Drunken Sailor: History, Music and Rum
Thursday 12 December, 6.30 – 8pm
Musical talk with Musician Jim Causley, Curator James Davey, Former Royal Navy Officer Roger Paine Hoorah for Jack Tar! Meet the many faces of the British sailor in a heady evening of song, rum and history.
£15 | NMM Member £13
More info
Music of the Sea: what has the season been about?
To celebrate the opening Nelson, Navy, Nation – a new National Maritime Museum permanent gallery that tells the story of the Royal Navy and the British people between 1688–1815 in October 2013 – EFDSS and the National Maritime Museum (NMM) co-curated a season of events entitled Music of the Sea.
A key aim of the Nelson, Navy, Nation gallery is to tell the story of life at sea. Music played a central part in life at sea, providing not only entertainment and contributing to the health and morale of seamen but also providing rhythm and cohesion to the everyday tasks of sailors and fishermen. This section of the gallery houses a recreation of a mess table, with a replica fiddle allowing visitors to select and play modern recordings of authentic eighteenth-century songs and ballads. Malcolm Taylor, Director of EFDSS’ library and archive, the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML), and scholar Roy Palmer helped to inform the song selections that include ‘The Jolly Sailor’s Description of a Man-of-War’, ‘Spanish Ladies’, ‘A New Sea Song’ and ‘Heart of Oak’. These songs will help create an experiential environment that captures the reality of life at sea, within the gallery.
Nelson, Navy, Nation
Nelson, Navy, Nation brings together over 250 objects from the Museum’s unrivalled collections, including exceptional works of art such as Devis’s Death of Nelson and William Hogarth’s Captain Lord George Graham in his Cabin; little known treasures like Gabriel Bray’s shipboard watercolours; and iconic items such as Nelson’s uniform from the Battle of Trafalgar.
