• 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
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Laying on the Screw [poem by E. J. Brady]

21 January 2015 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by E. J. Brady was published in The Ways of Many Waters (1899).]

IX.

Laying on the Screw.

You can dunnage casks o’ tallow; you can handle hides an’ horn;
You can carry frozen mutton; you can lumber sacks o’ corn;
But the queerest kind o’ cargo that you’ve got to haul an’ pull
Is Australia’s “staple product” — is her God-abandoned wool.
For it’s greasy an’ it’s stinkin’, an’ them awkward, ugly bales
Must be jammed as close as herrings in a ship afore she sails.

So you yakker, yakker, yakker,
For the drop o’ beer an’ bacca,
For to earn your bloomin’ clobber an’ the bit o’ tuck you eat.
When you’re layin’ on the screw,
With the boss a-cursin’ you,
An’ the sweat runs like a river, an’ you’re chokin’ with the heat.

See “there’s someone got to do it,” as I’ve often heard ’em say,
But it means a lot o’ graftin’ for a very little pay,
An’ I ain’t a bit “contented with my bloomin’ earthly lot.”
An’ I’d take an easy billet — oh, I’d jump it on the spot.
For it’s greasy an’ it’s stinkin’, an’ I’m getting pretty full
Of this everlastin’ sweatin’ over blarsted bales o’ wool.

An’ they stow ’em close together,
An’ they never ask you whether
There is room enough to stand in, or a blessed breath o’ air
When you’re layin’ on the screw,
When you’re haulin’ on the screw,
And the skipper starts performin’ and the boss begins to swear.

With the trollies all unloadin’, an’ the press upon the go,
You can bet they keep us at it like the devil down below.
You can take your affidavy that the foreman at the hatch,
When the tally clerk is busy, makes the talent toe the scratch.
When the double dumps are comin’, an’ the winch begins to grind,
They will raise a chanty forrard of the stevedorin’ kind:

“I’m goin’ down to Tennessee,
Oh, take my love and come with me;”
Or, it’s “Cheer up, Mrs. Riley,” or “Blow, my Bully Boys, Blow” —
When you’re layin’ on the screw,
When you’re haulin’ on the screw,
In the fluffy, dirty darkness of them anchored hells below.

Oh! they say that Labour’s noble; but I’d rather be a toff,
An’ I’d wear a double-breaster, an’ I’d never take it off.
I can do me pint o’ tangle, an’ a pipe afore the bar,
But I would n’t sniff at sherry an’ a bloomin’ fine cigar.
Costs me just a sprat for dinner — meat an’ tea an’ spuds for that;
I’d prefer a taste o’ turkey, nicely browned, O Lord! an’ fat!

For it’s twist the screw and turn it,
And the bit you get you earn it;
You can take the tip from me, sir, that it’s anything but play
When you’re layin’ on the screw,
When you’re draggin’ on the screw,
In the summer, under hatches, in the middle o’ the day.

If Australia’s “staple product” is her glory, an’ her pride,
An’ “the makin’ of her future,” an’ a lot o’ things beside,
Then I reckon I’m assistin’ for to build the nation up,
When I’m graftin’ on the product for me bloomin’ bite and sup.
An’ I’d strike for ’igher wages if I thought I ’ad a show;
I would down me hook this minnit, an’ I’d up the hatch an’ go.

But there’s plenty of ’em prayin’
For a chance to graft, an’ sayin’
That the times is somethin’ dreadful; an’ they stand a-lookin’ on
When you’re layin’ on the screw,
When you’re toilin’ on the screw,
An’ they’d jump the job an’ keep it soon as ever you was gone.

So it’s “re-a-ri-a-rally,” an’ another tier o’ bales
For the glory of the empire, an’ the good of New South Wales;
But they’re stinkin’ an’ they’re heavy, an’ they’re awkward for to lift,
An’ the place you’ve got to stow ’em — w’y, there is n’t room to shift.
But you’re “broadenin’ out the channels of our great an’ growin’ trade,”
An’ you’re “helpin’ make our progress” — though it is n’t yours when made.

So it’s yakker, yakker, yakker,
For the drop o’ beer an’ bacca,
For the little bit o’ silver that you spend in meat and bread,
When you’re layin’ on the screw,
When you’re haulin’ on the screw,
Till yer blessed ’eart is broken an’ yer faith an’ ’ope is dead.




Source:
E. J. Brady, The Ways of Many Waters, Melbourne: Thomas C. Lothian, 1909 [first published 1899], pages 40-44

Editor’s notes:
bacca = tobacco

clobber = clothes; accessories, equipment, personal belongings, or supplies (can also mean to strike someone severely; beat, criticize, defeat, or treat harshly)

dunnage = padding and packaging material used to protect cargo during shipping

graft = work

sup = supper

tuck = tucker, i.e. food (it can also mean to eat, e.g. to “tuck in” to one’s food)

yakker = (also spelt “yakka”) work

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: E. J. Brady (1869-1952) (author), poem, SourceArchiveOrg, The Ways of Many Waters (E. J. Brady 1899), year1899

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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

Primary Sidebar

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

Search this site

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

  • [The new stamps] [re the new Tasmanian postage stamps, 2 January 1900]
  • The Leading Lady [poem by “Stargazer”, 31 January 1917]
  • The Naval Contingent: With the Australians in China [17 October 1900]
  • Australia Day [26 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [24 January 1953]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]

Archives

Categories

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]

Recent Comments

  • rob buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Carol on Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in