Spanish Ladies

Bob Lewis: On Autumn Harvest ah09: Bob Lewis: Drive Sorrows Away. Recorded at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival May 2009.

Spanish Ladies is usually considered to be a capstan shanty - that is, a shanty sung to keep time in turning the capstan to raise the anchor and leave port. However it may often have been sung to while away the evening hours rather than as a work song. The song is widely known throughout the English speaking maritime world: as Yankee Whalermen and We'll Rant and We'll Roar in America and, in an Australian variant about drovers instead of sailors, as Brisbane Ladies. Often place names are changed while the title is still Spanish Ladies - the title probably dating from the period between 1793 and 1796 when British ships would often dock in Spanish harbours while Spain and Britain were still allies against Revolutionary France (Roud 687).

1: Farewell and adieu to you Spanish ladies,
Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain;
We’ve received orders to sail for Old England,
And we hope very shortly to see you again.

Chorus:
We’ll rant and we’ll roar like true British sailors,
We’ll rant and we’ll roar all o’er the salt seas;
Till we strike soundings in the channel of Old England,
From Ushant to Scilly is forty-five leagues.

2: We hove our ship to with the wind at south-west boys,
We hove our ship to for to take soundings clear;
In thirty-five fathoms with a fine sandy bottom,
And it’s straight up the channel to England we’ll steer.

3: The first land we made was a point called the Dodman,
Next Rame Head off Plymouth, Start, Portland and Wight;
We sailed then by Beachy, by Fairlight and Dungeness,
Then bore straight away for the South Foreland light.

4: The signal was made for the grand fleet to Anchor,
We clewed up our topsl’s, took in tacks and sheets;
We brailed up our spanker, let fly our cat stoppers,
And anchored ahead of the finest of fleets.

5: Let every man here take up his full bumper,
Let every man here take up his full bowl;
And we will be jolly and drown melancholy,
And drink to each loyal and true-hearted soul.

Chorus:
We’ll rant and we’ll roar like true British sailors,
We’ll rant and we’ll roar all o’er the salt seas;
Till we strike soundings in the channel of Old England
From Ushant to Scilly is forty-five leagues.

c p 2010 Autumn Harvest : www.springthyme.co.uk