Relayed from the Canton Secondary School for Boys
(Headmaster, J. Elwyn James)
Shantyman, W. Morgan Evans
Crew, The School (450 Voices)

Shanties:

In the revival of interest in the old Sea Shanties Sir Richard Terry has had a large share, and his arrangements are among the most popular, as they are among the most musicianly. As everybody knows, he has done distinguished work on behalf of church music, particularly during his long term of office at Westminster Cathedral. His researches in the realm of Sea Shanties have been more in the nature of a recreation, though he has carried out the task with the same enthusiasm which he gave to his more serious work.
Most of the Shanties are work tunes, intended to help the men in the old days of sail in carrying out the heavy tasks where 'A long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together' was needed. But some of them deal rather with the off-duty side of a sailor's life, and some are definitely shore songs. Many betray cither an American origin or a sailorman's intimate knowledge of the other side of the Atlantic. 'Billy Boy,' the first in this afternoon's programme, is associated with the hard work around the capstan when the anchor was being raised. Billy has evidently been confessing to his mother that he has found a lady-love, and his mother puts him through a catechism as to whether the girl will make a good housekeeper.