In the summer of 1928 James Madison Carpenter collected four shanties and two other sea  songs from Harry Johnson, a resident at the Royal Alfred home for merchant seamen at Belvedere. Carpenter’s Dictaphone recordings survive for four of Mr Johnson’s songs, and can be heard on the VWML website.

On his transcription of one of these, ‘Blow the man down’, Carpenter noted the song as having been collected from “Bos’n Johnson”. It could be that Harry Johnson the same singer identified elsewhere in Carpenter’s notes simply as “The Bo’sn”.

We have no further information about the singer. The England & Wales Merchant Navy Crew Lists 1861-1913 show that in 1891 a seaman by the name of Harry Johnson, born 1853 in Bristol, served as boatswain on board the ‘Blazer’, owned by the Liverpool Steam Tug Co. Ltd. It is possible – but by no means certain – that this was the same man who sang for Carpenter almost 40 years later.

Songs

• Blow The Man Down (Roud 2624, Roud 13026)
• Haul Away Joe (Roud 809)
• Pretty Cabin Boy (Roud 239)
• Stormalong (Roud 216)
• When First I Came To London Town (Roud 16872)
• Whiskey Johnnie (Roud 651)

In the summer of 1928 James Madison Carpenter, collecting from residents at the Royal Alfred home for merchant seamen at Belvedere, noted a single song from a Mr Hill. No further information was recorded about the singer.

Songs

According to the Act (Lime Juice Act) (Roud 8341)

In the summer of 1928 James Madison Carpenter collected eight shanties and other songs from William ‘Paddy’ Gaul, a resident at the Royal Alfred home for merchant seamen at Belvedere.

Carpenter’s notes for ‘Be Handy, Boys’ record that William Gaul was born in Waterford, Ireland, and spent forty five years at sea. The singer may well be the William Gaul whose death was registered in the Dartford district in the third quarter of 1928 (i.e. shortly after his songs were collected by Carpenter). His age was given as 70.

In which case, he is almost certainly the William Gaul, born Waterford, 1859, who was the recipient of the Mercantile Marine Ribbon and British Medal Ribbon in 1921, for service at sea during the First World War. And, possibly, the William Gaul from Waterford, birth year given as 1863, who served as a fireman on board the Antelope, registered at Milford, from January to June 1891.

Songs

• Australia for me (Roud 0)
• Be Handy Boys (Roud 814)
• Green Burgee (Roud 7989)
• Hawksbury Banks (Maids of Australia) (Roud 1872)
• Lucianna (I’m Just Gone Over The Mountain) (Roud 9127)
• Paddy Works on the Railway (Roud 208)
• Shamrock Shores (Roud 0)
• Tiger Bay (Roud 2432, Roud 16872)