“Paddy Doyle’s boots!” is a popular albeit short sea shanty, for a specific work: tossing the bunt!
“Paddy Doyle’s boots!” (in italiano “gli stivali di Paddy Doyle”) è un popolare seppur breve sea shanty, e in particolare una bunt shanty.
Is PADDY DOYLE a BOARDING MASTER or a COBBLER?
According to Stan Hugill, Paddy Doyle is the prototype of the boarding masters: Joanna Colcord misidentifies him with Paddy West. (see first part)
Boarding houses are pensions for sailors, present in every large sea port. “They are held by boarding masters, of dubious reputation, that provide ” accommodation and boarding “. Often they welcome the sailors “on credit.” On the advance received by the boarders at the time of enrollment, they refer to food and lodging, and with the rest they provide their clothing and equipment of poor quality “. (Italo Ottonello).
Sailors then usually purchased a sea bag with dungarees, oilskins, sea boots, belt, sheath, knife and a pound of tobacco from the boarding master.
So the first month (or the first months depending on the advance) the sailor works to pay the boarding master, “We’ll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!”
According to other interpretations Paddy Doyle was a good Liverpool shoemaker “known to all the “packet rats”(1) sailing out of that port for the excellency of his sea-boots, and beloved for his readiness to trust any of the boys for the price of a pair when they were outward bound across “the big pond.” (Fred H. Buryeson)
(1) slang term for sailors
Paddy Doyle’s Boots: Tossing the Bunt!
[ Roud 4695 ; Henry H53c ; Ballad Index Doe010 ; trad.]
Perfect shanty for short haulers, used expressly to collect the sails on the yard or to tighten them.
Paddy Doyle’s Boots was a shanty used specifically for these maneuvers! Another song that might have worked for these maneuvers was Johnny Bowker, a fore-sheet shanty that was sometimes used as a bunt shanty.
The song is short because the work does not last long. Thus wrote A.L. Lloyd “This is one of the few shanties reserved for bunting the fore or mainsail. Men aloft, furling the sail, would bunch the canvas in their hands till it formed a long bundle, the ‘bunt’. To lift the bunt on to the yard, in order to lash it into position, required a strong heave. Bunt shanties differ from others in that they employed fewer voices, and were sung in chorus throughout. Paddy Doyle, the villain of this shanty, was a Liverpool boarding house keeper.” and he continues in another comment “The men stand aloft on foot-ropes and, leaning over the yard, the grab the bunched-up sail and try to heave the ‘sausage’ of canvas on to the yard, preparatory to lashing it in a furled position. The big heave usually comes on the last word of the verse, sometimes being sung as ‘Pay Paddy Doyle his his hup!’ But if the canvas was wet and heavy, and several attempts were going to be needed before the sail was bunted“
A song that according to many was sung only for this purpose “bunting up the foresail or mainsail in furling” (RICHARD RUNCIMAN TERRY, The Shanty Book
According to some testimonies it was a piece that was sung exclusively in chorus and according to Stan Hugill the attack of each choral line is sung by the soloist.
Timme way ay-ay-ay high ya!
We’ll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!
according to Terry, the sailors’ pull occurred exclusively at the last word of the second verse, while Hugill states that there could also be a second pull at the end of the first verse.
Seán Dagher version
Chorus : To me way hey, hey, ya! (1)
We’ll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots !
We’ll all drink whisky/brandy and gin!
We’ll all shave under the chin!
And we will throw muck (2) at the cook!
For the crusty old man on the poop (3)!
We’ll skin the old rabbit an haul!
We’ll bouse (4) her up and be done!
We’ll tauten the bunt, and we’ll furl!
We’ll roll up the sails as we swing!
We’ll order more brandy and rum!
The Chanty Man Sings (words only)(p26),
Roll And Go(p4),
Capstan Bars(p47),
American Sea Songs and Chanteys(p31),
Sea Songs and Shanties(p109),
Songs of American Sailormen(p43),
Shantymen & Shantyboys(p10),
The Making of a Sailor(p199),
Naval Songs(p130),
Chanteying Aboard American Ships(p32),
Songs of Sea Labour(p31),
A Book Of Shanties(p83),
Irish Ballads and Songs of the Sea(p26, 29),
Shanties And Sailors’ Songs(p207),
An American Sailor’s Treasury(p37),
Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman(p10),
The Way Of The Ship(p77),
Shanties from the Seven Seas(III)(p247-9),
Shanties from the Seven Seas (complete)(III)(p331-4),
The Seven Seas Shanty Book(p58),
Songs of the Sea & Sailors’ Chanteys(p259)
The sailor complains of food and discipline and also having to pay Paddy Doyle for his poor equipment!
NOTES
1) a non sense line than other versions such as “Yes (yeo), aye, and we’ll haul, aye”. The strongest accent falls on the last syllable of the verse that corresponds to the tear-off maneuver for hoisting a sail
2) figure of speech to insult or talk badly
3) poop means both stern-aft and shit
4) bouse= nautical term its meanings: (a) To haul in using block and tackle. (b) To secure something by wrapping with small stuff. (c) To haul the anchor horizontal and secure it so that it is clear of the bow wave.In the context the reference is to the sail that is collected in a ‘bunt’, it is raised to fix it to the yard
Paddy Doyle’s Boots & Folk Revival
LINK
http://www.contemplator.com/sea/paddyd.html
http://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/paddydoyle.html
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=135246
http://www.liverpoolpicturebook.com/2013/01/WGHerdman.html
1815 report indicates “Doyle, Patrick” at 52 High Street is listed as a maker of boots
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gentleman_s_and_Citizen_s_Almanack/gTQ_AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=doyle+boots&pg=RA4-PA42&printsec=frontcover
In 1850’s Parliament reports on defective boots made by Doyle that only last 6 months and have to be bought by the soldiers themselves
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Reports_from_Committees/oalbAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=doyle%20
thanks for the insight