• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books and booklets
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry and songs
  • Slang
  • Timeline
  • Topics
    • Anzac Day
    • Australia Day
    • Australian Aborigines
    • Australianism
    • Australian literature
    • The Eureka Rebellion
    • Explorers
    • Significant events and commemorative dates

Call All Hands [song by W. T. Goodge, 30 December 1899]

20 April 2019 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This song by W. T. Goodge was published in The Orange Leader, 30 December 1899. It was previously published in The Daily Telegraph on 28 December 1899, but with several lines omitted (the The Orange Leader printed the full version). This song was written at the time of the Boer War (South Africa, 1899-1902).]

Call All Hands!

(From the Daily Telegraph.)

There’s a whisper that was borne upon the breeze—
Which the same is just a fancy kind o’ fable—
As a fact the message went across the seas
By that unpoetic agency, the cable.
All the same it sent a sympathetic thrill
Through the Anglo-Saxon folk in other lands:—
“If you’re in for stormy weather,
Kindly count us all together,
And be good enough to call all hands!”
We hear the bugle calling on the British Grenadiers,
We hearken to the marching of the Irish Fusiliers;
The piping of the Highlanders is ringing in our ears,
So be kind enough to call: “All hands!”

CHORUS:
Call all hands! And we’ll show the doubting stranger
Albion can range her
Sons in time o’ danger!
Mistress of her destiny there’s nobody can change her;
Pass the word to call: “All hands!”

We can hold our own at any kind of sport,
As we showed with William Beach and Edward Trickett,
We are rivals of enthusiastic sort,
And we gloried in defeating you at cricket.
But we’re British to the marrow all the time
As we’ll show you when the circumstance demands;
And we’ll do the best we’re able
If you’ll kindly send a cable
That the word is passed to call all hands!

We’re going to find a place among the nations of the earth,
We’ll found a new Britannia or we’ll try for all we’re worth.
But we don’t forget the country where the Empire had its birth,
And we’re ready when you call: “All hands!”

And they talk of your “decadence,” if you please!
And the beggars never seem to have a notion
That the Britain who is mistress of the seas
Has a group of growing Britains o’er the ocean!
We prefer a reign of quietness and peace,
But if trouble comes we’ll show them how it stands—
That ten thousand miles of water
Makes the British all the tauter
When they pass the word to call: “All hands!”
We’re English as the English though the waters lie between,
We’re Irish as the Irish who are soldiers of the Queen,
We’re Scotch as any Scotchman in the town of Aberdeen,
And we’re Britons when you call: “All hands!”

W. T. GOODGE.

[The lines in italics were omitted in the The Daily Telegraph. — W.T.G.]



Source:
The Orange Leader and Millthorpe Messenger (Orange, NSW), 30 December 1899, p. 6

Previously published (with some lines omitted) in:
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW), 28 December 1899, p. 7

Editor’s notes:
This song was set to music by Mr. T. H. Massey, and published under the name of “Pipe All Hands”.

The words of the song were published in dozens of Australian newspapers, mostly under the original title of “Call All Hands”, although some papers printed it under the title of “Pipe All Hands”, e.g.:
The National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW), 24 January 1900, p. 2
Truth (Sydney, NSW), 4 February 1900, p. 5

A slightly different version of this song was published during the First World War, as a single-sheet recitation, entitled “The Voice of the “Anzacs”: “All Hands””, as recited by the comedian Ed. E. Ford. It did not include the chorus or the section about sport (in italics, above), and there were some minor differences in several other lines, as follows:
We mean to take a place among the nations of the earth;
But we don’t forget the country where our Empire had its birth,
They talk of your decadence, if you please,
But the beggars never seem to have a notion
But now trouble’s come we’ll show them how it stands
When you pass the word and call all hands.
We’re as English as the English, though the water lies between;
We’re as Irish as the Irish, who are soldiers of the King;
We’re as Scotch as any Scotchman in the town of Aberdeen,
And we’re Britons now you’ve called all hands.

cable = electrical telegraph cable, which was used to send telegrams, being the fastest means of communication in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century (cable communications were greatly assisted by the development of Morse code in the 1830s and 1840s)

Edward Trickett = an Australian champion sculler (rower); he was born in Greenwich (Sydney, NSW) in 1851, and died in Uralla (NSW) in 1916

found = establish, originate, set up; lay the foundations of a new creation (e.g. to found a business, country, dynasty, institution); to bring something into existence

o’ = abbreviation of the word “of”

o’er = over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)

taut = something noted for its efficiency, good order, or conciseness; neat, tidy, trim; firm, strong (may also refer to something which has been pulled tight, or tightly drawn, such as a string, cord, or rope; something tense or strained)

William Beach = an Australian champion sculler (rower); he was born in Chertsey (Surrey, England) in 1850, migrated to Australia with his family as a small child, and died in Dapto (Wollongong, NSW) in 1935

[Editor: Replaced the single quotation mark after “enough to call all hands” with a double quotation mark.]

Filed Under: songs Tagged With: Boer War (1899-1902), song, SourceTrove, W. T. Goodge (author) (1862-1909), year1899

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Western bush fire: Several crops burnt [5 January 1906]
  • Buy “Australian-Made” [by W. R. Bagnall, 22 June 1928]
  • The Bad Boy [poem regarding Henry Parkes, 12 May 1877]
  • A rod in pickle [political cartoon regarding Henry Parkes, 12 May 1877]
  • “Devil’s luck” [short story, 20 December 1901]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Surely God was a Lover [poem by John Shaw Neilson]
  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
  • The drover’s wife [by Henry Lawson]

Categories

Archives

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Search this site



For Australia


Copyright © 2022 · Log in