Anmerkungen:
Charles Dickens erwähnt das Lied in „Two Dinner Failures, 1856, S. 121/122:
She was tipsy. Her hair was dishevelled her face was red. Empty bottles of every description, she was not particular in her drink, though she preferred rum, betokened the way she had been going. But she heeded not our presence and in the very face of Nemesis of us de frauded innocents of her wronged master and mistress thus she sang in a loud long sustained howl:
Flare up Mary Flare up
Mary Fiddle iddle um tum
Tow row row
Slowly and sadly we descended the stairs to make out the rest of our dinner with cake and wine. As we regained the salon, the air and the words that the wretched woman was singing, changed. She sang:
Hee roar up she rouses
What shall we do with the drunken sailor
What was to be done with the drunken sailor, was a secondary consideration to what was to be done with the drunken cook…
In dem Liederbuch: „Ships, Sea Songs and Shanties“ (1913, erste Auflage 1910, Collected by W. H. WHALL, Master Mariner, S. 107) wird das Lied so kommentiert:
It is generally supposed that shantying was never allowed in the Royal Service; this is not quite correct as this song and „Cheerly Man“ were sometimes allowed, particularly in revenue cutters and similar craft, and sotto voce in larger vessels. Both songs were used in the old Indiamen of „John Company“.
What shall we do with a drunken soldier
Put him in the guardroom till he gets sober
These were the only two verses. Each verse began with „Hoo rah and up she rises“. The whole was sung in chorus, in quick march time, with no pause between the verses. It was the only song used for a „stamp and go“ and when crews were reduced and it was no longer possible to „walk away“ with anything the song at once dropped out of use
und in The Independent (Band 67, 1909. S.80f)
wird das Lied in einer Sammlung mit Shantys als „A Main Brace Walk Away Chanty“ nur mit Refrain und einer Strophe zitiert:
What shall we do with a drunken sailor
What shall we do with a drunken sailor
What shall we do with a drunken sailor
Early in the morning ?
Put him in the long boat till he is sober
Put him in the long boat till he is sober
Put him in the long boat till he is sober
Early in the morning
(Stopper and Belay)
