Mother Carey's

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "The brave west wind it filled our top-s'ls and bore us out-ward bound... for Frisco Town.... Sheet it home- that big main top-s'l, sheet it home- boys, good and true, For we're bound to Mother Carey's, where she feeds her chicks at sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "The brave west wind it filled our top-s'ls and bore us out-ward bound, out-ward bound across the Western, out-ward bound for Frisco Town. Chorus: Sheet it home- that big main top-s'l, sheet it home- boys, good and true, For we're bound to Mother Carey's, where she feeds her chicks at sea."
KEYWORDS: shanty ship travel return
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 192, "Mother Carey's" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [1119 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas: "'Mother Carey's chickens' was a sailor name for stormy petrels, seabirds found flying close to the crests of the great seas of the high latitudes." - SL
The origin and use of this name is the subject of some dispute. Numerous sources agree that Mother Carey's chickens are stormy petrels. Kemp, p. 561, refers the name particularly to Procellaria pelagica On the other hand, Hendrickson, p. 58, notes that there are several species of stormy petrels, and identifies Mother Carey's chickens in particular with Hydrobates pelagicius (the European Storm Petrel; hydrobatidae is the family name for the petrels, most of which belong to other genuses). Ditto Young, p. 46, entry "Carey's Chickens," which refers it to "one of two species of small petrels: the storm petrel [Procellaria pelagica] and Leach's storm petrel [Oceanodroma leucorhoa]."
Neither of the latter pair give a source for the name. It appears to go back at least to 1834, however, when author Harriet Martineau saw them on an Atlantic voyage (Fox, p. 12). I suspect that its use in Newfoundland English makes it a good deal older than that; StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 85, give a vague citation that perhaps goes back to 1767, and mention a "North Carey Island" apparently so named because careys (a short name for petrels) were common there.
Kemp p. 561, reports that the name "Petrel" is derived from Italian Petrello, a diminutive for Peter; supposedly petrels are "St. Peter's birds, because Peter followed Jesus's command to walk on water" (Binney, p. 158).
These birds, according to folklore, foretold approaching storms (Fox, p. 213). This is not as crazy as it sounds; birds, for obvious reasons, are acutely aware of atmospheric conditions, such as barometric pressure, and simple observation shows that they know when storms are coming -- anyone with a birdfeeder can see them stoking up before a storm hits. Presumably the petrels do the same at sea.
Benet, in the article on mothers, adds that Mother Carey's goose is "the great black petrel or fulmar of the pacific." (Interestingly, Brewer/Evans, p. 759, article on "Mother Carey's Chickens," has these definitions almost verbatim. I don't know who stole from whom, though.)
Benet and Brewer/Evens agree that the phrase "Mother Carey is plucking her goose" means that it is snowing.
Partridge dates the use of Mother Carey's Chickens as a name for snowflakes to 1861, citing Hotten's slang dictionary. This usage is also supported by Simpson/Roud. Partridge also cites a usage, "faring alike and paying the same, ca. 1820-1850," and lastly notes that Bowen's Sea Slang applies the phrase to "a small gun."
Opie/Tatem, p. 1878, quote A. MacGregor, Brahan Seer, p. 31, "Superstitions of Highlanders": "Sailors... greatly dread the stormy petrel, or Mother Carey's Chickens, as they flutter at night around their masts and yards. The birds are regarded as objects of superstitions fear, believing that they are possessed of supernatural agency in creating danger for the... mariner."
But who is Mother Carey? Walker states that the name is an "English sailor's version of Mater Cara, 'Beloved Mother' [or 'Dear Mother'], the Latin Sea-goddess." She notes that the French call the petrels the "Birds of Our Lady." Similarly, Benet notes that the French call them "oiseaux de Notre Dame" or "aves Sanctae Mariae."
Walker's equivalence, although quoted also by Kemp, appears to be wrong, I checked four classical dictionaries, and not one mentions "Mater Cara" as a Latin goddess. There is a "[Mater] Matuta," identified in Zimmerman as a "goddess of sea travel," or perhaps of harbors, but Lucretius (De Rerum Natura, B. 656) credits Matuta with bringing the dawn; she is also associated with childbirth. In any case, it's obviously a different name.
Of course, Mater Cara as a name for the Virgin Mary -- frequently addressed as the Mother of God in Catholic tradition, and often invoked as an intercessor -- is quite common, and Binney, p. 158, declares that petrels "are also called 'Mother Carey's Chickens,,' supposedly from the words 'Mater cara,' or 'Dear mother,' uttered by sailors when storms strike." But would nineteenth century English sailors be addressing Mary for help? (Indeed, if we're trying Latin for a goddess of sailors, how about "Mater Carina," which can mean "Mother of hulls/keels." I don't believe it, though.)
The REAL problem with the Mother Carey=Mater Cara equivalence is noted by Simpson/Roud: It has no support. We nowhere find references to Mother Carey without her birds.
If we're looking for an equivalent of Mother Carey that might be known to sailors, we might also mention "Matrika," which is the Hindu name for a "Divine Mother"; there were said to be seven of them (Knappert, pp. 168-169). As a Hindu religious figure, the "Matrika" might well be treated as something of an alien power. There is no link to birds, however, so this too is pretty far-fetched.
Simpson/Roud speculate that Mother Carey is the Old Woman of the Storms -- the hag who brings foul weather (sometimes illustrated as stirring the clouds or the sea with a very long finger; George MacDonald in The Princess and Curdie, Chapter V, calls her "Old Mother Wotherwop," but I don't know if this name is traditional or out of his head). The link strikes me as quite reasonable but beyond proof.
There is one other interesting note about that, though: It sounds as if Morgan le Fay, of King Arthur fame, also played a role as the Old Woman of the Storms -- and in this role may be connected with the Celtic goddesses Matrona and Modron (GawainStone, pp. 138-139) -- which is reminiscent of Mater. So we can build a nice mythological circle; we just can't tie it to Mother Carey or chickens.
The "chickens" phrase is certainly famous, however. Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923), best known for writing Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, also wrote a book called Mother Carey's Chickens, which was made into a movie in 1938. As best I can tell from reading excerpts, though, it's just a book about chickens.
H. D. Traill in 1910 published a mock-ballad with the words
"I'm writing a ballad, be still if you can,
Little brother."
(O Mother Carey, Mother!
What chickens are these between sea and heaven?)
(Friedman, p. 323)
Rogers/Rogers, p. 93, claim that J. R. R. Tolkien, somewhere in his works, explained Mother Carey, but give no explanation for why they say so. My guess is that they are thinking of Elwing's transformation into a bird at the end of the first age, and her coming to Earendil bearing the silmaril. But that is only a guess. In any case, Tolkien was offering at most a retrospective explanation for an existing phrase. - RBW
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File: Hugi192

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