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NEW ZEALAND FOLK*SONG |
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The story of David Lowston,
a pre-colonial NZ songby Frank Fyfe © 1970
(This was first published in the Journal of New Zealand Folklore in 1970.
It was republished on the NZ Folksong website Jan 1st 2001 )
- Introduction
The purpose of this and subsequent studies is to increase the areas of knowledge concerning New Zealand folklore and New Zealand folksongs. What I hope to do in this series of studies is to start with some of the songs and verse which came from, or are about, the earliest periods of New Zealand's history, and by working through to later examples, build up a comprehensive set of studies. To facilitate cross-reference to sources, where these are known they will be quoted.
Most of the songs which will be dealt with can be found within the pages of the two published collections of New Zealand 'folk' verse and song which have appeared to date: New Zealand Folk Songs [1], by Neil Colquhoun, and Shanties by the Way [2], compiled and edited by Rona Bailey and Bert Roth. Some appear elsewhere in print or on record, and some are contained in the archives of the New Zealand Folklore Society. In those cases where a song has been collected from oral sources, even if it is to be found in either or both published collections, and even if it is to the published source that it can be traced, I will tend to favour its inclusion in these studies.
I hope that the appearance of these studies will prompt those with knowledge of facts not generally known, or with opinions not necessarily advanced in these studies, to submit studies undertaken by themselves or to make such facts known. Thus, as the areas dealt with in examining our earliest songs in particular are dim, new facts and other opinions would be most welcome. In this way, perhaps, we can stimulate both increased knowledge and awareness of our folklore and folksongs. TOP
- The pre-colonial period
The earliest examples of song and verse from, or about, New Zealand are those from, or about, the pre-colonial period, i.e., before 1840. In this year Britain annexed New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and the first Wakefield settlement was established, and Britain, rather reluctantly, found that she had some new colonies.
The pre-colonial verse and song of which we have examples come from the first Europeans to form any sort of continuous contact with the country, and can be divided into three main types. The first group, represented by two songs in both collections, consists of those songs from the sealers and sea-whalers. The second group is represented by one set of verse in Shanties by the Way and comes from those early Europeans who had the most fleeting of contacts with New Zealand. The third, represented by one song from New Zealand Folk Songs, a further song from Shanties by the Way and another drawn from the archives of the Society, came from the first pakeha settlers in New Zealand, the shore-whalers who lived and worked in the numerous pre-colonial settlements scattered around the coasts of these islands. TOP
- Voyage of the Active
Of these songs, David Lowston deals with the earliest part of the pre-colonial period. This song relates the adventures which befell a party of sealers who, whilst visiting these shores, were forced by circumstance to remain as unwilling, if only temporary settlers. The events related in the ballad had their beginnings in Sydney Town in 1809, where the following advertisement was displayed:
Wanted for the brig Active, shortly about to sail on a promising and pleasant voyage, several active able men, who will find proper encouragement.Apply to Captain Bader . [3]
The Active sailed from Sydney on 11th December, 1809, and, landing a party of ten sealers under the leadership of David Lawrieston [4] on an island about a mile and a half from the main coast of New Zealand [5], set sail again for Sydney on 16th February, 1810. She was never heard of again, although there have been reports reports that in 1847 a surveying party from Nelson discovered a wreck on the shores at Bluff, well inshore with a tree growing through the hull, and some say that this may be her remains.
Lowrieston's party was left with but scanty provisions. The intention had been that the Active would bring further supplies, then, leaving the party to continue with their sealing operations, go off to chase whales. She was to return to New Zealand to take the sealers, plus their catch of skins and oil, back to Sydney.
TOP
- My name is David Lowston, I did seal, I did seal,
My name is David Lowston, I did seal.
Though my men and I were lost,
Though our very lives 'twould cost,
We did seal, we did seal, we did seal.
- 'Twas in eighteen hundred and ten, we set sail, we set sail.
'Twas in eighteen hundred and ten we set sail.
We were left we gallant men,
Never more to sail again,
For to seal, for to seal, for to seal,
- We were set down in Open Bay, were set down, were set down.
We were set down in Open Bay, were set down.
Upon the sixteenth day,
Of Februar-aye-ay,
For to seal, for to seal, for to seal.
- Our Captain John Bedar, he set sail, he set sail.
Yes, for Port Jackson he set sail.
I'll return men without fail,
But she foundered in a gale,
And went down, and went down, and went down.
- We cured ten thousand skins, for the fur, for the fur,
Yes we cured ten thousand skins for the fur.
Brackish water, putrid seal,
We did all of us fall ill,
For to die, for to die, for to die.
- Come all you lads who sail upon the sea, sail the sea,
Come all you jacks who sail upon the sea
Though the schooner Governor Bligh
Took on some who did not die,
Never seal, never seal, never seal.
- Marooned
When the Active did not return, the provisions ran out after only a short time, and the party left their island in a small boat which had been left with them. They went to the mainland in search of food, and here they found another small boat which had been abandoned by a previous sealing party to the area.
Their own boat was leaking badly, and in need of repair, so they decided to repair both craft and take themselves an excursion towards some of the more frequented sealing places. [6] Before they could do so, however, their boats were destroyed in a particularly violent storm.
Their only food by this time consisted of what seal meat they were able to obtain out of season, and a species of native root, which was only obtained after considerable search, and at some distance from their camp.
They next made a canoe, consisting of a framework over which they stretched seal skins. In this they revisited their island where they found that their catch of skins had suffered some damage. Upon their return to the mainland they commenced to build a more substantial craft in which they now hoped to journey in search of rescue.
They were very poorly equipped with regard to tools, however, and it was only through tremendous labour that they at last provided themselves with eighty half inch planks, hacked one by one from a tree. They pounded the hoops of their provision casks into nails and started building.
The return of the Governor Bligh, under Captain Grono, who had abandoned the boat that they had previously found, was as unexpected as it was welcome. They and their cargo were loaded on inboard and returned to Sydney, where they were landed on 15th December 1813. TOP
- Conflicting details
Although the song is quite specific, there seems to have been some confusion as to the actual location of the sealing party's adventures. At the time, Dusky Sound was perhaps the commanding sealing ground in the area. It was mapped as early as 1791. It is separated from Thompson Sound by Secretary Island, which is the location favoured by McNab [7], who was obviously, though not necessarily, unfamiliar with the song.
The song says Open Bay, and these islands lie considerably to the north of Dusky Sound, which would seem to lend credence to their attempts to build a vessel in which to go to more frequented sealing places.
There is also confusion in the song, as there was too in the published reports of their arrival back in Sydney, as to the actual year of their departure. Although the date of the sailing of the Active was in 1809, the Sydney Shipping News [8] reported 1808, and the song (at least the version given in Shanties by the Way) says 1810, and gives as the date that upon which the Active left New Zealand for Sydney, i.e., 16th February, 1810.
Similarly, in versions of the song obtained from oral sources, and to date, as far as we know, these are all drawn from the published texts, the date is given as 1810. In fact, this part of the confusion today probably stems from the fact that the version as given in New Zealand Folk Songs seems to have suffered editorially in this regard. Two verses as given in Shanties by the Way have been combined to appear as one verse in New Zealand Folk Songs and the dating sections of what were previously two distinct verses have been left out altogether.
The result has been that singers have included the song in their repertoire, then, discovering these missing passages, have combined them rather than altering the song as already committed to memory. Apart from versions influenced in this manner, the only other report we have had is that a beachcomber from Martins Bay on the West Coast sings a song which he calls David Lowrieston which may have come down through another channel. Of course, this would require extensive fieldwork to check out, and to date we have been unable to undertake this.
The song also implies, without actually stating, that some of the party perished. This is unsubstantiated by fact, but, as we shall see, could have had no small part in influencing the survival of the song. TOP
- Evidence of oral transmission
The internal inconsistencies, along with the distortion of names, i.e., Lowrieston becomes Lowston, and Bader becomes Bedar (this latter syncopates more readily), and, more potently, the heroes coming near death through either lack of food or food poisoning, are all good evidence for the song having enjoyed some degree of oral currency. Sufficient at least to have been marked in the process of oral transmission. These same inconsistencies also present good evidence for believing that the song was not composed by any of its central characters.
However it appears very likely that whoever did compose the song was familiar with details unobtainable by McNab when he was doing his research into the facts of the case in Sydney. McNab was in the habit of painstaking research into documentary sources, press reports, ships logs and the like, and because he didn't come up with the location, suggests that the composer of the ballad had access to reports which could have only been circulating orally at the time he composed the ballad. And this suggests, but in no way proves, that the composer of the song was present in Sydney at the time of, or shortly after, the party's return there in 1813.
Of course we cannot be entirely sure of this because, as may be imagined, the tale of the privations undergone by the sealers, and, above all, the sudden and mysterious loss of the Active, her captain and all of her crew, would have had certain sensationalist impact among the maritime communities of Sydney and Hobart. TOP
- Hobart or Sydney?
Hobart Town was, in 1813, just ten years old, but was already the centre of activities for a growing trade from whalers and sealers, some of whom operated in New Zealand waters. The story of the marooning of the party, and their subsequent privations would likely have been told countless times within the space of but a few years, or even months. Under these circumstances, it is easy to imagine the kind of atmosphere which would make the emergence of such a ballad more than a mere possibility.
For a variety of reasons, however, chief amongst which is the inclusion of clear identification as to the actual location, I favour Sydney as the place in which the song had its birth. It is admitted however that the likelihood of the stories surrounding the ballad having circulated just as readily as the ballad itself is great. But I do incline to the view that the resulting song would have borne even clearer evidence of remoteness to the scene of the action it is about. TOP
- The tune
The melody, as we have it, is certainly a re-arrangement of that which bears Samuel Hall/Captain Kidd, and this tune has carried more sets of words than just these two. Lomax prints two sets and gives information regarding perhaps half a dozen other and earlier sets [9]. Colcord [10] prints just the one set of Captain Kidd which contains no less than twenty-five stanzas. From this we might surmise that Captain Kidd was a very popular forebitter, at least amongst American sailors. It is, of course, of British origin, most probably a gallows broadside from 1701, and was undoubtedly very popular with British and, later, colonial seamen. TOP
- Whalers
With the coming of the American Revolutionary Wars, and the subsequent establishment of the British penal colony of New South Wales, commercial fishing interests were quick to pressure the British Government into more clearly defining and, in 1802, amending the Act granting the East India Company a monopoly of fishing rights to the east of the Cape of Good Hope. This was so that they might replace the now, at best, precarious access to the fishing grounds on and off the coast of Peru, which were first fished by the British whalers of Charles Enderby and Sons in 1775.
Even before the amended Act of 1802, which allowed fishing in Australian waters, whalers involved in transporting batches of convicts to the infant colony at Port Jackson had sighted and killed spermaceti whales inside and outside the harbour. In 1791, an Enderby vessel, the Britannia, outward bound loaded with convicts, had sighted huge shoals of sperm whales, and, returning some eleven days later, had killed seven.
The news quickly spread and very soon the waters around Australia and New Zealand became favourite fishing grounds. The seamen on board these whalers would have been familiar with the song Captain Kidd. TOP
- Possible birth of the song
In fact, what most probably happened in the case of the composition of David Lowston was that in about 1814 some old lag in the Rocks area of old Sydney Town, with an ear for a good tale and an eye out for possible free drinks, being familiar with both the published and oral reports of the landing of Lowrieston's party, combined his verse-making skill with the Captain Kidd melody to form the ballad resembling what we have of it today. No doubt his ballad started:
My name is David Lowrieston, I did seal, I did seal.Our supposed composer, with a touch of showmanship related to securing the attention of would-be benefactors in the grogshops, probably added the little details about the ten thousand seals (the actual number was fourteen thousand, but this doesn't scan into the tune quite so easily), and the sickness resulting in the death of some of the party. TOP
- How the song came to us
Although the actual collection details are still a little hazy, we do know that the song has come down to us by a rather circuitous route. It was collected in the form as appearing in Shanties by the Way by John Leebrick in the United States, who was in touch with Neil Colquhoun, and the latter received David Lowston amongst a group of six songs in 1957. Neil Colquhoun tells us that Leebrick collected the songs from the daughter of a former whaleman who spent many seasons [11] hunting whales off the coast of New Zealand, and adds that Leebrick was certain that the songs had currency in New Zealand in the 1830's. And it is this source which is the original of the versions appearing at the present day, with only the remote possibility that the song possessed by the reported beachcomber referred to above has come down to us by a different means.
The differences in published texts, and in subsequent versions in oral circulation at the moment, are due to the differing attitudes of the editors of the publications in which they appear. Neil Colquhoun, as a performer was, as he explains in the introduction to his book, primarily interested in the songs as 'sing-able' articles, whilst Bailey and Roth regard the songs they present not only in this light but also as historical items with no lack of inherent scholarship interest. TOP
- How it got to the USA
We know quite a deal about the activities of American whalers around New Zealand before 1840, and may therefore be able to arrive at some conclusions as to how the song came to be in the United States. Before New Zealand was annexed, in 1840, the waters and 'ports' were completely open. New Zealand was not then foreign territory to anybody.
There were no customs formalities, no pilotage or berthage fees or requirements, thus, even though, as we have supposed, the song David Lowston was composed in Sydney, New South Wales and Van Diemans Land were 'foreign' territory, and visits by American vessels to Sydney or Hobart, whilst under no circumstances unknown, were less likely than those to Kororareka, or to any of the numerous shore whaling stations around the coast of New Zealand.
We know that quite a trade developed at Kororareka in supplying fresh meat and vegetables and other provisions to visiting whaling ships, and, as that trade developed, so also did that between the multiplying grogshops and sailors on shore leave.
McNab [12] tells us that between 1834. and 1839 there was an annual increase in the number of whaling ships of all flags visiting Kororareka, but more noticeable than all others is the increase in American ships visiting the settlement. On shore there was little else besides the conviviality of the grogshops and the availability of women to entertain visiting seamen, so we can easily imagine the conditions under which songs might be swapped between sailors from British and colonial vessels and those from the United States. They were, after all, part of a maritime community, sharing the same dangers and hardships, and good songs have always been slow to recognise political barriers.
Clearly, if Leebrick's informant's father, the American whaleman, had spent many seasons off New Zealand, he could have picked up the song at any time between about 1834 and 1839. He could also have picked it up while on shore at either Kororareka or at any one of the larger shore whaling stations.
Leebrick collected three of the songs common to both published collections, and some others which have not been published as yet, and although, as we shall see when we come to examine Come All You Tonguers, we can reasonably suppose that this latter song use obtained whilst the sailor was on shore at a shore whaling station, there is no clear evidence to suggest that David Lowston must have been similarly obtained.
From this distance, and possessed only of the facts we have, it would be very difficult indeed to arrive at any clear and indisputable theory as to the exact time and place our American whale-man picked up the song. We have supposed that it was composed (if this is the correct term to use in cases such as this) in Sydney in about 1814, and, from internal evidence we have also supposed that it had sufficient currency in Australia or New Zealand, or both, to have undergone changes due to oral transmission before it was picked up in New Zealand sometime in the 1830's. TOP
- The period when Americans were in NZ
During this period, i.e., between 1814 and 1840, we know that quite a number of influential factors were operating upon the fishing trades being carried on in this part of the world. Sealing, which was responsible for bringing many of the early Europeans to these shores, lasted as a major industry from the early 1800's until the later 1820's, when it fished itself out of existence.
Sperm whaling, i.e., sea whaling, which was the prime reason for the appearance off the coast of New Zealand of British and American whalers, lasted, in the case of the Americans, from the middle 1820s until about 1840, by which year, not only had New Zealand become foreign territory to them, but the grounds to the north of Japan assumed prominence, causing most American ships to divert from these waters, and thus their principal provisioning port became Hawaii.
Fishing for black whales, i.e., shore or bay whaling, started in the later 1820's and continued well into the 1840's, with American participation around New Zealand confined to the years marked by the decline of sperm whaling. The first recorded visits of American whalers to shore whaling locations were in 1834 when the Providence fished in Otago near the shore whaling station at Otakou and, in the same year, at Cloudy Bay when an unidentified American whaler heralded an influx of his countrymen to the area which contained about six shore whaling settlements. Two American vessels are reported in Cloudy Bay in 1835, and no less than twenty American ships visited there in 1836. [13]
We know that, with the decline of sealing as an economic industry in the later 1820's, many former sealers sought employment in the bay whaling industry. At first this was carried on from ships, but by 1830 was well and truly established as an industry primarily carried out from shore based factories. TOP
- Speculation on its popularity
Thus, we can speculate as to the popularity of David Lowston amongst the various occupational groups in and around New Zealand at about the time we have reason to believe Leebrick's informant picked it up. The song would have found particular sympathy amongst sealers, though it is debatable whether or not it would have, or could have, remained their exclusive property.
We have already seen, in the case of our American whaleman, that it took his fancy sufficiently enough to prompt him to either commit it to memory or write it down. This could, however, be explained by supposing that he was primarily interested in the song more as a curiosity from a distant land than for reasons of any close affinity he may have felt towards either the song or the sentiments it expresses.
We know that many former sealers found employment in shore whaling settlements, and we know that American whalers were engaged in bay whaling in close proximity to a number of settlements from 1834 to at least 1836, We also know that Leebrick's infant picked up the shore whaling song Come All You Tonguers, and, as we shall see when we come to examine this song, there is reason to believe that it was probably picked up in the Cloudy Bay area, and possibly at the same time as David Lowston. TOP
- Concluding summary
For these reasons then, I am of the opinion that the song we know as David Lowston was composed anonymously in Sydney about 1814, using as its melody a variation of Captain Kidd. That it was popular amongst the seagoing fishing fraternity, particularly the sealers, and that it passed amongst them undergoing changes due to oral transmission.
With the decline of sealing as an industry, it survived amongst former sealers who were employed on shore whaling stations in New Zealand, and was picked up by an unknown American whaleman, probably about 1836 and probably at one of the shore whaling stations in Cloudy Bay.
It went to America in either written form or in the memory of our whaler, or both, and, sometime in the later 1920's or so, his daughter, undoubtedly with the aid of a documentary source, was able to pass it on to John Leebrick, who restored the tune and, in 1957 passed it on to Neil Colquhoun, who has been largely responsible for its return to currency in New Zealand. (Also see the NZ Folksong account of the Davy Lowston song with chords, tune and recording sources.)
- Contemporary Newspaper Report
SYDNEY, Thursday, December 20th 1813.
Yesterday, arrived from a sealing voyage, after a sixteen months absence, the colonial schooner, Governor Bligh, Mr. Grono, master, with 14,000 seal-skins and about 3 tons of sea-elephant oil.
The vessel brings from the west coast of New Zealand, a joyful gang of men, consisting of ten persons, left by the brig. Active, Captain Bader, so long ago as the 16th of February, 1809, in charge of Mr. David Lowrieston.
The Active went from Port Jackson, December 11th, 1808, and having landed her people on an island about a mile and a half from the main of New Zealand, sailed again for this port, but doubtless perished by the way, and has never since been heard of.
The men who were left on the island were reduced to the necessity of subsisting for nearly four years upon the seal, when in season, and at other times upon a species of the fern, parts of which they roasted or boiled, and other parts were obliged to eat undressed, owing to a nausea it imbibed from any culinary process.
They were left upon the small island with a very scanty allowance of provisions, and the Active was to come to Port Jackson for a further supply. They had a whale-boat, and their only edged implements consisted of an axe, an adze, and a cooper's drawing knife. In a short time they procured 11,000 skins part of which Mr. Grono has brought up.
In hopes of finding upon the main some succour, which the small island did not afford, they went thither, but were nearly lost by the way, as some of the lower streaks of the boat were near falling out, owing, as was imagined, to the nails being of cast iron.
On their safe arrival, however, they found an old boat on a beach, which it subsequently appeared had been left there by Mr. Grono on a former voyage. With the aid of this additional boat, when both repaired, they projected an excursion towards some of the more frequented sealing places, and were on the point of setting out when a tremendous hurricane in one night destroyed the boats, and put an end to their hope of relief.
The only nutritive the place afforded was a species of the fern root, resembling a yam when cut and possessing some of the properties of the vegetable. This could only be procured at a distance of six or seven miles from their hut, which was near the sea-side, and had it been plentiful would have been a desirable substitute for better diet; but it was unfortunately so sparingly scattered amongst other shrubs as to be found with difficulty; and they solemnly affirm that they have for a week at a time had neither this nor any other food whatever.
With the assistance of a canoe made up of seal-skins, a party visited their former island, and found their stocks of skins much injured by the weather, but did all they could for their preservation. This was their only seal depot, and out of the usual season they now and then found a solitary straggler, in some instances when they were so reduced by famine as to be scarcely capable of securing those that Providence threw in their way.
With their axe, adze and cooper's drawing knife they afterwards built a small boat, but with intense labour, as without saws they could only cut one plank out of each tree. The hoops upon their provision casks were beaten into nails; and by the same patient and laborious process they at length projected the building of a small vessel, and had provided 80 half-inch boards for the purpose, all cut in the way above described. Truly a feat of great perseverance.
The fortunate accident of Mr. Grono touching there has however preserved them from further suffering and peril, of which they have had full store, on that exposed and inhospitable shore.
Several other cases of seamen marooned for long periods occurred during the sealing era.The Sydney Gazette of 24th July 1813 reported the arrival of the Perseverance with five men who had been left on the Solander Islands for four and a half years. (A sealskin purse they left behind is now in Southland Museum.)
The Sydney Gazette of 5th April 1817 reported the arrival of Captain Coffin in the American ship Enterprize. He had met with three men on a barren isle called the Snares. They had been left there by the schooner Adventure, Captain Keith, some years before, with another man who had died.
1: New Zealand Folk Songs - Neil Colquhoun, pub. WEA
2: Shanties by the Way ed. Rona Bailey & Herbert Roth, pub. Whitcombe&Tombs 1967
3: Murihiku and the Southern Islands - Robert McNab 1907
Facsimile ed, Wilson & Horton 1969 p. 1094: McNab's spelling - cf. Murihiku p.109
5: Murihiku p. 153
6: Murihiku p. 155
7: Murihiku p. 155
8: Murihiku p. 153, McNab's words: shipping news of Sydney.
9: The Folk Songs of North America - Alan Lomax
10: Songs of American Sailormen - Joanna C. Colcord
11: Letter Colquhoun/Fyfe, September 1970, NZ Folklore Society archives
12: Old Whaling Days - Robert McNab 1913
also: Whaling Trade in Old New Zealand - Rickard13: Whaling Trade in Old New Zealand - Rickard