Concertina On The Ss Great Britain

[Dan Worrall]

Am on a flyingly brief trip to Ireland, ending in Wales. We're headed to see the restored 1847 steamship SS Great Britain tomorrow in nearby Bristol, and something in the back of my mind was nagging me about that ship. I looked it up in my history books on the concertina, digitally on Google Books (see links on my website), and found it referenced in Chapter 4, which is why that name was nagging me. At any rate, I was delighted to see the several references to it in in a passenger's journal in late June/early July 1863....exactly 150 years ago this week. The writer and his party were on a long voyage from London to New Zealand, and were dancing on deck in the evenings during fair weather to the music of the concertina and a cook's homemade tambourine. Besides dance music, they also were singing minstrel tunes, dressing themselves in blackface. Anything to break the boredom of a 70 day voyage.

 

Back to Wales, here is a very nice photo from 1875 of a concertina player and a singer.

http://www.peoplescollectionwales.co.uk/Item/17990-two-men-one-playing-the-concertina-and-the-ot

Edited June 30, 2013 by Dan Worrall

[Geoff Wooff]

Back to Wales, here is a very nice photo from 1875 of a concertina player and a singer.

http://www.peoplescollectionwales.co.uk/Item/17990-two-men-one-playing-the-concertina-and-the-ot

Nice picture Dan,

but it could just as easily be " Repair man showing Concertina player the bill whilst the player tests his instrument"

 

Enjoy your trip..

 

Geoff.