My Jolly Sailor Bold, 1891

Don't you hate it when that happens ...

Still on the maritime theme: there's a deal of discussion online about the authenticity or otherwise of the widely-circulated song My Jolly Sailor Bold, which featured as a shanty in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

The short answer is that it does pre-date the movie, but the sole source of the lyrics appears to be an 1891 collection, Real Sailor-Songs by John Ashton ("author of A Century of Ballads, Romances of Chivalry, &c, &c, &c."), Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd, London. Here are the lyrics from the book:

My Jolly Sailor Bold

Upon one summer's morning, I carelessly did stray,
Down by the Walls of Wapping, where I met a sailor gay,
Conversing with a bouncing lass, who seem'd to be in pain,
Saying, William, when you go, I fear you will ne'er return again.

His hair it does in ringlets hang, his eyes as black as sloes,
May happiness attend him wherever he goes,
From Tower Hill, down to Blackwall, I will wander, weep and moan,
All for my jolly sailor bold, until he does return.

My father is a merchant—the truth I now will tell,
And in great London City in opulence doth dwell,
His fortune doth exceed £300,000 in gold,
And he frowns upon his daughter, 'cause she loves a sailor bold.

A fig for his riches, his merchandize, and gold,
True love is grafted in my heart; give me my sailor bold:
Should he return in poverty, from o'er the ocean far,
To my tender bosom, I'll fondly press my jolly tar.

My sailor is as smiling as the pleasant month of May,
And oft we have wandered through Ratcliffe Highway,
Where many a pretty blooming girl we happy did behold,
Reclining on the bosom of her jolly sailor bold.

Come all you pretty fair maids, whoever you may be,
Who love a jolly sailor bold that ploughs the raging sea,
While up aloft, in storm or gale, from me his absence mourn,
And firmly pray, arrive the day, he home will safe return.

My name it is Maria, a merchant's daughter fair,
And I have left my parents and three thousand pounds a year,
My heart is pierced by Cupid, I disdain all glittering gold,
There is nothing can console me but my jolly sailor bold.

Ashton's notes give no indication of the tune or the provenance, although he claims all the songs in the book to be authentic.

In collecting these Sailor-Songs I have had to reject very many not only for want of space, but that they were too obviously the manufacture of—that despised of Jack—the land-lubber: and I have omitted the whole of Dibdin's, as they were songs for Sailors, but not necessarily Sailors' Songs.

Nevertheless, the lyrics recycle a lot of stock folksong and shanty phrases; along with the archaic formalisms, the flavour is of a broadsheet of the late 1700s or early 1800s, as-published rather than filtered through oral tradition. The POTC: On Stranger Tides credits describe it as "Jolly Sailor Bold Arranged by John DeLuca, Dave Giuli and Matt Sullivan", but the actual tune may be that sung by Sandra Kerr on the 1967 folk album of London songs Sweet Thames Flow Softly.

Addendum: I'll look into this when I have more time, but Googling key phrases, I just ran into what I think could be the origin of this song, the trad Irish ballad The Banks of Claudy (aka Clody):

It was on a summer's morning all in the month of May
Down by the Banks of Claudy I carelessly did stray.
And there I heard a pretty maid, in sorrow did complain
All for her absent lover that sailed the ocean main.
- one version of The Banks of Claudy

Upon one summer's morning, I carelessly did stray,
Down by the Walls of Wapping, where I met a sailor gay,
Conversing with a bouncing lass, who seem'd to be in pain,
Saying, William, when you go, I fear you will ne'er return again.
- My Jolly Sailor Bold

Similar or what? Interestingly, The Banks of Claudy has a large family of variants within the range you expect from a song floating around on the oral tradition. That My Jolly Sailor is a complete isolate makes me suspect strongly that it's a version of The Banks of Claudy rewritten for a London context, but which never actually got into the oral tradition.

- Ray.