When collecting shanties and sea songs at the Royal Alfred home for merchant seamen at Belvedere, in the summer of 1928, James Madison Carpenter recorded ‘Blow the man down’ being sung by Harry Johnson. In Carpenter’s transcription of the tune, the singer is given as “Bos’n Johnson”. Carpenter also has a transcription of the words of  ‘Blow the man down’ ascribed simply to “The Bo’sn”. It seems quite likely that these actually refer to the same person.

Songs

• Blow The Man Down (Roud 2624)

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)