The Ryans and the Pittmans - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

"The Ryans and The Pittmans" is a popular Newfoundland

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...

folk song. It tells of the romantic entanglements of a sailor named Bob Pittman, and his desire to sail home to finally marry his "sweet Biddy". The song is also known as "We'll Rant and We'll Roar", after the first line of the chorus; however, this is also the name by which some foreign variants are known; see below.

It is based on a traditional English capstan

Capstan

Capstan may refer to:*Capstan , a rotating machine used to control or apply force to another element*Capstan , rotating spindles used to move recording tape through the mechanism of a tape recorder...

shanty

Shanty

Shanty may refer to:* Ice shanty, a portable shed placed on a frozen lake* Sea shanty, shipboard working songs* Shanty Hogan , Major League Baseball catcher* Shanty town, unit of irregular, low-cost dwellings...

, "Spanish Ladies

Spanish Ladies

Spanish Ladies is a traditional English naval song, describing a voyage from Spain to the Downs from the viewpoint of ratings of the British Royal Navy.- Origins :...

", which describes headlands sighted on a sailor's homeward voyage through the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

. "Spanish Ladies" has a number of variants: New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

whalers

Whalers

Whalers may refer to:* Danbury Whalers,US ice-hockey team in the Federal Hockey League* Eden Whalers, Australian Rules Football team* Hartford Whalers, former US ice-hockey team* New Bedford Whalers, name of three US soccer teams...

sang of "Yankee Whalermen", while their Pacific counterparts sang of Talcuhano Girls. A more landlocked drover's

Drover (Australian)

A drover in Australia is a person, typically an experienced stockman, who moves livestock, usually sheep or cattle, "on the hoof" over long distances. Reasons for droving may include: delivering animals to a new owner's property, taking animals to market, or moving animals during a drought in...

version surfaced in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

as "Brisbane Ladies

Brisbane Ladies

Brisbane Ladies is an Australian folksong and is one of many adaptations of Spanish Ladies. The version given below is the most commonly sung, but the original mentions Nanango favorably as "that jolly old township".-History:...

".

Verses 2, 8, 9, and 10 of the Newfoundland version are adapted from that of the whalers; the remainder were composed around 1875 by W.H. LeMessurier. It was printed in Old Songs of Newfoundland (1912) by James Murphy

James Murphy

James Murphy may refer to:Literature, film, art* James Vincent Murphy , translated Hitler's Mein Kampf into English* Jimmy Murphy , actor who appeared as a member of The Bowery Boys in the 1950s...

. The places mentioned in the song are outports in and around Placentia Bay

Placentia Bay

Placentia Bay is a body of water on the southeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It is formed by Burin Peninsula on the west and Avalon Peninsula on the east. Fishing grounds in the bay were used by native people long before the first European fishermen arrived in the 16th century. For a time, the...

, Newfoundland.

The most famous recent version of the song was recorded by Great Big Sea

Great Big Sea

Great Big Sea is a Canadian folk-rock band from Newfoundland and Labrador, best known for performing energetic rock interpretations of traditional Newfoundland folk songs including sea shanties, which draw from the island's 500-year-old Irish, English, and French heritage...

Lyrics

THE RYANS AND THE PITTMANS

Chorus:

We'll rant and we'll roar like true Newfoundlanders

We'll rant and we'll roar on deck and below

Until we see bottom inside the two sunkers

When straight through the Channel to Toslow
Toslow, Newfoundland and Labrador
Toslow is a resettled fishing community in Placentia Bay on the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The village was located in a natural harbour called Presque Harbour...

we'll go.

My name it is Robert, they call me Bob Pittman

I sail in the Ino with Skipper Tom Brown

I'm bound to have Polly or Biddy or Molly

As soon as I'm able to plank the cash down.

I'm a son of a sea cook, and a cook in a trader

I can dance, I can sing, I can reef the mainboom

I can handle a jigger, and cuts a fine figure

Whenever I gets in a boat's standing room.

If the voyage is good, this fall I will do it

I wants two pounds ten for a ring and the priest

A couple of dollars for clean shirts and collars

And a handful of coppers to make up a feast.

There's plump little Polly, her name is Goldsworthy

There's John Coady's Kitty and Mary Tibbo

There's Clara from Brule and young Martha Foley

But the nicest of all is me girl from Toslow.

Farewell and adieu to ye girls of Valen

Farewell and adieu to ye girls in the Cove

I'm bound to the westward, to the wall with the hole in

I'll take her from Toslow the wide world to rove.

Farewell and adieu to ye girls of St. Kyran's

Of Paradise

Paradise, Newfoundland and Labrador

Paradise is a town on the Avalon Peninsula in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The town is a part of the St. John's Metropolitan Area. The town borders the City of St. John's, the City of Mount Pearl, the Town of Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, and the town of Conception Bay South...

and Presque

Presque, Newfoundland and Labrador

Presque is a settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador....

, Big and Little Bona

I'm bound unto Toslow to marry sweet Biddy

And if I don't do so I'm afraid of her da'.

I've bought me a house from Katherine Davis

A twenty pound bed from Jimmy McGrath

I'll get me a settle, a pot and a kettle

And then I'll be ready for Biddy, hurrah!

O, I brought in the Ino this spring from the city,

Some rings and gold brooches for the girls in the Bay

Placentia Bay

;

I bought me a case-pipe —- they call it a meerschaum

Meerschaum

Meerschaum , also sepiolite, is a soft white mineral sometimes found floating on the Black Sea, and rather suggestive of sea-foam, whence the German origin of the name, as well as the French name for the same substance, écume de mer.-Overview:...

—-

It melted like butter upon a hot day.

I went to a dance one night at Fox Harbour

Fox Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador

Fox Harbour is a small community on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. According to Statistics Canada in 2001, the population is 334. It is surrounded by hills. It is located close to Argentia, the site of the Naval Station Argentia...

There were plenty of girls, so nice as you'd wish;

There was one pretty maiden a-chewin' of frankgum

Just like a young kitten a-gnawing fresh fish.

Then here is a health to the girls of Fox Harbour

Of Oderin and Presque, Crabbes Hole and Brule

Now let ye be jolly, don't be melancholy

I can't marry all or in chokey I'd be.

We'll rant and we'll roar like true Newfoundlanders

We'll rant and we'll roar on deck and below

Until we see bottom inside the two sunkers

When straight through the Channel to Toslow we'll go.

Lyrics

See also