List of the Bound for the Rio Grande – Shanties Family
- 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)
Interesting Facts about the Bound for the Roll The Cotton Down – Halyard Shanties Family
A very popular halyard shanty “Roll the cotton down – Halyard Shanties Family” opens a big family of the shanties, which Stan Hugill describes as the shanty with the word ‘Roll’.
Capstan was used later on sailing ships, it was a vertical-axled rotating machine developed for use on sailing ships to multiply the pulling force of seamen when hauling ropes. The capstan was used for multiple pulling (heaving) jobs, but raising the capstan was the heaviest job so the tempo was the slowest used on capstans. Below image of the capstan working on its sailors.
Short story of the Roll The Cotton Down – Halyard Shanties Family
As a matter of fact, it vies with ‘blow’ and ‘Hilo’ as the most popular word in a sailor’s work song. At Tops’l halyard, it was a hardy perennial, although it suited t’gallant halyards it was a hardy perennial, although it suited t’gallant halyards even more so, being of a fairly lively march time.
The versions of this great shanty are:
(a) Negro Version
(b) Cotton-Stowers’ version
(c) Deep-sea version.
(d) Blackball version.
(e) Paddy and the railway.
(f) “A Long Time Ago”
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.