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Haul Away
Haul Away for Rosie / Haul Away Joe
[
Roud 809
; Ballad Index Doe004
; DT HAULROSY
; Mudcat 71905
; trad.]
Alasdair Clayre: 100 Folk Songs and New Songs Joanna C. Colcord: Songs of American Sailormen Ralph Dunstan: The Cornish Songbook Stan Hugill: Shanties From the Seven Seas. W.B. Whall: Sea Songs and Shanties
Lead Belly sang Haul Away Joe in a performance recorded by Moses Ash during the 1940s. This was included in 1997 on his Smithsonian Folkways anthology Bourgeois Blues: Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 2, and in 2004 on the anthology Classic Maritime Music From Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Stan Kelly sang Away, Haul Away in 1958 on the Topic EP Liverpool Packet. This track was also included in 1971 on the Topic Sampler No 7, Sea Songs and Shanties, and in 2004 on the anthology Sailors’ Songs & Sea Shanties. Kelly and A.L. Lloyd noted in the original recording:
This was a favourite short-drag shanty, used almost exclusively for hauling aft the foresheet or sweating-up halyards to take in the slack—jobs that called for a short pull but a good ’un. Well-known both to British and American seamen on the Western Ocean run, it is first-cousin to the better-known Haul Away, Joe. The tune carries a whole anthology of verses, some decorous, others not.
Bob Brill and chorus sang Haul Away Joe in 1959 on Paul Clayton and the Foc’sle Singers’ Folkways album Foc’sle Songs and Shanties. Kenneth S. Goldstein noted:
One of the beat known of all short-haul shanties, Haul Away Joe was used mainly to help in sheeting home the foresail. Frederick Pease Harlow gives a fascinating description of its use at sea in his excellent autobiographical commentary on sea-life, The Making of a Sailor:
With the gale blowing strong from the south’ard, we set the reefed foresail and reefed mainsail. While sheeting home the foresail the second mate led the pull when chanteying! He seemed to lave the strength of three men and the watch doubled their efforts to keep up with him …
The men were strung out along the deck, knee-deep in water, where they held the sheet of the sail, and the second mate took his position close up to the sheave and standing on top of the spare spar, one hand free and swinging in the breeze he sang at the top of his voice so as to be heard above the gale by us all …
Few people can understand what it means to sing in such weather. It was absolutely necessary to stretch the foot of the sail, all it would stand, and bring the clew as far down as possible … The second mate, singing at the top of his voice as he neared the end, suddenly turned, grasping the sheet with both hands, while he crouched with bended knees, and on the word “Joe!” straightened out with one mighty pull, with the help of the others, that brought the rope whizzing through the sheave …
Bob Roberts sang Haul Away Joe in a recording made by Peter Kennedy in the 1950s. It was included in 1994 on the Saydisc anthology Sea Songs and Shanties. Another recording made by Tony Engle on the Isle of Wight in August 1977 war released in the following year on Roberts’ Topic album Songs From the Sailing Barges. A.L. Lloyd noted:
[…] As for the work-shanties, Haul Away, Joe, Whiskey Johnny and Leave Her, Johnny, Bob converts them into lyrical social songs for the sake of their choruses.
Ewan MacColl sang Haul Away for Rosie on his and A.L. Lloyd’s Prestige album of 1962, A Sailor’s Garland. A.L. Lloyd noted:
A tack and sheet shanty, sometimes known as Haul Away, Joe. It has many tunes, but none better than this swingy Mixolydian one. Stan Hugill reports that, a generation ago, Liverpool children were using a variant of the disorderly final verses of this shanty as a skipping rhyme. Songs of innocence …
The Wayfarers sang Haul Away Joe in 1970 on their Folk Heritage album Take 2. They noted:
This is a very old hauling shanty. The bowline mentioned in the song was a heavy rope of prime importance in medieval times but as for-n-aft sails were introduced during the fifteenth century the bowline, and in consequence, the shanty were no longer used.
The Clancy Brothers with Louis Killen sang Haul Away Joe in 1973 on their album Greatest Hits, and Louis Killen sang Haul Away for Rosie in 1995 on his CD Sailors, Ships & Chanteys. He noted:
A halyard chantey similar to Haul Away Joe, the tack and foresheet chantey given in Hugill’s Shanties From the Seven Seas. The verses of the two songs are often interchanged.
Bernard Wrigley sang Haul Away for Rosie in 1974 on the Topic album Sea Shanties.
Frostwater sang Haul Away in 1978 on the Hudson River Sloop Restoration album, Clearwater II.
Graham Shaw sang Haul Away Joe and Sally Brown in 1978 on his Traditional Sound album I Am the Minstrel. He noted:
I have always enjoyed singing shanties simply because it’s great to hear people having a good time. Dorothy Elliott taught me Haul Away Joe over the phone and Sally Brown I heard in a folk club somewhere long before I ever sang in one myself.
Dave Burland sang Haul Away for Rosie in 1979 on his Rubber Records album You Can’t Fool the Fat Man. He noted:
Haul Away for Rosie was given to me by Messrs. Garside and Gough, well known shoe shop proprietors.
Danny Spooner sang Haul Away for Rosie on his 1988 album We’ll Either Bend or Break ’Er.
John Spiers and Jon Boden recorded the shanty iHaul Away, flanked by the tunes Jiggery Pokerwork and Seven Stars in 2003 for their Fellside duo album Bellow. They noted:
John wrote Jiggery Pokerwork as a tribute to the melodeon he started on. Haul Away is a version of the ubiquitous shanty favoured by the aforementioned Forest School Camps. The Seven Stars was learnt by John while playing for the Rogue Morris side in Oxford.
Spiers & Boden returned to Haul Away in 2011 on their 10th anniversary album The Works. Tn the meantime, this was also included in their big band Bellowhead’s live set and it can be found on both of their live DVDs, Live at Shepherds Bush Empire (2009) and Hedonism Live (2011), on the DVD of the Cambridge Folk Festival 2011, and on their 2016 CD and DVD from their 2015 Farewell Tour. A one-off broadcast performance on 5 December 2020 was released in the following year on their Hudson album Reassembled.
Mark Anthony Thompson sang Haul Away Joe in 2006 on the anthology of pirate ballads, sea songs and chanteys, Rogue’s Gallery.
Sam Lee sang Haul Away Joe in 2012 on the WildGoose project album Short Sharp Shanties Vol. 3: Sea Songs of a Watchet Sailor.
The Salts sang Haul Away for Rosie on their 2018 album Brave.
Elle Osborne sang her own song This Ship Is on a List, which uses the chorus from Haul Away, on her 2015 album It’s Not Your Gold Shall Me Entice.
Keith Kendrick and Sylvia Needham sang Black Cloud in 2026 on WildGoose’s album of songs by Roger Watson, All in Due Curse. Roger Watson noted:
An anti-war song built on the shanty Haul Away, Joe and using some lines from older versions of that song. Originally made in the 1990s during the Kosovo conflict, verses have been added in the light of more recent events. I invite you to add your own…
Lyrics
Stan Kelly sing Away, Haul Away
Talk about your harbour girls around the corner, Sally
Away, haul away, haul away my Rosie
Away, haul away, haul away my Johnnie-o
But they wouldn’t go to tea with the girls from Booble Alley
Away, haul away, haul away my Rosie
Away, haul away, haul away my Johnnie-o
King Louis was the king of France before the revolution
But the people cut his head off and it spoiled his constitution
Well now I’m leaving Liverpool bound for the Bay of Mexico
I thought I heard the Old Man say it’s time for us to roll and go
Bob Brill and chorus song Haul Away Joe
Oh when I was a little boy my mother often told me
Way, haul away,
We’ll haul away Joe.
That if I did not kiss the girl my lips vould all grow mouldy,
Way, haul away,
We’ll haul away Joe.
St. Patrick was a gentleman, he come of decent people,
He built a church in Dublin town and on it put a steeple.
O Louis was the King of France before the revolution,
But then he got his head cut off, which spoiled his constitution.
Way, haul away, we’ll heave and haul together,
Way, haul away, we’ll haul for better weather.
Danny Spooner sings Haul Away for Rosie
Ya can talk about yer Bootle gals like up in a corner, Sally,
Away haul away, we’ll haul away for rosie,
Away haul away, we’ll haul away for Rosie Oh.
But there’s none that shove the jug like the gals from Dog-leg Alley,
Away haul away, we’ll haul away for Rosie,
Away haul away, we’ll haul away for Rosie Oh.
Once I had an Irish gal, her name was Kitty Flanagan,
She stole me boots, she stole me watch, she stole me pot and pannikin.
Then I had a Le Harvard gal and she was little and saucey,
Then I had a Mulatto gal and she was fat and lazy.
Once in me life I married a wife and damn her, she was lazy,
She wouldn’t work, she wouldn’t wash, she bloody near drove me crazy.
Went out one night and oh what a sight and where do ye think I found her,
Behind the pub wi’ her sheets pulled up and twenty men around her.
Reach up me lads, sit on yer arse and split her fanning cocks now,
Reach up me lads, sit on yer arse, I think we’ve hauled enough now.
Bellowhead sing Haul Away
When I was a little lad or so my mother told me
Away, haul away, we’ll haul away for Rosie
Away, haul away, we’ll haul away for Johnnie-o
That if I didn’t kiss the girls my lips would grow all mouldy
Away, haul away, we’ll haul away for Rosie
Away, haul away, we’ll haul away for Johnnie-o
King Louis was the king of France before the revolution
And then he had his head cut off which spoiled his constitution