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BOUND TO AUSTRALIA

Another song from Stan Hugill's book Shanties from the Seven Seas. I changed the first line of the song from "I'm leaving Old England.." to "I'm leaving Old Ireland..." because I felt that the chorus words had an Irish feel to them, especially the "Sure I'm a man..." in the last line of the chorus. I tend not to sing in dialect so I'm not singing exactly what is in Hugill's book. I also left out the last two verses.

Of course there's the well-known song Jock Stewart that contains the same chorus. Click on the following link to see the lyrics as posted in the Digital Tradition database, part of the Mudcat Café website:

Jock Stewart

Jock Stewart is there described as "an Irish narrative ballad that has been shortened to an Aberdeenshire drinking song." There are a few threads at Mudcat website about this. Click on the following three links to view three separate threads:

Thread # 1     Thread # 2     Thread # 3.

These threads (discussions) are mostly about the Jock Stewart / I'm A Man You Don't Meet Every Day songs that don't have nautical verses. Bound to Australia also uses a different melody, a variant of Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms.

Here's what Hugill has to say about Bound to Australia:

An old song known to most Irish and Liverpool-Irish seamen was Bound to Australia, sung to the air I'm a man ye don't meet every day - a variant of Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms. It was not a true forebitter perhaps, although it was sung in the dog-watches in the old sailing ships; but I never heard that it was used as a capstan shanty until I read in Doerflinger's Shantymen and Shantyboys that according to Captain P. Tayleur it was often sung by seamen in the Australian Emigrant Trade as the 'hove in their mooring lines' and 'brought the anchor to the hawse-pipe'. Captain Tayleur calls his song The First of the Emigrants and in the main it is the same as mine, which I had from old Paddy Griffiths. Gold was found in Australia in 1851 and from that time onwards for the rest of the century sailing ships packed to the scuppers with emigrants and gold-seekers headed for the 'Colonies'. No doubt it lent itself to being a fine capstan song.

LYRICS:

BOUND TO AUSTRALIA

I'm leaving old Ireland, the land that I love
And I'm bound far across the sea
Oh, I'm bound for Australia, the land of the free
Where there'll be a welcome for me

Chorus:
So fill up yer glasses an' drink what ye please
For whatever the damage I'll pay
So be aisy an' free, whilst yer drinkin' wid me
Sure I'm a man you don't meet every day!

When I board me ship for the south'ard to go She'll be lookin' so trim an' so fine And I'll land me aboard, with me bags and me stores From the dockside they'll cast off each line To Land's End we'll tow, with our boys all so tight Wave a hearty goodbye to the shore And we'll drink the last drop to our country's green land And the next day we'll curse our sore heads We'll then drop the tug, and sheet tops'ls home taut And the hands will crowd sail upon sail With a sou'wester strong, boys, we'll just tack along By the morn many jibs will turn pale We'll beat past the Ushant and then down the Bay Where the west wind it blows fine an' strong We'll soon get the Trades and we should make good time To the south'ard then we'll roll along

Round the Cape we will roll, take our flyin' kites in
For the Forties will sure roar their best
And then run our Eastin' with yards all set square
With the wind roaring out of the west

We'll then pass Cape Looin all shipshape and trim
Then head up for Adelaide Port
Off Semaphore roads we will there drop our hook
And ashore, boys, we'll head for some sport

When I've worked in Australia for twenty long years
One day will I head homeward bound
With a nice little fortune tucked under me wing
By a steamship I'll travel I'm bound

So 'tis goodbye to Sally and goodbye to Sue
When I'm leavin' Australia so free
Where the gals are so kind, but the one left behind
Is the one that will one day splice me