Hello Adam-- Nice article and the recorded video and audio renditions of the shanties are super. My knowledge of sea shanties has grown immeasurably. I do not have Booble Alley in the Moby-Dick Gazetteer (yet). I think I assumed it was a generic term for red light district or something of the sort, so not mappable to a specific place. If your follow-up article can shed light on its location in Liverpool, then I will add it to the Gazetteer. Cheers- Bill
Hello Adam-- Nice article and the recorded video and audio renditions of the shanties are super. My knowledge of sea shanties has grown immeasurably. I do not have Booble Alley in the Moby-Dick Gazetteer (yet). I think I assumed it was a generic term for red light district or something of the sort, so not mappable to a specific place. If your follow-up article can shed light on its location in Liverpool, then I will add it to the Gazetteer. Cheers- Bill
Lots more info to come, though I can say now that it might be difficult to map precisely.
If you have sources indicating Melville would have been thinking of Liverpool, that would be good/close enough.
Ah, well for that you can reference Melville himself. Not to get ahead the next post, but there's a whole chapter about it in Redburn: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8118/pg8118-images.html#chap39
I found a 'Gibralter St' near the docks on an 1836 map of Liverpool. Close enough. I'll put Booble Alley there. Here's a link to the map (Gibraltar St. goes north from the left end of Princess Dock) https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~21020~530112:Liverpool-?qvq=w4s:/where%2FLiverpool%2B(England);q:liverpool;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=4&trs=23