Thursday, January 21, 2016

Forty-Seven Ginger-Headed Sailors

"An old maid down in Devon, said my idea of heaven, is forty-seven ginger-headed sailors!"


"Another Concert Item - October 1930 - Forty Seven Ginger Headed Sailors"
"Back:  Wilfred Pilgrim, Howard Wohlers and Lin[dsay] Wohlers, Gordon Pilgrim, Jim Pilgrim, Fred Pilgrim
Kneeling Front:  Mavis Pilgrim, Edna Pilgrim, Hazel Pilgrim, Dorrie Pilgrim, Mary Moulden,
Standing Front:  Rita Moulden"
Photo from the album of Eva Scott (nee Pilgrim)

These sailors, who are all related to me, are definitely not all ginger headed and they probably had no idea what they were actually singing about! But I am sure that they had fun anyway!  The mothers have done a wonderful job of making the costumes!

School concerts and Sunday School concerts were a regular feature in the Winiam Hall.  I have featured a number of different school concert photos from my grandmother's album in the past, and have more to come.

Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-vn2278409
You can listen to the tune here (3 minutes and 14 seconds with words starting after 48 seconds of music).  If you would like to sing along, the words are:

Now there's a good ship
H.M.S. Cock-Robin
On her home trip
Up and down she's bobbin'
So the crew's pretty tough
The weather's so rough
They're all fed up and say
That they've had more than enough

I've got a brother
He's an able seaman
And they call him Redhead Tom

I wire to say I'll meet you
And with your pals I'll treat you
So who do you think I've had a message from?

Forty-seven ginger-headed sailors
Coming home across the briney sea
When the anchor's weighed
And the journey's made
Then they'll start the party
With a heave-ho, me hearty

When there's Forty-seven ginger-headed sailors
You can bet you're going to hear them when they hail us
As they step ashore
There'll be one mighty roar
For forty-seven ginger-headed sailors!

Music

An old maid down in Devon
Said my idea of heaven
Is forty-seven ginger-headed sailors!


This post was prompted by Sepia Saturday.Please click to see how others have interpreted the above photo.

29 comments:

  1. I can just imagine those young sailors singing those lyrics to that jaunty tune. :)

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  2. I’d never heard of it before and I clearly missed the episode of Jeeves and Wooster with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry having fun with the double entedre, which your You Tube clip led me to. It seems to have been a popular song of the time. Well done for finding the picture and sheet music too.

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    1. That is strange as my link comes up with the correct tune. I have unlinked and relinked so it should be correct now.

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    2. Sorry Sharon, what I meant was, after enjoying your link, I explored the others that You Tube led me to.

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    3. My misunderstanding. I had watched several versions and changed my mind several times (and the link) so thought it was blogger playing up!
      All Good :)

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  3. What a treasure trove your grandmother's album is Sharon.

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    1. It certainly is! I have sufficient photos for blogging for many years!

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  4. What a fun and entertaining post. I agree with the old maid in Devon.

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  5. Early musicals were popular featuring sailors and sailors songs; as ship travel was the only way over the oceans. I guess musicals with pilots would not be so adventurous and popular as air travel has become so everyday!

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  6. That's a cute and unusual family picture. At first I thought they were real sailors.

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    1. I cannot tell in the photos but my grandmother told me that many of the costumes were made out of crepe paper rather than real material

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  7. Nice photo. It must have been entertaining to listen to. I looked up the sheet music for this. It is perfect for the ukulele which I am learning to play.

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    1. Well Done with learning the ukulele. I should try to learn an instrument!

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  8. Soldiers and sailors were once a popular feature in many songs of olden times, perhaps because the use of stereotypes allowed for easier rhymes in humorous lyrics. I doubt that today's navy promotes the idea of jolly sailor persons.

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    1. I could hear the them to "Popeye the sailor man" in there somewhere :)

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  9. An interesting post - I too followed the You tube clip and spent an enjoyable time listening to Hugh Laurie singing jazz.

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    1. Blogger! It was coming up correctly for me but I have unlinked and relinked again so hopefully it is correct for you now?

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  10. Love the tune, and that's a great family photo. The original is good but I enjoyed Hugh Laurie's version too. It just comes up as an alternative on the side.

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    1. Thanks Jo. Hugh Laurie's version is more fun but the words were slightly different.

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  11. Love the photo with the hands on the hips! They look smart in their outfits!

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    1. I wonder if my grandmother set it up? The photo is all family members, but there would have been others, who were not family, at the school or Sunday school. If so she did a great job of setting it up and getting such a good photo!

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  12. What fun - a great photo and story. I love the insight into a time and place like this blog post provides.

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    1. Thanks Wendy. I don't seem to remember that we had such good costumes when I was in primary school.

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  13. A fun photo! I don't know why, but I couldn't hear the music. The words are certainly old fashioned & in keeping with the times, however. Again - fun!

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  14. i love reading this article so beautiful!!great job!
    bizarre and unusual

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