On Sea Songs and Old Books

Those of you who have listened to my copies of the Ancient Mariners and Sailing Ships and Sailing Men probably remember some of the songs. There's one song on Sailing Ships that goes

Was you ever in

Then fills in a city and one major unusual thing about each city. Well, one thing they mentioned was "Screwing Cotton" (in Mobile Bay.) I wanted to know exactly how that worked. Imagine my surprise when I found this. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see the full words to the song. I assumed that since the group on the CD is from the Maritimes, they added a bunch of local reference, but this author was in the USN, and still wrote the song with all of the Maritime verses.

The verse I wondered about the most was the one about the Marrimashee - turns out that's an area of the Atlantic Provinces, and the verse is:

Was you ever in the Marrimashee

Bonnie laddie, highland laddie,

Where you make fast to a tree

Bonny highland laddie.

Anyway, I've got to go get ready for class.

Eat Pork