What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor?: Unexpurgated Sea Chanties - Softcover

Morgan, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1931013098 ISBN 13: 9781931013093

Publisher: Swordsmith Pub, 2002

Synopsis

"Now seamen who spent their time in cargo-carrying sailing ships never heard a decent shanty; the words which sailor John put to them when unrestrained were the veriest filth."
--Master Mariner W.B. Whall

Compiled and annotated by a longtime Naval officer and author of the acclaimed thriller Tiger Cruise, this unexpurgated collection of genuine sea chanteys is not for small children, but it's an unrestrained look into another side of military life and literature.

Sung for as long as sailors have gone to the sea in ships, chanteys helped to make shipboard tasks easier and to pass the time on years-long voyages. Each generation of sailors adapted the songs to their own needs and cultures, forming an unbroken link from the nuclear-powered navies of today to the age of sail.

Annotated with explanations of Naval terms and life--including some of the bawdier parts of a sailor's life--What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor? is a delight for both history and music buffs, as well as an offbeat gift for people with naval backgrounds.

About this title

From the Publisher

Douglas Morgan spent many years in the Navy before finishing up his doctorate and turning to--among other things--a writing career, and he's still never far from the sea, at least metaphorically. There have been many collections of sea chanties, but very few of them print the chanties the way they are actually sung, or put them into the context of the Naval and maritime traditions in which they are created. Every one of these songs was actually sung at sea, on the ships where Douglas Morgan served. His marvelous annotations lay out the background, people, terms, and places that the songs celebrate, as well as showing how they still fit into today's Navy. Despite Doug's academic background, his annotations aren't dry commentaries on dead folklore; they are filled with jokes, intra-service barbs, variant songs, bizarre people, and everything else readers need to understand--or relive, for fellow sailors--what is still a vital, growing body of music, sung in hundreds of variants on hundreds of ships to this day.

About the Author

Douglas Morgan spent years in the US Navy first as an enlisted man, and later as an officer. Along the way he sailed every major body of water where the US Navy can fit a ship, picked up an incredible amount of folklore--very little of which can be printed in family oriented publications--and an advanced degree in English literature. He is the author of Tiger Cruise, a military thriller involving Indonesian pirates who hijack an American destroyer carrying nuclear arms. He could tell you more, but then he'd have to kill you.

Edition details

• Publisher: Swordsmith Pub
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1931013098
• ISBN 13: 9781931013093
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128