is the horizontal bar, holding sail on square riggers. On one mast was placed even 6 yards!
About half of all yards were movable…
…means due to their huge weight, the yards of monstrous ships like the last windjammers, from German flying P-Liners have yards which weigh roughly around 400 kilograms! So when the wind was huge, and waves high, and also the ship runs without the cargo, the square-riggers were really in-stabile. To lower the center of gravity, it was necessary for some of the yards to lower them as much as possible.
When the wind was right, and all was good…
… when the ship was full of cargo, the time was gold, and every knot of speed was priceless, the sails goes up. All sails as possible have been set, to set all square sails was necessary to raise yards, and now we can come back to Stan Hugill, he says, the halyard is a word invented by combining two words “Haul” and “Yard” and we have “Halyard”.
When Shantyman sings line…
… keeping the line from the top usually with the second mate, he was singing 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.
Index Of The Halyard Shanty
- A Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall
- A Long Time Ago (A)
- A Long Time Ago (B)
- A Long Time Ago – Cecil Sharp Version
- A Long Time Ago (D)
- A Long Time Ago (E)
- A Long Time Ago (F)
- A Long Time Ago (G)
- A Long Time Ago – Gordon Hitchcock version
- A Long Time Ago – Harding Barbadian melody version
- Ane Madam – Bergen Version (Norwegian)
- As-Tu-Connu Le Per’ Lanc’lot (French)
- Banks Of Sacramento – Patterson Halyard version
- Blow Boys Blow (A)
- Blow Boys Blow (B)
- Blow Boys Blow (C)
- Blow Boys Blow (odd verses)
- Blow Boys Blow (Norwegian)
- Blow The Man Down (A)
- Blow The Man Down (B1 – first method)
- Blow The Man Down (B2 – second method)
- Blow The Man Down (C)
- Blow The Man Down (D)
- Blow The Man Down (E)
- Blow The Man Down (F)
- Blow The Man Down (IV – Doerflinger)
- Blow The Man Down (V – Doerflinger)
- Blow The Man Down – Terry Version
- Bunch O Roses (tune version 1)
- Bunch O Roses (tune version 2)
- Cheerily Man – Halyard
- Cheerily Man – Sharp
- Clear The Track Let The Bulgine Run – Whall
- Coal Black Rose
- Come Down You Bunch Of Roses Come Down
- De Hoffnung (German)
- De Hoffnung – English Translation
- De Runer Von Hamborg (German)
- Do Let Me Lone Susan
- Eliza Lee
- Essequibo River
- Goodbye Fare-ye-well (Singurd Sternvall version)
- Goodbye My Love Goodbye
- Hanging Johnny
- Haul Away Boys Haul Away!
- Haul Away Old Fellow Away
- Haul Er Away! A
- Haul Er Away! B
- Heave Away Boys Heave Away A
- Heave Away Boys Heave Away B
- Hello Somebody
- High O Come Roll Me Over!
- Hilo Boys Hilo
- Hilo Come Down Below
- Hilo Johnny Brown
- Hourra Mes Boués Hourra! (French)
- Hurrah Sing Fare Ye Well
- John Kanaka
- Leave Her Johnny – Halyard
- Lowlands Low (Halyards)
- Lower The Boat Down
- Miss Lucy Loo
- Oh Blow Ye Winds I Like To Hear You
- Oh Köm un Beer for mi (German)
- Poor Old Reuben Ranzo
- Ranzo Ray A
- Ranzo Ray B
- Ranzo Ray C
- Reuben Ranzo II – Doerflinger
- Reuben Ranzo – Hugills version
- Reuben Ranzo – Patterson version
- Reuben Ranzo – Sternvall version
- Roll Boys Roll!
- Roll The Cotton Down (A)
- Roll The Cotton Down (B)
- Roll The Cotton Down (C) – Halyard Version
- Roll The Cotton Down (D)
- Roll The Cotton Down (E)
- Roll The Cotton Down (F)
- Round The Corner Sally (Harding)
- Round The Corner Sally (Terry)
- Run Let The Bulgine Run
- Sally Brown (B) – Robbins version
- Serafina
- Shallow Brown B
- Shallow Brown D
- Shallow Brown – Harry Perry
- Shanandar – Cecil Sharp version
- Shiloh Brown
- Sing A Song Blow-Along O!
- Sing Sally O! (version B)
- Sister Susan
- So Heave Away
- Stormalong Lads Stormy
- Tommys Gone To Hilo – Harlow
- Toms Gone Away
- Toms Gone To Hilo – Bill Dowling
- Toms Gone To Hilo – Terry
- Tommy’s On The Tops’l Yard
- Toms Gone To Hilo
- The Gal With The Blue Dress
- The Sailor Fireman (I’ll Fire Dis Trip)
- Up Up My Boys Up A Hill
- Walk him along Johnny
- Walk Me Along Johnny
- Walkalong Miss Susiana Brown
- Walkalong My Rosie
- What is in the Pot A-boiling
- Where Am I To Go M’ Johnnies?
- Whisky Johnny A
- Whisky Johnny B
- Whisky Johnny C
- Whisky Johnny D
- Yankee John Stormalong
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.