The Concertina at Sea - The Anglo-German Concertina

More documents

Recommendations

Info

and despairing hearts by playing lively airs on his concertina and singing sailors' chanteys. 5 This is the only reference yet found of a ship’s captain playing concertina to a ship’s working crew, and it appears to have happened in a time of particular duress. The narrator does not clearly state that the captain was accompanying shanties with the concertina as well—only that he played some tunes on the concertina, and sang some shanties. The passage seems a bit odd, because ship’s captains are not typically known to have played tunes to a working crew; crews were a hard-case lot as a rule, and were not likely to respond favorably to a captain playing sweet music whilst they broke their backs on the pumps. It may well be that the captain played the tunes to boost the morale of the passengers, who were also forced to man the pumps. Or we could take this account completely as written, and accept the fact that it was a time of danger, and thus that extraordinary things could happen. 6 These three sightings in the 1850s demonstrate that the concertina had arrived at sea, but don’t clearly show that it was yet in the hands of sailors. The references refer to instruments in the hands of captains and a well-to-do passenger, and arguably could refer to the relatively upscale and expensive English system concertina. We know that inexpensive German-made concertinas were flooding the shops of England by this time, and that they were being played by many working class people by then, including a poor youth who eked a living with his German concertina by busking on the London ferryboats in the early to middle 1850s. 7 Concertinas were being transported in bulk by clipper ship to far-flung places like San Francisco, which at the time was flush with cash from the newly discovered California gold fields (see adjacent figure, from an 1855 San Francisco newspaper). These cheap instruments soon found their way into the hands of blue water sailors, as the sightings in the next decade abundantly show. The 1860s The earliest reference to a sailor’s use of a concertina onboard may be found in the diary of Frederick Cookesley, a missionary who purchased a berth in 1862 on the sailing ship Early Morn, bound for England from Natal in southern Africa. His entry for July 5 th : Went down in the forecastle, and listened to a sailor playing the concertina. Had a pleasant conversation, discussing the increase of religious feeling amongst sailors, and the many spiritual advantages which may now be enjoyed by them. 8 That same year, writer Charles Dickens described, in a short story, a scene in which a Royal Navy sailor purchased a concertina from two Jewish merchants in a bar in an onshore military neighborhood. 9 The concertina was clearly finding its way to sailors. 6 Figure 4. Advertisement for a new shipment of free reed instruments, including concertinas, from the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, Dec. 18, 1855. Many if not most of the passenger ships in this era held dances whenever conditions were favorable, such as on the William Tapscott enroute to New York from England in 1859, where one emigrant reported that there was ‘dancing and music every evening, with a very few exceptions.’ 10 Some of this music was provided by the newly-fashionable concertina. John McAllister, who was a Latter-day Saint passenger aboard the three-masted steamer City of Manchester in 1862, recorded: ‘Saints on deck dancing, singing, knitting, sewing, etc. Violins and concertinas in full blast’. 11 Figure 5. Poster for the Liverpool, New York and Philadelphia Steamship Company, ca. 1860. The City of Manchester was one of its fleet.
As passenger ships became larger, there were both more passengers and more crew, hence the added luxury of such on-deck diversions as dances for passengers. The largest such ship in its day was the Great Britain, originally built as a six-masted screw-propelled steamer in 1843, but later converted to a three-masted square-rigged steamer for the England-to-Australia run in the 1860s and 1870s (it is now a museum ship in Bristol, England). The crew took part in playing for dances, including the cook on an 1863 voyage who played concertina. Dances were done to the music of Figure 6. The Great Britain in its original six-masted configuration, ca. 1845. In its days during the 1860s and 1870s as an Australian emigrant ship, it operated with three masts and square-rigging. The illustration is from Sailor’s Language by William Clark Russell, London, 1883. solo instruments, of which there were a fiddle, a concertina, and a set of bagpipes aboard. The ‘Ship Log’ of passenger Jonas Woodhouse provides a fairly detailed account of these musical evenings, from this 21 year old Yorkshireman’s 1863 passage from London to New Zealand: May 16. We Got up about 7 o’clock. The Sea very calm just like a sheet of Glass Not a cloud to be seen in the Dark blue Sky. After breakfast a breeze Sprung up which carried us along merrily leaving a large Ship behind that had kept up on our larboard side the whole of yesterday. I also saw a whale blow to Day on our Starboard quarter. 2 also were seen in the morning by Several. The 1st Mate was preparing a pole for his harpoon and so was the captain I suppose.… We pass the time in reading Books playing at cards dominoes and draughts etc or lying Sleeping all our length on the forecastle except it was our turn to cook or wash dishes or Scrape between Decks…. We had dancing on board this evening to the Bagpipes. Their was dancing on the poop to the concertina and their was prayer meetings going on at the same time in different parts of the Ship in the 2nd cabin and down in our place which I Suppose is to be carried on every Night. June 4. …. In the afternoon a fine breeze sprung up which continued all Night. …When the Sun Set we had a pretty Sky. I never saw so many stars in all my life. It gets very soon Dark after the sun sets almost at once. We had Dancing etc. to the concertina on Deck and on the poop. The piper was Displaying his talents with his pipes to which Music they had dances etc. June 13. …. It was reported to Day that we was in the Same Latitude as the Island of St Helena. This Night was spent in Dancing Singing etc. The captain was down on the quarter Deck and gave us a bottle of Whisky. So that the fun was kept up till after 11 oclock and was only stopped by a heavy Shower of rain falling so that we were all obliged to turn in to our Bunks. 2 of the passengers (young men) were tied up in the riggin. June 30. Rose between 6 and 7 oclock in the Morning which was splendid. Something like the same weather we have at home at this time of the year. In fact I think a little cooler. We saw an albatross to Day. This is a sign that we are approaching the cape. The wind increased at Night. It is Dark Now soon after 4 p.m. so that it is very wearisome between that and bed time. The cook has got a tamboreen made and was on the poop with it along with the concertina amusing the captain and passengers. We passed a barque away to the leaward to Day. June 29. … At night we had a concert down in our place. The Performers were Bob Wotton and the cook. The entertainment consisted chiefly recitations and N----r Songs. After ending with us they went up on the poop and performed before the captain and ladies their faces were blackened and the cook played the tamboreen and Bob the rattlers and harp they got very jolly at the captains expence. After that we had dancing and Swinging on Decks. It was a most beautiful Night as ever I witnessed not cold the Moon Shining Bright in almost a cloudless Sky. … June 16…. At Night the piper was playing on Deck the fiddler on the poop. Several of the young women Broke the rules and danced on Deck to the piper but was hunted away by the Matron. Figure 7. This drawing of the deck of the Great Britain was captured by passenger Herman Zumstein on the same 1863 voyage where Jonas Woodhouse participated in dances on this deck. The drawing is courtesy of www.TheShipsList.com July 28. …We were Not Making much progress for the wind was not steady at all and we had several Squalls and 7
Page 1 and 2: . The Concertina at Sea: A History
Page 3 and 4: Table 1. Index of ships where sailo
Page 5: II. A Compendium of Occurrences The
Page 9 and 10: nder the awning, to the music of a
Page 11 and 12: and some were excellent dancers. Th
Page 13 and 14: The 1870s The Levina was a commerci
Page 15 and 16: Figure 18. Impromptu sailor’s ‘
Page 17 and 18: Greenland. They made several attemp
Page 19 and 20: …we rewarded ourselves with a lit

The Concertina at Sea - The Anglo-German Concertina

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?