Songquest by Walton Ivan H;Sommers Laurie;Grimm Joe;

Author:Walton, Ivan H;Sommers, Laurie;Grimm, Joe;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Published: 2017-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Riding out a sou’wester under the lee of Long Point on Lake Erie’s northern shore. (From Picturesque Canada)

He recalled two men who were with him a number of seasons and who were “great musicians.” One played a violin and the other a banjo, and both were good singers. Whenever the vessel tied up in port, these two would play and sing and a crowd of people would gather to listen. When they went ashore, they got all the free drinks they wanted in shore saloons, and often were called on to take part in the “variety shows” the big saloons provided to entertain sailors.

He remembered one up-trip [from Buffalo to Chicago] when they ran into a bad blow in the Straits of Mackinac. It became worse when they got into Lake Michigan, so they pulled in under the lee of some islands there and dropped anchor in company with twenty-five or thirty other vessels to wait it out, and they didn’t get away until the next morning. In the early evening, some men on another vessel began singing and the nearby crews called for more, and then another group took over, and finally “my men” joined in. Then, the crews around in every direction really shouted for more and “made a hell of a racket.” The singing continued until after midnight. “It sounded pretty damn good there in the night when about all you could see was other ships’ lights weavin’ about.”

When they arrived at Chicago and tied up, some sailors were awaiting them and “they about kidnapped” these two men, and took them to a big saloon that provided a variety show. They played and sang and had all the drinks they wanted on the house until they got too drunk to continue.

Captain William Dale, about sixty, spent all of his sailing days on steamboats. He now has a grocery store. He said the old windjammer sailors were a lot of liars. There never was much glamour to the sailboats, it took them weeks to get anywhere, and they could not carry a cargo when they did go, he said. There was but little singing on the Lakes at any time. He can recall that, as a boy when just south of Sarnia, Ontario, on the St. Clair River, he used to hear the sailors chantey as they towed by, putting up their canvas to make ready to let go out on Lake Huron. He never paid much attention to them.

At Port Burwell, I called at the home of the lightkeeper. As he was telling me of the different kinds of material, a group of young ladies in bathing suits came along and wanted to see the light, so he took them up, saying he’d be right back. I waited about three-quarters of an hour and finally he did come back. His supply of Lakes information came from an 1863 keeper’s record book, in which he noted down boats, etc.

BRONTÉ, OAKVILLE, AND PORT CREDIT, ONTARIO, JULY 29, 1933

This day

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