Billy Riley's Boarding House

“Billy Riley” is an old halyard shanty, collected from sailors in the early 20th century and remembered in several closely related versions. Billy himself is a wonderfully slippery character: one verse makes him a dancing master, another the master of a drogher—a small West Indian trading vessel—and others bring various members of the Riley family into the fun. Later writers also connected the song with the rhythmic work chants of cotton laborers, although its exact beginnings are difficult to pin down.

Our Billy Riley’s Boarding House imagines what might have happened when old Riley finally came ashore. Sailors’ boarding houses were fixtures of 19th-century port towns, offering a bunk, a meal, a drink, and—depending on the proprietor—perhaps rather more adventure than a newly arrived seaman had bargained for. The establishment is ours, but Billy comes straight from the shanty tradition: dancing master, sailor, questionable businessman, and now proud keeper of one more fictitious Shantyman waterfront institution.

• 100% cotton
• Sport Grey is 90% cotton, 10% polyester
• Ash Grey is 99% cotton, 1% polyester
• Heather colors are 50% cotton, 50% polyester
• Fabric weight: 5.0–5.3 oz/yd² (170-180 g/m²)
• Open-end yarn
• Tubular fabric
• Taped neck and shoulders
• Double seam at sleeves and bottom hem
• Blank product sourced from Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bangladesh, Mexico

Disclaimers: 
• Due to the fabric properties, the White color variant may appear off-white rather than bright white.
• Dark color speckles throughout the fabric are expected for the color Natural.

Size guide