Local History
Young Ewing Allison wrote ‘Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum’
A trait of heredity in the life of a little child is often amusing to his family and his friends, and when the same trait runs through the generations of a family like a bright thread through dark fabric, it is both interesting and notable.
I recall reading an amusing little article last year with a quote from an old Civil War diary owned by a Young E. Allison of Louisville. I laughed at the story, and the comment by the columnist, but the thing that amused me most was the fact that more than a 150 years ago here was a man with the unusual humor of Young Ewing Allison displaying the same good sense of humor here in Muhlenberg County. Stories are still told about the Irish Allisons who were among the first settlers in this county.
When Samuel and Margaret Allison left their home in Ulster province to come to America, it took the courage of youth and the ability to laugh at hardships. They came first to North Carolina and later, in 1796, the moved on to Logan County, Kentucky. Muhlenberg County was made a county soon after that and the Allisons pushed on to the new county, where they cleared land and built their home in what is now the Friendship neighborhood. There they made their home, reared their family, and there are they buried. Sam Allison and his wife were both well educated and saw to it that all of their children received a better than average education as well as being the best rifle shot in the county. Otto Rothert, in his “History of Muhlenberg County,” says Sam Allison was one of 18 men in Muhlenberg who had subscribed to have a Bible published in 1818. A great-granddaughter, Mrs. James Duvall of Greenville, owned the Bible for many years with his name inscribed. He was born 1767 and his death occurred in 1827. His wife lived 1773-1834. Both are buried near the Friendship church.
When James Weir wrote his famous book “Lonz Powers” in 1850, he created many of his characters with traits of the people he knew in Muhlenberg and Christian counties. His main character, Lonz, was really the outlaw Lonz Pennington [though] a bit “souped up.” The Allison boys who worked with Charles Fox Wing ar [sic] pranked with the Courthouse bunch had a great reputation as practical jokers. So Weir livened up his story with some of their escapades and called them “The Allston Boys.” The outlaw band known as the Regulators, under the leadership of Lonz Powers, were guilty of many misdemeanors, but not quite as many as they were given credit for. Dan Swallow, an old attorney and friend of the Allstons, received a letter telling him to be in a certain part of the woods and meet with the Regulators to give them some legal advice. For several days, old Dan imagined he was pursued at every turn, and he was encouraged in this belief by his friends, the Allstons. The joke was too good to keep, and when he found he was the butt of another of the Allston's jokes he laughed with them, being relieved to know the Regulators were not after him.
Weir also gave the Allstons credit for the famous “Dog Supper” which was enough to fill the stomach of a billygoat. The story went that one of the Allstons invited his friends to what he called a “dog supper.” They all joked about eating dog and went on with their supper. After the plates were empty and the pork, beef or whatever the meat had been, was thoroughly enjoyed, the host reached under the table and dragged out the hide of an old dog they recognized as “Old Watch,” the Allston's dog. Needless to say, this broke up the party, and parties for years to come, wherever it was told.
The children in this remarkable family were: William Dickson, Charles McLean, Young Ewing, John Adair, Nancy R. and Sam Hensley. Nancy, who married Sam Jackson, and John Adair were the only ones to remain most of their lives in Muhlenberg. Charles McLean Allison was a soldier in Alney McLean's company and fought at the Battle of New Orleans where he died of swamp fever, about three weeks after the battle. As previously stated all the boys had worked at the Courthouse under Charles Fox Wing who was clerk for so many years.
In 1822, William Allison became a deputy clerk in the Courthouse at Henderson. In 1824, Judge Alney McLean appointed him as regular clerk, and he made his brother, Young Ewing Allison, his deputy. At one time their brother, Sam Hensley, was sheriff of that county, making three brothers holding county office at one time. Today, we would wonder if that was a political ring, but it was not. Just as Charles Fox Wing had trained many young men in this county, so did the Allisons in Henderson County. Many successful men of affairs in that county got their start from Henderson Courthouse and the Allisons.
Young Ewing Allison Jr. was born in Henderson in 1853 and had many advantages his father, Judge Y. E. Allison, did not have. When he was just 18 years old, he established a newspaper which was Henderson's first daily paper. He went to Louisville in 1880 where he was reporter and city editor on the Courier-Journal. He was managing editor of the old Louisville Commercial in 1886.
The next year he founded an insurance paper called the “Insurance Field” which became the most widely known trade journal in the United States. His wit and humor livened up his editorials in a very unique manner. He found time for own pleasure, to write novels, stories, poems, essay and operetta but none were as successful as the grisley ballad “The Derelict,” which was inspired by [Robert Louis] Stevenson's “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.” Young Allison had always been a great admirer of Stevenson, and he always felt that the old pirate's song of Stevenson's “Treasure Island” needed completion. Stevenson wrote only four lines…
Fifteen men on the dead man's chest -
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest -
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Allison's friend, Henry Waller, wrote the music in 1891 of “A Piratical Ballad” while the were working on a light opera. He mentioned that he had a good theme for a pirate's song, so Allison sat down and wrote the first three verses. It became a great favorite of the great bass singer Eugene Cowles of the Bostonians, who sang it upon many occasions. Allison felt he had not done justice to the theme so he expanded it to five verses, revised it, and sent it to the Century where it was accepted. Several weeks later the editor wrote and asked him to rewrite the last verses on the grounds it was a little too strong for the clientele of the Century, but the author refused and the manuscript was returned to him. Shortly after this he added another verse and sent it to the Rubric, a magazine in Chicago which had a short life. They published it on eight pages in two colors.
In 1914, a reporter in the book review section of the New York Times started a tempest in a teapot saying, it was not likely that Allison wrote “the famous old chanty.” Champion I. Hitchcock was editor of the Insurance Field and a good friend of Young E. Allison, so he wrote the Times, giving proof that his friend was indeed the author. The Times ignored the letter and did not make the correction. But… had there not been a careless writer on the New York times, there probably would never have been written the book “The Dead Men's Song,” in which is given a most interesting sketch of the life and writings of Young Ewing Allison Jr. A great humorist and creative artist, he had gained international fame before he laid down his pen the last time in 1932.
The gory old ballad published by the Rubric, its final version is as follows:
Fifteen men on the dead man's chest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
The mate was fixed by the bos'n pike,
The bos'n brained with a marlin spike,
And Cooksey's throat was marked belike,
It had been gripped by fingers ten;
And there they lay, all good dead men,
Like break o' day in a booming ken
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men of a whole ship's list
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!Dead and bedamned and the rest gone whist
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
The skipper lay with his mob in gore,
Where the scullion's ax his chest had bore,
And the scullion he was stabbed times four.
And there they lay and the soggy skies
Dripped all day long in upstaring eyes
At murk sunset and foul sunrise
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Ten of the crew and the murder mark
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
‘Twas a cutlas swipe, or an ounce of lead
Or a yawning hole in a battered head
And the scupper's glut with a rotting redAnd there lay, aye, damn my eyes!
All lookouts clapped on paradise
All souls bound just contrariwise
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen and 'em, good and true,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Every man jack should ha' sailed with old Pew,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
There was chest on chest full of Spanish gold.
With a ton of palte in the middle hold,
And the cabin's riot of things untold.
And they lay there that had took the plum,
With sightless glare and lips struck dumb,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
While we shared all by the rule of thumb
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!More was seen through the stren light's screen
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Chartings undoubt where a woman had been
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
A flimsy hift on a bunker cot
With a thin dirk slot through the bosom spot
And the lace stiff dry in a purplish blot.
Or was she a wence, or same shuddering maid?
That dared the knife and took the blade!
Faith! she was stuff for a plucky jade
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men on the dead man's chest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
We wrapped them all lin a mains'l tight
With twice ten turns of a hawser's bight,
And we heaved 'em over and out of sight
With a yo-heave-ho!
And a sullen plunge
In a sullen swell
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Young E. Allison was a active member of the Filson Club where his literary works are represented in the club's archives. His books, brochures, magazine articles and many newspaper stories were presented to the club by his good friend Otto Rothert.
Source: “Countian wrote ‘Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum.’” Times-Argus/Messenger Magazine [Central City, KY], 16 Oct 1969, p. 10
Updated July 12, 2022