Concertinas And Sea Music

[Rod Thompson]

Some time ago, on another topic I said I would start some research onto the use or otherwise of concertinas by sailors.

There is some controversy as to whether concertinas were used much if at all, despite the public impression of the concertina as a "sailors instrument".

Certainly they were not used to accompany sea shantys, but no instrument ever was.

It is difficult to find much at all to answer the question one way or the other, since there is very little written about the use of any instruments aboard ship, and indeed, very little is written about the lifestyle of the common sailors at all.

 

In actual photos, I have counted:

3 concertinas, 2 banjos, 1 button accordian, guitar, mouth organ and bones.

(I have seen another button accordian, but can't track it down again).

 

In eye-witness accounts:

1 or more mouth organs, 2 or more concertinas, an accordian, and a violin.

1 Paddle organ – I’m not sure what this is – combination musical instrument and life-preserver?

1 Piano (in the trainees’ accommodation aboard the Richelieu)

1 Harmonium (temporarily hoisted aboard the Cutty Sark in Shanghai for the moral improvement of the apprentices).

I haven't included pianos etc in the passenger's areas, or "military" type instruments - bugles, drums etc.

I also haven't included anything from before about 1860, since the concertina wasn't available before then.

 

Sources:

“Windjammers The final Story” by Robert Carter (an excellent book of eyewitness stories, accompanied by reproductions of the author’s paintings of the big ships and barques of the later years of sail).

This book has the quote “On fine nights the watch used to gather on the main hatch and spin yarns or sing songs. There was always someone with a mouth organ or concertina. . . .” Dudley Turner in the Monkbarns (British) 1925.

“Shackleton and the Antarctic Explorers” by Gavin Mortimer. (which has a photo of Shackleton on the deck of the Endurance, with 4 sailors, one of whom is holding a 12 sided english concer - presumably it didn't make it home even though the crew did).

The books by Basil Lubbock, while very good for descriptions of the ships, say very little about the sailors.

 

So - has anyone else got any photos or eye witness accounts that would help with this?

[Rod Thompson]

Hey - I'm now an "Advanced Member" - does that mean I can play better now?

[Mark Evans]

But of course it does me hearty! Arrrgh!

[Chris Timson]

Hey - I'm now an "Advanced Member" - does that mean I can play better now?

Yes.

 

Chris

 

Edited to add PS: I welcome your research. If you're willing I'll put this up on the ICA members mailing list to see if we can help as well.

 

Chris

Edited January 13, 2005 by Chris Timson

[geoffwright]

My grandfather was one of 12 brothers born on a barge - he played piano accordion so lack of space never seemed to bother him and he really did have a brother called Noah.

[Frank Edgley]

I have mentioned this elsewhere. In a lecture on the concertina, Gearoid OhAllmuirhain stated that one of the reasons the concertina became popular in the west of Ireland is that it was sold by ships chandelries at the ports of emigration i.e. Limerick. This would seem to confirm that cheap German concertinas, at least, were sold to seamen aboard sailing ships of the mid 19th Century.

[fiddlersgreen]

I am starting to get old enough to feel like I am a "living history museum". With my tongue in cheek I can say that I was a sailor who played English concertina in the merchant navy. One of the differences is that the ships I worked on were 900 feet long and we had replaced sail with 30,000 HP of diesel engine. However, I am sure that the reasons for taking the concertina on board were the same. It was small, relatively quiet and it doesn't need tuning. You never know for sure where the ship will end up. While waiting for dock space for weeks you could sit at anchor off some Arab shore with just sand, sun and sea snakes. So having an instrument to play is a great way to spend time. If you are lucky someone else in the crew will have an instrument so your can do a little jamming. That is rare though because most U.S. modern merchant ships have less than 26 in the crew.

Edited January 13, 2005 by fiddlersgreen

[Aquarussell]

Hello,

 

Concertinas unavailable until the 1860's? Not any earlier? I thought they were invented in the 1820's. No?

 

I could easily be wrong, I have been wrong a couple of times before . . .

 

Russell Hedges

"Aquarussell"

[rmerris]

A few years ago, this topic came up in the ICA email group. I commented, along with an email attachment of a sailor with concertina on board a ship in Tazmania in 1907. On the flipside, the sailor even commented on the fact that the concertina in his hands was one of those "Jeffries, Praed St." The wrath (probably justified) from those who objected to the email attachment was breathtaking. (But one person said they appreciated the photo.)

 

My colleagues and I are writing an article about the Jeffries family, their shops, and their instruments. The photo of the sailor in Tazmania will be included in that article, which hopefully will be widely available in the not-too-distant future. Uncharacteristically, I have lost track of the identity of the person who originally sent me the photo. If you are reading this, we would love to supply a photo credit in the article.

 

As Frank Edgley indicated, there is anecdotal evidence (or possibily stronger evidence) of sailors bringing concertinas to Ireland.

 

I would add at-least-anecdotal evidence that sailors made their way from the nearby docks to George Jones' establishment on Commercial Road. Supposedly, George liked to barter concertinas for items that the sailor had acquired in their travels. Depending on George's propensity for such trade, it could have put at least a few concertinas on the high seas.

 

Wheatstone advertised concertinas that were specially designed for damp and tropical climates. Supposedly, the main market was India, but a few sailors may have picked up on these special-reeded instruments, as well as regular brass-reeded instruments.

 

The Horniamn Museum collection has an exceptionally small miniature for which the "case" is a tin can with a push down lid, just like a metal kitchen canister. Could it have been for a soldier's pack or a sailor's duffle bag?

[Paul Read]

Why would people be upset about the attachment? Is it because it was without permission? I, for one, would love to see it.

 

Paul

[JimLucas]

Why would people be upset about the attachment?  Is it because it was without permission?

Because it comes in an email, and they have no way either knowing what it is or refusing it in advance. Not everyone is a regular user of internet browsers.

 

It can be costly for people with primitive computer connections, e.g., pay by the minute dialup connections with slow modems. I can remember the time when it took me 20 minutes to download a 1 Mb photo attached to an email. I'm told that such service is still not uncommon in the UK.

 

And other people may have other reasons.

[JimLucas]

In actual photos, I have counted:

3 concertinas, 2 banjos, 1 button accordian, guitar, mouth organ and bones.

(I have seen another button accordian, but can't track it down again).

I haven't kept a record, but over the years in maybe a dozen or more photos of sailors on shipboard with instruments, I've seen some sort of accordion -- sometimes more than one -- in at least half of them, and I think only one concertina. I've also seen at least one (silent) movie (iron-hulled German ship in the 1920's? my memory's vague on that sort of detail) with accordion but no concertina. Fiddles, guitars, banjos, and even flutes also appeared multiply in those photos, and I think I recall a trumpet/cornet or two.

 

I'm quite sorry now that I didn't keep close records.

 

Has anybody here picked up any relevant photos -- even postcards -- from eBay?

[shipcmo]

There is a very good article by Stuart Frank, titled "Concertina Around Cape Horn", in Concertina & Squeezebox, Vol. 2, No. 2 Spring 1984, where, among other comments regarding concertinas at sea, he reports of a documented case of a 20 button Anglo-German, circa 1906, which is now in the Mariners' Museum, Newport News, VA.

Cheers,

George Salley

Edited January 13, 2005 by shipcmo

[JimLucas]

...he reports of a documented case of a 20 button Anglo-German, circa 1906, which is now in the Mariners' Museum, Newport News, VA.

And there's the Lachenal belonging to a C.net member where the end covers were replaced with carved whalebone. While that could have been done on shore, it seems much more likely that it was done during a voyage by a crewmember on a whaling ship

[John Wild]

I have mentioned this elsewhere. In a lecture on the concertina, Gearoid OhAllmuirhain stated that one of the reasons the concertina became popular in the west of Ireland is that it was sold by ships chandelries at the ports of emigration i.e. Limerick. This would seem to confirm that cheap German concertinas, at least, were sold to seamen aboard sailing ships of the mid 19th Century.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The 1950's film version of the Titanic story, A night To Remember, shows an English concertina being played by the Irish emigrants in steerage class having a ceilidh. As most of this film script came from a well researched book, it could be authentic.

 

- John Wild

[Rod Thompson]

If you're willing I'll put this up on the ICA members mailing list to see if we can help as well.

 

Chris

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

More than willing - I would be glad of the extra potential input.

 

Thanks.

[Rod Thompson]

Thanks all - this is very useful, I will have a go at collating all of this info soon.

All info is of value, but it is more valuable if the source is known (e.g. book/photo etc) - this can help prevent double counting as well.

 

Edited to say - I am looking for examples of any kind of instrument being played aboard ship by the sailors, not just concertinas, so that we can get some idea of the relative frequency of uses.

Edited January 14, 2005 by Rod Thompson

[rmerris]

Issue 1. As I indicated in my earlier comment, I took it in stide when I was chastised for attaching the photo to the email to the ICA group. I thought the main concern was the possibility of a recipient thinking that there might be a computer virus in an attachment. My employer, an international organization, takes great pains to ensure that no viriuses are in incoming or outgoing emails. I thought that I was covered. Little did I know about the real concerns that would be expressed by the recipients. Live and learn.

 

Issue 2 (and hopefully more interesting). I much appreciate Rod Thompson's reference to Gavin Mortimer, Shackleton and the Anarctic Explorers. I had never heard of the book. It turns out that it is inexpensive in paperback (Amazon.com etc.). I hope the paperback contains the photo to which Rod referred, because "the plot thickens"...

 

...In the early 1950s (in 1951, as I recall), Wheatstone published a promotional brochure in which they touted that, indeed, Livingston had a Wheatstone in Africa and that there was a Wheatstone on the Shackleton voyage to Anarctica. Now, Rod has indicated that the photo shows a 12-sided English concertina. We know that Wheatstone made a few 12-sided "Wheatstone Edeophones," after Wheatstone acquired left-over inventory from the demise of Lachenal--but that occurred long after the Shackleton expedition.

 

Rod: Are you sure the photo shows a 12-sided (rather than an 8-sided) instrument? If the answer is "definitely 12-sided," then the possibilities seem to be: (1) Wheatstone was mistaken about the make of the concertina on the expedition (2) the instrument in question was a very special 12-sided Wheatstone (almost out of the question), or (3) there were both a Wheatstone English (Aeola or otherwise) and a Lachenal Edeophone on the expedition.

 

An aside about the meeting of Stanley and Livingston: Maybe, approaching Livingstones tent and seeing his concertina, Stanley really said: "Mr. Livingiston, Wheatstone, I presume."

Edited January 14, 2005 by rmerris