Another Version
An article by Felix Riesenberg, who trained and served as an officer in the Merchant Marine in the 1890s, depicts earlier sailors singing these plainer work lyrics not specifically about the Black Ball line. The men are raising the topsail on merchant ship to get under sail from New York to Liverpool, with the chantey led by a sailor named Jimmie:
Jimmie---Now rouse her right up boys for Liverpool town.
Sailors---Go way, way, blow the man down.
Jimmie---We'll blow the man up and blow the man down.
Sailors---Oh, give us some time to blow the man down.
Jimmie---We lay off the island of Maderdegascar.
Sailors---Hi, ho, blow the man down.
Jimmie---We lowered two anchors to make her hold faster
Sailors---Oh, give us some time to blow the man down.
All hands---
Then we'll blow the man up.
And we'll blow the man down.
Go way, way, blow the man down.
We'll blow him right over to Liverpool town.
Oh give us some time to blow the man down.
Ho stand by your braces, and stand by your falls;
Hi, ho, blow the man down,
We'll blow him clean over to Liverpool town,
Oh give us some time to blow the man down.
Read more about this topic: Blow The Man Down
Famous quotes containing the word version:
“Truth cannot be defined or tested by agreement with ‘the world’; for not only do truths differ for different worlds but the nature of agreement between a world apart from it is notoriously nebulous. Rather—speaking loosely and without trying to answer either Pilate’s question or Tarski’s—a version is to be taken to be true when it offends no unyielding beliefs and none of its own precepts.”
—Nelson Goodman (b. 1906)
“If the only new thing we have to offer is an improved version of the past, then today can only be inferior to yesterday. Hypnotised by images of the past, we risk losing all capacity for creative change.”
—Robert Hewison (b. 1943)