Boney

Boney is a short haul shanty, used for brief but very strenuous jobs – typically adjusting the set of the huge sails against the heavy pressure of the wind. In traditional shanty singing, it was the job of the shantyman to get shanties going by calling out the verses; then all the other sailors would pitch in with the choruses. In this arrangement, the shantyman’s role is taken first by the Tenors, then passed to the Baritones, then back again (or on to the Basses).

‘Boney’ is of course Napoleon Bonaparte, and the song gives a potted and partisan history of his adventures and final defeat at the hands of the British. The ‘Billy Ruffian’ is sailor slang for the Bellerophon, the ship that took Napoleon into exile on St Helena.