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What does Wellerman mean?
The song’s lyrics describe a whaling ship called the Billy o’ Tea and its hunt for a right whale. The song describes how the ship’s crew hope for a “wellerman” to arrive and bring them supplies of luxuries. Tonguing in this context refers to the practice of cutting strips of whale blubber to render into oil.
What is a Wellerman job?
Anyone under the employ of the Weller Bros. were referred to as a Wellerman, but in the specific context of the song the Wellerman takes on the meaning of a supply ship sent by the company. A Billy is slang for a makeshift kettle used for boiling water to make tea.
What does tonguing mean Wellerman?
The “tonguing” in the Wellerman lyrics refers to cutting strips of blubber to render into oil in large “try pots” — a challenging process aboard ship. The crew also required land on which to live and cultivate food.
Is the Wellerman copyrighted?
For literary works with unknown authors first published prior to 1955, copyright lasted for only 50 years after creation. This means that the literary works comprising the lyrics to the Soon May the Wellerman Come sea shanty are now in the public domain under Australian copyright law.
Global interest in ShantyTok began when a postman called Nathan Evans, who lives near Glasgow in Scotland, posted a video on TikTok of him singing “Soon May The Wellerman Come”, a 19th-century shanty sung by sailors crewing ships owned the Weller brothers, founders of a whaling station in New Zealand.
What makes a song a shanty?
shanty, also spelled Chantey, or Chanty (from French chanter, “to sing”), English-language sailors’ work song dating from the days of sailing ships, when manipulating heavy sails, by means of ropes, from positions on the deck constituted a large part of a sailor’s work.
What is the Tik Tok shanty?
In the beginning of January 2021, his rendition of a 19th Century sea shanty called ‘The Wellerman’ became a viral hit. Last week, TikTok reported 70 million of its videos had the hashtag “#wellerman,” while another 2.6 billion were marked “sea shanty.” They are dubbed Sea Shanty TikTok, or ShantyTok.
Is 1700s sea shanties copyrighted?
It is important to note that this flourishing creative scene is only possible because sea shanties are in the public domain—not under restrictive copyright rules. Therefore, they can be played, reused, dueted, remixed, and transformed.
Is The Wellerman copyrighted?
What does wellerman mean in the song?
Anyone under the employ of the Weller Bros. were referred to as a Wellerman, but in the specific context of the song the Wellerman takes on the meaning of a supply ship sent by the company. A Billy is slang for a makeshift kettle used for boiling water to make tea.
Who were the wellermen?
Edward Weller, 1831. Toitū Otago Settlers Museum. As it turns out, the Wellermen were as much an expression of colonialism as the chai-wallah would have been, as Ōtākou was originally a Māori settlement.
What is the meaning of soon May the wellerman come?
” Soon May the Wellerman Come “, also known as ” Wellerman ” [ c. 1860–70] is a sea shanty. The song frequently refers to the “wellermen”, supply ships owned by the British Weller brothers who emigrated to New Zealand.
Is the wellerman a sea shanty?
The Wellerman, with its clear narrative, comparatively long chorus, and preposterous conclusion, is a good candidate for that last category. In the broader sense of nautical songs with a strong engaging beat, however, it is eminently a sea shanty!