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Goodbye Fare Thee Well / Homeward Bound

[ Roud 927 ; G/D 1:5 ; Henry H53a ; Ballad Index Doe087 ; VWML GG/1/14/891 ; Bodleian Roud 927 ; Wiltshire 244 , 1017 ; Folkinfo 138 ; DT GDBYFWL ; Mudcat 72670 ; trad.]

Joanna C. Colcord: Songs of American Sailormen Nick Dow: Southern Songster Nigel Gatherer: Songs and Ballads of Dundee Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann, John Moulden: Sam Henry’s Songs of the People W.B. Whall: Sea Songs and Shanties

Paul Clayton and the Foc’sle Singers sang Goodbye Fare Thee Well in 1959 on their Folkways album Foc’sle Songs and Shanties. Kenneth S. Goldstein noted:

This homeward-bound capstan shanty appears to have been a favourite on both British and American ships. Of its popularity, Terry writes: “This is one of the best beloved of shanties. So strongly did its sentiment appeal to sailors that one never heard the shantyman extemporise a coarse verse to it.” Terry seems to have missed the possibility that one reason for its never being sung with ‘coarse verses’ was largely due to the fact that it was sung in raising the anchor while the ship was still close to shore within earshot of the men and girls who were wishing the ship god speed and homeward-bound luck.

The shanty may have been inspired by a popular foc’sle song of the same title and sentiments.

Thames barge skipper Bob Roberts sang the capstan shanty Home’ard Bound in 1960 on his Talking Book / Methuen EP Windy Old Weather. The album’s booklet commented:

This is a capstan shanty used when getting up anchor for the last time in a foreign port. (Windlasses replaced capstans about 1860). Sometimes a ceremony rather like “The Dead Horse” was carried out the night before sailing. A blazing tar barrel was hoisted aloft and the homeward bound vessel serenaded the others with singing and cheering. The following day this shanty was sung and on a sailing ship it might be a year or more before the sailors finally reached home.

Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd sang Goodbye Fare You Well in 1962 on the Folkways album of the musical score of the film Whaler Out of New Bedford.

Louis Killen and chorus sang Goodbye Fare Thee Well, accompanied by Dave Swarbrick on fiddle, in 1964 on the Topic anthology Farewell Nancy: Sea Songs and Shanties. This album was reissued with bonus tracks in 1993 as the CD Blow the Man Down: A Collection of Sea Songs and Shanties. This track was also included in 1984 on the Le Chasse-Marée anthology of ballads and shanties of English sailors, Chants de Marins IV. A.L. Lloyd noted on the original album:

Traditionally, this one was sung at the capstan when the anchor was raised for the homeward run, a big moment for men who might have been away for a year or more. W.M. Doerflinger says that when the shantyman led the gang in this song, “cheering from other vessels in port rang across the water to wish the homeward-bounders luck.” There are countless verses to this song. Those sung here are mostly from Stan Hugill’s Shanties From the Seven Seas.

Louis Killen returned to Good Bye, Fare Thee Well on his 1997 CD A Seaman’s Garland: Sailors, Ships & Chanteys Vol. 2, on which he noted:

[…] Of course, worksongs or chanteys were also a definite part of the sailor’s repertoire. The Black Ball Line (halyards), Goodbye, Fare Thee Well (capstan), and Leave Her, Johnny (pumps) need no description their words of pride, longing, and hard work speak volumes.

The Critics Group with Dick Snell in lead sang Goodbye, Fare You Well in 1971 on their Argo album Ye Mariners All. The album’s booklet noted:

Of this song. Sir Richard Terry wrote: “So strangely did its sentiment appeal to sailors that one never heard the shantyman extemporise a coarse verse to it.” It was traditionally sung when heaving up anchor for the homeward voyage.

Roy Harris and chorus sang Goodbye, Fare Ye Well in 1974 on another Topic anthology, Sea Shanties. A.L. Lloyd noted:

We end with this one because by common consent it was the most popular of all homeward-bound shanties. It was sung at the capstan when raising the anchor for the last leg of the voyage. For that long slow job there was a vast repertory of standard homeward-bound verses to choose from, of which we give only a sprinkling. As to melody, well, in composition probably only a decade or two separates this shanty from the group comprised by Nos. 2-4 on the disc. But in musical style, how many centuries—perhaps millennia—lie between such a well-rounded, entirely songlike, ample compass tune as Goodbye, Fare Ye Well, and such striking echoes of archaic, even tribal, art a Old Billy Riley or Emma, Let Me Be?

Stuart M. Frank sang Homeward Bound in 1980 on his Folkways album Songs of Sea and Shore. This track was also included in 2004 on Smithsonian Folkways’s anthology Classic Maritime Music.

Stan Hugill and Stormalong John sang Goodbye Fare The Well at “Fêtes du chant de marin” in Paimpol in 1991. This recording was released in the following year on their Le Chasse-Marée album Chants des Marins Anglais. And Johnny Collins with Dave Webber and Pete Watkinson sang Goodbye Fare The Well on their 1996 CD Shanties & Songs of the Sea.

The Barrouallie Whalers sang Goodbye, Fare You Well at the 23^rd Annual Sea Music Festival at Mystic Seaport in 2002.

Ian Giles, John Spiers, Jon Boden and Graham Metcalfe sang Goodbye, Fare Ye Well in 2002 on their Gift of Music album of rousing songs from the age of sail, Sea Shanties.

Waterson:Carthy sang the less raunchy verses of Goodbye Fare You Well with Eliza Carthy in lead in 2004 on their fifth album, Fishes & Fine Yellow Sand. This track was also included in the same year on the anthology Evolving Tradition 4 and in 2008 on the Cromer Lifeboats charity anthology Never Chance Your Luck Against the Sea The original album’s notes commented:

The album is topped and tailed by Goodbye Fare You Well and Twenty-One Years on Dartmoor. Liza put the former together from the mountain of verses to be found in Stan Hugill’s master collection Shanties From the Seven Seas and had to leave out some beautiful verses otherwise we would have been at it all night. It’s the one song on this CD which has no baddies in it and instead has singing fishes. Who needs Walt bloody Disney I say. (OK, Finding Nemo was fun).

Tim Radford sang the capstan shanty Homeward Bound in 2012 on his Forest Tracks album of maritime songs collected by George B. Gardiner in Hampshire in 1905-1909, From Spithead Roads. He noted:

Collected from Frank Shilley age 49 at Portsmouth Workhouse Infirmary on i15 August 1907 [VWML GG/1/14/891] . This is one of several ‘fragments’ collected from Shilley, whom Gardiner did not think too highly of. Gardiner says in his notes that: “This singer, in order to earn money, offered me much worthless material.” There is, however, a very small entry on the inside cover of notebook no. 13 that suggests he did pay Shilley.

I have heard it said that seamen would often add rude words to shanties, but that they never did that with this song.

Only the first two verses were actually as collected from Shilley. I have added the additional five verses from other versions of the shanty that exist.

Roger Watson and chorus sang Homeward Bound (Goodbye, Fare Thee Well) in 2012 on the WildGoose album of shanties collected by Cecil Sharp from John Short, Short Sharp Shanties Vol. 3. The album’s booklet noted:

Sharp did not publish a version of Homeward Bound, although virtually every other publisher does (his reasons are explained in the notes to Blow Boys, Blow / Banks of Sacramento. All publishers refer to its popularity and sentiment and often to its use: “one of the regulation songs when getting the anchor aboard” (Whall), “probably more frequently sung than any other Chanty [sic] when getting under weigh” (Bullen), “Traditionally sung when heaving up anchor, homeward bound. …a song consecrated to the occasion.” (Doerflinger).

Hugill says “I know of 4 versions common to seamen the world over. (a) Usual Homeward-bound sentiments, (b) Verses taken from forebitter Homeward Bound, (c) Milkmaid, (d) Verses from The Dreadnought.” Short gave only limited verses but enough to indicate that Short’s version was type (a)—the verses have been supplemented from other versions of the same type.

The Andover Museum Loft Singers sang Homeward Bound on their 2012 WildGoose album The Bedmaking. They noted:

Versions of this shanty abound, from Hampshire, Somerset, and elsewhere in Britain and the New World. This one is from David W. Bone’s Capstan Bars (1931).

Mossy Christian sang Homeward Bound on his 2020 CD Come Nobles and Heroes, giving Bob Roberts as his source.

Lyrics

Paul Clayton and the Foc’sle Singers sing Goodbye Fare Thee Well

O I thought I heard the old man say
Good bye, fare thee well, good bye, fare thee well,
O we’re homeward bound this very day
Hurrah, my boys, we’re homeward bound.

Homeward bound, heave up and down,
O heave on the capstan and make it spin round

Our anchor’s aweigh and the gear is made fast
We leave the harbour and go home at last

O heave with a will and you heave loud and strong,
And sing a good chorus for it in a good song

O we’re homeward bound and the wind’s blowing free
And the girls and our wives are waiting for thee

We’re homeward bound and I hear the sound,
We’re homeward bound to old Boston town

Bob Roberts sings Home’ard Bound

We’re home’ard bound across the blue sea,
Good-bye fare-you-well, we wish you well,
We’re home’ard bound to the old counterie,
Good-bye fare-you-well, we’re home’ard bound!

O did you not hear the old man say,
We’re home’ard bound this very day.

So good-bye to Sally and good-bye to Sue,
And you married ladies good-bye to you.

The topsails are loosed and the anchors a-weigh,
She heels to the breeze as the gathers her way.

Louis Killen sings Goodbye Fare Thee Well

O we’re homeward bound to Liverpool town,
Goodbye fare the well, goodbye fare the well,
Well them Liverpool judies they are welcome down,
Hurrah, me boys, we’re homeward bound!

Them gals there on Lime Street we soon hope to meet,
And soon we’ll be a-rolling both sides of the street.

We’ll meet those fly girls and we’ll ring the old bell,
With them judies we’ll meet there we’ll raise bloody hell.

Then I’ll tell me old women when I gets back home,
The gals there on Lime Street won’t leave me alone.

We’re homeward bound, to the gals of the town,
So stamp up, me bullies, and heave it around.

O we’re homeward bound, we’ll have yiz to know,
And over the water to Liverpool we’ll go.

Roy Harris and chorus sing Goodbye, Fare Ye Well

We’re homeward bound to old Liverpool town,
Goodbye, fare ye well, goodbye, fare ye well.
So man the old capstan and breast her around.
Hoorah, me boys, we’re homeward bound.

We’re homeward bound to the gals of the town,
So stamp up, me bullies, and heave her around.

And it’s when we come to the old Salthouse Dock,
Them flash little judies to the Pierhead will flock.

The one to the other you’ll hear ‘em say:
O here comes young John with his twelve month pay.

I’ll tell me old mother when I get home,
Them Liverpool judies won’t leave me alone.

We’re a fine flash packet and bound for to go,
With the gals on the towrope we cannot say No.

O soon we’ll be in old Liverpool town,
Where them sweet little judies go dancin’ around.

O it’s breast them bars now and heave her away.
Spit on your hands and we’ll drive her to sea.

Waterson:Carthy sing Goodbye Fare You Well

Our anchor we’ll weigh and our sails we will set,
Goodbye fare you well, goodbye fare you well,
Our friends we are leaving, we leave with regret,
Hurrah, me boys, we’re homeward bound!

We’re homeward bound, oh joyful sound,
Come ready the capstan and turn quick around.

We’re homeward bound, we have you know,
And over the water to England must go.

We’re homeward bound to Liverpool town,
The boys and the girls to the pier flock down.

O then one to the other you hear them all say,
Here comes I and Jacky with eighteen month’s pay.

So heave with a will and heave long and strong,
And sing a good chorus for it’s a good song.

So, it’s now we come home from the far foreign lands,
Where the bottom’s all fishes and fine yellow sand.

And the fishes all sing as they swim to and fro,
She’s a Liverpool packet, oh Lord, let her go.

So tell my old mother that I get back home,
The girls upon Lime Street won’t leave me alone.

Tim Radford sings Homeward Bound

We’re homeward bound to fair London town,
Goodbye fare thee well, goodbye fare thee well,
We’re homeward bound to fair London town,
Hurrah, me boys, we’re homeward bound!

We’ll heave her up and away we will go,
We’ll heave her up and away we will go.

Our anchors we’ll weigh and our sails we will set
The friends we are leaving we leave with regret.

O heave with a will and heave long and strong
And sing a good chorus for it’s a good song.

We’re homeward bound you’ve heard them say
The walk on the catfall and run her away.

She’s a flash clipper packet and bound for to go
With the girls on the towrope she cannot say no.

We’re homeward bound and the winds they blow fair
And there’s many a true friend to greet us there.