Drunken Sailor, The (Early in the Morning)

DESCRIPTION: Walkaway (stamp and go) shanty. The sailors ask, "What shall we do with the drunken sailor (x3), Early in the morning. Way, hey, and up she rises (x3), Early in the morning." Various suggestions are offered, few of them pleasant.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor drink punishment
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Australia
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 85=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 233, "Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 48, "The Drunken Sailor, or Early in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 70-71, "The Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 241, "The Drunken Sailor" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 61-62, "Early in the Morning" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 783, "What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 36, "What You Going To Do With a Drunken Sailor" (1 text)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 40-41, "Early in th' Morning" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 78, "The Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 25-26, "The Drunken Sailor (Up She Rises)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 134-135, "Drunken Sailor" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 109-110]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 170, "Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 76-77, "What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, VII, p. 8, "Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 257, "Up She Rises" (1 short text, 1 tune, a playparty which retains only the chorus and a variant of the tune with "Drunken Sailor")
Greig/Duncan1 4, "The Drunken Sailor" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #14, "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 129, "Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 176, "The Drunken Sailor"(1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 92, "What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 28-29, "The Drunken Sailor (What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?)" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 205-206, "Drunken Sailor (Monkey's Wedding -- John Brown Had a Little Injun -- Ten Little Injuns)"
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Edwin F. Piper, "Some Play-Party Games of the Middle West," Vol. XXVIII, No. 109 (Jul 1915), #19 p. 277 "Sailor" ("What shall we do with the drunken sailor?") (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, Dorothy Howard, "Ball Bouncing Customs and Rhymes in Australia," Volume 9, Number 2 (Summer 1959) p. 83, "Drunken Sailor" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 107, 249, "What Do We Do With a Drunken Sailor"/"Drunken Sailor" (notes only)
DT, DRNKSILR
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 121, "The Drunken Sailor, or, Up She Rises" (1 text)

Roud #322
RECORDINGS:
Cadgwith Fishermen, "What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor?" (on LastDays)
Richard Maitland, "The Drunken Sailor" (AFS, 1936; on LC26)
Pete Seeger, "What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?" (on PeteSeeger31)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maria"
cf. "Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian)" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "The Mustering Song" (tune & meter)
cf. "I Had a Wife" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Raleigh Song (File: Tawn037)
What Shall We Do with a Ropey Squadron? (File: WJL228)
What Shall We Do for the Striking Seamen? (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 233-234)
What Do You Do with a Dirty Family? (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 231)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hooray an' Up She Rises"
Up She Rises
NOTES [138 words]: A modern verse: "Put him in charge of an Exxon tanker..." - PJS
Bone-CapstanBars says of this that it "must be of fairly recent date, for only in a comparatively large ship could there be room on deck for 'walking' a light sail aloft, the operation at which [this] was generally used. It was not a chanty often sung. I remember it chiefly as a showy accompaniment when all hands were employed on deck and there was an atmosphere of good humour with us." - RBW
Emrich has "What're ya gonna do with a drunken miner," (3x) "Early in the morning?" "Put him in a long hole till he's cooler" (3x) "Early in the morning" from Utah. (source: Duncan Emrich, "Songs of the Western Miners" in California Folklore Quarterly, Vol. I, No. 3 (Jul 1942 (available online by JSTOR)), pp.230-231, "What're Ye Gonna Do with a Drunken Miner?"). - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Doe048

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