Making waves
A sea shanty going viral around the world could have its origins in Timaru.
Nathan Evans, a 26-year-old postman from Ardie, Scotland, has been digging up songs performed by early seafarers and posting them on video sharing app TikTok.
One of those shanties, Soon May The Wellerman Come, has racked up more than 4 million views since last month and newspapers around the world have taken up the story.
The publicity has sparked the interest of WuHoo Timaru co-founder Roselyn Fauth who believes the shanty could have been either composed, or sung by whalers, in Timaru during the early years of European settlement more than 180 years ago.
‘‘The early whalers could have sung it waiting for the Wellerman,’’ Fauth said.
The Wellerman referred to provision ships operated by the Weller brothers, Joseph, George and Edward, which supplied their whaling stations, two of them at Timaru’s Patiti Point and Caroline Bay in the late 1830s.
The shanty was believed to have been written by a young whale station worker pining for ‘‘sugar and tea and rum,’’ and recalling a whaling ship the Billy o’ Tea, and its encounters with a right whale.
Fauth is now thinking about getting a group together to learn the sea shanty and film it being sung at the Patiti Point whaling pot.
‘‘Older people know about Timaru having whaling stations but TikTok is now a way for young people to learn about our heritage.’’
Fauth said one of the whaling station workers in Timaru was Samuel Williams who may have worked alongside the shanty’s composer.
‘‘When the whaling stations fell over, Samuel Williams went to Akaroa to work as a farmhand where he told the Rhodes brothers there was good land down here. They came and established Levels Station. Samuel returned and lived in a cottage near the Landing Service building.’’
Williams and his wife had the first European-child born in Timaru, William Williams.
Soon May The Wellerman Come There once was a ship that put to sea The name of the ship was the Billy of Tea
The winds blew up, her bow dipped down
O blow, my bully boys, blow Soon may the Wellerman come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the tonguin’ is done We’ll take our leave and go
She had not been two weeks from shore
When down on her a right whale bore
The captain called all hands and swore
He’d take that whale in tow Before the boat had hit the water
The whale’s tail came up and caught her
All hands to the side, harpooned and fought her
When she dived down below
No line was cut, no whale was freed The Captain’s mind was not of greed But he belonged to the whaleman’s creed
She took the ship in tow
For forty days, or even more
The line went slack, then tight once more
All boats were lost, there were only four
But still that whale did go
As far as I’ve heard, the fight’s still on
The line’s not cut and the whale’s not gone
The Wellerman makes his regular call
To encourage the Captain, crew, and all