Chanteying Aboard American Ships.

Barre, Massachusetts:: Barre Gazette, 1962.. 1st Edition.. Hardbound . BINDING/CONDITION: blue cloth with black spine text; a Very Good book, with a Good dust jacket; the jacket is price clipped.. small 4to (10.25 inches tall) . Notes, indexes. Description: Many black and white photo illustrations. Frederick Pease Harlow was a sailor before the mast in the 1870s when spars and rigging still made a web across the waterfront skylines of American ports. Starting out like most coastal boys with small boat sailing, he began his deep water training on a royal yard which the Harlow youths rigged up in their attic. This rigged experience enabled him to go aloft on his first voyage in a square rigger, and, to the mate's astonishment, take in the royal in a rough sea and high wind, slick as a whistle. Harlow's inherent love for the sea combined with a rough and athletic physique insured his success as a sailor. In 1925 the Marine Research Society published Harlow's own account of his apprenticeship and the voyage on Akbar to Australia and Java, under the title, The Making of a Sailor or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger. In it he describes men working at the capstan, hauling halliards or sheets, and on other jobs where chanties were used, and he gives a few examples of the songs and sing outs. In this present work the part played by chanties aboard ship is elaborated. Harlow was not a chantey man but he was shipmate with some good ones and joined in the robust choruses with a will. Harlow died in 1952; a portion of this book appeared in a periodical in 1948, but he did not live to see this book in print.