The Concertina at Sea - The Anglo-German Concertina

additional money for the rest of the purchase, the merchant
charged him $2 for his trouble, and the ensuing complaint
from the sailor in petty claims court allowed the concertina
to be ‘sighted’. 69 The Cypromene was a British bark, built
in Southhampton in 1878 and placed in the England-
Calcutta-Australia cargo trade. 70
Figure 24. The SS Orient, which plied the England to
Australia passage. The image is from Bound for
Australia on Board the Orient, W. Osborne Lilley, 1885.
The late nineteenth century was a busy time for
immigration to New York. As has been discussed above,
the concertina was frequently played in steerage. There are
many such occurrences—many more than should be
injected here, as our main focus is the playing of crew, not
passengers; 71 three accounts follow. In a Liverpool Packet
Ship bound for New York in 1882, ‘It was soon discovered
that one of their number possessed a concertina, and it was
not long ere both he and his instrument were requisitioned
pro bono publico of the emigrants.’ 72 On the Orient, bound
for Australia in 1885, both crew and steerage passengers
play the instrument:
Our chief steward, whose aim is to make everyone
comfortable and happy on board, is full of fun. He can play
upon his concertina, which he calls his little wife, many a
merry air, sing a pleasant song, tell a tale…Some of the
third-class passengers are trying to be merry. A concertina
is being played, and several stout, buxom women are
dancing an Irish schottische, and by their humorous words
awaken cries of ‘Bravo!’ 73
Finally, on a Cunard Liner bound for New York in 1897
there were numerous Scandinavian passengers:
Each compartment of the steerage has a pantry for the
accommodation of passengers…and the promenade
allowed them on the upper deck is so long that five times
around it gives a mile walk. As we passed through, one of
the passengers was playing a concertina to which two or
three couples were dancing, the girls with long fair plaits
hanging down their backs, and small shawls over their
heads. …Scandinavians always beguile the passage by
music and dancing, and indeed, the steerage almost always
offers an agreeable contrast to the first class in the matter
of gaiety. 74
20
Figure 25. The paddle steamer Great Eastern. This
vessel laid the first transatlantic cable, in 1865-66. The
image is courtesy of the US Naval Historical Center.
Concertinas were hardly the only instrument on board the
passenger ships of the day, as is made clear in this note
from a voyage on the Great Eastern, sailing from Cork to
New York in 1882:
The number and variety of musical instruments in the ship
was something extraordinary. From the organ and the
grand piano in the drawing-room, to the concertina and
bones on the lower deck, every noise-making machine that
ever was invented appeared to be in constant operation. 75
Figure 26. The Traveler, a bark employed in Arctic
exploration, ca. 1890. The image is from The Skipper in
Arctic Seas, Walter Clutterbuck, 1890.
The Traveler was a British sailing bark traveling in Arctic
seas between Scotland and Spitzbergen in or slightly
before 1890. The following passage was written during a
day of incessant and eerie fog, and draws the melancholy
sound of the concertina into the image:
…the dullness of these foggy afternoons,--when only mist
can be seen all around, when there is not enough to amuse
a kitten on deck, when it is most difficult to find anything
that will tickle you, or cause a smile, when icicles
constantly keep falling all around, out of the rigging, and
the moan of a distant concertina from the galley for’ard
gives you a sort of little foresight of eternal
wretchedness—is something terrible. 76