Paddy, Get Back

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, with long chorus, "Paddy, get back, Take in the slack, Heave away your capstan," etc. The song details how the poor boy has to go to sea to earn money, then suffers at the hands of weather, mate, and a long voyage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: shanty poverty sailor abuse
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(Lond)) Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 54-55, "Paddy, Get Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 121-122, "Paddy Get Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 321-327, "Paddy Lay Back" (3 texts, 3 tunes with variants) [AbEd, pp. 241-244]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 32, "Paddy Lay Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 68-70, "Paddy Get Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 73-74, "Valparaiso Round the Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 124, "'Bout ship's stations, boys, be handy" (1 fragment)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 42-43, "Lay Out, Tack Sheets and Haul" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 141, "On Board the Leicester Castle" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PADLAYBK
ADDITIONAL: Carlton Dawe, _The Voyage of the "Pulo Way": A Record of Some Strange Doings at Sea_, R. F. Fenno & Company, 1899 (available on Google Books), "(Then stand back, take in the slack)" (1 fragment, probably this)
Roud #653
RECORDINGS:
George Ling, "On Board the Leicester Castle" (on Voice02)
Richard Maitland, "Paddy, Get Back" (AFS, 1939; on LC26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Liverpool Song" (form, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mainsail Haul
The Liverpool Song
Valparaiso Round the Horn
NOTES [287 words]: Gibb Sahib, in a post on Mudcat.org, points out the article "On Shanties," in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, Once a Week, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, which reads, in part, "There is an air of romance about California, the Brazils, and Mexico, that has a peculiar charm for Jack, and has made them the subject of many a favourite shanty, as Rio Grande, Valparaiso, Round the Horn, and Santa Anna." It is not clear whether this is meant to refer to three songs or four (and while the article quotes "Rio Grande" and "Santy Anno," it does not quote the ones in the middle), but Sahib thinks it likely that it is meant as a single title and refers to this song. I agree. So it is likely that the song was actively circulating in 1868,
The Dawe text from 1899 certainly appears related, although I wonder if the author had heard it and forgotten parts; it runs
Then stand back, take in the slack!
Heave around your caps'n, gail a pawl!
'Bout ship! Stations, lads -- be handy!
Let go your starboard brace -- your mainsa'l haul!"
(Thanks again to Gibb Sahib for finding this.)
Many early versions contain the words "heave a pawl," though this seems to have been lost in pop folk versions (perhaps because the singers themselves didn't understand it!). A pawl is a sort of ratchet mechanism on the capstan, which allowed it to turn one way but not fall back the other. There would be several pawls around the capstan; the sailors would normally haul for more than a single pawl's distance. But they needed to heave *at least* one pawl's distance to be sure that the rope they were hauling would not give back the progress they had made. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doe054

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