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"Spanish Ladies" (Roud 687) is a traditional British naval song, describing a voyage from Spain to the Downs from the viewpoint of ratings of the Royal Navy.
Contents
Origins
A ballad by the name "Spanish Ladies" was registered in the English Stationer's Company on December 14, 1624. The oldest mention of the present song does not appear until the 1796 logbook of HMS Nellie, however, making it more likely a Napoleonic era invention. The timing of the mention in the Nellie's logbook suggests that the song was created during the First Coalition (1793–96), when the British navy carried supplies to Spain to aid its resistance to revolutionary France. It probably gained in popularity during the later Peninsular War when British soldiers were transported throughout the Iberian peninsula to assist rebels fighting against their French occupation. After their victory over the Grande Armée, these soldiers were returned to Britain but forbidden to bring their Spanish wives, lovers, and children with them.
The song predates the proper emergence of the sea shanty. Shanties were the work songs of merchant sailors, rather than naval ones. However, in his 1840 Poor Jack, Captain Frederick Marryat reports that the song "Spanish Ladies"—though once very popular—was "now almost forgotten" and he included it in whole in order to "rescue it from oblivion". The emergence of shanties in the mid-19th century then revived its fortunes to the point where it is now sometimes included as a "borrowed song" within the genre.
Lyrics
"Spanish Ladies" is the story of British navy men sailing north from Spain and along the English Channel. There is apparently a fog, as the crew are unable to determine their latitude by sighting. Instead, they console themselves with the sandy bottom they have sounded and the width of the entrance between the rocks of Ushant to the south and the Scillies to the north. The succession of headlands on the English shore suggests a ship tacking up-channel away from the French coast, identifying a new landmark on each tack.
This is the version recorded in the 1840 Poor Jack. It is one of many. Notable variations are shown in parentheses after each line.
Variants
The song has been found in several different minor and major keys. Cecil Sharp considers the version in minor keys to be the original.
Several variants exist that utilize the same melody but substitute different lyrics. The one sung in Jaws reset the destination from England to Boston. "Brisbane Ladies" is an Australian tune about drovers instead of sailors; a significantly modified version called "The Ryans and the Pittmans", widely known as "We'll Rant and We'll Roar", is from Newfoundland; and there is an American variant called "Yankee Whalermen". A version was created especially for the Bluenose, a famed Canadian ship based in Nova Scotia.
The melody is also used for the "Streets of Laredo", a 19th-century American cowboy ballad, and the song forms part of Sir Henry J. Wood's composition Fantasia on British Sea Songs.
In other media
As mentioned above, the song is quoted in full in the 1840 novel Poor Jack. It appears in part in the 40th chapter of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and in chapter 7 of Post Captain, the 2nd book and in Treason's Harbour, the 9th book of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set during the Napoleonic Wars. It also appears in Arthur Ransome's books Swallows and Amazons and "Missee Lee" and Wilbur Smith's works Monsoon and Blue Horizon.
The song notably appeared in the 1975 film Jaws. It was also sung in the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, based on the O'Brian books.
Robert Shaw, the actor who sang the tune in Jaws, also sang it years earlier in a 1956 episode of the television show The Buccaneers. It has also appeared in the series Homicide, Sharpe, Hornblower, Jimmy Neutron, The Mentalist, Gossip Girl, Monsuno, and Turn.
The video game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag features "Spanish Ladies" as one of the collectible sea shanties that the sailors on the player's ship may begin singing while sailing between islands while out of combat.
In The Mentalist episode "Ladies in Red" Patrick Jane sings the tune to himself whilst attempting to find the correct code to open the victim's panic room.
Australian singer-songwriter Sarah Blasko produced a cover of the song which featured in the series Turn: Washington's Spies.