Slav Ho!
(To the Spanish Main / Saltpeter Shanty)
To the Spanish Main we are bound away,
Ch: Slav Ho!
To the Spanish Main we are bound away,
Ch: Slav Ho!
We're sailing away in the early day,
Where the swift bonitos and dolphins play!
Ch: Slav Ho! Slavita, vraimen-ti-go slee-ga. Slav Ho!
According to Colcord’s Roll and Go, Slav Ho originated as a capstan shanty along the deep anchorages of the West Coast of South America, though it appears to have come and gone with the guano trade. It comes from a sixteenth century German folk-song, “Es ritten drei Reiter zum Thore hinaus.”