{"id":27,"date":"2010-10-11T12:26:13","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T12:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rring.wp.trincoll.edu\/?p=27"},"modified":"2011-12-13T20:47:40","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T20:47:40","slug":"recruiting-with-grog-or-swilling-into-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/2010\/10\/11\/recruiting-with-grog-or-swilling-into-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Recruiting with Grog; or, swilling into service."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>[Posted by Dan Milner, University of Birmingham (England); recent link:\u00a0 http:\/\/blogs.smithsonianmag.com\/aroundthemall\/2011\/04\/smithsonian-folkways-releases-civil-war-naval-songs\/<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Stan Hugill was the last\u00a0seaman known to have sung sea shanties aboard a British merchant ship.\u00a0 Hugill was also a prolific maritime painter and author\u00a0of books on sea songs.\u00a0 In Sailortown <\/em>(1967), he mentions a New York shanghier\u00a0who operated a combination hostelry-cum-grogshop\u00a0named Larry Maher.<\/p>\n

About 10 years ago, I found a\u00a0Civil War\u00a0period broadside\u00a0sheet titled “Larry Maher’s Big 5-Gallon Jar” printed by H. De Marsan at 54 Chatham Street. New York, and I made\u00a0mention of the piece in “Irish Maritime Songs from New York’s 19th Century Music Emporiums,” a presentation I made at the 2006\u00a0Mystic Seaport Music of the Sea Symposium.\u00a0 It is quite evocative, as shown in this passage:<\/p>\n

Come, all you jolly sailors bold, that lives both near and far; \/ I’ll sing you a short ditty concerning Larry Maher: \/ He keeps a slop-up boarding house, and sells rot-gut to the tars, \/ And the scourge of New-York City is\u2026 his big five-gallon jar.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, if you want chain-lightning, step into Larry Maher, \/ <\/em>And he\u2019ll serve you with abundance from his big five-gallon jar.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When first I came to New-York, I came here on a spree, \/ And hearing tell of Larry\u2019s place, I went the sights to see: \/ Some drunken shells in the corner lay more swilling at the bar, \/ And Larry was supplying them from his big five-gallon jar.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, one glass of Larry’s beverage will make your heart to ache, \/ And, when you get keeled over, your cash he’ll surely take; \/ But when you wake next morning, you’ll be far outside the bar, \/ Removed away to Liverpool by\u2026 gallus Larry Maher.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two years later, I found an entry in a Manhattan city directory, \u201cMaher Lawrence, liquors\u201d beginning in 1857.\u00a0 But the name of the song\u2019s composer eluded me until August 2010 when I set my eyes on a second \u201cLarry Maher\u201d ballad sheet at the Watkinson Library, printed by J. Wrigley of \u201c27 Chatham Street (opposite City Hall Park) New York.\u201d\u00a0 James Wrigley and Henry De Marsan were competitors and both were located at the addresses printed on their broadsides between 1861 and 1864.\u00a0 The texts vary slightly, but the Watkinson broadside has one additional piece of information. \u00a0It specified the lyricist as G.W. Watson.<\/p>\n

As I begin writing my Ph.D. dissertation on Irish life in New York City, the Wrigley broadside is a most welcome find.\u00a0 Thanks to you, Peter Knapp and your colleagues for the helpful hospitality shown during my visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Posted by Dan Milner, University of Birmingham (England); recent link:\u00a0 http:\/\/blogs.smithsonianmag.com\/aroundthemall\/2011\/04\/smithsonian-folkways-releases-civil-war-naval-songs\/] Stan Hugill was the last\u00a0seaman known to have sung sea shanties aboard a British merchant ship.\u00a0 Hugill was also a prolific maritime painter and author\u00a0of books on sea songs.\u00a0 In Sailortown (1967), he mentions a New York shanghier\u00a0who operated a combination hostelry-cum-grogshop\u00a0named Larry Maher. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}