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DOWN TRINIDAD Lead: Peter

A cargo-loading chantey from Barbados. The song is in the James Madison Carpenter collection, held at the Smithsonian Institution's Archive Of American Folk Culture. Carpenter collected it in 1928 from Richard Warner of Cardiff, Wales, who in turn heard it sung aboard ship in the 1870's. The lyrics were kindly supplied to me by Robert Walser, who recorded it on his fine CD of rare songs, When Our Ship Comes Home.

LYRICS:

Oh tell me, master stevedore, how you stow your cargo?
Chorus: Way, hey, sing Sunny Dore!
Tell me, master stevedore, how do you stow your cargo?
Chorus: Bound down Trinidad, to look for Sunny Dore

Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway
Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway

Trinidad! Oh Trinidad! The lovely little harbor!
What will you do with Sunny Dore if ever you should find her?

Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway
Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway

Roll her in the grass, me boys, and all amongst the clover
Roll her in the grass, me boys, and all amongst the clover

Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway
Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway

Oh say, Mr. Barber, how you shave your customers?
Take 'em by their noses, and scrape them on their chinsieos!

Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway
Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway

Now stretch her luff, she's high enough, the end is just in sight boys
Hoist her high an' hoist her dry, come rock and roll me over

Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway
Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway

The ship's all right, the crew is tight, the ol' man's all in clover
The ship's all right, the crew is tight, the ol' man's all in clover

Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway
Booch free, me bully boys, and burtoned in the archway