Spanish Ladies
(Farewell and Adieu To You / Talcahuano Girls)
We'll rant and we'll roar, like true British sailors, We'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas; Until we strike soundings In the Channel of old England, From Ushant to Scilly 'tis thirty-five leagues.We hove our ship to, with the wind at sou'west, boys, We hove our ship to, for to strike soundings clear; Then we filled the main topsail And bore right away, boys, And straight up the Channel our course we did steer. And the first land we made, it is called the Deadman, Next Ram Head, off Plymouth, Start, Portland, and the Wight; We sail-ed by Beachy, By Fairly and Dungeness, And then bore away for the South Foreland Light. Now the signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor, All in the Downs that night for to meet; Then stand by your stoppers, See clear your shank painters, Haul all your clew garnets, stick out tacks and sheets. Now let every man take off his full bumper, Let every man take off his full bowl; For we will be jolly. And drown melancholy, With a health to each jovial and true-hearted soul.
Spanish Ladies has remained a tremendously popular tune since the first shanty collections appeared. Cecil Sharp knew it as a capstan shanty, though it was later sung in the British Navy, shanties reportedly not being permitted.
Deadman and Fairlee are sea names for the Dodman Point near Plymouth and Fairlight Hill near Hastings. Grand Fleet was an old name for the Channel Fleet.
Whall (Sea Songs and Shanties) gives the tune a minor key and claims the major version is a modern substitute. It would be spoiled by harmonized accompaniment, he writes, as the song is an example of Come-All-Ye’s, that class of song sung slowly in unison and with long verses interspersed.
The song is the basis for Herman Melville’s 1888 poem Tom Deadlight.