Every inch a sailor

AKA Jack is every inch a sailor
First Published 1878
Writer/composer John Read Roud RN4541

Music Hall Performers John Read, Beatrice Bermond
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Crumit, Frank; USA : 1928
Lewis, Patrick; Canada : Newfoundland 1929
Primroy, Eddy; Canada : Newfoundland : no date
Baird, Bob / Baird, Peggy; Canada : 1963
Modern performances
Burl Ives
The Yetties		 

As published in Wehman's Collection of Songs No 8 (1885) and No 26 (1890)

My uncle Jack is what some people call a jolly tar.
And I should think that he was born beneath a lucky star;
If all is true, that he's gone through, a wonder he must be,
He's every inch a sailor, and was born upon the sea;
Jack is every inch a sailor, five-and-twenty years a whaler,
Jack is every inch a sailor, born upon the bright blue sea.

Jack is every inch a sailor, five-and-twenty years a whaler,
Jack is every inch a sailor, born upon the bright blue sea.

On a stormy night it's my delight to mix a glass of grog,
And then get Jack to spin a yarn before the burning log;
And after you've been listening to all that he has said.
You feel so frightened that you cannot go alone to bed;
Jack is every inch a sailor, five-and-twenty years a whaler,
Jack is every inch a sailor, born upon the bright blue sea.

One night, said he: While out at sea there came a dreadful gale.
Which washed me overboard and I was swallowed by a whale;
And there I lived for twenty days a wandering about.
Then seized the whale right by the tail and turned him inside out;
Jack is every inch a sailor, five-And-twenty years a whaler,
Jack is every inch a sailor, born upon the bright blue sea..

So if you wish to pass a pleasant hour or two away.
Just call and see old uncle Jack, and then I think you'll say:
He's every inch a sailor, and as jolly as can be.
For many years a whaler, quite a hero of the sea;
Jack is every inch a sailor, five-and-twenty years a whaler.
Jack is every inch a sailor, born upon the bright blue sea

A comic song written and performed by John Read in the British Music Halls in the late 1870s. It was published by Charles Sheard in 1877 and by the end of January 1878 they were posting notices in newspapers claiming, over 10,000 copies had been sold.

 Jan. 15, 1878; The Standard 

Contemporary reports in The Era also suggest Beatrice Bermond sang it.

Some sources suggest that the song was written in the 1880s in New York to be performed as part of a theatrical parody of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera HMS Pinafore. It is possible that the song was performed in the parody but it was being performed a few years earlier than this in the British Halls and the evidence points to it initially being written to be part of John Read’s repertoire.

The song does seem to have been popular in the early 1880s in the USA and it was widely printed in American songsters, though John Read was not always credited. It was recorded by Frank Crumit in 1928 and most of the subsequent versions of the song seem to derive from the recording.

The song seems to have been particularly popular in Newfoundland, where a new version was generated which reflects the local context – in this form it appears in a number of collections of Canadian and Newfoundland folk songs:

From Ballads and sea songs of Newfoundland (1968)

Now, 'twas twenty-five or thirty years since Jack first saw the light.
He came into this world of woe one dark and stormy night.
He was born on board his father's ship as she was lying to,
'Bout twenty-five or thirty miles southeast of Bacalhao.

Jack was ev'ry inch a sailor,
Five and twenty years a whaler.
Jack was ev'ry inch a sailor;
He was born upon the bright blue sea.

When Jack grew up to be a man, he went to Labrador.
He fished in Indian Harbour where his father fished before.
On his returning in the fog, he met a heavy gale,
And Jack was swept into the sea and swallowed by a whale.

The whale went straight for Baffins Bay 'bout ninety knots an hour,
And ev'ry time he'd blow a spray, he'd send it in a shower.
"Oh, now," says Jack unto himself, "I must see what he's about."
He caught the whale all by the tail and turned him inside out.

You can hear Eddy Primroy singing the Newfoundland version at MacEdward Leach and the songs of Atlantic Canada

The song also seems to have been widely parodied, for example one version starts:

Jack is every inch a sailor;
He’d see a pretty girl and hail ‘er.
He’d vow his love will never fail ‘er,
Then go sailing with his heart still free.”

Fresno Ballad Index and  Folksinger’s Wordbook

Not to be confused with an ealier song also called Every inch a sailor, written and composed around 1790 by Charles Dibdin, “sung by Mr. Incledon with the greatest applause at Vauxhall”. First Line: The wind blew hard, the sea ran high. Roud RNV646 ( The songs of Charles Dibdin, vol. 2, 1847)

Every inch a sailor was also the title of a short melodramatic play written by the actor John Thomas Haynes in the late 1830s and regularly performed until late in the 19th century.

Frank Crumit Sings it:

Sources: