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Category: Patrick Tayluer

A two-masted brig under heavy sail.

A Shantyman’s Farewell

Posted by: Stephen Winick

In this post, we hear one last farewell shanty from the retired sailor Patrick Tayluer, who sang and told stories for the Archive of Folk Culture in 1942. The song tells the romantic tale of a sailor weighing anchor to leave for the port city of Rio Grande, Brazil. He says goodbye to his sweetheart and asks her to marry him when he returns. This is the final post in a series about the sea shanty singer Patrick Tayluer, and contains links to the entire series where you can find more songs and stories of the sea.

Patrick Tayluer points at the rigging of a ship model while talking to a man in a Naval Academy Midshipman's uniform.

Like a Snap of a Carrot: Shipwreck Stories with Patrick Tayluer

Posted by: Stephen Winick

When William Main Doerflinger interviewed the retired sailor and shanty singer Patrick Tayluer in April, 1942, one of the topics he asked Tayluer about was shipwrecks. This is not surprising: ever since people took to the seas in ships, maritime folks have been fascinated and terrified by shipwrecks; shipwreck stories go back to the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. As it turned out, Tayluer had several stories about shipwrecks, which he told as first-person narratives, but which might not have happened exactly as he described. We’ll look at two of those stories in this post, exploring Tayluer's fascinating blend of fact and fiction.

half-length portrait of Patrick Tayluer between two gum trees with the words "Walked from Brisbane to Perth."

The One that Found Galore: Patrick Tayluer in Australia

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Patrick Tayluer, the retired sailor who recorded 79 sea shanties, ballads, and stories for the Library of Congress in 1942, was fascinated by Australia. In this post we present several of his Australian songs and stories. We also recount his epic 7500 kilometer walk across the continent from late 1929 to early 1931. The post includes audio of two songs, including a bushranger ballad never collected from any other source.

A man in a sailor's cap shows a young girl a handmade ship model

Sung By Women Too: Patrick Tayluer and “The Leaving of Liverpool,” Part 2

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This post continues Stephen Winick's series on the sea songs of Patrick Tayluer, and finishes the story of "The Leaving of Liverpool," the lyric lament of a nineteenth-century mariner who leaves his hometown of Liverpool for San Francisco. In this post Steve outlines how the song became a major part of the folk revival, and gives links to versions and adaptations performed and recorded by everyone from the Clancy Brothers to the Kingston Trio and Ewan MacColl to Bob Dylan. He asks what can be learned from Patrick Tayluer's version of the song. Finally, he provides a fragmentary recording of the song from 1942, sung by a woman, and discusses who the mystery singer might be!

Painting of a clipper ship in Liverpool harbour

Sung With Gusto By the Men: Patrick Tayluer and “The Leaving of Liverpool,” Part 1

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This post continues Stephen Winick's series on the sea songs of retired sailor Patrick Tayluer, collected in 1942. One of the songs William Doerflinger collected from Tayluer was "The Leaving of Liverpool," the lyric lament of a nineteenth-century mariner who leaves his hometown of Liverpool for San Francisco, through the treacherous seas around Cape Horn. Doerflinger had previously collected it from another retired sailor, Richard Maitland. Years later, based on Doerflinger's publications, the song became a major part of the folk revival, with versions and adaptations performed and recorded by everyone from the Clancy Brothers to the Kingston Trio and Ewan MacColl to Bob Dylan. This post looks at Tayluer and Maitland and their field recordings of "The Leaving of Liverpool."

A man works on an intricate ship model.

Patrick Tayluer on the Art and Origin of Sea Shanties

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This is the third in a series of blog posts looking at the sea shanties, songs, and stories sung and told by retired sailor Patrick Tayluer for collector William Main Doerflinger in 1942. Many lovers of sea shanties have heard of Patrick Tayluer through Doerflinger's 1951 book "Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman." Until now, however, very few singers or researchers have been lucky enough to hear Patrick Tayluer’s voice. This series of blogs aims to remedy that. This post focuses on Tayluer's commentary on sea shanties, including his beliefs about the origin of the genre among West African work crews. Of course, we get to hear some shanties as well!

A man in a sailor's cap shows a young girl a handmade ship model

Patrick Tayluer: The Man Behind the Sea Shanties

Posted by: Stephen Winick

"These should rank with the best shanty and sea-song recordings ever made." So said the sea shanty expert William Main Doerflinger in May, 1942, describing the recordings he had recently made of the retired sailor Patrick Tayluer. Circumstances have conspired to keep those recordings under wraps, until this blog series. In this second post, we’ll hear another of his shanties (“Paddy Lay Back” or “Mainsail Haul”) and one of his sea stories. Then, we’ll use available evidence to create a new biography of Patrick Tayluer (1856-1948), a multifaceted sailor, soldier, singer, storyteller, model-builder, long-distance walker, and, of course, shantyman.

A man with a detailed model of a tall ship

Patrick Tayluer: The Greatest Sea Shanty Singer You’ve Never Heard

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This is the first in series of blog posts looking at the sea shanties, songs, and stories sung and told by retired sailor Patrick Tayluer for collector William Main Doerflinger in 1942. Many lovers of sea shanties have heard of Patrick Tayluer; in 1942, the old salt recorded 66 songs and stories on disc and a further 13 on cylinders for Doerflinger. Doerflinger transcribed and published many of these items in his 1951 book "Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman," and through those transcriptions Tayluer has become a well-known source for nautical singers around the world. But Doerflinger was only able to provide a single paragraph of biography and no photos or other images of Tayluer, and since his book was about songs, Doerflinger didn’t include any of Tayluer’s stories. More importantly, until now, very few singers or researchers have been lucky enough to hear Patrick Tayluer’s voice. This series of blogs aims to remedy that, presenting a biography of Tayluer, several photos, and (most importantly) a selection of his songs and stories. This post introduces Tayluer and presents a photo and two of his best shanties.