FTX-205 - BLOW BOYS BLOW

SEA SONGS, SHANTIES & SAIL-TALK

Commander Gerry Halliday gives a picture of the last days of sail, of Judge Raffles cleaning up Liverpool and sings 3 shanties PADDY DOYLE, ROLL THE COTTON DOWN, WHISKY JOHNNY as well as four sea-songs: MAGGIE MAY, GO TO SEA NO MORE, PADDY WEST and PAUL JONES. Captain Rasmussen ran away to sea from his home in Norway. He sings 12 shanties and tells how he shantied on board his last ship which was wrecked on Chesil Beach. Both Halliday and Rasmussen sailed on square-rigged sailing-ships before joining the Royal Navy.

COMMANDER HALLIDAY:-

1. MAGGIE MAY (talk after about Judge Raffles etc) - 4.55

2. GO TO SEA NO MORE (talk before) - 3.55

3. Talk about "the advance" - 1.13

4. Talk on shanties & chants with excerpts: PADDY DOYLE,, ROLL THE COTTON DOWN and WHISKY JOHNNY - 4.20

5. PADDY WEST (talk bef & aft) - 4.30

6. Talk about his experiences including being shanghai-ed & apprenticeship - 5.33

12. PAUL JONES (talk bef) - 3.39

CAPTAIN RASMUSSEN:-

13. Talk about running away to sea etc - 4.09

14. Shanty: ROLL THE COTTON DOWN - 1.25

15. JOHNNY, COME DOWN TO HILO - 0.58

16. FIRE IN THE FORE - 1.01

17. SANTY ANNA (MAXMILLIAN'S DAUGHTER) (talk bef) - 2.10

18. 2 Mexican log-loading shanties from Lago de Terminos - 2.20

19. BLOW THE MAN DOWN (talk bef) - 1.03

20. SACRAMENTO (talk bef) - 4.06

21. RIO GRANDE (talk bef) - 2.43

22. HAUL IN THE BOWLIN' - 0.36

23. CHARLIE BROWN (talk bef) - 1.42

24. Talk about Chesil Beach - 1.50

25. BLOW, BOYS, BLOW (talk after about rescue from shipwreck and the end of his life at sea) - 2.52

Albert Henry RASMUSSEN rec. Peter Kennedy, London 11th April 1955, was born on 2nd October 1883 at Skien, South Norway and died on 6th December 1972. He was a well-known Norwegian writer and was a war historian to the Royal Navy. Both these two retired Naval officers had a lifelong interest in sailing ships as well as in collecting and singing sea- songs and shanties. Both were in their mid-seventies when recorded.

R.F.P.HALLIDAY, rec. Peter Kennedy, St. Helier, Jersey 26th July 1957, Robert FitzGerald Plunkett HALLIDAY, known to his family as Gerry or Gerald, was born in Southsea, Hampshire in 1894, the son of a master mariner. When he was about 12 or 13 he went to sea as an apprentice on board the barque "Ville de Dieppe", a sailing tanker. In July 1910 he travelled by train up to the Cumbrian port of Maryport where he joined the "Imberhorne", a 2,000 ton ship bound round Cape Horn to Chile. In 1911/12 he was in Philadelphia. On the 22nd March 1915 he joined the 1,369 ton barque "Killoran" in Weymouth bound for Tocopilla, Chile as 2nd mate. By July he was 1st mate and three months or so later he was acting master. In August 1919 he was issued with his foreign going Masters Ticket (no. 04318) from Belfast. On his master's ticket he gives his next-of-kin as his mother Jane and her address as his home - 68 Kimberley Road, Southsea, Hampshire. That summer he took part in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the Russian port of Archangel where they had been supporting the White Russian forces against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. On his Continuous Certificate of Discharge book (No 866532) he is described as being 5ft 9ins tall and having blue eyes, dark hair and dark complexion. He appears in Jersey in 1920 when he was employed by the GWR on the mailboats. His pilotage books showing his leading marks for Jersey and Weymouth exist for the St Helier 1925 and 1928, the Reindeer 1920 and 1926, and the St Julien 1928. Kevin Le Scelleur in his book "Channel Island Railway Steamers" mentions a Captain Halliday on the Weymouth run first commanding a cargo vessel in 1930 and leaving the service in 1933. In 1923 he married Léonie Jeanne Terry, the daughter of Léonie Clémentine Chamard and Joseph Terry, an agricultural merchant. They initially lived at No 1 Flat, Charlotte Row, Esplanade, Weymouth but by 1925 they were living in the Terry family home at Baxby, Beach Road, St Saviour.

When Commander Halliday left the sea he John Terry Limited, Agricultural Merchants, Esplanade, St Helier. As a member of the Naval Reserve he appears to have left the island during the Second World War as only Mrs Halliday is shown as living in Baxby during the Occupation.. He reappears in 1946-47 when he is entered on the electoral list. In 1956 he wrote to the magazine Sea Breezes and enclosed a version of "Maggie May" and in July of the following year when Peter Kennedy came to the island to record traditional music he visited Commander Halliday at his home in Beach Road and recorded just over half an hour of his songs and reminiscences. Commander Halliday died on 30th September 1973 at the age of 78. He was survived by his widow who finally died in 1979. They had no children. "The Imberhorne" (joined July 1910)Official Number 87033 Signal HBJM. An iron full rigged ship built in 1882 by A McMillan and Co of Dumbarton for the Imberthorne Ship Co (WR Price & Co) of London. In 1895 she was bought by GC Karran of Castletown, IoM and some time after 1910 she was bought by Salvesen of Castletown. In April 1913 she was sold to Robert Mattson of Mariehamn, Finland and skippered by Captain Isidor Eriksson. She was sunk by a German U-boat abot 350 miles west of Ireland. She was 284.1ft long, 41.2ft in the beam and 24.1ft deep. 2042 gross registered tons and 1997 nett registered tons and 1933 tons under deck. She was equiped with a donkey engine and an early type of mid-ship house. She was rigged with royal sails over her double top and topgallant sails. "The Killoran" joined March 1915 - left April 1916 (Official Number: 111283 registered in Glasgow) A three masted barque built in 1900 by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company of Troon, Scotland for the Killoran Barque Co (Messrs J Browne) of Glasgow for use in the San Francisco grain trade. In September 1909 she was bought by Messrs J Hardie and Co of Glasgow and it was for these owners that Gerald Halliday sailed. In 1924 she was sold to Gustaf Erikson of Mariehamn, Finland for £2,650 and he used her in the famous Grain Races of the 20s and 30s. She was sunk by the German auxilliary cruiser Wideer in August 1940. She was 261.5ft long, 39.5ft in the beam and 22.7ft deep. 1,757 gross registered tons and 1,523 nett registered tons. She was rigged with royal sails over her double top and topgallant sails.