Homeward Bound (I)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Goodbye, fare you well, goodbye, fare you well... Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound." While the rest of the shanty usually tells a story about sailors' return, the stanzas are often compiled from floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (from the log of the Minerva)
KEYWORDS: shanty reunion
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "OUTWARD BOUND"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 87-89, "Homeward Bound" (3 texts, 1 tune. The first text is largely "Outward and Homeward Bound"; the third partakes of "Rolling in the Dew" and "Ratcliffe Highway"")
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 50-52, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, p. 117, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 113-114, "Good-bye, Fare You Well!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 119-121, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 120-124, "Goodbye, Fare-Ye-Well" (8 texts-5 English, 2 Norwegian, 1 French, 2 tunes. Version c's verses are from "Blow the Man Down," version d's are from "The Dreadnaught") [AbEd, pp. 103-106]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 36, "Goodby Fare-Ye-Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 69-70, "Outward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 85, "Goodbye, Fare You Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 132-133, "Goodbye, Fare-Ye-Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 140-141, "Homeward Bound" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 176, "Homeward Bound 2" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 63 in the 2nd edition, p. 29 in the 3rd, p. 47 in the 4th, p. 25 in the 5th
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 165, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 23, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 34, "Goodbye, Fare Ye Well" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 37, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 56-57, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 103, "We're Homeward Bound" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 5, "Good-Bye, Fare Ye Well" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 18, "We're Bound to St Peter's" (1 short text, probably this although refers once to being "Dundee bound" rather than "homeward bound")
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H53a, p. 97, "I'm Going Home" (1 text, 1 tune - a fragment, probably of this song)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #3, Good-bye, fare ye well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 80-81, "Those Girls from Bermuda" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 33, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 34. "Homeward Bound" (1 text)
DT, GDBYFWL*
ADDITIONAL: "On Shanties," article 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, "(The Liverpool docks we'll bid adieu, Good-bye, fare you well)" (1 fragment, almost certainly this)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). We're Homeward Bound" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 341-342, "Homeward Bound (Good-Bye, Fare You Well)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1104 and 927
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Homeward Bound" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
Capt. Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Goodbye, Fare You Well (Homeward Bound)" (AFS 4229 A, 1939; on LC27 as "Homeward Bound"; in AMMEM/Cowell)
W[illiam] H. Smith, "Goodbye, Fare You Well" (on NovaScotia1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Et Nous Irons a Valapariso" (partial tune and chorus)
cf. "As-Tu Connu le Per Lanc'lot?" (French adaption of this song)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Goodbye, Fare You Well
Ved Ankerhioning (Anchor Song) [Norwegian versio]
As-tu-connu le Pere Lancelot [French version]
The Glasgow Lasses
NOTES [56 words]: Horace Beck in his book Folklore and the Sea (Mystic Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1985), p. 137, explains that this chanty was sung by British sailors as they "walked the capstan round" bound for home. Other ships hearing this would give them mail and messages to take with them. On American ships "Shenandoah" was sung instead. - SH
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Doe087

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