Jolly sailor, together with The Bay of Biscay O

In the same format and using similar cuts, this broadside may have been printed at the same time as A New Sea Song. The broadside glorifies the life at sea with two songs, neither of which dwells on the horrors and hardships of the seaman’s life. “The Jolly Sailor” appeared in The American Musical Miscellany (1798) as a four-part vocal piece, a drinking song arranged perhaps for a club or masonic lodge to sing (163-65; Comic Songs 59-60). Ishmael Spicer copied the song into his collection and followed it with a masonic toast. The text appeared in ten songsters between 1797 and 1815 (R. Keller, Early American Songsters).

Like “The Tempest," “Bay of Biscay, O!” is a well-known disaster song of a storm at sea, describing the damage to the ship in vivid terms. The music was composed by John Davy (1763-1824) for his musical entertainment Spanish Dollars; or, The Priest of the Parish (1805), with lyrics by Irish actor and writer Andrew Cherry (1762-1812).The show was performed in Boston in 1808 and the song was published in several sheet music editions. The popular text was widely printed in songsters and on slip ballads in the nineteenth century, appearing in thirty-eight songsters between 1807 and 1820 (Porter, With an Air 536; Wolfe, Secular Music #2289-94; R. Keller, Early American Songsters; Roud).