High Barbaree / Barbaree

[ Roud 134 ; Master title: High Barbaree ; Laws K33 ; G/D 1:38 ; Ballad Index C285 ; MusTrad MT332 ; trad.]

High Barbary was the romantic name of the Rif Coast of North Africa. It was the home of the Barbary pirates or Barbary corsairs who preyed on European shipping to capture Christian slaves from the 16^th century up to 1830.

Bob Robert sang High Barbaree in a BBC archive recording made by Peter Kennedy that can be found on the 1955 anthology Folk Song Today. and on the 1994 compilation CD Sea Songs and Shanties. A later recording made in Bob Roberts’ cottage on the Isle of Wight was published in 1981 on his Solent album Breeze for a Bargeman. The CD notes commented:

This classic story of pirate encounter was published by Ashton in 1891, though it is likely to have been extant before then, and has also been found in versions on the Eastern seaboard of the United States.

Isla Cameron sang High Barbaree in 1959 on the anthology The Jupiter Book of Ballads.

Peter Bellamy recorded Barbaree in 1979 for his Topic LP Both Sides Then. He accompanied himself on concertina and Dave Swarbrick played fiddle. According to the sleeve notes, this version is

A hybrid of Bob Robert’s East Anglian version and a Carolina variant collected by the late Frank Warner.

Brian Peters and Gordon Tyrrall sang High Barbary, “found in a book of American sailors’ songs published in the 1920s”, in 2000 on their CD The Moving Moon.

The New Scorpion Band sang High Barbaree in 2004 on their CD Out on the Ocean. They noted:

Our version is taken from the Burl Ives songbook, but the suggestion there that the song was written by Charles Dibdin is incorrect, and instead the various versions derive from an old ballad The Sailor s Onely Delight: showing the Brave Fight between the George Aloe and the Sweepstake and certaine Frenchmen on the Sea [Roud 6739; Child 285]. The song was sung at sea as a forebitter and as a capstan shanty.

Joseph Arthur sang Coast of High Barbary in 2006 on the theme album Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys.

Jon Boden sang High Barbaree with his brother Tom as a bonus track of the 16 September 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Maclaine Colston and Saul Rose sang Barbaree on their 2009 CD Sand & Soil. They noted:

We were ahead of things back when we recorded this American shanty; a line of.this song has since been sung by Captain Jack Sparrow in one ofthe ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films. Anyway, High Barbaree was originally written in England to the tune of The George Aloe & The Sweepstake. This dates to at least 14 January 1595, when Soldier’s Joy was noted in the Stationers’ Register to be sung to the same melody. Other sources date it to 1590. We have our own tune for this song, once again written and sung by Mark Colgan. The words refer to the notorious pirates of the Barbary Coast who plagued merchant ships.

Paul Davenport sang Captain Bart in 2011 on his and Liz Davenport’s Hallamshire Traditions CD Spring Tide Rising. They noted:

High Barbaree is a song that many learned at school. It tells the tale of two English ships that fight with a single pirate ship and, unsurprisingly, win the battle. This song is from French Flanders and tells the same tale from the pirate’s point of view. For that reason we’ve appended the Child number above. Jan Pieter Bart was the last of a dynasty of pirates who operated out of Dunkirk. In 1759 Bart, in his ship “Danae” attempted to slip through the Channel and thence to the Atlantic. What happened next is the subject to this song. Despite great bravery by Bart’s teenage son the pirates were all killed.

Chris Sarjeant learned Coast of Barbary from Peter Bellamy’s album and sang it in 2012 on his CD Heirlooms.

Whapweasel sang High Barbaree on their 2012 album Festivalis. They noted:

High Barbaree has been collected from many locations (Florida and Bermuda to East Anglia) over many years (Sharp to Lomax and Kennedy). This version was introduced to the band by Mike [Coleman] and we’ve taken it back to its West Indian origins. The tune is from Saul [Rose].

Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne sang New Barbary on his 2021 album Rakes & Misfits. He noted:

I’ve been playing around with this song for almost as long as I’ve been singing folk songs. I first learnt High Barbary from the Blackbeard’s Tea Party EP Heavens to Betsy in 2009, many years before I began singing in public. A few years later I learnt Barbaree from Peter Bellamy’s 1979 LP Both Sides Then, but I couldn’t come close to the work of the master.

I came across this variant, collected by George Brown from Willman J. Delano of Vermont in 1930, during a browsing session of B.H. Bronson’s Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads in 2016. I almost included this song on my 2017 album Outway Songster, but it didn’t quite make the cut and fell by the wayside again. I returned to it in 2019 and this is the arrangement that resulted—nearly 10 years in the making, has it been worth it? I’ll let you be the judge!

The Exmouth Shanty Man sang High Barbary in 2022 on their WildGoose album Tall Ships and Tavern Tales. They noted:

This shanty is based on a much earlier 16^th century song, which told the fate of two merchant ships, the George Aloe and the Sweepstake. Very few shanties, being largely a product of the 19^th century, make reference to the much earlier age of piracy.

David Carroll sang High Barbaree in 2023 on his Talking Elephant CD Bold Reynold. He noted:

Versions of this popular song sung both as a ballad and a capstan shanty date back as far as 1595, although the version here is thought to hail from the 19^th century. They tell of the conflicts between both European and American ships and pirates of North Africa’s Barbary Coast.

Lyrics

Bob Roberts sings High Barbaree

There were two lofty ships that from old England came,
Blow high, blow low, and so a-sailed we.
One was the Prince o’ Luther and the other Prince o’ Wales,
Sailing down along the coast of High Barbaree.

“Aloft there, aloft,” our jolly bosun cried,
Blow high, blow low, and so a-sailed we.
“Look ahead and look astern, a-weather and a-loo,
Look down along the coast of High Barbaree.”

“Oh there’s naught upon the stern and there’s naught upon the lee,”
Blow high, blow low, and so a-sailed we.
“But there’s a lofty ship to wind’ard and she’s sailing fast and free,
Sailing down along the coast of High Barbaree.”

“Oh hail ’er, oh hail ’er,” our gallant captain cried,
Blow high, blow low, and so a-sailed we.
“Are you a man-o’-war or a privateer,” says ’e,
Sailing down along the coast of High Barbaree.

“Oh I’m not a man-of-war, nor a privateer,” says ’e,
Blow high, blow low, and so a-sailed we.
“But I’m a salt-sea pirate, a-looking for my fee
Looking down along the coast of High Barbaree.”

So ’twas broadside and broadside, as hour on hour we lay,
Blow high, blow low, and so a-sailed we.
Until the Prince o’ Luther shot the pirate’s mast away,
Sailing down along the coast of High Barbaree.”

“Oh quarter! Oh quarter!” the pirate then did cry,
Blow high, blow low, and so a-sailed we.
The quarter that we gave them, we sunk ’em in the sea,
Sailing down along the coast of High Barbaree.”

And oh, it was a cruel sight and grieved us full sore,
Blow high, blow low, and so a-sailed we.
To see ’em all a-drowning as they tried to swim ashore,
Sailing down along the coast of High Barbaree.”

Peter Bellamy sings Barbaree

Now there was two jolly ships from out of England came,
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we.
One she was the Queen of Russia and the other Prince of Wales,
Cruising down along the coast of Barbaree.

“Step aloft, step aloft,” then our jolly bosun cried,
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we.
“Look ahead and look astern, look aweather, look alee,
And look down along the coast of Barbaree.”

“Well, there is no ship astern and there is no ship alee,”
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we.
“But there’s a lofty ship to wind’ard, she’s a-sailing fast and free,
She’s a-sailing down along the coast of Barbaree.”

“Oh hail ’er! Oh, hail ’er!” then our jolly captain cried,
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we.
“Oh, youse a man-o’-war or a privateer,” says he,
“A-cruising down along the coast of Barbaree?”

“I’m not no man-of-war, nor a privateer,” says he,
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we.
But I’m a salt-sea pirate, I’m a-seeking for me fee,
“I’m a-seeking down along the coast of Barbaree!”

So broadside to broadside, a long hour we lay,
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we.
Till at length the Queen of Russia blew the pirate’s mast away,
Cruising down along the coast of Barbaree.

And “For quarters! For quarters!” the jolly pirate cried,
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we.
“Oh, the quarter I will give you, I will sink you in the tide,
I will sink you down along the coast of Barbaree.”

So we tied them up by twos and we tied them up by threes,
Blow high, blow low, and so sail we.
Yes, we tied them up by dozens and we chucked them in the sea,
Yes, we drowned them down along the coast of Barbaree.