Joe Ross with the Doodad Shanteymen - 'Rueben Ranzo'

Joe Ross led a favourite topgallant halyard shantey "Rueben Ranzo" at a South Coast Celtic Festival workshop on sea shanties and songs in Coos Bay, Or. on May 2, 2015. Inexperienced Ranzo ships aboard a whaler. The captain's daughter takes pity on him, teaches him navigation & marries him. Ranzo becomes the finest sailor on the seas. "Ranzo" may be a corruption of the name "Lorenzo." American whaling ships often recruited Portugese seamen in the Azores, and Ranzo may have been one of these. While the shantey originated on whaling vessels, it spread quickly to ships of other kinds and became well known to British & American seamen also.