{"id":1564,"date":"2013-12-21T15:53:02","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T19:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/?page_id=1564"},"modified":"2013-12-21T16:10:04","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T20:10:04","slug":"reuben-ranzo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/?page_id=1564","title":{"rendered":"Reuben Ranzo"},"content":{"rendered":"

I could give you my take on this song but our Howard<\/a> wrote it best in his book “Favorite Sea Songs of the Ancient Mariners Chanteymen<\/a>“…<\/p>\n

“Here we have a classic long-drag or halyard chantey presented in the classical manner.\u00a0 It has been called “an almost perfect work song… with its swinging solo lines building up to a savage release of power in the refrains.”\u00a0 The pulls came on the two “Ranzos” in both choruses.\u00a0 And in a really long hoist, the chanteyman would repeat the solo lines, thus doubling the length of the chantey.\u00a0 Hugill suggests that aboard whale ships, chanteys like this were also used for hauling the huge strips of blubber to the rendering pots in the middle of the ship… The song tells the story of the advancement of poor Reuben Ranzo, who began his nautical career totally unfit to be a sailor.\u00a0 However, with a bit of “teaching” from the captain’s daughter, Reuben apparently learned enough about navigation and seamanship to eventually command his own whaler.\u00a0 There is some speculation in the literature that Reuben’s last name may actually have been “Lorenzo.”\u00a0 The Yankee whale ships picked up many of their crew in the Azores, or “Western Islands.”\u00a0 These were men of Portuguese descent, and among them “Lorenzo” was a common name<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well it’s poor old Reuben Ranzo,
\n<\/span>Ranzo, me boys, Ranzo!
\n<\/i><\/b>Yes it’s poor old Reuben Ranzo.
\nRanzo, me boys, Ranzo!<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, Ranzo was no sailor
\nRanzo, &c. <\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\nBut he shipped aboard of a whaler
\nRanzo, me boys &c.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, Ranzo was no beauty
\nAnd he couldn’t do his duty<\/span><\/p>\n

Because he was so dirty
\nThey give him five and thirty<\/span><\/p>\n

But the captain\u2019s daughter Susie
\nShe begged her dad for mercy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, she gave him wine and water
\nAnd a bit more than she ought-a!<\/span><\/p>\n

She taught him navigation<\/span>
\nTo fit him to his station.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, Ranzo\u2019s got his papers<\/span>
\nHe\u2019s a terror to the whalers <\/span><\/p>\n

Now he’s known wherever them whalefish blow
\nAs the hardest bastard on the go!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I could give you my take on this song but our Howard wrote it best in his book “Favorite Sea Songs of the Ancient Mariners Chanteymen“… “Here we have a classic long-drag or halyard chantey presented in the classical manner.\u00a0 It has been called “an almost perfect work song… with its swinging solo lines building […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1564","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1564"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1571,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1564\/revisions\/1571"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}