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HOMEWARD BOUND Lead: Richard Chorus: Peter, Dick Holdstock, Denis Franklin, Shay Black

A capstan shanty from the book Chanteying Aboard American Ships. A rare version with double stanzas, this is more commonly known as "Goodbye Fare You Well," one of the most popular homeward-bound shanties. F.P. Harlow, the book's author, says "This chantey is sometimes sung at the windlass, using only the first half, but a good chanteyman can greatly improve the song, which is a rouser with good voices, by singing the double stanza as given above … "

Stan Hugill, in Shanties from the Seven Seas, remarks,

"… the most popular homeward-bound shanty of them all – with, perhaps, the exception of Rolling Home – Goodbye, Fare-ye-well. This was sung at the windlass or capstan when raising the anchor, and I know of four versions common to seamen the world over. The first version I learnt from an A.B. [Able-Bodied seaman] known as 'Archie', ex New Zealand brigantine Aratapu.

1. Usual homeward-bound sentiments
   
2. Verses taken from the old forebitter Homeward Bound
   
3. The 'Milkmaid' (see Blow the Man Down)
   
4. Verses from The Dreadnaught

… the homeward-bound song Goodbye, Fare-ye-well was invariably heard at its best in South American ports like Iquique, where the saltpeter and nitrate traders would lie, often as many as two hundred ships at a time, awaiting or loading their cargoes. When at last a ship was ready to sail crews of the other ships in port would, as Captain F. Shaw relates in his book Splendour of the Seas, board the homeward-bounder to help raise the anchor and swell the song. 'That was when a capstan shanty was really sung … as many as two hundred voices chorusing heartily.' A sight and sound now gone for ever!"

We're going away to leave you now
Chorus: Good-bye, fare you well. Goodbye, fare you well
We're going away to leave you now
Chorus: Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound
Then give me the girl with the bonny brown curl
Chorus: Good-bye, fare you well. Goodbye, fare you well
Your hair of nut brown is the talk of the town
Chorus: Then hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound

We're homeward bound, I heard them say
We're homeward bound with nine month's pay
Our anchor we'll weigh and our sails we will set
The friends we are leaving we leave with regret

Oh, fare you well, we're homeward bound
We'll heave away till our anchor is found
So fare you well, my Rosy Nell
Oh, fare you well, for I wish you well

Oh, Rosy Nell, I'm under your spell
And when far away, I'll wish you well
Your lips cherry red and your hair to your waist
Will long be remembered, though leaving in haste

Then fill up your glasses for those who were kind
And drink to the girls we are leaving behind
So good-bye to Sally and good-bye to Sue
And those who are listening, good-bye to you

We're homeward bound across the sea
We're homeward bound with sugar and tea
We're homeward bound and the wind's blowing fair
There'll be many true friends to greet us there

Then good-bye Surabaya, our anchor's aweigh
We'll sheet home the topsails before it's "Belay!"
We'll brace her up sharp and we'll board our main tack
'Twill be a long time before we get back