The Classic Windjammer Vacation
STAN HUGILL:
SCHOONER
1906-1992-A Personal Remembrance
Stan Hugill-one-of-a-kind sa ilor, si nger, writer, painter, hi storian , and maritime philosopher- died on May 15 at a hospital near hi s home in Wales, with hi s wife Bronwyn and sons Martin and Phillip and their famil ies at his bedside. Stan combined the life and knowledge of a commercial sailor with the intellect and artistry of a dedicated historian , musician and pai nter. Rai sed in a seafari ng family , Stan took to sea at an earl y age when commercia l British sail was coming to an end . He was serving aboard the last British commercia l sq uare rigger Garthpool when she was wrecked in 1927. Stan was her shantyman, and he recalled that the last song he led aboard her the day before her demise was "Fire Down Below." He went on to serve in steam, and during World War II his vessel was captured and sunk by the German raider Atlantis. He spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp. Later he became deeply involved with the Outward Bound movement and, after pulling together a lifetime of sea song collecting, in 1957 he authored Shanties From The Seven Seas, the 600-page definitive volume on maritime work songs and their origins. Other books on sai lors and sea music fo ll owed, including the unique hi story of the portside sai lors' environment, Sailortown. Stan toured America and Europe repeatedly during the last two decades, performing countless concerts and lectures at museums and festivals while still finding time to tum out hundreds of maritime oil paintings. At his death, he left behind an as-yet unpub1ished400,000-word history of the sailor. By any standard, Stan Hugill ' s career was remarkable. Although his ach ievements are recognized mainly in the maritime area, they were the product of a keen and curious mind that sought out and collected every different kind of human experience. Indeed it was his maritime life that gave him the opportunity to encompass the greatest breadth and variety of situations to observe and store SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992
away for later comment and comparison. I was often startled to stumble across whole areas of knowledge and concern in Stan that neither I nor anyone else had suspected. One day in the late ' 70s during a long and wearing series of sea music festivals at Mystic, Connecticut, we sought refuge in a pub and, quite tapped out on the subject of sea shanties, found ourselves deep into the fi ner points of esoteric Buddhism for the better half of an evening and more than a few pints. His mother had been a good friend of turnof-the-century Theosophist light Annie Besant and he had been brought up on the stuff! Armed with the working knowledge of nearly a dozen Asian and Oceanic languages, his was a unique cultural view of the Westernization of Eastern thought. A far cry from simple maritime history, but then again, maybe not ... . Stan was wiry, durable, and toughthe archetypical sailor-and he never hesitated to run up ratlines to the topmost yard right up until the end . His "quack" (as he called his doctor) warned him to watch his health, but reg ular tots of Captain Morgan rum and the everpresent Peterson pipe full of St Bruno simply added flavor and aroma to the ancient mariner. There were rumors among us that he would outlive us all. But he was not so tough as not to be fo und tenderly crad ling our three-yearold son Robin when he fe ll asleep in Stan's lap on our couch in Virginia. Stan gave generously of himself wherever he went, and for over eighty-six years his personal impact has been worldwide. For generations his books and paintings will continue to enlighten the world on maritime music and history. But for those of us who knew him, it is our lives which will be a testament to Stan Hugill the rest of our days. JOHN TOWNLEY
John Townley is a writer, pe1former, and maritime music historian. He and his wife Christine have recorded many sea music albums over the past twenty years, including two ("Sea Songs Seattle '77" and "Newport Sea Festival ' 78") featuring performances by Stan Hugill.
MARY DAY
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