Sealer's Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "The Block House Flag is up today to welcome home the stranger." The sealing fleet is returning. The ships are named, their feats recounted [how they "kill their foe"," i.e. the seals], and they go home to parties and dancing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 3rd edition), but written 1889-1890 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: bragging return hunting ship party dancing humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 52-53 in the 3rd edition, pp. 44-45 in the 4th, pp. 44-45 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 73-74, "The Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 33-34, "Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 40-41, "Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Feltham, _Sealing Steamers_, Harry Cuff Publications, 1995, pp. 77-78, "Sealer's Song" (partial text)
ST Doyl3052 (Partial)
Roud #7307
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Sealer's Song" (on NFOBlondahl06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (tune)
NOTES [1298 words]: A very widely cited song, though the author is unknown. Anna Kearney Guigné, in her article on the Doyle songsters, "Kenneth Peacock's Contribution to Gerald S. Doyle's Old-TIme Songs of Newfoundland (1955),"(published in Newfoundland and Labrador Studies, Volume 22, No. 1, Summer 2007) attributes this to Gerald S. Doyle himself (p. 123), but the historical references make me think this very unlikely. Why would Doyle, in 1955, write a song that by its internal references dates from c. 1890?
My earlier notes on this song states, "The list of captains mentioned implies a date in the period between 1865 and 1880." I'm not sure where I found this information, but the song contains several dating hints. Just four of them allow us to set an absolute date of 1889-1890, with 1890 the better bet:
1. Verse 1, line 3 mentions "Stewart's House." According to Feltham, p. 77 n. 47, Stewart's was a sealing company that shut down in 1893. Compared to its rivals Bowring's and Job's (which lasted much longer), it was pretty small fry, with only three ships, the Walrus (for which see "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full"), the Proteus (which doesn't seem to have been mentioned in sealing songs), and the Ranger (for which see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912").
2. Verse 1, line 4. There were several Captains Barbour (Alpheus Barbour, Baxter Barbour, George Barbour, Joseph Barbour, Thomas Barbour; Chafe, pp. 87-88), but because he commands the Ranger, the one in this song must be Captain Joe Barbour (also mentioned in the "Sealer's Song (II)" as captain of the Iceland), who commanded the Ranger 1882-1890 (Feltham, p. 78). Confirmation comes from the fact that J. & W. Stewart supplied (i.e. outfitted) the Ranger in those years (Chafe, p. 59).
3. Verse 3, lines 3-4; also verse 5 line 1. "Billy Knee the Jowler" (a "jowler" being a very successful captain) commanded the Kite 1889-1893 (Feltham, p. 78) as well as in 1877. Billy Knee's ship the Kite was one of the most-mentioned in sealing songs; see "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay." Knee was another captain of a sealing dynasty; his brother (Kenneth) Knee is mentioned in "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912" and his son Job Knee in "The Sealer's Song (II)." William Knee certainly did take home a lot of seals; Chafe, p. 97, gives his career total as 201,493 seals over 16 years -- not record-breaking, but his yearly average of 12,593 seals appears to me to make him #27 in the list -- with very many of those who did better coming later and in better ships. Knee didn't have great success in 1890 (10,809 seals, according to Chafe, p. 59), which would make sense in light of the song's statement that they were stuck for two weeks.
Billy Knee does not seem to be mentioned explicitly in any other song, but the "Billy K." of "Uncle Bill Teller" seems like a good fit for Knee; see that song for background on Knee.
4. Captain Blandford (verse 2, line 1): There were at least four Captains Blandford (Samuel, Darius, James, and Joseph. Darius, James, and Samuel were brothers; Joe Blandford is mentioned in "Captains and Ships" and Darius Blandford in "Sealer's Song (II)"), but since (based on the combination of the first three items) we're looking at 1889-1890, it must be Captain Samuel Blandford (1840-1909), who had first gone to the ice under his father at the age of thirteen (Ryan, p. 227), and commanded the Neptune 1883-1903. In 1889, he took 28,103 seals, the second-highest total of the year. In 1890, he took 21,949 seals -- a lower total than in 1889, but in 1890, it was the best total of any ship. Support for the idea that it is Samuel comes from the fourth line of the verse, that Blandford "filled her to the hatches"; in 1884, Blandford had set a record for most seals in one trip -- which he himself broke in 1888 (Feltham, p. 94). Thus if the song was written in 1889 or 1890, Blandford was the record-holder for filling his ship. This is further confirmed by the fact that Job's supplied the Neptune in 1889-1890 (Chafe, p. 59).
Blandford would later serve in the Newfoundland House of Assembly (Chafe, p. 31; according to Ryan, p. 241, several other Newfoundland sealers would also go into politics as a result of their fame), and continued to command ships through 1906, when he retired due to illness (Ryan, p. 191). Ryan, pp. 382-383, has a copy of his obituary. See also the notes to "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea."
Unlike a lot of sealing captains, who could not navigate a ship, some of the Blandfords were actual qualified seamen; Darius Blandford would later captain the passenger liner Bruce (Hanrahan, p. 4). There is a photo of Samuel Blandford on p. 73 of Ryan/Drake and and another on p. 73 of WInsor, plus an 1899 photo of him, along with other sealing stalwarts such as Abram Kean and Arthur Jackman, on p. 25 of Winsor.
The combination of these mentions gives us a forced date of 1889-1890. Many of the other mentions accord with this date.
I'll try to take the other details of this song in order.
Verse 1, line 1: The "Block House Flag," according to Feltham, p. 77 n. 46, was raised when a sealer approached St. John's harbour, letting residents know so that they could watch the arrival.
Verse 3, line 2, "Jackman in the Howler." There were several Captains Jackman. For Captain William Jackman, see "Captain William Jackman, A Newfoundland Hero." For Arthur Jackman, probably the most noteworthy, see also "The Spring of '97," "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full," and especially "The Old Polina." But neither commanded a sealer called the Howler, because, according to Feltham, p. 78 n. 48, there was no such ship. Nor did a Captain Jackman ever command the Wolf, an obvious candidate to be nicknamed the Howler. I might wildly conjecture that Vanguard might be mis-heard as "Howler," but Jackman didn't command the Vanguard. Alternately, the Aurora was sometimes known as the Roarer (England, p. 118), and I suppose Roarer could be re-nicknamed Howler. But although Arthur Jackman commanded the Aurora 1894-1897 (Chafe, p. 92), that is after this song must have been written. There was also an SS Harlaw, which could easily be mis-heard as "Howler," but she didn't come into service until 1896 and her only commanders were D. A. Scott and J. Farguhar. And the SS Hector, which served 1871-1891, never had a captain Jackman either; in 1899, she was under B. Kean, and W. Barbour commanded her in 1890 (Chafe, p. 100).
Arthur Jackman in 1889-1890 commanded the Eagle, and she was supplied by Bowring Brothers in those years (Chafe, p. 59), so presumably that is the real "Howler." Possibly the name was simply made up to give a rhyme for "Jowler." The 1899 photo on p. 25 of Winsor also shows Captain Arthur Jackman (1843-1907), along with other sealing stalwarts such as Abram Kean. Ryan/Drake, p. 74, also has a photo of Arthur Jackman, who commanded sealers every year from 1871 to 1906. He had a somewhat checkered career, losing the Resolute in 1886 and the Eagle in 1892, and was once fined for violating the laws about sealing on Sundays -- but he was so tough that, when he mangled one of his fingers, he took an axe and cut it off when one of his sailors refused to do so! (Ryan, pp. 272-273 n. 23).
As for the Eagle herself (verse 7, line 4), there were two sealers named Eagle, the first being the one commanded for a time by Arthur Jackman. For these two ships, see the notes to "The Ice-Floes."
Verse 6, line 4: whoever "Walsh and Luke McCarthy" were, they were not ship captains at this time; there were two Captains Walsh, Samuel and Nicolas (Chafe, pp. 95-96), but they last sailed in 1882 in the Merlin. I have no clue as to McCarthy. - RBW
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