Hamborger Veermaster
De Hamborger Veermaster ( High German : The Hamburger Viermaster ) is a shanty in Low German with an English refrain . The title refers to the four-masted barque , a type of sailing ship that was used, for example, by the Hamburg shipping company F. Laeisz in the form of their legendary Flying P-Liner on the voyage around Cape Horn .
Lore
The song is an adaptation of the English shanty " The Banks Of Sacramento ". The melody comes from a hymn, a minstrel (verse), the refrain of the text from the English ballad "Ten thousand miles away" . It is a capstan shanty (also known as capstan shanty) that was sung by the crew while the anchor chain was being hoisted. The capstan , the hand-operated cylindrical anchor winch on the forecastle, around which the chain was wrapped, was also called "Capstan" at that time.
The song became known between 1934 and 1936 through the song book Knurrhahn , a collection of German and English sailor songs . In addition, it was included in student Kommers books , for example in the Wingolf of the Wingolfsbund , and in the songs of the youth movement , then in numerous song books and albums.
Well-known stanzas (selection), bilingual
Low German text
Ick heff mol en Hamborger Veermaster sehn,
|: To my hooday! : |
De Masten so Scheev as the Schipper sien Been,
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
Refrain
|: Blow, boys, blow, for Californio,
There's plenty of gold, so I've been told,
On the banks of Sacramento. : |
Dat deck weer vun Isen, vull Schiet un vull Smeer.
|: To my hooday! : |
Dat weer de Schietgang more beautiful Pläseer
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
De Kombüs weer vull Lüüs, de Kajüt weer vull Schiet,
|: To my hooday! : |
De protect, de leupen vun sülven al wiet.
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
Dat Soltfleesch weer gröön, un de Speck weer vull Modn.
|: To my hooday! : |
Un Kööm geeft dat ook blots an Wiehnachtsavend
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
Un wullt wi mol ropes, ick segg ji dat only,
|: To my hooday! : |
Because lööpt he dree vörut un veer wedder retour
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
As dat Schipp so weer ok de Kaptein,
|: To my hooday! : |
De Lüüd för dat Schipp weern ok blots schanghait
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
German translation
I once saw a Hamburg four- master,
|: To my hooday! : |
The masts (were) as crooked as the captain's leg,
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
Refrain
|: Blow, boys, blow, for Californio,
There's plenty of gold, so I've been told,
On the banks of Sacramento . : |
The deck was made of iron, full of dirt and grease .
|: To my hooday! : |
That was the “Schietgang” (cleaning team) their greatest “joy”
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
The galley was full of lice, the cabin was full of dirt,
|: To my hooday! : |
The ship's biscuit , it ran far away by itself
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
The salty meat was green and the bacon was full of maggots .
|: To my hooday! : |
And Köm was only available on Christmas Eve
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
And if we wanted to go sailing , I'll just tell you,
|: To my hooday! : |
Then he ran three ( fathoms ) ahead and four back again.
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
And like the ship was also the captain ,
|: To my hooday! : |
The people for the ship were just Shanghai .
To my hoo day, hoo day, ho - ho - ho - ho!
Remarks:
-
↑ Note: the following text can also be seen, but it does not make any sense to the critical content:
“Rein Schipp” weer the captain are really happy. (" Rein Schiff! " Was the old man's best pleasure.) - ↑ = team
For interpretation
The "Hamborger Veermaster" has a socially critical background. Singing texts of this kind about ship, captain, equipment and food (the ship's biscuit can run by itself because of the bread maggots ) is one of the mocking customs known from ethnology ( joking relationships ), and what is said about this Hamburg tall ship can also indicate grievances of your own ship.
A reference to an individual ship cannot be established. Four masters were operated by several Hamburg shipping companies from the eighties of the nineteenth century in the nitrate trade. The chorus refers to the Californian Gold Rush of 1848/49 and also shows a strong resemblance to the song " The camptown ladies ", which was composed at the same time .
Name takeovers
A Hamburg restaurant on the Reeperbahn is called “Hamborger Veermaster”. There is also the “DTM Hamborger Veermaster” brand for Virginia pipe tobacco.
Web links
- Text and melody from " Der Hamborger Veermaster " , version based on "Robokopp".
Individual evidence
- ↑ This shanty was created on board American speed sailors that sailed around Cape Horn to the Sacramento River .
- ^ Gilbert Obermair : Shanties, the rough chants of the driving people . Heyne, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-453-41528-0 , p. 38.
- ↑ There are several musical arrangements or arrangements, for example by Hermann Erdlen (Schotts Chor Verlag, Mainz).
- ↑ Jochen Wiegand: Do you sing in Hamburg? 2nd Edition. Edel: Books, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8419-0195-8 , p. 104.
- ↑ Cf. Der neue Zupfgeigenhansl . Schott, Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-7957-2062-1 ; The seaman's chest . Volume 2. Seebären-Verlag, 1998; Shanties on the high seas , long-playing record by the singing group "Hamborger Veermaster", SKU : VU12707
- ↑ This version on musica.net and on other sites with lyrics
- ↑ An inconclusive Internet source (cf. De Hamburger Veermaster ) suspects that the text refers to the steamer Crimean from Liverpool, which was converted into the full-size ship “ Fritz Reuter ” by the Hamburg shipping company Sloman , but not until 1885 was. Then the song would be around 30 years younger.