Rolling Along

"Rolling Along" is a Longest Johns original, written by Robbie Sattin. According to Robbie, the lyrics were inspired by the Great Tea Race of 1866.

The band debuted the song on their May 12, 2021 livestream, and released it as track 13 on Smoke + Oakum. The song was also featured in a bonus community video project featuring participants holding tablets with videos of the band's faces in front of their own, iRobert-style. Submissions were solicited in early 2023, and the final video was released on YouTube on 19 April.

Factoids[]

Prior to 1834, the British East India Company held a monopoly on tea imports from China to Britain. When this was lifted, fierce competition arose among merchants to be first to market with each season's crop of tea, and ships that achieved particularly fast times could command higher fees. On top of this, merchants began offering premiums and other incentives if a ship was the first to dock.

By the late 1850s, newspapers began reporting on the outcomes of these unofficial races; with public interest increasing, reporting grew more detailed over the next decade. Interested parties and members of the general public followed news updates about each year's contenders and often placed bets on the outcomes.

The race was a test not only of the ship and its crew's sailing abilities, but also of efficient loading at the dock in China, which could take several days of round-the-clock work by the stevedores.

In 1866, the winner of the race was Taeping, followed only 28 minutes later by Ariel. Both ships had left China on the same tide and arrived in London 99 days later, also on the same tide. Given the extremely close finish, the agents and owners of the two ships agreed to split the prize.

That same year, steamships were also beginning to carry tea from China, spelling the beginning of the end for the clippers, and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, which was not navigable for sailing ships, was the final nail in the coffin.

The Skeleton Beach, or Skeleton Coast, is a hazardous stretch of the Atlantic coast of Africa along the Namib Desert, known for heavy fog and dangerous rocks. The name originally came from the whale and seal bones that littered the shore from the whaling industry, but the area also contains the skeletal remains of over a thousand shipwrecks, some dating as far back as the 16th century.

Lyrics[]

As listed in the Smoke + Oakum album sleeve.

It’s a long way to Shanghai through the vast China Sea
The topsails are full but we’re light on the breeze
With a good clip down channel, and the passage looks calm
And there's naught like a clipper just rolling along

Rolling along, boys, rolling along
And there's naught like a clipper just rolling along

'Tween the Skeleton Beach and the Cape of Good Hope
There’s sandbars and reefs, boys, and they’ll give you a grope
To you skippers so daring, don’t act too cock-sure
Or your ship may be wrecked and you’ll sail her no more

Sail her no more, boys, sail her no more
Or your ship may be wrecked and you’ll sail her no more

There’s pirates in waiting and storms to be tamed
The shoals all bear names of the ships that they claimed
But under our feet the warm waters that roll
Are blue as cut sapphires and shining like gold

Shining like gold, boys, shining like gold
As blue as cut sapphires and shining like gold

Now our cargo is loaded and we catch the dawn tide
I can bare see the vessels I race for the prize
In the docks back in London they wait for to see
The sails of our clipper and the first stalk of tea

The first stalk of tea, boys, first stalk of tea
The sails of our clipper and the first stalk of tea

Catching the westerlies, haul every hand
Pile on the canvas, drop all she can stand
For hearth and for home I hear calling me on
And there’s naught like a clipper, just rolling along

Rolling along, boys, rolling along
And there’s naught like a clipper just rolling along
Rolling along, boys, rolling along
And there’s naught like a clipper just rolling along

Rolling Along

Contents

Factoids[]

Lyrics[]

Recordings[]

Streaming/Purchase[]

YouTube Videos[]

Gig Videos[]

Full Band Streams[]

Gaming Streams[]