Captain Alfred Bulltop Stormalong was an American

folk hero A folk hero or national hero is a type of hero – real, fictional or mythological – with their name, personality and deeds embedded in the popular consciousness of a people, mentioned frequently in folk songs, folk tales and other folklore; an ...

and the subject of numerous nautical-themed

tall tale A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some tall tales are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories ("the fish that got away") such as, "That fish was so big, why I tell ya', it n ...

s originating in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. Stormalong was said to be a sailor and a

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

, some tall; he was the master of a huge

clipper ship A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had ...

known in various sources as either the ''Courser'' or the ''Tuscarora'', a ship purportedly so tall that it had hinged masts to avoid catching on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

Origin

The name of Stormalong first appeared in a cycle of

sea shanties A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional Folk music, folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large Merchant vessel, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessels. The term ''shanty ...

that

Stan Hugill Stanley James Hugill () (19 November 1906 – 13 May 1992) was a British folk music performer, artist and sea music historian, known as the "Last Working Shantyman" and described as the "20th century guardian of the tradition". Biography He wa ...

, in his ''Sea Shanties of the Seven Seas'', traces back to

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

folk songs of the 1830s and '40s. Bearing names like "Mister Stormalong", "Way Stormalong John", and "Yankee John, Stormalong", these sailors' work songs generally featured praise for a deceased seaman and for his benevolent son. A typical lyric went: :Ol' Stormy he is dead and gone, : ''To me way you Storm-a-long!'' :Ol' Stormy he is dead and gone, : ''Aye! Aye! Aye! Mister Storm-a-long!'' The tall tales about Stormalong first appeared in the 1911 book '' Here's Audacity!'' by Frank Shay. More tales appeared in the 1933 pamphlet ''Old Stormalong Yarns'' by C.E. Brown. In one shanty, Stormalong is conflated with the historical figure

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...

: :General Taylor gained the day : ''Walk him along, John, carry him along'' :Oh, General Taylor gained the day : ''Carry him to his burying ground'' :To me way hey, you Stormy : ''Walk him along, John, carry him along'' :To me way hey, you Stormy : ''Carry him to his burying ground''

The legend

New England was where he was beached as a baby, already three

fathoms A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an International Standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally-accepted non-SI unit. Hi ...

(18 ft) tall. According to one telling, he outgrew

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

and moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, where he signed aboard the first ship that would take him at the age of twelve. It was said that he was responsible for the tradition of referring to seamen as "able-bodied" by signing his name on his first shipboard employment contract as "Stormalong, A.B." He had a lifelong rivalry with a

Kraken The kraken () is a legendary sea monster of enormous size said to appear off the coasts of Norway. Kraken, the subject of sailors' superstitions and mythos, was first described in the modern age at the turn of the 18th century, in a travelogu ...

, a huge sea monster from

Norse myth Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

; in fact, the Kraken escaped from him in their first encounter, causing a dejected Stormalong to abandon the sea life for life as a farmer somewhere in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

. Some sources say he had a ship so large that a stable of Arabian horses were aboard for his crew to get from one end of the ship to the other. Among other things, the ship Alfred was best said to have drilled the course of the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...

by slamming into the Panamanian coast, and to have gotten stuck in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

, which required the crew to grease the ship's hull with soap. The soap combined with the scraping of the hull against the Gray Cliffs of Dover turned them bright white. As Stormalong grew older, he eventually encountered the Kraken again, this time successfully drawing the beast into a whirlpool from which it never escaped. Stormalong's death is not universally attested by all sources, but one ending to his life is as follows: After Stormalong angered a

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

captain by dumping water down the ship's funnel in an attempt to put out what he thought was a dangerous fire on the ship, the steamship Captain challenged Stormalong to a

transatlantic Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film), ...

race. The aged Stormalong won the race by several miles, but the stress of handling the wheel through the difficult Atlantic crossing killed him. Stormalong was buried at sea, and Davy Jones himself opened his famous locker to accept Stormalong's body. Another ending to his life is as follows: While Stormalong was on his

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

adventures, he passed by

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, seeing that there was a tremendous hurricane that tore through his ship. Ships sailing nearby were being tossed around by the heavy waves. Stormalong went overboard and piled as many boats as he could onto his ship. The storm was still running. When the storm finally wound down, the sailors were dropped back off at Florida. After that, he went back on board, unfurling the sails of his ship, seeing if they could be repaired. A great wind, the last blow of the

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

, hit the sails, lifting Stormalong and his ship into the sky. A third ending to his life takes advantage of the inference that, being a giant, Alfred Bulltop Stormalong was an enormous eater. It describes a time when his hunger was greater than usual and led him to eat so much food (one variant cites a

breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...

of six

sharks Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorp ...

; it is not definitely known what other variants exist) that he suffered terminal indigestion, causing his magnificent appetite to finish him.

References

External links

One retelling of the Stormalong story
*
Sea Shanties of the Seven Seas
', by Stan Hugill {{DEFAULTSORT:Stormalong, Alfred Bulltop American folklore Fictional sailors Fictional military captains Clippers Fictional giants Tall tales Massachusetts in fiction Sea shanties Maritime folklore New England in fiction Fictional characters from Massachusetts Songs about fictional male characters Florida in fiction Caribbean in fiction