what "The Morgan Rattler" was really about
Jack Campin - bogus address
a couple of weeks ago. I think I've hit on the answer, while looking
for something else entirely.
From the Caledonian Mercury, Monday 12 November 1792. The first
paragraph is the relevant one; I include the others to show how
"news of the weird" reporting hasn't changed much in 200 years.
: Yesterday the Hinde frigate, commanded by the Hon. Captain Cochrane,
: arrived in Leith Roads from a cruize. She fell in with the famous
: Morgan Rattler, smuggler, and would have taken her, had not a thick
: fog come on.
: The Hinde will sail to-morrow for Shields. The seamen there are in
: a state of mutiny about their wages.
: A few days since, Rebecca Jarritt, of Oatham, with ease and
: cheerfulness, had upwards of eight gallons of water taken from
: her in one hour and a half. This is the twenty-second time she
: has had the same operation performed for the Ascites, as related
: in the Medical Com. vol. 2d, page 360.
: One Pickles, of Leeds, a soldier, who has been abroad about eight
: years, a few days ago came home to his wife, whom he found had,
: during his absence, lived with one William Skurr, and who, it seems,
: she liked better than her husband, as she refused to live with him;
: he therefore thought it proper to sell her to her favourite for
: half-a-guinea, and solemnly delivered her to him in a halter, on
: Thursday evening, at the market-cross.
On googling for "morgan rattler smuggler", two relevant entries come
up. One puts the boat in Redcar, the other (a bit later) in Polperro.
Maybe they were the same boat and the smuggler shifted his area of
operations when Teesside got too dangerous.
Gore's Scots Fiddle Music Index lists the three earliest printings
of the "Morgan Rattler" tune as 1790 (Robert Petrie), 1791 and 1792.
Gore's dates are sometimes slightly out, as he tended to re-use
librarians' guesses rather than slog through newspapers looking for
"Newly Printed Now Is..." adverts; I haven't checked on Petrie, but
the 1792 one is definitely right, and if the boat was "celebrated"
at the end of that year it could have been operating more than two
years earlier.
So, I reckon this relates to smuggling in the north-east of England
around 1790. Anyone want to trawl papers from the area for stories
about the boat, or maybe some words for the tune? Is the tune based
on an earlier one from the same area?
The single verse from C.K. Sharpe's manuscripts has nothing to do
with this:
I took her into a Brandy Shop
I gave her a Glass or two to settle her
I laid her down flat on the Broad of her Back
And lathered her up with my Morgan Rattler.
============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557
David Kilpatrick
I think you are overshooting on this one. There may have been a
smuggling ship named the 'Morgan Rattler', but you have not asked the
question - why name the ship this?
To me, it seems that the ship is named for something, rather than
something (C K Sharpe's verse reference, or the tune) named for it. It
is possible that the tune and the ship are both named for a source you
have not tracked back far enough to locate (or which can't be located).
I would be thinking along two lines - racehorse or weapon, possibly a
light cannon. Henry Morgan was a national hero as a privateer in the
17th century and maybe the origin of the name has connections with
Morgan. It would make sense for a smuggling boat to take its name from
an association with the last great (successful) British pirate. It's
possible the other references come from a common origin, and are not
otherwise connected.
David
Alan Crozier
news:bogus-0B0EF1....@news.news.demon.net...
In the earlier thread you said you found the term defined as a kind of cosh. I just looked
up Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, which defines "morgan
rattler" as "a cane or stick with a knob of lead at one or both ends, and short enough to be
carried up the sleeve". I was interested to see any dates or etymologies Partridge gave. It
was used in "low slang" in 1902 (and presumably before this), coming from dialect usage
(recorded in 1866). He thinks it's probably from a man's name, comparing the analogous cosh
and neddy.
The name Morgan Rattler seems to have been used for various purposes in the 19th century: as
a name for both real and fictional rogues, and for a horse that sired the 1859 Grand
National winner. Your smuggler from 1792 takes it back even further.
There must be some very interesting (and probably lost) stories behind all this. Maybe
Morgan Rattler was an early pseudonym for Hugh Jampton?
Alan
--
Alan Crozier
Lund
Sweden
Molly Mockford
<icon...@btconnect.com> wrote in
<kPGdnYbO8o4c1qHZ...@bt.com>:
>I would be thinking along two lines - racehorse or weapon, possibly a
>light cannon.
Another possibility is a coach, most likely a mail-coach; I haven't
double-checked, but I think there were quite often accorded the
soubriquet of xxxx Rattler - on account, of course, of the high speeds
they achieved over bad roads. The names of the coaches would have been
as well-known then, even to those who never saw them, as the Flying
Scotsman was to our own generation.
--
Molly Mockford
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety - Benjamin Franklin
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)
Jack Campin - bogus address
> smuggling ship named the 'Morgan Rattler', but you have not asked the
> question - why name the ship this?
> To me, it seems that the ship is named for something, rather than
> something (C K Sharpe's verse reference, or the tune) named for it.
> It is possible that the tune and the ship are both named for a source
> you have not tracked back far enough to locate (or which can't be
> located).
The point is in the coincidence of dates - the tune appeared at the
time the ship was in operation, and was published only a day's sail
from its home port. Of course the ship was named after something
else, but the timing suggests the tune was named after the ship. The
Caledonian Mercury's comment suggests that this boat had an unusual
degree of notoriety; other smuggling boats didn't get named in print
until they'd been arrested, and not always then.
Once the tune had got into circulation and had travelled far enough
in time or space for the association with the ship to be forgotten,
people would assume that the earlier meaning of the phrase was what
the tune was named for - and I would guess whoever wrote the words
Sharpe found (after 1800) had done exactly that.
There must be a history of smuggling in the Durham/Northumberland
area that would say what was special about this boat.
Barry Callaghan
Campin - bogus address <bo...@purr.demon.co.uk> writes
>> I think you are overshooting on this one. There may have been a
>> smuggling ship named the 'Morgan Rattler', but you have not asked the
>> question - why name the ship this?
>> To me, it seems that the ship is named for something, rather than
>> something (C K Sharpe's verse reference, or the tune) named for it.
>> It is possible that the tune and the ship are both named for a source
>> you have not tracked back far enough to locate (or which can't be
>> located).
>
>The point is in the coincidence of dates - the tune appeared at the
>time the ship was in operation, and was published only a day's sail
>from its home port. Of course the ship was named after something
>else, but the timing suggests the tune was named after the ship. The
>Caledonian Mercury's comment suggests that this boat had an unusual
>degree of notoriety; other smuggling boats didn't get named in print
>until they'd been arrested, and not always then.
>
>Once the tune had got into circulation and had travelled far enough
>in time or space for the association with the ship to be forgotten,
>people would assume that the earlier meaning of the phrase was what
>the tune was named for - and I would guess whoever wrote the words
>Sharpe found (after 1800) had done exactly that.
>
>There must be a history of smuggling in the Durham/Northumberland
>area that would say what was special about this boat.
The Ship Inn at Saltburn was the centre for the free-trade on this
stretch of coast, and the landlord, one John Andrew, was 'the King of
the Smugglers'. He also owned the nearby White House, and in the stables
there hid contraband in a chamber under one of the stalls. When the
place was to be searched, the stable lad had strict instructions to put
in that stall a mare that could be counted upon to kick viciously at any
stranger. Adjoining houses were reputedly linked to the pub by a tunnel.
The smuggling landlord owned a cutter called the Morgan Rattler, (though
this may have been a mis-reading of the Morgan Butler that operated from
Stockton around the end of the 18th century). In the course of a long
career landing illegal cargoes, he had many brushes with the law and
spent a spell behind bars when caught on a run at Hornsea. He died in
1835.
from
http://www.smuggling.co.uk/gazetteer_e_16.html
I also notice that Andrew Kuntz's Fiddler's Companion notes that Aird 3
(1788) has Jackson's Bouner Bougher (att. to Walter Jackson)as being two
parts of Morgan Rattler, and also says there is The Morgan Rattler as a
four parter under that title - though I can't see this in the title
index of Aird 3... Also in Petrie 1790
Still all around the same time
Barry
--
Barry Callaghan
Alan Crozier
news:zzn$DUCpDN...@endcliffe.demon.co.uk...
Some more things from around the same time:
The British Library catalogue has a work by Paddy O'Rafferty, published
in Limerick in 1790(?) with a song called Morgan Rattler.
From Google Scholar I see that there is a book called Verse in English from
Eighteenth-Century Ireland, ed. Andrew Carpenter with a chapter called Chapbbok verse of the
1780s. One is entitled Darby O'Gallagher, or the Answer to Morgan Rattler. All I can access
is the table of contents
And from a completely different time and place, the term "morgan rattler" is used in
Cornwall as an equivalent of bobby-dazzler.
David Kilpatrick
>>I think you are overshooting on this one. There may have been a
>>smuggling ship named the 'Morgan Rattler', but you have not asked the
>>question - why name the ship this?
>>To me, it seems that the ship is named for something, rather than
>>something (C K Sharpe's verse reference, or the tune) named for it.
>>It is possible that the tune and the ship are both named for a source
>>you have not tracked back far enough to locate (or which can't be
>>located).
>
>
> The point is in the coincidence of dates - the tune appeared at the
> time the ship was in operation, and was published only a day's sail
> from its home port. Of course the ship was named after something
> else, but the timing suggests the tune was named after the ship.
I see the point there, especially if the locus of the tune's origin is
that close to home.
Still be interested to know the first origin!
David
Chris Rockcliffe
> There must be a history of smuggling in the Durham/Northumberland
> area that would say what was special about this boat.
Here's a snippet or two...
From a Royal Navy slang book: Morgan Rattler: After Sir Henry Morgan (circa
1635-88) buccaneer and Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. Rattle is the naval
slang for prison and Sir Henry Morgan is reputed to have always carried a
large bunch of keys around with him.
At least one later RN Ship was named after Sir Henry Morgan and
affectionately called, Rattler. There is a tradition in the Royal Navy of
giving some people with the surname Morgan, the nickname, *Rattler*, just as
Williamses are called Bungy, and Smiths are called Smudge.
There were also several race horses of the 19th century named Rattler or
x Rattler or Rattler x. Rattler is also a common traditional name given to
a foxhound.
RATTLER GV No.41. (1797 Leith. Sold 1802) 1799- Lieut. Samuel WICKHAM, Firth
of Forth.
RATTLER, 16 (1795 Northam. Sold 1815) 1795 Willoughby Thomas LAKE, 4/95, a
Channel cruiser under the orders of Sir Peter PARKER. He was posted into the
PR0SERPINE frigate in January 1796. 1796 John COCHET, 1/96. After cruising
off the French coast for some time she sailed to the West Indies where Cdr.
COCHET was posted into the ABERGAVENNY by Sir Hyde PARKER.
1797 J. ALLEN, 6/97. J. HALL, 7/97. 1798 John Wentworth LORING, Jamaica,
where he was promoted commander into RATTLER by his patron, Sir Hyde PARKER
in June 1798. Cdr. LORING superintended the evacuation of the Caymites
Islands near San Domingo in conjunction with Brigadier Sir Brett Spencer and
was appointed to LARK in September.
1799 J. HAYES, 2/99. John Mathias SPREAD, 4/99, Jamaica. RATTLER captured a
French 10-gun privateer in 1799 and a Spanish gunvessel mounting two guns in
June 1800. RATTLER returned to Portsmouth with dispatches on 11 June 1802
and 10 days later sailed to Deptford to be paid off. 1803 Deptford.
1804 Francis MAS0N, 1/04. In February she joined Sir W. Sidney SMITH off
Flushing. 0n the night of 8 March 1804 the boats from RATTLER and CRUIZER
cut out the cutter C0L0MBE from the harbour at Sluys. Unfortunately the
prize grounded on the bar and had to be burnt to avoid recapture.
0n 15 May, CRUIZER and RATTLER, under the command of Capt. HANCOCK of the
former, were off 0stend when they saw the enemy flotilla hauling out. The
following morning the Flushing flotilla of two praams, 19 schooners and 38
schuyts came out and sailed down the coast towards 0stend. ANTELOPE
signalled this news to HANCOCK and CRUIZER and RATTLER proceeded to attack
the long line of enemy ships, particularly the two praams, both more
powerful than themselves. The flotilla attempted to return to Flushing after
ANTELOPE cut off the van and they were pursued by the two sloops in the
Inner Welling. 0ne praam, la VILLE D'AIX, was engaged by RATTLER for three
hours during the afternoon; the praam keeping close inshore and frequently
grounding, RATTLER constantly filling and backing to keep abreast of her.
Just after 5 p.m., with the praam fast ashore, RATTLER hauled off to repair
her rigging. RATTLER lost 2 men killed and 10 wounded in the action. Three
shots entered between wind and water and a number of others passed through
the hull. A shell stove in the quarter-deck and all her lower masts were
disabled as were her sails, yards and rigging After refitting at Sheerness
she returned to her station off the Belgian coast. 0n 23 June MASON saw 26
schuyts coming out from 0stend and made sail across the Binnen Sand to join
GALGO and INSPECTOR who had already joined action. For nearly three hours
she ran along the shore keeping up a brisk fire with the schuyts and the
batteries ashore until proximity to the Stroom Sand forced her to haul off
after forcing one vessel ashore. Three shells landed on RATTLER. 0ne stove
in planks on the quarterdeck, the second damaged the head of the main mast.
The third was scooped up in his hat by a boy, one of Capt. MASON's servants,
and thrown through a port. Several shot had gone through the hull and one
gun carriage was disabled.
0n 5 January 1805 boats from RATTLER and the lugger FOLKSTONE made an
unsuccessful attempt to cut out a French privateer anchored near St. Valery
en Caux. Mr DALYELL, acting lieutenant of RATTLER, and Mr DONALDSON, acting
commander of FOLKSTONE, were both severely wounded. The privateer was the 60
ton lugger VIMEREUX, armed with 15 guns and commanded by Jan B. Pollet with
a crew of 69 men. After sailing from St. Valery on the 17th she was captured
by Capt. ELPHINSTONE in GREYHOUND the following day. She was a fine sailer
and Capt. ELPHINSTONE believed that if he had not been favoured by frequent
changes in wind his pursuit of her would have been fruitless.
In May 1805 RATTLER sailed for Newfoundland and, over a period of five days
had some unpleasant close encounters with icebergs in foggy weather over the
Banks. She returned to England with a convoy of merchantmen and was sent
back to Newfoundland with the westbound trade. 0ff the south of Ireland she
was damaged in a collision with a merchantman and had to go into Kinsale for
repairs. When she continued her voyage she had a narrow escape from a French
squadron from Rochefort. Throughout the winter of 1805/6 RATTLER was frozen
up in St John's harbour. Capt. MASON was promoted to post rank on 22 January
1806 but was not superseded in command until 3 July.
During the following two years RATTLER continued to escort convoys across
the Atlantic. 1807 J. AGASSIZ to Newfoundland 13 September. 1808 ditto, to
Newfoundland on 21 September.
1809 Alexander GORDON, 12/09, convoying transports to Lisbon. 1811 ditto,
Cork, later North American station under Vice-Ad. SAWYER. At the end of May
1811 he was on a board of enquiry at Halifax into the action between LITTLE
BELT and the American frigate PRESIDENT.
In 1812 Capt. GORDON commanded a small detachment in the Bay of Fundy where
they captured many prizes. Later in the year RATTLER moved further south off
New Jersey and Maryland where she made more captures in September
17th. Schooner RUMNEY, Baltimore to St. Bartholomew's
24th. Schooner SANTA MARIA, Boston to Havana.
25th. Brig ARMISTED, Philadelphia to Havana.
26th. Schooner JOSEPHA, Baltimore to Havana.
27th. Sloop POLLY, Philadelphia to Havana
The last two were captured in company with SAPPHO.
0n 2 May 1813 he chased the American privateer schooner GALLYNIPPEE ashore
near Bayley's Mistake. She was then attacked and destroyed by RATTLER'S
boats under acting master James CUTLIP. The American was armed with 2 long
6-pounders and carried a crew of 35 men. 0n the 19th of the same month he
drove ashore an 18-gun privateer ALEXANDER which was returning to Salem
after a 10 week cruise. Most of the crew escaped ashore at Kenebank but
several were drowned as they swam from her. The schooner BREAM helped
RATTLER get her off. GORDON removed to the CHESAPEAKE frigate on 28 June
1813.
1814 Henry BOURNE. RATTLER came under the orders of Sir Alexander COCHRANE
at Bermuda and made more captures.
9 February 1814 Schooner FLASH, San Domingo to New York.
17 February 1814 Sloop VIPER, Nashawa Is. to Nantucket.
1815 ditto, Deptford.
CR
Barry Callaghan
Rockcliffe <chrisro...@scripto99.demon.co.uk> writes
>
>There were also several race horses of the 19th century named Rattler or
>x Rattler or Rattler x.
Morgan Rattler, in fact, won the 1853 (I think) Grand National....
Barry
--
Barry Callaghan
Peanutjake
in history by a bit of research.
Congratulations to all the researchers. Well done.
PJ
Peter
> Jack Campin - bogus address12/4/06 10:10 am
I think I was the OP on this subject, so thanks very much Jack, Chris,
and others in this thread. Absolutely fascinating, particularly the
possible Henry Morgan connection.
> From a Royal Navy slang book: Morgan Rattler: After Sir Henry Morgan (circa
> 1635-88) buccaneer and Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. Rattle is the naval
> slang for prison and Sir Henry Morgan is reputed to have always carried a
> large bunch of keys around with him.
So possible mid-17th Century origin. This would seem to be the earliest
connection found thus far, pre-dating both the NE England and Irish
sources by around years?
> At least one later RN Ship was named after Sir Henry Morgan and
> affectionately called, Rattler. <snip>
As an aside I note from 'The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea',
that in 1845 HMS Rattler was converted to screw propulsion and took part
in Admiralty trials to compare screws vs. paddle-wheels.
Peter
Dominic Cronin
<bo...@purr.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>There must be a history of smuggling in the Durham/Northumberland
>area that would say what was special about this boat.
>
Redcar is on the North Yorkshire coast. The village of Robin Hood's
bay a little further South is definitely famed for smuggling, and one
imagines this was not the only location for it nearby. If you only
landed at one place, the authorities would just wait there for you.
--
Dominic Cronin
Amsterdam
Jacey Bedford
<dom...@ReplaceThisBitWithMySurname.co.uk.invalid> writes
>On Wed, 12 Apr 2006 10:10:29 +0100, Jack Campin - bogus address
><bo...@purr.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>
>>There must be a history of smuggling in the Durham/Northumberland
>>area that would say what was special about this boat.
>>
>
>Redcar is on the North Yorkshire coast.
Erm... Not sure it is, actually.
After local government reorganisation in 1975 Redcar was officially
located in Cleveland which was no longer part of Yorkshire.
I'd be really interested to know where it is now (governmentally
speaking) since IIRC Cleveland, Avon and Humberside were changed again.
Geographically speaking I doubt that Redcar has moved far since 1975
(depending on the current rate of continental drift)
>The village of Robin Hood's
>bay a little further South
Definitely in Yorkshire!
:-)
Jacey
>
--
Jacey Bedford
jacey at artisan hyphen harmony dot com
Chris Ryall
>>The village of Robin Hood's
>>bay a little further South
>
>Definitely in Yorkshire!
>:-)
Hmm - not so sure! There is definitely a Robin Hood's *Bay* between
Whitby and Scarborough, but the 'bay' Robin rode against the wicked
sheriff ;)) probably came from a village somewhere in Nottinghamshire
--
Chris Ryall - in pedantic mood
David Kilpatrick
Since when were the forest of Barnsdale and Kirkstall Abbey in
Nottinghamshire? He was a Yorkshireman through and through! Sherwood was
bigger in them days.
David
johnb
That must be true 'cos in the film I'm sure I saw them mucking about by
Aysgarth Falls. Don't know why he had a 'Mercan accent though ...
Mark Bluemel
They also went from the White Cliffs of Dover to Sherwood via Hadrian's
Wall, as I recall... So perhaps Sherwood extended into Scotland.
Some friends tell me that if you look closely enough you can also see a
cast iron man-hole cover in an arab street scene, and they jump off a
castle wall in England and land in a castle in France, or vice-versa...
Jack Campin - bogus address
> in Limerick in 1790(?) with a song called Morgan Rattler.
Paddy O'Rafferty is a song, not an author. It was a big hit at the end of
the 18th century, particularly popular with flute players.
The Morgan Rattler song is in Early English Books Online. It's a generic
lad-in-the-big-city-gets-fleeced-by-a-hooker song, not a very interesting
example of the genre.
The tune is far too complicated to fit it.
What this multiplicity of meanings does suggest is that "Morgan Rattler"
would be a great name for a macho pub-folk group. (The female equivalent
woukd be Morgiana - she got around, about the same period).