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WE'RE ALL SURROUNDED Lead: Peter

A cargo-loading chantey with roots as a minstrel song and spiritual.

LYRICS:

Martha wept and Mary cried
Chorus: We're all surrounded!
That good old man has gone and died
Chorus: We're all surrounded!

Full Chorus:
Carry the news. Carry the news to Mary
Carry the news that we're all surrounded

Shake off your slumbers and arise
The sun is shining in the skies

The good old man we'll see no more
He has gone to the happy shore

He's gone and left us all alone
And Gabriel's trumpet called him home

Adam and Eve climbed up a tree
Their lamb and master for to see

Eve stole an apple from a tree
And Adam was stung by a bumblebee

NOTES:

A fragment of this cotton screwing chantey is found in Frederick P. Harlow, Chanteying Aboard American Ships. The history of this song and its variants are a bit of a mystery. A written version is traced to composers Charley Howard and Walter Bray, and Simmons and Slocums Minstrels, 1870. Whether a version of it was first heard sung by stevedores and later went to the minstrel stage, or whether it went from the stage to ships, we are not sure. We invite anyone who has further information on this to contact us.