Gilbert & Sullivan’s “HMS Pinafore” premieres (1878)
By the spring of 1877, the English light-opera team of W.S. Gilbert and Richard Sullivan had established a strong reputation based on several well-received earlier works, but they had yet to have a true smash hit. That would change on May 25, 1878, when Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore premiered at the Opéra-Comique in London, beginning a near-record run of 571 performances in its original production. Gilbert and Sullivan began work on HMS Pinafore in early 1878 on the heels of a moderately successful operetta called The Sorcerer. Pinafore would be their fourth professional collaboration after being brought together by the impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte, who built a theater and created his own opera company to stage their works. The story of Pinafore concerns a blowhard First Lord of the Admiralty who is thwarted in his attempt to woo and marry the beautiful young daughter of a British Navy ship’s captain due to her love for a lowly enlisted sailor. In typical Gilbert and Sullivan fashion, the plot reveals that the lowly sailor was, in fact, switched at birth with the ship’s captain, and is therefore of sufficient social standing to wed the no-longer-a-captain’s daughter. It was not just the topsy-turvy plot of Pinafore, but also its memorable score of satirical and sentimental songs— including “We sail the ocean blue,” “Now give three cheers,” “When I was a lad,” “He is an Englishman”—that made it so instantly popular with audiences. Read the complete article on History.com.
Albert Lancaster Lloyd, aka A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd dies (29 Sept 1982)
Albert Lancaster Lloyd, usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the British folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. Wikipedia Born: February 29, 1908, London, United Kingdom Died: September 29, 1982, Greenwich, United Kingdom
Albert Lancaster Lloyd, aka A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd dies
Albert Lancaster Lloyd, usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the British folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. Wikipedia Born: February 29, 1908, London, United Kingdom Died: September 29, 1982, Greenwich, United Kingdom
23 Sept 1991 Peter Bellamy Dies
Peter Franklyn Bellamy (8 September 1944 – 24 September 1991) was an English folk singer. He was a founding member of The Young Tradition and also had a long solo career, recording numerous albums and touring folk clubs and concert halls. He is noted for his ballad-opera The Transports, and has been acknowledged as a major influence by performers of later generations including Damien Barber, Oli Steadman, and Jon Boden. Bellamy died by suicide on 24 September 1991 in Keighley, an event that baffled many in the folk music community. At the time, he was working with Fellside Records on a project to record major British unaccompanied singing talents. However, according to a thread called ‘Boring, Bleating Old Traddy’ on the online Mudcat Café folk music forum, several of his friends had found him depressed at the way his folk club bookings had unaccountably fallen away after the respect with which The Transports had been received. Read the complete Wikipedia biography here.
Construction on the Erie Canal begins 4 July 1817
On July 4, 1817, workers break ground on the Erie Canal at Rome, New York. The canal, completed in 1825, links the eastern seaboard with the Midwest and transforms New York into a major economic and cultural hub. Read the complete article on History.com. See Bounding Main sing “Low Bridge“
Ed Trickett Dies on May 10, 2022
Ed was a well-loved musician in the folk music community. He appeared on over 40 recordings, most of them with Folk Legacy Records, now part of the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. His discography includes 4 solo records, 11 as a trio with Gordon Bok and Ann Mayo Muir, and countless recordings with other artists. Despite persistent pressure early in his academic career to give up music and focus exclusively on psychology, he remained steadfast in his commitment to doing what he loved on his own terms. Musicians in the folk community cite his influence as an interpreter of songs who always put the song first, filling in harmonies without becoming the centerpiece. [From his biography.]
Henry Hudson Set Adrift by Mutineers (1611)
After spending a winter trapped by ice in present-day Hudson Bay, the starving crew of the Discovery mutinies against its captain, English navigator Henry Hudson, and sets him, his teenage son, and seven supporters adrift in a small, open boat. Hudson and the eight others were never seen again. Read the complete article on History.com. The prolific, maritime-folk singing duo Nanne & Ankie performed a traveling, musical presentation about the life and work of Henry Hudson, based on the music written by Nanne Kalma. They produced a CD called Henry Hudson & De Halve Maen (the Half Moon). Separately, with the group Kat yn’t Seil, they performed the beautifully haunting melody, De Halve Maen. Here they are performing the song at the 2003 Chicago Maritime Festival.
Herzogin Cecile grounds on Ham Stone Rock (1935)
With Sven Erikson as her captain and Elis Karlsson her first mate, the ship left Port Lincoln in South Australia on 21 January 1935, with a cargo of wheat, and after taking a more southerly route than usual, reached Falmouth for orders on 18 May, making her passage of 86 days the second fastest ever. Herzogin Cecile was making for Ipswich in dense fog, when, on 25 April 1936, she grounded on Ham Stone Rock and drifted onto the cliffs of Bolt Head on the south Devon coast. After parts of the cargo were unloaded, she was floated again, only to be towed in June 1936 to Starhole (Starehole) Bay at the mouth of the nearby Kingsbridge Estuary near Salcombe, and beached there. On 18 January 1939, the ship capsized and sank. The remains of the ship sit at a depth of 7 meters at 50°12.82′N 3°47.02′W. Read the complete article on Wikipedia. Here is a related article from Devon Live. From The Mudcat Café: “Ken Stephens wrote this song not knowing that the Herzogin Cecile (Duchess Cecile was one of the Kaiser’s nieces) was a four-masted bark. He wrote the chorus ‘She’s the mighty full rigged ship – the Herzogin Cecile‘. Stan Hugill interrupted Geoff Kaufman onstage with, ‘That were no full rigged ship. That were a four-masted bark!’” There is a running conversation about the thing upon which the ship ran upon. From the Mudcat Café we read “She’s run upon the Bobtail.” William Pint and Felicia Dale sing, “She’s run upon the Bolt Head.” Tom Lewis advised, “it is the ‘Boat Tail’.” deal: n., a plank of softwood (fir or pine board)
Sir Francis Drake claims California for England
During his circumnavigation of the world, English seaman Francis Drake anchors in a harbor just north of present-day San Francisco, California, and claims the territory for Queen Elizabeth I. Calling the land “Nova Albion,” Drake remained on the California coast for a month to make repairs to his ship, the Golden Hind, and prepare for his westward crossing of the Pacific Ocean. Read the complete article on History.com. Bounding Main musician Dean Calin wrote Call of the Sea based on Drake’s global circumnavigation voyage of 1577.
Sir Richard Runciman Terry Dies (1938)
Richard Terry was born in 1864 in Ellington, Northumberland. At the age of 11 he started playing the organ at the local church. Educated at various schools in South Shields, St Albans and London. In 1881 Terry was living in Jarrow and working as a Pupil Teacher. Terry then spent seventeen months as a non-collegiate person at Oxford (October 1887 to May 1889) and two years at Cambridge (1888–90), where he went as a non-collegiate student but became a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. There he also became a music critic for The Cambridge Review. At Cambridge, he was much influenced by the Professor of Music, Charles Villiers Stanford and the King’s Chapel organist Arthur Henry Mann who taught him the techniques of choral singing and the training of boys’ voices. In 1921, in an obvious departure from his church music, he edited the Curwen edition of ‘The Shanty Book (Part 1)’. The foreword was written by Sir Walter Runciman, acknowledging that the time of the shanty was over, along with sail-powered merchant ships. Terry’s ‘Introduction’ gives an excellent insight into the shanty as the sailor’s work song, deferring to the well-known shanty collection by Capt. W.B Whall ‘Sea Songs, Ships and Shanties’ (1910 & 1912), above other accounts written between 1887 and 1920. The collection of 30 shanties also includes explanations for their use at sea, and his extensive comments give us a deal of valuable information about a particular aspect of social and maritime history. Read the complete story on Wikipedia.
Don Sineti Dies 1/5/2023
Don Sineti , folksinger, songwriter, part-time sea chanteyman at historic Mystic Seaport Museum (with one of the most powerful voices on the Eastern Seaboard!), and long-neck, 5-string banjo picker, is also an award-winning marine mammal illustrator with a number of prestigious exhibitions and books to his credit. For over twenty years, he has combined his exhaustive knowledge of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) with his boundless energy, to deliver rousing renditions of songs from the days of wooden ships and iron men, alongside his own compositions dedicated to saving whales and the degraded marine environment. With a booming voice and a hearty laugh, he shares his music, his art, and his unrestrained love for the whale with audiences of all ages. Don Sineti passed away on 5 Jan 2023 after an extended illness. Memories of his larger-than-life presence is being honored by the entire maritime music community. His Hartford Courant obituary can be read here.
Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe (1580)
English seaman Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to sail the earth. On December 13, 1577, Drake set out from England with five ships on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World. After crossing the Atlantic, Drake abandoned two of his ships in South America and then sailed into the Straits of Magellan with the remaining three. A series of devastating storms besieged his expedition in the treacherous straits, wrecking one ship and forcing another to return to England. Only the Golden Hind reached the Pacific Ocean, but Drake continued undaunted up the western coast of South America, raiding Spanish settlements and capturing a rich Spanish treasure ship. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/drake-circumnavigates-the-globe Call of the Sea, written by Bounding Main’s Dean Calin, is based on the voyage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g47YSftNBnE
James Henry Miller aka Ewan MacColl dies
(25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989) James Henry Miller, better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labor activist and actor. Wikipedia You can view his MMDI listing here.
Johnny Collins Dies
Johnny Collins Dies (July 6, 2009) Johnny Collins was one of the signature voices on the maritime music scene since his beginnings in London jazz and folk clubs in 1956. He was a sought-after performer at many folk and maritime festivals. He and his friend, Jim Mageean, were cornerstone performers at the Liereliet festival in Workum for decades, their album “Coming of Age” documenting this accomplishment. He died on 6 July 2009 while on tour in Gdańsk, Poland, aged 71. Link to full article on Wikipedia.
Bruce Macartney Jr. Dies (2019)
Bruce Jesse Macartney Jr., 70 of Midland, died Thursday morning, September 5, 2019 at the MidMichigan Regional Medical Center. He was born May 22, 1949 in Philadelphia, PA, the son of the late Bruce Jesse and Ada (Arcangeli) Macartney, Sr. On May 22, 1999 he married Carol Wills in Midland. Bruce retired from Dow Corning as an electrical and industrial tradesman. As an avid musician, Bruce was a member of the Folk Music Society in Midland and traveled to folk festivals in other countries around the world. He played in the following bands around the area: Roane, Hoolie (with Jerry Cassault and Katherine Bach Morris), Two Boys from Bay City (with Jerry Cassault), Sonas, Chicken String Band and played a weekly jam session at the Stein Haus in Bay City. As well as being an accomplished entertainer, Bruce was a private pilot and used the Barstow Airport to keep his craft. Macartney’s MMDI profile can be viewed here.
Hythe folk singer Kerry Hearn died in a crash on the A20
On this date in 2014, Hythe folk singer Kerry Hearn died in a crash on the A20 in 2014. He was a member of the folk music band, Quidnunc. He left behind his loving wife, Mandy Hearn and musical partner Stewart Pendrill. Read the newspaper article here.
Joanna Colcord Dies (1960)
Joanna Carver Colcord (March 18, 1882 – April 8, 1960) was pioneering social worker, and author. Born at sea, she was also notable for publishing texts on the language, work songs, and sea shanties of American seamen during the early 20th century. She is best known in the maritime music community for her 1924 book, Roll and Go: Songs of American Sailormen. Read the Wikipedia entry for Colcord here.
Cargo ship suddenly sinks in Lake Superior (1975)
On November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew members on board. It was the worst single accident in Lake Superior’s history. The ship weighed more than 13,000 tons and was 730 feet long. It was launched in 1958 as the biggest carrier in the Great Lakes and became the first ship to carry more than a million tons of iron ore through the Soo Locks. Read the complete article on History.com. Bounding Main’s Gina Dalby wrote a song called Roll Call that honors the ships that were lost on the Great Lakes, including the Edmund Fitzgerald. You can listen to it here.
Louisa Jo Killen Dies (9 August 2013)
Louisa Jo Killen (born Louis Killen; 10 January 1934 – 9 August 2013) was an English folk singer from Gateshead, Tyneside, who accompanied themself on the English concertina. Killen formed one of Britain’s first folk clubs in 1958 in Newcastle upon Tyne, and became a professional folk singer in 1961. In the 1970s Killen recalled: “When I started Folk Song and Ballad in Newcastle in 1958 there weren’t twenty folk clubs in the whole country, and when I left for the States (in 1966) there were maybe three hundred.”[2] Recordings of Killen singing some Tyneside songs were included on both The Iron Muse (Topic Records 12T86, 1963) and the revised version on CD (Topic Records TSCD465) issued in 1993. The accompanying book to the Topic Records 70 year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten has a dust jacket picture featuring Louis with Frankie Armstrong and the one of the songs featured on both albums of The Iron Muse, The Blackleg Miners is track six of the sixth CD in the set. Link to full article on Wikipedia.
James Henry Miller aka Ewan MacColl dies (1989)
James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as one of the instigators of the 1960s folk revival as well as for writing such songs as “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Dirty Old Town”. MacColl collected hundreds of traditional folk songs, including the version of “Scarborough Fair” later popularised by Simon & Garfunkel, and released dozens of albums with A.L. Lloyd, Peggy Seeger and others, mostly of traditional folk songs. He also wrote many left-wing political songs, remaining a steadfast communist throughout his life and engaging in political activism. Read the full article on Wikipedia.