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White Wings Vol I. Fifty Years Of Sail In The New Zealand Trade, 1850 TO 1900

Long-Winded

Long-Winded.

In these chanties one man usually took the air, while all the voices joined in the chorus, the effect produced being rather pleasing. The sound of the mate's "belay!" was the only thing that brought these chanties to a close. Mr. Kelly says the soloist would improvise as he went along, and some of them were of an interminable length. A favourite chanty was "Ranzo," which told of "Young Ranzo, who took a notion to sail the Western Ocean," and fell in with a wonderful captain, who gave him rum and brandy and taught him navigation. This chanty was an effective one. Each line ended with "Ranzo O!" and was sung twice.

Another fine old chanty quoted by Mr. Kelly was "Rio Grande," each verse ending with:—

"We're bound for the Rio Grande."

page 276

A chanty called "Blow, Boys, Blow!" which ran into several verses, told this thrilling story:—

"A Yankee ship came down the river, What do you think they had for dinner? They had sharks' fins and monkey's liver," only each line was repeated, and between the repetitions, "Blow, boys, blow," was interpolated.

Mr. Kelly's diary brings back so vividly the life on board ship in the old days of sail that I should like to publish more of it, but must content myself with the extracts I have given above. Suffice it to say that the good ship Algoa Bay after 105 days arrived safely in Wellington, where Mr. Kelly and his family stayed less than a week, and then came on to Auckland by steamer. Mr. Kelly winds up his letters to the people at Home by telling them that he is about to start "in the office of the 'Auckland Star,' a popular daily paper." As I mentioned before, the "Star's" correspondence columns are still enlivened by Mr. Kelly's facile pen, and all who know him will wish him many days more in which to compare the difference between the wonders of modern travel and the old Algoa Bay days.