Haul 'Er Away (Little Sally Racket)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, with internal chorus "Haul 'er/'em away... Haul 'er away... Haul 'er away With a haul-ey-hi-o, Haul 'er away." Verses are about the "little" girls ashore ("Little Sally Racket," "Little Daisy Dawson" etc.) and their (sexual) exploits
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty bawdy sex whore
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 315-317, "Haul 'Er Away" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 237-239]
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 86, "Little Sally Racket" (1 text)
DT, HAULRAWY
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cheer'ly Man" (form, lyrics)
cf. "Tiddy High O!" (character of Sally Rackett)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Haul 'Em Away
Haul Him Away
Sally Rackett
NOTES [158 words]: A. L. Lloyd, in the notes to the recording "A Sailor's Garland," reports that this shanty (to a tune known in Jamaica as "Mr. Ramgoat" or "Hill and Gully") was discouraged in American vessels, though the British allowed it to be sung.
The song shares its verse form, and some lyrics, with "Cheer'ly, Man," but the choruses are distinct enough that we split them rather tentatively. Lloyd, among others, lumps them.
To haul, in nautical terminology, of course means to pull on a rope. "Haul away," according to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, A Seaman's Pocket Book, London, June 1943, designed for sailors newly taken into the Royal Navy in World War II; (I use the 2006 MJF Books edition), p. 42, is "an order to haul steadily until further orders." - RBW
For tunes to "Mr. Ramgoat" and "Hill and Gully" Murray, p. 9, "Hill and Gully" and p. 39, "Missa Ramgoat." The tunes are similar but not identical. Both songs are in the Index. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: FSWB086A

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