Back to List of Songs Notes

'WAY, ME SUSIANA! Lead: Richard Chorus: Peter Kasin, Walt Askew, Shay Black, David Lovine, Jim Nelson, Malcolm Rigby, and Benjamin Wachs

Collected by Stan Hugill from his shipmate Harding, the Barbadian Barbarian, this hauling song was used for pumping and cargo work.

LYRICS:

Solo: We'll heave him up and away we'll go
Chorus: 'Way, me Susiana!
Solo: We'll heave him up and away we'll go
Chorus: We're all bound over the mountain

We'll heave him up and away we'll go
That is where the cocks do crow

An' when the cocks begin to crow
'Tis time for me to roll an' go

And if we drown while we are young
It's better to drown than to wait to be hung

Oh, growl ye may but go ye must
If ye growl too hard yer head they'll bust

Up sox, you cocks, hand her two blocks
And go below to yer ol' ditty box

Captain, O Captain, you told me so
Around Cape Horn we are bound for to go

One more pull and that will do
We'll sing a song that'll make her go

Oh, rock and shake 'er, one more drag
Oh, bend yer duds an' pack yer bag

We'll see the girls with eyes of brown
And drink the best there is in town

Oh, the Barbary Coast is no place for me
Ye have one drink then wake up at sea

Two months' wages they are dead
An' a donkey's breakfast for your head

NOTES:

This hauling shanty is of African-American origin and was collected by Stan Hugill from one of his shipmates, a black seaman who hailed from Barbadoes and was called Harding, the Barbadian Barbarian. Harding said that the song was also used for pumping and cargo work. The word 'heave' suggests pumping, although some black hauling songs had the word 'heave' in their refrains, indicating most possibly that they had at one time or another been used at the jack-screws aboard cotton-ships. The lyrics to the sixth verse are an example of what is called camouflaging, meaning that the original words were obscene and had to be changed for publication.

William Main Doerflinger, another shanty collector also has a version of this song, his informant giving it for capstan and pumps, and sometimes for hauling. The underlined words in the chorus are where the pulls would occur.