We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Nets Below the Gangway

from Crossing the Line by Forty Degrees South

supported by
Rick Pollay
Rick Pollay thumbnail
/

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Songs of the southern oceans - 22 tracks

    Comes in cardboard sleeve with printed 8 page booklet

    Shipping outside Australia takes 2-3 weeks using standard postage. Contact us for any queries.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Crossing the Line via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      $20 AUD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 AUD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 4 Forty Degrees South releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Crossing the Line, Life Of Brine, Shore Leave, and Hazard, Hardship And Damned Little Pay. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $38.25 AUD or more (15% OFF)

     

about

Published in The Ways of Many Waters. In the shanty ‘South Australia’ she-oak is the term used in the 1890s for bush beer and around this time the safety nets below the gangway were known as ‘she-oak nets’.

lyrics

They cast ’em down at Plymouth where the water’s deep and cool
And they drop ’em round from Melbourne to the wharves of Liverpool
There are nets for shallow waters where the brown sand-mullet be
But the net below the gangway is the net for you and me

Chorus:
So ye rowdy, roaring devils with your roaring, rowdy song
When we’ve rolled for recreation with our sweethearts round the town;
When a sailor’s had a skinful and he staggers back from shore
There’s a net below the gangway for to catch you if you fall

So they “shoot” them in the Hudson, in the Thames and at the Tay
They’re “cast” in Sydney Harbour and in San Francisco Bay.
Oh, the net below the gangway it is sweeter for our togs
Than the slush about the Bridges, or around the Isle of Dogs

Oh, ’tis better that we gather in the meshes of the trawls”
Where a drunken shellback flounders, where a swearing man-crab crawls
Than the bubbles at the surface, than a splashing in the dark
Than a drag-hooked, bloated boozer, or a picnic for John Shark.

So ye rowdy, roaring devils with your roaring, rowdy song
When we’ve rolled for recreation with our sweethearts round the town;
’tis pleasant to remember when we’re blind and cannot see
That the net below the gangway will be kind to you and me

credits

from Crossing the Line, released July 9, 2021
Edwin J. Brady 1909
Tune trad.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Forty Degrees South image

Forty Degrees South Sydney, Australia

A Sydney folk group known from 1988 for their powerful impact when singing unaccompanied traditional songs.

Strong individual singers, the interplay of their combined voices makes for a distinctive sound.

Sea shanties and other songs of maritime and industrial history and union songs feature large in their repertoire, songs with a robust quality that tell of real people, their lives and work. ... more

contact / help

Contact Forty Degrees South

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Forty Degrees South recommends:

If you like Forty Degrees South, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Seafood Sam joins the show to discuss his newest album, " Standing On Giant Shoulders".
listen now