HAUL ON THE BOWLINE
How to pronounce bowline
Many words in the English language vary in sound when spoken with regional dialects. The pronunciation of words can also depend on their meaning, such as ‘bow’. The word ‘bowline’ refers to a rope and also to a knot, and ‘Haul on the bowline – Kitty is my darling’ is the first line (and first verse) of a popular sea shanty. How to sing this today is problematic, because the words are rather staccato, with barely the hint of a rhyme between ‘bowline’ and ‘darling’. A more realistic rendition is ‘Haul on the bo-lin – Kitty is m’darlin’. The bow of a ship is pronounced ‘bau’, and although ‘bowline’ describes a rope leading forward (towards the bow), it was not pronounced ‘bau’, but as ‘bo’, like an archer’s bow or the bow of a violin.
The use of the shanty and the bowline
This shanty was sung when hauling on ropes to keep sails taut and steady, and the pace was fast to match the action of hauling. After singing ‘Haul on the bo-lin – Kitty is m’darlin’, there was an equally short refrain: ‘Haul on the bo-lin – the bo-lin haul’. The concerted pull on the rope came in the last word, ‘haul’, which itself would end with, or be replaced by, a wild yell or yelp by the men on the rope.
Diagram of a sail with a bowline and bridle
The bowline was attached to the vertical edge (or leech) of a square sail by three or four ropes known as a bridle. Its function was to stop the sail being ‘taken aback’, rather like an umbrella turning inside out if caught by the wind.
An early description of bowlines was given by Captain John Smith in The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England & The Summer Isles, first published in 1624: ‘The Boling is made fast to the leech [outer edge] of the saile about the middest [middle] to make it stand the sharper or closer by a wind; it is fastened by two, three, or foure ropes like a crows foot to as many parts of the saile which is called the Boling bridles.’
William Falconer was a Scottish poet, mariner and author of An Universal Dictionary of the Marine, first published in 1769. His definition of a bowline was repeatedly borrowed and adapted by later maritime dictionaries:
Bowline … a rope fastened near the middle of the leech, or perpendicular edge of the square sails, by three or four subordinate parts, called bridles. It is only used when the wind is so unfavourable that the sails must be all braced sideways, or close-hauled to the wind; in this situation the bowlines are employed to keep the weather, or windward, edge of the principal sails tight forward and steady, without which they would be always shivering, and rendered incapable of service.
In his account of a voyage round the world, published in 1871 and subsequently revised in 1873 with the title Under the Mizzen Mast, the American clergyman Nehemiah Adams described how the shanty ‘Haul on the Bowline’ was performed when hauling on the main sheet (a rope attached to the lower corner of the mainsail):
When hauling on the main sheet, this is often the song, sung responsively:–
Shanty man: “Haul the bowline; Kitty is my darling.
Crew: Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!”
The island of Haulbowline is in Cork Harbour, County Cork, Ireland, while the Haulbowline lighthouse stands at the entrance to Carlingford Lough in County Down, Northern Ireland. Although the name Haulbowline appears to evoke hauling the bowline, it is actually thought to be an old Norse name meaning ‘dwelling place of eels’.
Bowline knot
A common knot used aboard ship and on land is called a bowline, a very old knot that served as a secure non-slip loop or eye at the end of a rope and possibly dates as far back as the reign of the ancient Egyptian king Khufu (also known as Cheops) in the 3rd millennium BC.
Captain Smith considered it a strong and reliable knot: ‘The Boling knot is also so firmly made and fastened …[to] the sailes, they will breake, or the saile split before it will slip.’
Diagram of a bowline knot
Bowlines Maritime Literary Festival
As a seafaring nation, Britain has remarkably few maritime festivals, so this new festival is most welcome. It will take place at Exeter in Devon on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th June 2025, ‘tying together fact and fiction in maritime literature’. It will be based at the historic Custom House and surrounding Heritage Harbour, which was turned into 19th-century Liverpool in the BBC drama series ‘The Onedin Line’ (broadcast 1971–80). Events will include talks and panel discussions from writers of maritime fiction and non-fiction.
The AGM and dinner of the Society for Nautical Research will also take place at The Guildhall from 5pm on the Saturday. The weekend ticket price of £53 (£50 plus an admin fee) includes a range of events on both days (a bargain as individual events at festivals generally cost more than £10). You can find more details here.
The two-day festival will be followed on Sunday 8th June by Exeter’s hugely popular Heritage Harbour Festival, from 11am to 4pm, with free entertainment celebrating the city’s Heritage Harbour status (see our newsletter 64 for more details of the canal and quay). A range of traditional vessels and different forms of historic transport such as traction engines and classic cars will be on display, along with sea shanty groups, other musicians and creative artists. See more details here.
****************
ALL AT SEA
Sea Stories
We continue to do maritime research into all kinds of fascinating topics (with a focus on safety at sea) for Lloyd’s Register Foundation, and regularly produce illustrated articles that are posted on the ‘Stories’ section of their website. In our last newsletter, we highlighted stories about ballast and swimming. Since then we have done work on the story of both coal and nitrate.
For ‘Coal at Sea: The Hazards of Cargoes, Bunkers, Loading, Unloading Trimming and Shifting’, we talk about the gruelling work of handling coal cargoes, especially the work of keeping boilers running in steamships, as well as the health hazard of dust. You can read the story here:
Our linked story ‘Coal at Sea: The Hazards of Overheating, Fire and Explosion’ is about the dangers of coal cargoes catching fire. In the second half of the 19th century, more ships laden with coal were lost than with any other cargo. You can read the story here:
From the late 19th century sodium nitrate was highly prized as an agricultural fertiliser and for manufacturing explosives. It was mined mainly in the Atacama desert of South America, and ships were faced with the challenges of Cape Horn, the exposed ports of Chile and the perils of nitrate, a heavy and inflammable cargo. You can read the story here:
****************
250th ANNIVERSARY OF JANE AUSTEN’S BIRTH
Celebrations
Perhaps the most significant anniversary of 2025 is the birth of Jane Austen 250 years ago. She was born on 16th December 1775 at the village of Steventon in Hampshire, so December this year will be the 250th anniversary of her birth. That makes 2025 her anniversary year. More than a decade has passed since we published Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England (or simply Jane Austen’s England in the United States), and although the book is still relevant, we had hoped to do something else for this anniversary, but it was not to be.
Various events and celebrations are already happening, including books, television programmes, talks and exhibitions. It can be difficult finding out what is on offer in particular locations, but most if not all the places associated with the novelist are marking the occasion, most notably in Hampshire at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, pictured below, and at Southampton with their Jane Austen 250 programme of events (see https://visitsouthampton.co.uk/janeausten250).
Jane lived at Bath for several years, and events there will include the annual Jane Austen Festival in September. You can also check out the UK Jane Austen Society (https://janeaustensociety.org.uk), JASNA in North America (https://jasna.org) and the Jane Austen Society of Australia (https://jasa.com.au).
International fame
With her books being so popular today, it feels illogically strange to encounter praise heaped on her work over a century ago. In 1885 The Illustrated London News published a discussion on ‘The English Novel’, and for the 19th century they awarded honours to Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot, before adding: ‘As a consummate literary artist, and simply as such, for her range is very limited, we are disposed to award the first place to Jane Austen.’ After giving many examples, The Illustrated London News concluded that time and again her work gives pleasure and amusement: ‘Fine humour does not stale by repetition, and Jane Austen, whose niche in Westminster Abbey is still vacant, has a humour which, in its flavour, reminds us sometimes of Shakespeare.’
Britain is not the only place where the novels of Jane Austen are read, admired and acclaimed, because her work is known around the world. Australia and North America both have strong societies dedicated to the novelist, while her translated work is popular in countless other countries. Celebrations of her birth will therefore be truly worldwide – an incredible result for the novels which were not formally acknowledged as hers during her lifetime and which were originally published as written ‘By a Lady’.
****************
CURIOSITIES OF MONEY
From 1717 to 1931 Britain’s money was based on the value of gold. Everyone was paid in cash, and coins were made of gold, silver and copper. By the end of the 18th century and into the 19th (the time of Jane Austen), the relative values of coins had settled into a recognisable order, so that 20 shillings (20s) were worth one pound sterling (£1) and 12 pence or pennies (12d) were worth one shilling. Shillings and pennies were originally silver, and other silver coins included twopence, fourpence, sixpence and crowns (5 shillings). There were no £1 coins, but there was a guinea (worth 21 shillings) made of gold. Other gold coins included half a guinea, quarter of a guinea, one-third of a guinea and a 5-guinea coin.
Falling value
Over time, as the value of coins fell, pennies were minted from copper alloy rather than silver, along with coins for half a penny (halfpenny) and a quarter of a penny (farthing). Such coins with a low value are often referred to as ‘small change’, but because the methods and machinery of the Royal Mint could not keep up with the demand, private companies began to issue token copper alloy coins from 1787 with a face value of one penny or a halfpenny.
A halfpenny token of 1790 (left) depicting the ironmaster John Wilkinson. On the right is a penny token of 1813 depicting the Phoenix ironworks at Glasgow
Shopkeepers accepted tokens as payment for goods and then placed them in sorting boxes in order to redeem them from the correct issuing company. More and more businesses realised that they provided an opportunity for advertising, which resulted in a fascinating array of designs ranging from heads of famous people to symbols of local factories or industries and (since it was wartime) patriotic designs and slogans, forming an invaluable social history resource.
A halfpenny token of 1792 (left) depicting a loom and payable at the warehouse of John Kershaw, a Rochdale mercer and draper. On the right is a halfpenny token of 1795, payable at Kendal, and next to a warship are the words ‘The Wooden Walls of Old England’, referring to the naval victory on 1st June 1794, the ‘Glorious First of June’
The end of tokens
The era of token coins lasted until 1817, when the wars with France were finally over. The government then ordered the issuing companies to redeem all their tokens, and only the workhouses in Sheffield and Birmingham were allowed to continue issuing token coins. Inevitably, those tokens not retrieved by the issuing companies are today sought after by collectors.
****************
THE MOVING PEN
Writing while travelling on board railway trains is nowadays not a particular problem, using electronic devices or pen and paper, but the jolting of steam trains made this task difficult, as mentioned by The Illustrated London News in January 1890: ‘Many railways passengers have found it difficult or inconvenient to write in a carriage going at express-train speed, with the paper resting, perhaps, on one knee, or on a book held in the left hand. It is always fatiguing.’
A quirky device was described that was intended to solve this problem, consisting of a wooden ‘writing-desk’ secured to the wrist by a collar. Two strings led to a hook on the ‘usual hat-rack’ above, allowing the passenger to write with a pencil. Pens dipped in ink would have been impossible, and at that date fountain pens were also too risky.
The small feature reads more like an ‘advertorial’ or even a joke, but The Illustrated London News was not known for its humour. The address given in Manchester is real, in the commercial centre, and this may well have been a genuine attempt to enable passengers to use their time usefully on a long journey: ‘The desk, which is six or seven inches wide, contains a pad made to fit in its frame, with sheets of writing-paper; and sheets of carbon-paper can also be had, for writing manifold copies.’
Carbon paper was an everyday component of office life for producing copies of handwritten or typed material. Each sheet was used over and over again until the ink became too faint.
****************
FINALE
Thank you for reading this occasional newsletter – it is possibly our last newsletter, as we both have health issues. Do please continue visiting our website (https://www.adkinshistory.com), where you will find all sorts of things to browse, including seventy newsletter back numbers. We will try to add little bits and pieces to our website’s blog and to our Latest News page. There is also a page devoted to ‘Lloyd’s Register and Maritime History’, as well as several pages on the books we have written. A summary of a few books is given here. We are sure that many of them would not be published today, as the book world has changed profoundly.
The last book we wrote was When There Were Birds: The forgotten history of our connections, available in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook. Birds were once key elements of the nation’s history, traditions and sports, giving rise to a rich legacy of literature, language and myths. We think this is our most significant book, essential for anyone who cares about the environment and who loves intertwined strands of history. It reveals the sheer numbers of birds in the past and the changing landscape.
Gibraltar and Jack Tar are two of our favourite books (though obviously we like all our books), also available in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook. Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History is an epic tale of courage, desperation, endurance and intrigue when Gibraltar was besieged by French and Spanish forces from June 1779 to February 1783, making the Rock the most famous fortress in the world.
Jack Tar: Life in Nelson’s Navy had its subtitle changed for the paperback to ‘The extraordinary lives of ordinary seamen in Nelson’s navy’, but most people prefer the original subtitle! This book describes the everyday lives of seamen and marines in the period 1771 to 1815, with topics such as food, medicine, women at sea (and in port), volunteers and pressed men, weather, leisure activities and much more, with one reviewer describing it as ‘one of the greatest social histories I’ve ever read in any category imaginable’.
After Jack Tar, we wrote a companion book called Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England: How our Ancestors Lived Two Centuries Ago, which was published in the United States as Jane Austen’s England. We chose Jane Austen as a central theme, because her dates are similar to Nelson’s. Needless to say, we became completely hooked by her world and her novels.
One other book that we would like to include in this summary is The Keys of Egypt: The Race to Read the Hieroglyphs, which has a different subtitle in the United States. It tells the story of the race to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. Out of all our books, this one has had the most foreign translations.
****************