Boney Was a Warrior

Boney Was a Warrior is a short-drag shanty that runs through the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, from his wars with Russia and Prussia to his death on St. Helena, a couplet to each pull of the rope.

A short-drag (or short-haul) shanty served for jobs that needed only a few hard pulls rather than a long hoist. Joanna Carver Colcord, who printed this version in Roll and Go (1924), called it “a great favorite for ‘sweating up’,” the last few heaves that tighten a halyard or sheet once the sail is nearly set. The shantyman sang a line, the crew answered “Away ay-yah!” and “John Franswor!”, and on the last syllable of each chorus “all hands gave a mighty pull.” Cecil Sharp, who noted the song from John Short of Watchet, marked the pulls on “yah” and on the last syllable of “Franswor.” Sources disagree about its other uses. Richard Runciman Terry wrote in 1921 that he never met a seaman who had not hoisted topsails to it, but Stan Hugill said it was too fast for topsails and was sung at halyards or for short hauls on the fore-sheet. William L. Alden heard it at the windlass, with a different chorus (“hi-lon-day”), and printed it in his 1882 essay on sailor songs.

The earliest known mention is in an article “On Shanties” in the London magazine Once a Week in 1868, and the verses follow Napoleon to his death in 1821, so the song as it survives is no older than that. It was sung on both British and American ships.

Sailors were cheerfully loose with the story. Elba becomes “Elbow,” and in some versions HMS Bellerophon, the ship Napoleon surrendered to in 1815, becomes the “Billy Ruffian.” Colcord added that “historical accuracy never troubled the sailor,” citing one version in which Boney crosses the Rocky Mountains and another in which he is sent to St. Helena “all on account of a woman!”

The answering cry “John Franswor” is usually taken as the French name Jean-François, and French sailors sang a shanty of their own, Jean-François de Nantes, with a similar refrain. Hugill printed the French song alongside the English one, as did Colcord in her enlarged 1938 edition, Songs of American Sailormen. Sharp noted that Short sang “Bonny” rather than “Boney,” and that his “John” was “something between the French ‘Jean’ and the English ‘John’.”

Topgallantsails are the sails set above the topsails, and Colcord notes that sailors pronounced the word “to’gan’l s’ls.”

Paul Clayton recorded the song in 1956 on Whaling and Sailing Songs, A.L. Lloyd sang it for the 1962 film soundtrack Whaler Out of New Bedford, and Other Songs of the Whaling Era, and Jackie Oates recorded John Short’s version on Short Sharp Shanties, Vol. 2 (2011).