Lyr Add: The Amphitrite

Subject: Lyr Add: THE AMPHITRITE
From: Conrad Bladey (Peasant- Inactive)
Date: 04 Mar 00 - 08:24 AM

Here is a very funny song that should be heard more!

THE AMPHITRITE

Frae Team gut to Whitley wi' coals black an' broon,
For the Amphitrite loaded, the keel had come doon:
But the bullies, ower neet had their thropples see wet,
That the nyem o' the ship yen an' a' did forget.

Chorus: Fal-de-ral...

To find oot the nyem, noo, each worried his chops,
An' claw'd at his hips fit to murder the lops--
Then the Skipper, went hunger'd was a'ways myest bright,
Swore the pawhogger luggish was ca'd Empty Kite.

Frae the Point, roond the Girt, a' the time sailin' slow,
Each bully kept bawlin', "The Empty Kite, ho!"
But their blairin' was vain, for nee Empty Kite there,
Tho' they blair'd till their kites were byeth empty an' sair.

A' Slaverin the Skipper ca'd Geordy an' Jim,
For to gan to Newcassel and ax the reet nyem;
The youngest he thowt myest, to blame i' this bore,
Sae Pee-Dee an' his marrow was seun pack'd ashore.

Up the Shields Road they trodg'd i' their myest worn-oot soles,
Oft cursin' the Empty Kite, Skipper, and coals;
At the sign of "The Coach" they byeth ca'd it befell,
To mourn their hard case owre a tankard o' yell.

Here a Buck at a sirloin hard eatin' was seen,
An' he said 'at the air'd myed his appetite keen;
"Appetite!" cried the bullies--like maislins they stared,
Wide gyepin' wi' wonder, till "Crikes!" Jemmy blair'd.

"The Appetite, Geordy! smash! dis tu hear that?
It's the varry ootlandish, cull nyem we forgat;
Bliss the dandy! for had he not tell't us the nyem,
To Newcassel we'd wander'd byeth weary and lyem!"

To Shields back they canter'd an' seun, frae the keel,
Roar'd--"The Appetite, ho!" 'neuf to frighten the De'il,
Thus they fund oot the ship, cast the coals in a sweat,
Still praisin' the Dandy they'd luckily met.

Then into the huddock, weel tir'd they a' gat,
An' of Empty Kite, Appetite, lang did they chat,
When the Skipper fund oot--(wise as Solomon, King)--
Tho' not the syem word--'twas aboot the syem thing.
^^

click for notation.

Click for MIDI

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: MMario
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 03:21 PM

The link at the bottom is broken on my computer - by any chance is it the tune?

Tune is "Gee Ho, dobbin" aka Cappy aka Swaggering boney; aka Joe Muggins

But the only copy I could find (at JC's - for Swaggering Boney) doesn't seem to fit this...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 03:30 PM

The link was to an image of staff notation at an old address. Text, staff and midi can be found at Conrad's website: http://www.geocities.com/matalzi/priests3.html#The amphitrite

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 04:14 PM

Hi, MMario - Mudcat is set to prevent the display of embedded images because they cause us too many problems - that's why you see a blank space where the sheet music ought to be. I'll change it to a link to the new location that Malcolm provided.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 04:19 PM

okay - I'm still blocked from it - could someone harvest the tune? it's on "the list"

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I suppose that "somebody" is me. Yer wish is my command, Cap'n.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 06:00 PM

Tune added as requested. See tune link up top. I don't think it works for the other song with a related name, The Anford-Wright. That song comes from Cox's Folk-Songs of the South, which does not have a tune for the song. I'm guessing that Amphitrite, Anford-Wright, and Rounding the Horn are all about the same song?
-Joe Offer-

Here's some information from Malcolm (from this message):

103 AMPHITRI  THE ANFORD-WRIGHT
From Cox, Folk-Songs of the South. No tune was noted and this appears to be the only example found in tradition of an English broadside ballad,  Loss of the Amphitrite. Roy Palmer, Boxing the Compass, 2001, p. 206, gives details of the event of 1833 which inspired the piece.

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Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index:

Loss of the Amphitrite, The [Laws K4]

DESCRIPTION: The Amphitrite leaves port, bound for Australia. Two days out she runs aground and sinks, killing all the passengers and most of the crew. The singer and two others survive by clinging to a spar (though one of them dies later)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox; there are older, undated broadsides)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1833 - The Amphitrite, carrying female convicts to Australia, runs aground near Boulogne; only three sailors are saved
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws K4, "The Loss of the Amphitrite"
JHCox 87, "The Anford-Wright" (1 text)
DT 740, AMPHITRI
Roud #301
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rounding the Horn" (subject)
Notes: Cox gives a contemporary description of the storm in which the Amphitrite sank. - RBW
File: LK04

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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 06:34 PM

It's unlikely, I should say, that there's any relationship at all between the comic Amphitrite here and the broadside song made on a real shipwreck; though the name of the latter may perhaps have suggested the name of the former. Equally, Rounding the Horn is not related to either, and indeed only one version of it found in tradition even mentions an Amphitrite. I have my own ideas about how that name got into this last song, and what may be a more likely candidate for the ship; but you'll have to wait for that until The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, re-branded as Classic English Folk Songs, is published by EFDSS (in time for Christmas, we hope).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: fogie
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 05:48 AM

Rounding of the horn reminds me of the spoof song-
The gallant frigate Araldite
Lay stuck in Plymouth sound!
thats all folks

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 08:33 AM

Thanks Joe! (Actually - anyone who could have reached the site could have sent the stuff to me and I would have done the work. - I just couldn't GET to the bloody thing...I can't reach his site from home either - don't know why.)

will be updating the tune hunt list shortly.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: beardedbruce
Date: 28 Mar 06 - 11:37 AM

no idea why the previous post got here, but as long as this thread is resurrected...

http://www.spanamwar.com/Amphitrite.htm

"AMPHITRITE was decommissioned in 1919 and sold in 1920, being converted into a floating hotel. She was scrapped in 1952 "

A hotel with 4 10inch guns??

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: beardedbruce
Date: 28 Mar 06 - 12:13 PM

OK, so they took the guns off.


But "The lack of reserve buoyancy (20% instead of the 80% of a more typical warship) made travel on the open seas somewhat dangerous. "?

seems like something a floating hotel should worry about...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Amphitrite
From: beardedbruce
Date: 28 Mar 06 - 12:40 PM

"In the spring of 1950, the Amphitrite was towed to Baltimore, MD and was to be used as a restaurant and hotel at the new Chesapeake Bridge at Sandy Point. Business was slow and she was sold in 1951 and taken back to Baltimore to be refitted as a support ship for oil exploration in Venezuela, the project was never started."



Or for those in the UK,

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/images/amphitrite.jpg