Chantey singers eased work pulling up nets

by Larry Chowning – 

When the late John Frye wrote the history of the Chesapeake Bay’s menhaden fishery in 1978 there were still a good many fishermen around who could recall why he named his book “The Men All Singing.”

For generations, fishermen pulled nets by hand and as a way to lighten the load they sang in cadence to coordinate their efforts and to get all the strength they could into a haul. Prior to 1953 when Mario Puratic invented the power block, a device used to hydraulically haul nets, 22 large, strong-armed men hauled nets full of menhaden to the surface, while working from two purse boats.

Frye wrote, “At first the net came up yard by yard. The men’s fingers clawed into the mesh. Their shoulders and back muscles flexed. The men leaned back, their feet at first solid against the white oak ribs of the purse boat, then somehow finding footing amid the folds of the net.

Man, when we fished up near Atlantic City and coming in, the men all singing, and those yachts came out just to hear them . . . — Sherman Curry

“With a heavy set it soon came to a point where muscle was not enough. Then the captain called out, as Ira Swift of the Smiths’ E. Warren Edwards (menhaden steamer) did to Charles E. Williams of Reedville, many a time.  ‘Charles start up a chantey!’

“Charles sang out and the men joined with a pull and a heave to gain a foot or so. Another verse, another foot. Each pull, they’d sing. Their voices like their muscles were attuned to everybody else’s.

“The verses came out of the chanteyman’s store of couplets built up over his years of fishing and hearing chanteymen before him. Within this store was room for variation — addition of a word, half-line, a line, either about the immediate situation or some recent event or a particular person. This store, with the chanteyman’s own flexibility and invention, was so important that a good chanteyman was a prize,”  Frye wrote.

Northern Neck Chantey Singers

In 1994, the Northern Neck Chantey Singers was formed when several of the old fishermen were asked to perform in a parade in White Stone. The group reached such success that they went on tour traveling up and down the East Coast and to the towns and cities in the mid-west.

Time and tide, however, have taken a toll on the group. “There are only four of us left,” said Lloyd Hill of White Stone and secretary for the group. “We regularly performed up until about two years ago. We slowed down after we had lost several members to death and then COVID-19 hit and that took another year from us.”

The members still living are Hill, Dr. Elton Smith of Shacklefords, Lewis Blackwell of Reedville and Liston Frazier of White Stone. “You have got to remember that you have got to be old now to remember the chanteys,” said Hill. “I’m in my 80s and everyone else is pushing 90 years old and they are not making any more of us.”

The deceased members are Bill Muse of Reedville, James Carter of Reedville, Calvin Hill of White Stone, Joe Wood Jr. of White Stone, Clarence Tiggle of White Stone, Edward Chewning of Weems, Charlie Winston of Weems, Chris Harvey of Reedville and Edward Taylor of Reedville.

“I tell you we had a wonderful time performing and people loved to hear us,” said Hill. The group performed at the Richmond National Folk Life Festival, Chicago Maritime Festival, Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, Delaware Watermen’s Museum, Maine Folk Life Festival and many other locations, said Hill.

Dr. Smith was the lead chanteyman and with his deep voice would start the performance. At each performance he explained that chanteys of Black Americans were sung when doing hard labor, in the fields and pulling nets. 

“We weren’t singing because we were happy,” said Dr. Smith. “We sang because it made the job go easier. Chantey singers sung on the water away from everyone and some of the songs could get quite colorful.”

The group’s theme song is  “Help me to raise them (nets) boys.”

“Won’t you help me to raise them boys,” sang Dr. Smith and then all in unison they sang, “Ha ha honey!” Then they all started talking together, “Come on boys let’s pull that net together.”

“Won’t you help me raise them boys” and the rest joined in “see you when the sun goes down.”

“All the weight is on the Captain’s Boat,” sang Dr. Smith and the rest sang “Ha, ha honey.”

He repeated  “All the weight is on the Captain’s boat and then they all sang “See you when the sun goes down.”

“All the weight is on the mate’s boat, ha, ha honey.

“All the weight is on the mate’s boat, see you when the sun goes down.”

Hill said that the four members of the Northern Neck Chantey Singers will perform again if invited and the location is close-by. “We have gotten too old to go on tour again,” said Hill. “But if someone called right here in the area we would come.”

For information on the Northern Neck Chantey Singers call Lloyd Hill at 577-3356.